Trainz

Trainz
Box art for Trainz Simulator 12.
Genre(s)	Train simulation
Developer(s)	N3V Games (formerly Auran)
Publisher(s)	Various
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, iPad, Android
First release	Trainz 2001
Latest release	Trainz Simulator Mac 2011

Trainz is a series of 3D train simulator computer games developed by Australian game developer N3V Games (formerly Auran). First released in 2001, the series has a large online community that creates and shares user-created content. The game has been released in several versions, including localized versions. Trainz Simulator 12 is the latest Windows installment in the franchise, which was released in April 2011.

Overview

A screenshot of the dated, almost dowdy graphics of TRS2004 or Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 in Driver mode, showing third-party British rolling stock in a rail yard scene with a model railroad look. New releases have better graphics, but older assets extending the game play, can be upgraded to higher standards, and have their own version control tracking. The data base manager CM or Content Manager tracks those and signals a new upgrade is available for freeware downloading.

The Trainz simulator is a family of iteratively improved backwards compatible software modules fronted by a launcher front end TRS20xx.exe, which eponymously doubles as the release or version name—e.g. TRS2009. A major release comes out just about every other year, and none of them are designed for today's cutting edge latest greatest video cards and hot computer chip sets; each are conservatively designed to run without issues on average computers of a few years before the given version. Hence a 2003 computer comfortably ran TRS2006, and with an updated video card, manages TRS2009 well enough. Only the latest TRS2012 release breaks that model and philosophy, as it is designed to unleash the power of the newer generation of 64 bit CPU chip sets.

The simulators are extensible, flexible and supported by a vast library of over 100,000 freeware assets which can be downloaded from the N3V corporate servers asset library and download linker, referred to as Download Station (DLS). Trainz growth (over a million registered users) and the DLS are user supported by an active user community on the host web boards and on various 3rd party Trainz focused web sites. Many of the regulars on these boards are content creators, creating new assets that when shared on the DLS, are freeware to other registered users, whom all have the rights to so many downloads per day. Unlimited downloading at a higher data rate is purchasable.

The simulator GUI runtime modules are: Surveyor, Driver, and Railyard, and in some versions, Scenarios. Outside the GUI world there is a Database manager, error checker, uploader, download manager and content importer/exporter running as a windows program called Content Manager (CM). This facility sits at the heart of all of these GUIs and glues them together, and allows the user to manage content and extend the base version capabilities by adding extensions called 'assets'. Each asset uses proprietary JET graphics technology and a C++/Java-like script language to create a 3D model in the virtual worlds. CM is a normal Windows application and looks much like a spread sheet with a sidebar, tabs, status information, and a variety of special features. Some versions of the family included or were serviced usefully by a tool utility called Paintshed, which allows users to change the livery (color schemes) of rolling stock assets.

Surveyor

• Surveyor is the GUI route editor and session editor. Here, the user can shape and "paint" the shaped wire-frame landscape with ground textures, lay tracks, and place buildings, automobile roads and highways populated by 'Trainz Carz' obeying crossing gates, the waterways, interactive industries, rolling stock (both interactive and scenic) and other scenery 'assets' such as a plethora of animal and plant varieties to create a virtual world. Each asset has among other classifiers, an era or period, region, country, and a unique identifier which also contains a version tracking system, and origination identifier. Users further can create Driver sessions (introduced in the best selling Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004) for running trains in the Driver module, both for their own routes, and for routes that were included with the game or downloaded. Many of these have other rail traffic under the control of a AI Driver, a robotic script driven asset which interacts and creates realism in the running simulation—operating the other trains in the virtual world.

Driver

• The Driver module, which can be launched independently or from within Surveyor, takes the route created in Surveyor and allows the user to operate the trains, either in free play, or according to a scenario eponymously called a Driver Session which can range in difficulty from beginner to expert. A session also defines the production activity of businesses, the rolling stock and Locomotives on the map and AI Drivers one might encounter, and the degree of messaging and interaction the user will experience sitting for one 'session of driving'.

