Trainz/Table of Contents

Getting Started

A Brief Description Of Trainz

• Things You Can Do In Trainz
• Versions Of Trainz
• Virtual Railroad Magazine

Installation

• Hardware Requirements
• Installation Under Microsoft Windows
• Using wide screen monitors
• Installing Service Packs
• Trainzoptions.txt

Some Essential Do's And Don'ts

• Essential Hints

Tips And Tricks

• Tips And Tricks- Tips and Tricks for the new Trainz Users
• TS2010EE - Trainz 2010: Engineer's Edition
• TRS2012WBE - Trainz 2012: World Builder Edition

Driver

The Driver aspect of Trainz permits operating virtual trains on modeled railroads. It is the simulation of routes and can be both interactive and automated. All editions of Trainz are supplied with at least one route and driver session for immediate use.

• Basics - Train operation and the basic model railroad control.
• Driving Steam Engines - Operating steam locomotives from the cab.
• Driving Diesel Engines - Operating Diesel locomotives from the cab.
• Industries and Products - Lars, ProtoLars and Multiple Industries New.
• Driver Mode Keyboard Shortcuts - Useful hotkeys to enhance your Trainz driver experience.

Surveyor

The Surveyor aspect of Trainz provides tools for creating the world and the rails for virtual railroads. While in surveyor, the size of the layout, the weather, the landscape and all your assets can be experimented with until your route is ready to drive.

• Fundamentals - Basic elements of world building.
• Advanced - Gradients, radius, junctions and track marks.
• Notional Railways - Creating a believeable fictional railroad.
• Prototype Railways - Modeling real world railroads.
• Signalling
• Surveyor Mode Keyboard Shortcuts - Useful hotkeys to enhance your Trainz surveyor experience.

Asset Management

Main articles: Trainz/Introduction to assets and Trainz/AM&C If you are just browsing the internet trying to get a glimpse of Trainz, or are a new Trainz user, the link above leads into the first chapter below as a set of linked pages, and should be read first.

Managing your assets becomes essential when your 3rd party and DLS content begins to build up. With more than 250,000 items available from the DLS, and built-in content shipped with every edition, the amount of faulty/missing dependencies or items requiring updates or attention quickly becomes a mammoth task to deal with.

New users are cautioned in the strongest possible terms to limit your greed to just a few items at first and especially to just one route at a time—these can bring in hundreds of assets, many of them older and broken for immediate use. It is better by far to search for sessions so you get a route with some canned Driver sessions. If you are very new, limit yourself to routes v-2.9 or later until you get some practice fixing various errors. You will get enough in even new routes. Any asset not fixed, should be disabled before running Trainz GUI programs using the RMBHd drop down menu.

Trainz AM&C sub-TOC

• Hierarchy Of Assets
• DLS and FCT - Download Station and First Class Tickets.
• Locating locos A catalog of practically every loco created for Trainz
• KUIDs and how they work.
• TDH
• Trainz Objectz
• The Trainz Asset Repair Library (TARL)
• TrainzMap
• CMP - Content Manager Plus (TRS2006+).
• Downloading From Third Party Trainz Fansites
• Where to find none DLS assets
• Finding Missing Dependencies
• Fixing Broken Assets
• Changing An Asset's Dependencies - For Example; Replacing a Locomotive's Hornsound.
• Backing Up Downloaded And Self-Created Assets - Creating Archives and Zip Files of Content.
• Copying Assets Between Versions And Copies Of Trainz - For Example; TRS2006 to TC.
• Converting steam locos to run in TC3 - Converting steam locos to run in TC3.
• Removing Unwanted Assets - Deleting or Disabling Assets.
• Changing the default cars on roads
• Changing the default passengers in coaches or at stations

Asset Creation

Many users of Trainz choose to become content creators. This can be seen by the popularity of the DLS and the large number of contributors. There is a steep learning curve associated with content creation and often many ways to produce the same result. Creating content can be incredibly rewarding but the road to a completed model may be long and frustrating.

• Before you start Performance and other issues
• When to use lod
• Software Used for Content Creation
• Content Creators Guide
• API and Scripting Guide
• Setting Up Software For Content Creation
• Sources for textures
• Basic Reskinning for beginners
• Tutorials for Content Creation
• Tutorial for Blender
• Tutorial for adding night mode with Blender
• Tutorial for Normal mapping (TRS2009)
• Tutorial for incorporating normalmaps using Blender (TRS2009)
• Creating Normal Maps with Blender
• Transparent Windows using Blender
• Polished metal using Blender
• Recommended Tutorials for GMAX
• Adding a background image to GMAX
• Tutorial for Modifying the reskin mesh in GMAX
• Tutorial for Creating a Three Plank Wagon From the Reskin Mesh in GMAX
• Tutorial for Reskinnng a Locomotive using Paint.Net
• AM&C/config.txt files
• Overview of Attachment Points
• Adding a Second Mesh
• Shape File Viewers
• Using Content Creator Plus (CCP)
• Uploading Assets
• Importing Across Platforms
• Creating Coaches
• Hints and Tips for 3D Modelling Software
• Useful bogeys
• ACS Coupling information

Scripting

The implementation of scripting in Trainz has added increased flexibility and interactive possibilites with assets, particularly with animated objects. Scripting in trains adopts the TrainzScript language and requires a basic understanding of programming to follow.

• Driver Sessions and Rules
• Scriptable Assets
• Scenarios (Scripted Activities)

Other Information

• Taking Screenshots

• Taking Videos

• Using the Trainz Discussions Forums

• Rendering

Additional Resources

• Appendixes
• Version And Build Numbers
• Launcher Options Menu
• File Types (File Extensions)
• Performance Hints
• Glossary
• Index
• External Links (Trainz resources: fansites, groups, organizations and links to tutorials on Trainz How-to articles; Also listed are Trainz Enthusiasts and museum pages, which Trainzers developing a prototype (historic model) railroad utilize.)