Surveyor 2.0 - Discussion Thread

I have just now jumped back into Trainz with a purchase of the download TRS22 after being away for several years. TANE was the last thing I had built a route in: a DEM route creation of an actual route in North Carolina from North Wilkesboro to Rural Hall. I have only completed approximately 15-20% of this route and have now loaded it into TRS22 with most everything intact.
Is S20, which I assume is the latest version of Surveyor, available ONLY in one of the recurring subscriptions and NOT in TRS22? If that is true, will S20 ever be available as an update to TRS22?
I see where there is a "Content Samples #1" in TRS22. When I apply some of the ground textures I find in this Sample route into my TANE route in TRS22, they don't look the same. On the PBR Grass textures, the colors are present, but not the blades of grass blowing in the wind. Is there something I'm doing wrong or will these textures not work in my version of TRS22.
What if I get a subscription for a few months and install scenery items in my route and then drop the subscription version and go back to my Download version of TRS22 will everything still be there? Or are these two DIFFERENT versions?

I am confused on what to do.

Thanks.
 
To answer a few of your questions.

S20 is a subscription only feature. It is currently available only to Trainz Plus Standard subscribers and to Trainz Plus Gold subscribers. It will, eventually, make its way into a future Trainz retail release, but which one and when I have no idea.

When I apply some of the ground textures I find in this Sample route into my TANE route in TRS22, they don't look the same. On the PBR Grass textures, the colors are present, but not the blades of grass blowing in the wind.

PBR Textures are 3D but are not animated. I suspect that what you are referring to are TurfFX and (possibly) Clutter Effect Layers, which are animated. I ran a few test on the "Content Samples #1" route in my copy of Trainz Plus (which I suspect is exactly the same as yours in TRS22 and probably the same as it was in T:ANE) and was able to confirm that the "grass blowing in the wind" is at least one TurfFX Effect Layer. Effect Layers are a whole new area of Trainz scenery. If you have not come across them before then they will be a learning curve - but at least the curve in TRS22 is not as steep as it was in T:ANE. TurfFX only works on Nvidia cards as it is an Nvidia software product, not from N3V.

If you are a Trainz Plus subscriber and have also installed TRS22 (the retail version) then TRS22 will also have S20 as an option. S20 is actually built into TRS22 (retail) but is unlocked (or "unleashed") by your Trainz username (e.g. ccowan2126) and password - but you have to be a registered and current Trainz Plus subscriber to access S20 in TRS22. So if you drop the subscription, TRS22 will continue to work but without the S20 interface. If you later resume the subscription then S20 will be reactivated.

I am not aware of any scenery assets (or similar) that are only available to subscribers. There are some DLC payware that subscribers, especially the Gold class members, get free access to but nothing that other users cannot purchase. So there may be some assets that only come with the DLC. If you drop your subscription then you will also lose access to those free DLC assets but not to any that you have purchased.

My understandings, at least.
 
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