TRAINZ12 or TANE - The BIG Question

[tonytony]

HI Everybody I'm sure I am going to receive a wide range of opinions on the question I am about to place.
I have used Trainz 12 now for a number of years and had a great time with it both in creating and downloading routes and adjusting routes for my own purpose and for that I can thank the brilliant people who can create such good routes for other people to use.
Now - the question is this --- Should I leave trainz12 and take the plunge and obtain TANE.

I should have no trouble with my computer (an Macintosh G5 with oodles of RAM and Space) and could possibly have both on the same computer, I assume this would be possible.

Over the past months I have been reading the Forum and somehow have got mixed feelings about the reliability of TANE for the Mac.
Correspondents have offered opinions some good, some not so good but from what I have seen there is without doubt a great visible improvement in the game. I am not a computer nerd and am usually scared to death of going into the depths of the programme so whatever happens the installation has to be as simple as I originally found Trainz12 to be, which downloaded over the web from Australia. It has worked excellently ever since and that was in, I think, about 2013.

So if some of you could offer advice I would be most pleased.
Looking forward to an interesting evening reading your advice.

Tony

 

[hiawathamr]

Hello,

Although I'm not a Mac user, I should give you an idea about TANE.

You'll need a powerful system to handle it on medium settings, this is something that I read in every single post regarding should I get TANE questions.

Route building:
~When it comes to routes that are built-into TANE, you are limited to only building sessions for the built-in routes / DLC you buy from the Trainz Store (if you really enjoy editing built-in routes).
~For building your own routes and downloading from DLS and other sites, the editor is nice, nothing really special, but still simple
~Routes from 1.3-2.0 builds have a higher chance of not being read correctly. Meaning it'll just show the tracks on the map, but not the baseboards...

Misc things:
~Up to date with with your route builds
~Doesn't support RailDriver cab controller (if you have one...), which I thing is sad.
~A tab more realistic, with the train swagging feature (wish TS12 had this feature)
~Content manager now opens in separate windows (show deps. will open in a separate window, to me that makes things easy)

I'm sure others will come and share their thoughts too, as I might've forgotten some

If you have a RailDriver cab controller, than that's something to say goodbye to since TANE doesn't support it. TS12 was the last to support the unit (maybe if we're luck, the next Trainz game might support it! )

 

[pitkin]

I mostly run TS12 because I like Colorado Narrow Gauge. I have been nursing ng rolling stock through the changes all the way back to Trainz 2004, and too much is broken in TANE. Also, TANE seems a little dark to me (like there is some sort of haze). Don't know if it's a setting I missed somewhere.

Pitkin

 

[pware]

To throw in my 2 cents worth (and I am not a Mac owner).

TANE vs TS12 - there is no real comparison. I have long since deleted my TS12 install. TANE in its original release was full of bugs and issues, as was TS12 in its initial release, but even so I found it ran faster on the same computer and offered more features than TS12. The current incarnation, TANE SP2 HF1 (beta) with the full HF1 release "real soon now" (TM) is a vast improvement on the original TANE and even compared to TANE SP2 - but is still not perfect and, like all software updates, probably never will be.

It is not true that you must have a powerful system to run TANE - but a 64bit OS is a new requirement. Performance sliders and options allow you to tailor TANEs performance to match your system. While my main system is well above the minimum spec and TANE runs exceedingly well, I also run TANE on an i5 system with 4GB RAM and a "bog standard" Intel HD Graphics display which is below the minimum spec. On that system I have all the sliders and performance settings at their minimum or off (e.g. no shadows) so it does run on this system but barely and I would not recommend it. This second system is my "test bed" - if a layout or session I have created works on it, then I know that it will work on anything.

If you are familiar with the route and session editor from TS12 then no new learning is required to use the TANE editor. TANE provides additional features and options that TS12 lacks and these make route and session building much better.

Raildriver support has been debated endlessly in these forums. TANE does not currently support it. N3V are creating a hardware device interface that will allow any number of hardware controllers (e.g. XBox, Nintendo, etc as well as Raildriver) to be added without having to rewrite the drivers every time there was a service pack update - which was the problem with Raildriver on TS12 and earlier. Raildriver owners (of which I am one) are a very small but very vocal group in these forums so don't be fooled by their constant demands of When? and Why Not NOW?

Content Manager in TANE is very different to Content Manager in TS12. This will take some getting used to and did initially cause complaints from users but I believe that it is a far superior product.

 

[WindWalkr]

I should have no trouble with my computer (an Macintosh G5 with oodles of RAM and Space) and could possibly have both on the same computer, I assume this would be possible.

