Railworks 3 First Look at Rain Video

[NikkiA]

I totally agree with you Bill, the switches in Railworks do look great and so much better than Trainz switches, (except for the Ocemy switches which do look good), but as a whole, the Trainz switches do need a overhaul, as the blending of the rails and sleepers looks awful.

Lets not forget that the Railworks default track is all 2D sleepers, with only the track itself being a 3D model, and this is why almost all freeware routes require the IOW payware route - for the prettier track.

So if we're going to harp about Railworks' quality pointwork, we should also realise that its default track looks awful.

We could also note that the default signals are substandard, and most freeware routes are now requiring more payware routes as a dependancy for their signals (WCML usually, although some freeware routes require Bristol/Exeter, Edinburgh/Glasgow or even Portsmouth Direct). One therefore needs to factor in those routes to the base price for running freeware routes, and Railworks thus costs about £100+ before you even start adding payware rolling stock.

Back to the 'wonderful, mystical, magical' railworks pointwork...

This is one of the promo shots for RW3 that illustrates how perfectly perfect and always-so the railworks auto-junction system is:

Don't we all just WISH that trainz had such great auto-junction code? (Yes, I'm being sarcastic, although I bet there are vast multitudes of RW fanbois that don't even realise what is wrong with that picture)

 

[IsambardKingdomBrunel]

RW default track is crap, it looks like lengths of angle iron.

The IOW track is no good for ML routes, the sleepers are too close together.

IKB.

 

[JIb228]

This is one of the promo shots for RW3 that illustrates how perfectly perfect and always-so the railworks auto-junction system is:

Don't we all just WISH that trainz had such great auto-junction code? (Yes, I'm being sarcastic, although I bet there are vast multitudes of RW fanbois that don't even realise what is wrong with that picture)

What, those aren't closing point frogs? (More sarcasm.)

Now while I do like the rain effect, and I see how real it can make a game. If there are other things that should be added first should they not be added? Though I would like to at least see working wipers in TRS.

 

[JCitron]

The default track looks no better than the original Auran track. This track here looks like a painted plastic sheet with rails on it. Auran's old track looked like weird brown mushy stuff with blobby round rails on it.

The points are wrong. These metal angle-irons don't even have a filled in place for the wheels to roll over like they're supposed to. In reality a train would derail with the wheels getting stuck in the frogs, if it were moving too slow over them.

John

 

[BNSF650]

Does anybody have a correct photo of what they should look like?

 

[JCitron]

Does anybody have a correct photo of what they should look like?

http://www.fotosearch.com/FSD357/x16089782/

 

[NikkiA]

The points are wrong. These metal angle-irons don't even have a filled in place for the wheels to roll over like they're supposed to. In reality a train would derail with the wheels getting stuck in the frogs, if it were moving too slow over them.

It's worse than that (... jim, he's dead jim...), look closer, you'll see that the frogs on the divergant tracks are blocked completely, and would derail the train at any speed (well, unless the train took the divergence every time, but that'd just be silly).

And despite how everyone drools over the auto-frog stuff, I still think they just look like lumps of metal, and don't look anything like real frogs do. The animated switches (and no, Ocemy's aren't the only ones, there are literally dozens of them by different authors) in trainz tend to look hundreds of times more realistic to me, yes, they're not able to be rolled (they can sometimes be modified to allow being pitched), but that's a minor issue IMO, and we don't even know how super-elevation in RW3 is going to interact with their switches yet (it wouldn't surprise me if you can't have switches on super-elevated track).

Plus the animated switches in trainz look smoother, IMO.

And yes, they're ever so slightly more work - although if you lay the switches first, then connect track to them, it's not much more work at all.

(Again, we're not talking about AJS style animated switches here, but simply 'place and connect' animated switches by Ocemy and others.)

 

[wholbr]

Hi Everybody.
With all this posting on frogs and check rails that the gurus of the Trainz simulator and rail industry may appreciate for internal consumption among themselve, perhaps we should drawback and look at this from a different perspective.

