Can I install the Feather River Route in the Train Simulations Net folder?

[Guest]

I already have all of the routes available for purchase on Train Simulations Net like SP Shasta, Mullan Pass etc. By default, they install to the C:/TrainSimulations folder.
I was wondering that if I purchase the Feather River Route available in the Store, can I install it in the existing TrainSimulations folder, since I have all of the consists and locos there?
If not, then what particular steps would I have to follow?

[derekmorton]

NO.
I assume that you do not have MSTS?
If so, you need to set up an MSTS mini route and put the Feather river in there.

Mini route-> https://www.elvastower.com/forums/in...p-mini-routes/

[llanning08]

New OR designed routes from TrainSimulations do not play well with older MSTS routes. Mixing the routes will cause real problems requiring deleting and reinstalling all your routes. The problems resulting have been noted in previous help requests in Trainsim forums, save yourself a a lot of headaches and rework. Just don't do it!

That said, you can mix MSTS and OR train stock and consists in the Trainset folder. Installing NAVS items works but can be tricky for the novice.

[geepster775]

At least someone asked before blindly combining and resulting in something very polluting happening to their hard drive.

That's progress, I guess.....

I really don't understand why it is so hard for so many long-time users to wrap their heads around the fact that OR routes and content physics are different for a reason. And combining the two content genres out of a desire to "run my MSTS engines everywhere" really defeats that purpose.

[dcarleton]

I'm inclined to respond like everyone else and say not to install Feather River into the Trainsimulations folder.

But that's not because it cannot be done. I keep all of my better quality routes together in the same folder, but doing so is never push-button simple. Let's use your Feather River question as an example.

Feather River uses Scale Rail exclusively. Trainsimulations routes use either xTracks which havwe been converted to DDS textures, or Scale Rail. No conflicts? Not quite. Feather River uses Scale Roads. Trainsimulations also uses Scale Roads. Same thing? Not always. Some of the Scale Roads shapes used on Feather River are mapped differently than the Scale Roads shapes used by Trainsimulations. You have to have the skills and patience to find the combination of shapes and textures that will work across all of your routes without damaging the character of any of them. Each route comes with its own road and track textures for a reason, or do we want them all to look alike?

And after doing that, there's more. The equipment that comes with Feather River is beautiful, but their physics (and sound sets) are nowhere near the capabilities of Open Rails. These can be upgraded, but it would be helpful to take a deep dive into the inner-workings of Open Rails physics first.

Anyone who is up to the task of learning how to upgrade the best of the MSTS content for Open Rails should be encouraged to do so. But if the question is "Can I install XYZ into Trainsimulations?" the answer will always be to not do that.

I install all new Trainsimulations content into the Trainsimulations folder. If I want to use that content on other routes, I check for any compatibility issues before moving it over. I do not keep anything else in the Trainsimulations folder. Of course, YMMV.

[eric]

If so, you need to set up an MSTS mini route and put the Feather river in there.

Not necessarily.

If you have a non-TrainSimulations content directory, it'll be fine there along with other MSTS era and ORTS era routes that don't use DDS track or road textures.

Truth is, this wouldn't be necessary if ORTS was smart enough to substitute to the highest available texture, favoring DDS but loading ACE if the DDS wasn't available. But nobody on the ORTS team seems to be willing to consider that.

[geepster775]

It was the mapping changes to the ScaleRail and ScaleRoads packages over the decade? in between Feather River and Sherman that today dictates the need for quarantine just as much as the DDS issue.

[CSRX]

I have everything installed in the same folder. Then again I've gone through and updated all the road textures and what not to .DDS files.
I wasn't interested in have several "mini" installs with the same exact equipment placed in each folder to enjoy it. That's far too much cluttering of space.

[PerryPlatypus]

I have to agree with Geepster. For reasons unknown to most of us, the Feather River Route installation had many Scale Roads road shapes (and potentially some track shapes as well) that were "route-specific". A similar issue is present in the Facing Point Media Surfliner. It's not *just* an ACE vs DDS issue, it's the fact that in standard Scale Roads, shape XYZ.s may have completely different mapping and/or geometry than a shape with the same exact filename in Feather River or FPM Surfliner installers (this was, in my opinion, a pretty serious oversight in the early days of ScaleRails/Roads to have multiple versions of the same-filename global shapes).

A similar incongruency exists within the Scale Rail concrete tie shapes. For whatever reason, there are "low detail" _c profile shapes that do not have the "depressed centers" of the concrete ties in the shape, and then there is also an entire version of the concrete tie shapes that *do* have the depressed centers, and slightly different mapping, yet unfortunately the two sets of _c shapes use identical filenames, therefore you can't mixed and match routes within the same installation that use both types without creating some visual anomalies. In an ideal world, we could have a new Global TSection file that has *both* sets of ScaleRail concrete tie shapes in it, but alas...