User interfaces

Camera views

In the Driver mode, there are four camera modes selectable by the {Hot Keys: [1],[2],[3],[4]} (read as: 'the set of...') and onscreen heads up display (HUD) Buttons one can mouse click giving the same results:

• [1] - puts the user inside the Cabin (not to be confused with CAB mode below), let's him move around using the mouse and the '[' and ']' rotate between a number of reference points giving the in cabin operator the sub-viewing option of leaning out a window to see ahead or behind, access different views of the cabin, stepping around the console and interior, in particular, letting the driver look ahead from next to the windshield etc. Mouse controls also function to control the locomotive in the cabin view mode, so the user can operate controls with click and drag—a particularly useful feature driving a complicated steam locomotive.
• [2] - selects an external camera attached to the moving train consist. [+] and [-] allow it the reference to attach ahead of the current car, or to the next car back, so holding the keys slides the view point up and down the length of the train. This allows you to make sure the back of the train is clear of a junction, for example. Mouse dragging allows you to rotate where you are looking, look up and down and so forth, based on the attachment point of the moving reference point.
• [3] - Selects a 'Tracking Camera' mode which allows you to watch the train from an external reference point. These are defined when world building using the Surveyor GUI. Tracking cameras do not allow rotation of view or tilting of view, but are affixed to the same particular car the [2] mode camera is referenced to, and when a tracking camera is not present (placed) along a stretch of track (i.e. most of the time), the [3] key/mode defaults to the external camera view ([2]). Hence, [+] and [-] can scan somewhat along the train when the layout has a tracking camera in that part of the layout. A second 'Fixed Tracking Camera' type is usually placed to show trains passing a particularly scenic view of the virtual railroad, and so don't rotate with the train as it passes the panoramic 'scenic view'. The viewpoint stays fixed, the train passes bye and through the scene.
• [4] - Free camera mode: this Driver operation is exactly the mode the game uses in Surveyor, allowing the user to slide around 'flying above' or 'walking about' the layouts landscape. In the Driver module, this is particularly useful for sliding down above the track gaining a birds eye view of what is ahead. The operator can rotate up and look straight down, or rotate down and see an up-angled-perspective as if standing in a ditch or in the waters of a lake shore from below the tracks. Zooming in, the ground level view mimics walking about the route, rotate up, floating or flying just above looking down. Each of those 'looks' allows 360 degree rotation about the view reference axis. It's far more complicated to explain than to do. The combination of controls and view point shifting is a very natural, almost instinctive thing after a few moments of acclamation and trial and error.
• A 'Mouse Wheel's rotation'   controls zooming in and out of {modes: [1],[2], and [3]}, having no effect in actual Tracking cameras. Inside the cabin one can 'step back' or lean in and read a gauge, meter, or magnify the view ahead so one can telescopically better see the state (color) of that signal light and junction switch up ahead.

Cursor keys and mouse behavior have optional configuration click selectable settings from the module's drop down menu by selecting options. There are two click boxes which affect the ways the four cursor arrows keys and mouse click-and-sliding interplay, interact and manifest. This feature is not present as a drop down in Trainz Driver, which does not have any of the 'in-play' changeable features controls. This adjustment enables the user to have most comfortable mode for himself, letting either the camera pan (rotate and slide) or just slide—controlling the map location with the mouse and rotate the view with right and left arrow keys. Either method works to get around, and viewpoint tilting is controlled using the up and down arrow keys, or with a shift key, the mouse wheel.

Main vehicle control modes

There are two default methods of manual control: DCC mode, which simulates the simple stop-and-go of a model railway but with more realistic physics, and Cabin mode (CAB), which simulates real-world physics and working cab controls very closely. The difference is drastic and enlightening, engendering respect for real railways engineers. Support for multiple monitor operation (2 or 3 'heads') allows a wider field of view, including utilization of a Flight Simulator style wrap around cockpit mode, if the users computer is up to the extra processing such needs. A operator's console user interface is also supported since TRS2004.

All the general driving is however based on the same rich set of user hot keys installed in the venerable Trainz 2000 (Trainz.exe V-1.0 to V-1.3, or Trainz 1.x) and it's three Service Packs. The most used of these in Driver, the locomotive controls, in turn are modeled on some of the earliest computer games ever invented when keyboards didn't usually have cursor keys[1], nor number pads[2]. In Driver, they predominantly utilize the 'left natural cross' on the left side a QWERTY keyboard formed by the two crossing axes W-S-X and A-S-D, plus the other nearby keys Q, E, R (top row) D, F, G, H, J and [CTRL]-[J] (middle row) and Z, C, V, B, M which allows the right hand to remain free to control the mouse, which is also used to select various console buttons (Map,Lights,Help, etc.) and predominates for the Dial Operation mimicking the typical Model Railroad control with it's center off knob or Dial. Mouse dragging and sliding is how the viewer shifts where he is looking, the buttons and operational state staying on screen as a Heads Up Display. Both right and left mouse buttons get a workout,

