another potential RW recruit

**rohan** · August 28th, 2010, 20:34

Yesterday, for some reason, I found myself reading almost every thread here in an effort to find out what rail simulators are available. Then I discovered that I still had my TS discs so started grabbing all the essential extras plus a few tasty morcels. My plan is to install TS today and play a while ... waiting to make a decision on whether to get RW while it's on offer. It looks great but there's a lot of bad press out there related to its use of Steam. I tried browsing their website looking for answers to some questions but they don't exactly give a lot away and keep a lot hidden. For example, I tried to search their forum and was accused of being a bot - well, I failed the anti-bot test anyway, because, even with my exceptional eyesight, I couldn't make out six characters in their image, and I changed the image at least twenty times ! The contrast difference is set way too low.

So, here I am asking some real users whose opinions I do value.

1 - I found quite a few references to "RailWorks 2010" but couldn't find anyone who actually sells it. The only RW on sale has been on the books since last summer. Is there such a thing as RW 2010 ?
2 - can you actually run / play RW while offline without an active Internet connection ?
3 - how often does Steam force you to go online so that it can "check for updates" ?
4 - how often are there actually updates that it needs ?
5 - if Steam "keeps your program up-to-date all the time", then what's the possibility of it screwing up some of the free add-ons that you've downloaded and installed yourself ?
6 - I think I saw somewhere that you're given a free program when you sign up for Steam / RW. Do you have any choice about whether you want that program installed on your PC ?

As you can probably tell, I'm very wary of "products" like Steam and, if I could buy RW and use it without Steam, I'd be quite a happy bunny. I have no problem with update systems like M$'s, and love the Linux package system (one central place from which virtually all your apps are updated), but the key difference is that I am in control of when I get updates - not the ******* program. To me, Steam is more of an invasive copy protection system, so the question is, is RW worth the effort ? If you can answer my questions above, it will help me to make that judgement,
thanks in advance for any help,
Ro

***Henry*** · August 30th, 2010, 06:25

Originally Posted by rohan

Yesterday, for some reason, I found myself reading almost every thread here in an effort to find out what rail simulators are available. Then I discovered that I still had my TS discs so started grabbing all the essential extras plus a few tasty morcels. My plan is to install TS today and play a while ... waiting to make a decision on whether to get RW while it's on offer. It looks great but there's a lot of bad press out there related to its use of Steam. I tried browsing their website looking for answers to some questions but they don't exactly give a lot away and keep a lot hidden. For example, I tried to search their forum and was accused of being a bot - well, I failed the anti-bot test anyway, because, even with my exceptional eyesight, I couldn't make out six characters in their image, and I changed the image at least twenty times ! The contrast difference is set way too low.

So, here I am asking some real users whose opinions I do value.

1 - I found quite a few references to "RailWorks 2010" but couldn't find anyone who actually sells it. The only RW on sale has been on the books since last summer. Is there such a thing as RW 2010 ?
2 - can you actually run / play RW while offline without an active Internet connection ?
3 - how often does Steam force you to go online so that it can "check for updates" ?
4 - how often are there actually updates that it needs ?
5 - if Steam "keeps your program up-to-date all the time", then what's the possibility of it screwing up some of the free add-ons that you've downloaded and installed yourself ?
6 - I think I saw somewhere that you're given a free program when you sign up for Steam / RW. Do you have any choice about whether you want that program installed on your PC ?

As you can probably tell, I'm very wary of "products" like Steam and, if I could buy RW and use it without Steam, I'd be quite a happy bunny. I have no problem with update systems like M$'s, and love the Linux package system (one central place from which virtually all your apps are updated), but the key difference is that I am in control of when I get updates - not the ******* program. To me, Steam is more of an invasive copy protection system, so the question is, is RW worth the effort ? If you can answer my questions above, it will help me to make that judgement,
thanks in advance for any help,
Ro

I believe RW2010 is the same as RW from steam
yes you can run it off line
i have not had a problem with other addons
but i do back up to another drive
yes there is another program that is installed to download updates but i have never had a problem with it.
the steam forum in my opinion is not worth going to
but there are a few that are informative
one donationware program thats worth its weight in gold is rw tools
you can back up all the assets and contents
just in case something gets messed up
i certainly recommend RW but i do not have MS trainsim
to compare
if you need any help just ask
H

**rohan** · August 30th, 2010, 21:53

H,
thanks very much for your response. Since I originally posted, I found more info on Steam which your post confirms, along with others here. Funnily enough, the extra info (including a set of FAQ) was on the Rail Simulator site linked IIRC from the RW UK TrainSim site. Amongst those FAQ was a comment about never being compelled to go online after the initial installation and activation of RW.

I also found out that RW is installed within the Steam folder heirarchy on a PC and that any other add-ons that you install go within that folder structure (just like any other program really). So, as long as you do what you suggest and keep proper backups externally, there should be no problem recovering from any glitches caused by updates.

I guess I'm almost convinced that I should buy RW although I still have a niggling concern about the jaggies and stutters that I've seen in youtube movies that have been posted. I suspect those were caused by the type of PC / video cards used by the movie's creators, and that my new high spec PC will not have the same symptoms however ( if and when I ever get to be able to finish building it),
thanks again,
Ro