Linux train simulator available

[woodsmoke]

however it requires "mono" and can only be started from command line and does not run for me using the Kubu desktop on Oneric.

http://trainsimframework.org/

woodsmoke

[oshunluvr]

Re: Linux train simulator available

Kool! I might have to try this someday....

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Linux train simulator available

I LOVE trains! I used to have Railroad Tycoon and loved it. (Technically, I still have it--I just haven't yet unpacked the box it's in in the garage.)

I've never heard of "Mono" before. (I'm so out of the loop it's not even funny). I read some of the pages for OpenBVE and got the impression that the Linux version is really not a Linux version:

cd /path/where/mono/is/installed
mono /path/where/openbve/is/installed/OpenBve.exe

I may try it one of these days anyway.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Linux train simulator available

What verizon of RR Tycoon do you have? I have the old Loki Linux version and all the updates. Runs really well on 64-bit Kubuntu - at least it did under 10.04. I haven't played it lately.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Linux train simulator available

I honestly don't remember which version of Railroad Tycoon I have. I bought it approximately 9-10 years ago and it's the Linux version--in an actual box! Remember those? (The cashier at the store where I bought it actually said to me "This is for Linux." And I said, "AND?!" ) I know I bought it after I'd been playing Roller Coaster Tycoon for a while, so, yeah, about 10 years ago. I was hooked on RCT and played it much more than RRT. But I have a "no CD" patch for RCT that I still use to this day, whereas RRT I'd have to actually find the CD...and it's somewhere in an unpacked, still taped up box in the garage. (Hey, it's only been 5-1/2 years since I moved!)

In case anyone's wondering, Roller Coaster Tycoon didn't come in a Linux version--I play it via wine, and it plays spectacularly.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Linux train simulator available

Well, OpenBVE installs in Oneric KDE4.7.3 but as first stated there is some arcane mono commands, found on the site, which are needed to get it running.

But, I watched the install details this time and there was a lot of "mono" stuff being installed so, I think, that if the commands can be followed correctly it should run, but that means if one is not willing to do command line stuff this is stuck in mono heaven, or hell, as it may be.

too bad.

woodsmoke

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Linux train simulator available

Well, this is weird. I was looking through my games menus to see if I'd installed any MAME emulators, and while poking around I found OpenBVE. Installed. With no recollection of my having installed it. I went to Synaptic and sure enough, it's in there and I had installed it. So I fired it up and, wow! It looks great. Here are a few screenshots (select for larger versions):



Obviously, I'm running KDE, and the game runs fine. As I said earlier, I'd never heard of "Mono" before, but now I don't need to worry about it. No arcane commands (not that I don't love arcane, cryptic *nix commands ), just fire it up from my menu and off I go. If anyone's interested, its executable file looks like this:

$ cat /usr/games/openbve
#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/bin/cli /usr/lib/openbve/OpenBve.exe /fhs "$@"

Now I need to master its commands! There are a lot of them. I don't have a joystick, so I'm using its keyboard commands.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Linux train simulator available

Well, I, for one, am jealous! :P

woodjealoussmoke

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Linux train simulator available

Don't be jealous, wjs! Come over and help me plod through the many keyboard commands that made my brain hurt. I can play Roller Coaster Tycoon with my eyes closed...well, not really, but you know what I mean. I know its keyboard controls like the back of my hand. But I don't know that I can learn a whole new set at this point.

[DarthMedicus]

Re: Linux train simulator available

I have run BVE without any problems on Kubuntu 11.04 as well as 11.10. I actually stumbled across the program when I was looking around for a decent railroad simulator. Now I can run the local from Times Square to Main Street, Flushing to my heart's content......while living 1500 miles away!

[woodsmoke]

Re: Linux train simulator available

well, don't keep us on tenterhooks! how did you do it?

woodsmoke

[oshunluvr]

Re: Linux train simulator available

Now - First of all, I'm a U.S. Citizen so trains for most of us have a different meaning from that of our neighbors across the pond.

I totally love Railroad Tycoon. In fact, I would say it has been my favorite PC game since I started playing version 1 on my Apple IIc with a 9" green monitor. I still play RT II (old Loki version) when I have a weekend to kill.

However, for the life of me I can't figure out the fun of driving a train simulator. Do cows and pedestrians appear on the tracks? Is it about fuel and weight loading and making your timetable? Do you have to time your switch crossings and corner speeds?

I can't really get into flight simulators either unless there's something to shoot or drop a bomb on. I know there are tens of thousands of Microsoft FlightSim and X-Plane "drivers" out there, but I can't get past the first 30 minutes. I will admit it was fun shooting an approach into LAX as I worked there for so long, but I did that in a real airplane (and helicopter).

Look, I'm not flaming anyone or their choice of entertainment - I'd honestly like to know what the appeal is. Anyone care to enlighten me?

[woodsmoke]

Re: Linux train simulator available

Ok, I'll make a stab at it.

I actually have had the opportunity to "run" a diesel engine twice in my life.

a) when I was 14, and was "riding the rods" on a local and the conductor discovered me and in an exchange for a promise to "never do it again" I got to ride in the cab and hold the controls.
b) for a birthday gift I got to do the same in a "tourist train".

But as to the fascination, I would hazard the guess that "most" of the "players" are also, or were, model train nuts. We all had to "look down" at the model train.

Now model train nuts are grouped into several large groups,

a) the people who make beautiful layouts,
b) the people who like to watch a train "run"
c) and "operations people"(people who love to "make up" a train, break it down and rebuild it along a route and then break it down at the end and repeat. (train "orders" etc.).

At first the Train Sims only let one "sit in the cab" and not much else, but that was enough because we had all had to "look down from the sky" before. However, even in the early cab views, the trains do go up and down grades and if one does not control the train properly it will crash. The early MS Train Sim, did, indeed, have cars going across the tracks but one would have to work really hard to hit one, I never saw a cow on the track but I only purchased the original, the newer ones probably have all sorts of stuff like that.

One can now switch between inside the cab and "watching it run" from various vantage points.

And a few years ago, the "over head view" of coupling cars together appeared and one can now, really, "make up a train" run it and do the "operations thing".

There is also a subgroup that makes "livery" or the paint schemes for various engines etc.

And then there is the whole other subgroup that does sims like Railroad Tycoon, which is rather like SimCity.

And, I also, when I'm working on stuff, used to have MS Train Sim, just "running" and I would listen to the engine in the background kind of like listening to music in the background.

This is just a small set of reasons why people do train sims, if there is anyone else with other comments, please add to my short list.

woodsmoke

[oshunluvr]

Re: Linux train simulator available

Ok, good explanation. I hadn't thought of it as an extension of Railroad modeling.

I would offer only one criticism: From a friend who is a train nut, they prefer to be called "Locomotive Enthusiast"

[Snowhog]

Re: Linux train simulator available

From a friend who is a train nut, they prefer to be called "Locomotive Enthusiast"

Or just "Loco" for short!