An open question for Trainsimulations..

[lvlender]

Preface:
Trainsimulations is generously offering a free route called the ORTS MACTIER ROUTE. There is a payware set of engines/rolling stock that can be optionally purchased with the route. I searched Transim.com for activities useable with the above freeware route. Search returns refer to Mactier Route ver.1.5. Most call for 'SLI CPR Mactier Evolution Trainsets'.

Questions...

• Is the Trainsimulations CP MACTIER TRAINSETS ($14.99) on the current website the same set as the prior 'SLI CPR Mactier Evolution trainsets'?
• Do you think Trainsim,com activities that refer to Mactier Route ver1.5 will run on the current freeeware route?

[slipperman]

Hi Kevin,
First question : As it's in the "Archived Products" section of the website, I don't see any reason why there would be any difference, except, maybe, some rolling stock may have been modified to run under Open Rails.

Second question : The last version of the Mactier route was 1.5 - it IS available from this site as file ID 75988, with an update to v1.5.3, at file ID 78129. I don't know exactly which version is available from trainsimulations but it is marked 'ORTS' so might contain some adjustments for that sim.

Cheers,
Ged

[SD40-2]

Is the Trainsimulations CP MACTIER TRAINSETS ($14.99) on the current website the same set as the prior 'SLI CPR Mactier Evolution trainsets'?[/SIZE]

No, the Mactier Evolution Trainset was a separate addon to the main Mactier set.

But SLI, later TS, folded it into the main CP Mactier Sets, so if you buy that, you get both the main Mactier set and the expansion pack.

So, no, they're not the same set, but yes, it is included with that set.

[uli2]

Hi,

as for your second question: I assume that the route available from Trainsimulations is based on v1.5.3 since for example it has the animated switchstands that were introduced with v1.5.3. As far as I know the track layout was not changed from v1.5 to v1.5.3, so all Mactier activities from Trainsim.com should run without producing any errors on v1.5 or v1.5.3 of the route from the Trainsim.com database and on the route available from Trainsimulations. However, since most of these activities were written for MSTS there is no guarantee that they will work 100% as intended under ORTS.

An important "technical" difference introduced by Trainsimulations is that all textures of the route were changed to .dds format and in addition the route's installer will overwrite the track shapes in GLOBAL\SHAPES to equivalent shapes that rely on the presence of textures in .dds format. This change will affect all routes in the same installation as the TS version of the Mactier route. The route from TS should therefore not be installed into an existing MSTS installation with older routes that do not have the track textures in .dds format.

Cheers,
Uli

[eric]

Point of order. This route should not be installed in a trainsimulations.net folder because it doesn't use DDS... likewise for older routes such as the Green River and Seligman. Their installers are smart enough to know which folder it should go into.

The Mactier route was created by somebody else and made available via their website as a way to help sell the train sets.

[R. Steele]

..and to check if your installed version is 1.5.3 you should have installed a "Details.ace" file that looks like this >>>

MacTier Ver1.5.3.jpg

[lvlender]

Point of order. This route should not be installed in a trainsimulations.net folder because it doesn't use DDS... likewise for older routes such as the Green River and Seligman. Their installers are smart enough to know which folder it should go into.

The Mactier route was created by somebody else and made available via their website as a way to help sell the train sets.

Hello eric.. and all other posters,

Good point Eric, the Trainsimulations Mactier installer program sniffed out the dedicated directory where I had other Trainsimulations routes installed. It correctly installed Mactier. Quite impressive, actually.

Thanks Eric, I was totally unaware (as were others) that the Mactier Route, available on the Trainsim.com website, IS NOT the same freeware route available on the Trainsimulations.com website. That begs a restating the question…

Will Mactier ver.1.5 activities available on Trainsim.com also run on the Trainsimulations.com version. My guess is no. Eric, would you comment?

In response to SD40-2, comments,.. based upon your answer I will be buying the Trainsimulations CP MACTIER TRAINSETS ($14.99). Thanks for the explanation what I can expect to find in the payware set.

So it seems for now I have a source for the old SLI CPR Mactier Evolution trainset but, maybe, the vote is out on activities to run on the Trainsimulations.com version of the route.

[tarrant75]

The track and interactives didn't change. The only REAL change was to the terrtex, so you SHOULD be fine

[oper190]

I had both versions of the Route, and all activities worked on both, so I now only have one MacTier Route installed, the freeware version from here, and will be applying the update to ver. 1.5.3

[eric]

Where did you get the idea that it was a different version?

As already mentioned by others, what's in the library is the same as what's offered on Trainsimulations.net website.

Ted Kocyla created the route. Version 1.5 is version 1.5... regardless where you download it. The activities will be fine.

[oper190]

For me the question was that the Route here is listed as an MSTS Route and the TS version is listed as requires OR - so thought there might be some differences, but didn't find any, activity wise so only using one now.

[CSRX]

Pretty positive the one on TS has been updated with some textures and terrtex, compared to the one here in the library.

Could be wrong, but as noted by a TS member above, it's been stated, so guess it is different after all, while the track work remains the same and a activities should still work regardless...

[lvlender]

Pretty positive the one on TS has been updated with some textures and terrtex, compared to the one here in the library.

Could be wrong, but as noted by a TS member above, it's been stated, so guess it is different after all, while the track work remains the same and a activities should still work regardless...

Thanks to all who posted. It's great to see lively discussions on the forum. So concensus is that activities on Trainsim.com will work okay on the Trainsimulations.com freeware offering. That's great 😄

[niknak]

Well I just couldn't stand the suspense any longer so I downloaded the 1st Mactier act I found on here which is CP111 and ran it on the TrainSimulations free route. I'm happy to report it appears to work perfectly so far so I'm assuming the other activities in the files here will work equally well.

[eric]

Thanks for taking one for the team.

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