Trainz is an ongoing series of 3D train simulator video games produced by the Australian studio N3V Games (formerly Auran), the first installment being released in October 2001. Each installment of the series implements realistic or fictional simulated railway operations (Driver) alongside the ability to create custom maps (Surveyor) and contains a vast collection of real-life rolling stock for the user to drive in their maps. The games are known for their support for user-created custom content (trains, scenery, maps). The ability to use custom content was originally introduced in Trainz 1.1.1, but was not officially implemented until the release of Ultimate Trainz Collection.
Gameplay
In the route editor, Surveyor, the user can shape the landscape, paint with ground textures, lay tracks, and place buildings and roads. The user then operates the trains in Driver, either in free play, or according to a scenario called a Driver Session (previously called Scenarios in the early versions of Trainz, Ultimate Trainz Collection, and TRS2004) which can range in difficulty from beginner to expert. In CAB (cabin) mode the train physics are more sophisticated than in DCC mode; adding real-life considerations such as wheel slip on the rails; how the weight of the consist slows acceleration and deceleration. Any train can be given directions to be driven by the computer.
Other software The simulators are supported by a large library of freeware assets which can be downloaded from the N3V servers, referred to as the Download Station (DLS). Unless users purchase a First Class Ticket with real money, download speeds for the DLS (both in Content Manager and directly through File Transfer Protocol on the Trainz website) are throttled. PaintShed is a simple program for aiding and easing the process of 'reskinning' traincars, altering their livery, by recoloring and adding new heraldry to Trainz locomotives and other rolling stock. The Content Manager (CM) module is a Windows program that allows management of the in-game database files. It was renamed under the name of Content Manager Plus (CMP) in TRS2006.
Trainz rolling stock assets were also used in a Microsoft Train Simulator expansion pack dubbed the "Regional Add-On Pack", which allowed users to drive locomotives used in Trainz in MSTS maps, with some locomotives being unused in the former altogether, such as an ATSF Dash 9, UP DD40AX, and a Penn Central GG1. Another add-on, "MSTS Paintshed", was basically a reskinned version of the Trainz Paintshed module, which allowed users to make reskins of the same templates found in Trainz Paintshed, and export them to MSTS. Both of these add-on releases were created by N3V, originally Auran at the time.
Games
Trainz
The first ever version of Trainz originally began as a set of downloadable files in 2000, eventually becoming Trainz 0.9, which was a CD-ROM beta that was mailed to testers by Auran. The front cover of the beta donned a SBB Ce 6/8 II "Krokodil" locomotive in front of a mountainous terrain. The "Krokodil" locomotive would later become an official addon for the budding game.
Another train simulator, Microsoft Train Simulator released roughly one year after the beta released to testers, and both Trainz and MSTS proved to be fierce competitors. As a rebuttal to the GE Dash 9-44CW model used in MSTS, Auran had created their own version intended for usage in Trainz. However, it, alongside many 3D models of American, Canadian, British, German, Swedish, Russian, Australian, Italian, and Spanish rolling stock went unused in the final release.
Trainz Community Edition was released in December 2001, with Service packs 1 (April), 2 (June) and 3 (November) being released in 2002, in which they progressively updated the Community Edition, Trainz 1.0, to versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 successively. Two retail builds (retail versions releases) existed; the English/USA version is commonly known as Trainz 1.0.
Trainz Retail Edition was released in June 2002 aimed at the United States and other North American markets. Service pack 3 was released in November 2002, this updated both the Community and Retail Editions to version 1.3. Thus all USA versions are commonly known as Trainz 1.3.
The Ultimate Trainz Collection, informally abbreviated as UTC, also known as Trainz 1.5, was released on 26 November 2002 in North America as a 3-CD set including extra rolling stock, and a CD-ROM with TrainzScript-based scenarios and route map content based on Trainz 1.3 tech. This was the first edition to include the formerly separately retailed PaintShed program and support RailDriver, as well as the first incorporating Trainz user developed freeware content as part of the release, some of which became Trainz staple content in TRS2004 et al. through current releases.
Special hardware support The desktop cab controller RailDriver was first supported for use in Service Pack 1 for the Ultimate Trainz Collection, and is also supported by all subsequent Trainz releases.
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 (known as Trainz Railway Simulator 2004 in the United Kingdom), or TRS2004, was released in September 2003. Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 incorporated a load of technical changes and these required many bug fixes that were released as four service packs throughout 2004 and 2005.
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 was the first version of Trainz to include interactive industries and loadable rolling stock capabilities, which allow the player to deliver various resources (such as coal, wood, and steel) and passengers to various industries and stations across the playable area. There were many industries included and much of the bundled rolling stock was updated to include this new dynamic loading and unloading animated capability with a corresponding load-state dynamic driving physics change in the handling of a consist. It was also the first version of the Trainz series to have built-in steam engines.