The farther the key is located from the left cross, the less it's actually used for significant locomotive driving. B and H respectively ring the trains Bell and Horn (or steam whistle); M toggles the Map, replicating the mouse button so a user can navigate the road and junctions ahead. The Map on unfamiliar and familiar layout is invaluable, and Hot Keys toggle or a mouse controlled drop-down click box allow various data to be displayed. [Alt]-[G] shows gradients-how steep a track is, [Alt]-[B] suppresses or turns on map background colors, similarly, alt-L toggles labels, alt-M toggles trackmarks, alt-T triggers, J and ctrl-J work in any viewing mode

Cabin Mode

In CAB mode the train physics predominate, wheels slip on the steel rails, the weight of the consist slows acceleration and deceleration as it retains momentum and inertial forces resist changes, hills become a struggle to climb or a nightmare to descend safely, every control has a delayed effect as air brakes and Diesel-electric drives and steam locomotives take time to respond to controls, and active surfaces like brake calipers have delays and take time to actuate brake shoes. And then the wheels may slip on wet rails. Weather changes have large effects.

DCC mode

In contrast, DCC is a compromise between the negligible physics of the model train set, and the inclusion of some of the inertial effects and momentum Sir Isaac Newton characterized so many centuries ago. Stopping and starting, slowing and braking under DCC are far easier and more responsive.

In CAB mode, the Driver has to anticipate more, and react smarter sooner. In short, he has to plan ahead, anticipate, and outsmart the terrain, and the demands of his tasking. Approach too fast, and you break a coupler, over run your spot, and the end of the track begs to cause a derailment. These factors also apply to DCC operations, and the severity of the 'incident' (excepting derailments) is definable in the Session editor. Hence, the DCC controlled train while more responsive, still needs pre-planning, focus and concentration to operate safely and carry out it's assigned tasks. The Trainz DCC model gives drivers a break, but there are still momentum and force effects affecting operations.

Add on options

Trainz also supports the pricey Rail Driver simulator consoles (Like flight simulators support a yoke and foot pedal control add-on), and a two or three-head (wrap around) multiple monitor display capability, so long as it's off a single video card.

Most users without rail drivers, resort to the extensive hot key controls with certain mouse operations for finer resolution controlling, particularly in steam locomotives. Key strokes work fine for Diesels and Electric locomotive controls, as only braking modes might be faster with mouse tool tip dragging.

The DCC 'dial' and various valves are generally mouse click and drag operated, with buttons for a number of things common to most locomotive types (Lights, horns, etc) or to the simulator operations (waybills support free play, toggles for Map, Messages, Help, and so forth). The Hot keys can be redefined in an edit of a configuration file using notepad.exe or other text editor.

Internet resources

See the Trainz Wikibook for detailed operations, control modes, and assistance in all manner of Trainz learning curves. This simulator is not a game in the normal sense of the word, but is relatively simple to master one step at at time. The tutorials bundled with each release, the excellent illustrated .pdf file manuals, and the Trainz Wikibook tutorials with the occasional consultation at the web boards will keep new users on track. The active and dedicated user community is a supportive helpful bunch, and more than a few have gone off to try a competing product and returned to the extensibility of Trainz and it's gobs of unshackled, inexpensive freeware.

AI Drivers

Concurrent with a human driver, the trains can be given instructions and driven by the computer (excepting the original Trainz Railroad Simulator), or one can aid the human driver when a session assigns an AI helper, who can program this aide 'on-the-fly' in the middle of the simulation. It's a handy thing when you've a need for a bathroom break. This AI Programming is known as "scheduling", and the AI Command Que in the Trainzer world, is referred to as a schedule; which only sometimes has something to do with a driver command known as Drive to Schedule—which establishes an actual list of places with the time table specifying both stop and start conditions. Defining the schedule in an applet (see below) or configuration file (advance topic, see Trainz Wikibook) and a driver schedule command in his/her 'schedule' must both occur.

Sessions Programming

In Trainz 1.x (And the first CD of the Ultimate Trainz Collection which re-released Trainz 1.3 with all three Service Packs pre-installed plus TRS2004 and additional routes, so the the user acquired the earliest versions of the game as a collector) where trains ("consists") are assembled by the user preliminary to taking a Drive and so must be placed 'oh-so-correctly' before actual Driving begins when launching that version of Driver —each of which had to be placed on the route at specific (sometimes hard to find) locations on the track marked in Surveyor, then called trackmarks. All the trains had to be operated by the single human operator. Fortunately, that unhappy interim and clumsy starting mode has been long superseded by simulator improvements. Because of such clumsy limitations, Trainz 1.x was less than a resounding success, and was limited to small regional layouts emulating more the basement model railroad with all it's compromises than the hundreds of miles of tracks Trainz of TRS2006 and after could run.

