Have You seen this

Have any if you seen this, I think you should all know about it
http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php5/Trainz_Life-Cycle_Policy

Thanks Robin - very interesting for us committed 04 users

It sounds reasonable to me.

Cheerio John

Just like any product you find out there. Whats your point?

So.... The end of the Mayan calendar falls on December 21, 2012 dooms day prediction is wrong?

Have fun,

Wait... they offer support for their products?! :hehe:

Sorry, I could not stop myself. I really tried.. my hands... they just kept typing.

G'Day, It's not so much the product technical support you can answers faster here, but cutting the download facility is the part that does not go down well at all. Time to get out the guillotine and have a revolution.:hehe:
Regards
Barrie

The point is you cannot continue to create new content for TRS2004 or TRS2006 and have it accepted by the DLS. All new content must be done to newer standards. Some of you may like this, but it puts people like myself out of business. Kind of a slap in the face from Auran for buying their new product, but prefering their old product better.

gfisher said:

...but it puts people like myself out of business...

Click to expand...

Ditto. I have supported Auran - I have 09, and will get 10 as soon as I see it retail, but imho 04/06 are simply superior route building platforms. So where to from here?

Andy...

G'Day, I have only just recently purchased Trainz Collection (UTC, TRS2004, TRS2006 ,Trainz Paintshed and Trainz routes 1-4) arrived 17-2-2010 and purchased direct from Auran. If this isn't a slap in the face I don't know what is. I did intend to upgrade at a later date but as after being retrenched in June 2009 I have been unable to find work. To run 2010 I would need a better PC but cannot afford it as the family comes first.
I'll wait and see what happens but if I see the DLS affected for me don't expect another penny from me, I will reserve any decision until well into 2011.
Regards
Barrie

gfisher said:

The point is you cannot continue to create new content for TRS2004 or TRS2006 and have it accepted by the DLS. All new content must be done to newer standards. Some of you may like this, but it puts people like myself out of business. Kind of a slap in the face from Auran for buying their new product, but prefering their old product better.

Click to expand...

It so easy to convert 04 and 06 standard items into a format that the DLS will see and accept as 09 format items, All I do is open them in 2009 edit them with the Content Creator Plus, it tells you what to fix takes less than a minute and bingo it saved as a 2009 format item and upload to the DLS.

Did this just the other week with my item call "for wazzer" that is now on the DLS. Was created as a 2004 item.

bearcat245 said:

It so easy to convert 04 and 06 standard items into a format that the DLS will see and accept as 09 format items, All I do is open them in 2009 edit them with the Content Creator Plus, it tells you what to fix takes less than a minute and bingo it saved as a 2009 format item and upload to the DLS.

Did this just the other week with my item call "for wazzer" that is now on the DLS. Was created as a 2004 item.

Click to expand...

I understood that 2010 required normal mapping or something which gmax doesn't do, so how can you just change the number on the trainz-build?

gfisher said:

I understood that 2010 required normal mapping or something which gmax doesn't do, so how can you just change the number on the trainz-build?

Click to expand...

2010 will still support older content in capablity mode it has to as there is not a lot of content for 2010 at all yet, and at this rate may never be

Easy way to change the build number is to open the item in Content Creator Plus and then save it and it does it all the work for you or just edit the config using any text editor and change the build number.

It is that easy. Its only a number in the config file. Not the end of the world.

gfisher said:

Some of you may like this, but it puts people like myself out of business. Kind of a slap in the face from Auran for buying their new product, but prefering their old product better.

Click to expand...

It will put many people out of business so to speak. However, as you know George, there are other avenues for hosting content. Which many of us in this community do already.

I like many purchased 09. For me, the one major thing I don't like about it is the broken alpha textures. Other than that, it's ok. However, when it comes to creating things, I prefer 04 for that. Much quicker for checking the model. 06 and above is painstakingly slow if / when you just want to check a texture placement.

I don't know about 2010 but 09 doesn't require everything to be normal mapped.

gfisher said:

The point is you cannot continue to create new content for TRS2004 or TRS2006 and have it accepted by the DLS. All new content must be done to newer standards. Some of you may like this, but it puts people like myself out of business. Kind of a slap in the face from Auran for buying their new product, but prefering their old product better.

Click to expand...

I do not see this as being a problem. The standards for 2010 are what they are for a reason. Better performance with better quality. As the program advances so must the community. Honestly, for those who have purchased the newest version of Trainz the DLS is a nightmare. Why? Because of the lack of detail in asset creation from prior version of Trainz. Auran raised the bar for content creation as they should.

My opinion on this...

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?p=572671

My apologies. I read on this there before... Double threading on this topic.

