Received this mail from Amazon today...

1 Rail Simulator (PC DVD) £25.99 1 £25.99

Shipped via a Super Saver Delivery carrier (estimated arrival date:
15-October-2007).

Will have some idea soon as to what it is like (but no US content - just the railroad at the bottom of my garden (well, about 45 years and 2 miles away )

Rod

Look forward to some screens Rod

First thing, why DVD? Another words, why not CD?

Whatever it may be, coverted to U. S. Dollars, would be about USD $36.90 to the Euro, plus add freight or mailing costs......as of todays conversion rate.

Candidly, I would search the net for more details on who produced/manufactured it.

I am certain, it's not from MS. Not yet, darn it.

Have you ever installed a mutliple CD game? yawn. The copy of Trainz 2006 I have is FIVE CDs. What a pain.

Besides, it's probably more cost effective to use a single dvd instead of multiple CD's. Doing so would also reduce the amount of packaging needed, and the weight when shipping.

Andy,

If I had to install from that many CD's, I would make (instant) coffee between discs, otherwise I would fall asleep.

Thanks for the education, haven't installed anything from DVD to my PC, even FSX was only five but I wasn't paying attention as to whether I was installing from DVD's or CD's, but I did know that one of them after installation to run it had to be from a DVD drive.....I glumbly learn something new every blasted day!!!!!

My newest PC was outdated probably six months after I built/upgraded it!

Yet, I still never can catch up....

It's 1.98G - so would be 3-4 CDs. Given that DVD burners are now under $38, CD readers are essentially obsolete: the PC that would handle this game well would also most likely have a DVD reader and/or burner or both.


Candidly, you will actually find lots of information about it at
Kuju Rail Simulator or
Kuju Rail Simulator forums at uktrainsim or
Kuju Rail Simulator at otto-sim.com

It's also available for download purchase at EA Web Store UK.

I purchased the download version last night only to find it would not download. I contacted customer support for help. I went an loaded up my EA Download Manager today to find out that it is 6 days away from being released! Man I am mad! I waited for the download so I wouldn't have to wait for it to ship and now I end up waiting longer for the download than if I had just ordered the blasted thing!

Please refrain from bashing the competitors products here

having had another ( play ) drive this morning before i came out i still stand my words of the new raildriver being " **** " any one else been driving it ?

Once again please refrain from bashing competitive products. If you must please use more appropriate descriptions of flaws that you find.

It would be appreciated if you would not bash the competitors product in this forum, it is quite inappropriate.

Thank you.

Where do you see anyone bashing the competitors products?

SCRF, 3DTrains and KUJU are competitors in the same market place - they don't need to be producing identical products

Back on thread - Well, it arrived at last - delayed by the postal strike.

Despite many previous comments in this thread, I think there are a load of really good features and I am certain what problems there are will be ironed out pretty soon.

What is most impressive are the cabs - functional virtual cabs, where the left and right keys change you from the driver/engineer to fireman's position and you have full rotation using the mouse. It has got to be good, for the first time ever I have spent an entire journey inside the cab and thoroughly enjoyed the experience

As might be expected, the program is processor heavy (and I guess RAM too). I had slight problem coming out of the sim then going straight back in - worked best from a fresh boot of the computer. I have most of the settings on max and haven't shut anything down - very good framerates except where there is a lot of stock - and again, this is only looking directly at a busy scene.

Real likes are;

1. Virtual cabs with good control
2. Many of the keys are identical to MSTS
3. Real depth to some of the scenery - no corridors of trees on the UK routes - large vistas, very convinceingly done
4. Very detailed models with plenty of 3D modelling - pretty good for the new "default"
5. Sounds - pretty good, especially the steam
6. You can jump to another engine if they are in the same location (you may be able to do it elsewhere as well - but I don't know how yet)

Overall - leaving any obvious niggles to one side for the moment - a very enjoyable experience, and I would say, more realistic than MSTS (to be expected) and more convincing than Trainz in the cabs.

