15th Anniversary - Discover Ultimate Trainz Collection

Over 15 days we are covering 15 years of Trainz with background information on the various versions we have released over the years.

Day 1: Discover Trainz - the original release
Day 2: Discover Ultimate Trainz Collection
Day 3: ? 

Remember to check back tomorrow for more updates

EXPERIENCE ULTIMATE TRAINZ COLLECTION

The following article gives you a snapshot into the content, features and marketing for our UTC release. For many this will bring back fond old memories, and for others, it is a chance to see where we've come from since 2002.

If you want to experience Ultimate Trainz Collection for yourself, please visit our store and download the full UTC digital edition for just $0.99.

Ultimate Trainz Collection

Trainz Railroad Simulator is the most detailed and immersive railroad experience ever, letting you control almost every aspect of a working railroad. Let your imagination run free as you create stunning 3D worlds, take charge of thousands of tons of heavy freight or simply keep your passengers happy as you take on the challenges of a real train engineer. Add to the excitement by controlling multiple locomotives, coordinating activities, switching junctions and ensuring each train arrives safely at its destination.

Ultimate Trainz Collection wins an "Editors Choice!" Award from Gamezone with a score of 9.0

Ultimate Trainz Collection wins CGM "Editors Choice" Award with a score of 9.1 /10 "the trains and environments are so realistic you can imagine yourself as a real engineer in a real train"

Main Menu

Paint Shed

Read Me

[In the "good old days" software would always come with a "Read Me" file to assist users in getting setup. Here are some of the interesting pieces from the UTC Read Me file]

New Keys

Surveyor

• Options - Ctrl o
• Tuning - Ctrl t
• Find named object - Ctrl f
• Contentual info - Alt o
• Randomise - Alr r
• Edit project - Ctrl e
• Minimap - Ctrl m
• New Map - Ctrl n
• Save - Ctrl s
• Wire frame - Ctrl w

Driver

• Internal Camera - 1, F6
• External Camera  -2, F7
• Tracking Camera - 3, F8
• Internal Cab camera - [ = previous   ] = next
• Internal Cab camera - Ctrl [ or Ctrl ] to snap to next camera
• Change consists - Ctrl 0-99
• Move to prev car -
• Move to next car =
• Change Fwd junction - \
• Change Rear Junction - Ctrl \
• Auto-pilot toggle - Ctrl-a
• Switch dual cabs - c
• Decrease Speed - , or z
• Increase Speed - . or a
• Stop - / or s
• Handbrake - ' or x

NEW FEATURES

Driver / My Collection

• 'Favorites' selection added for My Collection and Driver
• Dual Cab support
• Multiple in-cab cameras
• New external cab camera views
• Change junction hotkey
• Select consist hotkey
• Change car focus hotkey
• End-of-track buffer physics added
• Horn, Pantograph and Lights can be operated in My Collection
• Horn controllable on AI trains
• Imperial or Metric Surveyor default settings used in Driver
• New "load saved game" button on main menu
• New Presets to load consists, settings and terrain with one click
• Variable tunnel camera positions
• Movable tunnel camera
• Improved locomotive performance physics
• Improved rolling stock resistance equations
• Signalling and trackwork improvements to original layouts
• New keyboard shortcuts

Surveyor

• "All Regions" sort option added to Surveyor for easier object sorting
• Info boxes increased in size for more text
• Particle Effects slider added to performance settings
• Increased texture limit to ~252
• Compass movement improved (slight pause before moving)
• Trackside cameras now easier and more accurate to position
• Display cursor x,y location
• Improved copy/paste function in Surveyor
• Added ctrl key modifier to select whole area or baseboard
• Hotkey in advanced menu works if menu not open
• Option added to keep title bar visible
• Ruler text improved
• Added hot key info to tool tips
• Fixed get curve function
• Join height of merge maps now fixed
• See through ground texture fixed
• Can't name duplicate trackmarks
• Cars driver on correct side for region
• Mini-map loads dynamically to speed up loading times
• New keyboard shortcuts

General

• New interface appearance
• Particle Effects slider added to performance settings
• Mini-map zoom limits increased
• Mini-map scroll speed increased
• Mini-Map signalling display improved
• Mini-maps scrolling keys added
• New Save/Don't Save dialogues on exit
• Sound fixes
• Improved object lighting.
• Keyboard settings file added
• Added caching for dispatcher folder

Trainz eXchange

• New in-game html window
• Dynamic loading of html pages for news, reviews etc
• Seamless download station integration
• Auto-download of missing assets

Content Manager

• New custom content management application
• Group, disable, delete custom content
• Export KUIDS function
• Search for content
• Display KUID dependancies of map content

Script Functions

• Control particle effects on and off in scenarios
• Ability to interact with user through html mini-browser
• New function to fade screen to black
• New function to create entire consist through config file
• Debugging error window
• Call stack logging
• Script Exception Handling
•    Add -script option to trainzoptions.txt
•    Hookup ThreadException callback to script.
•    Show exception dialog on exception
•    Show stack and all threads.
•    Handle continue and end scenario

Content Creation

• Improved particle effects control.  Can now specify start and end color and  set emission cone size.
• Splines can now be lit by ambient lighting.
• Fixed case-sensitivity of aliased asset textures
• Paint shed templates can now be packed into .cdp files
• True type font support for easy translations

Summary

You can see from the list above that lots of little things and a number of bigger things were being introduced into Trainz. This pattern has continued to the current day as we add more features, tweak old features and try to provide a little bit of something for everyone.

And to finish off today's walk down memory lane, here's a video from a train fan showing the "awesome graphics" that were breathtaking at the time of release.

And perhaps our video reviewer should have read the manual before filming ;)