RailSimulator.com have released the source files for all signalling provided with RailWorks. Check out the official Signalling Guide at the RailWorks Wiki. These source files provide creators with direct access to default signalling functionality in RailWorks, allowing greater understanding and insight to develop new and exciting features.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Source for Signals
The following artical was written by an RS.com Team member on railsimulator.com
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Successfull forum?
I have been asked a Question by "Northern156" in a PM on RWTS and he writes:
Hi Dave,
I'm just wondering if you could give me some advice on how to "fire up" my forum (to make it more popular, and to get more posts etc)
Hope you can help,
Cheers, Sean
Well Sean, Its certainly something that does not happen overnight.
When i started The Train Sim / Zone Reloaded I set up the forum first made sure i had minimal sections to start with, mainly the important sections like help, screenshots & Downloads.
Then i wrote out a few posts mainly a welcome post welcoming everyone and then forum rules. (make sure these are st up as cleanly and as politely as possible. The last thing someone will want is to read six paragraphs about 1 rule.
Observation, When i thought the site was ready, i observed the RailSimulator.com forums, to see who was knowledgeable. Basherz was the most knowledgeable person who was not on the Developer team. He kindly offered me help with a problem i had with my PC got me up and running with RailSimulator. once we knew each other a bit better i invited him to become an admin on the forum to offer help.
Now your team: you should make sure you can trust them to be helpful and step into problems and brake up fights, you need a stable team, so if two arch enemy's are on your team that's bound to explode in public sections, but importantly members can sense if there is tension between members of staff, and usually play on it to provoke a fight.
But also you need to make sure you don't have a member of the team who will "upset the applecart" when something happens that they do not like, For example you know what happened with a certain member of my site caused so much grief i ended up shutting up shop.
once i had cooled down i came to RSTS as a member, and worked my way up the ranks.
So first off, don't add Staff willy nilly so that staff out number members, that is a big PUT OFF and some may see it as power hungry and will not stay. Start of with just yourself advertise the site in a way that is constructive and obeys the rules of each individual place.
Whilst adding mates in your forum as staff may be good, then be very careful, sometimes the two do not mix. see if they join, watch their progress and how the treat others as a member, if they boss people around as a member its a clear sign they'll abuse their role of power.
Your behaviour on other sites also contributes to weather or not people think its a cool idea to try your forum, If you post gunk all the time and have hardly anything constructive posted they will pick up on that and think your site will be the same. The same goes for other staff members, you must remember to compose yourself in a polite and friendly manor and not heat any debates that may be on the verge of moderator action.
Don't bad mouth other sites, unless you have the proof to back up why the site is bad, then leave the subject in private.
Airing "dirty washing" in public is a no no, so again keep any disputes in private, between you and the person involved.
Content - now content is a touchy subject sometimes, and using the same system as another site may seem good, but ideally write it out in your own style, or it will look like you just couldn't be bothered to put the effort into the site.
work with content developers closely and give them a little more freedom, for example RWTS now gives out those developers with 5+ downloads access to a special area where they can ask for managers to put work up directly without it being checked first. Ideally we'd love to give our trusted developers the ability to add their content themselves, however, this can be risky and because of the Way our system works, means we can not.
Encourage the first timers and guide them, the more content developers you have the better, Also if you don't have an answer don't be touchy about sending them to somewhere that can, after all we all want to share what each other have that you don't. that's the meaning of Community, we all work as 1 big family to help those in need.
Don't be afraid to say thank you or ask members to help, at the end of the day a true member will help to the maximum of their ability to help you but remember RESPECT and thank them.
build up a reputation, and then build on what suggestions are made. so a suggestions thread is a good idea too.
Also consult decisions as a team, that's the whole point they are there, and if you need advice you can consult your team...
So key points:
:- Minimal Sections to start with (if possible try and make sections rank accessible).
:- Respect your team members and members.
:- Don't have to many staff to start off with, too many staff = people running away.
:- Work with other websites we are not at war, so why treat it as if it was a top secrete?
:- Behave as you would expect your members to behave on your site.
:- post constructive posts on your forum as well as other forums, the more you contribute the more you learn and knowledge is a good thing to have as a site owner.
:- Design - if the site is hard to read by you, what about members who have disabilities? make it easy to read and easy to find important items.
:- As much as possible get your members involved :- ask thier opinion if you plan to change somthing, see if they agree or not.
:- never force a member of another site to join yours, you'll come across as pushy and no one likes to be forced to join a website because a member of the team on that site gets on their nerves.
