Special Needs Kid interest

[thebonepile]

I am a new poster as I just found and installed the Open Rails program - so far I have only downloaded Demo 1 that is available on their site - I like it (civil engineer/land surveyor) with train interest, as see the other possibilities tht exist.

My question is this. I have an 18 year old special needs kid. He LOVES playing WII (his only real pasttime. What could I do to spark his interest make the Open Rails more like a video game to get him started and see if he would get interested? Any particular routes/ imaginary trains? I have Open Rails hooked to my 48" TV via HDMI - so it is rather big. Going to reduce resolution and see if I can get font bigger inside the program. Any ideas?

I don't really live in a train area - so I can't take him out to see/hear and get excited that way.... did get him a very simple model railroad we setup once in a while and watch it go around.

[tbundy1982]

Hello, and welcome to the forum! I'm not an expert on this but I'll try to start to answer your questions.

I'm unsure if you know the history of Open Rails, but it was created as a replacement for the classic Microsoft Train Simulator game of 2001. An enormous amount of add-on content has been made for MSTS in the years since, and the old program itself had limitations and bugs that were sometimes difficult to deal with. Open Rails improved many things about the old simulator. You can download routes to run, and trains to run on them. The program will allow you to explore the routes with a train, or run an activity that may feature other AI trains and tasks to complete.

I have played most of the train simulators created over the last 25 years. For me, Open Rails would take 2nd place for being the LEAST like a video game. It is actually a pretty good sim that can perform quite realistically with the right content installed. However, it may not be set up in a way that would interest someone who enjoys Wii games.

After a quick glance at OR, I did not see anything that amounted to "easy controls" similar to what would be used for a video game. Since there are numerous possibilities why someone could be labeled "special needs", only you will know your son's abilities and interests in gaming. Open Rails seems to only offer "realistic controls" that do well to mimic the real-world challenges of operating a train.

There is a game called Train Simulator 2018 that is pretty much an awesome video game with trains, in my opinion. It will also run a fairly realistic simulation as well if that is what you like. It gives you the choice of using easy controls, kind of like a model railroad, or advanced controls. It's main advantage in regards to a video game is that the activities are usually very well guided and last from 20-90 minutes. There is a score that is kept for players that want it. It's main disadvantage is that about half of the good add-on content is payware. A lot of the good free content requires some of the payware to be installed as well, so if money is truly tight, it may prove frustrating. With some freeware routes, it's a situation of buying 4 or 5 of the most popular payware routes and then you may find another 10 or 15 more free ones to download that use the payware routes' content. Wait and buy at the relatively frequent sales, if necessary. There is one going on right now for the next day or so that would be quite good to investigate if you're interested.

If you are more interested in free downloads for Open Rails, I've been trying to think of good route packages that might work. If you choose to continue with Open Rails, it might not be a bad idea to try to purchase a copy of MSTS on Ebay or elsewhere. I'm unsure of what the prices are these days so you'll have to investigate. It is not completely necessary to make this purchase, however, some add-on content makes use of the original game content so you may be limited on routes and trains, or required to learn how to make edits to the content. MSTS/OpenRails content is very easy to edit, but will require a lot of reading and searching the forum to understand how to make edits without causing trouble.

Most of the route packages that come with everything ready to run are payware, from places like TrainSimulations.net, 3DTrains, Maple Leaf Tracks, 3DTrain Stuff, and Rich Garber's All Aboard site (there might even be more, I can't remember). The free CN Blackfoot v2 route may have had a content pack and activity pack that didn't absolutely require the MSTS default rolling stock to be installed. There is now an awesomely-detailed new version of that route for download, but I'm unsure off the top of my head if the old activities will still work with the new version.

Each route that you download may have a different way of providing activities to play. Some may use the the old MSTS content because everyone had it at one time. Others may provide a list of additional downloads that must be installed in order to play. Open Rails is largely not a game for folks who don't like to fuss about "under the hood." Advanced installations and minor content editing is a way of life for many Open Rails simmers. Again, it's usually not difficult. It just requires some reading and learning about how the file system of the game works.

