New to Trainz

[arnab_das]

Just replying to this bit, as it's nearly 11:30pm here

That's Dukey, the late dog of a Trainzer named Davie_UCF. For quite some time, Dukey was the unofficial maskot for Trainz

It should be remembered though that much of the content available for Trainz (and most items included in Trainz these days) are 3rd party created items, and as such the look of the items will vary quite a bit. Many items do also date back to earlier versions, since many content/route builders look for a 'suitable' (but not always the most detailed, or to current standards) item for a particular situation. As such, the 'quality' of the items can vary quite a bit.

ah! didnt know that. didnt mean it to be offensive.

i wonder if its possible to have an upgraded version of the elements (other than the trains of course, which are prefect btw) used in the game and then release it as a patch. to be honest, the reason why i bought the steam version of the game was that i didnt want to tinker with patches and missing dependencies. also if it would be possible to integrate the doppler effect in the 2010 edition, it would really be great. i believe the 2010 version is supported till 2013, so i think it would please all users to see some major upgrades being integrated in the game even if the core new features reside in the 2012 version.

hope i'm not too demanding. but i guess as your customer base grows, you will be forced to tackle more demanding customers who really love trains and want to just get on with the sim instead of having to install third party stuff from sources who wont take responsibility for content and program malfunction (no offense intended at all to developers of third party content) which will make the sim look good. this can of course be done if trainz developers themselves tested some of the third party content and integrated it within the default release or as patches.

just my opinion of course.

 

[arnab_das]

Trainz uses DirectX 9, not DirectX 11, although the two can (and do) run side-by-side.

You will need to check that seperately.

My thread in the General Trainz forum will make sure you have the latest version.

Shane

i will do that thanks.

although Steam self checks every single game for the latest directx and other dependencies immediately on installation and before launching the game. so i really dont want to tinker with that, i believe the Auran developers must have approved the version which comes with steam. at least thats what happens with all other games on steam.

 

[shaneturner12]

They probably do check, but it is always worth checking yourself, as it may only check for the basic version.

Shane

 

[kamran]

a version bought from auran directly have advantages over steam versions
though no one can gave trainz 10/10 but still better then others
and as you are new if you you spend some more time finding some good quality contents especially russian contents and jointedrail contents then you will come to know what trainz is and how quality matters in trainz

 

[ZecMurphy]

Hi arnab_das
Unfortunately, except for content that we have created internally, upgrading of content can only be done by the original authors. This will generally mean a complete rebuild of the asset, and completely new textures, to get it up to current standards.

For the a lot of 3rd party content, updates would be placed onto the download station, and not via a patch (if every item were updated, the size of the patch would become extremely large).

The content for Trainz does vary quite widely, and as such if you want a 'high detail' route, you do need to be careful which items you use.

As to doppler, this is a TS12+ feature, and is not able to be added into TS2010 (this isn't an 'update', but was a part of the new sound engine for TS12). This new sound engine is a 'core' part of TS12, along with a few other new features/functions.

Trainz already includes an extremely large range of content, with new content being added in each version. It should be noted that TS2010 includes all legacy content dating back to the original release, except for the Trainz Classics 3 content which is available as the 'settle and carlisle' addon pack.

We then allow this to be expanded with 3rd party content, as well as the official add-on packs (the 'Trainz DLC' series, as well as the Murchison 2, Settle & Carlisle, Classic Cabon City, and Treez packs).

If you don't wish to take the risk of 3rd party content, then this is your choice. However, it does mean you are limited to the built-in content.

 

[masterowner]

just wanted to pen down my initial thoughts regarding trainz 2010. i believe there is a lot of misconstrued prejudice regarding the series prevailing among many who arent using trainz (some of which I admit I had). so this comes from a new trainz user and a novice in the trainz genre as well. I've played MSTS (thoroughly) so far and tinkered with railworks 2 and 3 for a few hours. so the trainz fanboy tag cant really be applied to me. this is primarily aimed at people who are still having second thoughts about trainz.

1. Graphics - I thiink many, if not most, in the train lovers' category believe that one of the primary flaws of trainz is its graphics. I was hence hoping for the worst when I launched the game.

To my surprise, I found the graphics to be okay. Its not nearly as bad as most people claim it to be. The trains look amazing and are quite detailed.

This should clear things up for new users who, like me, think trainz has terrible graphics.

It clearly doesnt.

Well sorta:

A very large percentage of the content is plain junk. I have gotten criticism before for saying so but its the truth. Trainz content has the potential to be marvelously detailed and absolutely splendid but most of it isn't, sadly. If you just scroll down the content lists you'll discover what I am talking about: Most of the trees are billboard style, the textures are terrible and a lot of the content has been updated but not improved upon and are several years old. The content created by Auran does look amazing but you'll quickly grow tired with the limited amount of good content included in the game and need to go to a 3rd party. Try JointedRail, RRmods and Checkrail, they will be your best bet. Other people on this thread will tell you to go to other sites but honestly these are the only good ones with a lot of content on them. The rest will leave you speechless and not in a good way. Well that's my rambling for tonight, here comes some negative criticism I bet.

