One of the features of A train 9 V4 Japanese Railways Simulator that we don’t touch on often enough are the Shinkansen, maglev and superfast trains and setting them up.
As part of a project, it is possible to have superfast, maglev, bullet trains come through your region. While these projects can be very expensive and take a lot of resource to set up, they do provide fantastic long term revenue.
If you like to make your region look themost modern, up to date and impressive about, then adding these features is also a great way to imrove.
Take a look at these videos which explain how it all works – and another that shows the real maglev systems in operation.
Welcome to the start of our latest “Let’s Play” for A-Train 9 Donut Island
Based on a winning entry ion our recent design competition, Donut Island is a small space with one major city and an otherwise barren island – well almost barren with a shunting/marshalling yard near the coat. What can we do with this I wonder? We hope you enjoy this video series. We will be publishing them here approximately once per week for hopefully 5-10 weeks. 🙂
The top three entries in our recent competition are here. Wow! Are they something special.
Using the A-Train 9 editor we asked you to create your own vision of a beautiful Japanese city. We were astonished at the time and effort that was put into these winning entries. Minutely detailed, sprawling cities with intricate rail networks.
Two of them are even autonomously profitable!
We are planning to create a small Let’s PLay series on whichever of the maps is your favourite. Why not let us know your favourites in the comment below. Watch an overview of each one here!
The winners will be notified and sent the prizes in the next few days!
Watch the video to see the best map creations we received.
We will be showcasing more of some of these maps in the coming weeks 🙂
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Thanks to our fantastic community we had a great response to our recent competition to design a map using the A-Train 9 Japan Rail Simulator map editor or to create some images using the free to download A-Train demo.
It took a while to go through the maps, as you will see when we showcase the winning entries. Some of the effort that went into creating them was extraordinary. (More soon 🙂 ) Full vibrant worlds with intricate and well-designed rail layouts set against stunning backdrops. To say we were impressed would be an understatement.
Not only were the maps wonderful, the layouts imaginative, but the schedules the trains ran at in all these maps was so impressive. Each one could be a tutorial in optimizing a transport network.
The image competition received some great entries using our free A-Train viewer. It was clear that a great use of lighting and placement was used. Sunsets and storms featured alongside the mountainous backdrops provided some fantastic “picture postcard” images.
Maps:
1st Place: Elia
2nd Place: Marius Kaufman
3rd Place: Matthew Noel
Images:
1st Place: Andreas Naumann
2nd Place: Thompaaaa
Thanks once again to everyone who entered. It has been a pleasure to see these entries and the enthusiasm the community has for the game.
Play A-train 9 Japan rail simulator to unlock Steam trading cards. The cards are based on some of the most iconic trains in Japan from the past and the present as well as some of the most cutting edge trains on the rails today.
Display your skills on Steam by creating your own A-train 9 badge. Let other forum users know your skills as an A-train entrepreneur. Level up your badge as you progress.
A Selection of Backgrounds
Common, Uncommon and Rare backgrounds for you to collect as well as a unique set of A-Train emoticons
Level Up On Steam
Increase your Steam level as you progress. Your badges contribute to your Steam level. Leveling up earns you non-tradable items like profile showcases, extra friends list slots, and more.
You can change graphic quality in this configuration tool which should be the orange A-Train icon on your desktop
There are a lot of options here that can be altered to adapt the viewer to your system. It should be possible to run this on older hardware.
If you have low graphic memory (under 1 gig Graphics card) then lower the textures
If the game stutters or lags then the biggest gains are lowering shadows and dynamic lighting which have the largest effect on CPU usage
If the game plays well up close but struggles when you pull out to panoramic views then lowering draw distance and LOD (level of detail) will have a good effect.
Of course if you have good hardware, then high quality graphics make your screenshots more photogenic.
Try to set the good option, as you like.
Some Tips for take Screenshots
Map
Option
You can change some graphical option in game.
Check box on, you will get rich graphic. Almost cell shading (though not quite) it can make distant objects really stand out.
The illustration option is great for concept style images
The viewer dialogue is on by default at the bottom of the screen. Press space bar to remove it.
Setting The Scene – Time and Weather
You can’t stop time, so for good screenshots you have to wait for great moment like actual photographers. And Weather is changing in game. Also you have to wait for weather change in order to take interesting screenshots.
Trains and Stations
You can’t stop time, so it is difficult to take moving train shots. So you can wait nearby a station in order to take train shots.
Examples of Screenshots
You have to title your screenshot as the file name.
We want you guys and girls to get the best from this tool, so we have created a tutorial to show you how to install it and use it for best effect.
DOWNLOAD LINK FOR VIEWER COMING SOON!
Installation
After downloading, double click the icon and follow these steps.
