Discover > News
Jul 2023 - New route from Train Simulations
Train Simulations publishes new Southern Pacific Shasta route.
Jan 2023 - Portugal '79
Portugal '79 has been published. This provides 1775km of broad gauge track, with full detail on 91km between Entroncamento and Alfarelos.
Jan 2023 - HSB Simulator
New commercial route HSB Simulator published. This contains 87 miles of the Harz narrow-gauge railway, the longest narrow-gauge route network in Europe.
Nov 2022 - Version 1.5.1
Open Rails 1.5.1 released to fix 3 bugs in v1.5.
Nov 2022 - Version 1.5
Open Rails 1.5 released.
Jul 2022
Three new UK routes are now available for immediate download here.
Oct 2021
Version 1.4 is now available for immediate download here.
Nov 2020
Wagons can now be braked individually as on the oldest railways. This can be experienced in 2 scenarios - Stephenson's Rocket at Rainhill Trials and Langley Vale Timber Tramway.
Apr 2020
After more than a year of work the free, restored and improved Siskiyou Route is once more available.
Apr 2019
ENG files published with accurate physics for 176 USA diesel locos.
Dec 2018
Open Rails 1.3.1 released Download it here.
Mar 2018
Geoff Rowlands found a way to model 3D controls so they can be grabbed by the handle as in this video.
Jan 2017 - Version 1.2
Open Rails 1.2 released.
Mar 2016 - Version 1.1
Open Rails 1.1 released.
Dec 2015 - More Access to Elvas Tower
The Elvas Tower forum plays a major role in developing Open Rails but has been closed to non-members following a dispute. We can now report that some of the Open Rails sub-forums are open again.
Jun 2015 - Great Zig Zag Railway
Peter Newell has just released (June 2105) the Great Zig Zag Railway, a steam route for Open Rails v1.0 (this 120MB download requires no other files).
May 2015 - Version 1.0
Open Rails 1.0 released! Download it here.
Apr 2015 - Demo Model 1
Open Rails first demonstration route Demo Model 1 has been published.
Dec 2014 - 3D Cabs
Dekosoft Trains has added locos exclusively for Open Rails to its range. These are GP30 diesels taking advantage of our 3D cab feature.
Jul 2014 - Web Site
The legacy graphics-heavy web site has been replaced by one based on Bootstrap which is both easier to maintain and suitable for phones and tablets as well as PCs.
You can still see an archive of the old site.
Apr 2014 - Installer
An installer is now available, so Open Rails and its pre-requisites such as XNA can be delivered in a single download.
Apr 2014 - Smoother, More Detailed Graphics
Open Rails currently uses DirectX 9 and, although this is not the latest version of DirectX, hidden away inside is a method for reducing the number of "draw calls" which the CPU makes to the GPU. Fewer calls mean higher frame rates, smoother motion and the capacity to handle more detail.
The technique is called "hardware instancing" and allows identical objects (e.g. trees in a forest) to be combined into a single draw call. The work is transferred to the GPU which copies them as many times as necessary and usually has spare capacity.
You can expect some increases in frame rate, especially on routes with many identical objects. To turn this on, tick the checkbox for
Options > Experimental > Use model instancing.
Mar 2014 - Additional Languages
Open Rails becomes available in additional languages, initially eight including Chinese.
Mar 2014 - Work Starts on Timetables
A schedule of trains (or timetable) is nearly impossible to arrange in Microsoft Train Simulator as AI trains don't adhere to booked station stops. In Open Rails, the situation is better but an activity with a player train and AI traffic is still very different from a timetable.
Work has now begun on a timetable element which is an alternative to the usual activity. The timetable will contain all the details needed for each scheduled train - path, consist, booked stops etc.. Conventional activities will continue as before.
Also there is no longer any distinction between player train or AI train - any train in the timetable can be selected as the player train, the others are operated by a remote player or by the simulator.
Feb 2014
Fog is developed from just softening the horizon into a realistic effect which users can fully control.
Recent Code Changes
T1.5.1-1627-g90cae11a5Merge pull request #1059 from mbm-OR/bugfix/Fix-F9-powersupply-crashes
Fix F9 powersupply crashes313f7951Fix F9 powersupply crashes
T1.5.1-1625-g383755b0bMerge pull request #1061 from mbm-OR/bugfix/Fix-F9-Webpage-conflict
Fix F9 Web-page conflict.f75dc71bFix F9 Web-page conflict.
T1.5.1-1623-g53e9ed1caMerge pull request #1060 from deringenieur71/master
Deutsche Übersetzung leicht angepasst1330afa0Update de.po
Einige Texte übersetzt, kleine Tipfehler behobened0ab313Update de.po
Tipfehler, doppelte Leerzeichen
T1.5.1-1620-gd22a0019eMerge pull request #1031 from Csantucci/multiplayer-server-official
Multiplayer Server, forked from Open Rails Ultimate; blueprint https://blueprints.launchpad.net/or/+spec/multiplayer-serverc097fd2bAddo standalone multiplayer server documentation in the OR manual34aa23acfix: Update multi-player server build to match others66700265fix: Allow multi-player server to build on VS2019242f603bRemove package reference trying to get Appveyor success9ca1642dModify package references1dd8133bMultiplayer Server, forked from Open Rails Ultimate; blueprint https://blueprints.launchpad.net/or/+spec/multiplayer-server
T1.5.1-1613-g05d58921cMerge pull request #1058 from twpol/refactor/notification-parameters
Refactor notification parameters626ebedcfeat: Improved notification parameter parsingbe6e80e8fix: Remove unused propertiesa5e13ed5refactor: Separate common value property for notification items25a098fbfix: Remove unused class
T1.5.1-1608-g273f2ef97Merge pull request #1026 from Csantucci/mp-chuff
Fix for Multiplayer: remote trains chuff can't be heard https://bugs.launchpad.net/or/+bug/20927716a89a97bFix for Multiplayer: remote trains chuff can't be heard https://bugs.launchpad.net/or/+bug/2092771
T1.5.1-1606-gf9e80b97dMerge pull request #1051 from pzgulyas/cabmouse
Mouse wheel support for cabview controls + refactor0ac5d302Cabview mouse wheel supportc74058d6Cab controls mouse handling refactored
T1.5.1-1603-gb8c8c9a48Merge pull request #1033 from cesarBLG/multiple-light-textures
Multiple signal light textures per signal7efd3553Fix error handling171dc86cMultiple signal light textures per signal
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