Railworks America

Although not new to railfanning, I am completely new to this dream come true world of RWsims.
I just got a ridiculous deal ($10) for RW2012 from a third party store (fspilot(?).com) I had just gotten the amazing 2013 platform game during the Steam sale. I am having serious frame-rate problems due to an outdated core but am able to just passably play the game at Lowest Detail/Lowest Resolution (and it still skips; but I am resigned to using my imagination to smooth out the animation until I can afford a new computer ). When I bought the downloadable 2012 I just clicked 'Save to Desktop' when the installation window popped up, and the whole Zipfile labled 'RW2012' has just been sitting there because I have no idea how on earth it can be integrated with the Ts2013 I play through Steam.
Would anyone please give me some steps as to how to bring these two together and start expanding my world? I already bought some sale DLC routes/trains from Steam itself and these integrated fine, but the zipfile on my desktop feels like a whole other matter. I haven't even checked to see if the contents verify what was advertised as I am afraid that I'll launch it and make some kind of huge train wreck of a mess and be unable to play either one.

I know other people integrate all sorts of content backwards and forwards but I have no idea how to do it and I am scared to try. Firstly, will the older 2012 content just automatically 'subordinate' and run on the superior Ts2013 platform? (that is my hope of course) with all compatible trains and routes able to be Quick Drive'd or Free Roamed? Will my already slow frame rate be made hugely worse (and completely unplayable) by merging the two RWorks packages? Is this how the software works (using more 'core' memory) or is this simply irrelevant in computer terms: core-RAM=apples and oranges?

I would also love so much to access all this wonderful independently created source material that you folks produce from all over the world but if it doesn't come from the actual Steam website, how do I play it on my Ts2013?
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Just a stab here but, try uninstalling 2013, install 2012 and see if Steam updates you to 2013. It should register that you've purchased 2013 when you start 2012 and upgrade you. It'll require a hefty download but it should work.

Thank you for your kind response. That is a very clever tactic and I will definitely keep it in mind as a resort-method. I am going to try and hold out for more responses, hoping for one that summarizes to "Just click unzip->run mate, it'll all sort itself out right as rain, no worries, cheers and all the best...." Hopefully someone will tell me this. Your method is very smart, but I'm still afraid of uninstalling anything I already 'have'. Old fashioned, unreasoning fears I suppose. Wish there were more guarantees with this sort of thing..... Looks like the old days when you just bought a game, slid in the disc and if you had any problems you simply called Central Control for that reassuringly authoritative voice of instructions from the people who actually manage the software commercially are all gone and everyone's kind of on their own hoping to raft along with the community that knows more of a game's hallowed secrets than the last one.
Any advice on my other question of successfully downloading/integrating all this wonderful independent content for my existing SteamCo.-hosted Ts2013? and is my fixation on the Steam server overestimating their power? Is this game on my computer more 'mine' than I suppose it is? (THEY update it's content periodically, THEY sell me the content I want, THEY demand my magic login words to download more stuff.....) How powerful are THEY over my game (if 'mine' it truly is)? Do all of you out there just laugh at all commercial providers altogether and just backup all your content on discs/drives/etc. and do as you please with your games like a rogue community of unruly Steam colonists? The whole 'open source' thing (with the ability to edit and even remake any part of the game as far as one's code-savvy will allow) seems as astounding to me as concepts of personal liberty and happiness must have seemed to any commoner in the early 18th century. In other words; if you folks truly have this Elysium of gaming freedom over here at RWAmerica (and by extension, many other places out there too) I would like to take the first steps of applying for citizenship. ....and be able to drive lots of cool routes and trains while I'm here
Thanks Again

Yes, Steam is mysterious when you first start using it, but it's quite reliable. It will always replace missing files, such as when you delete some. It will allow you to install and delete games as often as you like through its interface (it's called "delete local content"). You will always own the games. Think of it as cloud storage.

The advice you've gotten is best, I think. Just delete the railworks folder and install TS 2012 to the same location and activate it in Steam. Then install 2013 and it should recognize 2012 and add all the 2013 stuff and update the core. 2013 should run much smoothly for you. Good performance improvements in the core, and you'll have all the legacy stuff and routes that way. Tons to explore.

Have fun.

Back up the Assets folder to the desktop first. Then delete TS2013 and install TS2012 and let Steam upgrade it back to TS2013. Then move your backed up Assets folder bach to TS2013 and you will have the TS2012 and TS2013 assets.

dfcfu342 wrote:Back up the Assets folder to the desktop first. Then delete TS2013 and install TS2012 and let Steam upgrade it back to TS2013. Then move your backed up Assets folder bach to TS2013 and you will have the TS2012 and TS2013 assets.

That's not necessary. As the above posters mentioned, Steam will add missing content. It will NOT delete extra content.

@LordMandragoras, welcome.
You can view Steam simply as an installation service.
Let's say, in the old days, you gave all your game CDs (or diskettes!) to a computer-savvy friend.
Whenever you had a problem with a game, you would call him and ask him to come reinstall the game for you.
Whenever the game was updates, he would come apply the patch for you.
Whenever you wanted a new game, you would pay him, he would go buy it and come install it for you.
Whenever you bought a new computer, he would come and install all your games on it.
That's Steam.