I think that will do Sean, if you follow what is said in this post you will start to hopefully see improvements, but remember don't give up, one day it will work!.
Hi Dave,
I'm just wondering if you could give me some advice on how to "fire up" my forum (to make it more popular, and to get more posts etc)
Hope you can help,
Cheers, Sean
Well Sean, Its certainly something that does not happen overnight.
When i started The Train Sim / Zone Reloaded I set up the forum first made sure i had minimal sections to start with, mainly the important sections like help, screenshots & Downloads.
Then i wrote out a few posts mainly a welcome post welcoming everyone and then forum rules. (make sure these are st up as cleanly and as politely as possible. The last thing someone will want is to read six paragraphs about 1 rule.
Observation, When i thought the site was ready, i observed the RailSimulator.com forums, to see who was knowledgeable. Basherz was the most knowledgeable person who was not on the Developer team. He kindly offered me help with a problem i had with my PC got me up and running with RailSimulator. once we knew each other a bit better i invited him to become an admin on the forum to offer help.
Now your team: you should make sure you can trust them to be helpful and step into problems and brake up fights, you need a stable team, so if two arch enemy's are on your team that's bound to explode in public sections, but importantly members can sense if there is tension between members of staff, and usually play on it to provoke a fight.
But also you need to make sure you don't have a member of the team who will "upset the applecart" when something happens that they do not like, For example you know what happened with a certain member of my site caused so much grief i ended up shutting up shop.
once i had cooled down i came to RSTS as a member, and worked my way up the ranks.
So first off, don't add Staff willy nilly so that staff out number members, that is a big PUT OFF and some may see it as power hungry and will not stay. Start of with just yourself advertise the site in a way that is constructive and obeys the rules of each individual place.
Whilst adding mates in your forum as staff may be good, then be very careful, sometimes the two do not mix. see if they join, watch their progress and how the treat others as a member, if they boss people around as a member its a clear sign they'll abuse their role of power.
Your behaviour on other sites also contributes to weather or not people think its a cool idea to try your forum, If you post gunk all the time and have hardly anything constructive posted they will pick up on that and think your site will be the same. The same goes for other staff members, you must remember to compose yourself in a polite and friendly manor and not heat any debates that may be on the verge of moderator action.
Don't bad mouth other sites, unless you have the proof to back up why the site is bad, then leave the subject in private.
Airing "dirty washing" in public is a no no, so again keep any disputes in private, between you and the person involved.
Content - now content is a touchy subject sometimes, and using the same system as another site may seem good, but ideally write it out in your own style, or it will look like you just couldn't be bothered to put the effort into the site.
work with content developers closely and give them a little more freedom, for example RWTS now gives out those developers with 5+ downloads access to a special area where they can ask for managers to put work up directly without it being checked first. Ideally we'd love to give our trusted developers the ability to add their content themselves, however, this can be risky and because of the Way our system works, means we can not.
Encourage the first timers and guide them, the more content developers you have the better, Also if you don't have an answer don't be touchy about sending them to somewhere that can, after all we all want to share what each other have that you don't. that's the meaning of Community, we all work as 1 big family to help those in need.
Don't be afraid to say thank you or ask members to help, at the end of the day a true member will help to the maximum of their ability to help you but remember RESPECT and thank them.
build up a reputation, and then build on what suggestions are made. so a suggestions thread is a good idea too.
Also consult decisions as a team, that's the whole point they are there, and if you need advice you can consult your team...
So key points:
:- Minimal Sections to start with (if possible try and make sections rank accessible).
:- Respect your team members and members.
:- Don't have to many staff to start off with, too many staff = people running away.
:- Work with other websites we are not at war, so why treat it as if it was a top secrete?
:- Behave as you would expect your members to behave on your site.
:- post constructive posts on your forum as well as other forums, the more you contribute the more you learn and knowledge is a good thing to have as a site owner.
:- Design - if the site is hard to read by you, what about members who have disabilities? make it easy to read and easy to find important items.
:- As much as possible get your members involved :- ask thier opinion if you plan to change somthing, see if they agree or not.
:- never force a member of another site to join yours, you'll come across as pushy and no one likes to be forced to join a website because a member of the team on that site gets on their nerves.
I think that will do Sean, if you follow what is said in this post you will start to hopefully see improvements, but remember don't give up, one day it will work!.
Whooopsie!
RWTS had to quickly disable the public access this afternoon after a Guest "Spam Attack" Luckily it was contained withing 1 section (thank goodness the whole forum was not visible to guests) But after a bit of work it was cleaned up.
