New member, new owner of 2012 /w a question or two :)

[Guardious]

Hello everyone,

I am guardious and an avid train enthusist, not so much as many of you as I am sure you can quote what # goes to what engine etc, but I did love my "o" gauge from years back. Being 43, I had the itch and thought "hmm, wonder if there are any good train sims out" , after doing some investigation work on each version out there, I went with trains 2012.

So after playing a bit and learning "how to" in the game, I notice most trains associated with the title are overseas (Not U.S) , the Horseshoe was fantastic, but alas I understand the developer is not from the U.S. so that make sense. I was looking at some of the addtional packages one could buy and the one that caught my eye was of course the North American package. Anyone familar with this package? Is the 45 worth all of what it contains?

Secondly, I can play the game almost on max, I down the shaders a bit and water and it doesn't lag at all. I have bloom enable etc, but one question I have is night time seems a bit well, dark,. Now I know there is the adjustment to the gamma that I could use, but I was hoping the in game light sources would do the job. So my question is, does the in game light source actually work ? Could it be just my system having issues? Or is it ,just small light sources that don't really project anything into the game? Could it be my gamma is too low? Any advice would be great!

Beyond that, I looked at each site that supports the train games out there, this one seemed a bit more dedicated to the one game and there seems to be alot of activity on this particular title so I came here :), I look forward to our discussions in the future!

I am 43, btw and a software developer , trains are just something I have always enjoyed.

-Guardious

[thecanadianrail]

Hello, and welcome to our community!

ok, lets get started.

i am not farmiliar with this "North American" package you are speaking of, can you give us a link or tell us where to find it?

Yes the light sources work ingame, but some are stronger than others, but you MUST make shure you have the TSX GAME ENGINE TURNED ON! (many of us made that mistake the first day of release) to turn it on if it isn't already, when the launch screen pops up when attempting to launch the game you will see tabs at the top of the screen, go to the tab named settings, then check the TSX game engine ON.

i hope this helps!

[micaelcorleone]

Hi and welcome aboard.
Very nice to have you with us.

(...)I was looking at some of the addtional packages one could buy and the one that caught my eye was of course the North American package. Anyone familar with this package? Is the 45 worth all of what it contains?

I'm also not sure what you mean, but if it's the US Commuter Value Pack, I think it's worth the buy.
The NEC route is very nice if you like high-speed and passenger operations (although it's a very resource intensive route), Acela Express is also a well done model and the Genesis and Superliners are also very detailed (of course, I can recommend the Genesis, because I've contributed to it ).

Other North American dlc I can really recommend:
- Portland Terminal Route
- Dash 9
- the two SD70 packs
- SW1500
- G-TraX Steamers

So my question is, does the in game light source actually work ?

Yes, they do. Actually, working lights are one of the new features of TS2012.
One limitation, though: Only if the loco or route was equipped with the new lights.
So it can happen that you'll see locos and routes that don't have these new lights.

Beyond that, I looked at each site that supports the train games out there, this one seemed a bit more dedicated to the one game and there seems to be alot of activity on this particular title so I came here :), I look forward to our discussions in the future!

Best choice!
Indeed, RWA is (in my opinion) the best railsim Forum you can find. Nice and helpful people, interesting discussions that not just scratches the surface and you can always learn something new here.

[Guardious]

Thank you all for the great welcome and the nice information,

Yes, my bad it's the US Commuter Pack, I got my version of the game on steam and in the future I will be willing to share/download and buy other peoples works, but atm I rather stick with officals till I get the game down better :)

TSX Game Engine on, ok got it. Never did that, that might explain my issue, I am new to the game so there are alot of options, thankfully I am well informed on the computer side. Thou, many of the options in this game are not easily identifiable, I do have to admit thou, they did do a great job of the tutorials (did them all) and manuals, (read them all), I was very fond of the "Career Mode" once I understood how it worked.

Don't take me wrong however about the over-seas issue, while I have no issue running those routs, I am not from that area and didn't grow up with that sort of train collection. Mine is the good old USA Steamers etc, runs from east to west, chicago to florida and the like. This is the sort of content I would be looking for.

Beyond all of this thou ( I will let you know if those settings indeed seem to be my issue) , I really love the game, it's an amazing peice of coding work and I can see the years of work put into it. The only thing I could see that could use a bit more work is the interactive items in the game. If I load a coal car, let me see it happen, cattle should be rounded up and loaded, they have some things in there, the passengers are great, so it's going in the right direction.

Anyways, back to work (at work atm shhh! :) ) , but I will let you guys know how it turns out and start getting more involved with the community here.

Thanks again!

-Guardious

[Samwolf]

Welcome to RWA. I too started out with just the US routes and engines. Believe me, the German and English routes and engines will "grow on you" if you give them a try.

