I have huge respect for n3v and Zec but in my naivety I find the sudden problem with monitors a dubious explanation. Why is monitor calibration suddenly a problem after all these years? And why do so many UK users suddenly have badly calibrated monitors, and only in TRAINZ? It doesn't sound the most likely explanation.
Ha ha - exactly so.
I now have an Asus Proart monitor that can show 99.5% of Adobe RGB and 100% sRGB. It can also be configured to show various other colour/shading profiles for films, tele and other applications wanting a profile other than that for photography. Previously I had a NEC of similar abilities. Both of these are calibrated with a Spyder colourimeter.
In both these monitors, even the crude Environment controls of Trainz can produce a good look from TANE. Not so in TRS19. The glare, over-brightness, washed-out or whatever-we-want-to-call-it look cannot be wholly eradicated from TRS19.
***
There are two common fob-offs evident in a lot of these discussions. One is from those being a bit fan-boy with their, "Mine looks fine" offerings, which is an implication that if yours doesn't, it must be you or your inadequate hardware. The other is a more direct, "It's your sub-standard hardware or your inability to tweak it properly".
Both can be true but this doesn't mean they are the full explanation for the poor performance of this or that in Trainz. The fact is that even with the best hardware, properly calibrated, tweaked or otherwise set-up, various aspects of various Trainz programs perform badly, generate faults or fail some basic software quality parameters. To check this, compare Trainz to the vast majority of software that you might have on your computer. Very few modern software packages have the range and degree of issues or problems that are found in Trainz.
There is a case for excusing Trainz software issues because of the nature of the beast - a program that employs hundreds of thousands of third party assets. But some fundamental aspects of the program are badly coded. My own belief is that it's a case of marketing push over configuration management. Most software that makes this mistake fails in the marketplace. Trainz seems unusual in that a large and loyal customer base are prepared to put up with the glitch-horde because, well, Trainz is a very fine thing to play with. It has so many creative aspects. ......
However, I believe most of us could do without the "creative aspect" of having to fix lots of fundamental issues or work round a fundamental aspect like the environmental lighting. Some who enjoy furtling in the depths of the software might enjoy such "creative aspects" but personally I'd write my own programs if that was my interest. Trainz is supposedly a finished product - except it never is.
Lataxe