 

[arnab_das]

Well sorta:

A very large percentage of the content is plain junk. I have gotten criticism before for saying so but its the truth. Trainz content has the potential to be marvelously detailed and absolutely splendid but most of it isn't, sadly. If you just scroll down the content lists you'll discover what I am talking about: Most of the trees are billboard style, the textures are terrible and a lot of the content has been updated but not improved upon and are several years old. The content created by Auran does look amazing but you'll quickly grow tired with the limited amount of good content included in the game and need to go to a 3rd party. Try JointedRail, RRmods and Checkrail, they will be your best bet. Other people on this thread will tell you to go to other sites but honestly these are the only good ones with a lot of content on them. The rest will leave you speechless and not in a good way. Well that's my rambling for tonight, here comes some negative criticism I bet.

this is very true.

i've grown up with half life 2, crysis, mass effect and elder scrolls. so i know what good graphics are in a game. and yes, compared to that trainz graphics do look a bit, okay a lot...erm dated.

however here's the thing. trainz doesnt really have the massive customer base a Crysis or a Half Life or an Elder Scrolls or a Call of Duty game has. i doubt if any of the train sims sell anything close to a million copies. so frankly, the developers are working for a small market and on a minuscule budget compared to these games. in that i must say that they've done a decent job.

should/could they've done better? certainly. but i think levelling that accusation against the developers of a train sim which has only a fraction of users compared to mainstream games is a bit unfair. although, i believe it can be done. railworks has done it, in terms of graphics at least, and i'm sure trainz can too. here's the thing though, trainz has a decent gameplay element going for it. and although it really doesnt matter to a newbie (or even some experienced users) who may only want to admire locomotives and the scenery around, it does add to the overall value of a game. does it overshadow the graphical glitches/shortcomings? that i think will depend on the individual user/player.

about additional content:

one of the biggest strengths of trainz is this. there are literally thousands of add ons (be it in terms of textures or locos or tracks) available for free compared to other train sims which primarily have paid content.

however i think the free content aspect is a bit overrated. i'll tell you why, its a newbie's perspective though. i find it extremely cumbersome to browse through auran download station. the search results are cluttered and the overall search engine is very basic. so basically even if i search for a particular texture i will be shown thousands of results but i will have no idea as to which one's better and which one isnt. this creates a massive problem for a user.

i'm of the opinion that track/route building is best left to the experts. sure i can dab with the settings and surveyor mode and that is a great feature but a professional will always create a more realistic and accurate track than me or any average user. in that i found trainz content to be limited. very limited. high quality content is few and far between and then its mostly payware. and to be honest, those arent exactly cheap (most of it being higher than $10, considering that its an add-on pack, thats expensive). suddenly the "trainz is cheaper" argument does seem a lot hollow. and even then there is the issue of missing dependencies, something which is so irritating i cant believe its actually there. the developers need to come up with a way to install all missing dependencies automatically without the user having to interfere.

i know i will be criticised here for being lazy, shying away from the minuscule task of having to install dependencies. fact is though, i've used Linux for a decade. and finally i had to switch to windows. doing things manually (installing missing dependencies and packages) may be fun for a while but can get extremely frustrating over time. i just want to play the siim, not spend an equal amount of time upgrading the elements, something the developers shouldve done for me in the first place.

so yeah, trainz has a lot of shortcomings but its a much loved train sim and still has the gameplay element to it. what it needs though is more high quality content like the paywares on jointedrails, for free. otherwise in its current form, Trainz mostly looks like a DIY bundle with a very high cost of overall ownership.

 

[mezzoprezzo]

The graphic characters shown may not be as realistic looking close up as some of the animated examples available, but they look great when viewed from a normal operating distance. Let’s face it, get in close enough and all assets look really bad - in any simulator.

The art of building an acceptable route is selecting and placing textures and assets correctly at the right distance from a normal viewpoint. I find that textures work well on middle to distant landscapes. Close up, textures seem to work best as a base undercoat for 3D assets to be placed.

Some of the detailed textures tend to fail when viewed close up because of perspective distortion. The tall grass examples particularly display this problem where the stalks, which were probably near to vertical when photographed, lie flat along the baseboard and disappear under walls and buildings in a most unrealistic way. Some of the broken ground and ballast textures, however, do look really good. The better artists will, I am sure, develop and create some stunning new examples in good time.

At the end of the day it’s not the graphics engine, any individual asset type, or new/old textures. It’s a combination of how well the items have been chosen and placed which makes for a good result.

When selecting a train simulator other considerations also come into play, depending on what you want to get out of it. For me, it’s the ease of creating Routes, the plethora of available assets (European 3rd party are particularly good), and the help, friendship and freedom found in this Forum.

Set against those criteria I think Trainz beats the competition hands down.

All IMHO of course!