Microsoft Train Simulator.

[giguchan]

I run this from time to time... i do enjoy it and it runs well...  anybody else remember this?

[IST]

Of course. But I think Densha De Go series is much more better than MSTS if you like Japanese railway.

[Guest ___]

MSTS and Densha de Go are two very different series and I would not clas them both the same way.

 

I use to play , and still have a copy. I like how I could actually play Japanese trains on it. Currently though I play Rail Simulator 2012 on the PC. Sadly, I think Trainz Rail Simulator on my iPhone is better.

 

Overall, A-train is still my favorite train game, sadly I can't get my bootleg of A8 to play on my PC and there is no A9 for the western markets.

[westfalen]

I mostly use Railworks (or Train Simulator 2013 or whatever they are calling themselves at the moment). However there is only one Japanese route I know of, http://www.uktrainsim.com/filelib-info.php?form_fileid=29659. It's a work in progress at the moment with work still to be done on the scenery and a proper cab for the 300 series but it is freeware.

 

I also have Trainz 2012 on the computer because both have features I like, I haven't used MSTS for quite a while though. The main thing I didn't like about MSTS was that you couldn't change from one loco to another in the middle of the sim, ie; you couldn't make up a train in a yard with a switcher, park it and go over to the roundhouse and fetch a road engine to take the train out. You also couldn't load or unload cars, I got tired of dragging loaded hoppers back to the mines or loads of logs back to the woods. With Trainz I can bring coal loads down from the mines, put them together into a mainline train, bring a road engine out and put on them, tell the AI driver to take the train to a portal I've configured to empty loads and load empties and send the train back after a specified time, I switch some local industries and after a while my train of empty hoppers come back for me to do another mine run. Railworks (Train Simulator) has excellent graphics but sadly falls down in the area of AI trains that the player can interact with.

[Densha]

I mostly use Railworks (or Train Simulator 2013 or whatever they are calling themselves at the moment). However there is only one Japanese route I know of, http://www.uktrainsim.com/filelib-info.php?form_fileid=29659. It's a work in progress at the moment with work still to be done on the scenery and a proper cab for the 300 series but it is freeware.

Ooohhhh... I have the game as well but didn't know there was already some Japanese stuff available. Sadly enough most self-made routes use the default objects which doesn't make it look like the country it should be in though.

I haven't played MSTS for years already, I never really found it that attractive because of both the graphics and the gameplay.

[giguchan]

I have had and Built a few Machines since i last ran MSTS.. I find  that with a more robust  machine with 8 GB of RAM and a $700 video card with onboard RAM displayed on a 30"LED monitor,  it runs as smooth as a gravy sammich.

 

I have never tried any other  Train Simulator...  the Graphics  can be Blocky  at times... and not very appealing to the eye. I guess  for it's time it was the latest and greatest.

[IST]

MSTS and Densha de Go are two very different series and I would not clas them both the same way.

 

Of course. For example I really like the new Run 8 Train Simulator, but it has only one American route and I can not drive Japanese trains with it.

I do not like the basic 2 Japanese routes in MSTS, but quite like the Densha series.

 

Currently though I play Rail Simulator 2012 on the PC. Sadly, I think Trainz Rail Simulator on my iPhone is better.

 

It is funny, as I rather like RS2012 on my PC than Trainz on iPhone. :-)

[westfalen]

I've also installed Trainz on my iPhone but don't play it much. It's a very bare bones version of one of the early incarnations of Trainz which IMHO were not very good to start with.

[Guest ___]

I found that the controls respond better, the graphics look better and the game plays better on the iPhone than Railworks does on my PC.

[Densha]

Now, what year does your pc originates from?

[Guest ___]

Last year. I have 8GB of RAM and a 2TB HDD.

[westfalen]

I found that the controls respond better, the graphics look better and the game plays better on the iPhone than Railworks does on my PC.

To quote Maxwell Smart, "I find that hard to believe".

 

Have you let steam upgrade Railworks to the newest version? Users on several train sim forums that were having performance issues are reporting improvments.

[Densha]

Last year. I have 8GB of RAM and a 2TB HDD.

The size of the HDD doesn't matter when playing a videogame, or rather, if it's installed then it's installed.

The most important is your videocard, CPU, and the RAM of course. The latter is fine, but if you have a slow videocard you're never gonna be able to play it so that it actually looks okay. My pc is about 5 years old (only upgraded the HDD meanwhile) and plays "Train Simulator 2013" (= newest version of railworks) at "Highest detail" without too much lagging.

Of course the speed of your HDD also counts, but that's minor compared to especially your videocard.

 

Compared to the first version of Rail Simulator/Railworks the 2013 version is a huge improvement overall, though it's in little steps every year. But note that the game became more "heavier" on your pc because of those features.

