Scalerail Conversions

[OTTODAD]

// Admin Note: These posts were moved out of the Scalerail 2.0 thread ( https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showth...ScaleRail-v2-0 ) as conversions are a diverging topic //

The question is whether Marc would feel that following the same trajectory would be worth his time. Lets not get so overwhelmed at the prospects of doing every oddball xtrack piece out there as part of a release.

I did some research for Norbert, identifying the most popular new X-Tracks switches which have been used by more recent top MSTS routes, like the Surfliner-2 and found mostly these, he intended to add DB-Tracks versions for:

There are many more, most of which I have not seen having been used in newer MSTSBin routes !

The same goes for many new straight and curved single and multi-track X-Tracks sections !

[OTTODAD]

Cautionary flag here, folks... Let's keep it on the topic of ScaleRail. I'm sure that someone could start up a thread to discuss Norbert's track system if Steven is actively trying to finish it out and looking for the feedback.

Another thread for other than SR tracks is not a good idea, them being mentioned in this thread because of what could be done by Marc to make his new version of them interchangeable for direct replacements of X-Tracks and DB-tracks in existing routes, like I have been able do to, both now also having my wider trackbeds to close the gap between parallel ones.

[OTTODAD]

Keeping in mind that these new Scalerail tracks can only be used for existing routes which have been created with their older version and in new routes, but not in existing X-Tracks or DB-Tracks routes, unless all their World files TrackObj file names are being replaced by the Scalerail ones as well as their Dynamic tracks !

[seagoon]

Keeping in mind that these new Scalerail tracks can only be used for existing routes which have been created with their older version and in new routes, but not in existing X-Tracks or DB-Tracks routes, unless all their World files TrackObj file names are being replaced by the Scalerail ones as well as their Dynamic tracks !

....And? Your point is?

[eric]

Otto, with all due respect... I know Norbert was your friend, but the conversion process isn't all that bad.

Packerland's conversion took ~14 days. The CNW-Harvard took about a month, some of that due to re-working the station approaches and yards which had 7.5d's & replacing with a mix of 6d's and 11d crossovers. I'd say half of the time on both routes was general improvements from the earlier version that I would have eventually done with or without the conversion.

So no, these pieces aren't just for a new route, or an existing Scalerail route.

[Rick-MONON]

Sorry, I agree with Otto

I have converted many routes now and Norberts way is 30 minutes to an hour, not days or weeks................

I like scailrail too, just alot more complex or should I say different in the standard (original) naming of the pieces.

[eric]

While Kuju wins the prize for being the first, as a builder I much prefer Marc's naming convention.

Instead of having to scroll thru all the pieces related to the 1000's to get to the 100's to the 10's, and then the 2000's to get to the 20's, everything is nicely sequential. Curves aren't interspersed with straights. I know that the 3m piece will be right next to the 4m, not the 30m...

Using tools like ReplaceEm and GrepWin, doing the search/replace exercise to rename pieces within the .W files is something anyone who can navigate the RE can manage.

I get the fact that a drop-in replacement is easy, but what I've learned from 25+ years of software development that you can do something fast, or you can do it right. You don't normally get both.

Looking forward to the new multi-track textures.

Now, about those missing frogs on the 03d's.....

[R. Steele]

Sorry to jump in with a little off topic question...many in this thread have mentioned converting the track in a route.
Point me to tutorials, or texts with instructions how that is accomplished. I am reading Michael Vone's route building manual.
Thanks, now back to the regular scheduled programming.

[Bananarama]

There are plenty of tutorials here and elsewhere, and I found the following by using Google:

http://www.trainmods.com/train-simul...-tutorial.html (the ZippyShare link is busted tho')

The main file is in Word *.doc format, is fairly straight forward, and appears to be accurate.

[OTTODAD]

There are plenty of tutorials here and elsewhere, and I found the following by using Google:

http://www.trainmods.com/train-simulator-scalerail-conversion-tutorial.html (the ZippyShare link is busted tho')

[OTTODAD]

Sorry to jump in with a little off topic question...many in this thread have mentioned converting the track in a route. Point me to tutorials, or texts with instructions how that is accomplished. I am reading Michael Vone's route building manual.

To convert all the MSTS default tracks in a route's existing route's World tiles which are named FileName ( A1t10mStrt.s ), etc, they have to be replaced by other tracks with file names like Scalerail have, using a different naming format like FileName ( SR_1tStr_c_010m.s ), providing that there are replacement tracks that have geometrically matching sections, switches and crossovers and are listed in the Global\Tsection.dat.

There are editors which can be told to find certain named tracks in decompressed World Tiles and replace them with matching others, but that takes some doing and requires a thorough knowledge of the subject !

Using a File Manager like OPUS to globally renaming for-instance all DB1_a1t10mStrt.s to A1t10mStrt.s, etc, takes seconds and if copied into a MSTS MINI's Global\Shapes folder they can then be read by all converted to using them MSTS routes like this one from my web site does, having also converted all the route's Dynamic tracks to DYNATRAX ones.

http://www.otto-wipfel.co.uk/downloads-various/mstsbin-pon-11-dbtracks-mini.rar

These 2002 utilities referred to by Marc, using the same renaming method I have used, may not cover all of the recent ones if they are not listed in the TEXT files used by them !

[Bananarama]

[URL="http://www.otto-wipfel.co.uk"]

Probably because it contains a batch file. A scan here turns up nothing.

[sidp]

There are plenty of tutorials here and elsewhere, and I found the following by using Google:

http://www.trainmods.com/train-simul...-tutorial.html (the ZippyShare link is busted tho')

The main file is in Word *.doc format, is fairly straight forward, and appears to be accurate.

The file srcontut.zip is in the TrainSim library.

[R. Steele]

Thank you folks. I did some searching before asking question, thought you folks with more experience would have preferences I may not be aware of. All the comments were helpful. Now for some more reading. Thanks again.

[OTTODAD]

The file srcontut.zip is in the TrainSim library.

Yes and its 2 concrete and wood *.TXT files have 304 SR_*.S tracks shape files listed in them, whereas the SISKIYOU's Global\Shapes folder contains 2311 !!!

It would appear that Scalerail has a lot more track shapes and switches than X-Tracks and to convert a X-Tracks route's tracks and switches would first have to identify which X-Tracks it has used and then a converter would have to replace them with Scalerail, if it has all the matching tracks and switches used by X-Tracks !

These new improved by Marc and good looking Scalerail tracks are for existing routes using the older ones and new routes to be created for them.

Come on route builders, get cracking !