Just to make clear this was nothing other than a spam attack from probably a program known as a spam bot. NO personal Details of ANY of our members would have been harvested, as all registered members are protected against Guests seeing your details.
The exploit was opened when we enabled guests the ability to post in the sections they can see, we had in mind that if any of our regular members ran into trouble and couldn't get in, they could post as a guest and ask for help. This however has now been revoked, closing the Exploit and will stop anything like this happening where we can't trace the source.
This, However dose not mean we are "Invincible, we are by no means safe, but we have security in place such as Captcha and a spam bot filter installed, but sometimes one may slip the net.
So, be vigilant on any forum you go to, sometimes it slips through the net of the staff of each forum and they need to be alerted asap.
ALL forums have a very clever feature that when used automatically sends a email to Moderators / Administrators of the forum with a link to the reported post, (normally used when abuse breaks out) but it should be used if you think a post is suspicious, especially if the person who posted it is not a regular poster.
But you should never really click any link you do not know, even if it is posted by someone who is trusted.
We thank all of our members on RWTS for the vigilance you have and continue reporting anything you feel is out of the ordinary.
Regards,
Dave.
Just to make clear this was nothing other than a spam attack from probably a program known as a spam bot. NO personal Details of ANY of our members would have been harvested, as all registered members are protected against Guests seeing your details.
The exploit was opened when we enabled guests the ability to post in the sections they can see, we had in mind that if any of our regular members ran into trouble and couldn't get in, they could post as a guest and ask for help. This however has now been revoked, closing the Exploit and will stop anything like this happening where we can't trace the source.
This, However dose not mean we are "Invincible, we are by no means safe, but we have security in place such as Captcha and a spam bot filter installed, but sometimes one may slip the net.
So, be vigilant on any forum you go to, sometimes it slips through the net of the staff of each forum and they need to be alerted asap.
ALL forums have a very clever feature that when used automatically sends a email to Moderators / Administrators of the forum with a link to the reported post, (normally used when abuse breaks out) but it should be used if you think a post is suspicious, especially if the person who posted it is not a regular poster.
But you should never really click any link you do not know, even if it is posted by someone who is trusted.
We thank all of our members on RWTS for the vigilance you have and continue reporting anything you feel is out of the ordinary.
Regards,
Dave.
JJA Autobalisters & 8F
Unfortunately Financial commitments means i am unable to purchase any current / future RW addons :-( (if the developers of products present & Future would like to donate i would happily receive and review ;) with great pleasure) .
Just Trains are known for the high quality of their products and i see no let downs from what i have seen from user generated screenshots and videos! so a big well done to JT! (http://justtrains.net)
8F
RSDL or RSC or RWDL lol (how many names can one company be known by? anyway the guys have released a new steam engine for you steam die hard fans! (myself i am a mallard fan) have released the class 8F steam locomotive, and form the screenshots i have seen another high quality product and shows RW is open to much higher quality and future features. (http://store.steampowered.com/app/24025/)
In other news Digital traction have released a steam locomotive too the class 2p (http://digitaltraction.net)
Thats all from me for now, feeling a bit under the weather, so i think an early night will help cure that!
Don't forget that RWTS (RSTS) Has a steam group (http://steamcommunity.com/groups/rstrainsim)
and you can find our website community @ http://rs-trainsim.co.uk/forums
Have fun!
Dave.
Just Trains are known for the high quality of their products and i see no let downs from what i have seen from user generated screenshots and videos! so a big well done to JT! (http://justtrains.net)
8F
RSDL or RSC or RWDL lol (how many names can one company be known by? anyway the guys have released a new steam engine for you steam die hard fans! (myself i am a mallard fan) have released the class 8F steam locomotive, and form the screenshots i have seen another high quality product and shows RW is open to much higher quality and future features. (http://store.steampowered.com/app/24025/)
In other news Digital traction have released a steam locomotive too the class 2p (http://digitaltraction.net)
Thats all from me for now, feeling a bit under the weather, so i think an early night will help cure that!
Don't forget that RWTS (RSTS) Has a steam group (http://steamcommunity.com/groups/rstrainsim)
and you can find our website community @ http://rs-trainsim.co.uk/forums
Have fun!
Dave.
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Your Vote Counts!
