best looking routes

[erikkr]

Hi ,
i am looking for routes that shows best what MSTS is still capable of , scenerywise.
Thus not the most interesting routes with the best activities , but good looking recent routes.( payware and freeware )

[jbilton]

Hi
An all time classic

GWR Toddington - Route - Part 1 of 4 [51456425 bytes] - toddington-route-1.zip File ID: 15393 Date: 08 Oct 2006 - 2776 Downloads

GWR Toddington - Route - Part 2 of 4 [52414221 bytes] - toddington-route-2.zip File ID: 15394 Date: 08 Oct 2006 - 2433 Downloads

GWR Toddington - Route - Part 3 of 4 [52410231 bytes] - toddington-route-3.zip File ID: 15395 Date: 08 Oct 2006 - 2404 Downloads

GWR Toddington - Route - Part 4 of 4 [6037389 bytes] - toddington-route-4.zip File ID: 15396 Date: 08 Oct 2006 - 2553 Downloads

Cheers
Jon

[Easilyconfused]

Hi ,
i am looking for routes that shows best what MSTS is still capable of , scenerywise.
Thus not the most interesting routes with the best activities , but good looking recent routes.( payware and freeware )

Interesting question. The converse question is "Why" ?

As a new member of only a few weeks why are you asking the question ? For MSTS routes it is my opinion that activities make the route a classic. Without activities routes are sort of sterile experiences - yes you can explore them in seconds with the "jet train"

There are loads of uploaded routes here and at places like train-sim.com so what is your angle here ?

[danny3]

Another question would be, what types of route do you like? Modern Era (Diesel / Electric), Steam Era, Early Diesel?
What type of train do you like? Steam, Diesel or Electric
These would help us help you find a route that you might want to find?

But if you would like a suggestion for detailed routes, then I would suggest Great Eastern (Modern Payware - London to Ipswich), or North Wales Coast (70s-80s Diesel - Holyhead - Chester) Although you can have modern diesel or steam in that route as well as both look good in that route! or Perhaps Black Country 1 (A community CD mainly set around the midlands - birmingham area with a fair few activities (Mostly steam/diesel) and a lot of detailed scenery set around the 1950s)

There are a lot of good routes out there though, too many to list in here I think!

[chrisiveson]

Hi ,
i am looking for routes that shows best what MSTS is still capable of , scenerywise.
Thus not the most interesting routes with the best activities , but good looking recent routes.( payware and freeware )

Interesting question. The converse question is "Why" ?

As a new member of only a few weeks why are you asking the question ? For MSTS routes it is my opinion that activities make the route a classic. Without activities routes are sort of sterile experiences - yes you can explore them in seconds with the "jet train"

There are loads of uploaded routes here and at places like train-sim.com so what is your angle here ?

John,
I would, and have done, purchased and downloaded routes just for the route alone.
I very rarely run any included activities and prefer to write my own, using the stock I prefer and not necessarily that what comes with the route.
Of course I have to run other folks acts. when I'm testing over at Making Tracks, but that's about the limit for me.
So, am I out on my own? would be interesting to find out.
As a point of interest, I've a video that will be broadcast in the next hour or two showing a payware route with downloaded freeware stock.

Chris.

[jbilton]

Hi Chris
Not on your own... I too very rarely use an activity as supplied either.
Mainly for the same reasons you give, or I end up editing the eng file to a more realistic drive.
Plus I'm not keen on shunting puzzles ,trying to keep to over tight timetables, or driving on silly levels of fuel etc.
I suppose if I ever really get bored.... I've hundreds to chose from....

To add to the list I would also include

Lydbrook Junc
Westvale
Lyme Regis Branch
Swanage
SVR
WSR



Cheers
Jon

[Iluka]

Hi Jon

Thanks for recommending GWR Toddington - Frank (Carver) - the Author is a personal friend of mine and I can assure you he flew over to the UK on many occasions walking up & down this preserved Railway taking thousand of photos to ensure it was the most accurate "photorealistic" Route ever produced for MSTS.

Many of Frank's scenery items (Flowers/Buildings etc etc) he made for GWR Toddington have subsequently been used in other Routes Worldwide which has made a remarkable transformation in Route Details .

For those of you that don't know Frank also lives in Western Australia .

Regards

Mike

[lateagain]

Hi ,
i am looking for routes that shows best what MSTS is still capable of , scenerywise.
Thus not the most interesting routes with the best activities , but good looking recent routes.( payware and freeware )

Hi Eric (?) ....a first name's a bit friendlier than a username?

I totally understand where you're coming from. To me the whole point of any simulator is that you become absorbed in a believable virtual world. Unfortunately the number of details that can be crammed into each tile in MSTS before it keels over is limited. However there have been some outstanding attempts to get round this limitation and now that the BIN patch allows you to zoom out to a far greater degree than was originally intended the more succesful attempts become obvious. To me it's depth of scenery that is important. Agood route can be viewed from many angles and still look convincing. Alas in the interest of high frame rates and high traffic levels some earlier attempts had scenery that was little more than a fringe either side of any track. Some were reasonable routes and the traffic levels were in themselves "scenery" but a zoom out in a Bin enabled set up leaves them looking rather sparse . I don't really go along with John's (Easilyconfused) point because in my experience well sceneried routes attract good activities anyway!

