tdragger's Blog Post Question...

[ns4eva]

Hey guys, been a while since I have been around train sim (months) and have been playing catch up with the news on the new sims in the works. I have a question (maybe it has been asked, but I didn't see it and this is a fairly new blog post from tdragger). In his post he says "We took the first drop of processed rail data for North America from our data team just before I left. Since returning I've enjoyed loading up the sim, going to a random location, and driving along." Now, this has me somewhat confused. Does he mean rail data from selected routes they plan to modle, OR rail data from the entire USA making all routes availible to drive along and possibly only leaving senery to be completed by third party?

[font color="red"]My Railfan Photos
[font color="red"]http://ns4eva.rrpicturearchives.net

[font color="black"]--Drifton

<<There's a bit of Norfolk Southern in all of us>>

[tdragger]

The entire USA--entire world, really, at least as much as we can get our hands on.

[ns4eva]

Wow, very nice! Thanks also for the very quick responce!

[font color="red"]My Railfan Photos
[font color="red"]http://ns4eva.rrpicturearchives.net

[font color="black"]--Drifton

<<There's a bit of Norfolk Southern in all of us>>

[BNSF4723]

Whoa.

[Erick_Cantu]

You guys have really been making the decision on whether or not to upgrade to Vista easy. I just thought I'd add that. :)

[TrainMan_112]

With a simple editing program (hopefully) we'll have scenery and MANY routes out there in no time!

[SCL-A-Line]

dont forget FSX Uses Auto Gen Scenery, i am not quite familiar with how that works, but this is great news

[ns4eva]

Now all we need is a railfan mode to the game. User creates some consists (or have the computer generate them randomly) and u go out on the route and watch the trains go by all day when you can't comfortably get outside to do so in real life. I think that would be wicked awesome to see happen. I have made activities on my computer to kinda do that, but with the whole sound issue and yard cam deal makes it somewhat irritating sometimes. I think the MSTS2 team should look into this as a feature to the game as well! ;)

[font color="red"]My Railfan Photos
[font color="red"]http://ns4eva.rrpicturearchives.net

[font color="black"]--Drifton

<<There's a bit of Norfolk Southern in all of us>>

[tcain1]

>Now all we need is a railfan mode to the game. User creates
>some consists (or have the computer generate them randomly)
>and u go out on the route and watch the trains go by all day
>when you can't comfortably get outside to do so in real life.
>I think that would be wicked awesome to see happen. I have
>made activities on my computer to kinda do that, but with the
>whole sound issue and yard cam deal makes it somewhat
>irritating sometimes. I think the MSTS2 team should look into
>this as a feature to the game as well! ;)
>
>[font color="red"]My Railfan Photos
>[font
>color="red"]http://ns4eva.rrpicturearchives.net
>
>[font color="black"]--Drifton
>
><<There's a bit of Norfolk Southern in all of
>us>>

This is already part of the FSX Camera system which tdragger says TS2 will inherit. Basically, it allow you to place your camera view anywhere. From spot views, flybys, static views Views within the 3D model, etc. You can lock the view on your plane or have it controlled with the hat switch. So it would be no problem to set up a railfan view. To demonstrate this, take a look at my video of the A380, landing at LAX. You can also check out my other videos (Most are FSX) To get an idea of other view angles, as well as the quality of the VC panels. (I normally don't use the 2D ones.) Also functionality can be added to it via 3rd party .dll's. A number of my videos demonstrate them too. All this TS2 should inherit and more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3BzaD0d7NA

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tf51d