The not-so-happy-side of Alberte :wave:

However, as you know George, there are other avenues for hosting content.

Click to expand...

Quite true as I am well aware of yours as well as USLW and others. But then people will just bitch because it isn't all on the DLS. Well too bad.

Plain and simple, if this is the case, I'm not spending a single penny on 09 or 2010. I'll moreorless give up on Trainz, (Granted, I already gave up on 09) and just pick it up once and a while to give it a go, or just go to MSTS or Railsim, or nothing at all. I don't have the CPU nor the money to buy 2010, and 09 is fried and not worth my time. This just attonishes me that we're getting rid of this much content in favour of what? How many items are there for 2009 and 2010 out there? By comparrison to 04, I'm willing to be it's a 10 to 1 ratio

My 2 cents,

Ryan

Q: Will the Download Station continue to host content for Trainz editions beyond their end-of-support date?
A: We will not immediately remove older content from the Download Station, as newer editions of Trainz can still use this content.

Q: Will I be able to upload old-format content to the Download Station?
A: New uploads to the Download Station must be in a format no older than our oldest supported product. Attempts to upload content with a trainz-build number lower than our oldest supported product will be rejected. This ensures that legacy formats are cleanly phased out over time.

Sounds pretty fair & reasonable to me. If you're been a regular PC gamer over the last 10 - 15 years you will know that very few gaming software development companies/distributors offer support past the first year or two (after launch). In a lot of cases you don't get access to any support at all. Full stop... Only contact might be the retail store where you brought the game or the main distributor...

Hopefully the "changes" will encourage some/more of the communities incredible contents creators to fix - bring their old content up to the new 09/010 standards. Some will do this, & some will say "stuff it", "I'm to old to learn new tricks, so Auran can do what they want with my old content that needs fixing to work in "Native Mode, error free".
Hopefully this will encourage most of the communities very talented creators to create too the new standards.
A lot of the older content shows up error free in "Native Mode" and works fine anyway. Obviously built correctly in the first place. (As far as the broken stuff - content showing errors are concerned, I'm told that in a lots of cases, they wouldn't need a lot of work done to it/them, to fix them)...

H_ll, one guy has already fixed 20,000 faulty assets. (Ian). All we need to do now is talk Auran into somehow rewarding him for his effort, and get those 20,000 corrected .cdp's re-uploaded to the DLS... (that would be 20,000 existing faulty assets/contents sorted out over night)...

As for those creators that don't want to change the way they have been doing things, their creations will eventually starts getting rejected by the DLS !!! Well, as mentioned above, there's plenty of 3rd party sites out there that will host their newly created, older standards content - older version numbered content... (some will chuck the towel in altogether and know longer create for the community and good luck to them)... Many thanks for all their past incredible creations...

Personally I think this is a smart "sensible" business move on NV3/Aurans part. It's not going to please all, but it will encourage content creators to create to the new 09/010 standards. As important, it will encourage more people to upgrade to a newer versions of Trainz.
It will also encourage more of the community to buy a FCT. - More revenue means NV3/Auran stay in business. More revenue also means they can continue to employ "the dream team" to continue developing - supporting Trainz's...

One footnote; The cost of running Auran DLS servers (forum/DLS) must be high each year. Say I brought either UTC or TRS2004 and have been downloading free content over the last 6 or 7 years without a FCT.
I haven't put in a cent to Auran for 6 or 7 years to cover the cost of running those servers, apart from my original purchase cost of either UTC or 04.

In other words, I've would have been "free loading" off Auran and the communities FCT holders. IMHO, FCT holders are the ones that are being bulged off. They are the ones fronting up with the money to cover Aurans costs to run the servers... (I think the cost of a FCT works out at about 7c a day). I'm sure at-least 95% of the community can afford that... So come on some of you tight a_ses, stop bulging & help cover the costs. (please)...
My 7 cents worth. - (Happy Trainzing)...
Cheers, Mac...

Fair and Reasonable... I think you missed something-

Auran typically maintain support for major product releases for four years from the initial release date. This is known as the "end-of-support" date for the product. Support includes the following areas:

• Product-specific information, downloads, and utilities on the Auran web site.
• Maintenance of product-specific forums.
• Access to the Download Station.

Click to expand...

So if you need a service pack- looks like you'll need to just run out and buy the latest version... Oh wait isn't that how it is already? No support for the previous Trainz versions even from members of the community? No Download Station?

Sounds fair and reasonable. Right.

I've for some reason been keeping up with this garbage since 1.3's debut in America, I've only tolerated it for the past 3 years, it's looking like time to switch back to MSTS.