Trainz/Versions Of Trainz

Trainz is a product family which has continually evolved. The Trainz version number started as a simple Retail release and update tracking system, dating to the initial Beta test version of Trainz 0.9 in 2000 AD. The first actual widespread publication already had one service pack applied, begetting Trainz Community Edition as version 1.1.1 in February 2002, which would see three more software upgrades by November 26's release of Trainz UTC, the redundantly titled Trainz: Ultimate Trainz Collection; which was a short sighted title for a collection with a mere nine route maps!

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Glossary

HKeys-CM

HKeys-DVR

HKeys-SUR

HKeys-WIN

Mouse use

Notations

See main article: Trainz Version And Build Numbers for technical treatment and specifics on this topic.

As the version number system evolved it also became a measure and touchstone indicating a minimal asset technology level eventually given a keyword-value pair called a Trainz-build tag & value inside the asset's main self-definition file.

There are also a number of different software versions that are produced to service the international community which are entirely different retail releases (e.g. Russian and Polish, or Dutch or Spanish) usually in partnership with entirely different regional publishers— but which have the same version numbers for they are equivalent technology except for the internationalization of the release language capabilities.

Version and Build numbers

So in fact, the version number is not strictly colloquial usage, but in a real sense defines the capabilities of the binary code which satisfies the upper level technology handling capability of the versions code. Today, the Trainz-build values, which 'currently range' from V-1.0 to V-4.2 respectively Trainz initial release through Trainz latest retail release or upgrade to that.

The trainz-build (TB) has increase uniformly and monotonically except for the intermingled Trainz TS2009–TS2010 service packs (SP) when the product was transitioning from 32 bit computers to harnessing the power of quad-core microprocessors and 64 bit architectures. The short story on that was TS2009 was a transition step to TS2010 which presented more development problems than anticipated, so was about a year late. The two versions share some of the same trainz-build values, so overlap technologically speaking—both have a SP4 which makes both TB V3.3 on the high end, but the TS10 TB's did not always increment with a new SP patch. The TS2009 release vetted the 'base content' of the preceding big sellers, and TS10's release had all the new content and new routes, plus the older content. The improvements in the TS09 Surveyor were welcomed by the route builders while the different and tighter data model testing and vetting of new assets gave the objects content creators a benchmark to hone their talents and practices. Only the hard-core driving obsessed community lost out with the TS2009 release—they had to wait that extra year for new built-in content and routes. (Sniff, sniff... did we mention yet that different folks get different aspects of Trainz into their blood and focus more on one area than another? Believe it! Some of us hardly ever drive, some never make routes, and some only make routes or sessions. If it works, who cares?!)

Why care about TBs?

Short answer: If you stay with Trainz in some capacity you'll stumble over the need for comparing such over and over and over and over... really! Better to know what it means, don't you agree? Some code versions of Trainz have changed the requirements of how data is defined and where and how it is stored as the product family evolved new capabilities and features, many times at the request of the Trainz user community.

These factors are familiar to the content creators that make assets and are mostly transparent to Trainz users—up until an extant asset has an irreconcilable translation incompatibility with the users code version. That is an asset, which worked fine in a previous Trainz Version (Though some are errors of composition-flawed data being uploaded to the Download Station) now evinces a problem in a newer Trainz version.

One thing the 'trainz-build' version is used for is differential processing, a widespread asset (for example an locomotive engine specification data element) built to Trainz-build v-1.3 might still be used in current Trainz (and is, since the DLS is around with tens of thousands of older content items) and thousands of routes may use a particularly popular asset "house 1', for example, or a gantry signal. Many of those will pre-date TS2009 when the new data model became more stringently enforced and that measure (with a long term payback [and also the much lessened likelihood of crashing your Trainz or the computer!]) created more errors from a plethora of new built-in error testing and asset validation measures.

As Trainz releases evolved, this error checking (introduced in TRS2004, much expanded in TRS2006) was put in place in the Content Manager to trap these incompatibilities or just caught older data ambiguities. These 'faults' require human intervention and adjustment of the asset's data files and have given rise to the term "error fixing" (usually a misnomer, data-model adjustment is more precise and correct) when one downloads an asset from the Download Station. A project was also begun belatedly towards the end of 2010 to 'clean up' the data base of the DLS, and is limping along gradually making progress. As of October 2013 the company CEO announced a new Trainz graphics engine with backward compatibility was expected by December 2014.