Since TRS2004, setting up a Driver session's script program in session editor, one adds icon tagged command pages corresponding to the actual script applets providing the underlying program-ability much as Java script handles variables such as user preferred language, browser, graphics capabilities, and other factors to render and display varying content. The single 'Driver Command' applet contains all the AI Driver 'schedules', no matter how long and detailed. Others display HTML windows and message popups, more test track conditions, train consist members lists, triggers test locations, others set a list of junctions, can lock switches, couplers and control the world. Some are conditional, others once triggered, perform a sequence.

The variety is rich and varied, and new ones are coded at need to satisfy a scenario, and if useful find their way into general distribution via sharing on the DLS and a little discussion on the web board forums. The Auran Jet graphics script language is itself extensible, but hidden in operation by an applet front end, being invoked by adding from a menu of such selections, each having a particular function and icon—the session creator or modifier then adds them, organizes them into indented blocks, and adjusts them step-by-step via drop down setup screens setting up the proper variable parameters (specific events, specific trains or drivers, time delays), along with the weather conditions and it's changeability, time-of-day, train control method, etc.). Consider two crossing tracks, and their signaling, how would you keep a train on one track from running right through the other on the other track? A set of commands exists to control such things.

Starting with Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004, all of this is instead set up in Driver sessions while in surveyor. Each are created and edited for their specific layout (routes) in Surveyor where control points and waypoints are visible with the mini-map while they are composed, their logic and flow and conditions testing are hooked together appropriately, and so the process of Launching Driver was simplified to allow the user to pick a session for running by clicking on the menu. Sessions frequently contain HTML schedules for instructions of human-driven trains. Such pages must be created outside of the game, but like sounds and videos, can also be set up for inclusion by the user in Surveyor's Session Editor mode.

Railyard

• Railyard (known as My Collection in the Ultimate Trainz Collection the bundled re-release of the earliest version of the game) is a virtual engine shed where the user can view locomotives and rolling stock, use some functions of the locomotives, and view the trains' descriptions. This is primary used as a viewing gallery or to take screen shots of the three dimensional models displayed so you can zoom in to inspect them, walk around or fly above and look down on them using the mouse and cursor keys. A favorites button then marks the asset should you approve, and tags it that way in the database for sorting by a favorites filter, there or in surveyor.

Scenarios

• Scenarios are pre-scripted activities in which the user plays through a specific set of challenges, such as transporting passengers to their destinations on schedule, or switching rail cars in a rail yard without damaging the cargo. While extended and included with TRS2004, the session was supplanted by the creation of sessions programming, which can duplicate the Scenario modules in their entirety, without the necessity of resorting to specially written scripts. The Applets do everything these did.

PaintShed

• PaintShed is a simple program for recolouring Trainz locomotives and other rolling stock. PaintShed was included with Ultimate Trainz Collection, Trainz 2004 Deluxe and Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006, and was available as a separate program for adding onto Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 and Trainz 1.x.

Content Manager

• Content Manager or CM (originally Content Manager Plus) is a Windows program that allows management of the in-game data base files, including full descriptions, a photo, the last date modified, and its current state, updates available, and its associations with parent or dependent assets. They perform update checking versus local content when communicating with the DLS. It also makes downloads easier by automatically expanding the Auran .cdp compress objects and placing objects in their proper files, already opened for editing, and flags any discontinued tags or incompatibilities in the new assets. Something with a warning will likely work fine up to it's inclusion in TRS2012, which has much more stringent error checking, flagging many previous warnings as errors, which must be cured. One of the most common of these is an asset which did not have a thumbnail image listed in it's configuration file. CM/CMP also made it easier for content creators, by making uploads easier to the DLS. Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 and Trainz Classics (TRS2004, '06, and extra routes) included Content Manager Plus, the first version, Trainz Simulator 2009 included Content Manager 2.0, and Trainz Simulator 2010 included Content Manager 3.2, which has proven to be a more stable version than previous versions.

Version History

File:TRS2009-SP1 Launcher screen.jpg

TRS2009 with SP1 pre-installed (build code 38411) and showing no code build numbers. Six different build codes corresponding to different languages groups were retailed bundling a pre-installed SP1; all six with SP2 installed upgrade to build 40040 (Build 38411 -> 40040).