If you really mean a Power Mac G5 then the last model was discontinued in 2006. There's no way a computer that old will run TANE. I'm pretty sure that TS12 won't run on it either, so I'm guessing you're actually using something else?

chris

 

[meatloaf747]

Why not get Tane SP2, and run both Tane SP2 & TS2012 SP1 HF4? Easy enough. IMHO, while Tane isn't perfect, it's a lot better than TS2012...

Cheers, Mac...

 

[pdkoester]

T:ANE will not suddenly bork out with TAADAEMON issues, like TS12 did. Go for T:ANE. I think it may even be on sale.

 

[philskene]

It's a no brainer. TS12 is flat and lifeless. T:ANE lets you see this:

 

[cressjl]

Throwing in my two cents...I, like a number of others around here, have them all. I have both TS12 and T:ANE on my laptop and desktop, and TMR2017 (which I never use) on my desktop; none of the other versions are installed.

I primarily kept TS12 around because it used to be helpful in importing assets into T:ANE. I rarely use TS12 anymore, since I have found it no longer necessary for use as a "middleman."

I have run TS12 against T:ANE on a number of occasions, testing performance between the two. I really feel that T:ANE actually outperforms TS12 when the settings of the two programs are as close to equal as possible. T:ANE certainly looks better to me, even when crippled to match the performance of TS12. I know some around here might have a cow for me saying this, but it is what it is!

 

[pdkoester]

Go on Steam, see what their policy for the amount of time you may use something before return for a full refund. Then, buy it, try it out before that time runs out. If you like it, keep it, if not then return it. Simple enough.

 

[MTH_ELECTRIC_TRAINS]

Remember, TRS2018 is coming out, well, probably next year and that is definitely worth the wait! If you have seen their videos and screenshots of it, it honestly looks way better than Train Simulator to me!

 

[normhart]

Now that the new Platinum Edition of TANE is available I'd go for that. Way to good a deal to pass up. I just wish I hadn't bought all the addons separately. Would have saved a bundle.

https://store.trainzportal.com/coll...m-edition?mc_cid=05cc0b3744&mc_eid=024b7382cc

 

[JCitron]

Remember, TRS2018 is coming out, well, probably next year and that is definitely worth the wait! If you have seen their videos and screenshots of it, it honestly looks way better than Train Simulator to me!

Trainz 2018/T:ANE New, or whatever it's going to be called is a long way off in the future.​

We have not seen anything on the Trainz Dev side for testing any of these new things you've been reading about.

 

[MTH_ELECTRIC_TRAINS]

Go to the "Articles" section of the forum. N3V has posts there. They are like the only things on there now.

 

[JCitron]

Go to the "Articles" section of the forum. N3V has posts there. They are like the only things on there now.

That's articles on the underlying stuff, but nothing has been tested by the Trainz Dev group, which will test these things in practical settings. What we have seen are bits of the TNI with joysticks, and some of the multiuser surveyor, but nothing else.

 

[jacksonbarno]

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[Tony_Hilliam]

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights has always been a touchy subject in the digital age. Historically, it was difficult to recreate something that someone else had spent thousands of hours to create (generally requiring hundreds if not thousands of hours and significant material cost as well).

The digital age meant that with the click of a button, users can share those thousands of hours of work for free to their friends, and of course the creator or publisher would not be rewarded in any way.

We recognize that there is a fine balance between protecting IP and preventing genuine users from having edit access to content that they have purchased.

What I can say is that we're working on a system to provide a best-of-both-worlds solution to this problem for the next version of Trainz.

 

[jacksonbarno]

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[H222]

I think you'll find most of us started playing Trainz and editing built-in routes is how we learned to fiddle in surveyor and in driver. That's just about been stripped from us. Now it's up to us to find a decent DLS route (there really aren't many) that isn't unfinished, of poor quality or missing deps all over the dark web.

What if I want to electrify the ECML? Nah. Fix Gawpo's route so it has more than 1 frame per second? Nah. What if I want a black Kanawha?

Had I started with TANE rather than UTC I wouldn't have stayed with it. I wonder how many are in the same boat now? Highland valley and City and country USA is where I learnt how to do everything in Trainz.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights has always been a touchy subject in the digital age.

Interesting argument. Why would we be sharing built in items (with a build number incompatible with previous games) when everyone that we could share it to, has the game, and the contents included?

 

[philskene]

"Now it's up to us to find a decent DLS route (there really aren't many) that isn't unfinished, of poor quality or missing deps all over the dark web."

Download Station routes -- unfinished / poor quality / missing dependencies. Yep. But it has always been thus. Right from my earliest days with TRS2004.

I'll let others comment on the "quality", but for those who do want finished routes with all the dependencies, search the DLS with "philskene" as the author.