Trainz 12 has arrived!

[rickf77]

Boy, that got here a lot faster than I thought it would. The rail driver unit also showed up yesterday, haven't even opened the box yet. I've been getting quite nervous about the whole thing, after reading some of the threads. "If these guys run in to problems, what the heck is gonna happen to me?" I haven't even put a disc in yet, and I have a couple of questions. In the booklet, it says before installing, ensure that you have no other programs running. I know how to stop items from running at start up. When I was using CFS2, an old flight sim, I only had 3 items running. One was for sound and two were for my Nvidia GTX 260 (hope trainz likes it). My rig was off line and at the time I did not even use any anti virus. Well, it's online now and I use the avg free. I have a total of 38 programs installed, most came with the pc. I added very little, defraggler, ccleaner, and a free registry cleaner, also something for google 3D maps, which I have no problem getting rid of if it is any kind of problem for Trainz. OK, before I start the install should I turn off any items in the start up menu, and should I disconnect from the internet? Also, when I get ready to add the patches, how do I know what "build number" I have? Oh yeah, should I get a first class ticket for the DLS? Maybe theses things will be revealed to me in the tutorials on the disc? Well, I'm gonna wait to hear from you guys before I put a disc in. I hope after I get the hang of it, it will be easy to figure out. I learned everything I know about computing from using the flight sim. I was able to do just about anything I wanted to do with that sim after a couple of years. I'm still not at the geek level yet, but 3 years ago, I honestly did not know how to turn the wife's pc on or off. Thanks fellas, No rush, I'm gonna take my time and try to get it right the first time.

Cheers....Rick

 

[fran1]

Stop your AV while you install, don't use the internet either. In fact just run the install nothing else.
If possible install in a drive partition of it's own, if not possible at least on a different drive away from the OS.
The build number will show bottom right when you launch trainz.
If you need help finding the right patch post here.
A FCT is useful.
Trainz must be run as administrator, in fact make sure you are running as before you install.

 

[rickf77]

Thank you fran1. I believe it will want to install on the C drive. I have an external 2 TB hard drive that is totally empty. Is it possible to install trainz on the external hard drive? Sorry, but what is a "FCT"? I have a lot to learn! Thanks, again

 

[fran1]

It will want to go in "C" drive but you can put it elsewhere.
Not sure about using an external drive, you would need fast transfer rates, USB 3 might work.
FCT= first class ticket.

 

[shaneturner12]

In addition to what fran1 has stated, the serial number must be registered in order to get full assistance, access to the Download Station, and the ability to install patches.

Shane

 

[rickf77]

Thanks guys, I am getting a coffee, then have a go at it. FCT= first class ticket. Now, you think I would have been able to figure that out! I'll get a FCT ASAP. Thanks, again.

Cheers.....Rick

 

[clam1952]

Better on the C drive as that's probably a 7200 RPM. USB External drives are often 5400 RPM thus slower and made worse again if using USB2 which has a low transfer rate. USB3 can handle the higher Transfer rates so a 7200RPM on USB3 would probably be OK. If you only have USB2 I'd stick to the C drive. Trainz has a lot of disk access so a faster drive with decent data transfer helps a lot.

Hang on to your Google Maps stuff, is that Google Earth? You may find that comes in very useful with Trainz.

 

[BD1]

placemarker

 

[rickf77]

Thanks guys. I did put it on the C drive in the X86 folder. Yes it's Google Earth. I am hoping to some day learn enough to "model" the C.N.R. Dartmouth subdivision, the part that ran from Dartmouth to Upper Musquidoboit, Nova Scotia, Canada. There's very little of it left, and soon there may be only one industry left to serve. I am hoping to make it look like it did in the mid 50's. Most of the track has been removed and it has become a walking trail. The wife and I have biked about half of it. It's pretty flat and the part we've covered never seems over 20-30 feet above sea level. It cuts right across salt marshes in several locations, runs along the coast sometimes, and cuts through the forest other times. I don't want to brag about my home, but it sure is beautiful country. I've bee able to find the layout of the yard at Dartmouth and the end of the line at Upper Musquidoboit. The Dartmouth yard back then had a turn table and U.M. had a wye. Because most of it's a trail, I have bee able to follow the complete route on the Google map. This part of the line is about 85 miles. There used to be a lot of different industries and a couple of outfits used little tank locos to bring their product to the mainline. The last steam run was with a 2-8-2 in 1958, I believe.

