Impressions of the Black Five Steam Locomotive Simulator by Chris Skinner of 3D Train Stuff Part One - Test System Specifications PIII 933EB Slot 1 sitting on AOpen AX63 Pro Motherboard (133 FSB) 512 Mb PC133 SDRAM GeForce Graphics Card using Nvidia 6.50 Drivers Sound Blaster Live! Surround Sound with Yamaha YST-MS50 Sub Woofer and speakers Windows 2000 Pro with Direct X 8.0a and SP2 Hansol 17" 0.25mm DP Monitor Part Two - Demo contents The CD was delivered in well-wrapped brown envelopes and arrived in a pristine condition. Data content thereon was just over 41 Mb. The loading routine was simple - just copy the entire contents into a folder of your choice on your hard drive. However don't panic, there will be a full loading routine when the program "goes gold" shortly. There was a valuable read-me file on the CD so I could get started right away without having to re-sit my degrees in physics and rocket science. The CD file structure was neat and all objects and textures were nicely tucked away off the root. Part Three - So, how does it run? A swift double-click on the Black Five icon and a black and white picture of a loco appears while the program is loading. These loading screens are some of the nicest graphical touches I have ever seen. They are perfectly presented and aesthetically pleasing being sensitive to the Era. Once loaded up, you are presented with a first person straight-on view of the cab with all the controls in the right place and just ready to be fiddled with. The mouse pointer is replaced with a brown hand that changes shape depending on the activity you want to undertake. A pointing finger gives information on things like boiler pressure, speed etc, and a clenched fist means you can push, pull and otherwise manipulate the controls to drive the loco. Starting to move is a relatively straight-forward thing; just ensure the brake is almost off and then operate the cut-off and regulator to pass steam to the cylinders. After applying pressure to the cylinders, ease off the brake and you should start to move away. Once running decrease the amount of cut-off and regulator to maintain your speed. Simple? Yeah right! Don't forget to constantly check the boiler pressure, fire bed, injectors and cut off. Oh yes and the speed gauge! Part Four - How does it sound? At this point I have to mention the sound! I can best describe it in one word - sumptuous! Not only do you get that wonderful thud and hissing so typical of steam locos but it is in perfect surround sound and pans with you as you look around the cab in first person view. The guys have obviously been listening to various critical comments on other Train Sim forums about a certain other Sim now out (in the USA anyway). When you move off there is a satisfying "chuff chuff" from the smokestack and you can hear the wheels squealing as they press against the track under momentum. Once under way it is obvious there is no welded rail and the clickety-clack as you cross the joints tells you the train is on the track! Turn around and look at the tender and hear the engine behind you or look out the side and hear a wonderful cacophony of sound from the engine one side and the tender and trucks from the other. A good engineer reckons he can tell what the status of his engine is from the sounds it makes. Get this baby humming and you very quickly get in rhythm with the loco and the track until it becomes intuitive. In my opinion, the sound is some of the best I've heard. Part Five - What about the graphics? Low frame rates are death to a Sim as we all know. Black Five consistently showed frame rates of 25 Frames per Second (FPS) and above and never dropped below that. That's real-time graphics folks, in real-world situations. It's as smooth as silk with no apparent or perceptible pauses as new graphics are loaded in ready for the next stretch. There was no stuttering at all and no FPS degradation while loading sound files. Did I mention how smooth everything is? Well, you'd better believe it! There are nine views available: 1. 1st person full-on to the cab 2. 1st person leaning out the (correct) driver's side for a UK locomotive - i.e. the left side 3. Directly overhead or plan view 4. Trackside cam view that pans rather like a flight sim "fly-by" 5. From the roof of the rear wagon of the train - engine a long way in front of you 6. A rotating 3rd person camera that pans around the engine like a circling bird. 7. 1st person out of the firemans side of the cab. 8. Fixed locomotive camera 9. and a looking back from the last car shot, good for reversing. As the camera passes over various parts of the train the sound changes dynamically so you can hear the engine when the camera is there, and the trucks clanking and squealing when it passes over them. The semaphore signals are dead easy to see so it shouldn't be a problem in pulling up in time - although there is a definite "knack" to gliding to a stop gracefully and in the right place. The scenery is fairly sparse at present but you will be able to add your own objects and many more will, no doubt, be available to download as soon as the program goes live. This is not a problem however as you will be FAR too busy monitoring your boiler pressure and gauges to worry about the outside! However it has been well-implemented and resembles pleasant English countryside. I particularly liked the authenticity in telegraph poles complete with wires, and walls bordering the trackside. That is a nice touch and feels real. I also like the viaducts and bridges over valleys and water. Steam effects are excellent and well implemented with the smoke stretching well out and looking thinner the faster you go. I liked the way the smoke didn't just go dead behind the loco, but was slightly out to one side simulating cross-winds. The valve gear (always a nightmare to get right) is beautifully animated and in the third person view (no. 6 above) is very impressive. The train looks like it is actually ON the rails, not floating above it and the sounds of the wheels protesting and groaning at my lousy driving adds greatly to the atmosphere. Oh yes, and the track bed is raised too! Final opinion? You're going to "chuffed" as I was with it! This is well worth waiting for and ramps up the standards of the loco sim once again to new heights. Remember this is just a pre-release demo - Mark Judd tells me it will be even better once he has finished code optimisation etc. Perhaps some of the best news of all - the program refused point blank to crash on me, hang my computer or otherwise sulk and refuse to run. Even when I alt-tabbed back to the desktop and in-between writing this review, it refused to hang on me. In fact, I couldn't make it hang or reboot at all! This could be a first (Microsoft eat your heart out)! Chris Skinner 3D Train Stuff www.3dtrainstuff.com