My opinion about the progress of the Trainz series.

Fredy1fc

New member
1. Content
For the driving mode there are too many outdated vehicles that do not show what Trainz has been able to simulate for many years. These vehicles are mostly AI vehicles and are only used for dioramas. Almost all maps are dioramas I create. That's very unfortunate for Trainz. But for the construction mode you can access the old massive content database, that still saves Trainz.

2. Unfortunately there is no multiplayer since Trainz 2019.
Only the LOTUS Simulator from Berlin now has a multiplayer modulator, as the only "rail vehicle simulator". I think that's a pity.

3. Unfortunately, there is a lack of features that make Trainz suck and DTG Trainsimulator, LOTUS, and much more have. Is Gameplay in the Driving Mode. A career mode where you collect points is completely missing. Points are deducted in case of strong breaking and also the camera movement in the driver's cab is missing due to the G-forces like in train simulator. This makes train driving much more realistic. Train protection, timetable has shown PTP, that you can do this without restrictions as in TS, where you can only script a maximum of 300 objects in one cab. In Trainz I don't know such a limitation and you can do much more with texture animations.
And also raindrops simulation on the windowpanes are possible.
What's missing is a better lever control and the possibility to design your own GUIs for the levers, because the existing ones interfere and also the possibility to add buttons, which can be activated and deactivated with a mouse click.
The ability to add hall effects (also to big concourses). Generated darkness to tunnels (it's generated, because illuminated materials (like lights) have also an effect) and glare effects at the end of the tunnel, because of the brightness change.
First-Person Mode, The character can collide with the environment and can climb stairs and can move indoors so driver's cabs, he goes to a kind of different "level". It would be nice.
More interactions also in multiplayer with tasks like signal boxes, the basic functions are already there, you just have to script it correctly. And the possibility to schedule moves, but this is already possible with scripts.
To the editor features:
Another construction mode for splines and tracks, which is more precise, like in LOTUS or DTG Train Simulator, so you can lay curves and elevations much more exact, that would be so fantastic. The possibility of the generated vegitation brush, so that ground textures and flora are generated according to the template and the possibility to save these settings and take them from other routes. It also automatically adapts to the topography, if previously set, so that steep rock slopes look different from flat terrain. You can even paint city patterns or mountains. This makes the landscape much more realistic without much effort and you have almost infinite possibilities to create large routes very detailed.
Better copy-paste tools, so you can independently from the grid copy scenery objects, splines and tracks and save them in the pick-list. Snapping tools for scenery objects, splines, tracks and copied selections from the picklist as well as from the ones you copied before. This would help to build various infrastructure.
Track presets: Here you can preset the maximum permissible curve radius, height of the overhead contact line, type of overhead contact line, so that primitive overhead contact lines can also be generated automatically, interesting for exinsting bar pantographs systems. Current collectors can also, if previously set, recognize where the overhead contact line is and thus automatically adjust its height, nothing new in e.g. LOTUS. Also rod current collectors are simulated correctly, nothing new in LOTUS.
The maximum curve elevation can also be set during track presetting, so that transition curves can be created automatically with the elevation track tool. This has been possible in Train Simulator for years.
There are snapping points on catenary masts as well as Train Simulator, so that catenary lines can be created much more easily without a large number of catenary spines realistically. It goes much faster and looks more professional.

All other features that would be great are scriptable. But that people at the platforms move with an AI and also walk to the doors or walk to the exit or even interact at a so-called platform object e.g. a bench or a vending machine is not scriptable, so this Featrue would also be great, it gives the game more life in the cities and also on platforms. It wouldn't harm the performance, because only the user generates these people at a distance of one kilometre, other users e.g. at the muliplayer see other generated people. Also cars are generated this way, much better than the old Trainz Auto AI. They interact with e.g. level crossings. Cars and people are generated region-dependent. People are no longer comparable to a classic type of goods.

Possibility to script independent keyboard inputs would be helpful. Before, you had to use existed inputs, for example for EMUs, you used steam locomotive controls.
Cabs can be also a part of the locomotive and can be also seen from the outside. Important for the First-Person-Mode and other possibilites.

