Unreal Engine for Train Simulator Confirmed

[Ghettofab75]

I'm not knowledgeable on what UE4 is or does so I'll be interested to see how it improves the game. I know it sucks for content creators and users, but if we want the sim to move forward we'll have to deal with it. Maybe now would be a good time for them to correct some physics issues?

Kevo

[g_nash]

Great news to start the day.

[Ericmopar]

Notice they made the announcement of DLC obsolescence after the summer DLC sale.

Yes. I knew about this over a month ago, and didn't purchase a thing. My Silicon Valley red flag, was flying high.
I take that back, I bought one last engine from Brit Kits, but nothing from the sale.
Besides, a game engine change won't fix the physics. They haven't addressed relatively simple things like brakes and couplers, so I don't hold any faith in the new stuff they're working on.
It is clearly a company philosophy they have, and no new game engine will fix that.

[buzz456]

Let's not turn this into a DTG/RSC bashing when we know practically nothing at this point. BTW I never upgraded to FSX because I had so much stuff in2004. History may repeat itself here.

[Ericmopar]

It depends on how a person reads it, but I think they will offer a separate install of the new engine. At least that's what I hope they do.
If not, what I said in an earlier post still stands. Just make a drivable backup of the old one and proceed with the new.
It's as simple as navigating to the "Common" folder in the "Steam" folder, and creating a new folder with whatever name you want to give it, then copy the old "Railworks" folder into the new folder, then navigating to the Railworks.exe in that new folder and creating a new shortcut.
A person can even create a new shortcut for the backup within Steam itself.
That's what I will do, if/or when I decide to purchase the new game engine.
That's how I run TS 2013 When I want to.

We may have other problems in the future anyways, since Microsoft has stated they won't support DX9 forever. They will obsolesce some software themselves.

I hope they do a fantastic redo of Cajon on the new engine. I would buy that.

[ozinoz]

New game engine / version aside, I am intrigued by a fishing simulator - sit staring at your screen for 4 hours and not even a nibble

...and people crack jokes about train simulators

[Ghettofab75]

New game engine / version aside, I am intrigued by a fishing simulator - sit staring at your screen for 4 hours and not even a nibble

...and people crack jokes about train simulators

I was thinking the exact same thing!

[plovdiv21]

Let's not turn this into a DTG/RSC bashing when we know practically nothing at this point. BTW I never upgraded to FSX because I had so much stuff in2004. History may repeat itself here.

I kept my FS9 2004 and installed FSX.I still use and enjoy both,and I hope I can do the same with TS 2014/15 and the new game engine TS I just don't see why it should be one but not the other.

[Jason210]

Let's not turn this into a DTG/RSC bashing when we know practically nothing at this point. BTW I never upgraded to FSX because I had so much stuff in2004. History may repeat itself here.

I kept my FS9 2004 and installed FSX.I still use and enjoy both,and I hope I can do the same with TS 2014/15 and the new game engine TS I just don't see why it should be one but not the other.

Well, in those days there wasn't such a thing as DRM. Now, with the Steam platform, you pretty much have to do what the developers dictate.

[arizonachris]

Wow, cool stuff, y'all. I'm enjoying the "doom-and-gloom fear fest". S'pose we should circle the wagons, maybe put on our tin foil hats?

I'll betcha we can keep the old version, and get the new version, and "they" will still create stuff for the old, and create neat, new stuff for the new. It is, after all, a business, to make money. So why not from all the angles you can, at the same time. There are a huge number of in-house-DTG, and third party dev's, to make the most of the brave, new world. They build it, we buy it. You liked it in MSTS, hey, look, we have it better in TS2015. Or, now, even better in the all new TSX2020!

[OldProf]

Whoopee! It's been a while since we've had a chicken little thread at RWA. If someone provides the forest, others will quickly see to the fires.

[NorthernWarrior]

One would hope the sensible option would be to keep whatever the final version of the current game engine is as a "legacy" product and offer a side by side install of the Unreal powered engine as a new game. I for one would not object to buying the new sim rather than having it as an upgrade, if that means I can have the best of both worlds. In some ways the situation may be similar to when we moved from Rail Simulator to Railworks - existing customers got a rebate or discount by sending in the serial number from the RS manual (but anyone with half a brain kept a separate record and could easily keep using RS if they wished).

This is effectively what N3V are doing with their Trainz new version - there is some guarantee of forward compatibility into T:ANE but for those items that don't work, TS12 and TS2010 will still work fine as standalone products.

It would be poor commercial judgement indeed financial suicide to do anything other than the above, really, particularly with loads of DLC still in the pipeline for release. Where the water gets a little murky is how a potential upgrade affects "homebrew" production. I've already pretty much stopped building anything other than short model/expanded miniature railways for Trainz, if only because I don't see the point of having to redo a long route to take advantage of the new features in T:ANE. However until DTG confirm exactly what their intentions are to the greater public and developers, it does also put things in a kind of limbo if we are indeed at some point forced to make a choice.

The DTG PR machine having made the initial announcement needs to come up with a bit more flesh on the bones so we know where we stand. As it is, I think shorter routes will be going on the agenda so far as my workshop is concerned until further notice, as there's simply no point spending 3 - 4 months on something that could be obsolete in 18 - 24 months time.

And as regards the fishing game - IMHO guaranteed flop. It will be to DTG what Fury was to Auran. They should have done a golf sim!

[NYWhiskey]

They should have done a golf sim!

How cool would that have been. Multiplayer golf is really fun with a couple of guys.

I had a fishing game on my phone that was fun for about two hours total.

Don't forget the DLC like the new Japanese Koi pack.

[davedingler]

Ooooooh Boyyyyyyyyy!

I see trouble ahead.

I searched Google for "Unreal Engine 4" and found some interesting information in the FAQ on their site.

UE 4 is a subscription program for folks that want to produce games, currant rate at $19.00 per month. Will you need to subscribe to the UE in order to create freeware routes and scenarios? If you create a commercial product to be used with the new TS then you have to pay a royalty percentage of the selling price to UE on each and every sale. I didn't see any thing about freeware producer products, Will users of the new TS be able to create and share as freeware routes and scenarios? What if a user of UE 4 TS wants to create a route or a Scenario for a commercial route, will he be required to get permission to do so?

Just wondering,

Dave

[g_nash]

Just wondering,

Dave

Let's not get carried away, that's not what that subscription is all about