Adding a custom map to SMR for Mac requires finding the UserMaps folder into which you must un-zip the custom map. Sid Meier’s Railroads! must be run at least once so it may create the UserMaps folder.
Feral Interactive’s support FAQ provides instructions for finding the UserMaps folder:
Custom maps, created using the terrain editor, are stored in your Preferences folder. To find them, follow these steps:
- After creating and saving your map in Sid Meier’s Railroads!, exit the game.
- Relaunch the game by double-clicking on the Sid Meier’s Railroads! Application icon while holding the Command (⌘) key. The Sid Meier’s Railroads! pre-game Options window will appear.
- Select the Advanced tab and click on the Open Preferences Folder button. A new finder window will open showing the Sid Meier’s Railroads! folder contents on your computer’s hard drive.
- Open the UserMaps folder to view a list of folders, each containing data for one of your saved custom maps.
— from http://support.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-games/railroads/faqs/share_maps/
Once you have the UserMaps folder open you must delete any other downloaded custom maps before installing a new custom map. Maps you have created yourself with the map editor do not need to be deleted, only delete maps you have downloaded from smrsimple.
Next unzip the downloaded map into the UserMaps folder. Now launch SMR and start a new game. At the map selection screen you may have to scroll through all the maps to find your new map.
Actually the “Open Preferences Folder” command is under the “About” tab in SMR Options, NOT “Advanced”. A very small point, but one worth mentioning.
For the geeky, the location of the folder in the file system is ~/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads! {Phew}
Now, hoo aboot a decent map of Scotland ey? Those UK maps are almost insulting — and that’s oor job!
I found the folder at
~/Library/Containers/com.feralinteractive.railroads/Data/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!
But the first map I tried didn’t work.
Is there a list of maps which work? The first two I have downloaded showed up in the selection screen and crashed the game while loading.
San Francisco and Ukraine work fine. Most crash immediately. I haven’t found any obvious factor that’s different between the ones that work and the ones that don’t.
try to put graphic level a bit lower ,it may help u aid in crashing btw make sure your custommaps and usermap folders are empty and must contian the map u downloaded ….the first one aberdeen….its the best so far it may crash but i managed to play it ,it is the best map i played so far 🙂
oops idk abt mac procedure
The problem does not seem to be related to the graphics level. The maps crash the game while they are still loading. It never gets to displaying the start of the scenario. Some of the ones that crash are pretty simple, i.e. no sound or graphics mods, only XML files. The few that do work play fine without any issues. They are all simple XML mods. I’ve tested about half of the files on this site. Ones that work are: San Francisco, Western Russia, Ukraine, Iceland. Ones that I know crash are: Wisconsin, Gold Rush, Aberdeen, NAFTA, Japan, Italy. If anyone is interested, I can send you the whole list.
OK, I might be starting to understand this. The instructions above are not complete. I found this on another thread: “To make these train liveries available, place the “TrainLiveryPack1.FPK” in your “CustomAssets” folder…” I think most of the failing maps have FPK files. I’ll try putting the FPK into “CustomAssets” when I get home and see if that makes any difference.
I just got the Devon map to load after some tinkering. Inside UserMaps I put the Devon_SAM folder. Inside CustomAssets I put the BB_Devon.FPK file. Inside the Devon_SAM folder I had to create a file called Devon.SMR_Scenario, with a single line, “ RRT_Scenario_User_Devon.xml”. Time to play it and see if it works correctly.
Where do you guys get the scenario files with .fpk files included? I have always argued against their use, and to my knowledge, all maps these days do without them – except the plain vanilla .fpk provided in the original game, of course.
Most of the maps have FPK files. List of maps that I’ve tried with FPK files that crash immediately when loading: ChicagoToTheRockies, India_V_1_0, Italia, Japan3, Liverpool_&_Manchester_2, LongBeach, Lost_Cities_Fixed, NewSosaria, North-east-UK, Northern-Germany, Orient_Express, PITGOC, Southern_Ontario, UK_Large_MP, UK_Pennies, UK2, UKLower, War_Zone.
Maps that worked on my MacbookPro Retina with SMC Version 1.0.1:
Shanghai
Iceland
Currently working for me, on Mountain Lion 10.8.2
San Francisco
China
Texas
yep if u have patience u can play some of the map.the best map ever is Aberdeen ,yep it crashes but try loading it again it will work,
it gives an idea of real time private railways 🙂
Dear RR colleagues,
i have tried to install custom maps in my Mac Library folder. All went fine until I tried to locate the proper subfolder. According to rockinrod it is: ~/Library/Containers/com.feralinteractive.railroads/Data/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!
and according to dimmer it is:
~/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!
I cant’t find neither and even a search inside of the Aoolication Support folder does not bear any results. My question of course is: ‘why o why’ and ‘what now, what now’?
Thanks a billion for the proper answer. Greetz from Holland, Eduard
Reading your comment, I would assume you skipped point 2 in the box above?
Hey Eduard Vooren!
Maybe you are searching in the global Library folder?! The files have to be in your users application support folder:
/Users/YOUR-USER-NAME/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!
