[captain_bazza]

This thread will build and therefore is a Work In Progress:

Q) How do I turn off that annoying Kuju blurb video clip when MSTS boots up?
A) In the MSTS Global folder is a file called startup.mpg, just rename the extension from .mpg to .000.

Q) I have changed my videocard and now MSTS won't run, what's the problem?
A) In the MSTS root folder there is a file called mprofile.exe, double-click on this and your new card will be profiled.

Q) Will MSTS run under VISTA and WIN7?
A) It has been reported that it does, but you may need to find a thread that explains more about this topic in detail.

Q) How many versions of MSTS are there?
A) The original was version 1.0 (2001) the first official patch made it 1.2 (2002?) and a year or two later new boxed version included the patch, plus some extra MPU and rollingstock, this was called version 1.4. There were no further official patches or versions. The sim was later distributed under a couple of bargain-bin labels, but has recently been dropped due to the distributor going bust. It isn't known at this time if any future distribution will take place under a new label. (See the reference to MSTS Bin patch, for further information....coming.)

Q) Who originally developed MSTS?
A) A UK software company called KUJU developed MSTS for Microsoft, and they financed and distributed the sim, released in Q4 2001. Hence some of the terminology employed in MSTS is of British origin, ie bogies instead of trucks. The development may have started around 1999, which is the first ever reference I found to it, under the original project name, Train Commander.

Q) How many bogies is it possible to have and how many driver wheelsets?
A) Officially, two bogies and up to five driversets are possible per model. Unofficially, there are ways around this limitation. The driver wheelsets are labeled wheels1, through to wheels5.

Q) How many bogies and their wheelsets are permissible?
A) Two bogies, up to six bogie wheelsets. The bogies are labeled, bogie1 and bogie2, the wheelsets are labeled, (for bogie1) wheels11, wheels12, wheels13 and (for bogie2) wheels21, wheels22, wheels23.

Q) How many other animated parts can be used?
A) Complicated answer, which is coming, eventually.

Q) Which parts of a model does the sim automatically animate?
A) Bogies and bogie wheelsets, which must be correctly named. This applies to all MPU and rollingstock.

Q) Why must you use default naming or labels for animated and some automatically animated parts?
A) So the sim's hardcoding will know what to do.

Q) Which named parts are user (builder or author) animated in a model program?
A) ALL other named animated parts except bogie1, bogie2, and bogie wheelsets wheels11 ~ 13 and wheels21 ~ 23.

Q) Is it possible to use other names or labels for animated parts?
A) Yes and No! Yes, a scenery model can use any name or label and still work in the sim.
And No, any MPU and rollingstock must use the MSTS default naming (as noted above). however, only correctly named parts tend to work as they should in the sim, but I recollect some other modeler once claimed you could actually use other names, but this has never worked for MPU or rollingstock, in my experience. There are some exceptions to the scenery object naming rule.....some interactives, such as signals, have their own naming protocol.

Q) What is 'freight animation' and how does it work?
A) Coming.....

Q) What is the MSTS Bin patch and what advantages does it have?
A) Coming.....

Q) What paint programs can I use?
A) Coming.....

Q) What modeling programs can I use?
A) Coming.....

Q) What third party MSTS freeware utilities should I get?
A) Coming.....

Q) What third party MSTS payware utilities do you recommend?
A) Coming.....

Q) What does MPU stand for?
MPU stands for (M)motive (P)ower (U)nit, which is any locomotive or other contraption that moves rollingstock (wagons, cars, etc). MPU can utilise steam, electricity, gas (petrol), diesel-electric*, diesel, or battery, for its energy source. [*A diesel motor drives an electrical generator, which drives electric traction motors attached to the MPU's bogies.] A steam locomotive may use coal, lignite or fuel-oil as its main enery source to produce the steam that actually drives the locomotive through the reciprocating action of the pistons in the steam cylinders.

WIP, to be continued....please reserve this thread for building on the Questions and Answers and NOT a general discussion on the topics. However, any expansion to the answers are welcome providing they are based on sound experience with the sim, thanks.


