I would love to see the information boards in train scroll through with the correct details rather than stating the final stop. Also an added bonus would be announcements as it adds a cherry on to the pie of realism. Has this been spoken about before? Is there any future plans to implement such a thing?
I wouldn't, I'd sooner see the time spent elsewhere improving many of the other niggling errors well before this.
Oh no I definitely agree with you I’m thinking in the future hoping that DTG get their act together relatively quick.
it would involve huge sound samples for all the announcements, I'm not sure it would ever be viable with all the DLC that is already available. Not to mention any future DLC as well, You'll need a quantum P.C. to run all that in real time whilst you try and run a full timetable.
Because you can't just use anybody's voice...at least if you want it to be authentic. TOC's (Train Operating Company's) employ people to announce stations, services just as they would a train manager, you can't just go recording their voice and putting it on a game without the TOC's consent.
Once again it seems to be for want of a better expression "an anally retentive view" you don't need the actual person who does it, you'll find that thousands if not millions of people have the same accent, the issue will be with the size of the sound files involved that will make this an unviable idea and nothing to do with who does the voice overs.
To put this into prospective an average 1 minute .wav file is around 10mb, so imagine how many files that will require for every announcement on a single DLC, it's never happening, as an idea it's dead in the water until we have Quantum computers.
which is why I said if you want it to be authentic. Myself, I wouldn't be really fussed if they sounded like the actual announcements or not. Be a nice thing to have though, if DGT were to consider it.
I’m not entirely sure if this is true as from what I remember omsi 2 had an ibus announcements mod that played the an audio file for every bus stop. Surely it would be the same concept for TSW 2
I’m sure it wouldn’t be that hard to get consent for copies of the recording as there is numerous things that already exist in TSW 2 that required consent and companies seem more then happy to help so far.
you'd be suprised at how hard it can be. TFL, for an example don't give out licences easy. I dread to think how long that took lol
Nah I’m talking both potentially as sometimes you can be somewhere like Brighton and you’ll hear an announcement saying stay back from the platform edge trains pass through this station at high speeds… if they did I’d be worried. It definitely is something that’s needs to be sorted/updated in the long run
On the Bus Simulator game they have announcements for the next stop so something similar could be done for TSW2. It is a good idea and It would be nice to have onboard announcements but I think licensing issues might be a problem.
or the person who acually recorded the voice its there copyright as wel the gam is ful of sunds and not a problem so small audio is not problem for voises it gets compresed simple realy
The technicalities of doing this are very very basic so the machine needed to do it wouldn't be hard at all. The sound files would be harder to put out, but wouldn't be megabytes each time because they would be "sewn together" on many routes, indeed in the UK you can tell they're not recorded fluidly because of the stop start way it's done. With the recent updates to the dispatcher and "off route" stopping points it seems the tech is there in game to allow for such things, so hopefully we're moving closer to the day you'll be gnashing your teeth wanting that woman on Thameslink to NOT read every station of the 30 odd stops from Rainham to Luton...
To actually answer the question instead of complaining about DTG, it has been discussed on multiple streams (quite recently in fact) and is likely a feature that is a natural development of the PIS system. The game is capable of having announcements on a core level (unlike TS) as the game is aware of the calling points of the train. The game would need to connect the calling points of the train to a text-to-speech programme or something that would play different audio files at the right time in the right order. It would likely work like this: Player opens doors at Gravesend. Announcement start: "Welcome aboard this Southeastern service to London St Pancras International, calling at" Calling points as defined by the PIS system: "Ebbsfleet International, Stratford International and London St Pancras International." They'd also have to add next stop and approaching announcements. So, after getting half a mile from Gravesend, the next announcement would play "The next station is Ebbsfleet International." And when half a mile from Ebbsfleet, the next announcement would play "We will shortly be arriving at Ebbsfleet International." At the last stop, they'd also have to add a special announcement "Thank you for travelling with Southeastern." They may also choose to have other announcements play, like short platform notices (but that'll have to wait until the game becomes aware of short platforms) and security announcements. As for the latter, these could probably be timed like they are on some trains in real life. As for station announcements, that is likely the easiest thing to do, as they've already got the PIS system working at platforms, so would just need to link a voice to it and not much else would need doing. On the WCML Trent Valley route for TS by Thomson Interactive, there were audio announcements in scenarios, and I believe these used a different voice to the real trains. Of course, if DTG could get Julie Berry to do the game announcements, they'd be able to accurately reflect most of Britain's operators. By heart I know that Southeastern, GTR, c2c, Greater Anglia, Merseyrail (strangely), the Piccadilly Line and WMT/London Midland use her voice.
Thankyou for your in depth reply fingers crossed we are not too far off from this being implemented. People have had concerns about consent but as I addressed I’m sure that it wouldn’t be an issue due to the fact DTG have already had to have consent for many other things and train operating companies seem to be happy to help so far. It would be amazing to hear Julie berry’s voice as I’m all too familiar with her announcements as my nearest stations are C2C and Greater Anglia and travel on southeastern a fair bit.
Agreed - she has a very soothing voice and travelling on trains a lot when I was younger, her announcements have been burnt into my head, particularly the Southern Ashford to Brighton service and SE Charing Cross to Ramsgate service. I also like the lady used by SWT/SWR and on some stations (I can't remember her name) but sadly I believe she died recently. Another legend gone along with Phil Sayer.
In Brisbane Australia on our passenger trains you can never understand the announcements. It's like mumble mumble groan and super fast. You are left sitting there wondering "what?"
I do the passenger announcements myself. Sometimes even in an accent vaguely connected to where in the world I'm meant to be.
I wonder will DTG ever reply to this thread … have I posted this in the wrong section? I’d love to know where DTG stand on this topic? Please reply I’m begging you.
The DTG answer would be "If it's not on the roadmap we're not working on it", but they do read all the forum posts and take notes...