I should have took a peak in here, because I bought a one year FCT (I think). At least I paid for it, not sure where it is. When I was ordering it, I was asked for my home address, I'm not sure if they are going to send it to me or what. I updated it with Patches for 46957 to 48249 and from there to 49922. I had to get a driver for Nvidia, and there are no warnings now. Right now I am slowing downloading 622 items. It's not that I'm greedy, but it said in a box that was what is available. I'm thinking this must bring it all up to date.

I haven't figured out how to see any trains yet, I'll read the tuts and try that in the morning.

Thanks guys, as far as I can tell so far, all went well. Now I just got to have a good look at it in the morning.

Oh yeah, do you need to have the disc in the player? There was a "cd crack" for the flight sim I was using. I was a junior admin on a flight sim site, and we were not even allowed to talk about the crack, but each and everyone of us used it. We were only concerned about wearing out our disc. Sorry if "crack" is a dirty word in the trainz world, I will not mention it again.

Thank you all for your help.

Cheers.........Rick

 

[RRSignal]

No, no CD. Good luck!

 

[Euphod]

I bought a one year FCT (I think). At least I paid for it, not sure where it is. When I was ordering it, I was asked for my home address, I'm not sure if they are going to send it to me or what.

No, they are not going to send it to you. Before it's ready to be used though, you must use the Planet Auran link at the top of the page to activate it. It's fairly intuitive, but if you have problems, post back.

 

[JCitron]

Hi Rick,

Welcome to the Trainz forums. Prepare yourself to have a lot of sleepless nights as you dive into the Trainzing world. The updates you are seeing are for curently installed items that come with the program. Since the disks were created, some updates were made to the content.

I have family up in Nova Scotia. My late uncle's brothers live in Pugwash and Halifax. I took a drive up there about 10 years ago from my old house in Andover, MA. It was about a 10 hour drive to Halifax up through Maine and New Brunswick then over to Halifax. I did this in February just after a snowstorm and there were still drifts along Route 9 in Maine and in and around Calais and St. Johns.

John

 

[rickf77]

Thanks Euphod; I followed your advice and have it working. I tried to download something, just to get the hang of it. I think it's working OK.

Hi John; You know, I was doing a lot of research, and there is a heck of a lot of info and photos of the Pugwash area in the 50's. I was born in 1951 and can only remember seeing 2 steam locos. I'm guessing up that way, they still were still going into the early 60's. Halifax is across the harbour from my home. Nice to meet you!

Now, I'm STILL downloading those updates! I'm guessing something is happening, because it now says "516 content updates". that's down from 622 (I think that's what is was). I'm pretty sure some of the files took close to an hour to download. Is this normal? I was letting it run all night, but something stopped it. I'm guessing windows did some updates and did a restart. That machine was never online until a couple of days ago. I'm getting windows updates like crazy. The way it's going, it may be a week before they are all downloaded! Will this go any faster since I activated my FCT?

Thanks, fellas, I never would have made it this far on my own.

Oops, one more thing, I can't remember if there was any part of the install that asked me to run as admin. Should I go into the properties and make any needed changes?

Thanks all, cheers,.....Rick

Well all of a sudden the downloads started moving along at great speed. I'm now at "0 content updates" ,Yea! I'm off to check out my frame rates, and see what's next on the list.

 

[fran1]

Check your control panel, user accounts. Make sure your an administrator.

