[Genma Saotome]

railguy, on 19 December 2023 - 05:39 PM, said:

I've been using junction links in OpenRails for a couple of years now with no significant issues.

So have I except I've migrated to the link variant called symbolic link. I had a reason at the time but I do not now recall what it was.

At present I have 11 mini-routes, 3 or 4 era specific mini-routes for each of 4 US geographical areas. I use them mostly to segregate rolling stock by era (e.g., wood boxcars and steam locomotives in the early era but not in the modern one). I also have a master directory for all installed routes and I use symbolic links from there into the mini-routes. This allows me to have multiple occurrences of a route covering more than one era. If I really need to add era specific differences in shapes and their textures I'll make a special copy of the route in the master library leaving renaming the directories I whose content I will alter and add new directories in the mini-route using the proper names. Copy what I want from the renamed folders into the ones and off to editing.

Similarly I do much the same w/ rolling stock, a master library, including a folder /as downloaded with subsequent editing concurring elsewhere. I tend to renaming folder names and having renamed key items first place many identical mesh files and their textures in one folder, throwing away the many original .wag files and convert them to use .inc files. This normal goes very quick and leaves me with a .wag file of 12 or 13 rows for empty and loaded respectfully. This folder will get whatever group name I can find, whether what is XM_SP_B-50-14 or XM_PRR_X29_321000-321999 (i.e. XM is AAR code for Box, Merchandise). These new folders are then symlinked into many mini-routes.

The use of the two libraries means any further editing occurs in one place and with the symlinks when the editing is done the distribution is automatic.

The problem is initially there isn't anything recorded about the symlinks to without more work they would all be lost if something happened to the disk. I have solved that problem with a simple .bat file and scheduled backups.

[Genma Saotome]

WRT the question of where models are used, that can be solved with a text editor that can search the contents of files plus the use of excel.

Search results will look like this:

Quote

E:\Bin\Open Rails - US West 1930-1952\Trains\Consists\Trn_Wintere_Turn.con(57): WagonData ( RS_SFRD_7358_clsd_mty RS_SFRD_Rr-39 )
E:\Bin\Open Rails - US West 1930-1952\Trains\Consists\Trn_Wintere_Turn.con(61): WagonData ( RS_SFRD_7939_clsd_mty RS_SFRD_Rr-39 )
E:\Bin\Open Rails - US West 1930-1952\Trains\Consists\Trn_Wintere_Turn.con(65): WagonData ( RS_SFRD_8220_clsd_mty RS_SFRD_Rr-40 )
E:\Bin\Open Rails - US West 1930-1952\Trains\Consists\Trn_Wintere_Turn.con(69): WagonData ( ne_sp_1250 NE_SP_1250 )
E:\Bin\Open Rails - US West 1930-1952\Trains\Consists\Verify X29.con(15): WagonData ( XM_PRR_92419_MT XM_PRR_X29 )
E:\Bin\Open Rails - US West 1930-1952\Trains\Consists\Verify X29.con(19): WagonData ( XM_PRR_54342_Flaxseed XM_PRR_X29 )
E:\Bin\Open Rails - US West 1930-1952\Trains\Consists\Verify X29.con(23): WagonData ( XM_PRR_54342_Magazines XM_PRR_X29 )
E:\Bin\Open Rails - US West 1930-1952\Trains\Consists\Verify X29.con(27): WagonData ( XM_PRR_54342_MT XM_PRR_X29 )
E:\Bin\Open Rails - US West 1930-1952\Trains\Consists\Verify X29.con(31): WagonData ( XM_PRR_54342_Soap XM_PRR_X29 )

Copy/paste that into excel, alter the lines by breaking at tabs so it is possible to sort, and then sorting on the column holding the right most data. The data on the left will all the consist file for each repeating occurence of a car.

[Jovet]

Genma Saotome, on 17 December 2023 - 08:29 PM, said:

Bernard, this command
..\\..\\..\\ORTS_Trainset_Master
am I correct in understand the double dots means this:
\trains\miniroute home level\some higher level directory\ORTS_Trainset_Master? As in up\up\up\down.

Yes. Just to be clear for everyone:

The folder named . is a special folder name in DOS/Windows that refers to the current folder.
For example: If the current folder for an application is "C:\MSTS\Trains\Trainset\BestEngine\" then referring to the file "AUnit.s" and ".\AUnit.s" is exactly the same.

The folder named .. is a special folder that refers to the current folder's parent folder.Another example: If the current folder for an application is "C:\MSTS\Trains\Trainset\BestEngine\" then referring to the file "..\WorstEngine\BUnit.s" is steps back up into the Trainset folder and then down into a different folder WorstEngine to find the file BUnit.s.

[Jonatan]

Yes, this is how many sounds have been aliased for many years. I use it in cases where default files are called on, no need to have hundreds of copies of such files.

It makes good sense using the ..\\..\\..\\ thing for these applications. :)

[Weter]

@Derek
Since Dave said:

Quote

The problem is initially there isn't anything recorded about the symlinks to without more work they would all be lost if something happened to the disk

perhaps that was exactly the "feature", forcing me to stay away from that technique usage, though, I might forgot some other reasons. That's my answer to question, You have asked some days back.

[James Ross]

Genma Saotome, on 10 December 2023 - 03:14 PM, said:

James Ross would like to develop a new method... AFAICT something inspired by how one or more flight sims does it. Based on the descriptions I'm not a fan but I could be wrong. Wait and see.

Jack@Elvas, on 11 December 2023 - 09:09 AM, said:

And here's one more idea:
#3 .orp file extension = OpenRailsPackage
An ORP file would be a standard ZIP file, that contains some kind of manifest file in the root folder, and the zip is renamed to .ORP

gpz, on 13 December 2023 - 10:49 PM, said:

Calling here James Ross to share his vision, as I know there might be one. About the VFS part, please read the discussion at github PR: https://github.com/o...nrails/pull/541

My idea was to have a compressed file (i.e. a zip file) with a manifest inside containing metadata about the content and a new fixed directory structure for the content, very similar to what Jack's described.

The VFS (virtual file system) was then going to "merge" all of the user's zip files (or a chosen subset) into a single view for Open Rails to load content from.

---

Currently, we're working on something much simpler, where a zip file can be download and installed directly from Open Rails (in the menu or the website) with the contents extracted into the user's profile of choice.

This is very much a limited solution, since much existing content poses difficulties with this (which is the right path, what about scripts, etc.), but we're hoping that we can encourage new content to make things easier by documenting the requirements for automatic installation.

And every improvement for this limited solution also improves things for the larger, VFS-based solution (which I believe we'll always have to come back to, since nothing else can deal with overwriting files or uninstalling content).

[Jack@Elvas]

James Ross, on 26 December 2023 - 07:20 AM, said:

Currently, we're working on something much simpler, where a zip file can be download and installed directly from Open Rails (in the menu or the website) with the contents extracted into the user's profile of choice.

Sounds Great James!

Is there anything I can help with in this regard?