Customer Reviews

Hyper Rails

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I've been hearing about this software from various coaster fan sites for several weeks prior to its release. The website promoted graphics right out of real life, thanks to some well-done models of some other famous coasters. Of course, those models were prepared by people who were much more familiar with the program ... how would I, a rank novice at coaster design (but expert at riding them), be able to duplicate their efforts?

When you first start the program, be sure to take a look at the three sample "parks" (with a total of four coasters) before you get underway with your own design. This is for two reasons: (a) it shows off the more-than-capable 3D engine, which produces amazing true-to-life renditions; and (b) to show yourself that you, too, can come up with stuff like this.

The documentation does hit the major points of how the program operates, and it does include a simple tutorial coaster that you can put together and ride in a short time (under 30 minutes). However, the manual isn't written in the most user-friendly manner. Some key concepts (such as how to add brakes) aren't explained well when compared against the software's interface, i.e. it explains the theory, but not the practice.

Also, the interface leaves something to be desired in the way of starting a new ride. Of the features it does and doesn't have, I have yet to find a "New" command ... I've had to exit the game and restart if I wanted to start a new project. It may be better to set up a dummy project you can start whenever you want to begin a new ride, then save your new ride as another filename when you're done.

If your first attempt is to try and recreate your favorite ride, you'll come off more than a little disappointed in the results, possibly enough to stop using the program. That's the situation I found myself in, actually ... however, I came back and tried again, with much better results with each project. I tried my method for creating coasters in another popular program, Chris Sawyer's "RollerCoaster Tycoon" ... building with no preconceived ideas in mind, just going where the steel was pointing at the time.

Speaking of steel, that's all you can build with, so woodie fans will be disappointed by this oversight. The game allows for six different coaster formats: two inverted types (one lift-based and the other launched); standard looping; stand-up; hypercoaster; and the new 4D coaster. Each is modeled to the smallest detail, faithfully recreating the designs of world-famous manufacturers like Bolliger & Mabillard and Arrow.

Now having learned (pretty well) how to get the coaster track to actually go together, I can concentrate on detailing it. This step is purely optional, as your coaster will work fine without the first support or tree added to it. Once again, patience pays off ... play around with it, and you'll get better. Most everything has "grips" that can be manipulated by mouse, allowing you to place it where it looks best.

After all your hard work and practice, reward yourself with a ride on your creation, something RCT and RCT2 simply cannot do. The software lets you ride in any seat of any car on your coaster, and a recently released patch makes it easier to move the camera from place to place. You can even experience your ride at night! On a fast machine, the graphics are ultra-realistic, worth the price of admission (or the software) alone.

Is the software well built? Generally, yes. I've only documented one crash since I have had the game, and even that was caused by being a bit too impatient with it. Is it easy to do what you want? Initially, no. However, nothing truly worthwhile is easy ... I mean, why buy a game if you already know how to beat it? A good portion of the fun is learning, then implementing what you learned. "Hyper Rails" will definitely make the long winter offseason that much more bearable.

I read a bit of the negative feedback on this product, and it appears to me, these people are either zombie sheep workers for other coaster products, or simply are not looking at the same program I am.

Hyper Rails has an exceptional what you see is what you get editor. All work is done in the same 3D mode you ride in. Editing couldn't be easier, as you can test ride even ONE section of your track over and over again until you get it the results you want. Building Supports is the most technically advanced feature; copy and paste supports, weld existing supports together, create your own supports, and even build on prefab supports with other prefab supports. How about multiple coasters in one park? 4D Coasters, and many types of sky and landscape settings? Whip up a night coaster and your lift and catwalks light the darkness! Walk around your virtual park and and walk up your coaster and ride it. Supports adjust automatically as you change track height, angle, etc. The feature list goes on and on. With future updates (including two recent which add a host of new features), Hyper Rais is a coaster sim that shouldn't be missed, especially if you want realistic results, created through an editor WE CALL can use without taking engineering courses.

I've had this game a few weeks and I am really enjoying it. The editor does take some time to get used to, and it is hard to make perfectly smooth tracks, but it is easier than the NoLimits editor while still allowing basically unlimited track configurations. The 4d coasters are also very good, and (I think) this is the first rollercoaster sim that has them. You can also customize the colors down to basically the smallest detail (handrails, walkways, etc). The sounds are pretty bad, though, and it doesn't have much of a feeling of speed. Some of the tracks are not very realistic-looking, but they're at least semi-realistic (unlike Sim Theme Park, Ultimate Ride, etc). The supports are good, the environments are great, and the ability to make multiple-coaster parks and walk around in them is pretty neat. Overall, I think it's pretty good. I think the editor is the best I've seen (yet) in any rollercoaster sim.

