Welcome to the Unofficial Screenshot Competition This is a fun and friendly alternative to the official Screenshot Competition run by DTG. Here you can share your weekly themed TSC screenshots using any 3rd party / post shot editing etc. creations which are not allowed in the official competition. Rules: TSC only shots allowed. Screenshot should be in some way (can be very tenuous) linked to the theme. Otherwise anything goes. You can enter up to 3 screenshots, posted as separate posts. You can delete and replace if you wish. 3rd party content / Reshades / Reskins etc. are welcomed but are not mandatory. Each week's winner becomes Judge & Jury for the week (can't enter themselves). The winner chooses the new theme for next week (and becomes the new judge). The Judge of the week's decision is final. We strongly discourage any negative comment or criticism of another entry by a fellow contributor, this is a light hearted & fun contest! This is a major "we are all friendly" thread and we hope it will always remain so. Please keep chat to an absolute minimum The theme this week is Narrow Gauge & Light Railways Entries will close at 9:00 PM BST (8pm GMT) on Friday, October 13th and will be judged by me - Blazin In the event of this week's winner not responding by 5:00 PM GMT Sunday, October 15th, a new thread will be created using the theme of Freestyle. Good luck and have fun!
NOTE: The only guideline for this theme is that it has to be on a gauge less than standard, so less than 4 feet 8 and a half inches wide. I understand there is little in this game covering things less wide than standard gauge and it may mean not a lot of submissions this week. But I love narrow gauge railways and would love to see some creativity in that space with the few narrow gauge related routes and rollingstock we have. If you have no narrow gauge related rollingstock here a few that I can recommend. Firstly, on Steam there are the African routes made by Johansteam that run on a narrow gauge of 3 feet and 6 inches wide. These are KwaZulu-Natal Corridor: Pietermaritzburg-Ladysmith, Worcester - Mossel Bay Railway and Outeniqua Choo Tjoe. On the other side of the larger narrow gauge spectrum is in New Zealand with NZTS Workshop's Midland Line: Aickens - Springfield route. That has plenty of available rollingstock for that route on Steam. On the British and smaller side, is Skyhook Games' Corris Railway Route and Corris Railway Expansion Pack loco bundle operating on a gauge of 2 feet and 3 inches wide. Off Steam there is SPRailway's Talyllyn Railway Route also operating on a gauge of 2 feet and 3 inches wide. They also have a Ffestioniog & Welsh Highland Railways Route operating on a 1 foot 111/2 inch wide narrow gauge. Both have extra rollingstock you can purchase. Good luck!
Having just read the comments on previous week's... Hm. I didn't drive any of these yet, of course I could create a roam and fly around, or shoot the beginnings of a scenario. The recent Rio Grande (Southern) route would be wonderful, though. Arguably the city centered S-Bahn and underground lines could qualify. My default keep-alive contributions would be quite seriously The Game of Gnomes and maybe The Holiday Express. Their gauge is certainly less than full scale Will see how it goes, I'm playing very little these weeks. Either way I hope to replace this post with a submission later.
Train 51 crosses Devil's Gate Bridge on its way to Silver Plume Route: Clear Creek Narrow Gauge Loco: Baldwin B-4-D
That’s alright, I completely forgot about the narrow gauge USA routes too with Rio Grande Southern and Clear Creek. I also didn’t think about the Christmas routes which is a clever way to do the theme and are fine to submit! I hope to see a submission from this week.
Blazin Hate to be the bearer of bad news but looks like cscarpenter was right, with one day to go we have one submission. I genuinely do not wish to start a rant or throw my dolly out of the pram, but to me this thread is all about showing off our 3rd party routes / locos from around the globe that are not allowed in the DTG official competition. I personally feel keeping the themes open to interpretation and attractive to the widest audience is key to keeping this thread alive. Narrowing the theme down to something the majority of us do not run / or own, and the majority of the available DLC being only available through DTG seems to me a bit not suitable for this thread. May I suggest we re-boot with a freestyle theme and allow all the regular contributors, including myself, to be able to partake and kickstart this competition thread back into life? As previously stated by cscarpenter please do not take this personally, in the real world I also love narrow gauge railways, (https://nthc.info/miniature-railway/) is my local favourite, just maybe a bit too niche as a theme for this thread. Best Regards
Sorry have to agree, I got nothing narrow gauge & tbh I have no intention of getting any, a freestyle comp sounds like a good shout for next week.
Sorry everyone for the disappointing theme, it is my fault and I accept responsibility for a bad theme that had too little content to use. I wanted to see some interesting creativity on an often neglected part of the game and I didn't consider that people would be too unwilling to play content like that. I'll get a new week up of freestyle in a few hours hopefully. Thanks for being constructive in your response and not bashing me for a poor theme. I appreciate it.
