Disappearing into the night without a whimper

[dmrick]

I just went to the OpenRails site to leave a message for the people over there, and their "leave a message" isn't functioning...

Here's a cut-and-paste of what I wanted to say. How 'bout replying to this with your opinion. Add your 2 cents... that's not a lot of money to try and save a hobby...

"Just want all of your people's opinion on something. I started working on the Siskiyou Route in 2009... ten years ago and being 100% disabled from Vietnam I could spend 12 to 16 hours a day 7 days a week working on it. The last track section was laid in December of 2011... which shows how much work it takes. Anyhow, based on membership on /Domain Expired/ and from what I'm seeing happening on Commercial sites, and not seeing any updates other than bug fixes with OpenRails... I'm wondering if the train-sim hobby is on its way out. I would think that you people could be creative enough to do things to inspire more people to get on board. In my opinion making OpenRails free (just like the Siskiyou route is) was a mistake in that had it been something like $29.95 it could have been on places like Amazon getting exposure. Outfits that built commercial routes and wagons and engines could also have gotten onto Amazon... It's the last hour and someone needs to do something... Don't just be a bunch of "Bill Gates" and toss in the towel. Get off your duffs and do something!"

[Vince]

There has been several "official" updates to Open Rails currently at 1.3.1-20-gc19b5fe6.

Bug fixes as you say come along quite often and sometimes include neat new things like working turntables.

Can a product be offered for free on Amazon?

I love Open Rails because it's a community masterpiece! Better than MSTS ever was and now a new editor too!
Got me building again without the horrible bugs of MSTS and it accepts all the community's stuff. . . .

Yes, some tweaking needed to existng stock but not half the troubles we had getting things to run correctly on Bill Gates' and KUJU's buggy but still a beginning platform.
After proper adjustments to stock are made activities function flawlessly in Open Rails.
Don't go by membership in a specialized site such as yours.
The trainsim community isn't exactly a mass market. It's a hobby. We share for the joy of modelling. profit? Pah!

thanks for your service

vince
RA12693415
63-66

[dmrick]

Hi Vince... You sound like I was running down OpenRails or something. By no way was I doing that. OpenRails is the greatest thing since peanut butter... I simply looked at the "What's new" and most of what I saw were but fixes. If rumors are indeed wrong and people are still aggressively writing new code then I have to say that that's really wonderful. I also was not basing my observations on just my own "specialized site"... It was based on conversations with people who've been doing train-sim stuff for years. I made a point to look at the sites that for years have produced routes as well as engines and that sort of stuff. I did this just yesterday. It wouldn't be good to name them, but on what I consider to be the top 4 sites I found only one that has put up anything new in over a year. I'm not saying that I'm right... I'm just saying what I have observed based on the many times that I visit these sites.

Instead of talking about what we can do to create more interest you seem to be saying that the "hobby" is doing great. If that's true then I'll feel much better about things.

In reference to my statement about Amazon... No, I've never seen anything on Amazon for free, which is exactly the point that I was making. Right now there are many people who don't even know a thing about OpenRails. They might get lucky and come across it in a Google search, but it doesn't get the sort of exposure it would have got had it been put on Amazon. The point I was making was that if it had been offered on Amazon for a price that people could easily afford it would have gotten perhaps millions of people seeing it. Again I'm only stating an opinion.

I AM NOT trying to run down the hobby... I'm trying to get more people to join. I'm sorry if you felt it was something other than that.

Thanks.

[cjakeman]

I just went to the OpenRails site to leave a message for the people over there, and their "leave a message" isn't functioning...

Thanks for pointing this out, Dale.

I'll get it fixed.

[seagoon]

Here's a cut-and-paste of what I wanted to say. How 'bout replying to this with your opinion. Add your 2 cents... that's not a lot of money to try and save a hobby...

No, neither OR nor the virtual hobby are on their way out the door.

Just look at what is available today in comparison to 2001, when MSTS appeared; we have the original, then OR, we have Trainz (in its umpteenth iteration), and Railworks/Train Simulator 20XX, Run 8 and appearing out of left field, Diesel Railcar Simulator (DCS) and a couple of sims, including Zusi, from Europe.

Open Rails is going from strength-to-strength, being continually improved.

[R. Steele]

The waveform of this hobby...and to be honest practically everything humans have devised, use or have happen to them ( including their own emotions and attitudes)...best not to get too worked up about any specific point on the curve.

It is the time arrow that marks the real journey.

sinewave.png

Regards, Gerry

[burgerbern]

Dale, Its Open Rails that has kept me here, its my primary simulator and i am still purchasing new stuff and downloading repaints etc, i love your route especially the section where all the trees are (last update), really shows its potential there very believable, and gives a good idea of what it can become.

[NW 2156]

OpenRails is in the midst of changing platforms from XNA to Monogame. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that isn't seen by everyone. The real problem though is the active code writers at this point is down to just a couple. ORTS needs new blood and desperately.

Robert

[seagoon]

The real problem though is the active code writers at this point is down to just a couple. ORTS needs new blood and desperately.

I can read and send CW (Morse Code, to the uninitiated) at 40 wpm, if that's any good.

[cjakeman]

I'll get it fixed.

The Contact Us form is working again and I received a message this morning about Blender and Open Rails.

[cjakeman]

OpenRails is in the midst of changing platforms from XNA to Monogame. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that isn't seen by everyone. The real problem though is the active code writers at this point is down to just a couple. ORTS needs new blood and desperately.

These days, most volunteer coders use Git for their source code control (rather than the older SVN, CVS etc.), find projects to work on through GitHub or websites like www.firsttimersonly.com and www.up-for-grabs.net

You have to be using Git nowadays to attract new coders else the barriers are just too high.

The good news is that the Open Rails project has just moved from the old SVN onto Git source code control and is now hosted at GitHub, so this should make a significant difference.

[scottb613]

I can read and send CW (Morse Code, to the uninitiated) at 40 wpm, if that's any good.

. . . - - - . . .

About the extent of my Morse - LOL.

Regards,
Scott


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[seagoon]

. . . - - - . . .

About the extent of my Morse - LOL.

Aaaah! A Heisler 3-0-3, Scott. (Keeping it on topic ).

[scottb613]

Aaaah! A Heisler 3-0-3, Scott. (Keeping it on topic ).

LOL...

Regards,
Scott

[dmrick]

As long as we're off topic and talking code...

Who can tell me about this one... "diddi-dum-dum-diddi"?

Or perhaps... "di-dah-di-dah-dit"?