My view on Both sims

[Hentis]

I deferred putting this into Georgi's recent post and the "which one post" for the simple reason I am not against MTS I like it but I like Trainz better but here is what I dislike about MTS and the reason why.... Read on.

I have just put MTS back on my system after it completely wiped and screwed the 5 gig partition up for it 2 weeks ago. I then put LTV mining set, Tehachapi pass a few custom locos Aurans 2 (UP DD40 X and the Sncf thing) also Aurans USA and Canada addon pack and Train sim activity pack as well as Svante's doublestacks and locos (UP/SP). I have left the settings as exatcly the way I had them before " recommended " by MTS.. and running the activites from the Train sim activity pack which I recently bought and have crashed so far tonight 4 times in the spate of 2 hours........ this is ridculous.... Where as in MTS my screen resolution was 640 x 480 In trainz it was 1024 x 968 I had 12 consisst rangng from locos only to anything up to about 12 passenger cars..... and have had 4 trains running simultaneously and Yet they never crashed after 2 hours this Trainz uses more power than MTS and in theory Trainz should be the one that crashes...... where as most of you know if you have a had a problem with trainz you get in contact with Auran and they will do their damndedst to help you. But with MTS you are left with a little"dont worry son well send your bug report from here" box..... of if you dont want that you go to a MTS forum and get some sorry to say this god rightuoes muppet who thinks because he hasnt seen this problem occur on his whizzbang of a PC that it does not exist and he accuses you of causing trouble. Yes MTS is great it has Steam locos..... it has wheels that turn as well.... But at the moment I am not worried about steam or turning wheels... in trainz.... Trainz ease of use for Surveyor and the 3d cabs are great but the reason why I am disapointed with MTS is beacause its just not working right. and MTS poor attempt at releaseing a patch that IMHO did not cure a1 quarter of the Bugs is a bit farcial to say the least. like in the post previous there are good and bad points against both pieces of software. But that above was my personal experience. I am currently Beta testing for Auran the next lot of "goodies" for Trainz but in no way has it made me biased towards their software..... If I think something sucks in trainz and I dont like it I will tell them ( not that I have mind you :P )

I would be intrested in seeing how MS will develop a new MTS 2 but I will wait a while before I buy. I also am very intrested in what Trainz has to offer....for me its Ease of use and fun.

Just my 2 euros worth!!!!!!

Hentis

THE FUTURES BRIGHT, THE FUTURES TRAINZ -
www.virtualtrainz.com

FILE DELETION IS MURDER, HARD DISK FORMATTING IS GENOCIDE

PC 1 Specs AMD Athlon 1.2ghz, 327MB Gigabyte 7ZXR M/board, GeForce3 64mb ddr Creative, Linksys Networking HUB and cards. SB Live 1024 DVD Rom, CD RW

PC2 Specs Cant be arsed....

RIP Dudley Moore CBE

1935 - 2002

[TucsonCoyote]

Tucson Coyote here

Well I have to Agree with you one a Number of things there with MSTS but I have to also Point out that if you look at the TRAINZ vs MS Train Sim Debate Raging, I have to point out at Least two factors besides this.. The First Being Support...

First off MSTS Has been out just about 9 months Now and in all that Time How Many Fixes or Patches Have they released to fix Problems...(1) that's All MSTS has done in just 9 Months..(And In the Patch the Fixes are for Video Card Issues that caused MSTS Sims to Crash (Mostly With Some sort of Weather Effect (Usua.lly the Snow Caused it to go Belly up and Send the Error Report Death knell (the One that Kills practically any chance of Unlocking your machine.. and Sure there have been Great Add ons and Such when it comes to MSTS but usually it had to be third Party Work making the Sim Better (Much Like Flight Simulator..)

Now Trainz on the Other Hand have in just 3 Months Come out with TWO (Yes that's Right 2!) Fixes but most are again Video Card Issues and about 30 other issues that fix a Lot of Problems with Trainz..and that's Just 3 Months! But the Likely Hood of a Crash is more with something like the Surveyor Module (Never had a Crash with the Driver or Collector Module) and usually when they send an Error Report it comes out quick and Clean (No Lockups!)

