Hi everyone. I felt I needed to say a few words on behalf of struggling pensioners. I have been a keen user and supporter of Trainz since the Ultimate series. I now have shelves with every version since. When TANE was announced, I threw my support behind it in all ways. I now have my version of TANE. But here is the problem. My computer is not capable of running it, and as much as I would like to, I simply can't afford to update my computer for some time. I have reverted to TS12, but have so much trouble with assets disappearing that many of my layouts are no longer usable. I am very worried that previous versions of Trainz have been left unsupported now TANE is here. I don't think I am the only person effected, and will be interested thear your views.
A pensioner's point of view
- Thread starter pinkmundi
- Start date
LNERlover5
Average Grad
It's a cold truth that N3V can't continue to support every version of Trainz forever, it just makes no financial sense on their part, which is completely fair. This is the same with every software product.
Jack
Jack
It is hard to put money away and save for a new computer. I compromised and bought a new laptop, but it will not run TANE.
Having been a software developer myself, I understand the point of view Jack puts, and I understand N3V need for revenue. Fortnightly salaries have to be paid.
We do have a lot of people here, over the retirement age .... what solution might be found for them?
Having been a software developer myself, I understand the point of view Jack puts, and I understand N3V need for revenue. Fortnightly salaries have to be paid.
We do have a lot of people here, over the retirement age .... what solution might be found for them?
cascaderailroad
New member
You can get TRS2006 and play it on any ol' cheepo integrated graphics $479 laptop :hehe:
I am in your group. I had to go back to TS2012 awhile ago since N3V REFUSES to identify missing splines and textures in TANE. I found that routes that used to be ok now had missing items and, in some cases, they were the same things that TANE showed as missing. What a mess. Thus people who are stuck on TS2012, for various reasons, find that TS2012 is NOT FULLY supported and they must repair things instead of enjoying the product in the same manner they used to..
It is not the fault of TANE but the brute force way N3V handled "cleaning" the database. There were ways to do it and retain the good will of customers who elected to stay with TS2012. BUT.... Blame management.
It is not the fault of TANE but the brute force way N3V handled "cleaning" the database. There were ways to do it and retain the good will of customers who elected to stay with TS2012. BUT.... Blame management.
Hi pinkmundi,
You are not alone! I'm 77 years of age and receive an age pension too. I purchased TS2010 five years ago and found a hobby,... one I could get my teeth into, become creative and really enjoy. When I wanted to upgrade to TS12 I realised that with more frills, generally most computers are forced under additional loads. So I delayed purchasing TS12, whilst I put away $20 every fortnight (pension day) until I had sufficient to not only upgrade my computer with more RAM and a new Video Driver including the installation. Then I bought TS12. I did the same when I joined the Kickstarter program for the development of T:ANE.
What I'm trying to say is, if you want something badly enough, then you can make it happen for yourself. Of course, sacrifices of other things you like as well as, time delays have to be made to get what you want.
In the meantime, have a close look at your computer, clean up any unwanted files, get some quotations for what upgrades you need and set yourself a tighter budget. If you do, you'll make it.
Although I'm enjoying T:ANE, I still use TS12 quite regularly, mainly because most of my routes are there. I know what you mean when you are concerned about lack of support for older Trainz versions, but I feel that if you maintain your TS12 program with up-to-date database repairs, and even clean out any unwanted routes you may have downloaded, then your program will be fully functional. Remember, many Trainz Members will continue to use older versions; and most importantly, you can always use the Forum for any assistance or queries you may have. Don't worry, Trainz and the Forum will be around for many years to come.
Good luck mate!
Cheers,
Roy3b3
But they dropped support for TS10 and TS12 Pre-SP1 way to fast. At least TS12 Pre-SP1 should've been supported longer. Does N3V even know how many of us use those older versions?
cascaderailroad
New member
The cold truth is that T:ANE has not been perfected, and is not optimized, and is a beta WIP, and is an unfinished game ... and they will be dropping support for TS12 soon ... that just dosn't make sense, especially if T:ANE is a complete FLOP ... with traffic light intersections hovering in the sky, orange grid box's everywhere, and prehistoric dinosaur animated German Shepard dog pterodactyls in the sky, has a pink/green chessboard terrain grid, and see through transparent baseboard textures ... all these things that the end user must fix themselves, or the game is virtually useless ... T:ANE TUV (The Unfinished Version) PreSP1Beta3
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I thought I'd go check on Fido and I'm afraid he doesn't look very healthy in the latest SP1 beta:
Visually, its better than the pterodactyl look, but he definitely not wagging his tail or anything else. Graphically he looks great but he also appears to be rather dead.
LNERlover5
Average Grad
It's not their priority to care. People buying the latest versions to allow for revenue flow that pays the bills is what matters from their perspective, however I recall Tony suggesting it's the mobile versions of Trainz that actually bring in that revenue. I'm fine with this because I have no choice, that's life.
