What Sim is good for the Mac?

[George K]

Any advice as to which sim is best for the Macintosh?

 

[Acela150]

I think only Trainz works on macs.

 

[George K]

I think only Trainz works on macs.

Thanks. Is it any good?

 

[Ryan]

Not really. Not bad, just not great.

 

[PerRock]

Trainz is your only option (possibly BVE, I think they had a Linux version... so there might be a mac one).

As for it being any good, as they say in photography: "Your best camera is the one you have with you." The same is true. Each of the 3 major simulators are good at their own things. Trainz (TRS) was originally geared as a virtual model railroad simulator; and so some aspects of realism when it comes to driving are lacking. But on the other hand, creating maps, session, content, is all very easy. Railworks/Whatever-it's-called-now (RW) is much more geared at looking pretty. RW will cost you more as almost all the addons are payware (conversely TRS & MSTS have a lot of freeware), creating stuff for the game is much more difficult; but it'll look great! Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS) is the most "out of date" version, but is considered to off the best realism when it comes to driving your trains, content is created pretty easily for it & there is a lot of freeware. However MSTS is no longer being developed, so at some point in the future it just won't run on a newer system.

There are a few other "smaller" simulators out there, such as BVE & World of Subways. World of Subways is extremely limited, but is beautifully rendered & designed. There is no addon capabilities (and no Amtrak). I know very little about BVE, except that in general it looks pretty crappy & I think it's free & open source.

That all being said I'm a die-hard Trainz fan (can't stand RW & MSTS) so I'd say go for it! However there is one thing to keep in mind. The new version of Trainz is coming out soon, Originally it was going to be in December, but has been pushed back (I'll have to look up the new date). So you do have a decision to make: Get Trainz Mac 2, or wait for Trainz: A New Era (or get both).

peter

 

[George K]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! "New Era" looks good, I"ll look forward to its release (or, perhaps, prepay).