Latest revision as of 22:41, 9 January 2017

The Asset Editor is a pre-release feature of Trainz. It has been discussed publicly in the TrainzDev forums and is summarised on this page, however users should understand that no release schedule has been provided for this feature. All discussions and details are speculative in nature and may not accurately reflect the final form of this feature.

[edit] Broad Overview

The Asset Editor is a built-in feature of Trainz which is accessible via the Content Manager contextual menu. It roughly replaces the "CCP" facility present in some older versions of Trainz. It provides a tree view of the asset's config.txt file and allows simplified editing with inline validation. As compared to hand editing of the config file, the Asset Editor provides the following advantages:

• The config file can be viewed without opening the asset for editing, and without opening a separate editor app.
• The asset is viewed as an easy-to-follow tree view, rather than a potentially misleading text representation. The user is not required to understand the details of the text layout syntax.
• Selection of new tags is somewhat automated, making it easy for a user to determine which tags are applicable, and helping reduce mistakes.
• Different input mechanisms or editors are available depending on the value type of each tag, simplifying many aspects of the configuration process. This includes mesh preview, texture preview, audio preview, text input, pickers, etc.
• Inline validation is performed for all tags and values and for the overall structure, ensuring that mistakes can be spotted and corrected quickly.
• Live asset preview ensures that the outcomes of each edit can be checked against the actual in-game result, avoiding repetitive back-and-forth between the config editor and the preview window.