Swissie
10-21-2007, 08:50 AM
Dear collegues,
One of the most popular features of MSTS is that it allows users to virtually travel in the fourth dimension: Time. Not only in the form of historic equipment that MSTS 1 brought back to a virtual life, but also in the form of routes - default, freeware & payware add-ons - that were themed & modelled to represent a by-gone era of the 1900s, 1970s, 1880s, 1920s, 1950s... You name it.
As far as MSTS 1 default is concerned, 2 out of 6 routes modelled a by-gone era. With freeware and payware add-ons, I'd say that at least half if not 2/3 of all routes released modell another era than our present days - think of Donner Pass by 3DTrainstuff, the narrow gauge circle routes out of Denver created by various authors, the EMD F3/F7 pro-modells by Marc, the A&O sub by VScale, the whole range of turn-of-the-century 1900s steam routes from Northern Italy over at Il-Deposito, and many more things.
This seems to indicate that many content producers have a certain flair for re-creating routes and equipment long-gone, to "re-surrect" something they remember from their younger days pixel by pixel (to quote one member's banner).
MSTS X uses a totally new concept that sounds fantastic: "Imagine a whole world of rails". The way it is basically understood now, the incorporated data will let simmers travel any rail line the developers found data for. There will now longer be isolated routes, "ooperations islands" so-to-say, but one world-wide grid of railway routes. Prototypically, a locomotive would always be confined to a certain aera within which it operates, with different technical specifications, track gauges, clearances, weight-per-axle, insurance and certification issues, varying overhead voltages etc. creating boundaries which a locomotive in the real world will not be able to cross. In the sim, many of us are enjoying the opportunity to run their favourite locomotive across routes in all five contintents...
However, on second thought, I wonder how th concept of a "whole world of rails" will cope with different eras being modelled - as we can probably assume that content creators will keep their preference for re-creating earlier eras over building contemporary stuff?
Now, in the "whole world of rails", what is going to happen if I want to modell and travel a 1900s steam route in Northern Italy, for example? How will it fit into the "system"? I certainly do not want to have my steam-era tracks or my horse-drawn carriage roads suddenly merge into a 300kph electrified mainline or a 6-lane freeway when I approach a town which is accidentally modelled in a 21st century era by someone else.
So-far, I haven't heard a word on the question whether the "whole world of rails" concept will allow me to build/detail a route in a specific era, without
a) interfering with other versions of the same route modelled in another era, and without
b) creating problems of "overlapping" with other routes not present in the era I modell (example: If there was a new bridge for High Speed trains was built in 2000, I do not want to see this bridge spanning the valley when running through it with a 1900s steam train in a 1900s scenery).
As including a different set of data for creating "a whole world of rails" in different era would quickly inflate the size of the simulator beyond any reasonable limits, I do silently hope that the MSTS X will also have a feature that allows to isolate selected parts of this "whole world" into a microcosmos of its own, so that one can create & modify different versions of one and the same route as stand-alone "islands" that do not interfere with the original "world of rails" - else we'd be in for a lot of trouble with different versions of the same geographical era colliding with each other, overwriting each other in a fatal way.
Lukas a.k.a Swissie
One of the most popular features of MSTS is that it allows users to virtually travel in the fourth dimension: Time. Not only in the form of historic equipment that MSTS 1 brought back to a virtual life, but also in the form of routes - default, freeware & payware add-ons - that were themed & modelled to represent a by-gone era of the 1900s, 1970s, 1880s, 1920s, 1950s... You name it.
As far as MSTS 1 default is concerned, 2 out of 6 routes modelled a by-gone era. With freeware and payware add-ons, I'd say that at least half if not 2/3 of all routes released modell another era than our present days - think of Donner Pass by 3DTrainstuff, the narrow gauge circle routes out of Denver created by various authors, the EMD F3/F7 pro-modells by Marc, the A&O sub by VScale, the whole range of turn-of-the-century 1900s steam routes from Northern Italy over at Il-Deposito, and many more things.
This seems to indicate that many content producers have a certain flair for re-creating routes and equipment long-gone, to "re-surrect" something they remember from their younger days pixel by pixel (to quote one member's banner).
MSTS X uses a totally new concept that sounds fantastic: "Imagine a whole world of rails". The way it is basically understood now, the incorporated data will let simmers travel any rail line the developers found data for. There will now longer be isolated routes, "ooperations islands" so-to-say, but one world-wide grid of railway routes. Prototypically, a locomotive would always be confined to a certain aera within which it operates, with different technical specifications, track gauges, clearances, weight-per-axle, insurance and certification issues, varying overhead voltages etc. creating boundaries which a locomotive in the real world will not be able to cross. In the sim, many of us are enjoying the opportunity to run their favourite locomotive across routes in all five contintents...
However, on second thought, I wonder how th concept of a "whole world of rails" will cope with different eras being modelled - as we can probably assume that content creators will keep their preference for re-creating earlier eras over building contemporary stuff?
Now, in the "whole world of rails", what is going to happen if I want to modell and travel a 1900s steam route in Northern Italy, for example? How will it fit into the "system"? I certainly do not want to have my steam-era tracks or my horse-drawn carriage roads suddenly merge into a 300kph electrified mainline or a 6-lane freeway when I approach a town which is accidentally modelled in a 21st century era by someone else.
So-far, I haven't heard a word on the question whether the "whole world of rails" concept will allow me to build/detail a route in a specific era, without
a) interfering with other versions of the same route modelled in another era, and without
b) creating problems of "overlapping" with other routes not present in the era I modell (example: If there was a new bridge for High Speed trains was built in 2000, I do not want to see this bridge spanning the valley when running through it with a 1900s steam train in a 1900s scenery).
As including a different set of data for creating "a whole world of rails" in different era would quickly inflate the size of the simulator beyond any reasonable limits, I do silently hope that the MSTS X will also have a feature that allows to isolate selected parts of this "whole world" into a microcosmos of its own, so that one can create & modify different versions of one and the same route as stand-alone "islands" that do not interfere with the original "world of rails" - else we'd be in for a lot of trouble with different versions of the same geographical era colliding with each other, overwriting each other in a fatal way.
Lukas a.k.a Swissie