DEM Modules, DEMEX, & VTBUILDER

[landnrailroader]

I discovered something today as I was adding a few more tiles to a route. When I loaded one DEM module into VTBUILDER it loaded find but would not export to a geotiff in order to get rid of whatever change USGS has made. So I checked the directory and it showed to be readonly, so I fixed that to wide open write and tried again. This time it saved to geotiff okay and so I thought, ahah, the issue is directory protection. So for the next file, I made sure the export directory was wide open write and processed it. But Egad, the export failed, so without doing anything to the directory, I deleted the bad file (in VTBUILDER it shows all black) and processed again, and this second time it went fine. As I had 6 files to process, I found that with all of the next 4, there was failure on the first export. After deleting the bad file, but doing nothing to the directory, the 2nd export went fine. Go figure?

I wonder if someone that is smarter, or maybe just younger, than I, could come up with a reasonably fool proof process to make DEMEX think there is a MSTS install on a Win-11, 64bit system, so that I would not need to run DEMEX on an ancient XP machine. VTBUILDER works fine but it does not have any connection to MSTS.

Jerry Sullivan (I'm 86 but still did a docent run on the C&TSRR on Sept. 28.)

[superheatedsteam]

Have a look in the file library here at trainsim.com for the ORTS / MSTS Utility -- MSTS_Swap v3.0 (File ID 36732).

This tool can add and make changes to the registry for a dummy MSTS installation for those programs that need MSTS registry information to function.

Cheers,

Marek.

[landnrailroader]

Marek,

After a lot of defining the search, I found it, but I am afraid of these programs that make registry entries and then have all sorts of warnings about it, so I'll just keep using my ancient XP machine until it gives out, or I might try installling MSTS on my Win-11 machine using the tutorials & instructions that have recently come out. Similiar ones worked well on my Win-7 installation.

Jerry

[superheatedsteam]

Hi Jerry,

Fair enough, there are always disclaimers when it comes to making changes to the registry as the registry is the database that the operating system depends on to function correctly.

That being said Gerald Saunders AKA Slimmerman12 who wrote this application has written a number of utilities for MSTS/OR over the years and I have used some of these utilities myself, without issue.

Though I trust this tool, to verify, I downloaded it, installed it and monitored what it did during runtime.

On loading, the program did read the expected location in the registry where MSTS would have written it's own entries when it was installed. It did not find those entries because I do not have MSTS installed on my computer.

The program told me MSTS was not installed so I browsed and chose to make D:\Games\Trainsim my 'MSTS' installation directory. The program did write into the registry the information required to spoof other programs that MSTS was installed in that folder on my computer.

From a “security” perspective, the program did not perform any network or internet access activity or create any new processes except for the registry editor process which is needed to change the registry values.

I don't expect to allay your concerns, just pointing out to others that may read this, that this program does just what it claims to do.

Cheers,

Marek.

[rdayt]

From the MSTS_Swap readme. It will NOT work under Windows XP due to the use of Net Framework v4.5.

Randy

[landnrailroader]

My only reference to Win-XP is that I have it installed, along with MSTS and DEMEX on a secondary PC which is so old, I don't have it connect to the internet. So the real time consumere is transferring files from Win-11 to the XP machine or vice-verser. I use thumb drives to do that which is SLOW but accurate.

Jerry

[Coonskin]

My only reference to Win-XP is that I have it installed, along with MSTS and DEMEX on a secondary PC which is so old, I don't have it connect to the internet. So the real time consumere is transferring files from Win-11 to the XP machine or vice-verser. I use thumb drives to do that which is SLOW but accurate.

Jerry

That is what I have to do: Work on an ancient XP machine, the copy/transfer a working copy of the route to my Win7 machine to see how it looks on a better machine.

Andre