Trainz versions are actually a mix of major and minor stand alone releases each with a corresponding pair of code build numbers and the (asset level) Trainz-build tag (code number), the minor stable versions being implemented by the issuance of free Service packs much like most any large complicated software package of disparate modules (e.g. most commercial software such as Microsoft Office or various data base applications. Trainz software has two general menus provided by .exe files generally known as Loader and Launcher:

• Trainz Loader programs are the .exe file programs called by Windows shortcuts and generally match the installed local root directory (e.g. ...\TRS2004 folder will contain TRS2004.exe, the loader for Trainz 2004 (any Service Pack level). Some like TS2009 break the pattern and are just named: Trainz.exe, matching the names of Trainz 1.x versions.
  • Since Trainz 2009, the loader menu also shows the code build number as described below.
  • The Trainz Launcher program is reached through the menu provided by the loader, but so are the ContentManager.exe, the Railyard GUI, the Global Options module as well as user manuals and navigation to Auran/N3V websites.
• The Launcher program is a GUI menu, but has one important other feature, it shows the code build number in the lower right hand corner. (See image at right)

Trainz

For some of the history of Trainz, see N3V/Auran

• Trainz was released from the outset providing the 3D modeling software Gmax to it's infant user community of Railroading enthusiasts—most of whom were already networked via various Model Railroad clubs. This group was responsible for developing many of the 3D content, 3D assets, and many early layouts (route maps) bundled later into the commercial releases, that became the basis of the Trainz Download Station. The Download Station, manuals on how to create assets with Gmax, and the eager volunteers of the Trainz user community, produced a synergy and the most valued feature in Trainz software: a relatively huge number of freeware assets are there for the taking by any registered Trainz users. That the underlying software has a script language similar to C++ or Java makes the program extensible by users, which eventually produced abilities totally unforeseen by the Auran management and software writers. The newer N3V management has remained true to the close interaction between feature development and the user communications, and in fact were part of the user community involved from the outset with the original Beta release in the fall of 2000.

Trainz Beta 0.9

Trainz: Beta version 0.9, sometimes called Trainz 2000 was released in November 2000 for testing purposes. The cover art contained a quote from Antoine de Saint Exupery.

Trainz Community Edition

Trainz Community Edition was released in December 2001.

service packs 1, 2 and 3  were each released in 2002, these progressively updated the 'Community Edition, Trainz 1.0'  to versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 successively. Thus the USA version is commonly known as Trainz 1.0. Hence an installation with Service pack 3 is Trainz 1.0 updated to version 1.3; two base code builds (retail versions releases) existed; 263 and 277, the last of which was for non-English versions only.

Trainz Retail Edition

Trainz Retail Edition was released in June 2002.

service packs 1, 2 and 3 were released from 2002, this updated the Retail Edition to version 1.3. Thus the USA version is commonly known as Trainz 1.1.1.

Ultimate Trainz Collection

The Ultimate Trainz Collection, or UTC, was released on 26 November 2002 in North American as a 3 CD set including extra rolling stock, scenarios, and route map content. This was the first edition to include the PaintShed program and support RailDriver.

Paintshed is a utility that allowed "re-skinning" of rolling stock content, allowing users to share the same underlying rolling stock asset graphical base files with several railroad heraldry schemes, also called liveries. This was slightly more costly graphically in run time loading, but overall more efficient for creating several differently liveried rolling stock assets from different prototype rail companies. The newly created rolling stock overlay could then be placed in a Driver session, with only the slight memory cost of the overlaid texture or skins, along with the other road companies in the session, and the base asset. This off course aided session development with yards filled with intermixed company liveries or power pooling consists where one company hauls rolling stock for another, adding to game realism. This overlay or re-skinning technique is also used in other Trainz world assets, allowing for example, the same basic store building (a strip mall) to have many different looks as scenery.

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 (also known as Trainz Railway Simulator 2004 in the United Kingdom), or TRS2004, was released in September 2003. Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 had four service packs released through 2004 and 2005. Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 was the first version of Trainz to include interactive industries and loadable rolling stock capabilities, which allowed the player to deliver various resources (such as coal, wood, and steel) and passengers to various industries and stations across the playable area. There were many industries included and much of the bundled rollingstock was updated to include this new capability.It also was the first Rail Simulator to include Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends content which was later available in Trainz 2006 and up.

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 Deluxe was a later 4 CDROM follow on with the first two embedded service packs pre-installed, PaintShed, and a bonus content CD. It is still available online in limited quantities, and in sales quantity, may be the most successful full simulator release in the franchises history.

