It would be awsome if Microsoft included famous locomotives, depots, or tracks like "Big Boy", Durango-Silverton railroad, Pikes Peak cog train, transcontinental railroad, or even mining trains.  There are a lot of possibles; you could have a historical setting with historical trains, modern setting with modern trains, and a future setting etc.  Then later maybe you could go online and interact with TS players, but that might be a little complicated though oh well, I and Really looking forward to this.

Is there any chance of the MBTA appearing in this Train Simulator?

One more thing, will the release of Train Sim X be this year?

My biggest fear about this new sim is that it is going to slow my comp way down... but I am curious about what trains and locomotive will be on this new Train Sim

I hope Train Sim X includes full Washington-Boston NEC (not just Washington-Philadelphia).

Cool, what is that fourth photo?  Is it an ALCO S2?  I learned how to drive on one of them.  It was a local short line and that's the only locomotive they had.  Cool photos

 

Joe Molesky

Bill, thanks for the feedback.  Sounds like a great route over there.  I haven't ridden it, but I'll bet Rick has.  If you haven't done so already, be sure to send in your feedback via the webpage.  We are reading every message we get.

Actually, Min Spec will be an 8GHz Quad Proc with 4G RAM and two SLI 8800's. :-)

 

Just kidding.

 

Seriously, perf is very, very important to us.  Here is a useful article (and another) that can help you get the most out of FSX.  There is also an update in the works that will include perf enhancements.

 

It's too early to say what the min config will be for TS, but I can tell you that we're building this for you, our customers, and we know that you, our customers, are expecting great performance.

// pseudocode for TrainSim

FlightSimX.Contains(awesomeSDK);

class TrainSim : public FlightSimX {...};

 

Check this out.

Do you mean HDR (high dynamic range) lighting?  HDR is awesome. For those of you who haven't heard of HDR, check out Half-Life 2: Lost Coast.  You can also read an excellent summary of HDR in the wikipedia.  While I can't tell you whether or not we're doing it, I can tell you that it's one of those Big Things that take realism to the next level.

Any chance this will be incorporating any HRD lighting techniques. I think this would fit in really nice.

 

Eric

Any chance this will be incorporating any HRD lighting techniques. I think this would fit in really nice.

 

Eric

I am sooooooo jealous of your recent 'research' trip.  How about doing a research trip on the Knoxville & Holston River Railroad shortline or the C.N.O.T.P.'s Rathole division in order to include one of their routes in your newest venture.

 

Also, how about including an Eastern Narrow Gauge route in the newest version of MSTS?  In particular, the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina/Linville River Railroad route.  The route maps for 1916, 1919, and 1920 are totally complete and readily accessible.  There is/are a multitude of photographs to model structures, engines (steam for the narrow gauge as well as steam AND diesel for the standard gauge - yes, they had a 'third rail' for standard gauge), freight and passenger cars, and anything and/or everything you would want.  In fact, the Tweetsie Railroad in Boone, NC has the No. 12, which was one of the only surviving steam engine locomotive that ran on the line.  The No. 5's tender is still in existence outside of Gate City, Virginia and is readily available for photographs.  Boxcar #400 is on display in Elizabethton, Tennessee; Boxcar #400, located outside of Roan Mountain, Tennessee is still available for photographs, and the Caboose #505 is still in pristine condition and could be used to construct related files.  There are even construction/builders drawings available for engines, fr4eight/passenger cars, and miscellaneous structures. 

 

This would be an excellent narrow gauge 'addition' to the newest version and a nice counterpoint to the Western Narrow Gauge lines that are currently offered through the Train-Sim website for download.  If you are interested, please feel free to contact me via email.

 

Bill Stevens ~ Knoxville, Tn

Email WSteven1@gmail.com

 

Bill Stevens ~ Knoxville, TN 

Since it's based on the FSX engine does thim mean I'm going to need a 4GHz processor and a 8800 series card to get decent frame rates?  The current train sim suffers from stutters every time it accesses the disk and my computer isn't a dog.  I can run FS2004 with settings maxxed and get 45-60fps but the FSX demo drives my computer to it's knees.