I’m very excited to announce a new Rail Simulator Forum opening today which is intended to be like the bigger Train-Sim and UK-TrainSim venues. As I write, the forum is ready and operational. The main website is in the process of being built and when that is done, a dedicated Rail Simulator library will begin next. I hope those of you who have developed for Rail Simulator will take advantage of the new library. More details of the library will be forthcoming when I have more to add.

I approached Ed Hawkins to administrate this new venue. Ed’s experience in website/forum/library development is already visible with his well-visited and frequented hawkdawg.com. With more than enough bandwidth and his overwhelming experience in this kind of venue, as well as his own interest in doing this kind of thing, I’m reassured that the foundation he creates will be a positive influence for those who are enthusiastic for working with Rail Simulator.

I’m excited for this venue for a couple of reasons. First, RS is a very doable sim and you can best learn it’s powerful features from those who have actual experience with it. Second, in that this will be a heavily moderated forum, I’ve invited RSDL to participate assuring them they will always be treated in good fashion. Third, RS is a growing community. Even my own sales here at All Aboard have been a pleasant surprise. Presently I am way over my “best-set” goals for the Rascal & Cottonwood. That there are many great screenshots of RS development, this brings us a chance to bring much of it under one “umbrella” so our community can grow more accustomed to RS more quickly.

Of course there are some stringent provisions to be aware of. As this is a Rail Simulator forum, only Rail Simulator will be discussed at this forum. There will be no off-topic forums or posts comparing one sim to another. As well, all manner of behavior will be adult like and that of your Sunday best. Registrations will be approved before posting can take place and if you’re a known troublemaker or known for bashing RS, your entry request will not be accepted. While this may seem to be for a minuscule few, our intentions is so that for those who post in this new venue, they can post freely without blind-sided attacks from those who would prefer to tear down rather than build a foundation for this new sim.

The new forum is here: Rail Sim America

Rich Garber

Good news Rich - registered and awaiting the "All Clear" - (I hope ).

Rod

You're cleared.


Rich

Now check this undesirable out

Membership applied for here as well;

Keeping fingers crossed - after the past few email with with you buddy I never really know where I stand with you. However, I will even say it publicly, I consider you a brilliant content creator, a legendary figure in the Train Sim Community, and someone I consider a friend. Whether or not the friendship aspect, is one sided lately seems to be a unsettling for me, but I have decided to let you attempt to remedy that if it is something you wish to bring back even.

As for the New forum, it sounds fantastic and I certainly wish to be a part of it if I am not deemed to precocious.

MFOS

M. Scott Harlan

Scott,

You're more than welcome to join! I have no idea why you just wrote what you did but email me and let's see if we can clear the air on what concerns you.

Rich

Hmmm, don't know anything about RS, maybe I should test the waters...

SkyRat

Be careful. Just dabble you toes and it will suck you in

Hey, you skallywags need to get on the ball! I registered last night, and have yet to see access. Do you guys not work weekends?

Cheers!
Marc

ZZZZZzzzzzzzz ehh, what's that sonny?

Just itchin' to get that big banner in your sig, ain'tcha?

Sky Rat - You have a PM.

Gotta' beat the drum!

Cheers!
Marc

:S

I still did not get an "add" clearance Rich.

I thought you said it would be fine?

MFOS

MFOS - You have a PM.

Just joined up and I'm waiting and anticipating getting added. I'm finally starting to learn RS seriously and I can see I'm going to need all the help I can get.

I just checked and it looks like you still need to reply to the verification email.
See this post for more info.

http://railsimamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29

Some folks may not be receiving the confirmation, Ed (FWIW, I never received mine either). Do you happen to know whether the server RSA sits on is on a black list?

Cheers!
Marc

I just got a couple of emails bounced back from sbcglobal stating email from the server was blocked, after sending a few emails successfully in the past few days.
Apparently AT&T just started this today. A request to be removed from the blocked list has bent sent to AT&T and am waiting for a reply.
No other emails have been bounced out of the 100+ that have gone out, however - some folks that have completed the registration have commented that they get emails notifying them of PM's but they didn't get the verification email.
I have since changed the email subject from 'Email Verification' to 'Rail Sim America Forum Registration' thinking that maybe the previous subject might throw up a red light at some ISP's.

I do know that I've had problems with AT&T in the past. They seem to periodically add my server to a block list. It's happened about 4 times in the past year.

I'm in communication with the server people about this matter today and will hopefully have something resolved soon.

Edit 1: It's also a factor that some folks aren't aware that their ISP has spam/junk folders set up that catch stuff before it ever gets downloaded to their email program on their system.

BTW Marc. The reason you never got the email verification email is because it was never sent to you. I knew who you were.
There's been a couple others that was never sent that email also.

Edit 1: Bill Alder finally got his, and replied and is now a bonafide member.
Still haven't got a reply to the PM I sent MFOS though.

Yeah Marc! We know who you are. The WANTED posters in post offices all around the country are a dead giveaway.



Rich

Just an FYI, I didn't get one either. However, a day or so after I registered, I clicked on the 'send registration email again' button and got it right away. The first one must be floating out there in the ether.

For the record, I wasn't complaining that I hadn't received a reply yet. And Yes I have now received the aforementioned e-mails and have been happily posting away for much of the day now. Love the site.

Rare to see my name these Days

Hawk: I followed your suggestion and found your email in the spam filter. I had it sent through, I thought I followed through on it - I clicked on it and the web page opened . But, It is True that I still can't Log on. I would also like to apologize for not getting back to you sooner, after you were so prompt in trying to sort me out. I was just partly shocked that it was you rather than Rich, and then it was Hawk 1 and not Hawk 2 ( We've had that mixup before if you remember). Anyways, your emails should be cleared now, and I'm going to go 2Xcheck to see if I can log on, but I am pretty sure I still can't.

