To bin or not to bin, that is the question.

stevefranks · Joined: 03 Oct 2008 Posts: 12

Greetings,

I imagine that many of us train simmers have a love/hate relationship with MSTS. It grows exponentially over time with routes, trains, consists, and with so many personal changes and tweaks to our .eng/.wag files, that it quickly becomes a housekeeping nightmare. And heaven forbid the day when we must reinstall this final Frankenstein monster and start from scratch as I am now (again). All very disheartening! For that reason, I am deeply suspicious of making any major changes that might jeopardize months of labor or my old archive collection.

But lately, I see so many new cars, engines and some routes (?) requiring this mysterious bin.

1. Just what exactly is its primary purpose?

2. And, what is its potentially detrimental effect on old routes and rolling stock? I've got about 25+ CDs crammed with patches, utilities, rolling stock and routes collected over the years.

3. And succinctly, just what does bin due for me that I just can't live without it?

4. What are its cons?

5. Must I make changes to old files to make them compatible, or keep them useable?

Lately, I am passing up some juicey goodies just because of the words, "bin required."

I have read some info on bin, but not enough to sell me or overcome my misgivings. I need a good salesman.

PS: As a user of MSTS ever since it first hit the shelves, I want to personally thank everyone in the MSTS community for their contributions, both great and small; whether it be a route, boxcar, or merely friendly advice.

Warmest regards,
Steve

GaryG · Guest

Hi Steve

Good questions and no straight forward answer coming from me.

A list of some improvements

- front couplers can now be used without the worry about will MSTS crash this time (couplers may need modifications to couple/uncouple nicely)

- improved memory management (hidden from the user of course)

- now able to switch to another loco cab in the consist

- quantity of visible lights increased

- all non-AI locos in the player consist can now follow the throttle position of the driven loco (which now can be any non-AI loco in the consist)

These are the main ones I can think of right now that impact the way I run MSTS. There are others, one is the ability to have auto switching of day and night cab views.

For the majority of the possibilities you don't need to do anything but install MSTSbin. The ones that 'require' MSTSbin have changed parameters that allow use of new 'bin functionalities that might choke plain old MSTS.

If you know what a mini-route is, one of these would be a great way to try out 'bin without impacting the rest of your routes.

GaryG

Gaetan · Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:17 am Post subject:

And don't forget you can now switch for one passenger car to another anytime if the inside view is available for this cars Smile

and also the bogies run in right direction when you flip the engines

I love Bin

nbeveridge · Joined: 14 May 2008 Posts: 45 Location: Texas

rfranzosa · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:58 pm Post subject:

.....and you missed one of my favorites, the '4' camera view stays with the train until the last car has past, no matter how long the train is.

RGF

stevefranks · Joined: 03 Oct 2008 Posts: 12

Greetings,

Well, everyone has given me a some positive reasons to bin and not to bin.

I like the notion of being able to see my whole train pass by. I am not sure just how this moving from cab to cab works, but I'll have a lot of new possibilities to play with.

Looks like Friday will be bin day. Are they any particular files I should back up?

I downloaded bin 1.7.051922 in the hope it is the latest stable version.

Thanks again fellas! Smile

Regards,
Steve

bandorr2000 · Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 139 Location: Cinnaminson, NJ

I have been running the newest BIN, 1.8.052113 , and have had no problems. Have been running it for a couple of months now.

GaryG · Guest

Hi Steve

'bin actually creates a backup of all files it replaces. Three 'be aware' notes.

1 - to uninstall 'bin just click the uninstall program it leaves behind in your Train Simulator directory.

2 - You must have the Microsoft updates installed or it will not install after giving a wrong version found message.

3 - You must manually pull the string and language dll files out of the new dll's folder for the appropriate language.

That's pretty well the main items that create problems with installing and removing 'bin.

Enjoy the new, improved and probably more stable version of MSTS that MSTSbin will provide you.

GaryG

burgerbern · Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 56

everybody forgot that bin also completely eliminates the "Great White Void" that was with us from the start of MSTS, i would not be without bin now, it has tyransformed the Sim

nbeveridge · Joined: 14 May 2008 Posts: 45 Location: Texas

TheSchwede · Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 94

Don't forget that if an engine having 2 cabs you can "walk" to the other cab in that engine.

For "jump" from one engine to another in same trainset hit F9, press on the selected engine and voila, game crashed, you tried to jump in an AI-engine. Remember that you can only jump into an engine with a cab.

Rick Franzosa have created a mission that you jump from one engine to another cold the jumper ( don't know what route now).

Welcome to the happy Binpatch family.

rfranzosa · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:11 pm Post subject:

The "jumper" activity is for the Maple Leaf Tracks "Bridge Line" route, using the BLW/ZT Boston & Maine set.

Rick

stevefranks · Joined: 03 Oct 2008 Posts: 12

Greetings,

Well boys, I done binned myself last Saturday. The great change occurred without an explosion or even a whimper. Haven't personally unlocked many of its feature yets, but a previous posting regarding its elimination of that Great White Void, may prompt me to download a very fine route recently tested and sadly deleted due to its beginning and ending marred by the void. Most routes are fair, many are good, few are fine. With a cure to the void, this route was a keeper.

Regards,
Steve