You can open the Library folder by opening the Terminal an writing
open "/Users/YOUR-USER-NAME/Library"Or an easier path is: ~/Library, since ~ is the same as /Users/YOUR-USER-NAME.
After all that, I think I have finally put together all the disparate information. Here’s how it works:
1 – download a copy of Macapaka.app (google will find a download site)
2 – download the map file from this site, double click to extract files
3 – create a folder called assets in the same folder as the xml files
4 – double click the fpk file, extract into the assets folder
5 – copy the folder (with xml files and assets folder) into the UserMaps folder
6 – start up SMR and go
Using this process, I got Italia to start up. I haven’t played yet to see how long it goes before crashing. 🙂
Using the method above, UKLargeMP works perfectly, although several still crash on start or early in the game. A general trend is if there is a tunnels or bridges xml file, it will probably crash. I’m still looking at the assets themselves to see if any particular type guarantees a crash.
I’ve been battling the maps on a Mac too! The Library file seems to be hidden on my mac. I can get to it, but it’s a pain! So far my experience has been mixed getting these files to work.
I have been trying Princeofcups method, and having mixed luck at best. I have also been trying putting the fpk file (both extracted and not extracted) in the custom assets folder without much luck!
The only files I can get to work reliably are:
Australia
AZCanyonV2_2
Iberia1.06
LongBeachCalifornia
SanFran
US_Southeast_v2
Jeff’s post is interesting because he says the US_Southeast_v2 map is working reliably on his Mac and I know this map has a custom Bridges.xml file. Princeofcups has posted that he is having trouble with all maps having custom bridges or tunnels files, so this is a mystery. I have read early posts that say on PCs SMR loads all files in the Usermaps folder AND the CustomAssets folder at the start of a game; and that when running new custom maps all old files should be deleted from both these folders before loading the new custom map. Having more than one map loaded not only increases RAM requirements, but may create conflicts (esp where the same filename appears in 2 maps). It seems a Mac may have the same problem. The interview with the developer of SMR for Mac states that you don’t have to delete everything from Usermaps folder before loading a new custom map. I doubt this will work for everyone or every map. He also says that custom bridge costs cannot be run, but he implies that it is not possible on a PC either and that is not so. I suggest you clean out the Usermaps AND CustomAssets folders before loading a new custom map in the Usermaps folder. My CustomAssets folder is empty and always stays that way. I load new maps only into a clean Usermaps folder. Good Luck, you guys. I hope you figure out how to make custom maps play on the new Mac version of SMR.
Just to add to TMiller’s comment. I am only running 1 folder at a time in the User Map folder. I leave Mr. Scott’s railroads in my custom asset folder all the time. I will add fpk files if I find them on some of the games.
AZ works great and is a challenging scenario. Seems like the gold mine is a waste, I haven’t found a city demanding gold yet.
I keep trying to get BC Gold to work since other claim success. It will load, but always crash about 10 minutes into the scenario. I have found a number of others that do this too. I just haven’t been keeping track of the ones that won’t load vs those that crash after about 10 minutes of play.
Ignore my comment about the gold in AZ. I did find a town that would use it.
Hi Jeff. I am glad that you found that AZ runs well – and that you have found out where all that gold needs to go 🙂
I like the map Karsten…selling the gold was quite a letdown though! Well done!
While some maps are crashing on my Macbook Air 2012, what runs fine is Arizona_V2_2 from Karsten. And because Karsten seems to monitor this thread: @Karsten: A BIG THANK YOU to you for this map. I really really enjoyed playing it! No easy map, but i really liked the challenge. Had a lot of fun!
Thanks, guys! Good to hear from you 🙂
Mac users having trouble with maps should check out Jr_Mac_SMR’s post on the Arabia map page. He said he had problems with some maps until he opened all xml files in “TextEdit” and resaved them without editing. Then the maps loaded and ran fine. Seems an odd solution, but I don’t have a Mac to see how this changes the file. If this works, its an easy fix.
I read the JR_Mac thread and tried it out. Arabia and Gone with the Wind seemed to work after the xml trick. I did not play either game from start to finish. I also tried the trick with Alaska Early, Italia, and Utah. Those were NOT fixed using the XML save. I’ll play with some others and post results later.
I played some more this morning. Alaska Early and Italia are working now if I unzip the FPK and place it in the custom assets folder. I didn’t try Utah.
I have been keeping my User Maps folder with just one custom scenario, but leaving multiple FPK’s in the custom assets to simply moving files around. Is this okay, or is best practice just one folder in the custom assets? I have had Mr. Scott’s Railroad Logo’s in there all along and it seems to work in any scenario.
Thanks for everyone’s help. I think we may be making progress on all the scenario’s working for Mac’s.
BTW – I am using Macapaka to unzip. TextEdit to work the XML trick. I’m running a 2010 27″ Imac with 8 Gb of memory. Maybe those details will help others.
@Jeff
AlaskaEarly and Italia worked right out the box with me.
My procedure for maps with FPK
FPK goes to CustomAsset Folder, Map folder into the UserMap. I don’t unzip the FPK.
Tried Utah and it crashed but saved again and it started up.
