TRS19 - FAQ Thread

[cascaderailroad]

Is Trainz becoming a yearly subscription game ? Much like ModelRailroader Magazine, as soon as you stop paying Kalmbach Publishing for a year subscription, and your yearly subscription runs out, the magazines stop coming ... In this case Trainz will stop functioning after 365 days ?

 

[pcas1986]

Tony,
The cost of a gold membership, as explained in post #12, looks attractive but that's only for the first year. New Trainz versions come out roughly every three years, or have done for TS12, TANE and TRS19, so the membership looks less attractive. Do you expect new features, if not new versions, to come out more frequently using this approach?

 

[Cayden]

Does NVIDIA Turf Effects work on a Mac?

Does NVIDIA Turf Effects work on a Mac? My graphics card is a AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB.

If not, what other features of TRS19 are not Mac compatible?

Cayden

I think not at the moment, and from my experience with SP2 , a unsupported nvidia card such as the GTX 970 just freezes TANE anyway when using the current Nvidia drivers ...... best avoid until the issue is sorted.

dangavel

If NVIDIA Turf Effects does not work on a Mac how will this affect the appearance of routes that rely on NVIDIA Turf Effects?

Can this issue be sorted out in the future given that the turf effect relies on NVIDIA cards?

What other features of TRS19 do not work on a mac?

 

[ish6]

Tony,
The cost of a gold membership, as explained in post #12, looks attractive but that's only for the first year. New Trainz versions come out roughly every three years, or have done for TS12, TANE and TRS19, so the membership looks less attractive. Do you expect new features, if not new versions, to come out more frequently using this approach?

This is a superb question!!!

Ish

 

[jgvaughan]

Tried to find this is the FAQ but either missed it or it isn't discussed: For those of us that purchased TANE on Steam, that have DLC on Steam that we purchased, how or will that DLC be available if we purchase through this offer or will be be restricted to just the Steam version of the game? If I purchase through this offer what benefit do I have to the Steam version?

Thanks...

 

[WindWalkr]

If NVIDIA Turf Effects does not work on a Mac how will this affect the appearance of routes that rely on NVIDIA Turf Effects?

Simply put, it means that Turf Effects won't appear on the Mac. Other effect layers (eg. clutter) and other rendering features (pbr, parallax, etc.) will operate fine, so it's not like you're losing out on all the pretties, but it is a shame, and it's something that we'd like to resolve one way or another in the future.

Can this issue be sorted out in the future given that the turf effect relies on NVIDIA cards?

To be clear: the feature does not rely on nVidia cards. It does require a high-performance gaming GPU, and it likely runs a little better on nVidia GPUs since it's optimised against their hardware, but it doesn't magically disable if you switch to a GPU from one of the other vendors.

The main issue is that TurfEffects is built on DirectX and so is not directly portable to the Mac. nVidia is reviewing their options here, and we'll continue to work with them on this. I can't really give any timelines or promises as to exactly what will eventuate, since it isn't 100% up to us, but suffice to say that as a long-time Mac user it's something that's dear to my heart also.

What other features of TRS19 do not work on a mac?

TurfEffects is the only one that I can think of off-hand. Otherwise, the platform comparison looks much as it did for T:ANE.



As a final note, since Mac GPUs tend to be relatively underpowered for gaming, even if/when we deliver some form of TurfEffects for Mac, we can reasonably expect that a lot of Mac users won't want to switch it on.

chris

 

[WindWalkr]

The cost of a gold membership, as explained in post #12, looks attractive but that's only for the first year. New Trainz versions come out roughly every three years, or have done for TS12, TANE and TRS19, so the membership looks less attractive. Do you expect new features, if not new versions, to come out more frequently using this approach?

I'll field this one. The short answer is "yes".

The retail-release development model isn't great for us or for the community. It's not like we stop work for "three years" and then suddenly do a few weeks work and release the results. Instead, we're constantly listening to what the community needs, developing new features, and then.. delaying their release until the next product. We can't simply release everything as a free patch, or we'd never make any money, but simply "holding on to what we've built", though necessary from a sales perspective, isn't something that we like to do as fans of the product.

With the subscription model, we are able to release features far more frequently. I won't go into specifics (that's Tony's prerogative) and I'm sure that part of this will come down to feedback from the community, but we're looking at smaller but much-more-frequent releases. Offering a hybrid subscription/retail model allows everyone to make their mind up about whether they prefer the old release model or the new one.

Of course, some features take much longer to develop than others. Support for parallax heightmaps took quite a while to get right, for example. In some cases, that may mean that we offer a technology preview to our users for early experimentation and feedback, rather than jumping straight to a finished, fully-polished release. For other features, it really is a case of spending a month developing and testing the feature and then it's ready for release.

I should probably add that comparing the cost of the Gold subscription straight across to the cost of the retail product is quite misleading; the Gold subscription includes a lot of other benefits which have to be purchased separately under the retail model. It's up to the individual user to decide whether those benefits are unnecessary inclusions, or a whether they amount to a massive increase in value.

chris

 

[pcas1986]

I'll field this one. The short answer is "yes".

