Does buying Trainz Plus (Standard or Platinum) give me Trainz as a purchase, and all the rest just for the subscription period?
- Thread starter Jandb01
- Start date
It is Trainz Plus Standard and Trainz Plus Gold subscriptions.
There was an offer, which I believe has since expired, that if you signed up for Trainz Plus annual subscription then you also got TRS22 to keep. Currently if you have a Trainz Plus annual subscription and you renew within the 12 months from (I believe it was but I could be wrong) 1st Sept 2022 through to 31st Aug 2024 (again I believe) then you would get TRS22 to keep. To "keep" means you will have full access to TRS22 if you cancelled your subscription to Trainz Plus.
With the Trainz Plus Gold subscription you get free access to all the DLC content.
If you cancel your subscription (Standard or Gold) then you lose all access to Trainz Plus and any free DLC you have downloaded. But if you renew your subscription at a later date then full access and all free DLC (for Gold) will be restored.
Trainz Plus is, effectively, TRS22 Platinum with full access to create and edit HD Terrain plus new features like TLR (Trainz Living Railroad) which is currently in beta testing. If you have Trainz Plus then, in my opinion, there is probably no need to also have TRS22 (Standard or Platinum) unless you cancel or suspend your subscription.
TRS22 has all the features of past versions plus more.
TRS22 (Standard) does not include Surveyor 2.0 and does not include HD terrain. It does have the Water Effect Layers and the Unified Driver Surveyor interface.
TRS22 Platinum includes Surveyor 2.0, the Water Effect Layers, the Unified Driver Surveyor interface and allows you to load (but not edit) HD terrain.
Not everyone can afford an annual subscription so the outright purchase of TRS22 (Platinum would be the better choice) may be their only option.
There was an offer, which I believe has since expired, that if you signed up for Trainz Plus annual subscription then you also got TRS22 to keep. Currently if you have a Trainz Plus annual subscription and you renew within the 12 months from (I believe it was but I could be wrong) 1st Sept 2022 through to 31st Aug 2024 (again I believe) then you would get TRS22 to keep. To "keep" means you will have full access to TRS22 if you cancelled your subscription to Trainz Plus.
With the Trainz Plus Gold subscription you get free access to all the DLC content.
If you cancel your subscription (Standard or Gold) then you lose all access to Trainz Plus and any free DLC you have downloaded. But if you renew your subscription at a later date then full access and all free DLC (for Gold) will be restored.
Trainz Plus is, effectively, TRS22 Platinum with full access to create and edit HD Terrain plus new features like TLR (Trainz Living Railroad) which is currently in beta testing. If you have Trainz Plus then, in my opinion, there is probably no need to also have TRS22 (Standard or Platinum) unless you cancel or suspend your subscription.
TRS22 has all the features of past versions plus more.
TRS22 (Standard) does not include Surveyor 2.0 and does not include HD terrain. It does have the Water Effect Layers and the Unified Driver Surveyor interface.
TRS22 Platinum includes Surveyor 2.0, the Water Effect Layers, the Unified Driver Surveyor interface and allows you to load (but not edit) HD terrain.
Not everyone can afford an annual subscription so the outright purchase of TRS22 (Platinum would be the better choice) may be their only option.
TRS22 PE comes with the original 5 routes of TRS22 plus 5 more routes which are yours to keep forever. Trainz Plus Standard edition comes with zero new routes other than KSC 2 TRS22.
Both versions support HD Terrain Compatibility Mode that allows you to run HD routes in Driver but this is mostly a illusion as the terrain is rendered in less resolution than HD terrain. It looks to be something like 2m resolution. Saving the HD route while in Driver via the UDS interface will convert the route to 5m resolution. TRS22 Standard with Surveyor Classic will not open HD routes at all in Surveyor but Platinum with Surveyor 2.0 will open them but not allow any changes to the route layer(s) including ground textures. You can however if very careful create and save sessions for HD routes.
Kind'a on the same topic... I think...Let's say I get Trainz by suscription and build a route. I later decide I can't afford to keep paying for the subscription. Do I loose my work, or is my content stored on my HD so I can later purchase Trainz out-right and keep my stuff?
Your content will remain in your Trainz Plus install (which will be deactivated, not deleted) on your HD. If you later restart your subscription then Trainz Plus and all your content will be reactivated and restored. There are a few users, from the posts that they have made, that have suspended their monthly subscriptions for a period before reactivating them and continuing on as before.
As to regaining your content in a different version of Trainz, it would depend on the asset build number (5.3 is the current Trainz Plus route asset build) and whether or not your saved your created content (e.g. your routes) as .cdp files before stopping your subscription.
