This is been on my mind for a while, and maybe the Trainz Community can solve it for my. Why is backdating a object from Trainz 2012 to Trainz 2010/2009 so simple, but backdating an object from Trainz 2012,2010,2009, Trainz Classics 1 and 2 to Trainz 2006/2004 so hard. I really have never fully understood this.
Much of this has to do with scripting and other game engine features that are not available in the earlier versions. Some stuff made for TRS2004, for example, had product queues for use with interactive industries. This will not work in previous versions without hacking out the script from the assets. There have also been some graphics changes such as the way alpha channels and normal maps are now handled. This was unheard of in the earlier versions, and the references to these files causes errors in the assets.
Granted, with some work, some of the more basic assets can be backdated, but why would you want to use a much more unstable product? Even with all its warts and bumps, TS12 is a far better product than UTC or even TRS2004. Many people here forget the hassles we had with the earlier products and yearn for the olden days through rosy glasses and bright lights. TRS2004 was not the best product until SP4 came out, and then that was beat out later by TRS2006, which was built on TRS2004 but with more features. Sure these programs can run on lesser hardware and take up less space, but so do many things. Remember too that there were less capabilities built into them in the first place. A good example is traffic. Up to TRS2004 SP1 road traffic went up elevators or stairs instead of following the terrain. We were warned at the time this was pushed by the community that it would have an impact on performance. We laugh at things such as this today, based on what we have for computers, but at the time these programs were bringing that very hardware to its knees. In fact up to TRS2009, there was a buffering data bar that would appear. In TRS2006 and up through TS2009, this was an option in the trainzoptions.txt (I think...), but prior to that it was always visible. This bar would show up when data was being loaded, and would persist on the screen when things got a bit rough on the computer. Probably today this wouldn't appear with the older products, and since then it has been deprecated as an option.
Yes like any product, whether it's computer software or a tangible good, the previous version is usually the basis for the newest release. If it wasn't for this, we'd still have version 1.0 of everything. So even pianos, automobiles, even light bulbs and computers will have some old stuff in them from previous versions. In fact pianos are based on technology that was initially designed and invented in 1700! It took another 120 years before the modern escapement was developed by Erard, and another 45 years after that for the first full ironl plate to be created by Chickering from Boston. The action of a mid-19th century grand piano is the same, or very similar to what is found in a modern instrument. Action in a late 1880s piano is exactly the same. The differences are some improvements in materials and tolerances, but the mechanical design is pretty much the same. We can say the same for railroads and the development of the various components. Yes, technology has changed but the underlying principals of engineering are still there. Even electrical service and the theories behind AC transmission are the same. I recently came across my great grandfather's engineering books from the early 1920s - he was an electrical engineer for the Boston Edison Company. His books have the same theorems I learned while I was taking electrical engineering classes in 1980!
John
Like I stated in about 20 other posts before, I was introduced to Trainz because 1: SI3D Films and 2: Trainz 2006 Driver and Hawes Demo's.