[Guest ___]

I'm stipulating the HDD size just to give scope to the age of the machine. I am running at the lowest detail and even then it can lag at times. I suspect the issues I have with S/R12is on the video end of things. I'm not at S/R13 yet.

[Densha]

Yes, I know. But I'm just saying what really is the most important to let a game play smooth. I always select the computer parts for desktop pc's myself and include a reasonable videocard but Dell/HP/etc usually don't put a videocard in that's capable of games.

Railworks 2012 to 2013 is not really much of an improvement, compared to the very first version it is.

[Guest ___]

To me it's a shame becasue I'm preparing to replace this system with a mac (my newspaper is talking about going all mac again) so I think after I do that, finally buy the NEC expansion, and the Horseshoe Curve packs.

[Densha]

It's off-topic, but I don't get why you need a Mac when your work is going Mac. (or are you playing simulators at work? ) File types are mostly compatible so far I know, or it must be very specific software.

And with a Mac you're not gonna be able to play the normal way, but if you have one with a capable video card you can always use virtualization for Windows.

Also, what's a NEC expansion?

[Martijn Meerts]

A lot of print design, video editing and photography companies still prefer Mac because the programs tend to be more stable and generally better. Also, a Mac on average lasts a lot longer. My 5 year old Mac Pro with 3 year old graphics card still plays modern games at near-max settings. And with bootcamp, you can install both OS X and Windows on the machine (no need for virtualisation), so it's the best of both worlds.

 

A while ago, I accidentally dropped my Macbook Air from about 1.5 meter onto a stone floor. It has a slight dent on 1 corner, and that's about it. My father's Asus laptop's lid has cracked purely from opening and closing it. Also, my mother plays windows games on my 6-7 year old Macbook Pro, it's still going strong :)

 

Macs are generally more expensive, but if you like working with them (be it because they're sturdy or you just like OS X), they're well worth the money. I find that programming and designing websites on a Mac is a more pleasant experience personally. There's no reason (other than thinking they're cool) why most students buy a Mac though, a lot of schools are on old windows installs ;)

 

 

Edit: I do run parallels on my Macbook Air, mainly to test and play with operating systems and test webpages on various setups.. Right now, my Air can run OS X Mountain Lion, Windows XP, Windows 8, CentOS, Ubuntu, and even a tablet optimised version of Android =)

[Guest ___]

It's off-topic, but I don't get why you need a Mac when your work is going Mac. (or are you playing simulators at work? ) File types are mostly compatible so far I know, or it must be very specific software.

And with a Mac you're not gonna be able to play the normal way, but if you have one with a capable video card you can always use virtualization for Windows.

Also, what's a NEC expansion?

 

It's a matter of a conforming standards, since I work from home more often than at the office, the office prefers we are all using the same system.

 

From an IT standpoint, they prefer if we are all on one system for troubleshooting, so the decision came down from the publisher, unified platform.

 

The PC vs Mac decision has yet to be finalized. But since the newspaper is also a print shop, we're starting to find a lot of issues with using PC's in the print shop.

 

Getting back on topic, the NEC is the Amtrak, Northeast Corridor. In Train Simulator, the NE expansion pack allows us to play, all Amtrak trains on the corridor, including AEM-7, and the Acela Express, as well as the GG1.

[Densha]

Err.. MSTS or Train Simulator/Railworks? I assume the latter because it's already default in MSTS if I'm right. So you were actually meaning to say that you are going to use bootcamp, because it doesn't run on OSX?

[giguchan]

Thought i might chime in here while on the subject of MAC..  I'll be brief.  I am  PC  fanboy from the start.  I am also into Photography.  I have done a little research and so far what i have come up is that The MAC platform  is better suited for graphics, designing websites and lastly photography..  I  dont really uhnderstand  why this is  but it seems to be the way.  I have tried to run a few Programs on my PC and it seem to slow it down.  I might be the PC - i dont know.. but run the same APP on a MAC and we have a smooth  system.  thats good enough for me.

 

  I dont mind learning another  OS..  I have plenty of leftover space  in the ol Noggin..  what i DONT like  is the price!!! I thought the days of  spending $3500 USD for ANY computer  was a thing of a past(except  real gaming boxes with dual Video cards and real cooling)  seems like it leaves  less money for Choo- choo's

[Martijn Meerts]

You don't need a Mac Pro for photography, so you really don't need to spend $3500 USD :) And actually, a Mac Pro starts at $2500 USD, just make sure to get a basic version, and get upgrades to RAM and HDD elsewhere, MUCH cheaper than directly from Apple.