You can even build Minigameserver with a lobby, levels, different jobs (signaller or traindriver) and tasks (drive the Freighttrain from here to there and you get 500 points), or you can work in a station shop, when you want. (The shopdesk is just a scripted cab, that you can see from the outside, see above.) You can also script the First-Person mode with interactions without a cab. E.g you can't walk to the end of the map, or you can show a textbox on the Border, when you reach it. This all would be possible. The API is given.

A lot of features that can really usher in a new Trainz era.
Unfortunately, some routes may not be compatible anymore, but maybe there will certainly be a converter ingame for that. I know, Trainz isn't a simulation but it would be a Train Game with incredibly possibilities and a lot of existing content.
 
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1. Content
For the driving mode there are too many outdated vehicles that do not show what Trainz has been able to simulate for many years. These vehicles are mostly AI vehicles and are only used for dioramas. Almost all maps are dioramas I create. That's very unfortunate for Trainz. But for the construction mode you can access the old massive content database, that still saves Trainz.

2. Unfortunately there is no multiplayer since Trainz 2019.
Only the LOTUS Simulator from Berlin now has a multiplayer modulator, as the only "rail vehicle simulator". I think that's a pity.

3. Unfortunately, there is a lack of features that make Trainz suck and DTG Trainsimulator, LOTUS, and much more have. Is Gameplay in the Driving Mode. A career mode where you collect points is completely missing. Points are deducted in case of strong breaking and also the camera movement in the driver's cab is missing due to the G-forces like in train simulator. This makes train driving much more realistic. Train protection, timetable has shown PTP, that you can do this without restrictions as in TS, where you can only script a maximum of 300 objects in one cab. In Trainz I don't know such a limitation and you can do much more with texture animations.

And also raindrops simulation on the windowpanes are possible.
What's missing is a better lever control and the possibility to design your own GUIs for the levers, because the existing ones interfere and also the possibility to add buttons, which can be activated and deactivated with a mouse click.
The ability to add hall effects (also to big concourses). Generated darkness to tunnels (it's generated, because illuminated materials (like lights) have also an effect) and glare effects at the end of the tunnel, because of the brightness change.
First-Person Mode, The character can collide with the environment and can climb stairs and can move indoors so driver's cabs, he goes to a kind of different "level". It would be nice.
More interactions also in multiplayer with tasks like signal boxes, the basic functions are already there, you just have to script it correctly. And the possibility to schedule moves, but this is already possible with scripts.

To the editor features:
Another construction mode for splines and tracks, which is more precise, like in LOTUS or DTG Train Simulator, so you can lay curves and elevations much more exact, that would be so fantastic. The possibility of the generated vegitation brush, so that ground textures and flora are generated according to the template and the possibility to save these settings and take them from other routes. It also automatically adapts to the topography, if previously set, so that steep rock slopes look different from flat terrain. You can even paint city patterns or mountains. This makes the landscape much more realistic without much effort and you have almost infinite possibilities to create large routes very detailed.
Better copy-paste tools, so you can independently from the grid copy scenery objects, splines and tracks and save them in the pick-list. Snapping tools for scenery objects, splines, tracks and copied selections from the picklist as well as from the ones you copied before. This would help to build various infrastructure.
Track presets: Here you can preset the maximum permissible curve radius, height of the overhead contact line, type of overhead contact line, so that primitive overhead contact lines can also be generated automatically, interesting for exinsting bar pantographs systems. Current collectors can also, if previously set, recognize where the overhead contact line is and thus automatically adjust its height, nothing new in e.g. LOTUS. Also rod current collectors are simulated correctly, nothing new in LOTUS.
The maximum curve elevation can also be set during track presetting, so that transition curves can be created automatically with the elevation track tool. This has been possible in Train Simulator for years.
There are snapping points on catenary masts as well as Train Simulator, so that catenary lines can be created much more easily without a large number of catenary spines realistically. It goes much faster and looks more professional.