Cheers Bazza

This post has been edited by captain_bazza: 11 September 2009 - 06:13 PM
Reason for edit:: Update and corrections. Any errors excepted.

[captain_bazza]

I would like assistance with the following questions, in order that the answers are wide ranging, based on the experience of a number of users.

Cheers and thanks
Bazza

Q) What paint programs can I use?
A) Coming.....

Q) What modeling programs can I use?
A) Coming.....

Q) What third party MSTS freeware utilities should I get?
A) Coming.....

Q) What third party MSTS payware utilities do you recommend?
A) Coming.....

[captain_bazza]

Note to self:

Freeware paint programs:
Paint.NET
The GIMP

Payware paint programs:
Paint Shop Pro

Etc.

[hiball3985]

Possibly something to add to Q&A. Why should I make back ups before tearing into files. Just a thought.

[captain_bazza]

hiball3985, on Sep 12 2009, 04:08 PM, said:

Possibly something to add to Q&A. Why should I make back ups before tearing into files. Just a thought.

Because 'you know what' tends to hit the fan if you don't. You must be sure to rename the file extension to something neutral - not a usual DOS extension, otherwise the sim gets cross and confused.

One trap in particular are ENG files. The sim looks for all ENGs and their location on startup. Overlooking this when editing ENGs is a real trap, when you suddenly find the wrong loco is showing up in the AE. You don't always spot the reason unless you've suffered the problem before and have solved it.

For example: if I run a locomotive shape file through SHAPEFIX, it generates a file with the extension .SFIXED. This is the repaired shape and in order for it to run in the sim you must rename the original file to neutralise it, which in this situation is not really deleting it straight off....just neutralising it incase you need it again. Now you can edit the extension of the fixed file to myloco.s.

So, to further explain the above: I have a locomotive shape called, funnily enough, myloco.s. This shape wont run directly in the sim, it has a problem - perhaps too many polys or sub-groups, so I want to run it through SHAPEFIX. This is the procedure:

1) myloco.s is faulty and won't load in the sim.
2) Open the shape in SF, process as usual.
3) Look in the myloco folder and you will see myloco.s (original, untouched) and myloco.sfixed (original now fixed).
4) Rename the original shape to (example) mylocos.000, which effectively neutralises it and the sim won't pick it up.
5) Now rename the fixed file from myloco.sfixed to myloco.s.

(This is not a primer for SHAPEFIX, which is covered elsewhere, it is an example of neutralising a file, but this is such a useful tool that I will do another article about for here, too.)

The real tricky one is the loco ENG file. Fore-instance, using our example locomotive myloco.s, we will of course have an engineering file called myloco.eng and a matching named myloco.sd.

Let's say we wish to backup this myloco.eng because we're going to edit it and we want a backup incase it turns to mush.....which it will, which it will --- if you've forgotten to back up. The safest method, IMO, is this one:
Make a copy of the original myloco.eng and rename it to mylocoeng.bak, or mylocoeng.000. You can now go ahead and edit the original, knowing you have a backup and that the sim won't be reading this file too.

All files you wish to preserve should be backed up. Never* backup unrenamed files inside the MSTS installation. Place them elsewhere, including on R/W disks, or other forms of secure backup.

An alternative method of keeping backups preserved has been offered by two users. Make a workfolder and give that name or any folder name that does not already appear in MSTS. IE, workfolder1, workfolder2, etc. (But you should also backup critical files, including Work In Progress on a separate drive, or onto a r/w CD.)

Cheers Bazza

This post has been edited by captain_bazza: 16 September 2009 - 06:16 PM
Reason for edit:: Additional info and edits

[captain_bazza]

Quote

Comment, or no comment, that is the question!

In an ENG file a comment is really a note that is not acted on by the sim. The note, or comment, could be an explanation for the following code, or something else.

In the ENG it would look like this:

Comment ( this is a comment )

You must never have blank space, or no text, between the brackets (actually called parenthesis).

