Trainz Plus Alpha Release

n3v_laurence

Moderator
Just in time for Christmas, we have released Trainz Plus Alpha build 120247.

Those lucky enough to be selected for Trainz Plus Alpha, which features HD Terrain & Trainz Living Railroad, will receive an email to your registered MyTrainz email which includes a link to the installer for build 120247. It is a full installer 9.9GB, please use Trainz Plus Alpha stream for the online installer. There are no patch options available.

If you would like to join the testing, you can register your interest through this link: https://n3vgames.typeform.com/to/XWZ3YK6p (Based upon feedback from our first group of testers, we will add more testers in the coming weeks)

This build introduces several new key features coming to Trainz Plus in 2023. Please note this is an Alpha release and features are subject to change. All work done with this build should be considered “throw-away”.

We recommend you start with a fresh local data folder, using the built-in content first. Once familiar with the changes, then look at importing content from the existing local data folder.

** DO NOT USE YOUR EXISTING LOCAL DATA FOLDER **

Information on these changes and how to use them along with our future plans can be found here: https://docs.trainzsimulator.com/docs/hd-terrain

Please use this link to report bugs:https://n3vgames.typeform.com/to/xRdryu

Key Features:

  • New HD Grid resolution
  • Trainz Living Railroad - Prototype #1 - Freight Operations
  • Clutter Effect Layer Rework
  • New Color Tint Effect Layer

Change Log:
Surveyor 2.0

  • New: HD Grid Option
  • New: Add New Baseboard
  • Change: Convert Existing Baseboard to
  • New: Minimum 0.125m Radius size* (HD Terrain only)
    • Note: *Minimum Radius size is subject to change.
  • New: Maximum texture limit (16) on individual baseboards
  • Change: Resolution of terrain and textures are automatically reduced further from the camera.
  • Change: Removal of Rotation and Scale options for HD Textures
Effects Layer

  • Change: Rework and improvement of Clutter Effects
  • New: Effect layer type added: Color
Trainz Living Railroad

  • New: Session Option: Living Railroad Dispatch (Enabled/Disabled)
  • New: Driver Assignment: Player Controlled/Automatic Scheduler
  • New: Driver Track Path Display
User Interface Changes

  • New: Driver Properties Window
  • New: Driver Settings, Driver location, Player Assignment, Dispatch Status, Command status, Activity log
  • Change: Vehicle Properties Window (New properties as per Driver)
  • New: Driver MiniMap (found in Driver Properties Window)

Known Issues:
HD Terrain

  • HD Terrain works only with S20
  • HD Terrain does not support seamless joins between different resolutions
  • HD Terrain not compatible with Legacy Water
  • Converting from HD Terrain to 5m & 10m will cause some loss of detail
  • Scrapbook Clone & Brush (and Copy & Paste) are currently WIP. While using HD Edits, performance may be slow using the Scrapbook Brush tool. Large edits will cause a HD Paste Disable.
  • Snow does not render correctly on HD Terrain
  • Water Effects Layer requires refresh to render correctly after changes. Toggle visibility off then on again.
  • Color Effect is limited to minimum 5m radius
  • HD Textures are rotated 90 degrees from default classic direction
  • Textures have been rescaled (approximately 3x smaller than previously). This will help most textures, but not all will be perfect

Trainz Living Railroad

  • Dispatch Tasks are limited to Freight Operations from A to B
  • Any Industries and Trainz that use passengers will be completely ignored by Dispatch
  • Dispatch control has no concept of whether a train will "fit" in the industry destination (so the player currently needs to resolve loading/unload for long trains, or cutting up trains and pushing cars into industries etc)
  • Leading Track Path flashes as it refreshes
  • Track Path Display may show the destination of a train. It will not always show the path the train actually takes.
  • When Track Path Display overlaps, only one is shown in the Map View
  • AI Drivers may get stuck and fight over junctions. It is currently up to the player to prevent trains competing for the same track segment. (e.g. by using “Pause” and “Resume”)
  • AI improvements are scheduled for a future update.
  • Currently spammy debug logging is enabled. (Filter these out clicking on the grey filter button).
  • TLR has some performance issues

General

  • Slow loading of Main Menu
  • Assertion Errors are enabled for this build. Users can select Continue and Ignore Errors. (Reporting when these occur with bugs will help with troubleshooting)
  • Trainz will pause until Assertion Errors are closed
  • DLC packages will report a failure to download precache data. Clicking retry will ignore the error and proceed to complete installation
  • DLC Packages will report a precache assertion error during database rebuild. Select Continue and Ignore Errors
  • MPS unsupported (during this phase of testing)
  • Incorrect FOV for animated Drivers.
  • DirectX 12 is not supported. Please use DirectX 11 for testing.