FYI, the most recent Trainz Plus beta is producing routes and sessions at trainz build 5.4 which is not at the moment usable in any other version. The HD terrain is invisible if you change the config to 5.3 and load into either version of TRS22 or Trainz Plus 122411. Perhaps if we get a new "stable" build of Trainz Plus this month then it will support 5.4 as well. I suspect that we are getting close to the point where Trainz Plus jumps to being a beta for TRS25 and we lose backward compatibility to TRS22.
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Maybe or maybe not and more likely not. The Plus beta was set to build 5.4 so not to pollute the DLS with routes that have features that the current full release doesn't support. Any route created in Plus Build 122411 is at Build 5.3 and as we know, anything created in Build 5.3 is fine. Changing a higher build-number to a lower one comes with risks of content not being compatible due to file and code changes as we've witnessed with Phil's route and with other content in the past.
Usually, once the beta is completed and the version is released to everyone, the service-pack updates, or in general version updates, bring the current build up to the newer one.
This was explained in the Beta-testing forum sometime ago.
You can always buy a subscription to either Trainz Plus Standard (without DLC) or Trainz Plus Gold (with access to DLC). TRS22 Standard and TRS22 Platinum are NOT the same as Trainz Plus. TRS22 is a polished and reliable program that once purchased is yours to use "forever". Trainz Plus is a program under constant development that gives you early access to future features of the next version of Trainz (TRS25?). Trainz Plus is released every three months (give or take a few months) as what is called a "stable" version. This version of the program can be enjoyed with relatively little trouble without crashes but still has bugs and features that are still under "Phased Development"™ as Tony puts it. In between these "stable" builds, "beta" builds are released that can be unstable and be subject to crashes. In my mind, they are not useful for anything but testing and to have a play with the latest features as they are added.
Now as a subscriber, you have access to earlier versions of Trainz such as TRS22 Standard and TRS22 PE which you can install and use for as long as your subscription is active so you can have the best of both worlds. But there is not a "upgrade" path from TRS22 PE to Trainz Plus. So far, we have not seen the Trainz Plus subscriptions on sale and I doubt they ever will be. The closest you get is the "buy one and get both" deals like the one that ran in September. It is very likely that there will be another deal like that as we get closer to the release of TRS25 in about a year.
I was surprised to see TRS22 Standard and TRS22 PE both on sale. To me this indicates that development of these products is pretty much finished. Perhaps a single programmer left to deal with bugs fixes. If this is true then the gap between them and Trainz Plus is only going to get wider as the focus shifts to adding features for TRS25.
Clearly route building is problematic with the subscription based model. If you're going to lose your route if the subscription ends (and who knows what the future might bring when it comes to renting things?) then you have very little incentive to even start. Certainly my experience with Trainz Plus Gold - due to this uncertainty I carried on route building in TRS19 (which I own) and then importing into TRS22 in order to try it out there. At the end of the month my Gold subscription will end. Thank god my routes are safely based in TRS19! So my advice is to ensure you have a stand alone version of the game to store your routes. But this means that the subscription version can only ever be used for running trains, not route building.
Paul
Paul
I'm actually going to backtrack slightly from my previous post to ask the key question: is it really the case that, if you create a route in Trainz Plus or Trainz Plus Gold and then end your subscription, you will not be able to import that route (via an archived cdp) into any version of TRS22? If 'yes' then my post above applies. If 'no' then ignore what I just posted!
Paul
Paul
capdiamont
Active member
If you do your work in a stable version of Trainz Plus, then you can move that route to a retail version of Trainz 22 or 22 PE.
Now you do need the file format versions to match.
You can only create and edit HD Terrain route in Trainz Plus, however you can drive that route in Trainz 22 retail or Trainz 22 PE.
Sometimes the file formats the Plus uses are a version ahead of the retail versions, and you have to wait to use them there.
Now you do need the file format versions to match.
You can only create and edit HD Terrain route in Trainz Plus, however you can drive that route in Trainz 22 retail or Trainz 22 PE.
Sometimes the file formats the Plus uses are a version ahead of the retail versions, and you have to wait to use them there.
I believe that ability is restricted to TRS22 Platinum only, not TRS22 standard.
capdiamont
Active member
It took me a while, and I was beginning to question my memory, but you can drive HD Terrain routes in all current versions of Trainz 22.
capdiamont
Active member
I think they mean editing by that screen. I also think they need to separate out editing and running of HD Terrain. It needs to be much more clearer.