A train simulator (also railroad simulator or railway simulator) is a computer based simulation of rail transport operations. They are generally large complicated software packages modeling a 3D virtual reality world implemented both as commercial trainers, and consumer computer game software with 'play modes' which lets the user interact by stepping inside the virtual world. Because of the near view modeling, often at speed, train simulator software is generally far more complicated and difficult software to write and implement than flight simulator programs.
Contents
- Industrial train simulations
- Consumer train simulation
- Driving simulation
- Strategy simulation
- References
While commercial trainers on mini-computer systems had a longer history, the first two mass-market English 'computer game' railway simulators, MSTS and Trainz, arrived within a few months of one another in 2001 and could run (poorly) on Intel 80386 microprocessor based systems. Some, like the first wide-market release, Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS), are written and modeled for the user mainly interested in driving. Others, like MSTS's principle rival, Trainz, were aimed initially primarily at the rail enthusiast-hobbyist markets, supporting features making it possible to build a virtual railroad of one's dreams. Accordingly, for four years Trainz releases bundled a free copy of gmax digital model building software on each CDROM, hosted an asset swap website (Trainz Exchange, later the Trainz Download Station), encouraged user participation and dialog with an active forum, and took pains to publish in-depth how-to model guidelines and specifications with its releases.
Several other later challengers as well as Trainz (with a series of upgrades) soon matched or eclipsed MSTS's driving experiences one way or another. Railsim, actually a successor using the MSTS game engine upped the challenge to the aging MSTS by adding much improved graphics, so Trainz did as well, but also added interactive industries and dynamic driving features such as product loading and unloading, load-sensitive physics modeling affecting driving and operating and user interface changes to improve User eXperiences (UX), such as a free camera mode allowing roaming away from the train cars, free and clear of the Train being operated-while still controlling it. This latter makes particular sense given the dearth of an assistant on a walkie-talky while operating a train during coupling operations or other position sensitive tasks such as loading and unloading. Railsim and a couple of others came and went out of business, and Railsim was reorganized as Rail Simulator with the software company that wrote MSTS as its core, while MSTS aged and never did get upgraded as Microsoft had once begun and announced. In the last few years, Rail Simulator has changed its name to Train Simulator 2016.
As the world market has shaken out, Australian Trainz in 2014-2015 upgraded itself with Trainz: A New Era, still servicing the wider route builder and driving markets, but now matching the 64bit computing and graphics of Train Simulator 2013, 2015, and Train Simulator 2016. In the same five-year period, Train simulators have moved to pad computer and phone platforms.
Industrial train simulations
Like flight simulators, train simulators have been produced for railway training purposes. Driver simulators include those produced by:
Signaller training simulators have been developed by Funkwerk in Germany, The Railway Engineering Company (TRE) in the UK, OpenTrack Railway Technology in Switzerland, and PS Technology in the US.
Consumer train simulation
There are two broad categories of train simulation video games: driving simulation and strategy simulation.
Driving simulation
Train driving simulation games usually allow a user to have a "driver's view" from the locomotive's cab and operate realistic cab controls such as throttle, brake valve, sand, horn and whistle, lights etc.
One of the first commercially available train simulators was Southern Belle, released in 1985. The game simulated a journey of the Southern Belle steam passenger train from London Victoria to Brighton, while at the same time the player must comply with speed limits, not to go too fast on curves and keep to the schedule. It was followed with Evening Star in 1987.
Other train driving simulation software includes:
The PC game 3D Ultra Lionel Traintown, amongst some others, give a different experience to driving, by being in a 3rd person omniscient perspective, controlling the trains from a bird's eye view.
Peripherals specifically designed for use with driving simulations include RailDriver by US manufacturer P.I. Engineering. RailDriver is a programmable desktop cab controller with throttle, brake lever and switches designed to work with Trainz, TrainMaster, Microsoft Train Simulator and Rail Simulator.
Strategy simulation
Railroad-themed strategy simulation video games are focused mostly on the economic part of the railroad industry rather than on technical detail. The A-Train series (1985 to present) is an early example. Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon (1994) was an influential game in this genre, spawning remakes such as Simutrans (1999 to present), OpenTTD (2004 to present) and Sawyer's own Locomotion (2004). Sid Meier designed two railroad simulations: Railroad Tycoon (1990) and Railroads! (2006). The Railroad Tycoon series itself inspired other rail games such as Rails Across America (2001).
Some rail simulation games focus on railroad switches rather than economics. Examples include The Train Game (1983) and SimSig (donationware). JBSS BAHN (shareware) focuses on simulating a complex railroad lay out.