End of TSRE is near------

[haverfordwest]

Anything from Trainsimulations, as their recent Mullan Pass and Ruel Sub routes have raised the bar.

CP MacTeir Sub, with updated textures by Ted K.
CN Blackfoot Sub, also updated by Ted K.
Paul Charlands Dominion Atlantic, Conn River Line, and Springfield Terminal routes.
L&HR 1970's and 1940's versions.

All of which, have a much better overall realistic environment than anything I have touched in TSW2, TS2022. Sorry if that offends you.

I'll even toss in my own route I am building.

And now some TSW2, TS2022, that in my opinion, looks very cartoonish, and very dark, making it unrealistic. I even made adjustments to the ambient brightness, contrast, and sun light, and it still look, cartoonish.


End result, I treat ORTS like an actual simulator and game mixture. TSW/TS2022, I treat as simply a game, with no realism, just plug and play.

Thanks very much buddy, i have some of the older routes. I wasn't looking to do a hatchet job on OR. As i have used it a lot with UK routes.

Thanks again for the recommendations and taking the time to reply.

Mike.

[geepster775]

Borrowing a video clip from Bessemer, one area where I do give the TANE/JointedRail franchise a big thumbs up is the diesel exhaust depictions. Love the brute force ejection of near-vertical exhaust as the helper engineer throttles up, and especially how the near-vertical nature of the plume moves along with the engines as the train gets underway, and how the exhaust rises to 3x the height of the engine itself at higher throttle levels. There is so much force out of the stack that any typical wind in the atmosphere cannot bend or distort it.

Pure class. Showing how it's done. The open rails version just lays over and "hockey sticks" way too soon.

https://youtu.be/VU3qwJoLOnk?t=1726

[R. Steele]

Borrowing a video clip from Bessemer, one area where I do give the TANE/JointedRail franchise a big thumbs up is the diesel exhaust depictions. Love the brute force ejection of near-vertical exhaust as the helper engineer throttles up, and especially how the near-vertical nature of the plume moves along with the engines as the train gets underway, and how the exhaust rises to 3x the height of the engine itself at higher throttle levels. There is so much force out of the stack that any typical wind in the atmosphere cannot bend or distort it.

Pure class. Showing how it's done. The open rails version just lays over and "hockey sticks" way too soon.

On of the BIG disappointments in OR --- the diesel smoke plume. I admit it was an advancement when the "wind" effects were coded -- exhaust volume is easy to control...there's nothing for force.

Now if controls were coded to simulate this >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCbUQrXrY3A

[muskokaandtahoe]

A brief thought on appearances; to some degree, large or small, what you see is art. It doesn't matter if it is applied to the locomotive or to tessellated grass, it's all art. And if the artist thinks high saturated art is the way to go your sim images will look like photographs (because cameras super saturate everything). But most things in the world do not appear with highly saturated color.

In my own feeble attempts to make art I find it's rather hard for me to get to a good de saturated image. I don't know if that's because it is fundamentally hard to do or perhaps because I don't know what I'm doing.

My point in writing this is to suggest you use a critical eye when reviewing screenshots -- does it REALLY look real or does it look like a super-saturated photograph? IOW it might not be the sim software at all that makes things look good or crummy but (1) how we look at things and (2) how the artists looks at things. The quality of the art matters a lot.

[jonpd]

I guess I don't understand the premise - "the end of TSRE is near"? There will always be route and activity development for ORTS. Are people going to go back to the MSTS tools? I don't think so. TSRE with all of its flaws is still light years ahead in capability and stability of what the MSTS tools were. As someone who initially developed with the MSTS tool and is now using TSRE exclusively.

[rdayt]

The problems I see are with new people entering the hobby. I hope there are new people entering the hobby.
If Goku decides to let his website go dark you can't install TSRE without it needing to "phone home" to complete the install, even if you're lucky enough to have the program downloaded.
Those of us who have it installed can just copy it to a new drive or computer and it'll work just fine but for new installs it just won't be available.

Randy

[geepster775]

Pretty sure that any phone home thing would be one of the first things to get examined by others and changed. Anyone dropping out of active development and support need not collect any data for any reason anymore.

[eric]

Uh, there's no phone home feature in TSRE I'm aware of... and I've been using it for two years.

[geepster775]

Very first use of any version of TSRE on a fresh O/S disk needs an internet connection, otherwise certain TSRE functions remain unusable. Been that way all along. What its connecting to and for what reason, ??????

[ebnertra000]

It downloads appdata from the koniec site where TSRE has historically been hosted. You can also download it there directly if you'd rather. I do that, as my sim computer is offline

[rrdiesel87]

I first started with MSTS in 2001 and I’m still plugging away at it in ORTS/TSRE and experiencing a sort of revitalization with my recent repainting efforts. The fact is there is 20 years worth of content and countless improvements that will probably never be matched and have kept it going along the newer sims. I’ve invested way too much time, money, and frustration to pull out now.

[vline45]

I've been a user of the original MSTS and addons, and only now starting to build a route in TSRE. I bought Trainz 19 for $8 (on sale I guess?) but can't get into it, the comical sorta style I think, but some of the screenshots are stunning.

I only wish for proper night-lighting which can make a scene. Is there some sort of air-tasker sort of service for programmers? I'd throw in some $ to progress the sim.