Now the Other thing is the Future Expandability of Trainz and MSTS

Sure Folks From third Parties are working on stuff..(Including Routes But here it's a Size Issue..(MSTS On One Hand Takes Up Space and I mean Lots of Real Estate! (Wasn't it Bad Enough to download a 15 Meg Marias Pass and Have it NOT Work???Even When you Followed the Directions Exactly to the Letter???) and sure some folks make good routes don't get me wrong..But without even an SDK to Troubleshoot the probs... Well Lets Just Say MSTS Isn't Going to Fly..)

Now With Trainz.. Real Estate is Not an Issue (Usually 1 Baseboard takes up about 200k os space...and that is usually Fully Sceniced...and then when you multiply the Number of Boards you can Add to each other that Same 15 Megs Looks Real Good (Try 300 Boards (About 150 Actual Miles ) and Yep It's Marias Pass!)

but the Real Positive aspects of Trainz is this.. Ease of Use on Layout Deisng (And Yes You can do either Real Life or Fictional Routes (And I figure with the Support is giving with Weekly updates and the Like Well You can figure to see more and More people say.. Dang Why Did I ever Waste 50 Bucks On MSTS (Start with a Trickle End with a FLOOD!) ???

So all in all with the Support that Trainz is Giving Why I wonder folks In MSTS Think that their Program is tops.. Actually Neither is tops right now but wait two years When Microsoft is working on MSTS 2 and Trainz is fully operational Online and Folks are chatting online about how to work a Switching manuver..(That'll be the Day..)

Tucson Coyote

[georgi55]

Couldn't agree more with both of you.
Just to add, Trainz now allows to have turning wheels, and a fully animated jigger has been released already.
If you go to forums, you will see people all over talking about animation of wheels, so it is close to become standard.
To add for bug fixes (Service Packs), not only that Auran fixes bugs, but they also add features people have requested, which really amazes me.
Your opinion could be included in game in such a short time. (if it's good one)
I cannot speak of performance because I’m on crappy ATI RADEON 64MB DDR card, which is not supported (but found to work) by Trainz.
I like both games (even I still haven’t reinstalled MSTS after formatting my HD), but Trainz has so much more to offer, and incomparable support.
Georgi

[Splatter]

Have to agree with all of you on this one.Trainz is fast becoming my favorite.Every day it seems someone is creating something new for it.The support is exceptional and surveyor is a dream come true for me.The only thing I would add to the high points of Trainz is the HD space required for it.I have about 20 routes and over 150 pieces of rolling stock and my folder just now crossed into the 1 gig range.MSTS,on the other hand,with only 5 or 6 added routes and about the same number of rolling stock is sitting at about 9.5 gig.This may not be a big issues for people with larger drives (i have a 40 gig) but for people with smaller drives,in the 10 and 20 gig range,this is asking a lot for them to take up 10 gig for one application.

Freddie A. Huff
http://www.trainsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c3737f725c2d92a.gif

[TucsonCoyote]

Tucson Coyote here again

I have to agree with TRAINZ beoming worthy program than a lot of folks see and I found out a Couple of extra Reasons why..

First the Surveyor..(This program really shines when I think about it..) one of the things about surveyor is that it lets you think in a Really True 3 Dimensions...(and When I say that I mean If you are looking at real life versus Trainz you can create your own "Sea Level" Depending on what you want to build

Example if you want to build a Mountain Type Railroad Steep Grades and steep hill sides With Surveyor you can.. making rather spectacular Vistas..(Ans since the Maximuim Elevation is 2000 (Feet/Meters ) you can get some rather interesting effects when designing a Mountain Route..

another thing is the ability to take Grey Scale maps and with just some simple Manipulation, you can get rather realistic results..(Right Now on my Rio Roja RR, I am using a Ptogram for Sim City 3000 to Generate Scenery for Trainz (The Difference is that I have to just resize the Map from the Terrain Edior to import it into the Custom displacements by just 1 Pixel..(Fast and Easy to design scenery but it does take a Lot of Manipulation to generate REALISTIC and Believable scenery...

in all When AUrun Finally gets things really going and gets things like Yardmaster in Place is when things are really going to take off big time..(Not to mention when they also take it online and thus you can have friends or strangers come over and work on the layout ...)

but all in all MSTS I can see has no Plans of doing much with Train Sim except run simulations of Traffic and Designing cars and routes but no interactivity..(Which is a bit of a Let down but hey I think the 50 bucks I paid for Trainz was well worth it..

