What does exactly Zusi offer?

[pospec]

Hello folks!

I´ve found this simulator and it looks really good. I think about purchase. But I don´t know exactly what I´ll get.

I miss informations like following:
? Section "Inhalt CD" refers to a number of locos, that´s fine. I hope that there are unique sounds in every one of them.
? Is there any shunting service?
? How many kilometers includes the CD?
? I´ve found some soundcard complaints in the forum. Can I turn the in-game volume?

Does anyone there know about good review/description in english?

Thank you!

[Roland Ziegler]

Hi "pospec",

have a look at this review:
http://www.trainsim.org.uk/zusi.html

[Andreas Karg]

Welcome to the Zusi community!

About your questions:
1. Zusi offers hundreds of different locos and multiple units. Most of them indeed do have their own sounds, but there are quite a few where it is quite hard or practically impossible to get high-quality sounds. In these cases, there are usually sounds from other locos used.

2. Hmm. Hard to say. Basically, real shunting services are impossible with the current simulation system. There are, however, some tricks the track builders use to get something similar.

3. Hundreds of thousands. Okay, honestly: It's quite a lot and really hard to estimate.

4. You can't control the in-game volume alone, sorry.

I think it would be the best for you to download the demo version. It is rather old and since then Zusi has made a lot of progress, but you get a rough impression of the full program.

[Steven G.]

Hello,

Another Zusi review in english:

http://www.netspeed.com.au/bhk/AustRail/zusi_page_1.htm

Regards,
Steven

[pospec]

Thank you boys for your replies!

I already know every meter from the demo.

Andy´s reply put me across. But it´s weird that I haven´t found any BAD review on the simulator. Maybe it´s REALLY SUPERB! I hope so.

Are there any German engineers (locomotive drivers) in the forum? I´d like to read THEIR opinions.

[Roland Ziegler]

Are there any German engineers (locomotive drivers) in the forum?

Yes, quite a few.

[pospec]

Yes, quite a few.

That´s good. Are you? I´d like to know what do THEY think about simulated locomotives, in comparsion to real ones. What are the main differences?

I´d like to ask another question, about game performance. I run demo and I can´t get over 15 frames per second, in large station not more than 8 fps. I have Duron 850 MHz, Geforce 2. Is this normal?

[Andreas Karg]

Yes, this is normal - with the simulator version used in the demo. By now, Zusi has a new graphics engine. It still can't display textures and stuff, but it's a lot faster than the old one.

[Roland Ziegler]

Yes, quite a few.

That´s good. Are you?

No, I'm not. I'm an engineer, not a driver.
(Mixing of British and American terms can lead to confusion. )

[Christian Gründler]

I have Duron 850 MHz, Geforce 2.

For Zusi, the available memory is more important than the cpu or the grapics card. At least 512 MB are strongly recommended!

it's a lot faster than the old one.

This is a little bit misleading: the new release of the program loads big routes faster than the old one, but the fps will normally not (much) increase.

[Andreas Karg]

Are we both talking about the jump from 2.3 to 2.4?

[Daniel Rüscher aka Merlin]

No I think not... Andi is talking about the Jump from 2.3 (still the Engine of the Demo) and 2.4 (the actual Engine). Christian is talking about the Jump from 2.4.3 to 2.4.4

Greetings Merrlin

[Christian Gründler]

Christian is talking about the Jump from 2.4.3 to 2.4.4

Yes, indeed. If the demo is really based on Zusi 2.3, Andi is probably right. (I must admit to have only a faint rememberance of both the demo and Zusi 2.3 .....)

Regards,
Christian

[Carsten Hölscher]

At least 512 MB are strongly recommended!

this has changed with version 2.4.4. Now 256 MB RAM should normally be sufficient.

Carsten

[pospec]

Roland, I meant drivers, of course.

Thank you Carsten, I think that 384 MB will suffice. I´ll switch to lower resolution if necessary

Is Zusi 2 still in development or are you concetrating on development Zusi 3?

[Andreas Karg]

Changes to Zusi2 are mostly limited to bugfixes, now.