New version of Trainz?

We have to admit that a direct projectio of Google Maps in Trainz would be perhaps the biggest step surveyor has ever done.
I wonder if we can have a .kzm coverter (.kzm to trainz route)

Where the GE resolution is high enough, you can actually follow the individual tracks for placement on the ground, rendering the "get it about right" technique redundant. It's great!
 
Yeah, I`ve done that with basemaps. Images in Germany are so HQ, you can even count the sleepers!
 
Yeah, I`ve done that with basemaps. Images in Germany are so HQ, you can even count the sleepers!

I've seen that too for some of the more recent updated images for the US too. There are still some areas though that are still older images which don't have that kind of resolution.
 
Images in Germany are so HQ, you can even count the sleepers!
Which needs zoom level 20 or approximately 1:500. Track diagrams, which have all the abstraction already accomplished, are usually 1:1000. And nobody with a bit of experience would seriously contemplate to build a 100 mile route with 1:1000 or 1:500 blueprints all along the way. At zoom level 20, where you can count the sleepers, you would need 6400 tiles of 256 pixels each for the 100 miles. It would take ages to build at that level of detail. We all know that we need to apply some generalization for the long stretches between stations. That's where the topo maps are much handier than aerial images - if you can read them.
 
I prefer aerial. I wish I had a PayPal account but I cant yet....
Maybe if I get some cash in the bank...
 
Personally, I always thought that naming this product as trainz was a bad idea (Kind of like taking a domain name that is already used in replacing something like the letter E with a 3, or the S with the letter Z) but possibly one that was necessary to differentiate itself from other products (And/or trademark problems) at the time that this one first came out, and I find it rather odd that they've not used the acronym of TRZ12 instead of TS12.
 
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Well. Releasing a new Version of Trainz is hard work for AURAN. Why?

Re-make the Graphical Engine: We are seeing the same engine of Trainz 2004!

And other things I dont remember.

But seriously A new Game engine is needed.

Nice day
 
I guess only Greg Lane (or maybe John Banks) can answer why they decided to call it "Trainz" rather than something else. Probably because at the time it was a catchy title, they didn't want to upset MS who already had "Train Simulator" and it would provide something of a unique identity for a product which (at least in the beginning) was intended as being different from the other similar products kicking about.
 
The whole of the third video (jjqburch's link above) appeared to be real train footage from different countries.

Then I read the statements which appear in the credits at the end of each of the three videos. One states, “Some in-game footage enhanced during post-production.”

That implies that some real game footage was in the third video. I don’t think there was any at all.

It also, IMHO, must mean that what you will get in game will not look as good as the “enhanced” publicity imagery.

There's game footage at the very end when the host says "We are railfans" and that text comes up on screen; and while I usually am not on the RS boat, what they probably were referring to by the modification of the footage was making the sky change really fast while the train moved 'normally'

peter
 
The name "Trainz" always reminded me of Sheetz (Mid-Atlantic US convenience store chain) products. If you're not familiar with them, they have a habit of sticking "z" or "sh" on anything and everything - shwingz, wrapz, coffeez, saladz, chicken stripz, fryz, etc. It's a silly name, how many names can you give a rail sim anyways? Grand Train Auto 2014? Call of Trainsing: Modern Diesels? Run8 is pretty much the only one not using some variation of "train" and "simulator". I never cared for how the Railsimulator.com folks made all their logos look like MSTS/Flight Sim ones, but they changed it for this release.

Anyways, my fear is that the Trainz market is moving away from the PC and to the smartphone and tablet market. I have Trainz for the iPad, but isn't really anything more than a distraction when I'm traveling or otherwise bored. Those markets can be very lucrative though and Trainz is the only serious app of its kind for those devices. I really wonder if it is more profitable to focus on the couple of bucks a pop apps, where N3V has a virtual monopoly, or try to compete with TS2014 and its successors, which at this point is going to take a lot of work and money.
 
Well. Releasing a new Version of Trainz is hard work for AURAN. Why?

Re-make the Graphical Engine: We are seeing the same engine of Trainz 2004!

And other things I dont remember.

But seriously A new Game engine is needed.

Nice day

What we need is shadows and dynamic lights. I`ve heard that adding these will be horrible for performance in Trainz, because of the big draw distance.

So Auran:
1) There is a thing called options. If shadows make you lag, turn them off.
2) I`ve seen games render the entire world (Scale 1:1 Earth) with shadows, dynamic lighting and even procedural grass.

So all it takes is work. Dump the Jet Engine. We need a TurboJet Engine!:hehe:
 
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And how much do you think that will cost? The main reason the Jet engine is still used is because it was probably designed/created in-house. Changing to a different rendering system costs both time and money.

Shane
 
I understand that. I`m not into programming at all, but I`m sure that the existing Jet Engine can handle shadows, at least. It runs on Dx9 or OpenGL, both of them support shadows.
I dont think that modifying the existing code will cost that much!
 
For shadows to appear in-game, a shadow mesh has to exist for the asset that is casting the shadow, although for bridges it is through a casts-shadows tag in the config.txt file. In addition to this, there is a setting under Launcher > Options > Advanced Options that controls whether shadows are shown or not.

Shane
 
Ah, see that is not a "real" shadow projection. It is just a mesh.
Normally the shadows would be calculated by the engine.
 
There are some assets that can cast real shadows, like bridges, without a shadow mesh, using an entry in the config.txt file.

Shane
 
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