One of the most unique things about the package, and one that will reach deep into the hearts of train enthusiasts everywhere, is the route editor package included with the game, which contains many of the original tools used to create the sim.
This will allow you to create your own rail routes and locomotives, plus terraform and decorate the landscape to suit your whims. There's no doubt that this feature makes the possible scope for TYain Sim huge. Expect to see new routes, locomotives, landscapes and buildings, spreading like Internet wildfire after the game's release this spring.
These people are dedicated. Boring or not, TYain Simulator is breaking new ground for sim games, and if it attracts the same kind of audience as Flight Sim, its success is assured. But let's hope it stops there; a couple of years from now I don't want to be previewing Caravan Sim -all the thrills and spills of open-road caravanning from the comfort of your bedroom Technically, there's no faulting it. Who would have thought it? A train simulation that is actually fun. When you think about it, though, it's not really all that strange.
Just take a look at the success of Microsoft Flight Simulator , in which you get to pilot a plane from one airport to the next In real time , during which your most dangerous obstacle is the occasional stray pigeon, and you'll understand what I'm getting at.
Microsoft Train Simulator's strongest feature is its realism. To a certain extent we all try to live out some of our dreams through games. Our very own Chris Anderson, gets to fulfil his boyhood fantasy of being an all-powerful bearded necromancer with a pointy hat and a ridiculous beard every time he plays EverQuest, while Rhianna regularly indulges her sadistic desires by torturing pixies in Dungeon Keeper 2.
Then there's Steve Hill's well-documented obsession with Championship Manager. The same thing can apply to Microsoft Train Simulator, well sort of anyway. Its relaxing pace and attention to detail allows you to sit back and simply enjoy driving trains without the risk of getting beaten up by Irate commuters. Trains are a part of the magic buried in our collective dreams. From the opening of the American west to steadfast reliability of British Rail or the speed of modern bullet trains, for nearly years railroads have captured the hearts and minds of thousands.
When I was growing up, the local Lions Club park had an old decommissioned steam engine in the playground -- all the kids in the neighborhood would spend hours playing there, recreating in our imaginations everything from hijacking in the old west to journeys across the Alps.
That old engine in the playground is now gone, but with Microsoft Train Simulator you can bring the power and excitement of some of the world's most famous trains to your PC, placing yourself in the role of engineer. Every control, down to the smallest switch and instrument dial, is present and rendered in exceptional detail.
Each route is detailed down to yard branchings, sidings, signals, and buildings around the tracks. Every detail on the engines is perfect -- down to the spinning of the wheels against the track as you try to start a massive train moving and steam escaping from the cylinders of the steam trains.
Add to the engines the mix of passenger and freight car groupings that can be attached and you can recreate just about any rail adventure you want to set your hand to. Like its Flight Simulator cousins, Train Simulator includes not only a free-form explore mode, but offers a set of challenges for you to master. These range from keeping a passenger train on schedule to coping with various failures in your engine as you try to maneuver your cargo safely down the side of the Alps.
Then if you run out of excitement with the included adventures and challenges, a complete set of terrain, track and adventure editors are included. While all the control detail is there, Train Sim also includes several features that will make getting started easier for the beginning engineer.
Most useful is the automatic fireman on the steam trains that will take over the tedium of stoking and trimming the boiler. I tried several runs operating the boiler myself in addition to controlling the engine -- I ended up either bursting the tank or letting the fire go out and finding myself sliding backward down the Alps.
With full control detail on, you will find yourself constantly adjusting gearing, engine power, steam pressure, etc. The graphics in Train Sim are very impressive, but also extremely demanding when it comes to processing power. On my Pentium III running a GeForce 2 card I was able to turn on all the detail options and enjoy all the eye candy the game has to offer, but only at the cost of a noticeably slowed frame rate.
Available on PC. Capabilities Single player Xbox achievements. Show More. Additional information Published by Dovetail Games. Published by Dovetail Games. All rights reserved. All other copyrights or trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Unauthorised copying, adaptation, rental, re-sale, arcade use, charging for use, broadcast, cable transmission, public performance, distribution or extraction of the product or any trademark or copyright work that forms part of this product is prohibited.
Developed and published by DTG. Developed by Dovetail Games. Approximate size Age rating For all ages. Category Simulation. This app can Access your Internet connection and act as a server. Access your home or work networks. The simulator itself will require several years of effort from the code development to the building of rail lines within the simulator. They have done a considerable amount of work in a distributed open source project and have written a lot of code that can be shared into our project.
One thing that needs to be evaluated is the terrain engine. Will it work for what we want to do? I like ambitious goals, and this certainly fits into that category. I'm not a programmer, so I'll probably be one of those who sit on the outside and say "it needs this" and "why didn't you include that? Join Date Nov Posts 1, The editors can be written in visual basic. Always looking for additional help. Not aware that the required runtime systems exist on anything but Wxx platforms.
Also not overly certain I can commit enough hours that this effort will undoubtedly take. Page 1 of 2 1 2 Last Jump to page:. Com Archive. All times are GMT The time now is PM. All rights reserved. Com Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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