First login in 15 years

[palmer]

From the ages of 4 to around 11 or 12, I used to love trains to a fault. Hanging around model train shows until I was dragged out by my parents is a common theme in some of my childhood memories (being thrown in the boot of my fathers' EF wagon after a tanty is my personal favourite).

These games, up until around Trainz 12, were a cornerstone of my early days. I spent hours of my free time back then expanding my collection through the DLC and other places and creating detailed (though incredibly unrealistic) short layouts.
I never used the forums much, and the times I did resulted in amusing and somewhat embarrassing posts. I've even got a warning somewhere for one (9yr old me was a ratbag). The warning was enough to scare me into a lurker, I never posted again.

I fell out of the hobby in early high school and quickly found interests elsewhere, and as a result the roundhead in me sat growing moss in my head for a long while. It's had enough of being cooped up recently, though, and I find myself reminiscing to those simpler times. I even install Trainz '10, the only surviving disc copy I own, every now and again to see how the experience holds up.

I'm 24 turning 25 now, about to begin my final year of Mechanical Engineering here in Australia. Free time now consists of study, the gym, and a fang on my BMX when the weathers right. Curiosity lead me to log back in to this account, after ~15 years of inactivity. I'm still fascinated by trains, but from more of a mechanical perspective. I like knowing how they work. Cars and space/rocketry are equal contenders for my interest these days.

Is there anyone from the '04 - '12 era of Trainz and the Trainz Forums that still bums around on here? I wanna see if I can recognise any of the usernames.

 

[JCitron]

Welcome back, Palmer!

I've been kicking around here since December 2003 when I got TRS2004. There's still a number of us still here. Sadly, though we've lost a number along the way due to life getting in the way and some have also passed on.

 

[palmer]

Welcome back, Palmer!

I've been kicking around here since December 2003 when I got TRS2004. There's still a number of us still here. Sadly, though we've lost a number along the way due to life getting in the way and some have also passed on.

I did just see the thread abut clam1952's unfortunate passing. He created a lot of the assets I had on file back then.

What's the state of the game these days? Some of the screenshots from the latest iteration are pretty stunning.

 

[martinvk]

Welcome back. Depending on who you ask, the game has progressed mightily or is in serious decline. It all depends on you experience with various version, what you are trying to do, how comfortable you are in adjusting to a new and different UI and if you're starting fresh or bringing forward existing routes created in older versions.

 

[steve180]

I did just see the thread abut clam1952's unfortunate passing. He created a lot of the assets I had on file back then.

What's the state of the game these days? Some of the screenshots from the latest iteration are pretty stunning.

TRS22 SP5 is a bit broken for some people. There seems to be some new things for the sim coming "down the pipeline" so to speak. There are a lot of freeware sites still, many of them are actively releasing new content that most like (there's always going to be some haters). The community is still sprinkled with those odd birds, content begging is seeming to become a more common issue in modern times. Overall, the game is doing well, TRS22 requires a hefty PC to run though, beware.

 

[steve180]

Woops, didn't see the message before mine, sorry.

 

[JCitron]

I did just see the thread abut clam1952's unfortunate passing. He created a lot of the assets I had on file back then.

What's the state of the game these days? Some of the screenshots from the latest iteration are pretty stunning.

Yeah, sadly we lost Malc a couple of years ago now due to cancer. His assets are still just as beloved as they were back then.

The state of the game.... It's still Trainz with all its warts and quirks.

TRS22 is the current version and there are multiple levels of this program unlike before. There's a base TRS22 version with only the basics and requires you to purchase everything else. TRS22 Platinum Edition (TRS22 PE as we call it here), gives you the new Surveyor 2.0, the ability to load the new High-Definition Terrain, and a bunch of DLC, then there's Trainz Plus. Plus is a subscription version with two levels, one with access to a bunch of goodies and along with access to betas and new stuff, while the Gold-Plus version will give you all the DLC in addition to everything else. I signed up for the subscription and this can be paid either monthly or annually depending upon how you want to go with it. The subscription can be stopped at any time and picked up again later without losing anything. This is good for casual users or those that don't use Trainz during the summer months.

HD Terrain is new and is still WIP. There are some limitations with it, mostly due to hardware, and the routes created with it are huge.
Surveyor 2.0, (S20) as well refer to it, also WIP is Surveyor with a new interface and some really nice features such as the ability to select multiple baseboards, which is great for adding or deleting them, rotating objects en mass, and new thing called a scrapbook that lets you save clippings of things you'll use later such as selected textures, trees, and even housing developments that you can paste down or brush in place. I created all kinds of scrapbook objects. The one I find most useful is the trees. Using the brush, I can place down a whole forest easily without the objects being aligned to a grid. What's good is even though S20 is there, you can always go back to Classic Surveyor, meaning the one we've used since the early days, should there be something you find easier to do that way. Many of us jump back and forth as needed.

