I'd of much rather been stood near to the threshold of 24 at Manchester watching a Trident or 1-11 come in. Mmmm
Train Sim's
Moderators: Guru's, The Ministry
When I was younger I was fascinated with the trains that used to be seen on the networks near where I used to live. Class 47's & 37's etc. Most of them were named after someone or something which probably made it a little more interesting, but I NEVER EVER stood on the end of a platform noting numbers, thats just nuts...sorry
I'd of much rather been stood near to the threshold of 24 at Manchester watching a Trident or 1-11 come in. Mmmm
I'd of much rather been stood near to the threshold of 24 at Manchester watching a Trident or 1-11 come in. Mmmm
I suffer from paranoid amnesia. I can't remember who I don't trust.
Bit of research throws up this link for Spoorsim for those that are interested:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/slsim/arch ... index.html
Dan.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/slsim/arch ... index.html
Dan.
-
Garry Russell
- The Ministry
- Posts: 27180
- Joined: 29 Jan 2005, 00:53
- Location: On the other side of the wall
-
Garry Russell
- The Ministry
- Posts: 27180
- Joined: 29 Jan 2005, 00:53
- Location: On the other side of the wall
Another good freeware Train Simulator to consider is BVE4. The emphasis seems to be on modern day electric/diesel traction of a shorter Main or Commuter line also, Underground Routes (the latter more interesting than you would first think!). Only one cab view but, controls well detailed and the trains sway quite realistically.
-
Captain Pugwash
- Lightning
- Posts: 270
- Joined: 27 Oct 2006, 20:26
- Location: CYOW
this next piece was a response to a question posted to the sim train people. i was looking for a train sim program for my 5 year old. he not ready for flight sim yet as he just wants to do spins and crash.
Train Simulation is still relatively new - it's been around as a broad commercial genre for over 5 years now but after the initial release of Microsoft Train Simulator and Auran Trainz there hasn't really been much happening since. Trainz has been re-released with relatively minor updates over and over - some of the original bugs and content from the very first pre-release version of Trainz are still present even in the latest 2006 version, and the upcoming 2007 version is just more of the same. People keep buying the same stuff in a new box, so they keep selling it. Trainz was originally developed as a model railway simulator and in that field it is very good, however in 2004 they decided to re-brand as a Railway simulator - but they did so without actually upgrading the model railway physics!
In my opinion, Microsoft Train Simulator, despite being 5+ years old and not once updated by Microsoft beyond a minor bug fix patch, is still the best simulator out there. It makes a good attempt at simulating the real operation of trains, far better than Trainz does, though it is still far from perfect.
It's perhaps not fair to compare it to even FS9 given its age, perhaps FS8 or even FS7, the graphics are particularly good in some cases showing that MSTS is capable of some really impressive effects - though it doesn't by any means do some of the neat things that modern graphics cards are capable of, of course.
The commercial community has been somewhat floundering in the lack of continuing product support from Microsoft, shops haven't stocked it for a year or more and some add-on companies are spending so much time in infinitesimal detail that we're only seeing new products from them once every two years, as good as they are it doesn't really support a growing community where they are 30-50% of the activity in the UK! Still, the stuff being produced is pretty good in general across the board, some of the US developers are doing a great job with US content that has really come forwards - many developers are *still* learning new techniques with MSTS, in fact one UK developer has managed to discover a new technique of texturing etc that actually makes the models look like they're in a next generation sim rather than the current MSTS, very impressive stuff - but right on the fringe and not really out there yet.
The freeware communities have been going insane on it though, with uktrainsim.com representing the UK and train-sim.com representing the US (same people that run flightsim.com) there are thousands of people involved and thousands of add-ons available.
Unfortunately MSTS has its limitations and we're still back in 2D cab-world which isn't great but there have been some very nice cabs produced - looking around is generally a lot less important in train sim than it is in Trainz and in practice a lot of people have found that the trainz cabs look pretty but functionally they can be quite awkward.
