Nostalgia trip: TS2009 (in Linux)

[Frk]

Hello guys. Like someone who comes back to play something after a decade or so, wanted to get a ticket to ride a nostalgia trip in the form of installing my old copy of TS2009 and have some fun.
Obviously years have passed and Trainz moved on, but TS2009 it the first one I played in my life and I feel really attached to it. I really liked TrainzLand (Roger Cabo and Marinus) content, at the time they built Modula City and Classic Cabon City (Straßenbahn-Großstadt for the PTP guys), they looked absolutely stunning, so futuristic and unique.
The thing is I don't use Windows anymore and, trying to tinker around with TS2009 running under my Arch Linux machine and Wine, I could make the thing work partially.
The main program goes great in DirectX mode. I tried to use OpenGL but the baseboard is invisible and objects and splines look like they float in mid air. My setup uses Nvidia GPU, surely this is the culprit, who knows. Or maybe I have overlooked a package and installing it would make the thing work too.
Sadly, Content Manager 2.0 is the one who doesn't let me enjoy the game, because when I start it, when the thing is going to show all the assets, freezes and I can't use it.
I called a friend who had TRS2006. We tried it in my machine, and its Content Manager (Plus?) works fantastic and quick. Maybe there's a way to "downgrade" CM but I think that sounds like a crazy idea?
Reading some threads here, they say you can use a CLI utility called TrainzUtil or something like that. Does it fully replace CM?
Had someone a go and got successfully through?
Thank you!

 

[wilts747]

Its not just Linux some of the older versions of Trainz have their issues with Windows 10 and 11 but there a a few things you might care to try to improve things.

First; perhaps cast your eyes over the following https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Wine#Installation in particular the potential need for 32bit support if you haven't already enabled it.

Second; Change the version of Windows, Wine is mimicking. Type winecfg in the Terminal to open the Wine Configuration Utility and its at the bottom of the Applications tab.

Third; Instead of running Trainz directly through Wine, run it through the likes of Lutris. Lutris enables you to also use older versions of Wine which other Forum Members have discovered makes their respective setups run Trainz better than some of the latest versions of Wine have. My personal experience is to still install Wine and in turn Trainz through it as you likely have already. Next, configure Trainz as a pre-installed program through Lutris.

I think N3V are really missing a trick in respect of CM and Linux. T:ANE, TRS19 and TRS22 all run perfectly well on at least a dozen of the latest versions of Linux, I try out a new version practically every week, just to see if one will give a slight edge over another, then to be honest so far go straight back to dependable Mint. Address the refreshing issue of CM on Linux and how many other games/simulators could it be said run on practically any OS. To refresh the pages of CM I just double mouse tap on the page title bar, it works just frustrating.

Good luck, Peter

 

[Frk]

I had a go with Lutris, but no luck, CM still freezes when it's going to show the elements. If someone has successfully run TS2009's CM in their Linux machine, let me know!
Thank you so much for your advice, Peter!

 

[JCitron]

I had a go with Lutris, but no luck, CM still freezes when it's going to show the elements. If someone has successfully run TS2009's CM in their Linux machine, let me know!
Thank you so much for your advice, Peter!

Content Manager for TS2009 through TS12 uses Open/GL while the Trainz versions can use DirectX 09. If you don't have Open/GL installed, then this is the cause of your freeze.

As far as I know, Open/GL is still supported at the hardware, if you are unable to get it to work, then it's a software and OS issue.

 

[Frk]

Yeah, I assume this is due to something not right with my installation, which is weird because I suppose I have all what it's needed to make the thing work. I'll keep investigating.
Thank you!

 

[Frk]

A thing I've noticed is that when opening CCP as well as the CMP included in TRS2006, where it works well, it makes my screen blink when it opens and when it closes.
Thank god the person who had the idea of making TrainzUtil, because it comes really handy now, ahaha.
I'm starting to assume this is just a hardware issue... these pesky nvidias...

 

[wilts747]

Over the past few evenings I've been playing with Trainz 2004/06/09/10 and 2012 on a variety of hardware and software all with mixed results. It is clear that the older versions of Trainz much prefer the old OS and to some degree the older hardware as well. None of these versions particularly like Windows 10/11 and work far better on Xp through to 7 all of which I still have on DVD (round things with holes in the middle).

On Linux I used bare Wine, Lutris and Bottles, admittedly on Mint which does not support Vulcan drivers so I may play some more with a basic install of Ubuntu which doesn't have all the desktop applications gamers don't really require. All the versions of Trainz ran on bare Wine versions 6.xx, 8.xx, and 10 with some tweaking. On 2009 for example it was still saying I needed install DirectX 9.0 when it was running and could be edited perfectly. Lutris made fiddling easier as I didn't have to reinstall Wine to run a different version but the end result was much the same. I tried both Nvidia (AMD and Intel CPU) and Radeon Vega (AMD CPU only) graphics with little difference in quality but I didn't check fps. However CM was unworkable on all combinations and on a couple of occasions caused Trainz to lock up completely including on 2010 where I needed to reinstall as it was calling for a database repair and just wouldn't load.

Trolling the Internet, 2009 seemed to work with Wine version 1.6 back in the day unfortunately there was no mention on whether CM was working or not or had it already been accepted that CM was a no go. I did find that my dusty 12 year old Toshiba Satellite C850 Celeron Dual Core 1000M laptop with 4GB shared RAM and Intel graphics while slow is still quite capable of running up to TS2012 on Linux which sort of got me thinking. Wine has grown up over the years to compliment Windows and both may have just left these older versions of Trainz behind. CM still doesn't work properly but I have never run TRS22 on anything other than Linux just as well as other using Windows 10/11 probably with far fewer OS related issues. For many years I have used Linux for everything, adapted to the equivalent applications where I could and used Wine where I couldn't. However I've also said that while I use Android for my mobile phone yet can't say I'm a lover of Google, I'm equally happy using Windows if it allows me to enjoy Trainz. It may be wishful thinking but I hope one day the CM issue will be resolved in Linux but in the mean time current versions of the simulator works well with few limitations. I think if I wanted to run the older Trainz versions with access to CM long term I'd run Windows Xp/7 either as a virtual machine under Linux or stand alone, while restricting Internet access to the DLS only, as a precaution.

I found Lutris was easier to use than Bottles but then I am more familiar with its setup. Older versions of Wine I downloaded from Sourceforge.net. Peter