About the project
The Beginnings
MaSzyna's pioneering founder is Marcin Woźniak, who in the summer of 2001, presented a project of a simulator, which partially coresponded with a different simulator program - "Mechanik EN57". Under the address /eu07.pl/jeszczejedensymulatorek/ we placed a thread copy, which was used to present the project for the first time. After that, few people joined, amongst them Maciej Czapkiewicz, who created the main physics engine. Because of the fact that one of the helpful people was driving locomotive number 424 at the time, the application took on the name of MaSzyna EU07-424. Because models of new vehicles ware created for the aplication, the logo and the name soon changed into MaSzyna - Symulator Pojazdów Szynowych.
At the end of year 2003, the forum was created, which has a major role to play in the development of the project. It is a mountain of knowledge, place of discussions, the testing and publishing grounds for new addons. As the time moved on, so changes the people who created addons. From 2006 on, the forum has started to recieve big, complete packs of addons, which had the newest addons and solutions. Today, every newest Simulator pack, which has newest and greatest addons, throughly tested, can be downloaded in the "Downloads" section on the projects website.
On the "Release history" subpage, there is a complete list of complete packs from 2006 on, along with a brief description.
MaSzyna picks quality
High quality is MaSzyna's priority. When creating sceneries, sounds, vehicle models, infrastructure and scenarios, the authors try to mimick the reality as closely as possible. It was achieved by developing and continousley modifying the norms, which have to be met by the addons, and through testing every single addon. When creating new vehicle models, the creators can create the vehicle characteristics nearly identical to the real one, in which case the train will accelerate and slow down like the real one. Furthermore, when creating new sceneries and scenarios, the authors concentrate on them to meet the railway regulations. All of that effort means the realism in MaSzyna's simulation is remarkably high.
Everyone can join!
Authors are striving to ensure MaSzyna will be mistake-free, however, since the Simulator is being continously developed, some mistakes and faults might occur. Everyone can join the fight to correct the mistakes!
How to help in the development of the project?
Everyone who is interested in railway transport is capable of helping in the development of MaSzyna. There are so many branches one could shine on. Contrary to popular opinion, to create an application like this, you don't need to know advanced couter science. For example, you simply need to have a digital camera to support the modellers with pictures of many different objects, which could me added to the sceneries. Those who don't have a camera, can record sounds of different equipment. In the project's lifetime, some people have been known to learn computer coding or using graphical modelling tools, and as such, to contribute significantly to the project's development.
As mentioned above, the forum is an integral part of our communi. It contains tips on creating models, textures, sceneries and many more. In case of problems, experienced users will help, sharing their knowledge and remarks. You can also become a Betatester, who's job it is to test and find mistakes in the new add-ons, support the creators with their help, and to create themselves.
All in all, we recomment you register on our forum, where you will find more information and tutorials. List of queries regarding helping in the development of the Simulator is in this forum thread [POLISH only].
Media coverage...
Below is a website link, to a page where different snippets of media coverage of out simulator is showed chronologiacally. Most of the coverage is in Polish. The page will be updated as more coverage is recieved.