Many similarities with Trainz (no bad thing) but sufficiently different to not be a carbon copy.

Definitely NOT toy like as previously suggested - but that is my opinion of course. Been around MSTS for a while, and I am fiercely loyal to the old warhorse, but this has serious possibilities that I find rather depressing - why, because I am going to have to learn new tricks

Which brings me on to my dislikes -

None really, other than the aforementioned new tricks and the mountain I am going to have to climb to get to operate the sim the same way I can MSTS.

My one niggle is that I can't work out how to take screenshots (even after following the instructions) AAAAAARGH!!! Oh, and the other niggle - no US content yet I'm not that keen on the term, but I anticipate the US routes and engines being somewhat "awesome" chaps. Really looking forward to an interactive virtual experience on some of the engines that have featured in the promo shots.

I have seen comments about the physics elsewhere as well, but let's be honest, if we are interested in these sims it is not as they come out of the box, but how they can become in about a years time, after the tweaking and third party content. The main thing is that it is a good platform!

Give this sim a couple of years, with third party content and freeware available, and we might never look back (maybe sideways to MSTS2 - now that will cause confusion..... )

Rod

[quote name='august1929' date='Oct 18 2007, 3:14 PM' post='112886']
SCRF, 3DTrains and KUJU are competitors in the same market place - they don't need to be producing identical products




Maybe I am missing something but doesn't bashing a competitors product mean putting it down in a very bad way? I was just saying that I haven't seen anyone bashing another competitors product in this particular post. Anyway I have my copy now as well and must say that I am enjoying it. I can't wait for the US content,but the European trains will do for now.

I hope that you Wayne and Rod both will post some shots as soon as the function is mastered

Calling it "C---" is bashing it. Let it go now,... I edited the posts to eliminate the stuff (one word) I saw as not appropriate. That is why you do not see it now.

A comprehensive discussion pointing out the likes and dislikes is always welcome but a one word description does not qualify here.

I can always close this thread and hope the next one is more friendly,...

thanks and have a great day

Ok thanks for clearing that up. I just didn't realize that you had cleaned it up. Now back to Rail Simulator!

I am anxious to see some photos and more to the point here is who has what performance results on what types of machines.

I'm getting an average 20~24 fps on my old PC with all options maxed, and up to 30~34 in less intense areas. FPS drops to about 16~18 in cities. Not too shabby on old hardware.

Athlon XP-2000+ w/ 1Gb
XP Home
nVidia 6800U 8aa 16af

Cheers!
Marc

Hi Rod

The manual says that screenies can only be taken in windowed mode, not full screen.

Paul

Currently, way freight operation with MSTS is quite enjoyable, and with Activity Generator it is easy to create activities. My question is whether this is possible with KRS. Have you explored it enough to evaluate if switching operations are practical? Coupling/uncoupling easy? Is the software "open" so that activities can easily be created?

For me, merely driving a train is boring, it is the addition of switching activity that creates the interest. I think this is true for many others, so the question of KRS switching capabilities is important.

Absolutely no problem with coupling/uncoupling - my interest area as well (wayfreight and switching). You need to look out for the switches ahead though, if they are set the wrong way (trailing switches) they will derail you - and yep, you can set them the correct way using "G", or "Control>G" if in reverse.

I think this sim will satisfy - what I need to know, though, is if it is possible, within a scenario, to have total "freeform", in other words no path restrictions.