...

Thanks Chris, that's the most interesting post I've read all morning. You answered some questions I thought about asking but didn't.

 

[big_b]

I'll field this one. The short answer is "yes".

The retail-release development model isn't great for us or for the community. It's not like we stop work for "three years" and then suddenly do a few weeks work and release the results. Instead, we're constantly listening to what the community needs, developing new features, and then.. delaying their release until the next product. We can't simply release everything as a free patch, or we'd never make any money, but simply "holding on to what we've built", though necessary from a sales perspective, isn't something that we like to do as fans of the product.

With the subscription model, we are able to release features far more frequently. I won't go into specifics (that's Tony's prerogative) and I'm sure that part of this will come down to feedback from the community, but we're looking at smaller but much-more-frequent releases. Offering a hybrid subscription/retail model allows everyone to make their mind up about whether they prefer the old release model or the new one.

Of course, some features take much longer to develop than others. Support for parallax heightmaps took quite a while to get right, for example. In some cases, that may mean that we offer a technology preview to our users for early experimentation and feedback, rather than jumping straight to a finished, fully-polished release. For other features, it really is a case of spending a month developing and testing the feature and then it's ready for release.

I should probably add that comparing the cost of the Gold subscription straight across to the cost of the retail product is quite misleading; the Gold subscription includes a lot of other benefits which have to be purchased separately under the retail model. It's up to the individual user to decide whether those benefits are unnecessary inclusions, or a whether they amount to a massive increase in value.

chris

1) If you opt for the boxed version do you get these new features as they come out or are you stuck with what you purchased ?
2) Say in 24 mths TRS20 is advertised do we go through this whole process again or does the subscription carry on and get upgraded to the new game

 

[Tony_Hilliam]

1) If you opt for the boxed version do you get these new features as they come out or are you stuck with what you purchased ?

Gold Class members get membership benefits including the Trainz PLUS features. These are released throughout the life cycle of the product.

The boxed version will receive updates that fix existing functionality, but they do not receive all the new features.

2) Say in 24 mths TRS20 is advertised do we go through this whole process again or does the subscription carry on and get upgraded to the new game

Gold Class members will have full access to the latest version of Trainz. There may be other tiers of subscriptions added at a later date with fewer or more features.

 

[WindWalkr]

Gold Class members get membership benefits including the Trainz PLUS features. These are released throughout the life cycle of the product.

The boxed version will receive updates that fix existing functionality, but they do not receive all the new features.

An alternative way of looking at this:

* People purchasing the product one-off will get exactly what they normally get. Service packs are included free, which will likely introduce some minor improvements but are primarily about resolving compatibility issues and bugs. When we release the next product, these users will need to pay for that new product, at which point they'll receive a whole raft of new features.

* Gold Subscriptions members will receive more frequent updates, including all of the service pack changes plus additional new features. By the time we release the next major product, these users will already have the majority of the new features. Their subscription already covers access to the features, so they won't need to pay anything extra to receive them.

chris

 

[dangavel]

Simply put, it means that Turf Effects won't appear on the Mac. Other effect layers (eg. clutter) and other rendering features (pbr, parallax, etc.) will operate fine, so it's not like you're losing out on all the pretties, but it is a shame, and it's something that we'd like to resolve one way or another in the future.




To be clear: the feature does not rely on nVidia cards. It does require a high-performance gaming GPU, and it likely runs a little better on nVidia GPUs since it's optimised against their hardware, but it doesn't magically disable if you switch to a GPU from one of the other vendors.

The main issue is that TurfEffects is built on DirectX and so is not directly portable to the Mac. nVidia is reviewing their options here, and we'll continue to work with them on this. I can't really give any timelines or promises as to exactly what will eventuate, since it isn't 100% up to us, but suffice to say that as a long-time Mac user it's something that's dear to my heart also.




TurfEffects is the only one that I can think of off-hand. Otherwise, the platform comparison looks much as it did for T:ANE.



As a final note, since Mac GPUs tend to be relatively underpowered for gaming, even if/when we deliver some form of TurfEffects for Mac, we can reasonably expect that a lot of Mac users won't want to switch it on.

chris

I just got a RX 580 nitro 8gb and have 60fps on ultra settings- in high sierra running SP3. This is on a 2010 hex core mac pro, - which would have a degree of bottlenecking, a new iMac with the rx 580 8gb GPU should have a similar performance i would have thought. and if you have a Mac laptop with thunderbolt you can use the egpu external boxes to boost their performance.

 

[btvfd]

Will my RailDriver work with it? Pob not since Tane SP3 nothing but problems

 

[big_b]

More questions
Do i understand this correctly
Bloody US dollars ( why cant they convert )

Yearly Subscription

gold member $149.99/yr or AUST $205/yr
Discount for LT FCT US$24
so gold membership is apporx US$125.99/yr
or in the land of OZ
AUS $173/yr or AUS $14.4/mth
and this is the lifetime subscription price


BTW Wil the amount deducted change with exchange rates ?