Step One
Ok, so the image you see above will appear once you continue and, to get the viewer to continue to install you need to press next
Step Two
Here are the terms and conditions. Make sure the top radio button is filled in (as above) before once again clicking on the middle button (highlighted in blue) to continue.
Step Three
Ok, now you can choose the installation folder. The viewer takes about half a gigabyte of hard drive space. By clicking on the button to the right of the folder dialogue (shown near the top of the image above) you can select the folder on your hard drive you would like to install the A-Train viewer in.
Step Four
Almost there. The middle button again is the one you need to press to get the viewer to continue to install.
The viewer will then install. It will place two icons on your desktop by default. The orange icon is for the set up dialog, the green icon is to load the viewer itself. You might want to try the set-up first as, although the viewer is very well coded it does have a lot of options. I found initially lowering the options to the lowest settings got the main viewer to work
Step Five
What are these options?
The options options offer a lot of possibilities, some which allow you to tailor the experience to your liking, others which allow. So below I have posted an image of the Japanese options screen and the English one. I have tested just about all the buttons on both and found that they match. The positions of the buttons relative to each other is the same in both versions. Cross reference from the English to the Japanese if that makes life easier for you.
Explore and discover the stunning scenery around our stylized reimagining of Tokyo.
As day turns to night, the subtle changes of light and darkness reveal hidden vistas in this huge city scape.
Getting the right position for your photo has never been easier. Gravity is no object as you can float in space from any position with full control of you X, your Y and your Z. Zoom in to capture detail or pan away to show a huge panorama.
Take a stunning screenshot of a Tokyo landscape
What We Are Looking For
Using the free A-Train viewer, explore and discover the city. Based on the iconic landmarks of Tokyo, find the most imaginative and evocative image you can.
Screen grab the image or use your computers Snippet tool and send it in to the competition form below.
The winner will be the picture that expresses the essence of Tokyo in the most imaginative way.
Create Your Own City
A-Train’s built in editor allows your creative side to truly be expressed. You may create a real city or one from your imagination. The choice is yours.
Shape landscapes, build mountains, lakes, rivers and seas. Populate the countryside with assets from the games comprehensive editor. Add buildings that add colour and function to your city. Then lay road and track, to build the transport system.
We have a video below showing how to start to create your own city and how to export the finished result. Please keep files sizes to 5Mb or less.
Create the city of your dreams
What We Are Looking For
Some of the examples you will see have taken days, weeks or months to create, but we are not necessarily looking for the most elaborate and time intensive maps.
Instead we a focussing on those maps which show us the essence of city involved. That express the ideas of the designer in imaginative and thoughtful ways.
A-Train is the best established transport city simulator, the latest Version (A-Train 9 V4 Japan Rail Simulator) carries on the heritage begun almost 30 years ago. It’s a game that gives you simple but powerful tools to create the landscape of your imagination. Be it a real world or a fantasy.
Two Ways to Enter
What If I Don’t Own A-Train?
Then this is just for you. Click here (link to blogpost) and you can download our free to use game
world viewer. Explore the map, and then compose a great screenshot. You can zoom around the A-
Train world looking of that perfect picture.
Position your camera viewer
Compose the image
Wait until the lighting is just right
Then take that screenshot
The most imaginative screenshot wins.
I Own and Love A-Train
Great! Then competition mode two is just for you!
Get into the game and create your own world. A-Train 9 V4 Japan Rail Simulator gives you the tools
to allow your imagination free reign. Create a custom world, use the editor and free form a creation either from your imagination, or perhaps based on a real world city or landscape. Upload it – and we will view and review your creations. The most imaginative custom game wins.
I Don’t Know How to Create a World
Ok, we can certainly help you there. A-Train 9 V4 has an intuitive and easy to use editor built in to allow you to create whatever landscape you can imagine. We have created some tutorial videos to
get you started.
Competition entry last date is now the 10th June 2016 to allow for more of the many that have downloaded the viewer to take part!
No employees or associates of Degica or Artdink are eligible to enter this competition
Please label your photographs and game files with your FULL name as entered in the competition form. We will match up the image or game file to your name so this is important.
You can name your city after yourself or put it in the game description. With images add your name to the title of the image.
Each entry must be unique and 100% the work of the entrant. Please do not copy wither the existing game maps or the work of others when entering the competition. We will check 🙂
Please only one entry per person. You can enter both competitions but only one entry per competition per person please
File sizes must remain under 10Mb. A typical medium sized city in A-Train is around 6-8Mb Remember we are not looking for the largest city, we are looking for the most imaginative.
The judges decision is final. It is also (obviously) subjective, but we will do our best to choose the most imaginative pictures and cities
The game files for upload for the city builder competition can be found by following the instructions on this video.
Any problem uploading? Send the files to – prone-clarke [AT] degica.com – (remove the spaces and replace [AT] with @)