There's no magic to it: it is an online service that has all your games, and it copies them to your computer. When asked for, it will compare your files to its master copy, and if they're different it will copy the master copy to your computer. There is no danger to uninstalling a game, because Steam remembers what games you are supposed to have ( this information is in your on-line profile, not on your computer) and will reinstall them anytime.

We can give you detailed instructions when you're ready.

All of you folks are wonderful. Much kinder and meaningful responses than the one or two I've gotten on Steam Forums. That 'computer-savvy friend' analogy illustrated it very clearly now, and thank you all for the reassurance that my content will always exist on Steam's servers, regardless of what is going on with my computer.
But could anyone please answer the other two questions?:

1)Will doing the (un)installation-shuffle end up slowing the frame rate down to complete unplayability? I'm not sure if it has anything at all to do with how many routes/trains/etc. I have or wish to have in future but if the frame rate is affected by the 'apparent' size of my 'world' I cannot get any more trains to drive However, I am hoping this memory aspect (RAM I think? Steam Cloud storage? ) doesn't actually exist on my older computer but on the Steam server, or on my computer but in some virtual 'place' that is completely unrelated to what dictates the frame rate/resolution (I know that, like a brain, no recognizable thing 'exists' distinctly anywhere, but rather in a myriad of numbers here and there and are instantly and bewilderingly reassembled instance by instance as needed to be viewed/interacted etc.) Is this how it works? I have enough RAM and hard drive storage space, but my core only has 2.18Ghz, and the game minimum is 2.8. Frame rate is still a bit choppy at Lowest Detail/Res. setting, and those cool moody rain/snow scenarios are simply out of the question. So, will the sizeable content waiting on that zipped RW2012 folder just sink the ship entirely or is it exclusively a core/processor problem? I would very much like to enjoy this wonderful game even imperfectly until the time I can afford a new computer and not do anything to screw up what I have.
and 2): All of that amazing content you folks produce independently for sale and as freeware: do I just click (/pay)--> right-click the file on my Downloads window -->Open Containing Folder-->Open/Run---->????? How would all those new trains/routes/rolling stock/scenarios all somehow wind up in my TS2013 Main Menu? Do they just go where they're supposed to go as dictated by their Code? I had no idea so many people were out there who were into trains AND able to build playable models! There are even train forums from countries other than UK/USA that provide interesting content (and I'm dreaming of driving a dirty Garratt up a mountain one day--has anybody made this peculiar beast?) and I downloaded some diesels from Spain but they are, of course, just sitting on my desktop in zipfiles pending some idea of what on earth to do with them.
I'd really love to explore further into this world that I've loved all my life, but without these basic answers I must sit on the platform and watch many of the trains just go by...
Thanks again for all your help
James

I'll have a quick go at the first question...

No it doesn't matter how much Railworks stuff you have on your computer, your frame rates will depend only on what is infront of you at the time. The best place to start is with the graphics settings. Unfortunately there is no one particular optimum setup because all computers are different and all player prefer different things. So experiment, changing one thing at a time and find the things that make the biggest improvement and balance them with what visual preferences you have. For example, I can't stand proceedural flora and adaptive bloom, so I leave them off but I couldn't live without dense scenery so I "spend" the frame rates I saved by turning off the former on turning the latter right up

For the second part...

There a a few different ways to get new stuff into the game. 1: If you buy it from Steamstore it will download and install automatically. 2: If you download an .rwp file, that is, a file that ends in .rwp (.rwp stand for Railworks Package), you can install it using Railworks and it will do all the work for you. 3: Sometimes people will just release their work just as it is, so when you unzip the downloaded file you have to put the right folder in the right place, but most of the time people will include all the folders needed so that you can just plonk the one that says Railworks on top of your own Railworks folder and everything falls into the right place.

Don't go too nuts buying stuff from Steamstore. You'll just get trapped chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and about a thousand bucks later you'll regret it. The best stuff is free, and at this stage for you, the free stuff can be made to run better than the Steamstore stuff until you upgrade your computer. If you find something you want to get into the game, post a description of it here, and we'll tell you how to install it. Usually most members encourage a novice to try to figure things out for themselves because Railworks is the kind of software that you will eventually need to teach yourself to be familiar and experienced with to take further, but in the case of installing your first add-ons, we don't want you to screw it up and ruin the whole experience.

James is a cool name by the way

"James is a cool name by the way " And the quiz of the day children is what is NDORFN's real name??

To be serious for a moment, most of the problem is you have low frame rates usually comes from the lack of a good video card. For around $100 US you can find a pretty darn good one that will do wonders for this sim. There is quite a long thread over in the geek speak section discussing this. That sounds to me like where you are at in the area of performance.

Buzz

To install .rwp files, you open the utilities.exe file in the root folder, which will probably be \program files (86)\steam\steamapps\common\railworks. I put a shortcut to this utilities program on my desktop. Click the package manager tab and then install package button.