Announcing Train Simulator Classic 2024

[Cardinal51]

American his message before he changed it.

Cardinal51. You look very active this afternoon, here and elsewhere.
I don´t think you are talking of AmericanSteam (as someone changing post contents), right?

Had some waiting time at the airport.

And yes I was, but seems all is clear now so I suggest to clean up this thread.

[spartantrain32]

Thoughts on the subscription service. I'm not real clear on this. If you pay $8.99 US/month, do you get to pick more than one route/DLC for the month from the list or several? For the following month do you keep the ones you previously chose plus choose additional ones from the list or are your previous choices removed? I am sure they have some sort of DRM. So are they stored on your computer or in the cloud? What happens if they are stored on your computer but you store them on a separate drive. If you play them offline are they protected. I guess we will wait and see. Subscription services are becoming more common in gaming. That comes out to $107.88US per year but are you locked into all DTG only content or does it include Steam content as well?

As for how it will work we will have to wait and see. Maybe something identical to Trainz?
as for the pricing 135$ a year. I dont know if a subscription will really draw in new players but I could be wrong. (it'd be cheaper in the long run to just buy the game/dlc through sales etc)

[august1929]

From the FAQs

What happens if my subscription ends?

If you decide to end your Rail Subscription you will no longer be able to access any Train Simulator content you did not already own previously.

Will this mean any change to the existing Train Simulator Classic on the Steam Store?

No, the subscription is optional only and does not replace the current store offer. You will always be able to purchase Train Simulator Classic base game, route, and locomotive add-ons separately. This includes those featured in the subscription. All content you own in your Steam Library will remain unchanged.

Personally can't see any point ...not after years committed to the sim. Possibly a good way for a new player, possibly...

Rod

[pkz19]

Will this be a new GG1 or the old one?

[Cardinal51]

Seems no-one is really getting in to the details of the core update . . so here we go . . . I hope I got it right . . .
This is nothing new for players who have been running the various Public Betas, but might be new, and perhaps even interesting, for players who did not.

Below stuff has been Publicly Beta tested after the latest Core Update v75.8a and therefore MIGHT make it in to TSC2024 ....

• Public Beta Build 77.1a
• We have completed work to upgrade several tools to 64-bit and to support 64-bit addressing. 64-bit binaries have been added for the Blueprint Editor 2 and associated command line tools ConvertToGEO, ConvertToTG and Serz. These 64-bit tools have a “64” suffix to distinguish them from the 32-bit versions. The 64-bit Blueprint Editor 2 is contained within a Tools/x64 subfolder. These tools are currently considered experimental and feedback on their functionality is requested. Note that on first run of the 64-bit Blueprint Editor, the user should set the RailWorks Folder correctly by using the Tools > Options menu item and restarting the app. These tools are designed to be run in the Tools/x64 folder and should not be copied into a different location, nor should the Schema be copied into this x64 folder.
• Implemented a fix for the 64-bit build failing to start with some Intel GPUs on Windows 11. This could cause the application to silently fail before the splash screen. By default, PhysX is now initialised using software rather than hardware. The hardware initialisation could cause a crash on non-CUDA GPUs.
• Implemented a fix for SilverLining stars not being visible at night time. In some cases this bug could result in SilverLining sky being replaced by the default sky (although SilverLining precipitation would still work). The magnitude for stars should be adjustable by editing the SilverLining config file if required.
• Increased the size of the heap using for loading geometry in 64-bit mode from 1 GB to 2 GB to stop some out of memory errors on the streaming heap.
• Fix for a situation where a D3D "Device Not Reset" error can occur without first getting a "Device Lost" error. This should fix the remaining D3D crashes, such as those on alt-tab switching.
• The FPS limit now defaults to 60fps (as opposed to 30fps). This limit is now enforced during menus and pause screens in all cases (no matter what command line option is used) to reduce uncapped frame rates and excessive CPU usage whilst browsing the menus, especially with some Ryzen CPUs.
• Fast sound update optimisations have been implemented but are disabled by default due to triggering failures. These changes spread updates to sounds over multiple frames, but could cause problems with delayed sound triggering. This can be accessed by using the command line "-FastSoundUpdate" with an optional value for the update factor, e.g. "-FastSoundUpdate=10" (the default when enabled).
• A new command line option "-ShowScriptTiming" has been added to aid developers when optimising their Lua scripts. This renders an overlay on screen showing all the Lua scripts that are being called, the total number of calls, and the total time spent in them.
• A new command line option "-ShowAverageTiming" (which must be used in conjunction with ShowScriptTiming) has been added. This provides additional information - namely the mean and medium time spent in each script. This can be used to determine if the scripts are always performing poorly or if there are outliers. For example, an Engine script may be called 50 times, but one of those calls may take significantly more than the others (i.e. for the player loco vs AI locos).
• A new log filter has been added - "Script Performance". When enabled this will provide performance hints via logmate. Currently, this only has one warning - when a script tries to set a value to the same value it already has (e.g. via SetControlValue). In some situations, this Lua call can have a huge performance hit, because the text-based lookup can be very slow. In general, scripts should only set values that they know have changed. Note that GetControlValue has a similar performance penalty, so using that followed by a SetControlValue will have worse performance overall. Instead, scripts should track these values themselves using internal Lua variables wherever possible to minimise these calls. An example might be a loco script that sets headlights and rear lights every frame, rather than when the loco changes direction. With some scripts this filter can cause a huge amount of extra output to Logmate, so a new filter was added rather than using an existing one. Developers should be aware of this when using the "All" filter.

