New Russian route for TS2012 available - donationware.

[ex-railwayman]

To whomever may be interested, a brand new fictional 47 km Russian route has been created by our Railroad Sim friends, with some new Thermos Wagons and the TEM2 Russian shunter locomotive package that came out earlier this year. Donations are now accepted through Paypal.

See here for all of the goodies - http://railroadsim.net/en/downloads/rw/routes

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[Samwolf]

Thanks for the heads-up.

[Machinist]

TEM2 is one of my favourite engines, though (or because) is very hard to start and keep moving, very challenging. And, according to the authors, with good (closer to real) physics. I used TEM2 in many scenarios, replacing original US locos with RW_Tools. It's weird in an US route, but very fun to drive ThEM too.

[Kali]

Given it's a modernised Alco RSD-1 ( or 2, I forget ), there's nothing wierd about it.

This is proper download-and-donate-if-you-like-it stuff btw, not half-crippled test items.

[Griphos]

This is fantastic stuff, actually. Just did some shunting and explored the line a little in the new Forest route, with the TEM2. Just amazing work on the engine (which was new to me...although I know it's been around a little while). The route looks great and is set up incredibly well for operations. I'll be sending them some change for this work.

And although both the route and the engine and cars are very detailed, they ran smoothly and at the 29 FPS lock on my system, so great performance to boot!

Very impressed!

Now, time to set up RW_Tools and Google translate side by side so I can figure out what I'm supposed to be doing in these scenarios! :-)

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Over on the Russian board there is a small complaint that the route is mixture between UK and USSR. Perhaps they didn't reckon with the Russian broad gauge and large loading gauge in selecting and placing some assets.

See here http://railworks2.ru/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=469&sid=04da09e6223a2af3bb5a5f208b74b39c&start=40

I know Russian and have travelled there by train, scenes from that route looks just as depressing as I remember my views from the train window.

There even is a larger route coming from Russia "Valley of Mountains" which has a replica of the Krasnoyarsk hydro electric dam and power station, one of the largest in the world.
It will be ready next year.

Here is a picture:
There are many more in this thread: http://railworks2.ru/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=368

It sure looks great to me!

BTW: some of the best routes and assets in Trainz 2012 are from Russia. Balezino - Mosti is at par with the best of TS12. If these guys commit themselves to TS12 we are in for a treat.
And a threat as copyright isn't quite respected in Russia.

[Griphos]

Hey Edwin,

Good news. I've begun translating the scenario and route text from Russian. I've extracted the localisation files from the route and scenarios and am working on a translation into English. When I extracted, there were two columns ("en" and "ru"). There wasn't much text in the "ru" column, but almost all the text in the "en" column is Russian.

So, I moved all the Russian text to the "ru" column and am filling in the "en" column with translations. I've got a friend in Moscow (thanks Alexei) who does RW and he's given me translations for the scenario instructions already. I'd be happy to run the results by you first as well.

I'll be happy to make it available when it's done. I just want to make sure I'm doing it right. Anyone done this before? If I put English in the "en" column and import, will that change all the text to English? Should I keep the "ru" column? It was mostly empty anyway.

[GreatNortherner]

Hey Edwin,
I'll be happy to make it available when it's done. I just want to make sure I'm doing it right. Anyone done this before? If I put English in the "en" column and import, will that change all the text to English? Should I keep the "ru" column? It was mostly empty anyway.

Hi,

The localization usually works best when you put the original text in its appropriate column. Otherwise there may be problems when the scenario is run on that original language settings, as I think the .lan files will get priority over the scenario's BIN files' strings.

BTW: One of my guesses at this point is that when you extract the strings they probably end up in the column of the language that your RW is set to at this moment.

Cheers,
Michael

PS: THANKS for the heads-up about this route!!! Also the other WIP mountain route. That is some amazing train simming artwork!

[Griphos]

Thanks Michael. Okay, that's what I'm doing, orig language in its own column and translations in the "en" column. Should have it done today. Need to run the scenarios and make sure everything is labeled properly and instructions are correct.

[LandN]

Is the "Valley of Mountains" fictional or prototypical?

Jay

[Griphos]

I have the localisation done and everything seems to be correctly labeled. Instructions and all descriptions are now in English. I'm just waiting for permission from the route author to distribute this translation. I also want to test it in all the scenarios first.

This is really quite a lovely route. Very good passenger and freight (mostly coal, but also some container and factory operations) potential. Very rational and realistic track layout. Going to be one of my favorites, I can tell.

[Griphos]

Well, except if you don't want to pay, you don't have to. Seems like a relevant difference to me.

[steve_the_slim]

No, donationware means you have to pay to get the software, but all the money they creator gets is donated to somebody else. This route is freeware, with the option to give a donation to the creator if you want.

[Griphos]

Guys! Getting a little overwrought over a word, aren't we? There's no "official" definition of donationware. Certainly Gtrax uses the term to mean what Steve said, and others fuss about it because of that. Others, like RRS, use the term to mean what I said: you like it, you donate. Others use the term to mean you pay some amount of your choice, with perhaps a set minimum, to get the stuff. We all know an example of that usage. Many, probably most that I've seen, use the term "freeware" to mean, well, "free," as in you get it and don't pay anything. It's hard to see how any of this is a problem of any sort. I think we all pretty much figure out the situation under each of these usages without a lot of difficulty.