 

[shaneturner12]

in addition to that, Trainz will need to be set to run as administrator - see the thread in my signature.

Re patches, see my latest thread in the TS12 forum, or my tutorial site - address is in the thread in my signature for my tutorial site.

Shane

 

[steamrodder]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Trainz Rick, enjoy the experiences of what this Simultor offers, again welcome aboard! :wave: -Robert-

 

[rickf77]

Thanks guys, I'm going to check if I am the administrator. Next I'm off to Shane's tutorial site. I'm on tutorial 3 at the moment, trying to get used to the throttle/brake lever. I'll get back to the tuts, after I check out the administrator settings and the tutorials site. I just have to say WOW! From what I've seen so far it's more than I ever hoped for. I'm totally amazed at what I'm seeing. I wish they had this when I was 40 years younger, of course back then, who would believe something like this would even be possible.

Cheers.....Rick

(Still haven't looked at the frame rates, but it's running great in the tutorials)

Holy cow, where did the time go! I've been up here about 6 hrs and it seems like maybe 2. I better get some chores done, before the wife gets home. I think I'm hooked, already! Thanks for the kind welcome and all the great help.

 

[rickf77]

Good morning; I read (just a bit) of Shane's tutorials. I'm the administrator everywhere that I know about, now. I also did the DX thing. I have to read about patches and downloading. I ran CCleaner, Free Registry Cleaner, and Defraggler. I was surprised to see 8% fragmentation. Everything is fine now, and I have no fragmented files. I rarely go a day without running these 3 programs. It just bugs me if I do not see 3 zeros in Defraggler. I have become so used to having my other rig off line, even now I am writing this on the "wife's rig". The 2 rigs are within 5 feet of each other. I have got to get used to the idea that my Trainz rig is on line.

Do you guys turn off your user account control? I always had it turned off when I was off line. Is there any need to have it turned on? I am the only person who uses the Trainz rig.

I still have not figured out how to check the frame rates. On my old sim you hit the shift - z keys and a couple of different items would display, one being the frame rates. All I have looked at so far is what is in the tutorials in Trainz. To the naked eye, everything is running very smoothly.

I've got to read more about the patches. I guess I have the basic ones installed. (The patches that updated my build from 46957 to 49922.) Also, I had a very fast peek at some utilities at Shane's site. It's great to have tools! Even better when you learn how to use them!

Sooooo much to learn! I better get on with it while my brain is still in good shape. OK, maybe not good shape, but still working.

Cheers...........Rick

 

[JCitron]

Hi Rick,

I suggest you lower the ACL to a more modest level. I turned my down so I don't get the yellow box when installing or running software but still get the warning with a blue box instead without the darkening screen. The reason I did this is so unauthorized software can't try to install. Some of those drive-by downloads from various websites are a classic example of something that can infect your PC if you have the ACL turned completely off.

I installed my Trainz versions with administrator rights. To run the program I have set the short-cut option under compatibility to Run as Administrator.

To be honest, I think you maybe all set if use the latter. Give this a try and see how things work.

John

 

[rickf77]

Will do, John, thanks. I think I have most things all geared up. Now my Father in law wants a copy of Trainz. I am going to try to get him a copy while it's on sale. He's only 11 years older than me. I was 51 and the wife 34 when we got married.

I tried to download a few items, some went well, others not so good. I saw something like "invalid" when I put them in the cart, so I took them off the list. I see Shane has something in the tuts or blogs about it, I'll have to read about it in the morning. I got a CNR hopper that says it's installed, it's on the list, but no "photo" in the rail yard. As soon as I learn how to put these cars on the tracks, I will give the hopper a try.

Well, I'm off to this new shop. I think I saw Trainz 2012 for a fantastic price. Nothing like a sale! After that, I gotta get my head down for awhile, this sim is wearing me out!

See ya........Rick

P.S. I just had to order 2 boxed sets, I could not resist at that price!