Suppose you where a new user to rail simulator's and had purchased both Railworks 2 and Trainz 2012. You decide to give both a try before settling on which one will be your first choice simulator. On trying each one of the simulators for the first time undoubtedly the visual impact would be foremost in arriving at your preferred choice. With Railworks you may notice that the switches look very much like the ones you have seen at your local station. Whereas with Trainz you may well notice that they look nothing like the switches you have seen in use on the railways in your area.

My point in the above is that with Railworks at least the check rails and frogs are there. They may not be perfect but they are there. That I believe would matter to the newcomer to our hobby with that first visual impact perhaps pushing him/her towards making Railworks his preferred simulator and thereby purchasing additional routes and content.

The above is not to say that our newcomer may not decide to switch allegiances to Trainz when he/she does try using Railworks world editor for the first time. However, it would seem that many Railworks users do eventually overcome the obstacles placed in the way of the new user and create good content from the software. However I must say have never mastered that.

I also find that customer care is much better with Railworks as I do not mind the automatic patching which takes place often without me knowing. Others I know would fundamentally disagree with me on the benefits of steam or not as they see it. However the ever-growing number of patches with each new edition which have to be done manually is undoubtedly a major drawback for many when it comes to Trainz.

Further when it comes to customer care you only have to look as far as the launch of Trainz for android to realize the ineptitude of some within the N3V Auran management. Launched on Friday into a new market there has been no support whatever over this weekend. No help line or even a new section on the forum for those who have paid their money and are perhaps looking for support following problems.

I myself have tried to help two people with purchasing and download problems in the general section on this forum. However as usual all the Trainz management have gone off for the weekend having taken their customers money with the thought that we will sort out any problems some time next week, if we get round to it.

They should realize they are in the retail industry which in the rest of the world is a 365 day operation. With perhaps very hard times world wide just around the corner let's hope they realize that quickly and adjust, as new customers may be very hard to come by in the future

Bill

 

[sniper297]

"And yes, they're ever so slightly more work - although if you lay the switches first, then connect track to them, it's not much more work at all."

How many hours did you spend learning the railworks tracklaying tool before you came to that conclusion?

 

[mrscsi]

And you were appointed community spokesman by whom? I personally like to see discussion on other simulators here and I suspect others do as well.

By the way, you do know your processor is rubbish don't you?

Paul

I think by saying "rubbish" you are being too kind Paul...:hehe:

 

[IsambardKingdomBrunel]

Hi Everybody.
With all this posting on frogs and check rails that the gurus of the Trainz simulator and rail industry may appreciate for internal consumption among themselve, perhaps we should drawback and look at this from a different perspective.

Suppose you where a new user to rail simulator's and had purchased both Railworks 2 and Trainz 2012. You decide to give both a try before settling on which one will be your first choice simulator. On trying each one of the simulators for the first time undoubtedly the visual impact would be foremost in arriving at your preferred choice. With Railworks you may notice that the switches look very much like the ones you have seen at your local station. Whereas with Trainz you may well notice that they look nothing like the switches you have seen in use on the railways in your area.

My point in the above is that with Railworks at least the check rails and frogs are there. They may not be perfect but they are there. That I believe would matter to the newcomer to our hobby with that first visual impact perhaps pushing him/her towards making Railworks his preferred simulator and thereby purchasing additional routes and content.

The above is not to say that our newcomer may not decide to switch allegiances to Trainz when he/she does try using Railworks world editor for the first time. However, it would seem that many Railworks users do eventually overcome the obstacles placed in the way of the new user and create good content from the software. However I must say have never mastered that.

I also find that customer care is much better with Railworks as I do not mind the automatic patching which takes place often without me knowing. Others I know would fundamentally disagree with me on the benefits of steam or not as they see it. However the ever-growing number of patches with each new edition which have to be done manually is undoubtedly a major drawback for many when it comes to Trainz.