For example:

Comment ( )

That's an absolute no - no!

If you want to place a comment in the ENG, but don't wish to put anything there at the moment then I suggest you do it like this:

Comment ( reserved )

Think of comments as internal 'post-its' and make good use of them. A clear, consise, explanation might help later on, when you're trying to remember what you did and perhaps why you did it.

Cheers Bazza

[hiball3985]

Bazza,
I don't know if you were directing your explanation directly to me or to everyone. Thats all great info that I think should be included in the 10+ Hints and Tips. Thats what I was suggesting.

Jim

[longiron]

captain_bazza, on Sep 15 2009, 06:38 AM, said:

Because 'you know what' tends to hit the fan if you don't. You must be sure to rename the file extension to something neutral - not a usual DOS extension, otherwise the sim gets cross and confused.

One trap in particular are ENG files. The sim looks for all ENGs and their location on startup. Overlooking this when editing ENGs is a real trap, when you suddenly find the wrong loco is showing up in the AE. You don't always spot the reason unless you've suffered the problem before and have solved it.

For example: if I run a locomotive shape file through SHAPEFIX, it generates a file with the extension .SFIXED. This is the repaired shape and in order for it to run in the sim you must rename the original file to neutralise it, which in this situation is not really deleting it straight off....just neutralising it incase you need it again. Now you can edit the extension of the fixed file to myloco.s.

So, to further explain the above: I have a locomotive shape called, funnily enough, myloco.s. This shape wont run directly in the sim, it has a problem - perhaps too many polys or sub-groups, so I want to run it through SHAPEFIX. This is the procedure:

1) myloco.s is faulty and won't load in the sim.
2) Open the shape in SF, process as usual.
3) Look in the myloco folder and you will see myloco.s (original, untouched) and myloco.sfixed (original now fixed).
4) Rename the original shape to (example) mylocos.000, which effectively neutralises it and the sim won't pick it up.
5) Now rename the fixed file from myloco.sfixed to myloco.s.

(This is not a primer for SHAPEFIX, which is covered elsewhere, it is an example of neutralising a file, but this is such a useful tool that I will do another article about for here, too.)

The real tricky one is the loco ENG file. Fore-instance, using our example locomotive myloco.s, we will of course have an engineering file called myloco.eng and a matching named myloco.sd.

Let's say we wish to backup this myloco.eng because we're going to edit it and we want a backup incase it turns to mush.....which it will, which it will --- if you've forgotten to back up. The safest method, IMO, is this one:
Make a copy of the original myloco.eng and rename it to mylocoeng.bak, or mylocoeng.000. You can now go ahead and edit the original, knowing you have a backup and that the sim won't be reading this file too.

All files you wish to preserve should be back up. Never backup unrenamed files inside the MSTS installation. Place them elsewhere, including on R/W disks, or other forms of secure backup.

Cheers Bazza

Little trick I use is to create an additional folder called "WorkFiles" in addition to the Sound and Cabview folders. Since the sim doesn't take this folder into its search for game files, stuff in there is completely ignored. You can keep the S file and ENG extensions for quick and easy copy and paste if you make a blunder. Then sequentially order with 001, 002, 003 extensions to keep a whole history. Backup up just this folder since it has current version. Once I'm done, I just delete the folder, or back up for permanent record.
chrisvw

[CGW121]

Version 9.0 of Paint Shop Pro can be found here.

http://www.oldversio...t-Shop-Pro.html

I do not know much more than that,cause I have 9.0 and have used it since it came out. As always let the buyer beware. There are other programs there as well.

[captain_bazza]

Hi'ya Chris, does the 'work folder' reside outside of the MSTS installation? :mellow:

Hi'ya Jim, no, they're generic notes; some of these posts are notes, which I'll later add to the head post. However, using IE8 there's a bug (sighs) where some php (whatever) boards do funny things when typing long posts. UKTS is an example board....I'm sure it's down to some adverse reaction between the board software and IE8 (fakes surprised look). :o

Cheers Bazza :D