Running OR without MSTS?

[ThatOneShredder]

I've been out of the loop for awhile, and am curious about running Open Rails without MSTS. I used to have a copy of MSTS when I first downloaded OR years ago, but I've recently suffered a complete hard drive failure and am just now getting back to the virtual railroading community. Can I run Open Rails without MSTS, and can I run MSTS routes and equipment without a copy of MSTS? Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,
Alex

[Vince]

Hi Alex,
Two posts under yours will tell you how
Here >>>===> https://www.trainsim.com/vbts/showth...12#post1899312

Running Open Rails without MSTS requires the following MSTS folders:
Basically you need a folder with these MSTS folders in it ROUTE, GLOBAL, SOUNDS and TRAINS.

You will not be able to use the MSTS Editors with this configuration.

After gathering the four folders into a single new folder use the Open Rails OPTIONS ==> [Content] Tab in Open Rails to point OR to the new folder you create where these four folders are.

regards,

[OTTODAD]

Running Open Rails without MSTS requires the following MSTS folders:
Basically you need a folder with these MSTS folders in it ROUTE, GLOBAL, SOUNDS and TRAINS.

If MSTS has not been installed ligit on a computer to supply these folders then ORTS will not work !

[geepster775]

If MSTS has not been installed ligit on a computer to supply these folders then ORTS will not work !

Sure it will.

You could create those 4 folders yourself without MSTS, and place the route in the ROUTES folder (or run the route's installer if it has one and let it populate the ROUTES folder), you can run the installer for Xtracks or ScaleRoads or whatever track systems are needed by the route thus populating the GLOBAL folder, The installers for rolling stock packs or routes will populate your Trainset folder and Consist folder inside the TRAINS folder, and the SOUND folder will be populated only if the route or rolling stock has unique sounds (DW rolling stock for example, has their own unique general rolling sounds for freight cars)

If you have an MSTS install handy, though, copying it saves a load of trouble. Your GLOBAL folder from 1MSTS probably already has the whole enchilada of track systems and road systems, and if you borrow that, you are covered. Same can be said of the SOUND folder. It probably already has the sounds that were placed there by DW, SLI, and various route installers. Copying them if you got them just saves you time.

Perhaps phrasing Vince's comments better is that it needs MSTS folder names. Create a OR profile name of your choosing, and then create those folders empty yourself placing them in the profile folder, just as long as those folder names are like MSTS.

The process goes easier if the material (route, track system, rolling stock set, etc) has its own installer. Just point the installer to the OR profile name, and it will populate the 4 main folders as needed. It's more convoluted when dealing with "the old ways" of so many freeware routes available from the library here that must be manually pieced together. Take the recent RMD West. You have to combine the 4 parts yourself, then manually move the provided CONSISTS folder out of the ROUTES folder and into the TRAINS folder. Not hard if you know what you are doing, but the same can't be said if your are newbie or a recent return and are struggling with all the old nuances. Some food for thought for developers on how to make your product roll out to a wider audience down the road.

[ThatOneShredder]

Thanks, Gentlemen! I'm back up and running!

[crstagg]

If MSTS has not been installed ligit on a computer to supply these folders then ORTS will not work !

Your comment is both True and False, Otto.

TRUE: IF you intend to install routes that have Install.bat files that copy content from the default MSTS routes or use content from the MSTS CDs that get installed in the Global or Sound folder or Activities that use default rolling stock.

BUT FALSE: If you intend to use most Payware routes and rolling stock and/or some freeware routes and rolling stock.

Try this: Create a Test Install folder, then within it create the 4 folders. Now install The Feather River Route. Point OR to the Test Install folder and see if it runs.

[geepster775]

Then again, if you are trying to avoid having to buy/recover/replace/find/dig out of storage your old MSTS disks, then you probably won't be doing much freeware that requires batch files.....

I created a TEST folder with nothing in it. I ran the Seligman 2 installer. Said Yes to the route, NO to installing Bin, and yes to install Xtracks. Each time redirecting the install to F:\TEST.

This is what I got. It created ROUTES, GLOBAL, and TRAINS. The rest of the stuff can be deleted.

[geepster775]

Then again, if you are trying to avoid having to buy/recover/replace/find/dig out of storage your old MSTS disks, then you probably won't be doing much freeware that requires batch files.....

