Trainz Classics - Third Edition

Contents:  

What is Trainz Classics?

Trainz Classics starts a new era for Trainz, it's not easily explained and the title may understate it's value. To begin we understand that there'll be some misunderstanding as to what we are doing. Certainly we can empathise. The original concept of Trainz was radical and dynamic; it emerged into something that we felt at the time would meet the market. It has been a voyage of discovery for all of us.

It started in the bedrooms and sitting rooms of spare-time programmers. It spread in the early 90's with the mainstream propogation of the information superhighway. The issue was always going to arise...

Everyone took the idea of pc flight simulators for granted. Most people had seen a simulated car on a computer by this time. Graphics technology was moving forward, and an obvious gap appeared in the availably simulated forms of transit. Road and Air simulations were commonplace and a certain group of people knew that Railroads would make great simulation material also. The personal computer was making itself a fixture in the modern home, and it was a great place to harmlessly realise Railroad dreams.

Even more seductively, rail enthusiasts had an outlet to share dreams and memories with like minded others. Imaginations were ignited, and a new movement emerged.

The genre was lucky to have some influencial players at the end of the 90's certainly including Auran. The new millenium saw a commercial rebirth of the movement, and finally the years of coaxing from the underground community was to result in some considerable progress.

Today, after so many years in the genre and arguably leading the way with the power of our platform we are comfortable enough to take stock of what we have, and look at how we can refine and redefine. Trainz remains a viable commercial product for us, and we are still following the dream of providing the most flexible and dependable platform available.

Trainz Classics allows the user to create their own customised versions of the built in assets or other installed content to taste. Locals of the Yorkshire Dales for example can add their own street with the intuitive and facelifted Surveyor module; that's if their street isn't already there of course.

Of course we want to please our existing users, we have listened to and acted upon suggestions for many years now and we know what our followers want out of the product.

Trainz Classics is the modular and on-going redevelopement and redefinement of our platform in the fashion that we consider necessary in order for us to remain a key player. Importantly for me as a fan; such that the genre continue to benefit from Auran's enterprise and it's foothold in the market.

For the newcomers...

First of all, this is where a newcomer can comfortably start, no matter which episode in which they happen to start their Trainz Classics experience. We realise that not everyone started at V1.0 and followed us on this journey.

Supplied with every Trainz Classics edition is everything the newcomer needs to build their own worlds and sessions, use and edit the existing worlds and sessions and generally discover the Trainz experience in an unimposing environment. Once comfortable with the platform they can import additional content using the advanced utilities if they so desire, or they can wait for the next Trainz Classics episode and rely on the benefit and hindsight of Auran's content management experience.

For the Faithful Followers...

Faithful followers can take advantage of the powerful and revised CMP. One thing that we have learned in our experience is that once the community becomes comfortable with a utility or feature, it's unpopular to radically change it if not absolutely necessary.

The revised entry-level feature set allows users to populate their Surveyor menus at their own pace and to their own taste without being overwhelmed by the installed content. The power and focus of Trainz Classics is on it's role as a platform. Items which aren't of use to one can be removed from the menu using Content Manager Plus (CMP).

The Platform...

The Trainz Classics platform demonstrates what Trainz is capable of and not least of all in ways we haven't previously explored. Each edition introduces new features and new functionality for content creators to draw on.

Trainz Classics is designed to balance the requirements of the average customer, the advanced user, and importantly for us all, the publisher. We particularly aim to make it easier for newcomers to involve themselves, immerse in the content in their own ways and customise their Trainz experience.

Each can select whether or not to participate in the release of a particular edition. If one isn't interested in the hypothetical... "Tenopah & Tidewater Edition" they can wait for the next exciting episode and get all the functionality developed to date.

If an advanced user or content creator wishes to continue their enjoyment of Trainz in previously unexplored ways, they too can benefit from the new features we introduce and the variety of new assets we provide.

What are some of the new features in the third edition?

We've refreshed the built in content set and reduced it to a level that is more manageable in terms of quality control while allowing for a broad range of possibilities.

Not only have we revised the basic built-in set, we've made it all easier to find in the Surveyor menus. The entire user interface has been re-thought for better clarity, and usability overall has been carefully considered.

We've also included a host of other special firsts for Auran...

The list goes on; see the www.trainzclassics.co.uk website for more details. We've done our best to demonstrate that the Trainz Classics platform delivers on features that provide the fulfilment you expect from Trainz whether you're a newcomer or a long-time associate.

Above all, we hope you get as much pleasure from it as we do.

Back to Contents

 

Minimum System Requirements

Pentium IV 2.0Ghz (or equivalent)
1 GB RAM
64 MB 3D Graphics Card (NVIDIA GeForce or equivalent)
DirectX 9.0 or higher
Approximately 2GB of HDD Space

Usable settings:

800x600 display resolution
32 bit color depth
No shadows, low draw distance, low draw detail, low train detail.

Recommended System

Pentium IV 3.0Ghz (or equivalent)
2 GB RAM
256 MB 3D Graphics Card (NVIDIA GeForce or equivalent)
DirectX 9.0 or higher
Approximately 2GB of HDD Space

Known Issues

Content Manager Plus:

Content Manager Plus (CMP) occasionally has difficulty importing content across network shares (particularly unmapped network shares) and from CD/DVD ROM devices. It is recommended that you copy all content to your local drive before importing.