All other features that would be great are scriptable. But that people at the platforms move with an AI and also walk to the doors or walk to the exit or even interact at a so-called platform object e.g. a bench or a vending machine is not scriptable, so this Featrue would also be great, it gives the game more life in the cities and also on platforms. It wouldn't harm the performance, because only the user generates these people at a distance of one kilometre, other users e.g. at the muliplayer see other generated people. Also cars are generated this way, much better than the old Trainz Auto AI. They interact with e.g. level crossings. Cars and people are generated region-dependent. People are no longer comparable to a classic type of goods.

Possibility to script independent keyboard inputs would be helpful. Before, you had to use existed inputs, for example for EMUs, you used steam locomotive controls.
Cabs can be also a part of the locomotive and can be also seen from the outside. Important for the First-Person-Mode and other possibilites.

You can even build Minigameserver with a lobby, levels, different jobs (signaller or traindriver) and tasks (drive the Freighttrain from here to there and you get 500 points), or you can work in a station shop, when you want. (The shopdesk is just a scripted cab, that you can see from the outside, see above.) You can also script the First-Person mode with interactions without a cab. E.g you can't walk to the end of the map, or you can show a textbox on the Border, when you reach it. This all would be possible. The API is given.

A lot of features that can really usher in a new Trainz era.
Unfortunately, some routes may not be compatible anymore, but maybe there will certainly be a converter ingame for that. I know, Trainz isn't a simulation but it would be a Train Game with incredibly possibilities and a lot of existing content.

Nothing is perfect in this imperfect world, and we're always going to find something else that has more or less features than another product, however, it appears you've been away from Trainz for sometime and have missed a few things along the way between the earlier Trainz versions and TRS19.

Just to touch on some things here:

1) Multiplayer has been available since TS2010, or about 10 years if not longer now.

2) There is a Bulk Replace tool to allow bulk updating, deleting, and moving of assets.

3) There is a copy/paste, and random area-fill capability added. There is the ability to add these assets to a pick-list.

4) There is a career mode that is overall and based upon your progress through out your Trainz career. After you've performed so many certain tasks, you move up the ranks within the Trainz program. Most of us seasoned users really don't care about that feature.

5) There is train wobbling, and in-cab movement available. That has been with us since TS12.

6) There are track quality settings to allow for bumping and rolling wagons and locomotives.

7) There are settings for elevated curves that can be added or adjusted in Surveyor.

8) There are templates for track placement to allow for specific curves and there are also fixed-track.

9) Content features such as animated characters, cab features, scriptable buttons, details, and liveries are all up to the content creators. N3V does hardly makes any content if at all these days and it has been up to the community to do so.

10) There are interactive crossings of various kinds. Some require custom-connected components while others are a simple all-in-one affair. These appeared sometime with TRS2004 or about 16 years ago now.

There's much more than I've pointed out here.

Much has changed with Trainz since the early days and much more is on the horizon.
 
It depends what you want to do and how far you are prepared to go. Trainz is extremely flexible and has a much wider range of content than many others. Picking out the nice stuff is no especially easy but it is there and if it isn't you can always pick up Blender or 3DS and roll your own.

Cheerio John
 
To be fair, I can understand why someone would think that MP had gone away. TS12 had a big interface element for it. Now with TANE and TRS19, you have to be able to find a session under a route with a name indicating that it is a MP session. Other than the session name, is there another way to find MP sessions. Has any improvement been made to MP since TS12?

PS, I tried the MP session for Kickstarter County and it would not run. It says that the session, route or some assets had been locally modified and must be reverted. I don't want to do that as I never use MP.

I did look at several assets with the modified status. All of them were newer versions of the assets installed by other payware routes and the newer version obsoleted the builtin version. I assume reverting the assets would break the other routes that want the newer version. All of this is in TANE.



William
 
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Same issue in TRS19 with the Kickstarter County MP session. It can't run due to builtin assets being obsoleted by newer versions of the assets required by the route and session.

Same thing with the Kickstarter County 2 MP session. Not a very robust system.

William
 
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Same issue in TRS19 with the Kickstarter County MP session. It can't run due to builtin assets being obsoleted by newer versions of the assets required by the route and session.

Same thing with the Kickstarter County 2 MP session. Not a very robust system.

William


Yes i do as you, and i have same problem, MP seems worthless, luckily I'm not so interested in it, but sorry for those who are
 
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