You're arguing with the wrong person. I never said I'm happy with T:ANE being released in an unfinished state, but from my perspective beyond these bugs which are being fixed based on SP1 tests, T:ANE is just better than anything before it. It actually runs well on higher end hardware for once... Meanwhile I recall you suggesting 16FPS is fine from 2006, which is pathetic performance wise. You keep using it though, nobody is telling you to stop. Telling others to go back 10 years to validate your opinions however is nonsensical, because TRS2006 isn't very good compared to what we have now.
Jack
Continue not caring then, I wish them luck in their future endeavors.
LNERlover5
Average Grad
Funny how cutting off the remainder of my comment completely dilutes my point. Software companies don't support older software in the long term, from N3V to Microsoft. It makes no sense from a financial perspective because people sticking to older version aren't actually contributing in a financial sense. Even then I'm not saying you have to, it's a product after all and if it doesn't meet your expectations, you don't need to buy it, likewise, the company doesn't need to continue supporting you after a period of time.
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Yes but you generally cut support for older versions once the new is settled down and established and most users have migrated across to it. Look how long MS kept support for XP going!
Purely IMHO they should be looking at keeping full support for TS12 going until at least 2018 and maybe restoring TS2010 into the lifecycle policy, even if SP1 manages to transform TANE into something approximating what was promised. As regards the mobile versions, well if a cut down version designed to exploit money via the freemium business model is the way of the future - I'm going back to building a model railway as it would be cheaper in the long term!
Purely IMHO they should be looking at keeping full support for TS12 going until at least 2018 and maybe restoring TS2010 into the lifecycle policy, even if SP1 manages to transform TANE into something approximating what was promised. As regards the mobile versions, well if a cut down version designed to exploit money via the freemium business model is the way of the future - I'm going back to building a model railway as it would be cheaper in the long term!
LNERlover5
Average Grad
It's the market dominance of ARM based mobile devices over x86 based computing. Mobile is just a cash cow for now and into the foreseeable future based simply on what devices people are buying.
johnwhelan
Well-known member
I think there are multiple markets for Trainz, for those with less funds than they might like TS12 will continue to run when access to the DLS is cut off without a FCT then there are always various sites around that have downloadable content. I think TS12 is the least demanding of all the versions for mid range and lower hardware given the same viewing distance and assets.
Some pensioners do have funds available, for them TANE running on a GTX980 is viable and gives you far greater control. Some assets are far more demanding than others, there are ways in TANE to identify these assets. For certain layouts TANE will run them on my machine but the same layout under TS12 stutters to say the least.
At the moment its a matter of trying to see what the minimum GPU is acceptable. For some this is the Intel Integrated: Iris Pro Graphics 6200, AMD cards seem to have problems at the moment. Probably a GTX 960 would be enough around $200 US at Newegg.com the GTX 950 is worth looking at and a GTX 970 would definitely work. However these cards can be big and although they don't have a high current draw they may not fit in your case. Note the CPU is not especially important with TANE.
It might be interesting to know what your computer is. TANE as I mentioned is capable of detecting assets that perform badly and if you set the sliders down to the left it maybe possible to get acceptable performance on your system. I assume you have tried shadows off?
Cheerio John
I can sympathies with pinkmundi. I'm retired and don't really want to spend a lot of money on a new system just to run trainz. My existing HP e9110t, built in Aug. 2009, can run TANE with the shadows turned off and all other settings set to medium or low. TS12 is jerky and slow.
I have been shopping for a computer and it seems to get a machine that will handle TANE with no problems is going to start at $1,000 to $1,200 US, no monitor. The criteria I'm using is information I gathered from reading post in "Parts and Labor" and not from N3V so if anyone see's any problems with them please let me/us know, I'm not a computer geek.
Motherboard: MSI Z170 Gaming M7
Intel 6th Gen. i5-6600K 3.5GHz, 6MB shared cache
16 GB or more Corsair Vengence DDR4 Memory
1TB HDD
Nvidia 4GB GeForce GTX 960 or better
Powers Supply: 500 to 650W
CD Tray
And the usual software, case, monitor if needed, etc.
Regards,
I have been shopping for a computer and it seems to get a machine that will handle TANE with no problems is going to start at $1,000 to $1,200 US, no monitor. The criteria I'm using is information I gathered from reading post in "Parts and Labor" and not from N3V so if anyone see's any problems with them please let me/us know, I'm not a computer geek.
Motherboard: MSI Z170 Gaming M7
Intel 6th Gen. i5-6600K 3.5GHz, 6MB shared cache
16 GB or more Corsair Vengence DDR4 Memory
1TB HDD
Nvidia 4GB GeForce GTX 960 or better
Powers Supply: 500 to 650W
CD Tray
And the usual software, case, monitor if needed, etc.