And what does access to Tane mean ( Get immediate access to Trainz A New Era. Access continues while you remain a member. ) if you already have it ?

 

[JCitron]

The Gold Subscription sounds like a great package, but for me it's financially a bit of a bite at least for now, but regarding this package, what's going to happen to the content on the DLS with disparate TRS2019 versions out there?

Right now T:ANE, like all other Trainz versions prior, is at a set version for the majority of the users that have fully upgraded to SP3. This means that if a content creator releases assets Build 4.6 or whatever the current build is for T:ANE, most people can download the asset easily.

Using your subscription model with many interim versions coming out, does that mean that there will be many, many different TRS2019 versions floating around out there?

If this is true, then there will be a lot of confused and frustrated users because content will not be downloadable into their version. We see this now with TS12 and below users, to a much lesser extent now, but this scenario will only get worse. In the end, this is basically forcing people to upgrade because we now have a moving target that some users will never be able to reach due to the versions forever moving ahead faster than they can upgrade.

Now what happens too if an asset shares the same build-number, but is created in a newer TRS2019 version? Do these assets error out, or do features get disabled?

If this isn't the case, we now have an even larger number of confused and frustrated users because their Content Manager downloads content that will not work unlike now where it will reject content that is newer than the Trainz version installed.

 

[WindWalkr]

I just got a RX 580 nitro 8gb and have 60fps on ultra settings- in high sierra running SP3.

TRS19 with all settings fully maxed out is definitely more graphically demanding than the several-year old TANE.

That said, with this kind of rig it's quite likely that you would still get decent performance from TurfEffects - however you must admit that most Mac users are not currently on that kind of rig.

chris

 

[WindWalkr]

Using your subscription model with many interim versions coming out, does that mean that there will be many, many different TRS2019 versions floating around out there?

Not really. We typically provide forwards compatibility for new file formats up until the next product release and I don't see that changing.

For example, T:ANE has:
* v3.9 (CE1)
* v4.0 (CE1.1)
* V4.1 (CE1.2)
* V4.2 (TANE Retail)
* V4.3 (TANE SP1)
* V4.4 (TMR)
* V4.5 (TANE SP2)

We're not hearing of many practical problems there. You obviously need to patch up to the latest service pack to maintain compatibility with the latest formats.

Now what happens too if an asset shares the same build-number, but is created in a newer TRS2019 version? Do these assets error out, or do features get disabled?

In many cases the question is irrelevant. If we add a new Surveyor tool, then it matters not at all to somebody loading the route whether they have that tool or not.

Where there is an actual breaking file format change, we endeavour to bump the trainz-build number.

chris

 

[JCitron]

Not really. We typically provide forwards compatibility for new file formats up until the next product release and I don't see that changing.

For example, T:ANE has:
* v3.9 (CE1)
* v4.0 (CE1.1)
* V4.1 (CE1.2)
* V4.2 (TANE Retail)
* V4.3 (TANE SP1)
* V4.4 (TMR)
* V4.5 (TANE SP2)

We're not hearing of many practical problems there. You obviously need to patch up to the latest service pack to maintain compatibility with the latest formats.




In many cases the question is irrelevant. If we add a new Surveyor tool, then it matters not at all to somebody loading the route whether they have that tool or not.

Where there is an actual breaking file format change, we endeavour to bump the trainz-build number.

chris

Okay. Thanks that makes sense. Tools of course don't count, but underlying file compatibility does, which is what I'm concerned about.

 

[Vals_Loeder]

I am aware that some people don't like subscriptions. I am also aware that very early on day 1, many more people are purchasing the Gold Class option than the pre-order option (by a significant margin).

I posted in another thread, but it is worth copying here as well so that we're comparing apples with apples:

Traditional Store purchases:
* TRS19 = $69.99
* FCT = $34.99/yr
* One DLC - Trainz Route: Coal Country = $39.99
Total = $145

Gold Class Membership = $149
* TRS19 included
* FCT included
* 75 DLC items included(worth hundreds of dollars)
* Preview Pass included(to enjoy all new DLC items for 14 days per-release)
* Trainz Plus included (access to new Trainz features before anyone else)
* 25% discount code (save 25% off items even when they are already on sale)

and it still not true. When you cancel the sub you are left with nothing. You are not comparing apples to apples.

 

[Vals_Loeder]

An alternative way of looking at this:

* People purchasing the product one-off will get exactly what they normally get. Service packs are included free, which will likely introduce some minor improvements but are primarily about resolving compatibility issues and bugs. When we release the next product, these users will need to pay for that new product, at which point they'll receive a whole raft of new features.

* Gold Subscriptions members will receive more frequent updates, including all of the service pack changes plus additional new features. By the time we release the next major product, these users will already have the majority of the new features. Their subscription already covers access to the features, so they won't need to pay anything extra to receive them.

chris

Until you change the rules of the sub which you can do without consent from the costomer. You can make lots of promises now but are in no way obligated to deliver. Meanwhile raking in the money.