Open Rails

Apologies for the lack of updates recently - hope everyone is well!

I’d like to share a few new renders with you. Like many of my Microsoft Train Simulator screenshots, they are slightly edited to enhance the overall visual feel. You’ll notice they are actually carrying a subtle branding this time, for a very good reason. These images are being created to emphasise how much life this nine year old simulation still has - but more importantly, how, given some graphical innovations, things could potentially shape out in the future. Imagine if we were somehow able to import existing MSTS content into a brand new rendering engine. An engine capable of running existing MSTS content, bringing a new layer of graphical sophistication to one of the largest third party content libraries on the internet today.

Imagine if there was also the potential to expand this software - implementing brand new functions, physics properties and effects through a combined community effort? A wonderful idea, yet somehow, it all seems a bit more like fiction than fact.

Yet now, thanks to one exceptional man and his small, dedicated team, the unachievable is now becoming an acute reality.

Welcome to project Open Rails, perhaps one of the most discrete, yet groundbreaking concepts to emerge from a third party network of voluntary developers.

A piece of programming ingenuity, this unique culmination of brand new core source code, and a completely new graphical engine capable of importing MSTS content seems to be the way forward for a massive community in desperate need for a more accessible simulation that just ‘works’.

The unique open source contender impresses with it’s lengthy list of intended future features, and excites us with the use of terms such as procedurally generated vegetation and finer terrain grids - but what is perhaps the most impressive, utterly mind blowing part of this project, is that there is actually a functioning release available to download now. And it works - not just well, but extremely well.

It is the birth of something unique. What we have here is the first seed in what will undoubtedly be a sustained and exciting growth process.

This basic, bare bones piece of software is the start of what will hopefully be a combined effort - something that has always been at the heart of the MSTS community over the years.

The future of rail simulation is undeniably shaping up to be a competitive one, yet with the incredible passion and drive the individuals behind this project have, they needn’t worry about that. The larger competitors will take care of themselves - this is different, because the future, quite literally, has already been written. The content is all there, ready and waiting - and there is tons of it. All we need to do now is stop it from fading away, and catapult it into centre stage once again.

Best of luck guys!

Sam.