Railworks/Train Simulator 2018, however, has a lot of plug and play stuff if you can afford it, with little need to learn the ins and outs of the program.

Hopefully someone else can chime in about content. I had MSTS on my computer before Open Rails started, so I was never a "new user" such as yourself.

As far as seeing the words and numbers on a big-screen TV, I hook mine up to a 40" once in a while and it's absolutely terrible on resolution. I already know what I'm looking at so I can read it, but it does sometimes give me a headache. I'm not sure I can offer any suggestions here, other than, as you suggested, changing screen size to make them larger.

Good luck and I hope you and your son enjoy it!

Tyler

[ossie]

Hi Chris,

You'd know better than most that "special needs" covers a range of issues and depending on the special need of your son, the answer to your question could vary a lot. I have a fair bit of experience dealing with autism and as far as that goes, those kids find their own interests and it can be pretty challenging to introduce new ones.

From a train sim point of view, Tyler's answer is excellent, but again, depending on your son's needs and current interests, before I'd go spending money, if I was in your shoes and hoping to help him develop an interest in trains, (given you're not close to them yourself), I'd get youtube running on that big screen and introduce trains that way. The amount and variety of train videos there would be a pretty easy introduction to the hobby and depending on how much interest he then has, you could build from there. Good luck!

[markyisri]

Hopefully someone else can chime in about content.

The amount of new freeware for Open Rails and MSTS is surprisingly limited on this site. There is an excessive amount of Indian content and almost no US freeware releases.

Advanced installations and minor content editing is a way of life for many Open Rails simmers. Again, it's usually not difficult. It just requires some reading and learning about how the file system of the game works.

Well said.

Working with MSTS and Open Rails content to improve and modify it is in my opinion a good pastime, as it has a definite beginning and end.

However, MSTS and Open Rails are not mature gaming platforms like RailWorks/Train Simulator. MSTS has it's own unfixed bugs. Open Rails still requires you to use "testing" versions if you don't want to be behind on functionality. I personally use the "bleeding-edge" mode, but check each version to see if bugs have been found in it before upgrading.

If you want to start out with Open Rails without requiring other content, I recommend the PRR Eastern Region route. Make sure to install the 6 fixes that have been released since the original route. Also, some modifications are required to make the route run smoothly in Open Rails, but the benefits are worth it. Personally, I modernized my route so I could run Acela-speed service. (The default route is set in the 1950s.)

Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have.

EDIT:

Get youtube running on that big screen and introduce trains that way. The amount and variety of train videos there would be a pretty easy introduction to the hobby and depending on how much interest he then has, you could build from there.

I recommend doing that!

[qballbandit]

"The amount of new freeware for Open Rails is surprisingly limited on this site. There is an excessive amount of Indian content and almost no US freeware releases."

To me, that could be misleading to a new user.
There are thousands of MSTS Freeware releases since 2001, and the majority can be used in OR. Granted, from an engine/wagon physics standpoint, they may not be optimum - for the power user, but for the casual user they'd be just fine.

[conductorchris]

<< The amount of new freeware for Open Rails is surprisingly limited on this site. There is an excessive amount of Indian content and almost no US freeware releases.>>

I have about a terrabyte of open rails content. (almost all considered MSTS content). We're only now starting to really figure out how to make content that i distinctive. Most items that are open rails only are simply more detailed models than MSTS can run.

[GokuMK]

Open Rails is good for people that likes to play with rolling stock, routes and other stuff. So if your kid likes to watch a lot of trains, it is good choice. In Open Rails you have thousands of free rolling stock.
In other games, you have to spend houndreds of dollars for additional trains.

But if you want easy to use game to drive with him one train in beatifull graphics, beter go and buy TS2018 or TSW.

[markyisri]

Sorry, I believe my sentence was unclear.

I mean that there are limited new Open Rails AND MSTS releases that are US content.