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 (also known as Trainz Railway Simulator 2006 in the United Kingdom), or TRS2006, was released in September 2005. In Germany, it was published by Bluesky-Interactive as ProTrain Perfect. In visual appearances TRS2006 seems to be just an extension of TRS2004, such that key screens layout, iconography, drop downs, hotkeys and mouse button controls are visually identical in both the Driver and Surveyor Modules but both run graphically smoother with much less jitter and flicker, or noticeable context switching switch-over delays (viewing mode changes are noticeably faster in TRS2006, nearly instantaneous as is view switching between trains, the later requiring a new-draw of the environment outside the new train). Except for quicker, better graphics, which also impacts world building inside the Surveyor run time environment, the two programs (statically) have identical look, see, and feel — dynamically their behaviors vary widely running the same session on the same route, TRS2006 being much improved.

The other important advance was inclusion of the Content Manager Plus a spreadsheet like database manager combined with a download manager which synchronizes via the internet with the Trainz Download Station facility, containing tens of thousands of free downloadable assets. The release also introduced the highly useful "Portal" industry, an off-map staging area where trains can be programmed to appear on the route at user-defined time intervals under control of (again improved) AI Drivers; or in which trains can enter loaded and depart empty; enter one portal and re-enter the layout from another; or just leave the layout and vanish. Those features and their use in combination is set up in Surveyor whilst designing a Driver 'Session' (Scenario using the layout and its assets). The release also incorporated the iPortal which enables consists to leave the generating virtual world and transit the internet to a receiving portal in another. Connected by Trainz Chat, this gives the game 'dispatcher control' modes of operation beloved of Model Railroad Clubs, where each dispatcher oversees overall permissions, signalling and traffic control taskings while operators drive trains within his region of the railway. TRS2006 also include PaintShed which was an add on to TRS2004, but bundled in TRS2004 deluxe.

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2007

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2007 (sometimes abbreviated to TRS2007) was first distributed by Anuman Interactive for sale in France, Belgium and Switzerland. There were initially two versions: the standard version which consisted of Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 with Service Pack 1 applied, and the Gold edition, which included French regional add-on items. Halycon Media later distributed Trainz Railroad Simulator 2007 with German region-specific content for the British, Austrian, and Swiss market. This is the only version of Trainz not released in the US market.

Trainz Driver

Trainz Driver (also known as Trainz Driver Edition in the USA) is a version of Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 lacking the Surveyor module, having only the Driver and Railyard modules, and considered a demo for TRS2006. The UK release date of Trainz Driver was 24 February 2006. The .exe launcher program is called TRS2006demo.exe in fact, and the package includes three large routes with 21 driver sessions, all set in North America. TRS2006 debuted about one-fourth of the German user-group's Marias Pass route bundled with TRS2006 as a 30 mile (E-W with both a long North and long South spur line) stand alone route or layout end terminated with TRS2006's new Portals, with three Driver sessions; the TRS2006 interactive industries are different as is much of the texturing compared to the full route. Trainz Driver does include the whole very popular 150 mile Marias Pass Payware layout by HP Trainz—inspired, according to founder Josef Pav by the short lived Microsoft Trains Simulator's treatment of this famous crossing of the continental divide with it's summit near Glacier National Park and the Amtrak station there is a terminus for driving the Big Boy steam locomotive over the pass in the session Marias Steam 1. Consequently Trainz Driver also has a wide variety of different rolling stock from those found on TRS2006, such as special builds of Amtrak engines and cars, special other kinds of rolling stock and all content on the very popular and scenic route was optimized for rapid graphics. Trainz Driver includes the complete 150 mile route, and there are additional freeware drivers sessions for this popular rail road.

Trainz Driver also includes seven sessions of the route Toronto Rail Lands 1954 which again demonstrates the ability of Trainz route developers to focus on a particular period and richly detailed region of railway history. The Toronto yard is complex and amazing with a purpose modeled engine house centered around a central turn table.

The third map of TD is another TRS2006 highly popular road called Northbay County, which is a seemingly long narrow gauge network serving timber and coal industries, and could be set in the northern USA or in Canada around the time of World War I to the 1940s. Rolling stock is realistically limited to that of a single company's assets, but includes both diesel and steam locomotives; further, it incorporates both 24 inch and 36 inch narrow gauge trackage and a cross-loading facility for transferring loads, as well as a port facility. It is the smallest map of the set, but well designed and clever so with the speed limitations and technological restrictions of steep slope railroading, it's sessions 'Drive' as if they were much longer roads.

Trainz Classics (TC1—TC3)

Trainz Classics, also abbreviated as TC (TC1, TC2, TC3), is a series of 3 standalone Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 joint venture customizations put together by Auran and different professional providers of third party content, such as Rail.sim.co.uk (TC3). The manual and game engine are TRS2006 with some improvements to the coding (The notoriously finicky to add SP1 is pre-installed, and some or all of the GUI screens were 'reskinned' with alternate icons, different coloring in windows and backgrounds and other mainly cosmetic changes). The Readme file gives instructions to unlock/unhide certain elements using the CMP database should an adult wish to modify the route (maps or layouts) in Surveyor mode—these asset items are considered critical to game play, so Auran's rationale was to safeguard and preserve stock content.

