[cjakeman]

I would dearly love to distribute a model with Open Rails so that anyone without MSTS can download Open Rails and try it out straight away. I expect it will make a big difference to interest in the project.

My proposal is that we extract a short section from a commercial route (just enough to drive from one station to the next). I would also like to see a tutorial or commentary to accompany the demo.

Dave Babb (of Making Tracks) has generously offered to let us do this with one of their routes. I was thinking either Greater Eastern "GE2 Romford - Upminster Shuttle Part 1"



or perhaps Scottish Capital Express "09:30 Edinburgh - Glasgow Queen Street" but ending at Haymarket.



I'm not a model builder and had no experience in cutting a route down in size, so I'm looking for some builders and testers who would like to help with this effort. How difficult would it be technically?

[eric from trainsim]

Not very difficult, Chris, and a great idea.

I'd be wiling to take a stab at doing the trimming it if someone can ship me a copy of the route to slash, and someone else can step forward to do the testing and/or some activity building.

[That Genset Foamer]

I must ask--could routes be distributed with the option to install the ORTS core, much like in Railworks? I ask that because I may distribute the Salinas Valley that way, which perhaps could serve as the OpenRails US demo route (plus, of course, a fitting rolling stock package) or be distributed as a standalone route from MSTS, with the option to be installed into the MSTS directory.

[James Ross]

That Genset Foamer, on 14 August 2014 - 02:42 PM, said:

I must ask--could routes be distributed with the option to install the ORTS core, much like in Railworks? I ask that because I may distribute the Salinas Valley that way, which perhaps could serve as the OpenRails US demo route (plus, of course, a fitting rolling stock package) or be distributed as a standalone route from MSTS, with the option to be installed into the MSTS directory.

I believe you are completely allowed to distribute OR - or have your installer download it - and have it install as part of your route's installation.

You can also set up Open Rails to use a relative path to an MSTS folder, making it completely portable (I demoed this to Chris on a USB stick recently) - which is an option if your installer creates a miniroute (you'd install OR inside the miniroute, potentially).

[cjakeman]

Hi eolesen,

eolesen, on 14 August 2014 - 02:04 PM, said:

I'd be wiling to take a stab at doing the trimming it if someone can ship me a copy of the route to slash, and someone else can step forward to do the testing and/or some activity building.

Delighted you'll help with this. I'll send you a PM with the link to the route files.

I've also created a Blueprint as this is the way we try these days to track sub-projects. If you are interested in following progress, please use the "subscribe" button.


Hi Genset Foamer,

That Genset Foamer, on 14 August 2014 - 02:42 PM, said:

I ask that because I may distribute the Salinas Valley that way, which perhaps could serve as the OpenRails US demo route (plus, of course, a fitting rolling stock package)

I'm starting off with a UK demo because that's what I know best. Of course it would be great to have a US demo as well.

Couple of things I was thinking:

• a demo needs to be small so that it can be downloaded fairly easily along with the program
• a demo needs to be self-contained, so no requirement to separately download some track, stock etc.

Anyone willing to help with testing demo(s) when they're ready?

[roeter]

cjakeman, on 15 August 2014 - 10:14 AM, said:

Anyone willing to help with testing demo(s) when they're ready?

Yep, count me in on that.
I could add a timetable as well if you like.

Regards,
Rob Roeterdink

[cjakeman]

roeter, on 15 August 2014 - 10:51 AM, said:

Yep, count me in on that.
I could add a timetable as well if you like.

Thanks, Rob. Will be glad of your input and I've copied you into the PM.

Obviously we want to show off Open Rails features as far as practical, so adding a timetable is a great idea.

[copperpen]

I am able to test if needed as well.

@Genset Foamer
How about your Timesaver as a US demo. It is compact, just needs an activity and some stock. Would be ideal for manual switching (CTRL+M) while AI trundles past on the main.

[JohnnyS]

cjakeman, on 16 August 2014 - 02:41 AM, said:

Obviously we want to show off Open Rails features as far as practical

Hello,

With regards to the Great Eastern route, I am frequently within walking distance of the Romford - Upminster section and have a camera, if you or Dave Babb want to update the line in some way to show off some of the improvements made by OR, feel free to drop me a line and I'll see what I can do. Given some notice I can manage a bit of modelling too if needed.

Cheers,
John.

[cjakeman]

cjakeman, on 14 August 2014 - 12:38 PM, said:

My proposal is that we extract a short section from a commercial route (just enough to drive from one station to the next).

I am thinking of adding a facility (possibly with a compile-time switch) which will output a list of the files used by Open Rails as an activity is run. The list might be written in a CSV format.

It's been suggested that this facility might been useful in other situations. Any thoughts on this?