1st impressions

I like it! The routes I have tried seem to work well with very little missing content pain and apparently no increased demands on my mid range computer.

I'm not happy about the new animated drivers, it seems that they are the originals with new images, which is a little disconcerting. One male driver comes up with female features. All the DHR drivers have been changed. If I find the originals, can they be changed back? We also need a blank driver, just no image at all.

Peter

narrowgauge said:

One male driver comes up with female features.

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That's a somewhat disappointing anti trans-gender sentiment. They are allowed to be train drivers too!

Been playing with 2019 and building a route in it. The A1 people are a bit zombie looking. Should be like new era people and look a little more human.

That's a somewhat disappointing anti trans-gender sentiment. They are allowed to be train drivers too

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I am completely at ease about trans-gender changes, it is an individuals choice. In this case, as it was involuntary, there are strong grounds for complaint and perhaps a law suit.

Peter

Hi All
For older driver characters, these will be given an automatic (random) driver mesh to display in-game so as to ensure consistency with other TRS19 driver characters.

We will be improving the driver characters feature over time, and we are looking into tags for male/female driver characters (so as to specify which of the random mesh options will be selected), as well as new animations and models in future.

In the mean time, you can create your own driver characters at build 4.6 and specify your own models (with or without animation) and this should ensure that only your chosen driver model is shown.

Regards

I don't like the new zombie drivers either, and I agree. There's nothing wrong with transgender, but Ami becoming an old bald man, or Cameron becoming a blond female? It doesn't look right and add in the moving heads and the blinking eyes and they're creepy.

A preference to turn off the driver images would be perfect, or perhaps go back to the original 2d "photos" would be great.

JCitron said:

I don't like the new zombie drivers either ... A preference to turn off the driver images would be perfect, or perhaps go back to the original 2d "photos" would be great.

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The option to use them or the originals would be my preference.

[QUOTE]A preference to turn off the driver images would be perfect[/QUOTE]

I will second that. All it needs is a blank version or perhaps something other than a human image.

Peter

I never liked the old driver images, so I see the changes in a positive way, if not quite there yet.

ZecMurphy said:

In the mean time, you can create your own driver characters at build 4.6 and specify your own models (with or without animation) and this should ensure that only your chosen driver model is shown.

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The above quote mentioned creating our own driver characters, are there any instructions on how to do this, as I haven't found any and i would rather like to try and create some of my own.

heimdall said:

... are there any instructions on how to do this, as I haven't found any and i would rather like to try and create some of my own.

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That's a good question and I would like to know the answer as well.

I opened one the TRS19 driver icon assets (at least I think that is what it was - it was the only thing installed named "Wazza") and the icon seemed to be encoded in a file called "driver64.texture". I thought that the preferred format for all images in Trainz was one of JPG, BMP. TGA or PNG but placed in a text container that, in this case, would be named "driver64.texture.txt".

.texture files are compressed files that Trainz creates during the commit process or part of built-in assets - not sure whether those files are compatible with Images2TGA or anything similar.

Shane

shaneturner12 said:

.texture files are compressed files that Trainz creates during the commit process or part of built-in assets

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Yes, but I thought that they were phasing out the compressed .texture image format and were insisting that content creators use the .texture.txt file format instead. If this is not the case then we will need the means and rules for creating the [precursor] images used in the .texture files and there is nothing in the TRS19 or Trainz documentation on the wiki that I can find on this.

They are for the source images but they still get converted to .texture as part of the compile/commit process (probably to save space). They are formed from the source image plus the relevant .texture.txt file.

Shane

pware said:

Yes, but I thought that they were phasing out the compressed .texture image format and were insisting that content creators use the .texture.txt file format instead. If this is not the case then we will need the means and rules for creating the [precursor] images used in the .texture files and there is nothing in the TRS19 or Trainz documentation on the wiki that I can find on this.

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*.texture.txt files (and the associated images) are supplied by the creator.
*.texture files are supplied by CM, derived from the *.texture.txt files in a build-specific fashion.

chris

Thank you for that Chris. It answers my question nicely.

heimdall said:

The above quote [from Zec] mentioned creating our own driver characters, are there any instructions on how to do this, as I haven't found any and i would rather like to try and create some of my own.