[Guardious]

Hello Samwolf,

I figure as much as well, but as you probably did, I like to start with what I know and go from there ;)... Have been looking threw the forums here as well and alot of great information and ideas. I definitly look forward to diving into this game alot more and getting great fun out of it. I did a ton of modding for many games in the past so I look foward to that as well for this title.

It's sad to see some in another thread are having issue with this game, but they are on the right track, the physx system was bought out and one version to another has issue elminating older files, mostly in the XP systems. regedit is a good way to fix it but dangerous. For those that are too scared to mess with it , your best bet, back everything up, reformat , reinstall, not only will you have the correct drivers and installs, your system will be fresh and run stuff usually 10x faster then it would prior.

Anyways, that's for the other thread ;), I will be buying those american runs tonight when I get home and enjoy them and try the new settings for night runs! :) those are fun.

-Guardious

[Samwolf]

Just an FYI, Steam/Railworks usually has a Christmas season sale and you can get some really good deals on DLC. In some cases you can get 3 items for the price of one. So I get the ones I really, really want right away and then the "nice to haves" during the sale.

[LoneWolfDon]

Welcome aboard to the wonderful world of RailWorks.

If you're looking for more North American style/based routes, you might be interested in some of Rich Garber's routes too. Though they are more on the freight operations side of things, he does great work. Here's his main site:
http://www.allaboardrails.com/

Or, you can also find most of his routes for RailWorks on Steam as well;
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24055/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24092/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24029/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24028/

Also, depending on the route and scenario, there are also some functioning cranes that you operate and can see loading and unloading container cars.

When loading a Steam-Engine's Tender-car from a Coal-Chute refueling point, you will see the coal coming out of the chute and filling the tender-car.

Also, when loading or unloading coal cars, you will see the level of the coal in the hopper rising or lowering accordingly.

Some routes also have working turn-tables in which you can drive your engine on, then rotate the turn-table to change to a different track or direction.

And of course when picking up passengers at platforms you'll see them walking along the platforms, entering and disembarking from the train.

But yes, RailWorks is still lacking in this area a bit, but hopefully in time we will see more "interactive" things like this added.
---

If you're interested and open-minded to try some fictional-based routes & scenarios, which may be "non-prototypical" in some ways, feel welcome to check out my own site at:
http://www.rryard.com/
In the routes & scenarios section there I offer several addons, most of them for free. And even though my projects tend to be fictional-based, I try my best to make my projects of good quality, functional and enjoyable. Most of my addons will also work with default-installation of RailWorks 3 (Train-Simulator 2012), unless otherwise noted.

You'll find most people in the community to be a friendly and helpful bunch.
Best wishes,
--Don.

[Kali]

I would recommend the GP9. Quite strongly, too. I have to recommend the Genesis too for the model - hauling passengers isn't my absolute favourite thing but it's done well enough that it's a great thing to drive. The fact I too had a very minor contribution to it is beside the point ;) You won't go wrong with the GTrax steamers either, although only the SP one has any passenger cars so you're rather stuck with that if you're only wanting Steam DLC for now.

[imnew]

to railworks america. Nice to see more and more people joining the Railworks world !

[ozinoz]

This may be RailworksAmerica, but there are members from all over. Me I am from Oz...

Surprised nobody has mentioned Tori's fantastic COA (my favourite RW route) (apologies if they have, must be having a boy look) and I understand an update is due later this year early next with some more landscaping and lights etc, dependant on the resettlement.
Definitely check out Dick Cowans steamers - just waiting on an RW3 update - everything from Mikados to Shays :)



G

[kevhead]

Hey and welcome 2 the most fun and realistic train simulator ever made. The one thing I found that helped me was if u want to get the most out of it is to donate 2 rw tools. U won't regret this. Just ask anyone here.

[PapaXpress]

The one thing I found that helped me was if u want to get the most out of it is to donate 2 rw tools. U won't regret this. Just ask anyone here.

QFT

[Guardious]

Just a follow up,

Well so I haven't bought any of the addition yet, I will definitly thou. I did what everyone suggested about the settings, yup, day and night differance. The default isn't set to 2012 version , after I did that , alter some settings, everything can be pretty much maxed and the lighting from the train actually projects onto the tracks. Lights from building and polls actually project onto the ground and light up the surrounding area. Very very cool, 10x better then before hehe, I assume what I was looking at before was what you guys have been playing with before the 2012 version. Still not bad, but wow did that "checkbox" make a differance in the game, they did indeed improve it all 10 fold.

For me, I even did the multi-core, while not optimized, I did notice a jump in framerate so thats good. I look forward to trying out some of the things mentioned here, in time... when I am more familiar and get the urge, I will start editing and making my own thing ;), but till then, I will enjoy the dlc, player made stuff and the conversations I can read here on the boards.

Happy Driving Everyone!

-Guardious

[kevhead]

What is qft?