MFOS

Scott, Ed administers the site, it was only my idea to start it. You may recall from the first post in the thread...

"I approached Ed Hawkins to administrate this new venue. Ed’s experience in website/forum/library development is already visible with his well-visited and frequented hawkdawg.com. With more than enough bandwidth and his overwhelming experience in this kind of venue, as well as his own interest in doing this kind of thing, I’m reassured that the foundation he creates will be a positive influence for those who are enthusiastic for working with Rail Simulator."

All issues in regards to the functioning of the forums are addressed by Ed. They just pay me to look pretty. Thanks!

Rich

MFOS - You'll have to register again. I deleted your registration when I didn't hear back from you.

Hawk 1? Hawk 2? Not sure what you're talking about.

Hawk: No problem on both accounts. Although just in case you are a little curious, the Hawk1 and Hawk2 reference had to do with a question I asked YOU over at "The place which shall not be named", or elsewhere, believing you to be the Hawk who had created (Re-created?) the Whitefish route ( particuarly Whitefish4 which I was very high on at the time). Your reply at the mistaken identity was quite amusing, and I have always remember the incident afterwards. It comes as NO surprise Rich would have you oversee the Forum, you are a excellent choice.

Rich: Are you going to respond to my last private message?

MFOS

Ah yes! The old Whitefish_Hawk and Hawk confusion scenario. Got that many times.
Although I don't recall my specific response to you, I did run into that problem more than once. A lot more than once.

MFOS - You have another PM.

Hi Rich & Hawk. Just registered and looking forward to the new board. Must admit I was quite surprised to see a RS route done by Rich as he had quite the negative view towards this sim when it first came out. I figured I might as well load it up again and see what improvements have been made. Glad to see they got the dynamics working. I've only run the intro activities for R&C so far but it looks great! I guess my one main beef left is when are they going to do some proper modeling of the light cones? I still can't figure out how something that was built into MSTS from day 1 would of been excluded from a new sim 7 years later???

Rob

Two routes

One out, Rascal & Cottonwood, another to come, Colton & Northern and more in the planning maybe...

Rod

Welcome aboard!

You're right, I was fairly down on RS but I did say in my defense that I felt it was an unfinished sim and thought we all be better off waiting til after it was patched to pass judgement on it. I gave up on it fairly quickly because I saw a better future in MSTS with MSTS2 coming than I did with Rail Simulator. I saw what Jim was doing and he made good points. From a payware person's perspective I felt the majority would stick with MSTS.

But by August another issue was also raising it's ugly head. MSTS sales were down significantly and staying down. I did not look to RS to save my bacon. It wasn't even on the radar. Instead I thought the best thing to do was make a new market so I started advertising in Model Railrooader magazine.

As happenchance happens, I noted 3DTrains posting about RS when they had a MSTS route nearly done. I asked why and in that conversation a point was made that I could only too well empathize with. I saw it too in my EMRR route. We can't move forward any longer, only laterally.

What this means in MSTS jargon is because of the limitations of the sim itself, I have to plan a whole tile out in advance to include a couple of things, but it can't everything I can do. I tried to end-around the limitations by using bigger objects and more modular type objects. However, you can't produce enough modules and make them big enough to offset every issue the limitations the sim throws at you. Hence, a big dilemma. I would have to rebuild my whole library to accomodate the changing dynamics. Well, my job is building routes, not to perpetuate the libraries.

And it's not as ideal of a solution as it sounds. In fact, if the bar was raised again, I could end up revising the library all over again. If you will, our progression with the sim is not only a biggest asset, but it's our biggest liability as well. Think of it like a balloon. You squeeze on one end it bulges out someplace else. MSTS is like that. You can raise the bar somewhere, but you'll have to lower it somewhere as a consequence.

Now let's keep in mind that I'm not talking every day run of the mill routes here. Initially after Feather River was released and I came back to full time production from my music venture I thought Feather River was my competition. But when I saw some of the Cajon screenshots from Rail Simulator, I determined back then, there was the new competition.

I'm off on a huge explanation to say, if you ain't satisfied enough with the routes people are putting out with MSTS then there's only one way to go. To something new. And while there are enough issues with RS in physics and documentation, it clearly is a good foundation for that next step.

To me, if you want to know the most about an issue, you go to the people who deal with it every day. I deal with route building every day and for years now and I can't say enough how much route building in RS has made my life easier. And with no loss of quality either. In fact I am much more satisfied with my routes for RS than my MSTS routes. I am no longer constrained and bound by my beloved MSTS. Sure, MSTS has been very good to me. But my loyalities is to the hobby of railroading, not to any particular sim. There's no hometeam sim for me. What allows me to create the "what I want to do" is my best friend.

Let me put this in non-developer terms. I am able now to produce $50-$60 routes for $15. Not because there aren't the customers if you think that's the reason. No, because it's just easier to create super duper detailed high quality routes in RS and in much less time.

The sky is the limit, again. With MSTS we didn't even know if there was going to be a sky. We made it ourselves through years of experimentation. But we don't have access to the core code to change basic issues which dramatically effect our doability with the sim. RS is new. So it should be able to do more. And it does. It has its weaknesses. But those can and will be overcome. And I have no doubt in time that the many who are reluctant to embrace the sim now will inevitably see improvements that they will climb aboard then.

But it wasn't easy starting over, but it wasn't hard either. The big trick is to forget you already can do something and see yourself as new and just start over. That worked for me.

Rich

Yeah, I was just looking at some of the screenshots for Colton & Northern. Looks great.

Rob