Revisiting Trainz after a long absence - I need info

[Orpheus2000]

I have TR12 and I have reinstalled it after a longish period of being without a working graphics card. I am interested in the UK steam era.

Is it true that, to develop a decent model layout, quite a bit of cash will probably be needed now to buy the content? When I started, with TR2004, there seemed to be loads of stuff freely available, but now the "free" cupboard seems a bit bare.

I have no objection at all to content creators being paid for their considerable efforts, but I would rather spend serious money on a real model than a virtual one.

Or have I got things A about F?

Cheers, all

Happy Christmas.

 

[Vern]

Try a search for "GWR" on the DLS and that should bring up a huge selection of freeware steam era stuff to download.

The Settle & Carlisle route includes a number of very well modelled steam locos, yes it is payware but far cheaper than even one decent OO model will cost you. The group behind the route also have a large number of free additional stuff hosted on the Railsim UK site.

There's also a vast selection of UK narrow gauge steam content for free on the DLS.

 

[Orpheus2000]

Vern, thanks for that encouraging reply. I'm extremely rusty after my absence, so it's like starting from scratch. I was considering T:ANE, but I thought I should find out what this is all going to cost. Even the First Class ticket seems to have gone up a lot in price in this period of hardly any inflation! Again, charging a fair price is fine, I just happen to be a bit more hard up than I used to be.

Cheers

 

[johnwhelan]

Vern, thanks for that encouraging reply. I'm extremely rusty after my absence, so it's like starting from scratch. I was considering T:ANE, but I thought I should find out what this is all going to cost. Even the First Class ticket seems to have gone up a lot in price in this period of hardly any inflation! Again, charging a fair price is fine, I just happen to be a bit more hard up than I used to be.

Cheers

Go and have a wander over to jatws.org and just download everything in sight, that should get you started including profig's speedtrees. With TS12 you should be able to trickle things down from the DLS. http://www.trainz-carriage-wagon-works.com/ will give you some idea of the newer items available they're all freeware I think. Skipper1945 has some extremely good locos on the DLS.

http://www.potteriesloopline.co.uk/ is interesting, S&C has DRM with the latest version of TS12 which is a pain if the DRM server connection isn't made however the TS2010 version works fine and is DRM free. TS12 pre SP1 doesn't have DRM by the way.

TANE at the moment really is happiest with a GTX 970 / 980 and they aren't cheap.

Cheerio John

 

[RRSignal]

No, you definitely don't need payware to get good-looking content. You might be thinking of another train sim.

Quality is variable, of course, and it depends on the content creator. There's lots of quality stuff on the DLS; there's also lots that is subpar but today's standards. You'll just have to poke around and look. You also should have a copy of PEV's mesh viewer so you can open items up and check polycounts - a lot of stuff, but good and marginal, can bring a system to its knees because it's built inefficiently.

There are lots of third-party sites with freeware. Again, a lot of it is great; a lot is sub-par too. The Eastern European and Russian sites tend to have particularly good content.

And, of course, there is plenty of good payware too, if you want to go that route.

 

[johnwhelan]

http://www.trainzproroutes.org/ also has a fair bit of UK stuff.

Cheerio John

 

[Orpheus2000]

No, you definitely don't need payware to get good-looking content. You might be thinking of another train sim.
.

Thanks for the advice, RRSignal.

I had looked at as many independent reviews as I could find and, as ever, they are not much use. In fact I find most "professional" reviews of anything quite misleading.

 

[Orpheus2000]

TANE at the moment really is happiest with a GTX 970 / 980 and they aren't cheap.

Cheerio John

As it happens, I recently fitted a GTX 970. My old card packed up ages ago and I've been saving up for a good replacement. Seems I did the right thing by chance.

Thanks for all the tips. Now I can look forward to late nights running Trainz!


Cheers

 

[johnwhelan]

As it happens, I recently fitted a GTX 970. My old card packed up ages ago and I've been saving up for a good replacement. Seems I did the right thing by chance.

Thanks for all the tips. Now I can look forward to late nights running Trainz!


Cheers

Buy TANE deluxe, I understand it doesn't have DRM. http://www.simulatorcentral.com/index.php/trainz-a-new-era-digital-deluxe.html or buy any version before Dec 31st and you get the DRM free version if you fill in a form somewhere.

TANE will give you better frame rates than TS12 on the same hardware with a GTX 970 or better. The shadows on buildings are nice as well.

Oh and go and visit http://www.ballynagarrick.net/ing4trainz/index.html

Cheerio John

 

[schmitz15]

Apologies for the thread hijack.. It seemed a handy place to ask on page 1.

I too am thinking about a return to Trainz, but my gap is even longer - the last version I played was TRS2006 back in 2009! I dabbled in RailWorks/Rail Simulator for a while, but have never found a sim quite as good as Trainz, especially not for DLC. I'm a bit confused as to the number of different versions of Trainz now available, and which would be best for someone looking to get back into the series.

I get a lot of games through Steam nowadays, and TANE is currently on offer. However is it still currently better to go for the slightly more expensive TR12 in terms of compatibility of assets/routes etc?

 

[LNERlover5]

Apologies for the thread hijack.. It seemed a handy place to ask on page 1.