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There is a tutorial on the Trainz wiki on how to create message popup icons at http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/How_to_Create_a_Message_Popup_Icon that should/may work. I suspect from my examination of the driver icon assets in TRS19 that the icons may be 64 x 64 pixel images as used in message popup icons. You would need to alter the config.txt file from that used in the tutorial - look at the structure of one of the driver icon config.txt file for some clues. I will give this a go myself when (if) I get some time.

EDIT: I can report that the method used to create Message Popup Icons does not work for driver character icons (non animated) in TRS19.

The following errors were produced on committing.

; <kuid:45176:100074> Validating <kuid:45176:100074>
- <kuid:45176:100074> VE30: The tag 'face-texture' in 'drivercharacter' refers to a nonexistent file: 'lillian.texture'.
- <kuid:45176:100074> VE30: The tag 'image' in '0' refers to a nonexistent file: 'lillian.texture'.

EDIT 2: I managed to get the new driver asset to commit without any errors and it appears in the driver setup list complete with icon. But in Driver when you select the new driver all you get is one of the stock standard driver icons with the name you have supplied.

I think I will leave this one until more information is available.

kin3 said:

I just love it. The graphics are great. The only thing I would like to see track grade% in driver.

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Ah is this missing? Shame. Hopefully there's a way to turn it on?

Davie_UCF said:

Ah is this missing? Shame. Hopefully there's a way to turn it on?

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Not yet however it was mentioned as being missing in the beta, fingers crossed!

From this point,I hope it's a first step towards a usable CTC (Centralized Traffic Control) dispatcher window( either above or below the main window) where you could scroll ahead and line up sidings and junctions just like the real thing.A grade profile could be added into this window. This would add a whole other dimension to a Sim I've been fascinated with since 2004. I am (of course) talking about the Trainz franchise. Randy

Copy-and-paste from Trainz.net.

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For me, TRS19 runs slightly worse than T:ANE, but i'm willing to chalk this up to poor optimization. It is still in Beta, afterall...i'm gonna be making that excuse a lot, it seems.

The game retains a lot of problems introduced in T:ANE SP2. I've made this abundantly clear over on the Church, so i won't repeat myself here. But a lot of things have, in fact, been changed for the better, like the updated sound effects. Trying to go over everything would take quite a while.

A lot of people also criticise the $70 pricetag for the base game, but that doesn't take into account that, if you own T:ANE and/or TMR17, you get all of the built-in routes from those games ported to TRS19 for free. Honestly, that's a great idea. It just sucks that most built-in T:ANE / TMR17 routes are straight-up garbage...as is Kickstarter County 2.

KC2, the only TRS19 route currently available is just garbage. The trackwork is disgusting, the scenery is terrible, and the performance if average at best. It's a terrible route.

The fact that you can freely edit the built-in routes from T:ANE, TMR2017, and TS2019 is truly great. However, the fact that ex-T:ANE built-in sessions are broken dilutes that praise quite a bit.

Most people on the Church refuse to criticize the game itself. This is why we don't use the Church to form an opinion a Trainz product. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to buy it for yourself.

The subscription service is assinine. Don't buy into it. If you do plan on getting TRS19, buy the $70 standard game and just get a yearly FCT every year like i do.

TRS19, so far, is decent. Not amazing, not bad, but decent. The built-in content is still horridly out of date, and some bugs from T:ANE SP2 are still present and unnacounted for, but the game has a lot of new features that i think saves it from being a "bad" game.

I dunno...prolly a "6/10" all things considered. Gotta have a numerical score in there for posterity, i guess.

I agree with Chris on some of his criticisms - the great graphics are often nullified by the heavy use of older assets in layouts (I plead guilty here). I suspect that this will be a negative for some time until all available content is brought up to TRS19, or at least TANE standard with the use of LODs and the elimination of all low resolution assets. The only alternative would have been to make a complete break with anything pre TANE - and if you thought that the complaints about having a subscription option for those who wanted it were bad enough, this alternative would have started wildfires.

As for performance, TRS19 runs as well or even better on my two computers, as TANE does. I have successfully and easily imported one of my major TANE projects into TRS19 and it looks even better that it does in TANE. Another project from my TRS2006 days imports without problems but is requiring more work to update the assets to TANE standards.

As for the subscription issue, each person can make their own decision based on their own needs and resources. If I was heavily into using DLC assets then I would be tempted. As I am not a big user of DLC then the $70 purchase option is the one I selected.

Overall, I am impressed with TRS19 and am looking forward to what future updates will bring.

I give it an 8/10 but hoping that this will improve.