First Post With Questions

SteveTr

New member
I am new to the forum and I have a few questions:

  1. Besides the potential price difference, is there a logical reason to purchase Trainz from the Trainz store versus the Steam store or visa-versa, and what is the recommended version (regardless of my experience level with the sim)?
  2. On the onset, I will not be building my own routes/worlds using the Surveyor tool, but rather purchase pre-developed routes from the “store”. Having said that, I do want to ensure that any DLCs purchased that has been developed with HD Terrain displays and funtcions at the highest level of resolution, clarity and realism and speed.
  3. I have seen a lot about JointedRail's products. Is the integration seamless, including the integration of a RailDriver controller?
  4. Do all developed DLCs labeled as previous versions run on the latest release?
This may all be very subjective but no harm in asking, right?

Thanks, Steve
 
RailDriver will work with any Trainz locomotive you purchase or that comes with a route. By far, Jointed Rail and RRmods produces the best locomotives we have, or at least the ones I have based on my own experience.

The Steam version is supposed to be the same as the one purchased directly from N3V, although there are times when this isn't true due to Valve requiring special binaries for their release. This has caused delays in updates and more recently a bugged release for Steam users with the recent version.

There are other advantages purchasing Trainz directly from N3V in addition to giving most of the earnings directly to the company and the content developers instead of pennies on the dollar with the most going to Valve, such as receiving updates faster and directly. In case you are wondering, there is no difference in the DLC.

It's important to say here that nearly all content, perhaps 99.99% of it is user created including the DLC routes. N3V does not create content and has left this up to the community and third-party developers such as Jointed Rail.

You can also download content from the Download Station, aka what we call the DLS. You can also create your own or modify a session provided with the DLC and place additional locomotives and drive those or assign drivers to those.

Having said that, in addition to the game purchase, we highly recommend purchasing an annual First-Class Ticket (FCT). This will give you unhindered access to the DLS. The current cost is about $35 per year with many sales offered making the cost even less. Without the FCT, you are limited to 100 MB per day for downloads at a minimal speed.

Although you mentioned you are not interested in building your own routes, you can modify your DLC routes to suit. By opening up a DLC route in Surveyor, the route and session editor, you will automatically create a clone that you can work with. This version is based on the original DLC and can't be shared with others unless they have the original DLC installed.
 
It is best to buy from the Trainz Store and I say that as a avid Steam user. The Steam versions of DLC only work in Steam versions of the game and they only work in whatever version they are labeled for. For example, DLC for TRS19 will only install in the Steam version of TRS19. If you buy from the Trainz Store and later say you get TRS22 then you can install Trainz Store DLC into that version too without rebuying it.

I would suggest getting TRS19 Platinum Edition. It is often on sale for good prices and has the largest selection of DLC routes at the moment. For HD Terrain you would need at least TRS22 and I would recommend TRS22 Platinum Editon again as you get 11 DLC routes included for the price. It has a HD Terrain Compatibility mode that allows it to run HD routes at a slightly lower resolution than Trainz Plus. Trainz Plus is the only version that supports true HD Terrain at the moment, However the release of TRS25 is just around the corner maybe at Christmas time and it may have HD Terrain in it. We don't know for sure yet.
 
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It is best to buy from the Trainz Store and I say that as a avid Steam user. The Steam versions of DLC only work in Steam versions of the game and they only work in whatever version they are labeled for. For example, DLC for TRS19 will only install in the Steam version of TRS19. If you buy from the Trainz Store and later say you get TRS22 then you can install Trainz Store DLC into that version too without rebuying it.
In short, if you bought the game in Steam, you can buy DLC in Steam and Trainz Store. If you bought a game in Trainz Store, you can buy DLC in Trainz Store only.

Detail is here: https://forums.auran.com/threads/qu...ht-from-steam-and-on-site.178900/post-2029188
and here: https://forums.auran.com/threads/should-i-buy-trs19-or-jump-to-22.178241/#post-2024144
Do not mislead, after purchase, you need to log in to the launcher using the same Trainz account and then everything will be as I described above.

And there are also these differences:
The Steam version is supposed to be the same as the one purchased directly from N3V, although there are times when this isn't true due to Valve requiring special binaries for their release. This has caused delays in updates and more recently a bugged release for Steam users with the recent version.

There are other advantages purchasing Trainz directly from N3V in addition to giving most of the earnings directly to the company and the content developers instead of pennies on the dollar with the most going to Valve, such as receiving updates faster and directly. In case you are wondering, there is no difference in the DLC.
 
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Do not mislead, after purchase, you need to log in to the launcher using the same Trainz account and then everything will be as I described above.
I'm not misleading anyone. I am speaking from recent experience.
Yes, purchases from the Trainz Store can be installed in Steam versions of Trainz. I have done that many times. I actually prefer the Steam versions and I have both N3V versions and Steam of TS12, TANE and TRS19. However, since the OP is a first time user and buying directly from N3V is the simplest path until he gets the lay of the land. That being said Steam often offers a package deal on TRS22 and TRS22 PE and includes about a dozen DLC items. I have seen this as low as $36 which is a very tempting offer and I own both programs and some of the DLC.

The big reason I suggest buying from the Trainz Store is the same as John mentioned. All the money goes to either N3V or the DLC creator and Valve doesn't siphon off 30%. Life in the gaming industry is pretty hard right now and N3V can always use the extra money.
 
Just to state the obvious: Downside of buying in Steam is that you need Steam.
With all due respect, in today's world where only the giants of the gaming industry have a marketing budget to purchase ads for their products, Steam offers a platform with a built-in massive audience that gives even small companies like N3V the ability to reach customers that they otherwise would not be able to reach. I'm not going to quote numbers but it is easy to search for the total number of Steam users and how many users log in on a daily basis. The numbers are in the tens of millions. Combine that with a recommendation system that will promote Trainz to any user that plays other train related games and you have a powerful marketing tool to increase the bottom line.

On a personal note, I have used Steam for more than 15 years and have never had any issues with it. I have over 700 purchases under my account. A mixture of both games and productivity software. Much of what I buy is on sale for well below the normal price. I like old school single player adventure games like Myst and even though I own physical copies of all of Cyan's games I also own them under Steam. By having them installed on my gaming computer, I can play them on my HD TV while sitting on the sofa by remotely connecting to my gaming rig. The Steam client just seamlessly streams the display to my TV and I use a wireless keyboard and mouse as the controls.

Lately, I have been buying bundles of software from Humble Bundle and have gotten amazing deals on both software and games where I get Steam Keys to redeem in the Steam client as purchases added to my account. Movavi Video Editor software and DLC packs worth hundreds of dollars for just $25 is just one of my bundles. Another one is 24 DLC packages for the "other" train sim that was just $18.

Lastly, the Steam Client just makes managing my library of games and software so much easier. I can uninstall TANE from my PC and know I am not uninstalling TRS19 by mistake.
 
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