James Ross, on 18 November 2018 - 06:40 AM, said:
This is the last version of Open Rails to support Windows XP; future versions will require Windows 7 or later.
I wonder how many of our Windows XP users noticed the message above, which was part of the v1.3 Release announcement? When Wayne Campbell launched our Open Rails project in Dec 2009, Win XP was 4 years old and Win 7 was 5 months old. Nine years later, it is time to leave Win XP behind so that we can adopt more modern technology.
Analysis of the downloads of v1.3 suggest that 1.5% of our active users are using Windows versions older than Windows 7. If you are in that 1.5%, we hope that you will understand that software has to keep moving on.
The benefits I see are:
- better graphics (e.g. better lighting, shadows and reflections)
- more detail (from higher frame rates and better use of memory)
- faster delivery of improvements (from a platform that is more attractive to volunteer developers)
We can expect higher frame rates because the replacements for DirectX9 use the graphics processors more efficiently.
By moving away from XNA to MonoGame, we can have larger and more detailed models.
For better graphics, we can look at the progressive improvements on the Trainz website. For example, we should be able to provide multiple headlights and properly dark corners (ambient occlusion). If you are interested in the technical details, see upgrading to DirectX10 here and then to DirectX11 here.
These improvements will take time, but now we can make a start.