The future of Open Rails

[R. Steele]

.... I do agree the game could look better.
If you want a better skybox and better water textures for routes, use Scott Brunner's items. They improve those by a lot.

...and for better "eye candy" use ReShade, judicious use of technicolor and other shaders will improve the graphic presentation.

[Royalhudson]

Hello all,

I've been very into MSTS in the first 10 years or so of its release, but due to personal reasons, read here parting with the girlfriend and ending up almost in the street.... You know the story... I been away from MSTS, and now I'm back at it, and OR of course, which is new to me, I have to install the thing on my laptop aftre downloading countless addons from Trainsim that I didn't find the CD's I backed up all of my addons, both freeware from here and payware, many of which the creators don't exist anymore, like 3Dtrains and Diesels West, same thing with the sets I had bought from Dekosoft, but that's my fault if I didn't file it correctly.... But the point of my post about the future of Open Rail is more towards hardware and Operating Systems...

I'm wondering if 5 years down the roads, at the speed Microsoft issues new versions of Windows, the speed at which the new graphics cards with huge graphic treatment power are released, is there a way to keep OP/MSTS still compatible with that always changing hardware and OS environment? In the scale model trains, the only big new things in a century is DCC arriving about 20 years ago.... And DC is still popular and will most likely be for a couple decades... My point it is worth iinvesting time and money in HO scale trains layouts, but will Open Rails still work in 5 or 10 years down the road? Like MSTS in not running on newer Windows, unless you start to make a lot of adjustements and mods to the files, which is not something people who are not that knowledgable at computers may not be comfortable with....

So as someone who is coming back to the hobby after 10 years away, I'm wondering about that... Is it worth installing it, adding all those addons, and then editing all that to make it worth correctly, changing sound sets, cabviews, vehicles and scenery???

What's your thought?

[eric]

Welcome back.

[BrandonS261]

Yes welcome back Royalhudson and thank you for giving us this prospective!! To answer your question as you put it technology is always evolving and from my prospective I do see a future for Open Rails! Now ORTS is one of the most realistic simulator out there when it comes to physics. It still needs a lot of work in other aspects but the great thing about ORTS is that you can still use MSTS products. For myself I have tried TRAINZ, TSW and TS and they just don't do it for me.

Yes I have them both on my PC but I hardly ever use them and keep finding myself going back to ORTS. Why do you ask? Well many of the content is free VS TRAINS and TSW you have to pay for every thing that you want in the game. Also modifying files, making sound sets, repainting and building models for ORTS is still fairly easy as well. Sure there has been some modifications to the ENG and WAG files, Better ways to organize them and more features that MSTS did not have so I suppose that is why I keep coming back.

There is still a lot of potential with ORTS like I have said in previous post and I am very grateful to the ones who have worked on this project over the years. It may not be the perfect Train Simulator for everyone as all of them have there flaws and ways to be improved but the fact that ORTS is open source and the ORTS team listens to the ones who play the game is key for the success to Open Rails to continue.

YES Open Rails does need to update there graphics but there are many little things that can be done already and make Open Rails so much better just by changing or adding to the code a little bit. Granted there are only a few people working on the coding so yes it does take a lot longer then what everyone wants and I get that! I look at it as a trial and error type of system. Change the code, tweak it and keep doing it over and over again until everyone is satisfied with the end result.

I hope you continue to use ORTS and able to put in your input as we are all looking for people like you to let us know what your thoughts are and ideas of where ORTS can go in the future!

Brandon

[eric]

And... so there's no confusion.... you don't NEED to update your graphics to enjoy Open Rails. It works just fine out of the box with Windows 11, but there are ways to enhance it if that's what you're into.

[Royalhudson]

Thank you Brandon for your reply. My main concern is not about the graphics or other eye candy, it really is about compatibility with upcoming hardware and Windows versions, but as was mentioned with the team working on the code and such, I guess ORTS' team will find a way to keep it usable on Windows 20!!! I will start to reinstall MSTS and install ORTS for the first time...Thank god I have a great memory, and did so many mods to just about everything in MSTS back in the day I still remember vividly all the editing and aliasing of ENG file and CVF files!!!

Will let you know my thoughts when MSTS and ORTS are installed and am importing my addons from MSTS to ORTS... I hope everything will go smooth.... As I said too bad I lost all my payware addons.... Can't find the bloody CD's I backed it up on....

[BrandonS261]

Let us know it you need any help with anything and you can always PM me if you have any questions!

Brandon

[westerngy]

Let's not set up false hope for being able to get paid developers.

As somebody who has had to hire C# developers on contract, you're looking at anywhere from $30 on up an hour for someone who can take a well written design document and follow instructions.

Someone who can think abstractly out of the box without instructions is going to cost a heck of a lot more.

Not impossible to come up with some donations, but what happens when the money runs out?

It will take a lot of funds for this proposal and since it is a freeware community who will chip in the first 100G to get it started.

[Royalhudson]

Thanks Brandon, much appreciated! Now I need courage to reinstall all that and then edit all the sound and cabview files for all locos plus all the Xtracks, Tsection and all other goodies!!!! Will take a pill to keep calm!!!

[peterman]

Howdy,

After reading the posts in this thread, I'm amazed at how many people still think that you can "make a silk purse out of a sow's ear". I think you would be better off to start from scratch with a whole new concept.

Peter

[TrainSimJack]

Howdy,

After reading the posts in this thread, I'm amazed at how many people still think that you can "make a silk purse out of a sow's ear". I think you would be better off to start from scratch with a whole new concept.

Peter

There was a prominent developer a while back that did a nice write up on this - he observed how many people and developers want to "rewrite from scratch" but examined the success rate of such endeavors and found that in most cases, rewrites were plagued with unforseen problems and delays - he made an argument that continuous improvement is almost always preferable.

[peterman]

There was a prominent developer a while back that did a nice write up on this - he observed how many people and developers want to "rewrite from scratch" but examined the success rate of such endeavors and found that in most cases, rewrites were plagued with unforseen problems and delays - he made an argument that continuous improvement is almost always preferable.

I posted a number of years ago, with regard to Open Rails, "If you're going to re-invent the wheel, you need to get the basics correct". That never happened; therefore, you'll have threads like this until the cows come home. You would think that if there were any interested persons wanting to help, that they would have joined the OR development team. As someone has already mentioned, there are third party groups out there that have privately developed OR to higher levels. Those are the people you want, and those are the people that won't help you. Be happy with what we have.

Peter

[sankara]

Sim Rail is totally different then Open Rails and will end up becoming just another sim that you have to pay for everything you want to download where Open Rails does have the advantage as there is a bunch of stuff you can download for free!

Brandon

Yes, also it is focused on Poland primarily.

Also, I have been seeing that there are hardly any routes or rolling stock of sufficient quality outside the US/Canada and India (Yes, there are many payware routes and stock but they have to be paid for in INR).