Tucson Coyote

[Sparks]

Well Said,

I get far more enjoyment from Trainz, and the developer is active and identifiable, and most importantly in touch with its customers. So MSTS remains off my machine. Besides Trainz has a roundtable, <very important to me>


Sparks out

[cyclone1234]

Trainz is a better one, for two BiG reasons (1) Usefull turntable!! (2) If you get paint shed, reskining can take er, oh i say 10-20 minuites

Cyclone1234 (my name at the auran fourms :CycloneTrain (i suggest u take a look at the fourmz under screenz, hit here comes SF rail) (yes, i have become a reskinner for trainz

[Hentis]

Cyclone,

I have seen your works for Trains and they look qute good...... However I just got my retail release of Paintshed so somewhen this weekend the old Beta version go from the PC...... Hopefully I will be uploading some of my products to the Download Station.

You guys are gonna love the add on pack.

Hentis

THE FUTURES BRIGHT, THE FUTURES TRAINZ -
www.virtualtrainz.com

FILE DELETION IS MURDER, HARD DISK FORMATTING IS GENOCIDE

PC 1 Specs AMD Athlon 1.2ghz, 327MB Gigabyte 7ZXR M/board, GeForce3 64mb ddr Creative, Linksys Networking HUB and cards. SB Live 1024 DVD Rom, CD RW

PC2 Specs Cant be arsed....

[Billman730]

I am interested in checking out the Trainz program but I take exception to the people who complain about msts. My program works perfectly, Averages 59 frames at all times, and never crashes. This is in part acomplished with the aid of Route Control. A must have program for people who download the free routes available on the net. Some routes are posted without the necassary consits and car files. I never even get a single error message in spite of having 35 routes and 421 locos and 638 cars, [none of which are compressed by route control, I use it for the checker and cleaner funtion only]. Another cool thing is the free programs that fix terra forming problems. MSTS isn't perfect but hey it's a game. My machine is a pent 3 1gig w/ 512 ddr ram several IBM large drives and a ati 128 ram video card.

[OTTODAD]

>>> I would be intrested in seeing how MS will develop a new MTS 2 . . . . .

MSTS-2 will have to compete with the rapidly advancing TRAINZ. I just ordered the New Improved Version.3 which looks like it will let me do what I want.

It's going to be a race to the Finishing Post between them. I got a feeling I know who the Winner is going to be ! :7

[VRfan]

>
> I have just put MTS back on my system after it completely
>wiped and screwed the 5 gig partition up for it 2 weeks ago.
> <snip>
> I have
>left the settings as exatcly the way I had them before "
>recommended " by MTS.. and running the activites from the
>Train sim activity pack which I recently bought and have
>crashed so far tonight 4 times in the spate of 2
>hours........ this is ridculous.... Where as in MTS my
>screen resolution was 640 x 480 In trainz it was 1024 x 968
>

I have run MSTS on two systems since it was released.

The first system:

Intel PII400, Intel 440BX motherboard, 320mb PC100 SDRAM, Asus GeForce2 MX 32mb, 48gb HDD, Ensoniq (forgotten the exact model) soundcard, D-Link 100 base T ethernet card, Toshiba DVD-ROM, Win98 SE and all the latest drivers.

Second system:

AMD Athlon 2000XP, MSI KT3-Ultra (VIA KT333) motherboard, 512mb Kingmax PC-2700 DDR-RAM, Asus GeForce2 MX 32mb, 80gb HDD, Creative SoundBlaster Live 5.1, D-Link 100 base T ethernet card, Toshiba DVD-ROM, Win98 SE and all the latest drivers.

As you can see, I have run MSTS on a rather low end system and a higher end system. On both of these, MSTS has been extremely stable running in 1024x768. The only time the game crashes is when I have stuffed up the installation of add-ons.