New Zusi 3 video

[Nobkins]

As the title says.
http://www.youtube.com/v/p1SvjohNTqU

[AndiS]

If more than two people (Jim and Jason are booked in advance) are interested in a translation, I will give it a try.

The more relevant parts are:
They did not include the hump because they did not have the real gradient profile for it. If one shows up, the hump will be modelled. It seems to have several switches on gradient changes thus requiring lots of manual work (which they want to repeat too often).
All the tracks are modelled, but Zusi 3.0 will not support shunting, so only paths for running movements are implemented in that release.
The shunter with the single coal wagon has a very exotic version of PZB implemented.
The station with the ICE approaching will get more scenery detail. (It was build by Immo Birnbaum since 2008, see here for details.)
The ICE has several driven vehicles, their individual forces were fully modelled. They were very happy when the simulation met the prototype data to digits behind the comma.
They improved the scenery loading. The draw distance now depends on scenery density, so it grows or shrinks according to everyone's computer power - and the scene.
The next steps will be a another demo with the added features, then more polishing for the release, then the release - without dates as usual.

[BigVern]

Does this mean we are significantly closer to a public release?

[AndiS]

We get closer every day, Vern. We just are not able to quantify the distance. Carsten said, he could not either. And we all love them for their realistic approach. Well, all but a few who keep nagging in the Zusi forum.

Comparing this most recent video shows that they are making significant progress, even in areas where you would not expect it. I for one would have assumed the scenery management would stay as simple as it was in the demo, given all the emphasis on railway infrastructure simulation and nothing more. But I am certainly happy that they put some extra effort into getting closer to a faithful rendering of the scenery around the route.

In another post, they said that the list of vehicles available at release did grow in the meantime, they just have no time to put together a new version of the list.

They also do a series of video tutorials on Blender to the scenery builders started, knowing that they are the bottleneck for route building - already planning ahead for the depression after the initial hurray. It also sounds as if the documentation is more or less done. Other producers supply the documentation months after the release.

[JasonM]

Thanks for posting Jim.
Yea Andis thanks for thinking of us

I hope that in the next demo it will feature external train sounds as well.

I do check the Zusi Website now and again and keep hoping that one day i will see it released, I am really looking forward to it.