Regards,
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I think we all understand that N3V rely on income but they also need goodwill and by cutting off support for TS2010 and below, introducing DRM on a patched version of TS12 and trying to force people to use TANE they certainly are not going the right way about it. Do the users of mobile devices have access to the DLS if so do they buy FCTs and upload quality assets. I have the iPad version but to me it is unusable, fortunately for N3V the TANE version is being bought for it.
People who use older versions of Trainz may want to use the newer versions if they eventually buy a new PC. In a few year's time an average priced PC will be able to run TANE. I personally don't beleive there will be a TANE2 it will be just TANE 1.x.
Ken
People who use older versions of Trainz may want to use the newer versions if they eventually buy a new PC. In a few year's time an average priced PC will be able to run TANE. I personally don't beleive there will be a TANE2 it will be just TANE 1.x.
Ken
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Oh, it's not a company's priority to care about how many people still use which version of the game? Seems pretty important to me from a financial standpoint, Jack.
Yet people are buying the latest game not knowing it isn't complete. A game should NOT take a full Service Pack to be a complete game. A game should be released when it is complete, but these companies still insist on psuhing out these unfinished games just to make a profit or to meet a strict deadline. If i could use a video game analogy, look at the game Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, a buggy, unpolished mess with no value to the customers whatsoever, all because it was rushed to meet a deadline. If T:ANE was worked on for a few months longer, maybe the customers would have gotten a complete and, more importantly, a better game.
That's sad how Tony is relying on these mobile games that look like TS04 for financial backup. Trainz has always been a computer game, and making it mobile at the cost of better graphics seems like a shameless cash grab to me.
That's a good joke you got there.
But seriously now, do you really think that it's better than TS12? I can barely run T:ANE at all just because of the horrid 5-7 FPS i get on a higher end machine, whereas i get upwards of 40 FPS in TS12, or maybe around 20-25 FPS in a condensed area. A game like T:ANE that requires a supercomputer to operate with acceptable frame rates greatly decreases the number of people who will enjoy the game. Yes, i use a lower-end GFX card, but if i can run TS12 as well as i can, but can't run T:ANE, then something's wrong here.
I agree with you here. Today, that would be considered horrid, but back in the day, computers were not nearly as powerful as they are today. You need to look at this from the perspective of a person who ran TS06 for 5-6 years with a lower-end computer in general (old CPU, old GFX, low RAM, etc.) and got framerates half that in some areas. Yes, that's unacceptable nowadays, but it's also unacceptable that T:ANE runs like crap when TS12 runs fine for most of us.
Though it's higher on my list than T:ANE ever will be, that's for sure.
Regards,
I cannot see a T.ANE 2 coming either as there is so much more that can be added to T.ANE, maybe 2021 i don't believe sooner or alot of money would be wasted, considering that we had been on the same platform for
near 13 years before T.ANE.
T.ANE is the best by far of all version of Trainz but it was clear for me to see and to others it was really not ready to go and be promoted at that point in time, more work needed to be done behind the seens, at least 12 months.
T.ANE should have had SLI / Crossfire coded in it before release, this will be a thorn in the side of N3V as it was stated it would be coded so T.ANE could take advantage of multi GPU's which saved you money in
not having to build a new computer and only having to buy another video card the same as you already had. They tried to tell me that it was a stretch goal, still tell me that SLI / Crossfire is coming.
This will open up a can of worms if they don't code T.ANE for SLI / Crossfire because my support and others was based on this one fact.
I have stated before many times that T.ANE needed to have these codes placed because i saw the writting on the wall with older computers not being able to run T.ANE and SLI / Crossfire was the cheapest way out
for the more senior members and others who did not wish to spend the money.
However there are many members like myself who have downloaded many many assetts and just keep them stored on hardrives from 2004 to T.ANE all you need is the Trainz user name to get to there assets.
Regards steve123
near 13 years before T.ANE.
T.ANE is the best by far of all version of Trainz but it was clear for me to see and to others it was really not ready to go and be promoted at that point in time, more work needed to be done behind the seens, at least 12 months.
T.ANE should have had SLI / Crossfire coded in it before release, this will be a thorn in the side of N3V as it was stated it would be coded so T.ANE could take advantage of multi GPU's which saved you money in
not having to build a new computer and only having to buy another video card the same as you already had. They tried to tell me that it was a stretch goal, still tell me that SLI / Crossfire is coming.
This will open up a can of worms if they don't code T.ANE for SLI / Crossfire because my support and others was based on this one fact.
I have stated before many times that T.ANE needed to have these codes placed because i saw the writting on the wall with older computers not being able to run T.ANE and SLI / Crossfire was the cheapest way out
for the more senior members and others who did not wish to spend the money.
However there are many members like myself who have downloaded many many assetts and just keep them stored on hardrives from 2004 to T.ANE all you need is the Trainz user name to get to there assets.
Regards steve123
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