I am using a automator script to copy the map/file to the user map, cutsom asset map.
An Automater/applescript to open and save the xml files.I will publish them after tiding it up, if anyone is interested.
My Mac early 2008 3Gb Ram
OS Mountain Lion
JR
JR…count me as interested.
I’m having fun with the new maps. Chicago to the Rockies has been interesting!
Anyone Gotten Tmillers Canada pacific to work on the mac version? does anything need to be moved to custom assets? tried moving assets folders/files there with no luck
I am late to the user-created-maps party but I am thrilled to finally join the fun. I was able to successfully download and install the Arizona map (awesome job Karsten, thanks!) Played through almost to the end of the first objective at my first sitting with no issues.
I had a stumble on installation worth sharing here. At some point Apple made the Library folder hidden, so after creating my own test custom, I still couldn’t find UserMaps. After a bit of research I found a super easy fix. From Finder, hold down the Alt or Option key then drop down the Go menu. You will see Library. Open it and you can then navigate within as usual, finding UserMaps, moving in your zip file, unpacking, etc.
Thanks for documenting the install process. I doubt I would have figured it out on my own. You have added immensely to my enjoyment of the game.
I am loving these great maps you all created!
I recently started Western Russia by Recoup and have a problem. Whenever I try to build an annex at a sheep farm it crashes. All the other resources work fine but without wool and nitrates I can’t win the gold. I can build this on the Ukraine map, so it is something specific to W Russia. Some little corruption somewhere? Anybody got ideas for a fix?
Hi, I love this game and would love to play multi player, I cannot use game ranger because i have mac osx Maverick installed.
Any one know how i can play multi player games and does anyone wana to set up some multi player games let me know thanks.
I guess I need patch 1.1 to make this work, but my version is 1.0.1. Feral doesn’t look to have a patch download link and the 2k one is a Windows program. How should I get this patch for OSX?
I couldn’t get any custom maps to work with version 1.2 for macOS. The game just hangs at the loading screen for new maps.
The UserMaps folder can be found here:
~/Library/Containers/com.feralinteractive.railroads/Data/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!/VFS/User/AppData/Roaming/My Games/WinDeveloper/UserMaps
Maybe someone else has more luck…
Andreas: what version macos are you running?
this is the path on my imac that runs with 10.8.5:
hardrive/users/username/library/application support/ feral interactive/sid meier’s railroads!/usermaps
befor i installed 12 gb ram, the game could only be played on auto-save. it crashed every few minutes – with the exception of simple. small maps.
are you running a windows version on macos via emulator?
The correct path under Big Sur is /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!/VFS/User/AppData/Roaming/My Games/WinDeveloper/UserMaps
Unfortunately I’ve tried Western_Kentucky_Version_2 but it doesn’t work it starts, load and then 60gb of ram was used and it crashed 🙂
under macOS Monterey the correct path is:
/Users//Library/Containers/com.feralinteractive.railroads/Data/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!/VFS/User/AppData/Roaming/My Games/WinDeveloper/UserMaps
Struggled with this for a bit. Same location as listed in the previous comment, just couldn’t figure out how to get to the library, here is a link on how to find it.
https://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/03/12/library-folder-mac/
/Users/’your_username’/Library/Containers/com.feralinteractive.railroads/Data/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!/VFS/User/AppData/Roaming/My Games/WinDeveloper
Another note that I got hung up on:
Copy the contents of the foler and paste these in the usermaps, NOT just the top level folder. There should be 2 files, these should not be combined into one folder.
Hi all,
Does anyone know where to find the custom maps folder on Mac OS Ventura (13.3 specifically)? I tried looking for the path noted above but there is no com.feralactive folder inside the Containers folder.
Thanks in advance!
Thank you all.
I hadn’t had success with this about ten years ago when I’d first tried to install custom maps. I recently revisited the game, and was delighted to find that the maps now work for me on Mac (macOS Sonoma). Just pasting my experience here as it varies slightly from the other comments above.
I had been trying to put them into the UserMaps folder /Users/[Username]/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!/UserMaps, but I am delighted that what worked for me (as I could not find any containers relevant to the game), the maps should be placed into:
/Users/[Username]/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!/VFS/User/AppData/Roaming/My Games/WinDeveloper/UserMaps/
Starting with San Francisco now, and looking forward to a bright future with the Custom Maps on here.
Hi, does anyone know where the Usermaps folder is if you download RailRoads! from the app store? I’ve tried all the above and can’t find it, doesn’t seem to be in the application itself either and have tried creating a usermaps folder within.
Have also tried creating a new map using terrain editor which works but it shows a windows path (can’t find the new map I created either in finder). Running Sonoma 14.1.1
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Sonoma 14.1.1 / Downloaded from Mac App store
Update to my post above – I’ve found it! what a pain but it’s there…
/Users/[username]/
Then Go – Go To Folders from the menu bar and type Library
Then navigate to
/Library/Containers/com.feralinteractive.railroads/Data/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Sid Meier’s Railroads!/VFS/User/AppData/Roaming/My Games/WinDeveloper/UserMaps