BE AN ARMCHAIR DRIVER

摘要

Five years ago, two young men from Germany operating as MR Software released a computer simulation through Aerosoft Publishing giving computer users the opportunity to faithfully replicate, through the use of 3D physics, all aspects of driving and operating buses. Real timetables, moving, talking passengers, geographically accurate road networks and scenery as well as a varied base of artificial intelligence (AT) traffic all enhanced the reality of the experience. OMSI (The Omnibus Simulator) was born and went on to gain a worldwide fan base, not least because the game included an unofficial software development kit (SDK) allowing those with sufficient talent to add their own bus models, routes and scenery. For several years, even with the incarnation of an upgraded OMSI2, as the game had been developed in Germany by Germans, it defaulted to right-path maps (driving on right-hand side of the road) with left-hand drive vehicles for the bulk of its playable operations.