Payware is easiest because there are few commercial route publishers. The top two for scenery IMO (and it must be understood my experience and preference of era and area of operation - and as you haven't expressed a preference I'm assuming you've an open mind here) are Making Tracks and 3D Train Stuff.

Making Tracks has succesfully combined good levels of scenery in densly populated areas of high traffic. No mean feat, as apart from rendering scenery the passing of traffic and good sound all push the envelope in MSTS.

3D Train Stuff has a US "branch" and a UK one. The UK routes are all excellent IMO and again traffic and activities are very good. The US routes have improved steadily and the Cascade Crossing is one of my favourites as the period feel extends to scenery detail such as the motor vehicles, buildings and advertising. Details such as the ice loading bays where huge blocks of ice were loaded into the pre-mechanical refrigeration cars (reefers) give added atmosphere and the steam sounds are excellent.

ALL of the 3D Train Stuff UK routes are excellent IMO and probably/arguably have the most detailed scenery of any UK routes.

Rather confusingly another US publisher 3DTrains has also just released their first route to much acclaim. Even more confusingly they have produced scenery packs for 3D Train stuff routes (US ones) that update and enhance their older routes.

The Sadly defunct Blue Arrow group still have titles in publication and their Severn Valley is still an excellent route many years later and has scenery details that surpass many routes published much later.

As far as Freeware routes are concerned there are so many good ones that you really need to narrow down your area and era of interest. Way too many good ones for anyone to list in any constructive manner. Same applies to Donationware routes.

BTW some browsing in the screenshot forum will help. Sadly though many "virtual railway photographers" fall into the "Train picture" trap. They publish a series of pictures of xyz route that show little more than a succesion of pictures of various consists with so little scenery around them that they could be taken on any route However you'll soon work out who's posting the most helpful shots.

Generally speaking as MSTS has been around so long most creators have improved with experience and certainly the publishers above fit that mould. However some have become too keen to push out new routes and quality has gone down. Easy to find out who. Read the comments in the forums here and at TS.com.

Geoff

[erikkr]

Hi,
thanks for your answers so far.
I have used Trainz from 2002 up to 2008, have folowed openBVE from the start til now, have tried out RW for a month and am now trying out MSTS. I had never tried MSTS because the memories which I had (screenshots from 2001/2002) were not convincing.
The Ruebelandbahn has however persuaded me that, at present, there is more possible.
I live in Belgium and have been especially interested in European (mainland) routes, canyon and mountain routes, and exotic routes (such as the Trainz Darjeeling project)
My question is motivated from the point of view of a route builder, to see what's possible.
I did not know that MSTS had functions such as distant mountains and the Mosaic utility; those are not available in Trainz or RW.
At the construction of the Mexican Copper canyon railway in Trainz (Creel to Temoris part) there was much lost of the view , because of the limited view distance; its not possible to see upto the next turn in the canyon .
I am certainly interested in activities and making my own , but this question is purely to see what's possible with regard to route construction.

Erik

[jbilton]

Hi Erik
Some of the best routes globally are those that came out of Eastern Europe.
The Ruebelandbahn is certainly an excellent route.
One of my all time favourites

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 48&t=83132

The realistic quality that can be achieved in MSTS, is one of the reasons I have never felt the need to try other simulators.

Another cracker is the Zline

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 48&t=41203

and the Vysoncia

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 39&t=66622


Cheers
Jon

[mickrik]

Hi there

and the Vysoncia

I have got to agree with Jon on that one. It is a truly superb route with some fabulous stock.

But the activities did not run too well for me and when trying to create an activity for it, I seemed to have problems with the signalling.

So I just ran it in explore mode.

mick

[energize]

I'd definitely recommend the West Somerset Railway from JustTrains. It's 20 miles of track from Taunton to Minehead. As it's one of the few preserved lines I've travelled on, I can verify that what you see on the WSR in MSTS - you mostly see in real life

[jbilton]

Hi
Yes I love the detail of the preserved lines........ but ever now and then I love a high speed thrash on the bigger routes too.
This is the versatility of MSTS.....

Cheers
Jon

[jontrains12]

If you wont some good looking Routes on CD I world go for the GWR Branch Lines - Reg Furniss or Dorset Coast V3 Which can be updated to V6

[lateagain]

Not European of course but I completely forgot about Rich Garber's routes. They have very detailed scenery and have been updated recently.

His recent update on an old classic of his "Ohio Rail" is pretty versatile as it's semi-ficticious and based around an area of US scenery not a million miles from that in Europe.

http://allaboardrails.com/ has details of all his routes.

Geoff