• Public Beta Build 76.5a
• Reverted Dispatcher change that was intended to make node deletion on pathing failure more robust, but instead could make it more unstable.
• Fixed an STL assert failure in Debug build (this could also cause a crash in release builds) - tunnel iterators were being used after deletion when rendering 2D map.
• Removed assert in Landscape texture that causes a crash/break in Debug builds.
• Fix for crash in loading of Lingbao to Mianchi Scenario 3 (and other scenarios that include reversing sections). Caused by fix to prevent decrementing a stack pointer when at the beginning of the stack. Previous fix was to change loop check, new fix is a special flag to prevent and recover.
• Added command line option "-DisableSilverLining" to fully disable Silver Lining to aid debugging the graphics device lost crashes on alt-tab and screen sleep.
• Updated to Silver Lining 6.42 to fix D3D device lost error on screen sleep (and potentially others)

• Public Beta Build 76.3a
• We've fundamentally fixed the last remaining issues relating to how TS allocates memory.
• Support for 64-bit addressing in all custom heaps in the x64 build.
• Fix for assert in STL when decrementing an iterator at the beginning of a list.
• More reliable releasing of landscape textures.
• New launcher app to fix launching the same build (x32/x64/Dx12) on graphical or resolution change.
• Workaround for screen resolution drop down in settings dialogue running off screen - added an offset to move dropdown vertically to remain on screen.
• Mitigation for serialisation crash during texture load. The most common crash in build v75.6a.x64
• Code to prevent crash from the dispatcher upon freeing up the same node twice on routing failure.
• Added check for -1 pointer in ScriptGetConsistSpeed.
• Fix for crash in headlight destructor (5th most common crash in v75.8a.x64).
• Potential fix for a crash caused by a ray cast calculation going off the end of a vertex buffer, this was more common in scenario editing mode than drive.
• Mitigation for various crashes due to null pointers or use of uninitialized variables in Delta serialisation, Scenario Editor consist placement, loft building.
• Initialisation of the "Current Consist" to zero/null on startup so as to mitigate crash during signal script initialisation accessing current consist when it is undefined.
• Additional logging to aid debugging D3D error.

But lets hope there will be many more improvements and tweaks.

[jalsina]

Have you guys looked at the Steam forum "Announcing Train Simulator Classic 2024" in Events & Announcements?
There are right now 10 pages of complaints, mostly against TSC and DTG.

[Cardinal51]

Nope I did not. But did that the days after the announcement.

People do not understand the subscription, do not understand what this release is or how DTG has done it the last couple of years. On top of that they are a bunch of whiners that are / behave like children :-)

On the other hand . . . . . when you are an older person that has been around since MSTS / Railworks this is a great game. When you are a younger person / newer gamer expecting quality like the newer developped games (and why wouldn't you expect that) our beloved TSC is pretty crappy.

[buzz456]

" our beloved TSC is pretty crappy."
Totally disagree.

[Cardinal51]

I assume your do not belong to the group ".... younger person / newer gamer .... "

[ElphabaWS]

I assume your do not belong to the group ".... younger person / newer gamer .... "

You're of course welcome to your viewpoint, but the demographics around TSC do not support your premise that it is only a "older persons" game. TSC has a sizeable "young" user base and in fact its uptake from new hobbyists is significant. I can also confirm from our own data that the total HIS user base includes a significant population of younger hobbyists. The fact that Train Simulator Classic is about to celebrate its 15th year as a vital product and that DTG continues to invest in updating it, etc., certainly speaks to its broad appeal.

[Cardinal51]

... do not support your premise that it is only a "older persons" game. ......

That is not my premise. I hink that younger ones complain more, that is what I wrote :-)

[ElphabaWS]

... do not support your premise that it is only a "older persons" game. ......

That is not my premise. I hink that younger ones complain more, that is what I wrote :-)

Your earlier comments about "TSC being crappy" (in the view of younger players) and your reply to Buzz suggest that only older users appreciate or use TSC.

[Cardinal51]

My reply to Buzz is what I wrote before (I quoted my earlier post in that reply). Anyway you can read in what I wrote what you want. You probab ly hav e more statistics available but I am sure the complainer are in the lower age groups.

In the mean time I just hope in the future we will have a dual TSC with two game engines. One that makes sure all current stuff still works fine. And one that has a more up to date standard that will run special routes and stock created for that. and of course, all this from within the same game.

[buzz456]

I'm a younger person but not new to the sim.

[Cardinal51]

Username:buzz456
Location:SW Florida
Age:79