PC Introducing Nimbus For Train Sim World®

I'm on PC, and I don't want the hassle of installing mods or any extra tools.
I’ve done it for other games in the past, including TSC, and with every reinstallation, it eventually became a hassle.
In other words, imo the more complete a game is in itself, the better.

 

Happy to see the live weather coming to the base game (especially for console players who can't use mods), but for me it won't replace Route Annotations and this Nimbus thing is a non-starter. I like having the historic weather as an option for routes that are set in the past. Feels "wrong" to me to have live weather for a route that's set in the 80's or what have you. I'm fully aware that's a personal preference on my part and that most others won't be bothered by it one bit.

 

Not really, because Winzarten's app lets you play with weather from previous years. Also, I want to see DTG's new weather system in action so I can make my own opinion on how good (or bad) it is.

 

I have to kindly disagree. I highly doubt DTG's implementation will come close to having the level of customization and interactivity the free app has. Very happy console now has something, though!

 

I noticed that the live weather feature is only mentioned on the versions that come with a new route and not with the free version which to me says that DTGs live weather will only be on TSW7 routes and not existing ones?

 

How do you know that?
If DTG’s live weather is anything like the way the fog moves in ‘Dynamic Weather’, then you can forget about DTG’s live weather.

Because Winzart’s tool does that much better.

 

DTG said they improved dynamic weather too, so maybe fog is not an issue anymore. Guess we need to wait for the previews to know exactly what the difference is.

 

but i'm not referring to winzarten's tool
i'm referring to nimbus

 

I'll still be using Winzarten's tool if it works with TSW7. I like to know where I am and love the route annotations + it does historic weather. I'm glad it's a new feature that everyone can use, but I still think the mod will be better.

 

Also, it's the obvious option for anyone who doesn't want to have to log the game in to a Dovetail account.

 

no surprise at all, think of the train announcements, they were first possible with Soundpad or Metrospeak and a lot of people making these announcements (like me) and then DTG included announcements in the DLCs too.

Besides, I'm not unhappy with this, as making them was a lot of work...

We'll see in September, if the Live Weather of TSW is as good as the free alternatives, especially the transitions between different weather situations...

 

hmm, THAT would not be so good. But how do you come to this conclusion ? Did I miss something in the TSW video ??

 

I’m sure when they were running through what you get with each version the live weather wasn’t mentioned when speaking about the free version but was when speaking about the paid versions that obviously come with TSW7 routes. Hence me assuming it’ll be a TSW7 routes only thing.

 

Weather is a core feature and not a route one so I think it will be on older routes.

The existing weather mods aren't done route by route so in theory it should work on all.

If they cut any of the routes most likely it will the TOD3 routes that don't work.

 

Weren’t there new core features in past TSW releases that were only available on new routes though?

 

Things like passenger annoucements are different as the audio files have to be curtailed for every route and speakers added to the actual locos for such annoincements as they didn't add them before it was a feature. You do need somewhere for the sound to come out of.


Its not a core feature its more like in the base game coding instead of being route dependant.

But really its just an add on to Dynamic Weather which did work for every route when it was featured. But instead of the CPU randomly selecting the changes it recieves an update every 5 minutes from some online service to determine what you see.

Sparks were another one that applied to all. TSR's were for all. Umbrellas were for all. Rain effects were for all. Dynamic fog was for all even when you just got the free upgrade.

 

I stand corrected then.

Although I’ll be sticking with the existing weather/annotations mod (as long as it is still compatible) as I have it set to give the weather of the date in game rather than live weather anyway.

 

NEW VERSION ## 1.9.6

**New Wetness Simulation**

Before, wetness use to gradually increase when in rain, decrease when out of rain. Now, wetness is a proper simulation
based of the last hours of weather. Wetness from rain now leaves a trail of wetness behind. Meaning it is now possible
to drive through an area of wetness from previous rain, even if it is not raining anymore. There is a toggle to disable this in settings
due to the initial download size of the extra previous weather data.

**Forecast**

There is a new option to see the forecast in the future. Scrub along the forecast bar and see the weather maps update.

**Tap the map for the weather anywhere**

Click anywhere on the map, in live or forecast to see the weather at that point and predicted weather in the future.

**Journeys**

Various Improvements

**Tunnel wetness improvements**

Wetness no longer snaps after leaving a tunnel back into wetness.

**Various other bugfixes**

 

Is weather precipitation fixed here where it doesn’t randomly go to 0 and never recover after some time in the rain? Excited to play around with this!

 

I'm interested in this application, but I'd like to know if it affects FPS. My PC specs are a bit on the lower side (i7-11700F, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 Ti).

Thanks!

 

New Update: ## 1.9.7

**Train Sim World 7**

TSW 7 Automatic key detection support

**New routes**

TSW 7 three new core routes now supported on map

 

The application itself will not cause you any difference of performance, but the change in weather can (ie: if it starts raining in the game, etc).

 

MAJOR UPDATE OUT NOW!

## 1.9.8

**Historical Weather**
Experience weather from 1970 onwards. Users can choose a date and time in the past, or use the in game time and date.