Compared to base TRS2006

Instead of having a lot of widely scattered region-typical built-in content like other versions of Trainz the series attempts to focus on a particular region and each of it's Driver Sessions are specific to a given point in time of the region's railway infrastructure history, for example all four of the routes of the current release (TC3 & update for TRS2009) is focused on the line of Settle-Carlisle in Great Britain as it would have appeared the 1960s. Trucks, automobiles, industrial activity, buildings' styles and 'overall look and feel' are to that standard period. This tight regional focus makes these a cleaner install for those interested in developing new railways in a nearby or matching region—because the CMP database isn't cluttered with inapplicable assets of little or no use (off region, off period such as Indian, Australian or North American assets) and the database can be augmented, as always in Trainz, by downloading appropriate content from the Trainz Download Station.

The user interface is entirely reskinned with differently styled windows and buttons, giving a mildly different look, though everything is functionally unchanged and in the same places. Like the reskinning, the .pdf hotkey aids are recolored and the package includes the excellent standard TRS2006 user manual and Auran's (longer in length) extra reference guide (Content Creator's Guide for Trainz Classics) which details standards for each asset category and type used— an extension of the general guide for creating assets to TRS2006 standards, and also serves somewhat as a Manual of style. Trainz Classics 3 was released on July 23, 2008.

Overall

Each release has only a few long routes similar to offerings of professionally developed for-pay routes offered by third parties, and like those, with carefully authentic reproductions (The essence of period sensitive model railroading practices) of prototypical rolling stock and locomotives (spanning several decades or 'Loco eras', hence a limited but accurate few) specifically made for that route, and the period modeled.

The long routes (instead of a smattering of medium and short routes of TRS2004 & TRS2006 which cover a wide variety of geographic regions and countries) are detailed with some new industries and a few other static assets not found in the basic TRS2006 such as new buildings, landscape features (vegetation, etc.) along with a few custom interactive industries, and based on program size— the overall asset content and size is only about a third of the TRS2006 tech-parent, reflecting the reduced needs of a single regions typical buildings, terrain features, and time period routes/sessions differences in rolling stock.

Volume 1, released on July 9, 2007, featured a 40-mile section of the MTA-owned Metro North Harlem Line, Volume 2 featured Metropolis, using the Modula City system by the developer Trainzland, and Volume 3 featured the Settle-Carlisle railway line between Skipton & Carlisle. A demonstration of the route between Dent & Wharton with Garsdale & Hawes, titled Hawes Junction, was also included in Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006. The routes from Volumes 1 & 2 were included in Trainz Simulator 2009, while Volume 3 was released as an expansion pack for Trainz Simulator 2009 and Trainz Simulator 2010.

Trainz Classics was released as Trainz Railwayz in the United States, and was sold bundled with Trainz Railroad Simulator 2007 as De Trainz Railways in France.

Trainz - The Complete Collection

Released 13 June 2008. This is a big box kind of compilation, and has three DVD's: Ultimate Trainz Collection, TRS2004, TRS2006, Trainz Routes (volumes 1-4), and Trainz PaintShed. Trainz 2004 is still very popular with a large segment of the Trainz user community and large non-Auran user communities such as the 2,500 plus membered Trainzproroutes.org have continually produced high quality payware and freeware for the Trainz community and host their own downloading library. Similar other large sub-group communities exist in the Trainz world, primarily because a separate web board system allows interference free private conferencing about large co-operative projects. Few routes in Trainz are the work of any one person.

Trainz Simulator 2009

Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder Edition, or TS2009, was released for digital download on 27 November 2008, and the first boxed copy orders were shipped in mid December 2008. The World Builder Edition is the full version and provides all the tools to create new and improved assets for the TS2009 engine with the inclusion of a much improved and more powerful Trainz Surveyor. The new tools include a powerful ability to instantly replace one asset with another more up to date, such as for example repopulating a route (layout) with trees made for the new Speedtree technology. A 'favorites picklist' can now be set up in ContentManager and used in surveyor by drag and drop, and filters can be set up in both modules, affecting the search for a desired asset. TS2009 contains about half of the content, updated and re-validated to the [http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php5/%22Trainz-build%22_tag

Trainz-build asset level tag number] from many previous versions of trains, including regional ones like Trainz Simulator 2007 and 2008. The in-game names of this regional content, however, were not presented in English before the release of SP2 and it's compendium of improvements and bug fixes. (Trainz initial releases, however, have traditionally lagged a service pack or two on translations.) The suffix on the name is deserved, many long sought for improvements to the process of world building were first introduced in the expanded tool set capabilities of TRS2009.

