Open Rails v1.0 is finalized and released. Enjoy!
It’s a huge milestone to effectively say OR has met its initial set of goals. If you haven’t tried OR, now is the time. It’s already capable of more than MSTS, and development isn’t pausing at all. There will be refinements and new capabilities to add; the experimental and unstable versions will continue to be offered for testing and evaluation.
Right now, Open Rails can do virtually anything that MSTS could ever do. Any remaining differences are minor. Known bugs exist that will be addressed, but they’ve generally been found to be less significant or “edge cases”, in development terms, that typical operation won’t see effects of them. The “showstopper” bugs appear to be resolved. At this point, moving the focus beyond MSTS will allow more new approaches to old problems – and that alone may provide for ways that will both solve old remaining bugs and open up new capabilities.
What’s in the future? Not only further refinements and improvements in functionality, but now the editors and tools will come into closer focus over time. We already have basic path editing in the Track Viewer, the completely new and realistic Timetable Mode and the solid foundation for multi-player capability. Ideas are already circulating for how to achieve an MSTS-style activity editor and a route editor. And gradually, OR will grow beyond the MSTS “box” and into its own environment that will encompass MSTS content plus its own capabilities.
So, for anyone still wondering if there will ever be a train simulator to replace MSTS, it’s safe to say it’s here. Open Rails is ready and will continue to grow.