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Fundamentals for Trainz Trainees
Trainz Version: Trainz: A New Era (TANE) |
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Trainz: A New Era (TANE or T:ANE) is the 64 bit computer architecture adaptation of Trainz, that was to have shipped as a full release by early summer of 2015. The simulator and gaming system use an entirely new game engine, the enhanced JET 3 game engine of TS12 having been pushed as far as 32 bit operations could take it. It is fair to consider the package as a near total rewrite, which abandons various historic features (Scenarios, archives) and Railyard. The design also incorporates new Driver Objectives facility, that enables easier communication of next task between session writer and Owner/users using the Driver module, which could help broaden the market and/or reduce new user frustrations.
Various parts of the software utilize a Trainz Mac style implementation in place of the look-see-feel and hotkey operations of Trainz's traditional modules—especially the Content Manager module; features which have drawn fire from all quarters, not least in the community of over one thousand Trainz enthusiasts that each contributed serious money as part of a KickStarter pledge to participate in the Beta Tests.
TANE was to have had Alpha testing complete in late Summer of 2014, but only began so called formal Beta testing in mid-September, which by most software industry standards, was a true Alpha test, despite spin titles from N3V Games CEO Tony Hilliam, whose expertise is marketing. N3V's target dates subsequently have slipped again and again, until defacto Beta testing on unstable software which was barely capable of not Crashing-to-Desktop (CTD) in simple operations could begin to take place starting in Mid-November 2014.
None-the-less, in December N3V released a rough community edition to meet contractual requirements of KickStarter Funded projects that December. By May 2015, N3V published a 'Release Edition'—their target for the prior December, which subsequently received a ridiculous series of hotfixes with dreary regularity, and gradually became more and more stable by September, when Hilliam began talking about TANE Service Pack 1. By early winter 2015, the long promised and awaited Service Pack 1 was in Beta Testing, but SP1 candidate builds were necessarily progressed in a succession of hopeful upgrades, so SP1 was also repeatedly delayed. In the end, SP1 finally becoming available for software upload on January 10th or 11th of 2016, depending upon one's timezone.
By any fair and impartial standard, TANE-SP1 is best considered a true early release, but since it lacks many user features expected in any Trainz version, is still disappointing. The 64 bit graphics and various fringe operational features (In-Cab Sway, Bumpy Track, collision boundaries, shadows, etc.) are implemented, but at the expense of core user interface progression and advancement. Specifically, map Hotkeys in Driver and their mini-map analog (and hotkeys) in Surveyor aren't implemented. The Surveyor Minimap is static, and fails to follow the viewpoint camera, drastically crippling the writing of Sessions. Content Manager and various terms and modes are very UnWindows Trainz, from Hotkeys doing nothing to very different terminology for historic Trainz terminology. (e.g. One needs to Submit an asset now, not Commit the asset to the data base.