 

Windows 7 is actually a very stable OS, but the problem is all the backwards compatibility and the insane amount of hardware MS has to support. If MS were to build their own machines and optimise Windows for those, it'd be a hell of a solid machine. (although, they really need to get rid of that registry nonsense ;))

 

In the end though, it doesn't matter which system you use as long as you're comfortable using it. I used Windows for a LONG time (since 3.11 actually) until I started working at a (mainly) print design company where they only used Macs, and figured out I was more effective and productive on the Mac. The tools just suited me better.

[Densha]

Martijn was just earlier than me, but that's about what I wanted to say:

I don't know if you know about the hardware, but just the brand doesn't say anything about the insides. Heck, my pc is from 2008 and it's hardware is slightly better than the iMac from 2009 if I have to believe wikipedia. It costed about $1200 then I think and I can still play Train Simulator 2013 on highest detail with slight stuttering and high detail perfectly.

Personal computers these days give some many bang for bucks it's almost unbelievable. I really don't need a faster pc than I use at the moment, only if I would start playing heavy games or graphic rendering. Though, my photo editor (GIMP) isn't the fastest out of the world, but if you get a modern pc for about the price I got one back in 2008 I'm sure you're ready to go for many years. And please note that if you don't actually need such a high priced pc you can always go lower, and that doesn't mean you get a bad pc at all.

Photoshop and such are also available of Windows so that shouldn't be a problem.

I don't have any software problems on Windows 7 (XP and Vista were much worse in that aspect for some reason here). If you have more common hardware (Intel, AMD, nVidia) there's usually nothing wrong with the software, the old Windows OSes were much worse with that.

 

Don't think I'm promoting Windows here now, well actually I am, but the main reason is because pc's are so much cheaper and a Mac is in most cases not necessary. You can buy more trains from that money. Just make the good choice.

 

@Martijn

I completely set Windows to my own preferences and I think I can use it very effectively as well. That means getting rid of IE, WMP etc. Previously I couldn't even play 1080p but with the good software that and even more is possible. So far I've heard Apple's products are more about the complete experience, but I don't mind putting it all together myself.

[giguchan]

Hey guys,

  Thanks for the informative replies..  I guess i just got caught up in the whole  "Mac" thing .  It was late for me too...  everyone around me  has at least ONE Mac product.. it all started for me one day  when i realized that when going on a road trip  I did not have to pack my 3 ring loose leaf binder of CD's (remember those)?  I could put all 4 thousand songs on ONE  device and slip it in my pocket...  it was all down hill from there..

 

I do know that i did not have to spend that money(past tense).  I still am  a PC fan and will always will be.  I think i was just itching to try something new..  reall to see what all the noise was about.  I will admit that all of my PC based  machines have been pretty solid..if they have not been it's most likely  due to something that i tried to make the machine do or some sort of virus  that i caught.

 

The extra cost  of the Mac i bought  was some of the extra that i wanted like the , non glossy  screen, solid state HD  faster processor ,RAM and the Apple care  thing.  I know that HDD  space is not that big of a deal  since i dont know anyone who does make use of a  external back up(i'm not a cloud guy)

 

i did not know that i could have gotten  the memory and hdd elseware. lesson learned.. i'm going to catch it from one of the guys at work.

Gee, Let me think.. i'll have a Mac soon,already get my  cuppa joe at starbucks, legs too fat for skinny jeans and i wear a pork pie  like dear ol dad used to..

 

oh no...

[Martijn Meerts]

Actually, it's only the iMacs that are generally overpriced. If you compare a Mac Pro with a similar machine from Dell for example, the Dell often ends up being more expensive. (The problem is, people often compare a Mac Pro which has Xeon processors to the standard machines running on i5's or i7's .. There's a world of difference between those CPU's ..)

 

The notebooks are a bit hit and miss, some are overly expensive, others are reasonably priced. I usually prefer working on notebook, so I've had a lot of them over the years. The cheap ones I used for work hardly ever lasted more than 1.5 to 2 years before certain parts started showing wear from daily use.

 

I used to build my own machines, install a fresh copy of windows, uninstall crap, optimise everything and then make an install image of that optimised system. I just can't be bothered anymore though :)

 

 

My main issue with a Mac these days, and especially the notebooks, is that they've become a fashion thing. I travel by train every day, and use my Air in the train quite a lot to get some work done, but because of all of the students with a Mac watching videos and playing angry birds on the thing, everyone stares at you like you're some wannabe cool guy :)

 

 

 

Anyway, there's no point discussion, some people prefer Mac, some prefer Windows, some prefer Linux .. Heck, I know people who still use a Commodore 64 on a daily basis.. And you know what, it's all good, as long as you're enjoying yourself ;)