REMINDER:
** ALL work done with Trainz Plus Alpha is to be throw-away. It will not work in ANY future builds. **
** Do NOT use your existing local data folder! **

TESTING FEEDBACK
Once you’ve had a good play around with the new systems, please give us your feedback through this form:
https://n3vgames.typeform.com/to/ie8XJ5ud
 
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Heh! Just completed installation of a new dedicated 1Tb SSD for this alpha test and the invitation email promptly arrived.
Installation proceeded quickly and without issues and the download completed in just minutes at just over 43MiB/s.
Moved the userdata directory over to the new drive from C:\Users\...\Appdata... as is my usual habit.
Haven't heard the menu music for years. Will fix that.
I plan to test initially with only the data files shipped with this install, so any feedback will be purely related to the current alpha build content.
Is there a dedicated Discord channel for this TrainzPlus alpha test yet/ planned?
So far so good - keen to hear how everyone else gets on.
Thanks and cheers! PC.
 
I guess I should have known better with only one build number..... this is Windows only when I clicked on the link in the email..... so far. I selectWhen are Mac builds going to come out?
 
I guess I should have known better with only one build number..... this is Windows only when I clicked on the link in the email..... so far. I selectWhen are Mac builds going to come out?

sorry yes, PC only for the Alpha.
 
WARNING! Create a new folder for Trainz Plus Alpha Test. If I install to Trainz Plus folder, I get a warning that data will be overwritten or lost so I had to create new folder.
 
WARNING! Create a new folder for Trainz Plus Alpha Test. If I install to Trainz Plus folder, I get a warning that data will be overwritten or lost so I had to create new folder.

Even better... put it all on a separate hard drive to keep this far and away from any other installs just to be safe.
 
Downloaded
but it refuses my password
the one I use since 2003 and works
in TRS2004, TRS2009, all TRS19 and TRS22+
and that I used to install it and to post this
so sorry can't test it
 
Upper lower case issue?
Or
I had to restart three times before my id and password stuck and check Firewall is allowing access mine wasn't.
 
Sadly no, somewhere around TRS19Sp3 FI a plus or minus was declared an illegal character
all ascii characters should be allowed. Very strange all other places and Trainz versions here it just works
Just to download it I already had to enter it

Question: if I change my password here in mytrainz, will it then be used on forum and all Trainz products?
 
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Haha, my first download got corrupted (don'task) and gave me this:

image.png



Posting just for fun. Re-download and install in Win11 worked.
Lockheed
 
Sadly no, somewhere around TRS19Sp3 FI a plus or minus was declared an illegal character
all ascii characters should be allowed. Very strange all other places and Trainz versions here it just works
Just to download it I already had to enter it

Question: if I change my password here in mytrainz, will it then be used on forum and all Trainz products?

Yes, it will, which means changing it in all copies of Trainz, very tedious!


Edit: as a thought I ran the Installer as Administrator.
 
TLR

Starting to play around with TLR, 2 quick questions (to current implementation):

1. Is there an overview of existing tasks? Some dispatch screen or so.
2. As much as I understood so far tasks are generated from waybills. The waybill window doesn't let me scroll down. So it's a bit hard to see what might be going on or what traffic is to expect. Is that only for me? In my test session I found pre-configured industries I had no idea they were set up. So I was surprised the drivers suddenly got a task from somewhere and processed them. Unexpected but working (to its current limit) xD
Lockheed
 
Starting to play around with TLR, 2 quick questions (to current implementation):

1. Is there an overview of existing tasks? Some dispatch screen or so.
2. As much as I understood so far tasks are generated from waybills. The waybill window doesn't let me scroll down. So it's a bit hard to see what might be going on or what traffic is to expect. Is that only for me? In my test session I found pre-configured industries I had no idea they were set up. So I was surprised the drivers suddenly got a task from somewhere and processed them. Unexpected but working (to its current limit) xD
Lockheed


edit: look at 'em go! (see edit below)