**Community runs**
You can share your runs using historical weather (from journey tab). After moderation approval, the run will be available for other users to experience.

**New UI**
The UI has been redesigned to provide a better experience.

**New HUD**
The HUD has been redesigned to provide a better experience. In settings you can now choose what you want it to display. It also has weather icons and upcoming weather. Note, a limitation with the upcoming weather is based on your current location, not the weather ahead. Until DTG gives us the timetable data, this is the best we can do for now.

**Map**
A trail now follows the player on the map. Station markers updated.

**New Combined Precipitation and Cloud Layer**
The precipitation and cloud layer has been combined into a single layer. This allows the user to see both without having to switch between layers.

**Suggested Wind Setting**
As TSW does not provide wind strength through the API yet, Nimbus now suggests a wind strength based on the weather conditions.

**Custom Advisory Sounds**
You can now choose custom sounds for each advisory

**Drivers Online**
See how many Nimbus drivers are online, how many are on your route, and how many are in a storm right now. You can opt out in Settings.

**New Route**
TSW 7 Tadami Line: Aizu-Wakamatsu - Tadami is now supported on the map.

**Various Bugfixes**

 

I've updated and been playing around with it - incredible update, great job on this one!!

One small bit of feedback on the weather condition descriptions (and icons) on the in-game overlay, and I'd imagine the same applies in the app itself. From what I've seen there are only 3: clear, partly cloudy and cloudy. I think that could do with being fleshed out a bit.

Something along these lines (correlating with Nimbus cloud percentage values) would be more representative:

• 0-10% - Clear
• 10-25% - Mostly clear
• 25-50% - Partly cloudy
• 50-80% - Mostly cloudy
• 80-100% - Cloudy

I've had several occasions where the cloud percentage was sitting around 75–80% with a decent amount of sun coming through, and "cloudy" doesn't quite describe that accurately. A few more steps in between would cover it.

I've had a field day with the custom sounds field - thank you for that!!

 

I am glad you seem to be enjoying it! Yeah that is correct, only them 3 right now. Adding more will be no problem

 

Thanks!! I do want to say, historic weather has been incredible to finally dig into. I've had my first proper go at snow and winter conditions this evening, and I've got a few things I want to share from that session. vv

In the Winter Storm Jonas challenge, the overlay was reading 0.14 inches an hour. That figure is the liquid water equivalent. The snowfall rate on the other hand, is a very different number. The standard conversion is around 10:1, so 0.14 inches an hour of liquid is roughly 1.4 inches of snow an hour - which is a moderate-heavy rate of snowfall compared to rain, not the light flurry-ness (if you will) that 0.14 implies.

The ratio isn't fixed, which makes it a bit more complex. Near freezing, it can drop to 5:1 for wet, heavy snow; down in the teens and single digits (Fahrenheit) it can reach 20:1 or 30:1 for dry, fluffy snow. Temperature is the main driver, with humidity and crystal type also feeding in. If it's workable, scaling the ratio off the reported temperature would be more accurate than a flat 10:1, but even a flat 10:1 would be a big improvement on showing the liquid figure during snow.

Also, looking at the map during Jonas, with how heavy and intense that precipitation was, the slider was only sitting about 20% of the way up. At snowfall rates of one to one and a half inches an hour, the slider should be close to maxed, because that's heavy snow.
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On why this is easy to get wrong > winter precipitation doesn't produce the same radar returns as regular rain. Heavy snow typically shows in the darker greens and lighter yellows instead of the oranges and reds you'd see in warmer weather because the liquid content is much lower in cold air. So if the in-game intensity is being scaled off reflectivity or off the liquid rate directly, snow will always come out looking far lighter than it actually is. Snow for sure needs its own scaling curve instead of sharing the rain one.

A good suggestion going off imperial measurements would be something like this > one inch of snow an hour, so 0.10 inches of liquid at a 10:1 ratio, sitting at 50% on the in-game precipitation slider. Two inches of snow an hour, so 0.20 inches of liquid at 10:1, maxing the slider out completely and showing the heaviest snow TSW is capable of rendering. It would and could absolutely get heavier than that in reality, but the game doesn't represent it.

A few bits on sound as well > As mentioned above, I've been having a field day with the custom sounds, but there's no slot for all of the possible weather conditions. A few examples (not all): Snow doesn't have one at all, and I've noticed none for drizzle either. I'm sure there are more I haven't discovered yet. Fog has the same problem from the other direction. I made a sound alert with text-to-speech specifically for dense fog, and it played on a service where there was only ordinary fog, which didn't fit at all. One slot is covering what are really different conditions. I think being able to set a sound per specific condition instead of it being per broad category would solve all of these. When one file has to cover everything from drizzle to heavy rain, or light fog to dense fog, it's hard to make a sound that suits any of them properly.

I'm not sure how transitions from rain to snow or vice versa work yet - as I haven't gotten that far in my testing - but I hope all of that was helpful, and I can't wait for future updates!!

P.S. You've NAILED the snow depth mapping for what TSW shows - it's spot on!!

 

Thank you for explaining that, very helpful, I will look into it!