[ATSF3751]

So reading through many of the forums and looking at different topics I thought starting a forum about Open Rails Priorities was a good idea. I first want to say Open Rails has come very far in the last few years but in my opinion it has gotten out of hand with how many things are wanted and what can be done. Look at Open Rails like many different projects half done all at once and not finished. I feel like there should be some prioritization and what people would like to see next in Open Rails and finishing up projects that have already been started but not finished. That being said there are many things in Open Rails that is in the works or was started and not finished and then others will start on some thing new and then forget about other things that were started but never finished. Some things I am thinking about were the Activity Editor/Track Viewer and also Smoke for steam locomotives. To me the Open Rails team needs to try and come together and finish some of the projects that were started before starting new projects. Yes I know this is all fun and a wonderful FREE Open Source game but there should be some structure to it as well. Now that there is talk about Open Rails going commercial witch I don't agree with or think its a good idea as many areas are still in the works and need to get finished first before any thing else is done or a company wants to use it as a training device for real railroads. Just my $0.02 in the program as a whole and I am not here to bash anyone or piss anyone off but thought someone needed to say some thing. There are so many forums out there with so many wonderful ideas that yes I think need to be added in the future but first finish up the stuff that was started first before moving forward.

Brandon

[conductorchris]

https://trello.com/b...n-rails-roadmap

[jamesc25313]

This is what happens with open source projects like this. You can join and add things, sure but people lose interest, or dont have the time anymore and thus you get an incomplete project. Now you must rely on someone else to come in and understand someone else code and finish it, or hopefully the original author comes back to finish it. It happens. Guys have a pet project they want to work on and come and go as they please. Its kind of how this is set up to work and thus why after 1.0 things have died off a bit. Theres a bit of burn I suspect and no one to pickup the slack for those who work on this project tirelessly. The easy suggestion is new programmers, but that doesnt seem to be working out. Ive always been for a kickstarter type deal that raises money to hire devs and would gladly give to the cause, but that doesnt seem to gonna happen either. So, enjoy the stale mate me reckons.

[dforrest]

The thoughts expressed in this tread may be of interest.

http://tsforum.freec...rent-signalling

[Csantucci]

David,
I made some tests and had some ideas together with EugenR and reported about them in the forum thread you mentioned above. I look forward to getting positive cooperation from the participants of such forum.

[Genma Saotome]

jamesc25313, on 03 November 2016 - 04:33 PM, said:

This is what happens with open source projects like this. You can join and add things, sure but people lose interest, or dont have the time anymore ....

I don't recall the exact number right now but I'll guess that from the start to today I've authorized 50 or so different persons to have access to the private OR Developers forums, most of whom were programmers. Of all of those 50 there are probably 4 or 5 today who continue to contribute to the code.

I'm sure they'd welcome a few new people to help as well as see some of the previous help coming back.

[ATSF3751]

I myself would love to help if I actually knew how to do programing! I can build models and routes along with do sound sets for locomotives but thats about all I know how to do! I am very knowledgeable though on how railroad equipment and locomotives work as well.

[James Ross]

ATSF3751, on 03 November 2016 - 01:26 PM, said:

I feel like there should be some prioritization and what people would like to see next in Open Rails and finishing up projects that have already been started but not finished.

The roadmap that conductorchris linked to is our best attempt at showing what we (ORMT) want, and in what order, but the very nature of a volunteer project is that we can't easily demand such things. The activity evaluations are a perfect example: we've had them in the 1.1 plans and nobody implemented then, then had them in the 1.2 plans and still nobody implemented them. And then something very cool like turntables turned up and it wasn't even on the roadmap for 1.x IIRC.

If you have any ideas how we would encourage things to go in the direction on the roadmap, do let me know. :)

I'll also note that the roadmap is a fluid document - I try to keep it aligned with what people are interested in having, while keeping short term vs long term goals realistic.

[timothyskinner]

ATSF3751, on 03 November 2016 - 01:26 PM, said:

and also Smoke for steam locomotives
Brandon

Yes.. I have been route testing using MSTS (so I get same Lat & Lon Route Editor uses).. then trying out sections which should be OK in OR as a final test.. the low exit velocity is noticeable... be good to see a fix please.

But of course overall OR IS WONDERFUL - using MSTS occasionally makes that obvious - and every simmer has been given a free gift beyond expectation. Thank you guys !!