New Irish Member Here!

[thejamesrankin]

Good evening,

I'm James, 19 years old, from Donegal (near Derry/Londonderry). I have been an on/off train simmer for nearly a decade now. Having spent most of that time using MSTS, I am now ready to try new things.

I have a TRS2006 disc lying around here somewhere and I shall be installing it soon. I know TRS2006 is nearly a decade old now but my desktop should run it very well compared to the newer version of TRS e.g. TRS2012.

I did build some content for MSTS such as a London Underground A60/62 Stock and an NI Railways MED DMU. I would love to learn to be able to contribute to TRS2006 if I got on well with it.

The thing that worries me most about TRS2006 is whether or not I can find content similar to the stuff I bought for MSTS over the years e.g. Great Eastern and London South East etc. Then from screenshots I can see that sometimes TRS2006 can look childish or non-realistic. Believe me I'm not a hardcore simmer or enthusiast by any means but I'd love to know how I can make the transition from MSTS to TRS2006 as easy as possible.

Lovely meeting you all and by the way I love the London Underground!

James.

[alexfleming380]

Hi there, welcome aboard the forums!
The route building side of Trainz is, I believe, far easier than that in MSTS so that part of the game should be a smooth transition. I have no idea how the driving compares.

I have a feeling you and Dave Bird will get along rather well

Alex.

[Class172]

Welcome to the forums James.

[thejamesrankin]

Thanks guys for the warm welcome!

I'm installing 2006 tonight. Hopefully I'll have no installation trouble. I am still a bit concerned whether the transition from MSTS will be smooth but I am seriously devoted to trying it out now that I have seen some of my favourite trains available to download! Hopefully I can build a route or two. I think I can create a few items of stock too since I already have done in MSTS. I'll learn to walk before I run however!

James.

[Mightyena]

Welcome to the forums from another James!

[blackwatch13]

Hi James, welcome to our addiction
I have no knowledge of MSTS, Trainz is the only railway sim I've ever had, not a content creator myself, apart from a few small layouts/routes that I've kept to myself, so transition wise, I can't comment.

What I can tell you is, Trainz has a fantastic bunch of addicts that will usually be able to advise on any problems you have.
If you intend to build content for upload, you will need to upgrade to a version that is supported, as things have moved on a fair bit (mainly scripting wise) since 2006 was released.
If you let us know the specs of your desktop, there are very knowledgeable users on here, that can tell you what (if anything) you need to upgrade, to run the later versions.

[Marky7890]

Welcome to the forum James.

Mark

[Itareus]

Welcome James.

As Blackwatch has said, if you want to create content for Trainz you should move to a later version since the 'rules' for content creation changed a lot from 2009 onwards. If you have a look here http://www.simulatorcentral.com/ you should see TS 2010 for sale at $9.90 (AUD) - that's about £5.50, so if money is tight that would be a bargain but we would have to establish first if your PC will cope with it. After TS2010 there is the current version (TS 12) and at the end of this year there will be a brand new version (TANE) with an all new game engine.

One of the major strengths of Trainz over other SIMS is the Download Station (DLS). This is a central repository of assets - routes, locos & stock, buildings, you name it it's there. The content on the DLS has been created by users of Trainz and is free to all users for personal use. Slow speed access to the DLS is free using a supported version of Trainz (2010 until September, later versions TBD) -faster access requires a First Class Ticket (FCT) see http://www.simulatorcentral.com/index.p ... tml?cat=22. FCT access does not require a supported version of Trainz.

Chris

[thejamesrankin]

My computer specs are as follows:

2.9 Ghz Dual Core Processor
3 GB RAM
80 GB Hard Disk

Really don't think anything newer than 2006 will run smooth on it.

[thejamesrankin]

Would I be able to run 2009 or 2012 smooth enough with these specs?

[Itareus]

James

Do you know if your laptop has on-board graphics or a dedicated graphics card ? (I'm 99% sure it will have on-board graphics).

The reason I ask is that later versions of Trainz load more work onto the graphics card/chip.

I reckon you laptop will run TS09/10 but for anything other than small routes it will stutter badly, official specs can be found here:

TS 2009 - http://www.simulatorcentral.com/index.p ... ition.html

TS 2010 - http://www.simulatorcentral.com/index.p ... ition.html

It's up to you to decide if it's worth risking £5.50 to find out how well TS09/10 runs.

Chris

[blackwatch13]

James

Do you know if your laptop has on-board graphics or a dedicated graphics card ?

James stated in his earlier post ...........

but my desktop should run it very well compared to the newer version of TRS e.g. TRS2012.

.... so could well have a graphics card installed.

[thejamesrankin]

Nvidia GeForce 210 512 MB VRAM

I have a choice between 2006 and 2012 here at the shop. What should I go for?

James.

[thejamesrankin]

Just back from the shop. Not a single copy of 2012 was to be found so I decided to stick with what I'm familiar with and bought 2006 since my own disc was misplaced.

I know it's old but it would definitely be more stable than MSTS.

Any advice that I should be made aware of because I can see that there are a load of people on this forum running 2006 quite happily.

James.

[jack24]

Hi there . I use 2006 to and it's the best option if your computer isn't the fastest model around. It has worked fine for me so far. Don't worry about the transition from MSTS as the only really big differences are the better graphics, 3d cabs and an easier surveyor to work with. It's difficult to get used to at first but after a while you'll enjoy it.