Tsw 4 Editor - Important Dev Questions

For new features you would need to adopt your project then. If you won't use the new features it would still work, same way as actual TSW2 DLC work on TSW3 and TSW2/3 DLC will work on TSW4. They lack the new features of course. So, it depends on the need of the creator what to do in that respect. I would advice to adopt

 

Correct. The existing timetable is a 'cooked' asset, meaning data has been stripped from it that prevents editing.

 

It wasn’t always so with TSC, which is probably where the concern comes from. I forget which update it was, but my Bell to Lithgow (plus the ZigZag Railway) utilised the, at the time, newer UK colour light signals. After the update all the signal numbers had reverted to blank and I think all the links were undone too.

Moral of the story is probably to start with something small and simple, rather than thinking you can jump in and do a 100 mile route straight off.

 

Out of interest, how much support has Dovetail given to 3rd party developers or has it just been telling them to follow this process until they have a substantial route, like with Just Trains?

 

I don't know about tech support, but from what people like TSG have said third-party developers have for instance been able to request new Simugraph features.

 

Thanks for the info

 

That was ever the case Matt! Really easy to get carried away, 30 or 40 mile route in TSC or Trainz I can probably get the track laid in 10 days or so maybe even less if there's no complex locations. Adding scenery and terrain texture to that little lot is a totally different ball game though.

 

Can you use google maps in the editor in the TSC

 

Do you mean as in TSC?

 

I think that what he means.

I hope you can also use other sources for Orthophotos too

 

Open Street Map is actually far better than Google Maps for some areas.

 

And OpenRailway Map is very helplfull especially for Germany !

 

I may be on the wrong wavelength here, but will this editor allow us to make new scenarios or timetable sessions?

I must add that Matt's continuing presence in this thread is extremely welcome!

 

We did not rebuild the TSW2 routes from scratch to put them into TSW3 or TSW4, if that answers your question.

 

Yes.

3rd parties who have signed a contract with dovetail recieve significant technical support. If that technical support is escalated enough, it lands on my desk. That goes for feature requests, technical issues with the tools and requests for guidance ("how do I..."). I don't expect the same level of support will be available the the community, obviously (I'd never be able to get anything else done!)

 

Ok interesting, thanks for the answer. Definitely the community won't get the same support, wasn't expecting that at all and am a console player anyways but was just wondering.

 

As I understand it, Arosa-Chur is the steepest adhesion RW in the world, and TSW can handle it. So unless there are future plans for a cog railway or a funicular......

 

This here. Is NONE of those.


This is in Melbourne, Australia. Believe it or not, this is an "Outer Suburb" And the Railway is Suburban. In this screen shot from Engineering sofware that I use.

This is a High Res orthorectified Image, layed over pretty much "naked" LiDAR, with (crappy loooking) Building footprints added.

And as Matt said about creating short routes, with two or 3 stations, My Local Area, Which is here, Is appropiate. After all, Its right outside my driveway!
And it has the right amount of features, to begin playing around in the editor with. The next Station after this one, is the complete end of the line, with EMU sidings. The one before this also has EMU sidings, and Two Platforms. 3 Big Level Crossings, Signals, and OHLE, cuttings etc. Its a good real life place to get used to, and to test the Editor with.

 

I think the Bernina Line might be slightly steeper but would have to check.

That shot from KrisKol is stunning, though of course in referring to Google and OSM we are looking at the 2D overlay rather than street view. Some OSM, might be Germany or Holland, even shows field boundaries if you zoom in close enough. The challenge for many of us is that we might want to build a now closed or historic railway with old maps.

 

The more I play around with this editor the more I'm impressed. Just practising making small scenes based around my first choice of route. Yes there have definitely been some head scratching moments, mostly myself being silly or more rarely some glitch with the editor. But the fact that you can do so many things in this editor compared with TSC's makes it worth the patience. For example, just being able to model subtle texture blending for paths/fields/ballast along with an amazing amount of fine terrain sculpting control is a winner for a start. Being able to access so many free materials and assets from Quixel is great (choosing from 1000's of materials is a head scratcher in itself, which ones do I choose?!) The ability to distance blend materials is great for distant hills/mountains (plenty of YT tutorial vids available for that and hopefully TSW supports this feature). The fact that you can create new objects on the fly in the editor and texture them is pretty cool. Just being able to create new splines, texture them and even rotate them is superb. The list goes on.

Hopefully we can do most of this in DTG's version. If we can I highly recommend folks who are new to route building/Unreal to start playing around with UE's 4.26 editor to get a head start, just learning the basics really, because I think I've figured out quite a bit already but haven't even touched the surface of what can be done. Be careful though, it is a time sink once you get going!

 

I'm very much a beginner with UE4 and can recommend this series of tutorials to help get started.



Any other recommendations would be very welcome.

 

An encouraging report. Will probably still wait for the custom version to take a look, as I have a couple of loose ends I want to tie up in Surveyor first.

 

You talking about the brushes? These are not for game-play usage, only for drafting a level/map. Other mesh editing tool would nee to be compiled into the TSW editor and that's not gonna happen i would say. You can't simply install UE asset store code plugins. TSW uses a customised engine version that is not compatible with the asset store stuff directly.

 

Which is why I say wait until we have the actual bespoke tool to play around with.

 

historic railway with old maps.
There are quite a few old Aerial photography ad map collections that are accessable. Thats why I wanted to know about what Maps, and such can be Imported, and What formats etc.

And can it deal with any GIS Projections? Or do we have to convert them.

 

There isn't built in support for mapping software - the workflows at DTG are based around Lidar, Google Maps Overlay (pretty exclusively) and KML/OSM import.

