"Otherwise all software would be stuck in the 'beta' state for all eternity..."
So is TS2010 ever gonna get out of beta? :hehe:
"So when someone says that they don't have a machine to run Trainz, I always kind of scratch my head because I'm on a fixed income and have been for about four years now and I can save up and buy a piece at a time and make what I have better. And I guess I just kind of figure I don't know why anyone else can't…"
Elementary, Watson, you don't get $400 to $600 per month heating bills in Arizona. I often lose my internet connection in the winter because I need to scrape up another 20 bucks so I can turn the thermostat up far enough to avoid hypothermia. OTOH Wisconsin summers are pretty nice, what's this "air conditioner" thing all you southerners keep talking about?
As for upgrading, I moved from Chicago to Wisconsin 6 years ago, bought a house in September 2005, bought two identical Dell XPS 400 systems in October 2005, $1500 each (all that before the financial disaster from a bad business investment and heart attack the following spring). They originally had Nvidia 6800s, 1 gig RAM, 2.8ghz Intel Duo cores, Maxtor 6L160M0 147.8 GB hard drives. Since I was moving at the time I didn't have the inclination to build my own, so these were the first "store bought" systems since the Dell 80486 DX-66 I had umpteen years ago - and I didn't know about Dell using non industry standard hardware. Currently have an 8500GT since that's the best I can get with the 375 watt power supply, and you can't stick in a generic power supply since the mobo connections are non standard on a Dell. Had some spare money (in the summer!) couple years ago, bought a pair of 1 gig sticks of 800mhz Crucial RAM - then discovered even with the only available BIOS update they won't run over 677mhz since that's all the BIOS will do.
I've been tinkering with settings for TS2010 off and on since I got it, usually seems to run slightly better in DirectX - except for routes like Electric Commuter, which I've been using as a test bench since it had moderate low framerates with the worst rubber banding effect. Using OpenGL instead of DirectX eliminates all the rubber banding and the route is actually pretty smooth, FPS is only slightly higher but FPS never does tell the whole story. On my own route DirectX OpenGL render frames ahead zero or 8, vertical synch force on force off, 32 bit 16 bit yada yada yada the FPS remains about the same at 10-15FPS no matter what I do. I did find that it runs smoother in full screen rather than windowed, and 1024x768 rather than the native resolution of 1280x1024 that usually produces best results.
By contrast I built a similar route in Railworks (available at www.trainsim.com and www,uktrainsim.com, Port Ogden & Chicago Metro) which looks better and runs smoother. But. Again, once I'm finished creating my magical artistic beauty, what can I do with it? Hop in a train, "have a run", and admire the scenery. Doesn't matter what I do with track and signals in Railworks, the AI is completely hopeless, which makes duplicating intense operations interacting with other trains (my passion) totally impossible.
Some videos, first two from Railworks;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxHIUtKO_B4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9QcykJRXZs
This from TS2010;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k4cDDhVAao
The critical difference is that with TS2010 it's a lot easier to set up, debug, and tweak, and most important independent of critical timing. In the railworks scenarios if the player somehow manages to run thru a locked switch crossing the path of an AI train, all of them will go catatonic and sit there sucking their thumbs and sulking. With Trainz I can bust into the middle of a dozen AI trains and screw up their whole schedule, once I get out of the way they usually sort themselves out, figure out who goes first and which way to go, and get moving again. If they get too screwed up you can hit F6 to open the driver menu, and play dispatcher by giving and changing the AI orders during the game.
If they get too screwed up you can hit F6 to open the driver menu, and play dispatcher by giving and changing the AI orders during the game.
No, I said that twice on purpose because it bears repeating, I'm going to say it again.
If they get too screwed up you can hit F6 to open the driver menu, and play dispatcher by giving and changing the AI orders during the game.
For those who have never tried other trainsims, you may not fully appreciate this aspect of Trainz - if the AI screws up you can unscrew it yourself while you're playing because of this "mini dispatcher" control panel. MSTS does not have that, if there's a traffic jam it's Game Over, nothing you can do about it. Railworks does not have that, if there's a traffic jam it's Game Over, nothing you can do about it. Only Trainz has that feature.
