The Coals to Newcastle team has just released a new MSTS route called Craven Timber Railway.
This route models a short branch-line that was operated by the NSW Government to transport timber out of the Craven State forest to a sawmill located adjacent to Craven Station.
The route is principally designed to be run in MSTS, but as this route has a low dependency on MSTS, the CTN team decided to experiment with a "stand-alone" (or MSTS independent install process).
The installation process relies on commonly available components from the Internet.
This experiment was undertaken in order to:
i) Understand the effort involved in running and developing routes without MSTS, and learn the challenges that we face
ii) Develop a small test bed route that can be experimented with as OR develops and improves
iii) Allow non-MSTS Australian railway fans to look at a piece of history (route was inspired by a recent article in a Light Railways Magazine
iv) Showcase the OR capability to a larger audience (not a direct benefit to me, but the more the merrier).
It should be noted that some functionality may not work correctly, either due to features not yet being available in OR (it is a beta after-all), or because non-core MSTS files that would not be part of a "standard" route package have not been included in this package.
For example, some of the wav files called by "ingame.sms", such as "Ok to Proceed" are not available. At this time I understand that this is not working in OR, so it is probably not a big deal. When these functions are made available in OR, a solution will need to be developed. I know that there are some replacements already existing for the "Ok to Proceed" message that could be incorporated into the distribution or downloaded separately, in the future.
Some sounds called by the Craven Timber Rolling stock, eg 2 cylinder sound set, calls Flying Scotsman or 380 files, so these are not present at this time. A work around will need to be developed for these as well. The lack of these sounds doesn't appear to overly detract from the overall operational experience in OR "stand-alone".
A couple of the challenges identified by this experiment to the CTN team (probably already known to many):
i) Xtracks doesn't appear to have some of the default track pieces.
ii) Rolling stock linkages to MSTS sounds or cabviews could involve a fair effort to change
iii) Activities will vary between MSTS and OR (they may not work in both) This is actually a good thing if it is caused by new functionality availability, such as the uncoupling feature.
This means that a lot of routes and stock will not work with this OR "stand-alone" install without a reasonable amount of rework. Perhaps object and stock modelers should start to look to the future by ensuring that their models are moving towards MSTS independence now.
In one of the activities that we created (Ministerial Inspection Train from Craven) we used the uncoupling feature. It appeared to work, but the AI driver was very negligent, as he didn't apply the handbrakes and the carriage rolled down the hill. When held to account the driver denied responsibility and said that the "developers didn't tell me to put them on, so it isn't my fault".
(Another thing to add to the to do list). This is a feature (along with the coupling one) that we are looking forward to, as it will enhance activities greatly.
This experiment has been an interesting challenge and learning experience. We are looking forward to the future improvements in OR with much anticipation.
OR Team, Keep up the good work
Cheers
This route models a short branch-line that was operated by the NSW Government to transport timber out of the Craven State forest to a sawmill located adjacent to Craven Station.
The route is principally designed to be run in MSTS, but as this route has a low dependency on MSTS, the CTN team decided to experiment with a "stand-alone" (or MSTS independent install process).
The installation process relies on commonly available components from the Internet.
This experiment was undertaken in order to:
i) Understand the effort involved in running and developing routes without MSTS, and learn the challenges that we face
ii) Develop a small test bed route that can be experimented with as OR develops and improves
iii) Allow non-MSTS Australian railway fans to look at a piece of history (route was inspired by a recent article in a Light Railways Magazine
iv) Showcase the OR capability to a larger audience (not a direct benefit to me, but the more the merrier).
It should be noted that some functionality may not work correctly, either due to features not yet being available in OR (it is a beta after-all), or because non-core MSTS files that would not be part of a "standard" route package have not been included in this package.
For example, some of the wav files called by "ingame.sms", such as "Ok to Proceed" are not available. At this time I understand that this is not working in OR, so it is probably not a big deal. When these functions are made available in OR, a solution will need to be developed. I know that there are some replacements already existing for the "Ok to Proceed" message that could be incorporated into the distribution or downloaded separately, in the future.
Some sounds called by the Craven Timber Rolling stock, eg 2 cylinder sound set, calls Flying Scotsman or 380 files, so these are not present at this time. A work around will need to be developed for these as well. The lack of these sounds doesn't appear to overly detract from the overall operational experience in OR "stand-alone".
A couple of the challenges identified by this experiment to the CTN team (probably already known to many):
i) Xtracks doesn't appear to have some of the default track pieces.
ii) Rolling stock linkages to MSTS sounds or cabviews could involve a fair effort to change
iii) Activities will vary between MSTS and OR (they may not work in both) This is actually a good thing if it is caused by new functionality availability, such as the uncoupling feature.
This means that a lot of routes and stock will not work with this OR "stand-alone" install without a reasonable amount of rework. Perhaps object and stock modelers should start to look to the future by ensuring that their models are moving towards MSTS independence now.
In one of the activities that we created (Ministerial Inspection Train from Craven) we used the uncoupling feature. It appeared to work, but the AI driver was very negligent, as he didn't apply the handbrakes and the carriage rolled down the hill. When held to account the driver denied responsibility and said that the "developers didn't tell me to put them on, so it isn't my fault".
(Another thing to add to the to do list). This is a feature (along with the coupling one) that we are looking forward to, as it will enhance activities greatly. This experiment has been an interesting challenge and learning experience. We are looking forward to the future improvements in OR with much anticipation.
OR Team, Keep up the good work
Cheers
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