This sentence in my previous reply really does beg the question of just what continuing value does all the material in this here file library have to new (MSTS-free) users that enter the scene going forward?

If Nels thinks he sees a decline now, he hasn't seen nothing yet when new users 5 years from now won't see any need for all those routes in his library that contain batch files because finding a copy of MSTS will be very costly if not impossible. Those new users will stick to free-standing routes that aren't tethered to the MSTS disks.

Are those routes in the library that are useless to new people going to get 'populated' with the missing material and repackaged and re-uploaded as complete, ready-to-run?

[R. Steele]

I gotta go with the not true side of the discussion. See the screenshots of my ORTS environment. Many of the routes in these profiles did not require batch files to complete the installation. People will be limited to routes not requiring the batch files that look for MSTS "original" files, but there are many routes available that do not use batch files.

Perhaps, in your haste to post Otto, your fingers worked faster than your brain. Didn't you really mean to say that a user would be limited to those routes that do not require MSTS files &/or batch files to install?

Anyone can create the folder structure that OR needs to run.... and as geepster proved, there are routes that will run that way.

bandicam 2016-07-14 16-46-22-348.jpg bandicam 2016-07-14 16-32-16-958.jpg

[OTTODAD]

Anyone can create the folder structure that OR needs to run....

Providing that this folder structure contains all the MSTS files ORTS needs to run !

It would he helpful if senior members of the ORTS team could confirm what that exactly is !

[dcarleton]

OR does not require any MSTS files in order to run. The downloaded content MAY (or may not) require some original MSTS content in order to run, depending on exactly what the user is trying to run. That is turning out to be quite a cause of confusion!

[R. Steele]

Providing that this folder structure contains all the MSTS files ORTS needs to run !

If the route is created without using MSTS files (and some are) then the above statement is false.

If MSTS has not been installed ligit [sic] on a computer to supply these folders then ORTS will not work !

The above statement about OR not running was an absolute statement, "then ORTS will not work!"
Otto, that is blatantly UNTRUE.

It likely will run and I am quoting from the OR web site: "If products designed for Microsoft Train Simulator are used on a PC with Open Rails but not Microsoft Train Simulator, then they are likely to work but some sounds and textures will be missing. Such files will be listed with warnings in the Open Rails log file. "

You make such absolute statements, but when someone else expresses another point of view (this one based on experience) you backpedal and play your trump card:

It would he helpful if senior members of the ORTS team could confirm what that exactly is !

Please, just stop making such absolutist statements about OR. In this case, you are just a user like the rest of us.

[geepster775]

OR does not require any MSTS files in order to run. The downloaded content MAY (or may not) require some original MSTS content in order to run, depending on exactly what the user is trying to run. That is turning out to be quite a cause of confusion!

Meanwhile, the newbie/returnee OP is off running his routes without being tethered to MSTS and the only people still 'confused' are the long term MSTS users..... lol


And what is the owner of this here world-famous file library and download site going to do to capture 'the continuing business' of these new and returning people who hath not any MSTS disks, and thus have limited need for the cornucopia of batch file-equipped goodies being dispensed here? Plans are in the works to do what, where? I'm sorry, crossing your fingers and hoping for the best and staying aligned with the perpetually 'confused' isn't much of a business strategy.

[NorthernWarrior]

I suspect there are very few, if any, MSTS routes either in existence or in the birthing process which don't rely on at least something from the MSTS Global folder or one of its route folders.

Even if, as I believe some now do, you leave any assets/textures from the default routes in the third party route zip and don't strip them out for addition via the batch file method that still leaves the files form the Global folder. As that is likely to include track and road shape files, that is pretty key in determining you actually drive along something resembling railway track...

Ergo, OR needs MSTS more than MSTS needs OR..!

[geepster775]

Routes downloadable from this file library, you mean. Hence, the lack of foot traffic hullabaloo for Nels.

Very few routes from here are free standing or up to current standards (mosaic, adequate track-side veg, etc) anyway, and most current routes that do exist are largely payware and do not rely upon the MSTS disc-based content.

Xtracks or Scaleroads are another matter, but those free-standing installers improperly perceived as "owned" by the MSTS culture are still available or are included with those few routes that are built to present day standards. And you only have to install them once, and then copy the GLOBAL folders for subsequent new OR profiles.

I agree with you if your definition of heaven is Mosaic-less routes with 2002-era vegetation. But most OR'ers got off that bus long ago.