Trainz

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Trainz
_{A screenshot of Trainz 2004 in Driver mode, showing third-party British rolling stock.}
Developed by	Auran
Latest release	Trainz Classics (Trainz 2.7) / September 2007
OS	Windows
Genre	Simulation
Website	http://www.auran.com/TRS2006/

Trainz, fully Trainz Railroad Simulator or (in Britain) Trainz Railway Simulator, is a 3D computer game and train simulator created by Australian games developer Auran. The game was rated moderately well by the gaming community. It received an average of 7.6 on Gamespot^[1], and an average of 6.8 on IGN.^[2]

1 Concept
- 1.1 Modules
2 Community Involvement
- 2.1 Download station
- 2.2 Content creation
3 Hardware
4 Version History
- 4.1 Regional versions
5 Future of the series
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Concept

The game is divided into four modules: Driver, Surveyor, Scenarios, and Railyard.

[edit] Modules

Surveyor is the route editor. Here, the user can shape and 'paint' the landscape, lay tracks, and place buildings, scenery and trains. Users can create their own routes as well.
Driver takes the scene created in Surveyor and allows the user to operate the trains. There are two methods of manual control: DCC mode which simulates the simple stop-and-go of a model railway, or Cabin mode, which simulates real-world physics (especially in TRS2006). Alternatively, the trains can be given instructions and driven by the computer, or known as "scheduling".
Scenarios ( available in UTC and newer versions) are pre-scripted activities which let you go through a specific set of challenges, such as getting your passengers to their destinations on schedule, or switching rail cars in a rail yard without damaging the cargo. In TRS2006 and Trainz Driver Edition scenario-like activities called sessions can be run in the Driver module.
Railyard (known as My Collection in UTC and earlier versions of the game) is a virtual trainshed where the user can view locomotives and rolling stock, toot horns, toggle pantographs and lights, and sometimes view their description.

An additional 'module' is the external program Paintshed, which is a simple program for recolouring Trainz locomotives and other rolling stock. Paintshed has been included with Trainz since version 1.5.

Trainz has a large content creation community who use modelling software such as Gmax to create additional scenery and rolling stock models for use in the game. The more recent versions of Trainz include a lot of third-party content; registered owners of the game can download third-party content and upload their own creations via the Trainz website.

Trainz controls and commands may be intimidating, but are worth learning in order to fully enjoy the game.

[edit] Community Involvement

Auran have, on a number of occasions, involved community members in the development of Trainz, via their online forums. Some of the community initiatives have included:

The Language Beta Translation Group was set up in 2003 to translate Trainz 2004 into the many versions it was going to be released as. The lengthy translation were never used.
The Content Creation Group (part of the beta testing group) was created for Trainz 2004 so that more regional content was to be included in the game. The group was a success with much of the new content in TRS 2004 and TRS 2006 having been created by the CCG.
Trainz on the Road was a program to demonstrate and sell Trainz at model railway and computer shows. The TotR concept is a success in the way that the community itself organised shows to promote the game. Auran rewarded demonstrators with premium access to its DLS facilities.
The First Class Ticket is an option of paying for a DLS service that operates at a faster speed (much faster downloads).It also removes the daily 100MB download limit.

[edit] Download station

The Trainz Asset Creation Studio, an addon for Gmax used to export content into Trainz format.

Auran's Download Station, or DLS, offers a huge number of additional items for the various versions of Trainz created by users. This facility is free of charge to purchasers of the program (unless an FCT is activated, see above). It is where community members can upload their creations and where members can download them for their game.

[edit] Content creation

Content creation is supported since the first version and using third party modelling programs such as Gmax and 3D Studio Max, community members are able to model their own item and import it into Trainz.

A large number of third-party web sites have been created which offer additional items for Trainz created by groups of enthusiasts, together with a wealth of technical information and assistance. Many of these web sites have discussion fora. Some sites offer their creations free of charge, some suggest that a voluntary donation is made while others sell items commercially.

[edit] Hardware

A desktop cab controller called RailDriver is available, which is compatible with Trainz.

[edit] Version History

Trainz version 1.0 (Community Edition) was released in December 2001.

Trainz 1.0 had four service packs released during 2002, the last of which was for non-English versions only. Thus the original version is commonly known as Trainz 1.3.

Ultimate Trainz Collection (UTC or Trainz 1.5) was released in November 2002.
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 (or Railway in the UK, TRS 2004 or Trainz 2.0) was released in September 2003.

TRS 2004 had four service packs released throughout 2004 and 2005.

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 (TRS 2006, Trainz 2.5) is the main version available and was released in September 2005. In Germany, it was published by Bluesky-Interactive, and called ProTrain Perfect, instead of TRS2006.
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2007 (TRS 2007) is available in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada and is distributed by Anuman Interactive. There are two versions, Standard which consists of Trainz 2006 with SP1 (Service Pack 1) applied and Gold which also includes some French regional add-on items. However there is now a version of Trainz 2007 published by Halycon Media GmbH&Co.KG available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with additional German regional content instead of French content as with the "other" Trainz 2007.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Trainz Classics (first installment of the series was released on July 9, 2007) is a series of releases based on Trainz 2006 but with some improvements to the coding and instead of having a lot of built in content like Trainz 2006, each release instead has only one or two routes with some rolling stock and locomotives made for that route.^[6] The series attempts to focus on a particular region and point in time of the region's railway infrastructure history, for example the next release will be focused on the line of Settle-Carlisle in Great Britain in the 1960's.^[7]

[edit] Regional versions

Trainz Railway Simulator is a re-release of Trainz UTC for the British market. It was however promoted as being a new game.
Trainz Driver (called Trainz Driver Edition in the USA) is a cut-down version of TRS2006 with the Surveyor layout creation module omitted.^[8]^[9] A review is available on V-Scaler. The UK release date is 24-Feb-06.

[edit] Future of the series

Trainz Classics will be a series of releases based on Trainz 2006, that will include a variety of additional layouts and most of their dependencies. However it will also lack most of the 3rd party content that is in Trainz 2006.^[6]