Activity creation will come with the free developers toolset in November

Rod

Switching is actually really, really easy - but takes some getting used to, hence some of the anguished posts elsewhere. Where there has been an issue is that the supplied scenarios are pretty hopeless in that with MSTS, if you had a path then it was all automatic and you went to the destination that had been set by the activity writer. Now, in RS that's true some of the time and sometimes it's not - I think it's poor scenario writing but once you understand, switching is actually a real pleasure. There are two reasons for this: one, in yards switches/points have animated levers. You change them by pressing G or shift-G as in MSTS; or by clicking on that animated lever and watching the blades and lever move; or by shifting to 9 view (sort of zoomable track diagram in 2D) and shift-click each switch you want to change. One thing to watch out for - in MSTS you can go through a trailing switch no matter which way it's set, in RS if the path is not set through the trailing switch you'll derail. My favourite way is the 8 view: this simply undocks the view from whatever it was and you can then free-roam up to about a mile away from the train you're driving at that moment, so you can wander about the yard changing switches. Very, very cool to have a heavy freight, use 8 to zoom ahead to the next station and wait three or four minutes to see it pound through and watch it disappear into the distance, it's what MSTS view 4 should have been!

The other neat feature when playing is the ability to add stock at any time. Messing around in a switcher with some flats, wish you had a few tank cars on that far track to play with? Add 'em. Now doing so is not two clicks, in fact until I saw the video tutorial at UKTS I hadn't a clue, but once you get used to it it's easy.

It's pretty buggy overall and it desperately needs that patch and the dev kit out on November 12: and on day one I was pretty frustrated. No, scratch that, I was in mental anguish. But the graphics are very good, loco performance is very good (except friction coefficient too low), and despite the bugs it hasn't crashed to desktop once. Now, whose MSTS installation can make that boast?

Hope that ramble is useful

Paul

Well Ihave the new RS sim a few days now, I am in awe of the graphical details, but I am also disapointted also.

it plays good and I get about 40 to 60fps most of the time on my computer which I just built a new one specs as follows

intel e6850 due 2 core
2 gig of ram
asus mb stiker extreme
8800gts 320 meg video
and a xfi gamer sound card

pretty much it oh 2 seagate 320gig hds.

now for my problems, switching don't know you guys are doing it but anytime I roll up to standing cars, I bumb into them at anyspeed over 1kph and they go flying tried many diffent times.

stuttering and low frame rates, now I will start a session with frame rates as high as 6o fps and it will stay that way for awhile, but playing some of the highspeed train sessions I get to high speeds and my framet will drop to around 30fps still not bad, but then the stutters come in, now with MSTS it was hardrive access that caused this, but now with this one I think its becuase its loading lots of new objects at one time but the harddrive is not being access when it happens its about 2 to 3 seconds afterwards it happens.

oh and I can release the train brakes by the keyboard but not apply them have to use the mouse in cab view.

hope these and other bugs and performence issuses get fixed soon.

Paul, that was a very useful ramble - will head to Bath Green Park yard in a while to try out the stock additions and setting the points in advance.


cwhense, I have had stutters on a lower system, and occassional refusal of controls - moving to a different view then back again seems to have sometimes unlocked a control (though that may just be coincidence. Never had framerates so high - I wish.

The first patch will address many of the issues - the main thing to hold on to is that this is a very good start, and it will definitely get better.

Rod

I discovered today that the windscreen wipers work and you can see them working from inside the cab, now if the stupid program was given an interface where you could select the route then a starting location, consist and weather it might start to be usable, considering i have a Pentium D sysyem 3Gig plus a Nvidia 7300GS 512MB graphics 1 gig of ram i cannot get more than an average if 15fps, i have updated DirectX 9.0c to the latest aug 2007 version have updated the video drivers to the latest, at the moment i am shelving it in the hope that the ptch will solve some of this, but the method of choosing stock routes and weather etc sucks

RS isn't suitable for switching just yet - there's a problem with cars when decoupling (they stop). Once Kuju/F4G release their first patch, we may have a whole new set of toys to play with, but for now, things are a bit sterile.

