Trainz - could be so much more.

[weevil]

I return to Trainz once or twice a year out of curiosity or boredom and usually give up again after a couple of days once I remember all the frustrations. The DS is definitely a biggy. I'm using a firstclass ticket and the performance is very poor to say the least. God knows what it must be like as a free user.

Come on Auran, get your act together and get some of these issues sorted once and for all. I haven't bought a Trainz product since TRS06. I am curious about 09 (finally a "new" product) but I won't be buying until I am sure that Auran have pulled their socks up.

New features in surveyor sound really useful and very welcome, but there are still too many major annoyances with Trainz. Kuju's rail sim is a reasonable effort but suffers from worse true simulation capabilities than the original MSTS and very awkward editors. The new MSTS 2 is looking very good indeed and unless MS drop the ball completely will probably become the new standard.

It's a shame really, as in many respects Trainz is now a very mature product and could be the best of the lot, but lacks oh so sadly in the simulation department, namely physics, AI and signalling. Plus of course a few really silly let-downs like insufficient DLS bandwidth - particularly for those who pay for a supposedly "firstclass" ticket.

Stuart

 

[john259]

Stuart,

Have you tried us?

John

 

[rjhowie]

Have to say with respect and for all the odd things that can go awry what do we expect for our money? I can have my wee niggles as we all can but I don't expect Trainz to sort out my life, health or be a medicine to make me feel better. Must admit that due to erratic health it has been a welcome boon and distraction. Could never have built what i have in MTS and have had hours of fun, challenge and whatever.

I have spent a mighty amount of time off and on over two years and some building the city of Glasgow and it's once famous tramway which went in 1962. It has encouraged me to walk in excess of 200 miles, meet many interesting people along the way in tearooms (for breaks) and checking archives and trying to remember places and streets, Never mind places not been in for years and some parts I have never been in. Exploring was part of the fun, etc.

If people are going to read too much into Trainz they will get some sense of disappointment but for the thousands of average Joes like me it is fun, enjoyable and we don't take ourselves too seriously. It lightens me up and you can let it too!

 

[Smileyman]

Hi Stuart.
Long time no see.

I'm currently "running on empty" where Trainz is concerned unfortunately.
Not because TS2009 didn't improve in some areas.
I think it's quite a step up in fact.

For some of us there is a texture compression problem that Auran seem unable to fix, and unwilling to put any "real" effort into fixing, which means that if we wish to use TS2009, we must make do with the content that's built-in, because we cannot import any new content (and since TRS2006, I usually disable 95% of the built-in content anyway).

To make matters worse, we have to put up with people who haven't been watching the situation develop on the Dev site saying that it could be the card, or this or that, etc, when the problem is clearly not fussed whether the user is using NVidia or ATI, XP or Vista, 1Gb or 4Gb, etc.

Anyway, TS2009 does have some nice improvements, so it might be worth you taking a chance.
But if you get the texture compression error, you might just find yourself out in the cold.

Since rebuilding my computer (to try the TS2009 beta again, without success), I don't have any version of Trainz installed on my main machine.
Maybe it'll come back to me, who knows.

Smiley.

 

[Euphod]

Stuart....glad to hear from you again!

I just tried to post a long winded friendly chock full of explanations and reasons, but of course this wonderful forum lost my post and erased the form!

To keep it short: 2009 sucks, causes more trouble than it solves and continues the Auran saga. I no longer use Trainz, and visit here rarely as well.

I hope you and yours are well and happy!

 

[Buffalo_trains93]

Hey Stuart good to hear from ya!

I bought 06 and was impressed i guess i would say. But then it just started to go down hill. As you said with the DLS. I dont have a FCT so my download speed is , as you all can imagine, wonderful. Second on the Signalling part. I run a route. I have one train on that route. There is one track. And i have a double red light not allowing my train to move........invisible obstruction? 09 is ok. There are still things that need to be fixed. The leveling tool is pitifull. It makes bumps in the ground. The DLS drops my downloads. randomly. I put a 46KB item on such as a corona, i get say 3/4's of the way done. and it stops......and then restarts all over again. Im sure you can imagine how frustrating it was for me to Download the LOOPS route. 5 days all together. Anyways 09 is OK. There is no search bar though which i fail to understand why. Maybe in that download packet thing full of fixes. Still have to download that aswell.

Well good to hear from ya Stuart.


just throwing my 2 cents in

Ryan

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Hi Stuart

I dragged out a beta of your SoCal layout the other day just to have a wander around. Man, that is huge. Did you ever finish it?

Situation in Trainz is as you describe. By sticking with TRS-2004, I've been able to avoid using Auran software for the most important things like downloading and content management - the little 3rd party utilities that were written to enhance TRS2004 (Trainzobjectz and Trainz Agent) are still better designs than anything Auran has done in my opinion. So I still like Trainz and probably have too much invested in it to swap to MSTS even if it is better. As for TR2009, well, having read all the promises and then all the feedback from users, it seems like it's just TRS2006 all over again but with even more of a hurdle to get into. Having finally got into gmax, I can't see myself suddenly unlearning that to pick up on Blender.

Anyway, it's good that you check in every now and then.

Deane

 

[weevil]

Thanks for the replies guys. Nice to see a few familiar names still around.

. . .I dragged out a beta of your SoCal layout the other day just to have a wander around. Man, that is huge. Did you ever finish it?

Unfortunately no. I still have a dabble every now and then. The whole thing became a content management nightmare, especially once CMP got into the mix. I keep it because I have too many hours invested to delete it.

. . .Having finally got into gmax, . .

I noticed that Deane and have downloaded your efforts. My warmest compliments. Your sugar mill assets are excellent, a perfect compromise between appearance and performance - at least in my opinion. I can definitely find a home for these on my latest little project.

Regards to all

Stuart

 

[0099]

Mouse potato

Heh thats funny