Use Multiplayer Surveyor
Multiplayer Surveyor (MPS) is a new Trainz Feature for TrainzPlus and Gold Class members. Introduced in November 2020 (see Tony Hilliam on "Now Enjoy Trainz With Friends"), MPS allows multiple players to collaborate on building a route stored on a cloud server. In short, users can edit a route and operate trains on that route together in real time. Detailed information on this new Trainz feature can be found at Multiplayer Surveyor. Note that MPS is very different from Trainz Multiplayer (MP) introduced in 2011. With MPS, the action is taking place on an Auran Server; users on a particular route are connecting to that route and its activities on the distant server.
The MPS experience differs from standard (on your computer) Trainz in several important ways. Available routes are shown on the bottom menu bar with purple titles and sorting to the far right. The number of routes displayed is limited and you can remove any by selecting and then clicking on "ABANDON ROUTE". A green check mark indicates a MPS route you have joined previously. Selecting and clicking "EDIT ROUTE" will log you onto the cloud server and the selected route will slowly develop on your screen in surveyor mode. There are no separate sessions; changes you (or others) make occur in real time, so the distinction between route editing and session operations is meaningless. However, while you can do both editing the route and driving a consist (assuming the owner has given you the proper permissions), these are different modes and must be selected from the TOOLS MENU. See "Driving a Train" and "Placing Assets" below.
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Driving a Train
You can switch to driver mode (TOOLS MENU) at any time, although getting onto a train can be tricky. First, switch to Driver Mode and click on the "blank" driver in the lower left corner to bring up all the drivers in a window. Add yourself if not listed. You will have two (or three) choices (active buttons to right of your picture). At this point you need to have your desired train close by: clicking on the engine will activate the choice: "Move to Destination". Clicking on this button, then on the train should assign you to that engine and driver controls should appear on bottom right. You are now in the driver seat with all five buttons to the right of your "image" active. If not, click on the engine again. "Focus on Driver" will move the focus to you if you are, say, in Roaming mode.
PROBLEMS: If controls over the camera view cease working, click on cab mode, then back to chase mode.
Once you have been assigned to a train, moving back to Surveyor Mode will not change that assignment. If you are done driving that engine, click on the "Unassign Driver" and "Get off the Train" buttons to free up the consist for others to use (or they can just as easily unassign you).
Placing Assets
Once a route is on the MPS server, you can (subject to owner-granted permissions) add or change assets in Surveyor Mode (default on opening; otherwse set in TOOLS MENU). Assets to develop the route are limited to a fixed content set; you cannot add assets from the DLS or anywhere else. You can view the available content set by "editing" (opening up) the routes titled: "More MPS Content" and "New MPS Content". Other than this limitation, developing the landscape and adding assets is no different than in any other recent version of Trainz.
PROBLEMS: If the tile you are editing turn all red, it means your changes in that specific area are being processed—hold off on further editing for a moment. Most often, this "red pause" will occur when adding or making changes to the track.
Communicating
Communicating with other crews and contributors is necessary for smooth operations in MPS and can be accomplished in several ways. First, however, is consideration of just where to contact others about MPS, whether you have general questions or wish to learn more about MPS goings on in real time. The Forum has many helpful posts, but finding these is difficult as topics often lack any organization (best bet is to search for "multiplayer surveyor"). Searching for "MPS" will not be useful. Try visiting Discord.com, where the channel # MPS-general-chat is available for connecting to others online. Once you register, you will be sent automatically to wherever you left off each time you revisit (see Tony Hilliam on "Chat while you build on Discord"). Useful can be that iserver maintenance or other problems that will prevent you from logging on to your MPS route (or boot you off) are announced here.
If you examine the small black box in the upper left corner, you will see a list of others presently live in the session with you. These are Chat participants that you can communicate with by typing messages in the space provided.
Problems
Clicking on some MPS routes listed in the menu bar may bring up the message: "Connecting to multiplayer server, please wait...Position in Queue: 4". Number of "positions" may vary, but this message means a problem exists with the MPS route that you are attempting to join. You will NOT be accessing it; waiting will do you no good. If all the listed routes give this error, the MPS Server is down.
Trainz Wiki
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Related Tutorials and Guides to Using Trainz
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