Disclaimer: I'm fully aware that DTG has no reported plans for next gen as of right now. I just want to make the suggestion! Hey guys! I got my PS5 yesterday and played a few routes. The textures definitely looked better, but a lot of routes still need more layers-but that's beside the point! I think my main issue with TSW 2020/TSW 2 has been the lighting, and now with next gen capabilities, ray tracing and proper lighting can now be introduced to the game. I think right now, the lighting (to me) feels really bland and lifeless which is a product of optimization and hardware capabilities. Imagine driving into a properly lit Munchen Hbf at night in a 423 or ICE3. Or driving through the trees with light going in between them and the proper shadows to match. I think the proper lighting given the new generation console capabilities would take this game to the next level.
They seriously need to consider improving the overall lightning. It´s the second iteration in game and no improvement on this matter has been seen in years. Nights are pitch black as the spotlights illuminate 20m ahead only (I mean the high beams). Clear daylight could be ok, but shadows viewdistance ruins it, as it looks completely artificial. On the other hand under clouds you are normally too dark. In general game needs some better image clarity and not so extreme changes from clear sky to cloudy weather. Cheers
You are never going to get anywhere near the level of that video in TSW. The lighting is unlikely to improve to any great degree as the full capabilities of newer consoles and newer versions of Unreal (probably a long way off) will be used to improve the running of the simulation not the lighting. It will probably be a long time before we see any improvement in lighting and those improvements are unlikely to be dramatic. The next gen consoles have more processing power and memory but they do still have limits, and TSW is already getting towards those limits already. They are currently trying to squeeze it into the old consoles and it hasn’t worked out. The PS5 is not a magic ‘anything’s possible’ machine.
But the next gen consoles are powerful enough to enact engine specific things like ray tracing and the like. I don't expect the lighting to be as good as what's shown in the video, but I do expect a next gen improvement capable of really improving the lighting.
They are powerful enough for ray tracing if you want to use up a significant proportion of the available power for that ray tracing. If you are using the power to smoothly stream in scenery while travelling at 300 km/h (which doesn't happen in your average game) then the power won’t be available for ray tracing. It’s a question of using the available resources where they are needed the most.
Fair point about the speed, unreal engine wasn't really intended for this sort of game I suppose. A nice balance could be achievable though!
The video is self explanatory. She is using "a candle", or whatever that magic sphere is, and has much better scene illumination in the cave than one of our drivers has in a tunnel Consoles are not a problem. They won´t wait for TSW2. They will evolve on their own to more powerful systems, as PCs will do. It´s just a matter of time. But game also needs to be updated according to current gaming standards. They are not the same as in 2018. And I know that they use a very customized engine version, but some things in it have simply started to become obsolete. Light is one of them. Cheers
It's because I'd rather have a discussion instead of someone just saying, "DTG has no plans" and moving on!
It is realistic, though. Really, the only issue I have with the headlights is actually to do with the signposts: they aren't retroreflective. One of the reasons the headlights feel so weak is that they don't allow you to see the signposts up ahead because the signs in the game aren't retroreflective. Now I don't know about the other parts of the world, but in North America, trackside signs are retroreflective. Adding retroreflection to the game would make night running feel a lot better because you can read the signs before you are driving past them. Cheers
I’VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR THE LONGEST! We need this on routes like the Bakerloo, where you can barely see speed signs in the tunnels. If I could like this suggestion more than once, I would.
DTG will be upgraded to Unreal Engine V, but it may take a long time, maybe two years or so, because nowadays many players do not need to upgrade their own hardware, such as graphics cards. When NVIDID’s 4000 series graphics cards are on the market, I believe it should be this time
Yes they are reflective too. During night you normally don´t see much more than a couple of catenary poles ahead as the regular structures are not reflective, but any signalling related boards are seen from hundreds of meters away if illuminated by high beams. This is also required by railway regulations so they must be manufactured according to those specs, and also high beams need to be able to illuminate a particular reflective size up to a distance. This varies from country to country and depending on lines to be conventional or high speed. But inside tunnels yes, you see much more than in game for sure. In game boards are barely visible at more than 50m away. In general that seems to be the max light viewdistance they implemented. In game Waterloo is the extreme case as we have marker lights there. Boards are visible at 10 yards and during 1 second, as the cab door hides them instantly. Terrible... This video is in high quality so you will see how you notice that the yellow boards are approaching from more than 300m in some cases and then when they are close you can read them. Some tunnels can be seen as well, at 47:40 for instance. Cheers
I think retro-reflective signs is worth a proposal thread of its own. It certainly would go a long way in increasing the realism of night.
I do wonder how they would do retroreflective signs in the game as the light sources they have don’t reach the signs at distance and if they did the reflections are a narrow beam reflected back towards the viewer (in real life). The only way I can think of is if the signs themselves became light sources as you got within a certain distance and then I’m thinking they would be all bleached out by the time you got close enough to read them. Easier in real life than to simulate I reckon.
It seems it is possible in UE4 seemingly pretty easily with some C++ coding. https://williamgs.com/posts/unreal-retro-reflective-shading-model/ I don't think it would be a processor intensive thing either. I know the source engine has had retroreflectivity since Left 4 Dead's release in 2008 and that was an effect they put in the eyes of all the enemies, then made use of it further in Left 4 Dead 2 with some enemies wearing safety vests.
That looks encouraging. Now how many signs are there to add this function to retrospectively? Once the core team have come up with the necessary coding, we can lock Adam in a room until he’s done every single one ! ! !
