Need help deciding which version to buy...

BlueKomet

New member
I have tried demos of both 2004 & 2006, and don't like the way 2006 lags on my system (I use an ATI 9550).

My question is this,

What is the compatability of engines and such in the Download station? If I buy 2004 will I be able to download lots of engines and rolling stock? Or should I look for a better video card and get 2006?

thanks
 
If it were simple I'd say get both. You'll get more content with 06. However many make content which is compatible in 04 and above by getting 04 and placing content into it. Then it is avaliable to all.

Matt
 
2004.....video card would be another $150, as opposed to $30 for 2004. Maybe get 2006 in another year or so?

Might be a plan!
 
Well I've been on 04 for 2 years now and thinking of upgrading to take advantage of the Iportal and other new things. Iportal can give a feel of a railway if a user needs something and contacts another and asks for him to send it to him.

Matt
 
I have tried demos of both 2004 & 2006, and don't like the way 2006 lags on my system (I use an ATI 9550).

My question is this,

What is the compatability of engines and such in the Download station? If I buy 2004 will I be able to download lots of engines and rolling stock? Or should I look for a better video card and get 2006?

thanks

Although the requirements printed on the box are different and the TRS2006 ones are higher, these are guide lines. On 95%+ of machines TRS2006 runs faster than TRS2004 due to coding changes. The min specs on the box for TRS2004 were a little optimistic.

How much main memory do you have? Upping this to 2 gigs or 2.5 gigs often gives a performance increase and it's fairly cheap, you can configure Trainz in trainzoptions.txt file to improve performance by the way, have a search in http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=5454 it's in the TRS2004 section but covers TRS2006. There isn't that much difference between them other than cmp and better error checking in TRS2006.

Cheerio John
 
"In another year or so," TRS2006 will be outdated. You should get Trainz Classics "in another year or so". First 2004, then TC, not 2006.
 
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Well I've been on 04 for 2 years now and thinking of upgrading to take advantage of the Iportal and other new things. Iportal can give a feel of a railway if a user needs something and contacts another and asks for him to send it to him.

Matt

Iportal is simply a version of "Eportal" created for 06.
Eportal was made for 04.
 
I have 04 and 06, and i prefer 06. It lags a little more SOMETIMEs but not that badly or often, and i prefer the slight extra assets and content avaliable. I stick to 06 because i have also never had a problem running previous content on it either. Just my opinion.
 
I also have both, and 06 runs okay with the sliders way down.
I'm more comfortable with 04, so 06 gets mostly a lot of neglect.:D I don't see that it's as much of an improvement as the hype suggests, so I'm happy creating in 04.
I think you'll enjoy it too, until TC comes out. Then it's time to upgrade.

:cool: Claude
 
Think I'll still get 04....though I might add another 1/2 gig of memory to take me up to 2 gig. I took a look through the download station and there are plenty of engines and rolling stock. Next time I rebuild my beast I'll make sure it can play TC!
 
Hmm...I would love to get TC (I just run trs 04 for now) but then I think I would be missing some of the routes and I wonder about the compatibility issues. I think what I might do is wait some time and, then upgrade my computer and hopefully by then, they might offer 06 and TC as a bundle, in which case then I would have everything I need and would be able to have the most routes/features. I'll just have to wait and see...
 
Think I'll still get 04....though I might add another 1/2 gig of memory to take me up to 2 gig. I took a look through the download station and there are plenty of engines and rolling stock. Next time I rebuild my beast I'll make sure it can play TC!

If you have 1.5 gigs at the moment and two slots free I'd go 2.5 gigs.

Cheerio John
 
Hello BlueKomet, your post started off asking :-

"My question is this,

What is the compatability of engines and such in the Download station? If I buy 2004 will I be able to download lots of engines and rolling stock? Or should I look for a better video card and get 2006?"

My own opinion, would be to have both installed if you can. It depends on money and storage space available on your PC of course, but recent answers have suggested upgrading your video card, to start with, but are you a creator or just a player of this game ?? As a non-creator personally, I cannot give an honest appraisal of how things are different between TRS2004 and 6 from creative knowledge, I will let our well-educated, genius creators on Trainz comment on that point. But yes, if you purchase TRS2004 you can download everything available on the DLS, apart of course from TRS2006 stuff. With TRS2006 and the patch SP1 installed, you can download virtually everything, HOWEVER, a vast majority of the really old assets might have to be repaired first, through CMP, before you can use them on TRS2006, I hope you have a lot of patience, LOL. If you intend to purchase Trainz Classics in the future, having the working; operational knowledge of CMP in TRS2006, would be a distinct advantage, rather than just going straight from using TRS2004, and as far as I am aware, reading certain comments on this forum, that Trainz Classics MAY still carry certain problems associated with TRS2006 when that was first launched, that have not been completely ironed out yet. I personally will wait, until after TC is made public, to analyse any problems, before I make a purchase.

Happy Trainzing anyway.
Cheers. ex-railwayman.
 
What are the specific differences between full 2006 and the Driver version? I know Surveyor is not in the second but are any of these features:
In Game Messaging
IPortal
I presume the added Physics
CMP with PS
I presume no CCP or Surveyor filter
And can you place locomotives/rolling stock to use without Surveyor?
I couldn't afford 2006 and with TC coming, figured I would wait to see that but I recently saw 2 copies of 2006 Driver at Target for $10 so I'm wondering if getting it just to see if it runs routes better than 2004 is worth it.
 
I don't have trs2006 but I guess that depends on what you want to do? If you are content in driving only, then I guess the driver edition might be worth a go. I love to be creative and while my route just keeps getting bigger and bigger (and less detailed @@ ) I wwould personally save up some money and get the full edition because then you know you wont be missing any features and have access to a lot more (surveyer, driver, etc...). Why not try eBay? I got a good deal on Rise of Nations: Gold Edition (about half the price of normal retail considering the date of that game) so if money is a concern, you might be able to save a bit there.

Or of course, you could always wait a while until the price comes down but who knows how long that will take? I might wait a month and then see what it costs and then order it. Will trs2006 be outdated? Perhaps, but many people still use trs2004 and for many good reasons so ultimately, the choice is yours...

Just my two cents. :)
 
Well then.Do you have any excuse not to get both? Good points of getting both:
1. Creating locos for 04 that work for all above
2. New features in 06
3. If you want a break from one go to the other.

Let's hope you become a fully fledged trainzer soon!

(P.S. My B-day is on the SAME DAY as Fathers day so I have to share my day with my Dad!Slightly annoying...)

Matt
 
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