What to buy?

Porsche944

New member
Hello,
Just picked up Trainz 2004 in my pc shop when I went for a network cable!:D
Amazing stuff. Would like to get it for my nephew. But. Which version do I get? Is the 2006 lots better? They are similar money on line (play.com)
Were uk based & into steam so which has the best content? I've found lots to download for 2004 but don't have access to 2006 to find out.
Both running XP but my nephew has a laptop with limited graphics.
If this has been asked before sorry but I can't find anything in search.
 
Quick answer: IMHO go for another copy of TRS2004.

However, the lower graphics spec on the other computer may make Trainz very slow to run.

Long answer:

In terms of what they do and what additional content is available, there isn't all that much difference between TRS2004 and TRS2006. Each have their fans and opinion is divided regarding which is best. At that price, it might be worth trying both and seeing which you prefer. You can have both installed on the same computer at the same time (with a small tweak needed to switch downloads to whichever you wish). TRS2006 has a serious bug with the sound that affects a fair proportion of users. Many people find the way that assets are managed in TRS2006 very complicated and unreliable compared to the system used in TRS2004. I'll leave it to TRS2006 fans to list its advantages.

Trainz Classics (TC, also called Trainz Railways and Trainz Railwayz) is a newer version but it lacks much of the built-in content that TRS2004 and TRS2006. That prevents most third-party material working with it. TC has its fans but also there are plenty of people who think it's a move in the wrong direction.

Avoid anything just called Trainz or Ultimate Trainz Collection (UTC) as they are very old versions. Trainz Driver is a cut-down demo version of TRS2006 which lacks the options to create your own layout and download other layouts, so it is also to be avoided.

Hope this helps and happy driving!

John
 
Nearly everything created for Trainz will work with TRS2006, except mayby TC stuff. Stuff for TRS2006 will not work with TRS2004. I find TRS2006 sound problems to be minimal.
 
TRS2004, its cheaper and more stable.

I have a LOT of steam content you may want to browse my web.
 
Both TRS2004 and TRS2006 are available for five pounds each in the UK (brand new and fully legit). I agree with you regarding stability though :)

John
 
Thanks for the info. Spent the last couple of evenings driving a V2. What an awesome program. Best £5 I've ever spent. :D This thing is huge. I've hardly scratched the surface yet. Down loaded a few wagons tonight.
This could be the start of somthing.
I had a big model railway that had to be sold due to a house move. This is different but it has possibilities!:)
 
I find TRS 06 crashes far less than 04 on the various set ups I have used but I am a minority! Occassionally the CMP part of 06 has a hissy but hey so does Windows and I just have to cope with both to feed my TRS habit (I am a mainly linux user).

Andy
 
Welcome to our little forum Porsche944, once you've bought a Trainz DVD you can say cheerio to your working life, private life and eating, drinking and sleeping, this is an addiction, and you probably won't see your nephew for a few months either......:hehe:

Have you got an FCT (First Class Ticket) from Auran, this enbles you to download unlimited assets off the Download Station daily, particularly useful for a newbie and if you are on dial-up internet connection, if not, then you will be limited to 100mb's per day downloading, and this may cause extra work for you. As a ticket is only a few pounds for 6/12 months, I suggest you do this first, as the speed you obtain is maybe 200-400 kb's per second at night and you can download stuff very fast from 3rd party websites as well as the DLS, especially when the mb quantity starts to add up, I wouldn't be without one now....

Give us a shout if you require any more assistance, this is a great forum for helpful people, from around the world, on most matters to do with the game, and Auran as a company have a bit of a staff shortage at present, subsequently most members on the forum chip in with useful bits of information, tips and where to search for missing dependancies of assets, which you will experience frequently, and as your favourite toys are steam locomotives, they have a lot of custom accessories to go with each one to make it work....

Happy trainzing...

Cheerz. ex-railwayman. :wave:
 
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I find TRS 06 crashes far less than 04 on the various set ups I have used but I am a minority! Occassionally

I don't think you are to be honest. It's just that those who have moved from '04 to '06 and are pleased with having done so don't seem to have the need to come back here telling everyone that '06 is better than '04. (unlike those with the contrary opinion)

Mike.
 
You may also have a passing interest in the soon to be released

Trainz Classics 3

A lot of content creators prefer TRS2004 because it doesn't flag their content errors. I've just been looking at one TRS2004 item in TC with a view to reskinning it. There were missing .tga texture files, and a whole lot of other errors that would impact even TRS2004 users. I offered to clean it up to get rid of the errors and the reply I got back was TRS2004 didn't complain so why should I?

If you want reliability and better performance I'd definitely go TC, if you want something that sort of has a few white bits on it because the texture files are missing and needs a more powerful system to handle working round the things it doesn't understand then go TRS2004.

Do I have a vested interest it TC3? Yes its the first that offers native support for different passenger sets.

Cheerio John
 
TC3 will be a must buy for me. But will the locos & rolling stock from Trainz 06 work on it? 2004 will do me for now. I've always enjoyed messing with track plans & have books full of prototype layouts. Now I have the tool to to see how they might operate! (The wife thinks I've gone potty......)
But you can't even pre order it yet on Amazon. Strange.
Have to say the V2 I downloaded is much better detailed than the loco's that came with 2004.
Thanks for the replys. Sure I'm going to need some help along the way.
 
Dear Masters ....

Hello to all Trainz Veteran,
I am Aditto from Indonesia. Couple days ago my friend introduces me about TRS 2004 and TRS 2006.:Y: I like it a lot, so I want to buy one for myself, but not both. Would you tell, which one is better, (From the point of contents to download, features, display, and any other components, locals or third party), because I am a big fan of Train especially Steam Locos.
I hope you guys could give me some review. Thank you very much.:D

- Aditto -
Jakarta, Indonesia
 
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