So is TS2010 ever gonna get out of beta? :hehe:
"So when someone says that they don't have a machine to run Trainz, I always kind of scratch my head because I'm on a fixed income and have been for about four years now and I can save up and buy a piece at a time and make what I have better. And I guess I just kind of figure I don't know why anyone else can't…"
Elementary, Watson, you don't get $400 to $600 per month heating bills in Arizona. I often lose my internet connection in the winter because I need to scrape up another 20 bucks so I can turn the thermostat up far enough to avoid hypothermia. OTOH Wisconsin summers are pretty nice, what's this "air conditioner" thing all you southerners keep talking about?
As for upgrading, I moved from Chicago to Wisconsin 6 years ago, bought a house in September 2005, bought two identical Dell XPS 400 systems in October 2005, $1500 each (all that before the financial disaster from a bad business investment and heart attack the following spring). They originally had Nvidia 6800s, 1 gig RAM, 2.8ghz Intel Duo cores, Maxtor 6L160M0 147.8 GB hard drives. Since I was moving at the time I didn't have the inclination to build my own, so these were the first "store bought" systems since the Dell 80486 DX-66 I had umpteen years ago - and I didn't know about Dell using non industry standard hardware. Currently have an 8500GT since that's the best I can get with the 375 watt power supply, and you can't stick in a generic power supply since the mobo connections are non standard on a Dell. Had some spare money (in the summer!) couple years ago, bought a pair of 1 gig sticks of 800mhz Crucial RAM - then discovered even with the only available BIOS update they won't run over 677mhz since that's all the BIOS will do.
I've been tinkering with settings for TS2010 off and on since I got it, usually seems to run slightly better in DirectX - except for routes like Electric Commuter, which I've been using as a test bench since it had moderate low framerates with the worst rubber banding effect. Using OpenGL instead of DirectX eliminates all the rubber banding and the route is actually pretty smooth, FPS is only slightly higher but FPS never does tell the whole story. On my own route DirectX OpenGL render frames ahead zero or 8, vertical synch force on force off, 32 bit 16 bit yada yada yada the FPS remains about the same at 10-15FPS no matter what I do. I did find that it runs smoother in full screen rather than windowed, and 1024x768 rather than the native resolution of 1280x1024 that usually produces best results.
By contrast I built a similar route in Railworks (available at www.trainsim.com and www,uktrainsim.com, Port Ogden & Chicago Metro) which looks better and runs smoother. But. Again, once I'm finished creating my magical artistic beauty, what can I do with it? Hop in a train, "have a run", and admire the scenery. Doesn't matter what I do with track and signals in Railworks, the AI is completely hopeless, which makes duplicating intense operations interacting with other trains (my passion) totally impossible.
Some videos, first two from Railworks;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxHIUtKO_B4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9QcykJRXZs
This from TS2010;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k4cDDhVAao
The critical difference is that with TS2010 it's a lot easier to set up, debug, and tweak, and most important independent of critical timing. In the railworks scenarios if the player somehow manages to run thru a locked switch crossing the path of an AI train, all of them will go catatonic and sit there sucking their thumbs and sulking. With Trainz I can bust into the middle of a dozen AI trains and screw up their whole schedule, once I get out of the way they usually sort themselves out, figure out who goes first and which way to go, and get moving again. If they get too screwed up you can hit F6 to open the driver menu, and play dispatcher by giving and changing the AI orders during the game.
If they get too screwed up you can hit F6 to open the driver menu, and play dispatcher by giving and changing the AI orders during the game.
No, I said that twice on purpose because it bears repeating, I'm going to say it again.
If they get too screwed up you can hit F6 to open the driver menu, and play dispatcher by giving and changing the AI orders during the game.
For those who have never tried other trainsims, you may not fully appreciate this aspect of Trainz - if the AI screws up you can unscrew it yourself while you're playing because of this "mini dispatcher" control panel. MSTS does not have that, if there's a traffic jam it's Game Over, nothing you can do about it. Railworks does not have that, if there's a traffic jam it's Game Over, nothing you can do about it. Only Trainz has that feature.