Further when it comes to customer care you only have to look as far as the launch of Trainz for android to realize the ineptitude of some within the N3V Auran management. Launched on Friday into a new market there has been no support whatever over this weekend. No help line or even a new section on the forum for those who have paid their money and are perhaps looking for support following problems.

I myself have tried to help two people with purchasing and download problems in the general section on this forum. However as usual all the Trainz management have gone off for the weekend having taken their customers money with the thought that we will sort out any problems some time next week, if we get round to it.

They should realize they are in the retail industry which in the rest of the world is a 365 day operation. With perhaps very hard times world wide just around the corner let's hope they realize that quickly and adjust, as new customers may be very hard to come by in the future

Bill

Very intelligent and level headed post Bill. Sums up how i feel about N3V, hence my withdrawl from Trainz beta testing and a switch to RW2 full time.

Mike.

 

[PerRock]

Lets not forget that the Railworks default track is all 2D sleepers, with only the track itself being a 3D model, and this is why almost all freeware routes require the IOW payware route - for the prettier track.

So if we're going to harp about Railworks' quality pointwork, we should also realise that its default track looks awful.

We could also note that the default signals are substandard, and most freeware routes are now requiring more payware routes as a dependancy for their signals (WCML usually, although some freeware routes require Bristol/Exeter, Edinburgh/Glasgow or even Portsmouth Direct). One therefore needs to factor in those routes to the base price for running freeware routes, and Railworks thus costs about £100+ before you even start adding payware rolling stock.

Back to the 'wonderful, mystical, magical' railworks pointwork...

This is one of the promo shots for RW3 that illustrates how perfectly perfect and always-so the railworks auto-junction system is:

Don't we all just WISH that trainz had such great auto-junction code? (Yes, I'm being sarcastic, although I bet there are vast multitudes of RW fanbois that don't even realise what is wrong with that picture)

Umm how is a train supposed to go straight ahead on that track. The way I see it, as soon as the first wheel hits that "frog" it'll derail.

peter

 

[amigacooke]

I'm confused, is it a rain or train simulator?

 

[amigacooke]

I myself have tried to help two people with purchasing and download problems in the general section on this forum. However as usual all the Trainz management have gone off for the weekend having taken their customers money with the thought that we will sort out any problems some time next week, if we get round to it.

Mind you N3V provide a forum. The RailWorks company forum is long gone. Their support amounts to an FAQ and email address.

 

[clam1952]

Mind you N3V provide a forum. The RailWorks company forum is long gone. Their support amounts to an FAQ and email address.

Probably they are not daft doing that, it removes them from the public barrage of criticism that N3V get on here. Yes RW would get it if they had a forum as every item of software I've ever used, whether complaints are valid or not has its "army" of unhappy users assisted by Trols who probably don't even use whatever program but live for stirring up controversy.
One or two "Company" forums even delete critical posts, at least N3V allows them so long as they stay within the forums guidelines.

 

[IsambardKingdomBrunel]

I'm confused, is it a rain or train simulator?

It's a rain simulator, but with trains included.

Or it will be in september.

IKB.

 

[robd]

It's a rain simulator, but with trains included.

Or it will be in september.

IKB.

So it might as well rain until September... (with apologies to N Sedaka)

Sorry,

Rob.

 

[wholbr]

So it might as well rain until September... (with apologies to N Sedaka)

Sorry,

Rob.

uugh, that that has to be the worst joke ever posted on this forum. If you have any more like that Rob is it possible that you could keep them to yourself.

You did far better in the " beer is brain food" thread. Have another go, it just has to be better.

Bill

 

[wholbr]

Hi Everybody.
I just thought of one, how about
With the train in the rain will Railworks be the same

Bill
(looking at it again, perhaps it is not much better than robs)

 

[robd]

Hi Everybody.
I just thought of one, how about
With the train in the rain will Railworks be the same

Bill
(looking at it again, perhaps it is not much better than robs)

Thank you 'pot'