You can import lines and shapes from KML and OSM (in some formats, not all...) and use those as guides for laying track/scenery. Personally I georeference old maps in Google Earth, trace them into KML and then store the KML up for future (personal ) projects.

If you're skilled with QGIS or Google Earth Pro you'll be OK.

 

Thanks Will.

 

Just to know, the editor need to be installed in the same directory of TSW or we can move, for example, on another HD?
Think I've to buy another HD in the first case

 

Any directory you wish. The editor will find your TSW4 installation.

 

The Chur Arosa Bahn has "only" a 6% gradient which is the same as my usual route.
In RS/RW/TSC I did not find limitation to built a cog railroad (maybe the PilatusBahn can generate some issues (48%)) so I don't see issues with TSW4 too (except the already answered questions about the terrain heigth).

In the image the gradients is 11.8%.I took the screen many years ago...

 

Ah OK, I was talking about the modelling plugin for 4.26 which I think is built in to UE5 as standard. No probs, need to get back up to speed with Blender anyway.

 

Good news. I am familar with ArcGIS Pro, QGIS And Google Earth Pro.
So I assume the LiDAR has to be in WGS84 as well?, That is easy done with ArcGIS or QGIS.
Its also easy to re- save Shapefiles as KML.
The JOSM (Open Street Map editor) is also useful for extracting platform, and other structure shapes as well, in OSM format.
Its a pity I wont be able to use our Orthophotos , But anyway...

 

Also for google maps individuals now need to provide a credit card and personal info to google to get an API .I don't want to do this .I hope we can use open streetmaps or some alternative.

 

And

Strangely my API for TSC still works without ever having to submit any card details. Guess I’m one of the lucky ones. Will be interesting to see if the same API works in the TSW editor. If not, well then you will still be able to plot markers separately in GE (I assume) and use those as a guide, with the maps open in a normal browser or on a tablet to work off. In the early days before overlays, that’s how we did it anyway.

My more immediate concern is that having gone to the UE4 site, the minimum requirements for the editor are over my laptop specs. Not by much (they suggest 2.5Ghz CPU and mine is 2.3Ghz) so will be disappointing if I can’t after all run it. Can’t see the wife agreeing to a new main PC and a new laptop!

 

Thanks for the reply Matt. It definitely makes sense that you want to help 3rd parties as much as is reasonably possible.

 

How would things be affected if we build using assets from our installed TSW4 routes and then new game comes along. From what you say we just Import project into new editor, but then the project is pulling assets from what would be incompatible TSW4 .pak files.

Would the solution be as simple as redirect paths to recooked .pak files from new game?

 

Does the LIDAR data need to be converted to bitmap form, eg from laz to geotiff, if so what is the native resolution of the terrain grid in TSW4?

 

Yes I've used KMLs going all the way back to MSTS I think and can use google earth open on my other PC for scenery,as you say.My API still works on TSC,but only at low res(but good enough)-not sure if it will work with a new entry for TSW4 I'll see.I wonder how detailled LIDAR data is,will it show trackbeds in terrain?Anyway I'm really glad to finally see a route editor for TSW!

 

Just thought I'd show an example of some work done/practising using the UE4.26 editor, after a few hours self tutoring. I'd say if you're pretty competent at using TSC's editor, then UE should be OK for you. Plenty of excellent tutorials on YT.

All of these assets.materials in the shot are free from the marketplace and the Quixel Bridge plugin - I'm really really hoping DTG's editor will support the import of assets from Quixel? Would be good to know...(plugins not supported I think, but marketplace direct import OK?)

The Quixel Megascans trees,foliage,assets and materials are free, superb and well optimised - they have various lods which still look the part on the lowest settings. I've been tinkering with getting the foliage palettes and lods up to standard, trying to balance performance with detail, making sure pop-in can be reduced. Performance wise this scene was maxing out at 120fps, lowest 100fps with only a lowly i7700k and gtx1080 card.

I'm just hoping we can do all of this kind of stuff with DTG's editor, but I think I should temper my expectations a bit! Hopefully the tools are similar to what we get in UE, just getting a head start manipulating assets and terrain is good practice for when the editor goes live I hope.

Can we have the editor now please? ;-)

 

That looks fantastic, Fakenham. Just hope as I mentioned, my laptop I5 6300 will be able to run it.

 

Sorry to tag DTG Matt, not sure if this has already been asked but when we do create our own timetables, what about PIS? Say, I wanted to have a Leeds to KX service or Leeds to Lime St, how would we set this up to show on PIS? or do own created timetables have no PIS functionality?

 

The second step of timetable simulation will likely prevent dynamic events. But will try to include simulation-time dynamics as in: dynamically, some trains will be delayed and creating havoc and you won't know in advance what services are affected. Once simulated, it is deterministic but players won't know.

Also look forward to use modular blueprint design to make timetable creation way more simple and easier to understand. After all, most service patterns are repetitive and the only changing factor is time, used rolling stock, start/destination track. Everything in-between is usually identical and could be in a modular blueprint, reusable across many specific stock across the day.

Cologne-Aachen and Hamburg-Lübeck will be routes I try this on first. Would be nice to have an RE that has to wait a bit longer in Horrem for a delayed ICE to pass through. Or an ICE even that has to go to the side to let a vital freight train with highest priority pass through unhindered.

 

Why do I need to add scenery manually, and why does the route not simulate or restore the scenery on the real map? Are there currently no development tools that can do this?

 

The closest they get to that in the studio is with a tool called Houdini. DTG Matt is this available in the public editor? I honestly don't know.