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 Deluxe was a later 4 CDROM follow on with the first two service packs pre-installed. It also included PaintShed, and a bonus content CD.
TRS2004 and earlier versions utilized a program titled "Content Dispatcher". Instead of the more streamlined Content Manager Plus (which was introduced in the subsequent TRS2006 release), Content Dispatcher was designed for File Transfer Protocol (FTP) downloads. Included with TRS2004 was also "Trainz Helper", which helped users download dependent files for their addons. TRS2006's Content Manager Plus rendered Content Dispatcher and the Trainz Helper obsolete since CMP could handle all of these tasks in one straightforward program.
Trainz Railway Simulator 2006
Trainz Railway Simulator 2006 (known as Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 in the USA), or TRS2006, was a transitional release, incorporating the stable Auran JET based TRS2004 GUI modules with only some graphics improvements, but introducing the data base manager Content Manager Plus (CMP) as a new core technology. ContentManager.exe (now called just CM) combines data base management, and secure FTP upload and download facilities and special user definable filters all in one integrated system. By defining a good filter, the user could 'selectively not see' the clutter of regional items in the Surveyor asset selection menus saving user time when world building. This important filtering feature was further improved in Trainz 2009, becoming far more powerful and easier to use.
In addition to these improvements, several new routes were included, such as Hawes Junction (representing a small section of the Settle and Carlisle Railway and serving as a demo for TC3), Toronto Rail Lands 1954 (representing Toronto's sprawling railyard in 1954), and Marias Pass Approach (representing the BNSF Marias Pass line between Shelby, Montana and Cut Bank, Montana and serving as a demo for the full Marias Pass payware route). TRS2006 was published in September 2005, and the base release with its single service pack formed the core of the regional releases (most are joint ventures with 'Trainz Partners' combining payware content provider's products with the base Trainz software) over the next four years until the introduction of new technologies in TC3 and TRS2009.
In 2006, SP1 for TRS2006 was released. It introduces several changes to Content Manager Plus alongside inclusion of the Monorail Project, a content pack that recreates the Walt Disney World Monorail System in Trainz.
TRS2006 was the last ever version of Trainz to incorporate PaintShed. Instead of being a separately sold program, TRS2006 incorporated PaintShed within Content Manager Plus. Since the Trainz community had begun to sideline PaintShed in favor of third-party programs that directly edited texture files used in Trainz assets, Auran had quickly outmoded PaintShed after TRS2006.
In Germany, it was published by Bluesky-Interactive, as ProTrain Perfect.
Trainz Driver
Trainz Driver (also known as Trainz: Driver Edition (TDE) in North America) is a version of Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 released in 2006, lacking the Content Manager and Surveyor GUI world building module, having only the Driver and Railyard modules. Note this is precisely the formula utilized with the 2011-2016 release of iPhone and iPad-based Trainz releases, as well as the short-lived Trainz Driver 2016.Announced 19 February 2016; actually shipped ca 10 March 2016. The package includes three large routes with 21 driver sessions, all set in North America. Trainz Driver is the first instance when Auran turned to blatant marketing measures to boost sales. Current CEO Tony Hilliam had taken on an increasing role in company management beginning in 2005, and by 2008 would end up a principle investor in Auran with rights to develop and distribute the Trainz franchise. Over the same three-year period, Auran licensed eight separate 'Regional releases' based on the stable JET2 (TRS2004/TRS2006) game engineSee other sections on this page: 1) Trainz Routes (Routes), 2) Trainz Driver (TDE), 3) Trainz the Complete Collection (TCC), the three Trainz Classics: 4-6) TC1, TC2, & TC3, 7) TRS2007 and 8) TRS2008 releases aimed at opening new market niches. These versions had few game improvements,Neglecting Gcard interface (next footnote), only Trainz Classics 3, v2.8 had changes which impacted the data model guidelines content creators had to follow—and those affected virtually only locomotive modeling, leaving most content creation standards unchanged. and Driver and Surveyor were technically equivalent to The TRS2004-TRS2006 games, albeit, given new skins and better graphics interfacing. Prior to those releases, if you had a high end graphics system, to let the game know about your superior hardware you had to edit an ini file called TrainzOptions.txt with apropos height and width entries.Starting with TRS2006-SP1, Trainz was able to read Gcards and present a drop menu in the Options User Interface.
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2007
Trainz Railroad Simulator 2007 (abbreviated as TRS2007) was the second release targeting a regional market distributed by Anuman Interactive for sale in France, Belgium and Switzerland. There were initially two versions: the standard version which consisted of Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 with Service Pack 1 applied, and the Gold edition, which included French regional add-on items. Halycon Media later distributed Trainz Railroad Simulator 2007 with German region-specific content for the British, Austrian, and Swiss market. This release version of TRS2007 was not available in American markets, though the Gold edition content was included in later games.
Trainz Classics (TC1—TC3)