This new game takes roller coaster design to the next level! You can build your own steel roller coasters includeing hyper coasters, steel loopers, inverted, impulse, stand-up, and 4th dimension coasters. Building your dream coasters works on the same principal as the No Limits game. Each support, track, beam, etc. can be shaped, welded, or twisted in any way you like. Once your ride is finished, you can ride in any seat of your liking. A must for any coaster fan!

There isn't a thing you can't do with this game. Detail every aspect of the coaster right down to the supports. Then build walkways and walk around and ride your coasters. It's like Roller Coaster Tycoon except you actually get to be one of those people in the park. I would recommend this game over anything I've ever played. You probably won't catch on to how to finish a coaster at first, but give it time because once you figure out the game it's great. I don't care what people say, this game has the best 3d graphics and most realistic sounds you'll find anywhere outside of Cedar Point!

This is the best 3D coaster simulator to date. Its greatest strength lies in the editor. Not only can you enter track orientation with numeric values, the 3D nodes show you which attribute (pitch, roll, heading) will have the effect you're looking for. Add to this the ability to "loop" a train through a section over and over while you're editing, and you can resize or alter an element to make the most of the train's energy.

The number of polygons in the trains and track objects is higher as well (if you have the detail set high) so everything looks more realistic compared to other games. There are no flat textures used for hand rails or stairs.

The night time modes add a serious visual treat to the game as well.

This is one of the greatest coaster simulation game I've ever seen. Out of all other coaster simulation games out there, I highly recommended Hyper Rails to be one of the best. Easy to program and the feel is like the real thing.

NoLimits finally has competition... or so I thought. This simulation is very disappointing and I personally feel that it was a waste of my money. I don't want this review to come across as an advertisement for NoLimits, but it was my basis for comparison.

For starters, the coasters don't look real at all. They're very unprofessional models of roller coasters. Granted NoLimits models aren't photo-realistic, but at least they look authentic and have detail. These look like cartoons ala Disney's Ultimate Ride. The wheels, even on highest details, look like stop signs. No smooth edges anywhere.

Second, the physics are off. It feels to me like I'm going more or less the same speed through the whole ride. The fact that the sound doesn't change AT ALL while riding the ride doesn't help the illusion either... speaking of which...

The sound is horrible. No whooshing down hills, or near silence when going slowly. It's a droning loop that stays at the same volume with no inflection through the entire ride. Very bad and totally detracts from the illusion. Play NoLimits for an example of how sound can be implemented very well.

The graphics are jerky and very blocky. The trains glide into the station and then appear to skip about 20 frames of animation as they stop-jerk into place. My system is an Alienware P4 1.7ghz with a Geoforce3 64m card and 512 megs of RAM. Most games are silky smooth on my machine and this one jerked in places- looked like a coding error not a system performance issue since it happened on all coaster types. I also notices several places where planes were missing allowing you to see through items.

Walking around the roads was an okay idea except that you get caught on things constantly making it troublesome to navigate the on ramps and handrails.

I had high hopes for this simulator but I doubt I'll ever get any enjoyment out of it. The editor appears to be easier to use than NoLimits, but since it crashed on me twice I gave up.

If you like details and realism skip this title. If you like Ultimate Ride and want something a little more powerful, try this. It might be a wiser investment of your 29.99 to wait for RCT2 when it comes out though.

Hyper Rails looks like by far the best game ever dedicated to designing rolllercoasters only. It has great graphics and tons of track designs, incuding 4-D coasters. I can't wait to get it. However, I would only reccomend it to people with a serious intrest in coasters.

This game or simulation has only been out a few weeks. The graphics details are great and the editor make it very easy to use. However, I downloaded the software patch from their website that is suppose to fix all the known bugs. One of the major problems I notice is resolution preferences won't change to the setting you select. It seems to stay at 800x600 no matter what I set it at. Also I have to save my progress frequently when running the program otherwise I will lose the work in progress due to random crashes. When you exit the program, it asked you if you want to exit the GAME. I guess it would be a game if the object is to design a coaster and save it to your HD before the game crashes on you. I was told by there company that it's a hardware compatibility problem. Well, I thought that was what the Patch was suppose to fix. If this is the case, then I guess everyone who has a similar hardware setup in their PC as mine will experience the same problems I am having with this product. Actually it sounds like a software compatibility problem and not a hardware problem.