Category Archives: Blog

New 3D Rail System

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Last week I started working on a new 3D Rail System for Train Sim. The current rails are actually a 2 dimensional texture that mimics the look of 3D. This was originally done to improve performance on mobile devices. While it looks OK on a tiny phone screen, it does not translate as well to larger high resolution tablets or PCs. Hence it has been on my list of fixes for a while now.

Unfortunately this will be allot of work as I will actually need to re-make all the rail paths in Train Sim across all of the levels. However I think I figured out most of the technical & performance unknowns and can now move to implementing this feature across all levels in Train Sim. At about days per level it should take a few weeks to finish.

So why invest so much time on new rails? I think as new mobile devices get more powerful it makes sense to update some of the core features in Train Sim to ensure it does not look dated compared to newer games. Although this is a large investment in time, I think it will be well worth it at the end

20 Million Downloads

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This month I am celebrating Train Sim 20th Millionth download on Google Play!  That is 20 million of unique Google Play (Android) users that were kind enough to download Train Sim to their mobile devices.  For perspective, 20 million users is more then the population of countries like Romania, Netherlands, Greece and Portugal.  When I started this project more then 5 years ago I had no idea that it would be enjoyed by so many people.  I am so thankful for the continued support of all the Train Sim fans over the last 5 years.  I am looking forward to the next 5 years of continued improvements & development of Train Sim.  I can’t wait to see what the next 5 years will bring.

Train Sim Updates

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Work Continues on Train Sim as I am in the process of rolling out the second update in less then a month.  The main focus of these 2 updates was getting regular train wagons/cars to properly connect to shunting cars found on side tracks.  I have to admit this turned out to be allot more difficult then I originally thought.  After 2 updates I believe that I worked out all the major bugs and you should be able to build larger trains as shown in the above video.

While I was busy working on connecting cars the drivers decided to construct a Hand Car.  This beauty is now available in Train Sim at an amazing top speed of 10 mph.

Train Wagon Blue Stripe

Although in most updates, Trains are the main feature, adding interesting rolling stock is also important.  The above train wagon with a full 3D interior is now also available in Train Sim.

Over the next week or so I will be rolling out these awesome updates to all platforms including Mac OS, Windows Store, Amazon, iOS & Android

After that I hope that the new 300 Series Shinkansen 3D model will be done so I can begin working on adding it to Train Sim

Happy Rails!