In Plus, there's a new feature being tested called the Trainz Living Railroad. Here an automatic dispatcher will send out freight trains currently to service various industries automatically. It's still quirky and WIP but will be a nice feature when fully implemented.

In addition to all these features and goodies, we now have support for shadows, high resolution PBR textures, water using an effects-layer, procedural grass, and many more things. There are some other things to come that N3V is planning on working on such as DX12 support, point-lighting, and much more.

The current SP5 has some bugs which have the community on edge. Once we get passed these, things will be okay. After I dealt with the install and subsequent lengthy database repair, things settled down, and I gave a route I created in January 2003 and still active today a check out and it loaded up fine, and the session drove perfectly as it did before. The other day I did some editing as I updated the textures to PBR and was in Surveyor for well over 4 hours without a crash.

A big push with management has been reliability. While there are bugs, the content is far less prone to crashing the program than it was in the past. To assist with this, a dedicated group of volunteers set up to repair all the faulty assets on the DLS.

 

[pdkoester]

 

[davesnow]

I'm an old timer (78) but I use TRS19. Works for me and I'm sticking with it for now. I also create content but it's not Payware grade.

 

[palmer]

Yeah, sadly we lost Malc a couple of years ago now due to cancer. His assets are still just as beloved as they were back then.

The state of the game.... It's still Trainz with all its warts and quirks.

TRS22 is the current version and there are multiple levels of this program unlike before. There's a base TRS22 version with only the basics and requires you to purchase everything else. TRS22 Platinum Edition (TRS22 PE as we call it here), gives you the new Surveyor 2.0, the ability to load the new High-Definition Terrain, and a bunch of DLC, then there's Trainz Plus. Plus is a subscription version with two levels, one with access to a bunch of goodies and along with access to betas and new stuff, while the Gold-Plus version will give you all the DLC in addition to everything else. I signed up for the subscription and this can be paid either monthly or annually depending upon how you want to go with it. The subscription can be stopped at any time and picked up again later without losing anything. This is good for casual users or those that don't use Trainz during the summer months.

Interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about a subscription-based model, but I'm glad to hear the core Trainz experience is still there. The quirks kinda made it in some regards. I remember being able to change the engine parameters in TRS2006 using Content Creator Plus (that's what its called?) to create million-mile-an-hour trains, and sometimes terrain would bug and create spiky hills that trains just phased through.

A big push with management has been reliability. While there are bugs, the content is far less prone to crashing the program than it was in the past. To assist with this, a dedicated group of volunteers set up to repair all the faulty assets on the DLS.

I can't count the times I got frustrated over assets not showing or crashing back in the day. What percentage has been repaired so far?

There are a lot of freeware sites still, many of them are actively releasing new content that most like (there's always going to be some haters).

As if there's haters for freeware assets? that's absurd. I visited some of the freeware sites I could remember (Trainzone, Subpar Productions, and Trainz-luvr), surprised they're still up and running but haven't been updated in years, nearly decades.

In Plus, there's a new feature being tested called the Trainz Living Railroad. Here an automatic dispatcher will send out freight trains currently to service various industries automatically. It's still quirky and WIP but will be a nice feature when fully implemented.

I really like this. How lonely the game felt when not playing a premade scenario was one of my biggest gripes with the sim even as a little urchin.

Overall, the game is doing well, TRS22 requires a hefty PC to run though, beware.

TRS10 still hogs the CPU on my workstation lappy (i7-11800H, RTX 3060 Mobile) when I give it the odd whirl. '22 is definitely a desktop job.

 

[susmaster7879]

Welcome back, I also got introduced to Trainz very young but I didn't make an account until 2-3 years ago.

Cheers

 

[JCitron]

I can't count the times I got frustrated over assets not showing or crashing back in the day. What percentage has been repaired so far?

Quite a number have been repaired with a huge number to go and there are many updates done by content creators as well. We recommend checking daily.

Interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about a subscription-based model, but I'm glad to hear the core Trainz experience is still there. The quirks kinda made it in some regards. I remember being able to change the engine parameters in TRS2006 using Content Creator Plus (that's what its called?) to create million-mile-an-hour trains, and sometimes terrain would bug and create spiky hills that trains just phased through.

It's up to you to use the subscription or not. What you lose is any DLC you used on routes unless you purchase the DLC outright. The other versions are still the old buy once and upgrade when the updates come out.

You can still make those changes that way or you can do this by changing the engine spec in your session.

I forgot to mention that there's also the new Universal-Driver-Surveyor (UDS). UDS allows you to make changes to routes and sessions on the fly by going back to the route and session editor while you are driving your sessions. You have to be careful when you do this but it allows you to fix things as you see them and to test signals and crossing as you build your routes.