It's kinda difficult to know what's going on... The TLR page says "Load up any route and...." But the ops page says "Select a session which meets the requirements for Living Railroad" - OK. So how do you know which session "meets the requirements?" They give Kickstarter "Dispatching the Action" to try but when I turned on TLR only the switcher had a route defined that I could see. I guess its reading and guessing and trying things out time...
(https://docs.trainzsimulator.com/docs/living-railroad-operations)

I do as the doc says and I Assign a driver to AutoScheduler. Doc says "after a while" the scheduler will make assignment and provide ops for the driver but nothing happens when I assign a driver to Auto Scheduler and Dispatch. (except for "Dennis" in the swithcer who is not pushing his consist from the yard to Los Pinos.)

Edit (all below): OK.. I've selected all the drivers and few are now are running a "schedule".

I do want to give "congrats" to N3V for getting the alpha out.... and giving us updates. So.. Thanks.

edit - additional info: Look at em go... in "dispatchin' the action" I set all 7 drivers to "automatic" and off they went in a flurry of activity. A bunch seem to start routes faster than if a single driver selected. Maybe it's just me. Anyway, it was fun to see a 3 way "race" thru the yard.

It will be interesting to see where this leads....
 
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After changing my password....(really hope I do not ruin other trainz versions)
I could enter the game


Tried it on setting DirectX 12(beta)
main menu then no longer works on my uptodate Windows 10
had to set it back to DirectX 11


Started a new route, which took very long to open/load
even though set on GRID Region, it still gave me the green carpet grass


Added a new HD board and tried moving the terrain up
no matter what setting, its always a circle (even as its set on square)


Tried 2 ground textures, 1 at the lowest setting of 1.2 meter
that works pretty good but somehow it gives shadows/artifacts see screeny

image can be clicked

Tried the Living Rail roads in kickstarter session
Fun to see and a good development
not sure how much was prepared to do this


I set all drivers to automatic and watched what happened
Main problem is the interfaces, I know its alfa,
but really n3v needs a pro interface designer or accept help from outside

Good development and positive surprised
but like to try it on a custom route of my own and see what happens then.
 
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1. For the prototype, the Global Activity Log gives the best overview. It shows what's happening and what could happen if the right stock was available. Better UI for managing operations is scheduled for future updates.
(R-click on any Activity log to show the list). I'll update the doco as this optionis fairly new.

2022-12-22_094701.png


2. Waybills work with Industries, and TLR works with industries, but there the similarities end. I would ignore the old Waybills UI and focus on the new "Details" windows.
 
Downloaded and installed quickly. Semms to lock up once in a while and I need to restart. Seems to load slower than TRS22. When I use DirectX 12 the board is black, change back to 11 and it is grass.
 
DX12 here after a load of flashing crashed to Desktop in the main menu while the environment was loading, guess it's not ready just yet.
 
Adjusting ground to track did not seem to work. Just had a quick try with default settings :)

Using Dx12 - black boards
 
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OK First, Thank You for having me as a Beta Tester!:)
I have downloaded the Alpha Test, and it downloaded very quickly less than 15 mins, and installed without a hitch. Sign in was easy and accepted.

I did allow it to make a new local folder, loaded a route from the menu in directx12 and also got a few crashes to desktop, but finally after a few database rebuilds, got it to load the menu route, and did get the flickering in the 2.0 Tools, then went back to directx11 and loaded the same route and did a save to bring that route up to build 5.3 and then it loaded ok, and I was able to get the HD Terrain to work in directx12 and the Tools for the HD are working. Converting a small area to HD makes that area turn pure black.

Reloaded again and the selected area was still black, did a save and set the black area to 5m and it came back to the normal textures, saved again and then the HD Tools were working on the whole map that was not converts-LOL. I am stumped by this, but the whole map did convert to HD for some strange reason.
Although frame rates are very low and choppy the HD is editing is working.

I will keep on Testing and see what happens in the next few days as new patches are implemented.
Cheers!
 
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failed to dl installation data blahblah what drive after 3 hours of painstaking slow dl. In the beginning when I started dowload it said would take 4 hours but never realistic number from what i have seen in the past.
DL speed trainz 0.7MiB/sec. :eek:
 
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