TRS19 Service Pack 3 Released

The N3V team are happy to announce the "Official Release" of Service Pack 3, which is now available to all TRS19 owners and members.

What's New in SP3?

The main focus of this update has primarily been under-the-hood updates to improve stability and performance and fix bugs.

In terms of features, we've exposed the full train physics system through our Trainz Native Interface system so that 3rd parties can create their own train physics, and added support for the latest Apple OS and hardware updates.

We've also implemented the first stage of "custom-content set" support for Multiplayer Surveyor. The next phase will open up the possibility of creating your own custom content set for your online collaboration project.

The login process has been improved to assist new players logging in.

In Driver, the Track Profile zoom now requires the Ctrl key modifier (i.e. ctrl-mousewheel) to increase the clickable area and avoid mouse clicks that appeared to do nothing.

The mini-map labelling has been improved to avoid having too many labels at once and reduce the labels moving about rapidly as you zoom.

We've added full support for Steam DLC in Content Store (so items now show correct names and descriptions, and also link directly to the Steam Store DLC page).

Important news for Mac users

This build includes support for Apple Silicon and our game engine now fully ported to Metal. Most users will see an improvement in frame rates, with some users reporting significant increases.

IMPORTANT: Your hardware needs to be able to run Metal, which also means being able to run Big Sur.
Check this Apple Support link for compatibility.

If you update to SP3 and discover you are unable to update to Biug Sur due to older hardware, then you can reinstall SP2 using this link.

Trainz TNI SDK (Train Physics)

TNI (Trainz Native Interface) is a programming interface that allows anyone familiar with C or C++ to create plug-ins that extend or modify the existing Trainz program. This update includes a Trainz Physics plug-in and our hope is that interested developers will soon be producing a wide range of custom plugins. More info and registration link can be found here.

This also means that the train physics code now runs using the plug-in we have created. Behaviour should be identical to previous versions of Trainz an we look forward to seeing what the community can come up with in terms of new impementations for train physics!

Known issues:

• Older Mac hardware not supported (see above)
• MPS (for Trainz Plus users) client-side train sync issue
• Slow multiplayer loading time (issue identified, fix being worked on)
• Multiplayer synchronisation issues after multi-hour sessions with large player numbers (no known repro)
• Track Add tool not auto-activated switching to Surveyor (UDS)
• Nav points not hidden when loading save game

Full SP3 Changelist:

This list doesn't include all fixes for regressions during the update period.

• Update to 4.8 Trainzbuild format (making route, session and assets saved in SP3 not compatible with older versions)
• Loco will no longer suddenly decelerate if decoupled while moving
• Smoke now works as expected when running steam engines in AI reverse, half chuff rate w\ AI forward
• Fix a route merge CTD when merging two legacy routes both having consists.
• Updates to Login flow and messages
• Fix a freeze when adjusting terrain height under splines
• Various updates to portals
• Fix an assertion loading Sebino (offline) NamedObjectTable::ProcessRegistrationQueue> Registration command failure 3
• Inserting spline points unexpectedly re-positions trains\trackside objects
• Update to Vehicle.SetMaximumTractiveEffort()
• Show Hide MP-d chat window now works
• Various MP fixes including:
  • MP Client "view driver" not syncing to moving trains
  • Fix stream corruption in the brake data
  • Avoid a case where a corrupt stream could hang the application in an infinite loop
  • Fix a case where the camera fails to focus to a vehicle with a null trackpos, but a valid mesh position
  • Fixed an issue where certain assets would display incorrectly
  • Fixed an assertion loading into Sebino
  • Inserting spline points no longer re-positions trains\trackside objects
  • Several MPS content fixes (Sebino)
  • Resolved an error showing on Mac for faulty content
• Several MP Driver replication manager updates
• Fixed a CTD when moving vehicles decoupled in the middle of a consist
• Remove green highlight incorrectly showing after copy/paste
• Fix sound not playing on some steam locos
• Fix assertion loading Content Sample map
• Tweaks to Driver listing UI
• Fix brake issue (TNI Physics)
• Fixes for various Test Track issues (TNI Physics related)
• Fix brakes bail timing
• Fix Command dropdown list functionality
• Fix derailments in portals
• Fix MP chat window getting stuck open
• Fix passenger platforms not spawning passengers
• Tweaks to object height adjustment
• Fix an issue with pfx display
• Updates to MPS to support custom packages (Sebino is our first test case)
• Add UI for installing missing MPS packages
• New "high contrast" scroll bar
• Various UI updates to Driver Select window
• Various UI updates to Content Store
• In-game chat now fully native
• Fixes for new MyTrainz Login
• Fixed a rare case where loading a map could take 30 minutes
• Improved handling of object height adjustment (including around digholes)
• Finalised TNI Physics SDK (programmer access coming in the next week or two)[
• Steam builds will have proper DLC naming and descriptions (not relevant to this beta)
• Added an expiry for scripted camera edit requests (to avoid a hang or incomplete route load
• Updates to low res (minimap) texture cut-off distances
• Login improvements (prompted to enter details when installing, sign out option added)
• Map view label improvements (less clutter)
• Scroll bar tweaks (it's now visible!)
• Tweaks for Test Track (related to TNI physics)
• Crash fix when exiting a route with placeholder (missing asset) traincars
• Crash fix for routes with a script that wasn't loaded when called
• Fixed a case where loading could be extremely slow

Beta Testing

Once again we must thank the dozens and dozens of community members who provide detailed reports of issued they find. We are more than happy to fix bugs that are reported and we encourage more people to check out the beta release so that we can test under a wider variety of hardware and content configurations.

Updating Tips and Hints

With every new release, we get reports that "the update has broken all my content". In almost all cases, this is due to one of a few simple things:

• Renaming your install folder will break the connection between the game and your local data folder. If you rename the install folder you must also then point the "new' install to the old local data folder (in Trainz Settings > Install tab)
• Moving builtin content from one build to another. This results in "missing texture" errors. You cannot move builtin or payware content and so you should redownload the content using Content Store and/or the Download Station
• Not allowing the database repair to complete. If the game wants to run a db repair, please allow it to complete (or things will be in limbo)
• Errors or slow loading on first load. Each new build requires that your local content is "cached" which is a process that greatly improves performance. The penalty is that the first load takes much longer. Also, it is possible that due to the order of loading, certain items are not cached correctly (leading to an error). The key is to allow the game to do it's thing and be patient while it does. If there is a problem on first load, then exit and reload and everything should be back to normal.