I mentioned it in another thread already: My personal feeling is that Dynamic Weather has gotten better lately. More variety, more logical and less jarring transitions... it's noticeable Or maybe I'm just lucky. Would be nice, for a change.
I'm not going to put Matt on the spot here because if it's on DTG's list he won't be able to say so, just putting this out there..... Is live weather (or an approximation of it) possible? There was a mod but I found the first version made TSW totally unstable. I know it's been updated but it put me off downloading it. It was pretty spot on but nothing breaks immersion like a CTD.
Sam always used to say they weren't interested in live, because it's boring. It won't change because the routes are too short, not like flight sim where you could experience everything. Dynamic was preferred for interest reasons.
Well, sometimes the weather can seem boring. That's weather. At the moment we're under the influence of high pressure so the whole of the UK is experiencing dry, warm, cloudless weather. Aside from temperature differences you could travel 600 miles from London to the Highlands and see sunshine throughout. However, in Winter high pressure affects us in different ways, there would be mist and fog patches, areas of sunshine, areas of grey Stratus cloud cover. You'd see frost in some places and not others too. The suggestion that the weather won't change due to the shortness of routes doesn't hold-up though. When low pressure is in charge the weather can be extremely variable without needing to move an inch. Showery regimes mean that one spot could see multiple heavy downpours while 10 miles up the road/track stays completely dry all day. With the greatest of respect to Sam, weather may sometimes seem a little dull but that's not the normal, not in places like the UK. There's an old saying in Scotland; If you don't like the weather, wait 20 minutes and it'll change. Obviously some places like the South East of the UK see less variation but one of the biggest problems I see with WCML North is the lack of low cloud hugging the dales and drizzle.The in-game mist and fog seems to be trying to handle the variance in visibility depending on weather type, but it fails dismally in my opinion. Dynamic weather seems to think that every time it rains it must turn into a thunderstorm. Which is just so, so wrong. Hence my suggestion of a live weather option, saving DTG the need to employ a meteorologist to advise on where the dynamic version is going wrong. I've flown thousands of miles in Flight Sim with live weather and it's been fair weather cloud or clear skies all the way by the way and it was correct too! That'll be High Pressure for you.
I am using live weather, which is now possible (and stable) through the newly available DTG API (but still not officially announced). My experience is that it is, what dynamic weather should have been, a simply realistic change throughout a journey, sometimes only minor changes, sometimes more noticeable but the changes always make sense. Also, it gives you the satisfaction of knowing that this is what you would see if you would be there. As this is not an option above, I have also voted for the light clouds, which was my preferred setting before the opportunity for live weather came along…
Gonna give it another go. We're about to have some lively weather here in the UK so it'll be interesting to see how it handles it. This is where TSW becomes totally unrealistic, the overhead wires stay up in high winds and everyone gets home on time. Is that the big new game coming from DTG? Rail Replacement Service World. Choose from "Bus Driver", "Network Rail De-training Team", "Confused Station Forecourt Passenger Services" or "Booking Office Refunds Desk". All the fun of railway operations, without the hassle of having to drive a train.
I'm a light clouds guy, I play this for relaxation so I want the best weather for admiring the route as I go down it, all about fun for me
Is this a mod you're talking about? Or something possibly for TSW6? I'd love to see some sort of official live weather option eventually.
Its part of the online EBuLa tool that I am using (online-EBuLa). This, itself, is also linked to TSW using the DTG API and the developer extended it to the weather use as well. Its therfore not official and uses free Meteo APIs for the weather model.
Light clouds is my go to. For custom weather I don't at all select any rain or snow. Although sometimes I get adventurous. Driving a long freight train in stormy weather is a fun challenge sometimes.
