Welcome to the future of rail simulation

The view you can see on that screen is not a rendered 3d view, it is a video recording of the actual route with a 2d overlay for the dials, all that happens is as the driver goes faster the computer increases the playback frame rate :hehe: :hehe:
Not saying it is easy as the computer will also simulate the load/power etc :D

Cheers David
 
This is similar to the systems now used for inflight training for pilots. This is okay for learning to drive, or qualifying on a new route as a real engineer or driver, but as a game simulation this would get boring pretty fast since there's no randomness about the videos.

Now if Trainz could render scenery as good as the HD video, then it would be something different. Given the type of hardware needed to drive something like this, I doubt we'll see anything close to this in the near future.

John
 
I seem to remember a crude version of this, a sort of video BVE, being available from somebody here in Britain before the advent of MSTS. I think it only ran at a predetermined rate however.
 
The difference between this and other similar technologies is that while the video playback speed is variable, the actual FPS is fixed at about 60 fps. So it's doing some sort of digital processing on the video data in order to feed the right frame to the screen each cycle. If you were to watch a person, plane, or any other moving object and stopped the train, that person/object should thus be stationary. (The same frame would keep getting sent to the video renderer until you start moving again.)
 
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Is there an outside view?
How good is the AI?
:hehe:

Seriously though. Auran could learn from thier rain/snow simulation.
 
EdrickV said:
The difference between this and other similar technologies is that while the video playback speed is variable, the actual FPS is fixed at about 60 fps. So it's doing some sort of digital processing on the video data in order to feed the right frame to the screen each cycle. If you were to watch a person, plane, or any other moving object and stopped the train, that person/object should thus be stationary. (The same frame would keep getting sent to the video renderer until you start moving again.)
Click to expand...

Yes, I totally agree with you, I've noticed this in the video, when the train slows down, the people slow down too...

Joe Airtime
 
It's a good training tool for the engineers, which is what it was designed for. When Fujitsu does the entertainment version, I hope they make a home version for the PC.
I didn't go out that far on the Chuo line when I was in Tokyo. I'll have to go back someday.

:cool:Claude
 
This would put an incredible strain on a computer that wasn't absoloutley top-spec. What happens when the computer can't keep 60 FPS going? However, as a training program for new drivers, this program could be very useful, and Fujitsu could make s***loads from it.
 
Looks great. But the snow almost looked like negative instead of just snowing. It's ok but I like raildriver. Its a good enough substitute.
 
LGBMATT said:
Looks great. But the snow almost looked like negative instead of just snowing. It's ok but I like raildriver. Its a good enough substitute.
Click to expand...

To me the snow didn't look real. They just looked like mouldy, fuzzy, white dots. Then again, i've never seen snow falling from the sky so I could be wrong.
 
I expect the snow was digitally generated, but it probably replicated the level of visibility the driver would have fairly closely.

:cool:Claude
 
It's always been my view that train sims based on a video clip are no substitute for one with a proper integrated graphics engine that allows all the variables and of course users to build their own routes. Even the latest "Railfan" ones for the PS3 on Blu-Ray are limited to showing the line as it was on that particular run so it becomes necessary to superimpose signal aspects over the real ones. Unless you make multiple runs to film different routings and have seamless branching in the clip, you will always be on the same track or driving at the same time of day.

The Cab View Driver series from the UK were a particularly poor implementation of the idea. They relied on Railscene video clips which were only shot by a normal rather than fast camera hence jerkiness or lag if you weren't travelling at the exact speed of the train when the footage was taken. The cameraman had a propensity to suddenly swing round and focus on something like a depot or other lineside feature rather than the forward view. The last one I bought had a very weird interface and mask around the video window, like something out of a space sim!

Give me Trainz or one of the other sims any time over a video clip based game.
 
Since they're not actually simulating the view out the front window, it is not properly a train simulator as we know it.. And has been mentioned, you only get to drive those tracks that were filmed and can not take a random turnout to explore another section of track. Since the point of the exercise appears to be to learn a specific route, free exploring is probably frowned upon if not a firing offense.

As nice as it looks, I don't think Trainz has to worry about this as competition. :cool:
 
Limited access...

:cool: Your depicting a simulation used to train new hires...

No competition here. Even full motion simulation has it's limitations on the routes offered, locomotive specs, train dynamics, etc.

What you see is a closed-ended project. It is no game...

We using Auran Trainz have soo much more, like different routes, motive power, and controls.

We can add new routes, equipment, etc.

But you knew that, didn't you?
 
I think another problem with the HD Video concept would be the fact that you can't look around the driver's cab. Once again, that's all well and good for training purpouses, but what about people that use it for recreational use and want to enjoy the scenery as well?
 
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Several years ago I repaired a computer for a Queensland Rail driver and he told me that these simulators were in use then. He said that drivers could be trained in a quarter of the time. but the simulator was in Rockhampton, midway between Brisbane and Cairns. Trainees had to travel 1,000 km and be billeted during the program, adding to the overall cost.

He told me they were building a mobile simulator and I actually saw it a couple of years ago. Here's a web site dated 2006, explaining about the mobile unit.

How many of you can remember Auran writing to us all around 2005,6 or maybe even earlier regarding their involvement in similar simulators? If I recall correctly, they almost said that TRS as a personal simulator or game was to play second fiddle to their latest challenge - simulators for real railroad operators and operations.

If my memory serves me correctly, this all came about when Auran did a presentation to Union Pacific to obtain permission to use UP locos in future Trainz versions. Some people at UP were so impressed they evidently discussed the concept of Auran creating training routes just like the ones in the video, but with sessions and scenarios only a computer simulator could offer.

Please don't ask me where all this lead to, or finally went. Much of Auran's history is shrouded in rumours and innuendo, but there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Some of you old timer's may have missed it, but Greg Lane (Mr Trainz) made an appearance on these forums today and it looks like he may hang around a while. Hopefully he may be encouraged to dig through some of his old computer files and write a little something about Trainz in the early years. it would make interesting reading for all of us.

You can read his posts here.

John
 
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