User Filters, first introduced in TRS2006's content manager plus were marginally useful in it's surveyor module; and only mastered by experts, but leaving much still to be desired in ease of selection. The TRS2009 added an in-surveyor ability to extend, define or save such filters from within surveyor, including boolean operators such as AND and OR and NOT allowing the massive assets in the data base to be refined into a short simple list of things satisfying the criteria; each is named as the user cares to tag it. Switching back and forth between such with a simple mouse sequence allows development of a new area rapidly. So to does the ability to drag and drop such listed assets into a favorites toolbar window, allowing the user building part of that virtual world to click and build using the newly selected asset, much as a graphics program allows users to select different tool tips. Last, but certainly not least, the new tools include a massively powerful replace this asset with that asset, enabling the user to turn a pine forest into a deciduous forest virtually instantly, or eliminate one dated asset for a Speedtree version, etcetera.

The second edition, Trainz Simulator 2009: Engineers Edition, was due for release by the end of April 2009, but was cancelled for unknown reasons. The Engineers Edition would have focused on driving and operating, as well as further new content. The name was later applied to Trainz Simulator 2010: Engineers Edition.

Addons and Standalone Packages

• Settle and Carlisle is a re-release of Trainz Classics 3 updated to be compatible with Trainz Simulator 2009 and Trainz Simulator 2010. (www.settleandcarlisle.com)

• Classic Cabon City uses the Modula City system introduced in TRS2006. (www.caboncity.com)

• Murchison 2 is an official re-release of a user-created payware route. It is a merging of the original narrow-gauge Murchison logging layout with an extensive standard-gauge rail network. (www.murchison2.com)

• Blue Comet is an add-on featuring models of the Central Railroad of New Jersey's train of the same name. The package contains three 4-6-2 locomotives, a combine, baggage car, coach, diner, and observation car.

Trainz Simulator 2010: Engineers Edition

Trainz Simulator 2010: Engineers Edition, or TS2010, was released on 23 November 2009 as a digital download and a retail boxed version solely via the Auran online store. Regular retail releases became available for the various regions throughout 2010. The primary additions to this version are the use of the SpeedTree system, graphical improvements for built-in content, and performance improvements for both custom and built-in content.

Despite being called the "Engineers Edition" and focusing on the train-driving experience, the Surveyor module is still included. Specifications were announced 13 November 2009.

The game was released in the United States as Trainz Railroader 2010: Engineers Edition, published by Microsoft.

Trainz Simulator: iPad, Android

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Trainz, N3V Games released a Trainz app for the iPad on 4 December 2010. Users can take advantage of the iPad's functions and lay tracks, drive trains and complete tasks with the touch of their fingers. Users have access to Driver and Surveyor and can create routes and drive trains with the help of tutorials. An Android version of the game was released on 22 July 2011 and has the same features as the iPad version. The app is a port of Trainz Simulator 2010.

Trainz Simulator 12

Trainz Simulator 12, or TS12, was released on 12 April 2011. Among other upgrades, this product offers a variety of new routes, doppler effect support, satellite view, and a multiplayer feature for the first time (multiplayer was publicly tested in TS2010). A Trainz 10th Anniversary Boxset was announced which includes the game and other extras. The game was initially released for pre-order on 18 March 2011 as part of the limited-edition Trainz 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition.

• NOTE: An amount of content from previous versions, was removed to decrease the required space of the game installation. However, most of the content from previous versions was released on the Download station (DLC) as of 2011.

My First Trainz Set

My First Trainz Set was designed for the younger generation who do not want to worry about realism or management when playing the Trainz game. The game features 4 locations to lay track in that are based on rooms throughout a house, such as a bedroom or kitchen. The user has the ability to place down small toy-like objects in the replacement of buildings and scenery. However, its graphical quality of the trains, track, and objects is still very much like that of the standard Trainz simulator games. Controls are also far more simplified. The game was also ported to Android devices.

Trainz Simulator: Mac

Trainz Simulator: Mac was a port of Trainz Simulator: 2010 for Macintosh.

Special hardware support

The desktop cab controller RailDriver was first supported for use in Service Pack 1 for the Ultimate Trainz Collection, and is also supported by all subsequent Trainz releases.

External links

• Trainz Simulator official website
• Auran official website