Retail Releases

The following list of Trainz Retail Releases names is in chronological order of publication:

Trainz 1.3

• Trainz Version 1.0, published December 2001. Most common version was with Service Pack 3 applied, making Trainz 1.3

Trainz UTC

• Ultimate Trainz Collection (UTC), published November 2002, trainz-build. UTC introduced the extensible extended scripting capabilities into the game, known as TrainzScript and GameScript. With TrainzScripting, Trainz Scenarios entered gameplay allowing canned score-able challenges to be authored releasing the gameplay from the bounds of a Drivers experience and knowledge. These were augmented and made capable by parallel technical script developments improving interaction between the game and the user. Suddenly, a situation could be stage managed so a user could deliver empty cars, then pick them up when filled, or so that a schedule had to be kept, or speeding was penalize.

TRS2004

• Trainz Railway Simulator 2004/Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 (TRS2004), published September 2003, Version 2.0. also known as Passenger Edition in the UK. Four service packs creating version 2.4 with Trainz 2004 Deluxe as a final retail release (Most popular version, was available until 2013).

TRS2006

• Trainz Railway Simulator 2006/Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 (TRS2006), published September 2005, Version 2.5; This was the version which introduced the file structure used through later versions, with minor differences, up to the SP3 release of TS2009. The major advance in the release was the Content Manager Plus (CMP) improvement (now called just 'CM' or Content Manager The trainz-build (Trainz-build tag value) is now displayed when running CM.

Trainz Driver Edition

Trainz Driver Edition (TDE) —a low-cost (Driver GUI) 'demo version' of TRS2006-SP0 without Surveyor functions and most general content omitted. Instead, the release had three large routes with more 'sessions' than other TRS2006 based releases (though 2 of the 3 were part of TRS2004 Deluxe release).

Trainz Routes

• Trainz Routes — consisted of four groups of add-on layouts for TRS2006 (no program included)

Trainz Complete Collection

• Trainz Complete Collection — Bundled TRS2004 Deluxe, TRS2006 and the expansion DVD of Trainz Routes in one big box set.

TRS2007

• Trainz Railway Simulator 2007/Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 (TRS2007) (this is TRS2006 with its service pack applied) in French, German, and ; it is only sold in Central European countries), Version 2.6

TC1&2 and TC3

Three Trainz Classics releases

The three Trainz Classics releases represent a troubled era in Trainz steady growth because Auran Games Development ... to be cont

• Trainz Classics (called Trainz Railways in the UK and Trainz Railwayz in the USA), first module (TC1) released in 2007.

Each has an slightly updated game engine, TC3 being the most up to date incorporating an actual software change affecting data structures. A modular system of gems where each one contains a different route and appropriately themed content.

• Module 1 or TC1 is the Harlem Line, formerly a payware route
• Module 2 is Metropolis Edition, essentially a city tram network, formerly a payware route
• Module 3 is the UK's Settle and Carlisle Line set in the 1960s, formerly a payware route.

Modules 1 and 2 were bundled by Auran's joint-venture partner (a software publisher/distribution partner) and so are now generally sold together as one program, but Trainz Classics 3 does not contain the previous releases since a different publisher/distributor handled that product release. All of the Trainz Classic releases, the TDE, and other regionally targeted releases do not include many of the 'stock' built-in assets which were supplied with TRS2004 and TRS2006. As a result, any custom content which uses those assets as dependencies will not work, unless they are imported from TRS2006 or downloaded from the Download Station website.

TC3 has some enhancements that require the enginespec tag to be changed on other locos to enable them to take full advantage of the game engine. In the config.txt file for your loco change the 'enginespec' tag to be one of the following kuids.

The are listed from the smallest loco to the largest.

<kuid:71662:52101> LMS3F Engine Spec
<kuid:71662:52102> Fowler 4F Enginespec
<kuid:71662:52104> Stanier 8F Enginespec
<kuid:71662:52106> Gresley A3 Engine spec
<kuid:71662:52103> BR Standard Class 7 (Britannia) Enginespec
<kuid:71662:52105> BR Standard 9f Enginespec

You can also do the same with the sounds to use the new built-in ones.

Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder Edition

TRS2009 / TS2009

• TS2009: World Builder Edition (2008) - Improved Surveyor capabilities and a new skin; the version contains the first actual software game engine advances that harnessed the increased RAM and Video card memory asset utilizations and was the

TS2009/10 also support the new specs, additionally they support DXT graphic compression transparently, and multi-core processors which the earlier versions did not. When running under a 64 bit operating system these programs can use 4 gigs of memory, TC3 and earlier versions are limited to 2 gigs of memory.

Trainz Simulator 2010

TRS2010 / TS2010

• TS2010: Engineers Edition - Improved graphics capabilities and Speedtree technology with a new skin variant. TS2010-SP2 introduce the use of 64 bit processing while retaining a compatibility mode with older 32 bit computer architectures.

 

Trainz Simulator Mac

• Trainz Simulator Mac - MacIntosh Computer version of TS2010.

 

• TS12 (Anniversary Edition also Available)

Trainz Driver iOS

• Trainz 2009 adapted to Apple Computer's iPad and iPhone turned into a surprising hit once Auran/N3V changed the icon.

Trainz Driver Android

• Ibid

Trainz Simulator 2-Mac

The Windows TS12 crowd felt understandably neglected as N3V's programmers focused seemingly anywhere else but on a needed bug-fix Service Pack 2 and continued to throw grit in the gears for content creators by adding to minimum required data defines for production of the niche product TS-Mac2.

• Trainz Mac versions are also serving as prototype platforms for various changes to the look, see, and feel for Content Manager functionality for themselves and the various TANE versions expected by July 2015. This has created a spate of controversy and pushback by the TANE Beta tester community as N3V Games has unwisely and arrogantly been foolish enough to change terminology of many common CM command activities.

 

Trainz A New Era: Community Edition

TANE-CE

Partial 64 bit advanced product once promised for the late summer 2014 (one year after web funding) just barely produced as a buggy demo version for digital downloading in the Christmas 2014 sales season.  

Trainz A New Era

TS15

Full product once promised for the Christmas 2004 sales season, currently expected to ship by May 2015.

Miscellaneous notes

Main article: Trainz/Version And Build Numbers

In most cases, each version of Trainz is available in various regional editions for different parts of the world. These follow language groupings by market followings as things historically developed. Dutch-German-English attention created a German and Italian version before the 2007 release of a French version or those in Eastern European languages (Polish, Hungarian, and Russian).

In some countries older versions of Trainz are still available, often at budget software prices. Amazon.com (USA) was selling various older versions via it's online partners as recently as April 2013.

Most versions of Trainz have had service packs released which can be downloaded free of charge. The last service pack for TRS2004 is SP4 (makes Trainz Version 2.4). The only service pack for TRS2006 (version and build-tag is 2.5, like demo TDE release) is SP1 (makes TRS2006-SP1, or Trainz Version 2.6).

TS2009/TRS2009 is the 3rd most recent version of the game engine but began a trend of successive versions having a lower tolerance for errors in the config.txt files than earlier versions. T'09 also incorporates new graphics features taking advantage of newer video card online processing capabilities, including shadows and asset models incorporating LOD variations.

TS2010/TRS2010 is the 2nd most recent version of the game engine but has a lower tolerance for errors in the config.txt files than earlier versions.

TS12/TS2012/TRS2012 is the most recent version of this game & also released as an "10th anniversary edition for Trainz" (10 years).

TC3 content has been updated and revised to become both a TRS2009-SP3 or SP4 and TS2010 add on pack [www.settleandcarlisle.co.uk rail-sim.co.uk project site], first 3rd party developer and Auran/N3V Games 'partner' to systematically update assets to the asset technology introduced in T'09, new graphics model capabilities.

The versions of Trainz Driver for mobile device operating systems, iOS and Android, are not presently capable of supporting content made for more recent versions, and while users can create routes and sessions to exchange with other mobile users, other user content is not presently possible.

Sources

Beginning in August 2009, Auran/N3V Games began a Technical reference and user interest wiki called TrainzOnline. Much of the data on the site was put up by the official staff of the company.

1. www.auran.com auran store links (historical 'release' names, albeit, ephemeral)
2. TrainzOnline Trainz-build tag wiki page
3. TrainzOnline Trainz Code build version wiki page
4. English Trainz Article, and various historical versions of the article before editors shortened the data set.