Lucazone (one of the dev team behind RailWorks) is currently running a poll on his blog regarding the "State of next Signal" displayed on the F3 drivers Guide.
http://gaugeirregularities.blogspot.com/2009/08/development-discussion.html
http://gaugeirregularities.blogspot.com/2009/08/development-discussion.html
Post 2 of 2 - New Stuff on site
Xp has nother 19 minutes to run so heres post 2 of 2.
Okay now the Q & A is out the way, here is a glimpse of whats on offer (new) on RW-Trainsim.
Class 47 FGBRf - By Dan
FGW "Classic Green" 57's (47) - By Dan
Black 5 in Grand Central (Includes MK1 1st and 2nd class coaches) - By Michael
South West Trains class 47 109 - By Dan
DB (Ex EWS) Schenker Class 60 - Rich (The Train Spotter)
All this and more availalbe free on our site. http://rs-trainsim.co.uk/forums
Okay now the Q & A is out the way, here is a glimpse of whats on offer (new) on RW-Trainsim.
Class 47 FGBRf - By Dan
FGW "Classic Green" 57's (47) - By Dan
Black 5 in Grand Central (Includes MK1 1st and 2nd class coaches) - By Michael
South West Trains class 47 109 - By Dan
DB (Ex EWS) Schenker Class 60 - Rich (The Train Spotter)
All this and more availalbe free on our site. http://rs-trainsim.co.uk/forums
Whats New? Q & A - Post 1 of 2
Whislt XP isntalls to my second hand machine I am going to take this opotunity to give you all an update to whats happened in the world of RS (Now re-named RW) Trainsim.
Q: New Name? Why?
A: Railworks is so much better than RailSimulator and we decided as a team that we will discontinue adding downloads for RailSimulator, so we have taken down all (but a few) Railsimulator downloads form the downloads section of the forums so we love Railworks so much we decided to .
Q: what about my content?
A: If you have contributed with us, don't worry if you have a copy of RailWorks installed simply port your content over (RPK from RS or Drag the folder form RS to RW) install to your RailWorks and re-pack the item up as RWP (RailWorks Package), re-submit it and we'll happiuy continue to host your work past, present and future.
Q: It's not quite fair, I don't have railworks?
A: Unfortunately there is nothing we can do, other websites such as UKTrainsim will still offer RS downloads as long as the contributers release them for that system. RW-Trainsim wants to focus on the future and proove RailWorks (though still a little buggy) but what do you expect form a new program? is the future of Rail Simming.
Q: New name, New Web Address?
A: NO! The site owner has another 16 months to run on the current address, untill that time is up and it comes to re-newal, we will not be changing our web address. however once the 16 months are up the team will discuss if to re-new or buy a new name.
Q: Are the downloads still free?
A: YES 100%
if you have any further questions don't hesitate to pop down to our forum and chat to us. http://rs-trainsim.co.uk/forums
Q: New Name? Why?
A: Railworks is so much better than RailSimulator and we decided as a team that we will discontinue adding downloads for RailSimulator, so we have taken down all (but a few) Railsimulator downloads form the downloads section of the forums so we love Railworks so much we decided to .
Q: what about my content?
A: If you have contributed with us, don't worry if you have a copy of RailWorks installed simply port your content over (RPK from RS or Drag the folder form RS to RW) install to your RailWorks and re-pack the item up as RWP (RailWorks Package), re-submit it and we'll happiuy continue to host your work past, present and future.
Q: It's not quite fair, I don't have railworks?
A: Unfortunately there is nothing we can do, other websites such as UKTrainsim will still offer RS downloads as long as the contributers release them for that system. RW-Trainsim wants to focus on the future and proove RailWorks (though still a little buggy) but what do you expect form a new program? is the future of Rail Simming.
Q: New name, New Web Address?
A: NO! The site owner has another 16 months to run on the current address, untill that time is up and it comes to re-newal, we will not be changing our web address. however once the 16 months are up the team will discuss if to re-new or buy a new name.
Q: Are the downloads still free?
A: YES 100%
if you have any further questions don't hesitate to pop down to our forum and chat to us. http://rs-trainsim.co.uk/forums
Monday, 17 August 2009
Hello there,
Good afternoon followers & Guests reading this blog post, and my sincere apologies for he lack of posts recently.
Mainly because i have been enjoying Rilworks, (never had as much fun in RailSimulator), anyway, just a bit of a grumble to get of my chest.
Okay so as you know i am not the most respected or followed person in the Rail Simulation community (no big deal) but what i do ask for is RESPECT, you know it wouldn't go a miss...
Now a certain website that will remain nameless, has decided the best option is to ban me because i told them straight what i think about their constant bashing towards RailWorks and the guys at RSC (Railsimulator.com).
