Atomic Systems

Hi, there have been a number of questions / comments about the newly announced MSTS X, so here's the background from Kuju.

We didn't know about MSTS X before the announcement, so it was as much a surprise to us as it was to you! (Though Richard says it probably explains why the FS team at CES were keen to talk to him! )

Microsoft's planned re-entry into the rail simulation games market validates our long held view about the size and potential of the market out there; having both EA and Microsoft publishing products in this space will help us all grow the market and reach a larger audience.

A few people have asked about Microsoft supporting us on Vista - well, Richard is currently attending another Vista launch event in New York, so that rather answers that; Vista is a global operating system and Rail Simulator will be an early release on that platform.

Don't worry we are not going anywhere, we closing on Alpha now and will be releasing our regular updates and more goodies are going to be available soon!

So will it be one of these games that require Vista to run, or will it simply be an alternative OS choice?

g0fthick wrote:So will it be one of these games that require Vista to run, or will it simply be an alternative OS choice?

Rail Simulator has been developed on Win XP, Vista is indeed an alternative operating system to run it on.

KujuSabrina wrote:

g0fthick wrote:So will it be one of these games that require Vista to run, or will it simply be an alternative OS choice?

Rail Simulator has been developed on Win XP, Vista is indeed an alternative operating system to run it on.

Ah, that's good news to my ears.

You will sleep a little easier tonight g0fthick

Tazman

g0fthick wrote:

KujuSabrina wrote:

g0fthick wrote:So will it be one of these games that require Vista to run, or will it simply be an alternative OS choice?

Rail Simulator has been developed on Win XP, Vista is indeed an alternative operating system to run it on.

Ah, that's good news to my ears.

I am pleased about that,didnt want to shell out more cash on a DX 10 video card,when ive just upgraded with KRS. in mind

Thanks Sabrina

Daz

Thanks Sabrina... a little 'update' like that once in a while is welcome..
Short and sweet and answered many little niggles in my mind.

Thanks for the news Sabrina, we are all looking forward to the release of KRS, you say alpha testing is almost comlete, thats very good news, next stage of course is beta and all things being equal the release of KRS will be soon after, i dont think MSTS X was ever a threat to KRS, just unfortunate timing.

Stuart

ps if we say pretty please can we have some screenies?!!

tads1970 wrote:I am pleased about that,didnt want to shell out more cash on a DX 10 video card,when ive just upgraded with KRS. in mind

Thanks Sabrina

Daz

DirectX 10 suppose to be much more efficient, therefore the gameplay should be more smooth with higher frame rate and will opt for the developers more dense graphics.
Investing in new video card of GeForce 8800 family or the coming ATI R600 would be very promissing investment and worth a deep consideration.

Adam

that sounds good wont have to upgrade to vista just yet then

(sorry, first post..)

It's good to get a solid confirmation that KRS will be XP/DX 9 compatible - Vista is too slow and bloated to be good for gaming w/out a major upgrade anyway.

As for MSTS X, let's keep in mind it was Kuju who brought us all the features we love about the original... leaving with MS with the rest.

Now 2 more days until that PhysX PPU card gets here.

jkxx74 wrote:(sorry, first post..)

It's good to get a solid confirmation that KRS will be XP/DX 9 compatible - Vista is too slow and bloated to be good for gaming w/out a major upgrade anyway.

As for MSTS X, let's keep in mind it was Kuju who brought us all the features we love about the original... leaving with MS with the rest.

Now 2 more days until that PhysX PPU card gets here.

I'm quite interested in seeing how a PhysX card will affect games and fps. Could you post back with your opinions and findings on the card. By the way, how much was it?

Thanks for your reply, Sabrina.

It was clear and reassuring to potential customers like myself which is appreciated

Cheers

John

Ditto

I'm quite interested in seeing how a PhysX card will affect games and fps. Could you post back with your opinions and findings on the card. By the way, how much was it?

I got mine from newegg when their website had a temporary glitch so it ended up costing me approx. USD 170. Actually still waiting for it to get here, but they did sell it at that price - otherwise it's still officially going for USD 200. (I'm in the US as it is).

Anyway, I did some research on what the PhysX API + PPU do or could do in a game. It definitely doesnt aim to give you better FPS or improve the graphics quality per se.

Instead there seem to be 2 components to the deal, the PhysX API and then the PPU card that work together.

The API can be used by games to add more realistic physics to the game, like dense smoke, rigid body collisions (yes, for the people who like to crash trains for the heck of it ), liquids spilling out, and something called cloth. A lower quality subset of this (rigid body physics and some of the smoke effects) are handled by the API alone. Some of the rest require the PPU to function and/or overwhelm processors except for the latest dual-core affairs.

PhysX is used sparingly in some games like Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and heavily in the Cell Factor demo, videos of both at physx.ageia.com and on many review sites on the net.

Kuju hasn't yet disclosed exactly what use KRS will make of the API - if it's at the same level as GR:AW then the PPU will be totally unnecessary. If content can allow for more effects though, it can come in handy.

(hope this helps disspell some of the confusion as it's my impression after following up on some 20 reviews - more will come after the actual game comes out.)