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"ROUTE CONTROL REVIEW"

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sniper297 (1827 posts)
Mar-18-02, 09:06 PM (EST) "ROUTE CONTROL REVIEW" This is a report on the full registered version of Route Control, the one you pay 15 bucks for. I'm not going to go into the features that come with the free version, Route Control Lite, like the checkup feature that was a godsend after my autistic 12 year old started making his own consists and activities.Essentially the way Route Control works is it creates a single "mega-route" combining all the files from all six routes, and in version 1.10 it adds any custom objects included in new routes that have them. Since it needs the original six routes for the source files, they have to be installed in order for it to work, so unfortunately you can't delete the original six routes. Most routes that you download copy files from several if not all of the default routes anyway, so the original six (AKA the "Hefty Half-Dozen") would need to be installed every time you download a new route anyway. Without any route packed into it, the Route Control route is 443 megabytes. PO&N5 is 310 megs installed (it should be about 270, I screwed the pooch and forgot to take out the line that copies 40 megs worth of unnecessary OE*.ace files into \terrtex and \terrtex\snow), so packing PO&N5 with Route Control wouldn't save you any space.

So what's the point? Well, you could concievably download about 5 to 10 add-on routes depending on their size, install them using whatever batch file they come with, then delete the original six routes and have about the same 2 gigabytes worth in the routes folder as you get with the six originals (1.12 gigs) plus one Route Control packed route (500 to 650, depending on which new route). But then you couldn't download and install any more new routes after that without going thru the process of re-installing the Hefty Half-Dozen again. And that's what your 15 bucks buys you, instead of each new route you download and install eating another 250 to 600 megs of disk space, it creates a fast extracting compressed archive of all the files that are unique to each new route packed or added, tossing out all the common files, and using from 3 to 50 megabytes for each packed route. If I download 20 really huge routes that use an average of 500 megs per route, that's 10 gigabytes of disk space. If I pack the same routes in route control, it's about 600 megs plus 20 X 50 megs per packed route, or 1.6 gigabytes as opposed to 10 gigabytes. I currently have about 50 routes zipped up on my hard disk, and it takes considerably less time to load routes in route control than it does to unzip and re-install them manually. If I install them all at once, 50 times 500 equals 25 gigabytes without Route Control, or 3 gigabytes with Route Control. So every time somebody uploads a new route, I can download and try it out without worrying about disk space.

Drawbacks? Sure, tradeoffs on everything, you don't get something for nothing. You only get one of these packed routes active at a time, when you want to play a different route you have to exit the sim and load the other route, which unloads the one you were just driving. Changing from one route to another in the load screen can be up to 3 minutes for one of the huge complicated routes, or as little as 10 seconds (AMD Palimino 1600+, slower systems probably take longer) for simple little routes like the PO&N. Again, a lot faster than deleting and re-installing routes. And of course if you want to hack the route in the route editor or add activities you have to "make it permanent" and re-pack it afterwards. Being a compulsive hacker I usually keep a new route installed without packing it for several weeks before adding it to route control, but RC packed and normally installed routes will peacefully co-exist until you decide you need to free up disk space. Defragging the hard disk regularly is always a good idea anyway, but it doesn't have to be done with Route Control any more often than you would with all that deleting one route and unzipping and installing another one, about once a week.Some minor glitches, like the fact that the track texture will be the same for all routes, are being worked on. But the program runs flawlessly, does not add or contribute to the bugs in the MSTS game program itself, and IMAO it's well worth the 15 bucks even if you have a monster size hard drive. Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
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Subject Author Message Date ID RE: ROUTE CONTROL REVIEW patm41 Mar-18-02 1

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