How to preserve TS2013?

[jimmyshand]

I've recently been drawn into the world of DCS combat flight simulation and I'm going to be taking a breather from Railworks.

I've got no interest in anything that TS2014 has to offer, there are no simulation enhancements, so the timing is right to try something else. I want to preserve TS2013 in its current form because it all works and I'm happy with it. I've also got Raildriver and TrackIR working perfectly and the change to TS2014 will probably render them useless.

So... what's the easiest way to keep TS2013 as it is and prevent Steam from over-writing it? I don't want to take Steam offline because I will need it for DCS and maybe other things, I just want to keep Railworks untouched. Messing around with directories and moving the whole folder etc is not preferrable as this causes havoc with Raildriver and TrackIR.

Any ideas anyone?

[ttjph]

I think I'd copy the entire Railworks folder, and name it Railworks_2013 or similar.

Then allow Steam to update the original Railworks folder if it wants to.

Take Steam offline, rename Railworks to Railworks_New and rename (or copy if you're really paranoid, and have lots of disk space!) Railworks_2013 to Railworks.

If you're ever forced to put Steam online again, just reverse the re-naming before you allow it to connect.

(Every so often I copy the entire Railworks folder to another drive, and label it Railworks_[Date]. Then if anything goes pear-shaped I can use this to copy back into the Steam directory structure.)

[jimmyshand]

I'm just wondering, if I was to rename the Railworks folder to something different, say "Railworks2013", would this be sufficient to prevent Steam from overwriting it yet still let me run the game?

I'm thinking that this method might stop Raildriver and TrackIR from going wrong which is my main concern. I've found when I've dabbled with this in the past that Raildriver in particular needs to have a certain file in the right place in order to function. If you start moving folders around to different drives then it tends to go belly up.

[david1]

I have renamed the railworks folder to myrailworks and downloaded new content to the railworks folder and myraulworks folder was unchanged

[220389]

I've recently been drawn into the world of DCS combat flight simulation and I'm going to be taking a breather from Railworks.

I've got no interest in anything that TS2014 has to offer, there are no simulation enhancements, so the timing is right to try something else. I want to preserve TS2013 in its current form because it all works and I'm happy with it. I've also got Raildriver and TrackIR working perfectly and the change to TS2014 will probably render them useless.

So... what's the easiest way to keep TS2013 as it is and prevent Steam from over-writing it? I don't want to take Steam offline because I will need it for DCS and maybe other things, I just want to keep Railworks untouched. Messing around with directories and moving the whole folder etc is not preferrable as this causes havoc with Raildriver and TrackIR.

Any ideas anyone?

May not be ideal. But you can use the Standalone version of DCS world without issue with the steam modules. Already had the A10c one that works fine and just got the huey and used that serial key with the downloaded module which works fine as well.

For TS2013, just stick it in do not update mode. We still don't know if any hiden gems are coming anyway for TS14.

[choccy]

I preserved a copy of TS2012 by simply renaming it TS2012. If you do the same sort of thing with TS2013 it will be preserved intact though a new version, and all your steam based DLC, will be downloaded by steam to what it considers should be the default folder, unless you right click on Train Simulator 2013 in Steam and select Properties. Click on the Updates Tab and from the Automatic Updates drop down menu select 'Do not automatically update this game'. That ought to stop Steam downloading anything to do with Railworks, unless you later authorise it.

Mark

[Juanillo99]

For TS2013, just stick it in do not update mode.

Quite right!
In my opinion, if you don't want to rename directories, and neither you don't want to put Steam in off-line mode, that is the best option .... or should I say, that's the only option. I do not know another option.

PS: But this has a drawback: you don't will get any possible updates for the DLCs.

[jimmyshand]

Thanks guys I will give the 'do not automatically update' thing a try.

The only niggling worry I have is that I'm sure I've read reports on here of Steam overriding peoples settings and updating anyway!!

I'll make an up to date back up of the whole folder on another drive just in case!

[Ajay1]

Hi, Sorry to hijack this thread slightly, but it seemed to be the most appropriate place to write this rather than creating a new topic. My question is: When TS2014 gets released on the 26th which Assets folder would be the best to active at the time of the update ? I have two, one consisting of assets placed during a recent Steam verification of the cache containing 34 folders and the other which contains over 300 folders ( five years of collecting). The same would also apply regarding the Kuju folder? as I have a main one containing everything and one each for European, UK, USA etc. It may be a silly question, but its just something that has been niggling me now that the update day is drawing closer.

Antony

[AndyUK]

Thanks guys I will give the 'do not automatically update' thing a try.

The only niggling worry I have is that I'm sure I've read reports on here of Steam overriding peoples settings and updating anyway!!

I'll make an up to date back up of the whole folder on another drive just in case!

My experience with previous updates is that if you copy or move the whole Railworks folder from the ...Steam\steamapps\common folder to another location, I've used a different hard drive for space reasons, then you can continue to use the older version(s) without them being updated by Steam. You do need to be logged into Steam either on or offline but the 'do not automatically update' option isn't required.

Andy L

[Juanillo99]

My experience with previous updates is that if you copy or move the whole Railworks folder from the ...Steam\steamapps\common folder to another location, I've used a different hard drive for space reasons, then you can continue to use the older version(s) without them being updated by Steam. You do need to be logged into Steam either on or offline but the 'do not automatically update' option isn't required.

Yes, but......
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 6#p1660116

I'm thinking that this method might stop Raildriver and TrackIR from going wrong which is my main concern. I've found when I've dabbled with this in the past that Raildriver in particular needs to have a certain file in the right place in order to function. If you start moving folders around to different drives then it tends to go belly up.

[august1929]

I have multiple installations of RW2013 that sit in Steamapps folders, for example, Steamapps_UK, Steamapps_ECML, Steamapps_US.

My main Steam installation is used to buy DLC and is kept absolutely clean of all other addons. This gets renamed to Steamapps_Vanilla after going offline (very important!!) and I rename whatever Railworks "mini" that I want to use to Steamapps.

Do not rely on the "don't update" option in steam - it really does not always work.

Safest to backup (or have several backups) and I would suggest then wiping your original RW installation and let Steam update and download a clean version of 2014.

In fact I would suggest, if you have the space, doing this before 2014, then you will also have a completely clean version of 2013

I am off to buy another 500GB hard drive this afternoon to install 2014 and derivitives - gets a bit tedious year on year, but I have never been without a working setup in a long time, with all updates if required.

Might be you have to copy files over to 2013 to let Steam work once 2014 has gone live - hopefully (and here you need to try this out on a copy of a copy) it will, but you never know...

Rod

[spellow3010]

Chris,
I did try and respond to your PM, but for some reason, I couldn't get it to send. It kept saying connection to proxy was reset or something.

Leaving the topic now as I have nothing further to add regarding the OP.