In the Windows 98 environment, CMP does not support thumbnail images or the updating of status icons. You can however determine the status of an asset by hovering your mouse cursor over the appropriate icons.

RailDriver:

Driver updates for Raildriver consoles are being prepared, and will be available when complete from www.trainzclassics.com.

Driver AI:

The AI will behave in a consistent manner, taking into account signals, speed limits and also the whereabouts of other trains on the track. If you are having trouble getting your Drivers to do exactly as you would like, chances are that the track is signalled incorrectly.

The most likely problems are that you have sections of track without signals or the track is signalled in only one direction. Please see the signalling guide in the Launcher... Extras for information about appropriate signal placement.

If you get a message saying "Unable to plot route" you may have AI Direction markers set against the train. These markers will stop a train entering a piece of track from the wrong direction. This may cause a train to appear stuck when it is actually doing as it is told by the Direction Marker.

If a Driver requires dispatcher assistance, you can use the Stop Command and then manually drive the train to navigate around the problem (e.g. another train wanting the same piece of track). Use the Continue Schedule Command to resume his or her list of duties.

iPortal:

It is recommended that iPortal control is set to "auto", as this will allow the train to avoid red signals or mis-aligned junctions. When the control mode is set to manual, the train will roll until it stops regardless of these conditions.

To accommodate emerging consists, it is recommended that there is good distance between the iPortal entrance and the nearest junction\signal.

Windows:

Running Trainz in windowed mode is not recommended and may affect performance, particularly in DirectX.

Using "Alt-Tab" whilst running Trainz is not recommended, and may have unexpected results. It is recommended that instant messenger programs and other applications likely to minimise the game be disabled before starting Trainz.

Sound:

It is highly recommended that you update your sound drivers to their newest version.

Older Realtek Soundcard drivers may cause issues resulting in bluescreen crashes. These can be resolved by installing the latest Realtek drivers.

Content Creator Plus:

Content Creator Plus requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 to be installed. This software is included on your install disk. Please note that the .NET Framework requires that you have Internet Explorer 5.01+ installed. Version 2.0 of .NET framework will co-exist without disturbing later versions of the .NET framework.

Firewalls:

When using Content Manager Plus, your computer will attempt to connect to the Internet. It is not necessary to connect to the internet to use the content management options of CMP; and the Download Station database update can be disabled using Launcher... Options.

Connectivity is crucial in order to collect items from the Download Station. If you are using a firewall, you may experience issues connecting...

Behind a router (NAT Firewall) - Make sure your router is set to allow UDP port 5250 (iTrainz port) to your local IP address.

Windows Firewall - Select the appropriate connection under "Control Panel\Network Connections". Select "Firewall Settings" from the advanced tab, and "Exceptions". Add "\TC\bin\trainz.exe" to the list of exceptions.

Norton Internet Security 200x - Add "\TC\bin\trainz.exe" and "\TC\bin\ContentManager.exe" to your list of allowed applications.

PC-cillin Internet Security 200x - If you have your security set to "high", you need to allow UDP port 5250 (iTrainz port).

Advanced Options

Trainz Classics Launcher... Options... Advanced Options Tab...

Vertical Sync - Allows for smoother graphics (helps eliminate tearing). "Half-Rate" option is recommended for slower hardware.

Frequency - Specifies the "vertical refresh frequency". If this is set too high for your hardware, the game may not start. The default ("Auto") should run on most hardware, but may not give the best results.

Disable Hardware TL - Turns off some hardware acceleration options. Results in poorer performance, but may help reduce conflicts with faulty AGP or GPU drivers.

Vertex Offset - Applicable only to DirectX. If set incorrectly, some elements of Trainz (such as text) will appear blurred.

Interface

If you prefer to select a train during a Driver session without holding CTRL while right clicking you can enable this by adding the line "-allownoctrlrightclick" to your trainzoptions.txt file.

The trainz cache bar which displayed during a Driver session when scenery objects were loading was removed. If you wish to re-enable this feature, you can do so by adding the line "-showcachebar" to your trainzoptions.txt.

A list of valid trainzoptions commands is available in Launcher... Extras.

Vehicle Physics

Engine configuration files for each loco can be adjusted to taste using Content Manager Plus. View the Content Creation Guide for more information on adjusting locomotive performance.

When in DCC mode, trains operate in a semi-prototypical manner. It is also possible to change the config parameters to make your trains accelerate and/or decelerate at faster or slower rates. Please see the Content Creation Guide in the extras folder for details.

Undisclosed Objects

In order to maintain ease of use for newcomers and also our important younger audience, certain items while visible during built-in presentations are not available from the Surveyor menus or by using Surveyor's "get object" tool.

In most cases, these objects can be disclosed in the Surveyor menus by using CMP's "edit in explorer" feature. Wherever the tag "secret 1" is found in an item's config.txt file, it can be set to "secret 0" to reveal the item and make it available for use in your own maps.

For more information about Content Manager Plus, please see the Trainz Classics Manual. For more information about the various tags permitted for each kind of object, study the Trainz Content Creation Guide, available from the TC Launcher.

Download Station

In order to view assets located on the Download Station, you must have your Planet Auran details entered correctly in the CMP settings section. If you have entered your details via the "Options" section on the "Trainz Launcher", this will be done automatically. If you don't have a Planet Auran login, the "Join Planet Auran" button in the CMP will direct you.

Technical Support and Performance Tips

Session