Why did a thread about poor support become a complaint about Trainz versions and Auran?
Having been in the computer industry since the Apple IIe, Visual 1050, Ontel Op1, and Atari 400s, series computers, I can say that Martin has hit much of this nail smack on the head.
When we first started with home computers, it wasn't the average Joe that purchased them. It was usually the electrical engineer, programmer, student, and someone else with technical intuition that made the purchase and tinkered to make things work. I was one of them, and in 1984 I got my first real computer.
The Visual V-1050 came with 2 floppy drives, 128K of bank-switch-enabled RAM, no hard drive, a 9" display and keyboard along with a pile of software, and the CP/M-Plus OS disks. Now other than WordStar, Multiplan, DR-Graph, C-Basic, and Z-80 Assembler, you were on your own to figure things out.
So you wanted to run some calculations, other than simple spreadsheet stuff in MultiPlan? It was up to you to write the program in Pascal, Fortran, or attempt some code in Z-80 Assembler. You had to write the code, compile it, debug it, and fixed it to make it work.
Now come along today, with the big marketing push by the big companies, and nothing has changed. The new operating systems, including Apple OSx, all current versions of Windows, and even Ubuntu, hide and bury the real workings of these boxes, which are really the same as they were back in the early 1980s. The only difference now is the parts are faster, hotter, and smaller.
Since the big computer companies have already filled the early markets, they've pushed their wares on the rest of the public. Their big fancy advertisements, marketing campaigns, and glossed over sales push, has sucked in the rest of the public quite easily. People go right for the store displays now and purchase, usually at a whim, the fancy-looking home computers. They're fed a line of B-S from the store sales-geek, who talks circles around the purchaser with all kinds of techno-terms that heads spin for days afterwards.
This elder couple now bring their new shiny machine home, set it up, and think they've got a Cray on their desk. The bad part is many of these computers have older technology, built-in graphics or underpowered graphics, just enough RAM, and usually one of the slowest cheapest hard drives anyone can find. The drive might be 2TB, but it's usually one of the slow 4500 RPM ones, while good for backups, is not good for running programs like Trainz.
This is where the problem lies. People take these under spec'd machines, running a bloated operating system, or one that is not sized properly for the hardware, browse the web, and come across a program like Trainz.
Trainz may run on these underpowered machines, or it may not. This depends upon the parts inside, and given the variations of the hardware between brands and models, this is hard to judge. The other thing too is the built-in graphics chip is not going to cut the mustard for the program even if it works somewhat. This doesn't give the program justice of what it can do.
The other thing too is we keep forgetting that Trainz is not the average computer-owner's program. As much as N3V has done to change this, there are still many layers to unfurl before they find the core. Trainz is a tinkerer's program just like any hobbyist would use. With its open-ended nature and multiple facets, there are so many variations possible for operation, and worse, for thing to go wrong.
And now to complicate things, the economy has changed, and the support staff we once had, is no longer there for these people. The community can help to a certain extent, but the real mouse-holding needs to be done by the developer who is trying to survive. We no longer have full support for the older versions, which in my opinion is expected, and we have to pay for more. We keep forgetting that N3V is a business and not Greg's hobby he decided to sell to a few friends. The old days are over, and we have to live with what we have today.
Will things change? Most definitely. Will N3V be here forever? I doubt it. Personally I feel we should enjoy what we have now while we have it instead of complaining about it. My grandmother used to say that nothing is forever both good and bad. So, savor the good things while you can because once it's gone, well you know it's gone forever.
John
I use it every time I run Trainz.
