[Train-a-Mania]

...five years ago, we reviewed the Full Bucket Line to see how it has held up over time in Microsoft Train Simulator. Since then, a new simulator has been developed that accomodates MSTS content. What does Open Rails contribute to the world of train simulation? We'll find out in this review...at the railyard!



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LINKS
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Official "At The Railyard" website:
http://www.attherailyard.com/

Have your own opinions about this sim? Share them here and see what others think:
http://www.attherail...-5-8-open-rails

Open Rails:
http://openrails.org/

Full Bucket Line:
http://www.fullbucket.com/msts/

[Fleegle411]

Excellent as ever Nick!

And a Salute to the OpR developement team from me!

[Mipman25]

Coming from the guy who ruthlessly bashed the ever-living cr@p out of OR months (or a year or more) ago. :oldstry:

Fantastic review, Nick! I haven't gotten OR yet, but your review is really making me reconsider that. Also, I love your choice of the FBL as a route to review. Quite a batch of new stock has been put out for the FBL recently, and as long as I'm around, even more will come out.

[sawyer811]

you won't be disappointed if you get it, Dustin. It really raises the bar. Fair warning though, the graphics are such that you'll start to see modeling gaffes on models you used to love: sort of like loading older Trainz models into a newer version of that game.

EDIT: I did want to mention that the Steam locomotive smoke has gotten better: see my avatar for proof. That was taken in the X1502 experimental version. I'm not going to say it doesn't have a way to go, mind you.

[Noisemaker]

Impressive as always Nick! And interesting you revisited FBL with it too. I never knew FBL went to such extents as Seaview almost.

As for Open Rails, it does look just as impressive. Really amazing the extent Wayne and James and crew have gone to to make it happen. Hopefully things that you've pointed out like animations and terrain will be addressed shortly.. For the little bit of audio I heard on it, it sounds comparable to MSTS still. And hopefully in time more features and improvements can be had on that as well.

Definitely will give OR a whirl when it goes 'public' with a confident stable version, even with it's minor discrepancies. Thanks as always for the informative and stunning critiques Nick! :oldstry:.

[markus_GE]

The only issue in it is the Thing about steam exhaust. All other things you just got right. Thanks for sharing :oldstry:

Cheers, Markus

[ED_4]

Just remember one thing guys. ORTS is still a continuing work in progress. Right now they're not even close to getting all the stuff that can be done in MSTS. Though it's slowly but surely getting there. Whatever "bashing" he had going it's because it's still not complete. And as of now is slowly looking like it is. However, it looks like simple activities can at least be run that can be completed now. Whereas before you almost had to use explore mode type of activity to just run activities there.

But expect more and more to come in the coming years as ORTS grows, until I see their version 1 though, I don't expect it to be quite complete. As for what I think of ORTS, that is where the future of MSTS will be, since Microsoft seems to have abandoned all hope of it ever getting a real legitimate successor title.

And no matter what Nick may or may not say in his videos I'll always give him a :sorry: for his work. Keep up the great work there. :)

[Fleegle411]

The "bashing" referenced here by Dustin was a rant I wrote on the siulator some time ago. At the time I was dealing with the loss of my grandmother and on an emotional roller coaster, which only compounded frustration of my end when I couldn't get the game to work. I have apologized many times to the OpR crew and wouldn't have brought it up again if it weren't for Dustin here.

Dustin, please don't bring that rant up in forum conversation again.

[Mipman25]

I didn't know you didn't want it brought up again, and I'm terribly sorry for that. I actually forgot about your loss when I mentioned that, which I also apologize for.

[cwvs]

Fantastic job as always, Nick! I really enjoyed this visit back to the FBL, and your first review remains one of my favorites! One question, I noticed toward the end of the video you had working signals. I have not been able to get the signals to display in Open Rails on the FBL. What is the fix?

Thanks again for your wonderful reviews!

Bob :lol:

PS: Nevermind, I got them to work! Thanks again!