Cheers!
Marc

1.the sound for the hst is .not 100% correct when the locs on full power the sound
is like its on 50% power
2. the class 47 freight loco has the wrong sound , its got 2 locos sound to make the one sound
and sounds terrible .
3. the deltic sound like it only gets up to 50% power also .
4. the class 47 has the wrong numers on . !
5. the veiw from the deltic is not correct,unless your only 4ft tall that is .
6. the instuctions for the game are almost none existent.
7. were does it show or tell you how to put a simple loco consist together ??
8. people on platform are like zombies ,
9. theres a patch out to fix both cab view for the deltic and the correct numbers for the
class 47 loco already . !!
10. if you try to couple locos to wagons or coachs some times ,they fall of the track .
11. and theres lots more .
12. i spent £35 . of my money on somethink that was not 100% tested !

13. some people will get the game running .some wont and heres my point ,only the folks
who are clever and already no how to rip apart sims and no how they work ow to put
consists together ,ghange the weather , point were you start from ,and all the other stuff
you get to do on msts 1 will love it , for the the people that dont then they will say its
"rubbish" faults showing up on a game in the fist week it came out !!
did any one test it? did any one ask the punters who were going to buy it what they thought of it before it was released ? any demos out ?

and why is the usa route going to be " cajon pass" the routes already out on msts 1.
shure the photos of it look great and the locos , but youre only going to get one route so
why somethink thats already out ???


so kuju railsim ,came on my pc ,then got booted off . so the next time an add on come out for it
or an upgrade , i will stear clear of it , mony lost for kuju , why because they put a rubbish sim out

am i allowed to say "RUBBISH" im dam shure if the usa kuju DOES NOT meet with high expectations
when it comes out there, THERE will be a few people moaning too.

Andy, sorry if you are miffed at KUJU over their new simulator - what beats me is why you jumped more or less straight in and bought it when it is just out. Always a dodgy thing to do with new software .

Too late now, but maybe waiting a while and working out whether or not it was for you, based on others moans and plaudits, might have been a bit better - you would have been £35 better off.

No point in commenting on your individual dislikes, but at least some of the problems will be easy for KUJU to fix (and will likely be fixed in the first patch) and others have already been patched (and will likely be in the first patch as well).

But really, if you want to call it rubbish and have a general rant and moan, this isn't the forum to do it on. Could I suggest here where its home is

http://www.railsimulator.com/forum

I agree it isn't perfect, but there are many advances (not least good detail with reasonably high framerates), and as others have said, it is a new platform that has possibilities for improvement.

You are right, at the moment it is ideal for those that want to tinker, but there are many who are enjoying it as it stands and are taking it for what it is, at the moment. Time will tell how good it becomes, once the third party input starts .

Contact KUJU and tell them what you think.

Rod

well i feel a bit happier now, actually managed to run 25miles without any form of disaster other than the 15fps i am getting with a Pentium D 3Gig processor, Nvidia 7300GS 256MB +256MB cache, i gig of ram, but hopefully on monday that will be sorted have a Geforce 8600GT on its way with a soundblaster audigy card (sound is onboard at present) also managed to find an exe that does not want the DVD in the drive for which i made up a couple of batch files to swap from the original to the 'fixed' one and back again at will, used the patched files from UK trainsim to swap the A & D keys.

i think the thing i find annoying still is the keys, press the key to move the throttle and it is not instant, you have to hold it slightly longer and then it goes but its all to easy for it to then go to high, the HST goes way past the speed limit to easily as its first throttle setting is 20% , i spent a lot of the 25 miles i did do coasting to keep the speed down to the limit.

overall though i love the graphics especially the lineside buildings which in MSTS always looked in a lot of cases like an afterthought, it will be nice to have the wipers going in the rain if i ever find any rain, i am not editing the default freeroaming scenario to do that, i want to be able to select it from a menu

love starting with an engine that is switched of and starting it up before moving off, its growing on me

I think the sound card will probably improve your frame rates more than the video card. I upgraded my Audigy 2 to a Fatal1ty and wow. Framerates increased from 14 to 18 to 35. Once you get both installed you should see a big difference in performance.