North Wales Narrow Gauge - well, the Ffestiniog and Talyllyn are both done, we have those on £6.50 cd's with £2 going to the respective railways as a donation.
Train Simulation is nowhere near Flight Simulation yet, but there are a good number of extremely prolific contributors that have done a superb job with almost every class of UK steam, diesel or electric now implemented and generally looking very good indeed.
I'd say it was well worth a look personally. The next year is going to be a very interesting time for Train Simulation with some potential new sim(s) on the way that might just stir things up nicely.
so next year there might be better out there to chose from. the latest info on the sim mentioned by mr trott. that has now been cancelled indeffinetly as the producers are putting all development time in the real pro simulator. hope this is of help to those bobble hat brigade chaps out there. ps i did work my summer's as a youth on the welsh narrow guage during my off time from college. Bala ( coal fired) ( ffestiniog oil fired )
Train Simulation is still relatively new - it's been around as a broad commercial genre for over 5 years now but after the initial release of Microsoft Train Simulator and Auran Trainz there hasn't really been much happening since. Trainz has been re-released with relatively minor updates over and over - some of the original bugs and content from the very first pre-release version of Trainz are still present even in the latest 2006 version, and the upcoming 2007 version is just more of the same. People keep buying the same stuff in a new box, so they keep selling it. Trainz was originally developed as a model railway simulator and in that field it is very good, however in 2004 they decided to re-brand as a Railway simulator - but they did so without actually upgrading the model railway physics!
In my opinion, Microsoft Train Simulator, despite being 5+ years old and not once updated by Microsoft beyond a minor bug fix patch, is still the best simulator out there. It makes a good attempt at simulating the real operation of trains, far better than Trainz does, though it is still far from perfect.
It's perhaps not fair to compare it to even FS9 given its age, perhaps FS8 or even FS7, the graphics are particularly good in some cases showing that MSTS is capable of some really impressive effects - though it doesn't by any means do some of the neat things that modern graphics cards are capable of, of course.
The commercial community has been somewhat floundering in the lack of continuing product support from Microsoft, shops haven't stocked it for a year or more and some add-on companies are spending so much time in infinitesimal detail that we're only seeing new products from them once every two years, as good as they are it doesn't really support a growing community where they are 30-50% of the activity in the UK! Still, the stuff being produced is pretty good in general across the board, some of the US developers are doing a great job with US content that has really come forwards - many developers are *still* learning new techniques with MSTS, in fact one UK developer has managed to discover a new technique of texturing etc that actually makes the models look like they're in a next generation sim rather than the current MSTS, very impressive stuff - but right on the fringe and not really out there yet.
The freeware communities have been going insane on it though, with uktrainsim.com representing the UK and train-sim.com representing the US (same people that run flightsim.com) there are thousands of people involved and thousands of add-ons available.
Unfortunately MSTS has its limitations and we're still back in 2D cab-world which isn't great but there have been some very nice cabs produced - looking around is generally a lot less important in train sim than it is in Trainz and in practice a lot of people have found that the trainz cabs look pretty but functionally they can be quite awkward.
North Wales Narrow Gauge - well, the Ffestiniog and Talyllyn are both done, we have those on £6.50 cd's with £2 going to the respective railways as a donation.
Train Simulation is nowhere near Flight Simulation yet, but there are a good number of extremely prolific contributors that have done a superb job with almost every class of UK steam, diesel or electric now implemented and generally looking very good indeed.
I'd say it was well worth a look personally. The next year is going to be a very interesting time for Train Simulation with some potential new sim(s) on the way that might just stir things up nicely.
so next year there might be better out there to chose from. the latest info on the sim mentioned by mr trott. that has now been cancelled indeffinetly as the producers are putting all development time in the real pro simulator. hope this is of help to those bobble hat brigade chaps out there. ps i did work my summer's as a youth on the welsh narrow guage during my off time from college. Bala ( coal fired) ( ffestiniog oil fired )