New Rail Simulator

What offering?

from EA Games. Developed by Kuju who did the original MS Train simulator, featuring Black 5, class 47, Deltic, and HST, with others which I cannot remember.

Rob.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of it. I shall now study it and (maybe) drop hints for Christmas.

Keith

Actually there are a few videos on YouTube.com for you to have a look at. They do look quite good and the sound does seem to manky either. Still prefer the free BVE train sim, which is free.

Regards,

ROb.

Not only that, it's free!! I like BVE too (and four).

Does it work on XP? according to their link to Amazon it is written for Vista.

Elliott

When it comes to PC games software EA are, in my humble opinion, in the top 3.

The Microsoft Train Simulator version 2 was disappointingly cancelled so this offering from EA looks like it has great potential.

The thing with all simulations are the range of free or cheap add on's produced by fans themselves. Microsoft Train Simulator has 'Sea View' whch is both detailed and funny.

Minimum Requirements to run Rail Simulator

OS: Windows XP with latest service pack installed / Windows Vista

CPU: XP - Intel Pentium 4 / AMD Athlon 1.7 GHz or equivalent.

Vista - Intel Pentium 4 / AMD Athlon 2.6GHz or equivalent

RAM: 512 MB

GFX: 64MB DirectX 9.0c compliant card with at least Pixel Shader 2.0

SFX: DirectX 9.0c compatible

HDD: 4.5 GB of space is required to install the game

I have taken your recommendation and tried BVE. Absolutely great, I have thoroughly enjoyed driving the 1938 stock train on the London Underground. Two questions though. I cannot find a way to save the program so that you can resume later and, whilst it runs great on XP, I cannot get it to run on Vista (my laptop). I start it, select the resolution and route and then get the message "BVE has stopped working". Any thoughts on either?

MSTS-2 was being developed by Kuju until it was cancelled by Microsoft. They then went on to develop the new Rail Simulator,a half finished product according to most reviews I've seen. Microsoft are now developing a sequel to MSTS themselves.

Neil.

No I don't know of a way to save you current games, but you can skip to any station from right clicking and selecting 'jump to'.

I personally run Windows 2000 as i'm too mean to upgrade right now. Not sure what you can do to get it to run on Windows Vista though. Perhaps you could email the author, who is japanese so his first language will not be english. Or perhaps i'm being presumptuous?

Try out the Network West Midlands sim too, the HST is great, and the class 37!

Sincere regards,

Rob.

. I cannot find a way to save the program so that you

Try running it in 'compatibility mode' if its possible. Have dumped my test vista, but poss same as XP in that right click on exe file, select compatibility mode etc etc.

Cheers, Simon

Robert Wilson wrote: [...]

It's probably the resolution you've chosen. You should set your laptop for its native resolution (which is the factory default), and leave it there. Any change in resolution should ideally be done with the video card's own settings utility, or else with the Windows Display/Screen applet, _before_ running the software. But I advise against doing that on a laptop.

I suspect that the game uses a lower resolution than your laptop's screen. Try running the game without setting a resolution. It should show up in a window that's smaller than the screen. Don't try to run it full screen.

As a general rule, on LCD monitors you should use only the native resolution. Lower or higher resolutions will not only look bad, but will also introduce ghosting.

HTH

I had already thought of (and tried) compatibility mode and also Run As Administrator but both, unfortunately, to no effect.

I agree totally about LCD monitors. However the SIM starts off by asking you to select the resolution you want and the highest is 1024x768. The resolution of the Vista Laptop LCD screen is 1440x900. By coincidence the resolution of the LCD monitor attached to my XP machine is also 1440x900 and the SIM runs fine on that so I am thinking it must be an XP v Vista problem.

It should not need anything like that, it is natively developed on Windows so should need no such thing.

Rob.

After all that I have come across the means of running it on Vista myself. It needs a little work first, details are here for anyone else on this link:

news is that, apparently, the guy who created most of the UK trains for downloading has retired and, in the last 24 hours, yanked them off of the site as he no longer wishes them to remain in the public domain.

There is one typo in the instructions on the web site. dv8vb.dll does not exist. It should read dx8vb.dll.

Keith

I may be able to help you out as I have a load of them archived on my server at home.

I have class 37, 66, 153, 156, 158, 170, 220, and HST. Did'nt bother to save the Pendo though. I really don't understand why he has pulled them though. They require no techical supplrt, as they are free, 'and you get what you pay for'.

Rob.

I would appreciate it. As you will see earlier in the thread I only just discovered BVE and was concentrating at first on the London Underground stuff. If you want to send them as attachments my e is "keith dot willcocks at btinternet dot com". I did get four of the LUL trains if they are of any use. They are 1938 stock Northern Line, current Northern Line, District Line C Stock and the Bakerloo train. If anyone else is reading this I would like to get the remaining LUL ones.

Many thanks Robert,

Keith