I too am thinking about a return to Trainz, but my gap is even longer - the last version I played was TRS2006 back in 2009! I dabbled in RailWorks/Rail Simulator for a while, but have never found a sim quite as good as Trainz, especially not for DLC. I'm a bit confused as to the number of different versions of Trainz now available, and which would be best for someone looking to get back into the series.

I get a lot of games through Steam nowadays, and TANE is currently on offer. However is it still currently better to go for the slightly more expensive TR12 in terms of compatibility of assets/routes etc?

I would tell you to avoid Steam for Trainz. I ran TS12 through it and it was just another DRM hoop to jump through that proved a pain at times. Much better to get a copy from simulator central.

At this point I'm probably not the one to tell you which version to go for as I have not tried SP1 for T:ANE, although it is apparently mean't to be quite good.

Jack

 

[johnwhelan]

Apologies for the thread hijack.. It seemed a handy place to ask on page 1.

I too am thinking about a return to Trainz, but my gap is even longer - the last version I played was TRS2006 back in 2009! I dabbled in RailWorks/Rail Simulator for a while, but have never found a sim quite as good as Trainz, especially not for DLC. I'm a bit confused as to the number of different versions of Trainz now available, and which would be best for someone looking to get back into the series.

I get a lot of games through Steam nowadays, and TANE is currently on offer. However is it still currently better to go for the slightly more expensive TR12 in terms of compatibility of assets/routes etc?

Currently TS12 works, TANE still has a number of undocumented system features but I understand SP1 isn't too bad. It probably depends more on your hardware, if you have a GTX 970 or 980 then go TANE if not then TS12 works at the moment quite well.

Cheerio John

 

[cascaderailroad]

This is so disheartening, and deplorable, that a game that was promised to be released for Dec 25, 2014, and was released late in May 2015 ... and now it is Dec 27, 2015 ... And still the game has bugz, and SP1 will be "hopefully Sometime" in 2016 ... Sadly to say to begging kids and their parents at a model train convention: "Oh you don't want that newest version", is akin to telling PC buyers that: "Don't upgrade to Windows10, stay with Windows7 or Vista".

I think N3V needs to hire some professional video gaming techs to fix T:ANE

 

[shaneturner12]

This is so disheartening, and deplorable, that a game that was promised to be released for Dec 25, 2014, and was released late in May 2015 ... and now it is Dec 27, 2015 ... And still the game has bugz, and SP1 will be "hopefully Sometime" in 2016 ... Sadly to say to begging kids and their parents at a model train convention: "Oh you don't want that newest version", is akin to telling PC buyers that: "Don't upgrade to Windows10, stay with Windows7 or Vista".

I think N3V needs to hire some professional video gaming techs to fix T:ANE

Interesting you mention Windows 10 there Cascade. I've heard that at least two PC companies (their tech support staff at least) have been advising users who have upgraded to Windows 10 to downgrade back to their previous version.

Shane

 

[JCitron]

Interesting you mention Windows 10 there Cascade. I've heard that at least two PC companies (their tech support staff at least) have been advising users who have upgraded to Windows 10 to downgrade back to their previous version.

Shane

I've read that too and I don't know why; probably just like when Windows XP came out 16 years ago tech support reps were telling people to remain with Windows 9x. Like anything else, it'll take time for people to get used to the new operating system, which I have had no issues with. For me, and probably a lot more people than mentioned, it works fine and very much what Windows 8 should have been in the first place.

John

 

[RRSignal]

It's probably that people don't like being forcibly updated to Win10 without their explicit permission, which is how Microsoft has been handling the upgrade process. That's what has put me off from even trying it, for personal use.

It seems to follow Microsoft's marketing strategy though..."You'll like it because it's not as awful as the last one".

 

[johnwhelan]

Interesting you mention Windows 10 there Cascade. I've heard that at least two PC companies (their tech support staff at least) have been advising users who have upgraded to Windows 10 to downgrade back to their previous version.

Shane

Probably because they want a quiet life and with the new version they get asked questions.

Cheerio John

 

[shaneturner12]

Probably because they want a quiet life and with the new version they get asked questions.

Cheerio John

That sounds about right there John.

Shane

 

[JCitron]

It's probably that people don't like being forcibly updated to Win10 without their explicit permission, which is how Microsoft has been handling the upgrade process. That's what has put me off from even trying it, for personal use.

It seems to follow Microsoft's marketing strategy though..."You'll like it because it's not as awful as the last one".

Like eating frozen peas and lima beans...

To this day I hate frozen peas and lima beans because I had to eat them.

Once you do upgrade, own your own to Windows 10, you'll like it. I actually did that myself via the TechNet Insider program and early access long before people were forced on to it. I'm not sure I would go back after this.

I have to admit though Windows, as much it has warts and all is much easier to use than many of the 'Nix OSs, not counting Ubuntu with its hidden shell on everything. I installed Solaris 10 in a VM to help a friend with his Virtual Box setup. I then decided to install Firefox on it because I could. I spent 2-1/2 hours downloading, building, and installing. The browser works, but that's an awful amount of work to get it installed. Installing other things is similar. You need to run pkg-add -d -ecf ..... and so on.

John