Twice i posted and both times my posts where removed by site owner, so i sent him a nice pm telling him straight what i think about the continued abuse they are giving RailWorks and to stop comparing it against RailSimulator. but he choose not to take my advice and for the pleasure Kicked me off the site. (dose not bother me, one less site to read and release future content to.)
Now I am going to say this: those of you who are still on the "RailWorks is a con Bandwagon" get off your hind horse and pipe down and continue with MSTS or Trainz or whatever you are "Committed too". But let me ask you this: how can you judge railworks if A: you don't have a copy (and some of you are swearing blind you'll never purchase a copy).
And some of you have a valid reason. However, those who seem to judge it because of its striking similarity to RailSimulator... HELLO!!!! is anyone home? RailWorks IS RailSimulator Mark2, but with a whole lot more potential than RS could have ever offered be it for design or programming reasons...
Which the Guys at RSC thought is not fair on current and future customers / players. So they didn't sit on their arse and say sorry we can't do that, NO they did something to benefit every one present and future.
Railworks has already had several updates and have very kindly released the foliage pack free of charge into the sim for those who can't afford to purchase it and to save the hassle of individual users porting over the legacy installer. this now enables a whole new set of assets that where never available before to many users, and also enabled users who avoided downloading a route because the foliage pack was required can happily download these routes now, so for a route builder its now opened up the route to a whole new audience.
The improvements to the sim are not that striking at first but route builders have certainly noticed a heck of an improvement to the built in tools.
In short Don't keep on knocking Railworks, if you don't like it, Fine go back to whatever you prefer but I'm convinced (once all the small glitches have been ironed out) once you go RailWorks you'll never go back.
Sorry rant over, I'll Be back later with some updates form the world of RWTS (Rs-trainsim) - all will be explained later.
Regards,
Dave.
Mainly because i have been enjoying Rilworks, (never had as much fun in RailSimulator), anyway, just a bit of a grumble to get of my chest.
Okay so as you know i am not the most respected or followed person in the Rail Simulation community (no big deal) but what i do ask for is RESPECT, you know it wouldn't go a miss...
Now a certain website that will remain nameless, has decided the best option is to ban me because i told them straight what i think about their constant bashing towards RailWorks and the guys at RSC (Railsimulator.com).
Twice i posted and both times my posts where removed by site owner, so i sent him a nice pm telling him straight what i think about the continued abuse they are giving RailWorks and to stop comparing it against RailSimulator. but he choose not to take my advice and for the pleasure Kicked me off the site. (dose not bother me, one less site to read and release future content to.)
Now I am going to say this: those of you who are still on the "RailWorks is a con Bandwagon" get off your hind horse and pipe down and continue with MSTS or Trainz or whatever you are "Committed too". But let me ask you this: how can you judge railworks if A: you don't have a copy (and some of you are swearing blind you'll never purchase a copy).
And some of you have a valid reason. However, those who seem to judge it because of its striking similarity to RailSimulator... HELLO!!!! is anyone home? RailWorks IS RailSimulator Mark2, but with a whole lot more potential than RS could have ever offered be it for design or programming reasons...
Which the Guys at RSC thought is not fair on current and future customers / players. So they didn't sit on their arse and say sorry we can't do that, NO they did something to benefit every one present and future.
Railworks has already had several updates and have very kindly released the foliage pack free of charge into the sim for those who can't afford to purchase it and to save the hassle of individual users porting over the legacy installer. this now enables a whole new set of assets that where never available before to many users, and also enabled users who avoided downloading a route because the foliage pack was required can happily download these routes now, so for a route builder its now opened up the route to a whole new audience.
The improvements to the sim are not that striking at first but route builders have certainly noticed a heck of an improvement to the built in tools.
In short Don't keep on knocking Railworks, if you don't like it, Fine go back to whatever you prefer but I'm convinced (once all the small glitches have been ironed out) once you go RailWorks you'll never go back.
Sorry rant over, I'll Be back later with some updates form the world of RWTS (Rs-trainsim) - all will be explained later.
Regards,
Dave.
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Delays
Sorry, There will be a delay in the release of the sceanrio and Tail Lamp releases as i have not yet finished testing the sceanrio. got caught up in other matters. I will look at this during the corse of today (Thursday) but for now, my bed is calling.
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Sceanrio imminant!
Yes, fianlly after a long delay (time beingthe main factor) I am just running my sceanrio fully so that i can send it to the sites who wish to host :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)