New thread with Freestyle theme up now: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/unofficial-screenshot-competition-week-42.75138/
Many Swiss routes are narrow gauge. Japanese routes are also mostly Cape Gauge. There is plenty of material out there, but maybe the regular contributors like a restricted diet?
Yes I didn't realise Swiss either. My new work is exhausting enough that I'm not even thinking of gaming these days. Weekends, yes. I'm a bit methodical about which DLC I play. I'm happy to jump into a route I know somewhat to capture new things, but my lack of knowledge about unknown routes is a blocker in my head. Swiss routes are a bit standard, so those could work, assuming I can drive them without reading manuals... Since I sort of promised, here is a small set of my really old shots involving the holiday DLC. Especially since the reduced participation I'm also thinking about these threads as the author requesting some pictures, that includes both of my recent threads. So while I'm failing the rules here, my intention is to fulfil that request. This is a bit dark, I have like 3 pictures from this entire DLC. But I have a few running this on the ECML. The interior of these coaches is cozy. No more now - but if you remember these by Christmas, it could be a nice thread to show some captures of holiday trains. (I was a big fan of the CP holiday train upon discovering it. Red loco works really well with the concept.) While this is to my best knowledge a standard gauge loco, this whole train just looks like our own little narrow gauge railroad in Budapest, originally Pioneer Railroad (yes, the communist version of scouts), now just called Children's Railway. I'm lazy to verify the translation, but while supervised and usually driven by adults, it's mostly operated by teenagers (semaphores, switches). In other words, come visit us and say hello!
Now that the competition is over, I'll point out a nice narrow-gauge railway available at Steam Workshop: IDC Esterdale Narrow Gauge Railway. Below are some Esterdale captures, originally posted in our Screenshot thread over a year ago. These first shots feature a Barkclay Douglas steam loco, freeware available at Wayside Works: Lastly, a Barclay P-class, downloaded from UKTS:
So where were your contributions? And also why wait till now to gloat? FYI The majority of Japanese, Swiss, USA, narrow gauge routes are only available via steam which is not what this thread is about. In case you had not noticed, this thread is all about showing off your 3rd party DLC that is NOT allowed in the Official comp because it is not available via Steam. Plus I personally do not have the time or HD space to download yet another route, and required DLC, that I will probably never use again just for a one off screenshot. On to next week we go, let's see how you guys can find a way to criticize those of us that have participated, week in week out, for nearly three years with no problem until just this week where the theme didn't quite work. Blazin has recognised he possibly didn't go with the best choice of theme and has dealt with it accordingly. Credit where credit is due, like the majority of us that compete in this comp on a regular basis I applaud that decision. At the end of the day we are all human and occasionally make a decision that is not agreeable to all, such is life. What it must be like to live in your personal tiny worlds where everything is always perfect. May I recommend you both either participate, or leave those of us that have contributed and supported this great thread to enjoy it as we have done for the past 127 weeks without having to read your unnecessary negative comments.
.................... and you do realise you are allowed to elaborate and educate further when required, rather than just post a one line reaction. I admit I am not a USA resident and do not speak your jargon. #willingtolearn.com
Given how these threads are usually filled with the high quality 3rd party UK content, I'm wouldn't be surprised if this was the case.
Serious question. Why did you guys not enter? This was a perfect opportunity to show off Clear Creek and Rio Grande Southern. Stuff you played. This could have been a free win / reset / shift. Your likely opportunity. I suspected that people just visit very specific threads but suddenly we have great traffic. (Was that the 4D chess? Blazin, you tricky!)
With all due respect, that is exactly why this thread was created in the first place. It was created to allow us all to show off our latest AP Weather/Cloud/ Track/ 3rd party DLC enhancements / reskins etc. that are not allowed in the Official DTG Screenshot competition. On saying that, it is also open to any 3rd party DLC from around the world regardless of who is the developer or publisher. The only reason this thread is filled mainly with high quality 3rd party UK content, is that those of you that are not into that genre do not participate. I would love to see more US / SA / rest of the world / 3rd party content, that I have not seen before, displayed here for us all to enjoy. Please feel free to become a contributor to this thread and help spread the word of 3rd party TSC that is available to all. PS I am a great fan of your contributions in the official thread, long may they continue.
Don't feel bad about your choice of theme. Just because some of us are not into that type of rail transport is what it is. Let's just move on and look forward to next week. Must admit the amount of new blood to the thread is amazing, just wish they would join in every week with a screenshot or three LOL Cheers
Rudeness doesn't encourage participation, it also doesn't align with "fun and friendly", if you're serious about those values. Normally I'd have passed this by, as the competition format and prize offering isn't for me, but I thought it was wrong the way Blazin got criticised and unsupported when he made a perfectly reasonable suggestion. There's plenty of narrow gauge material out there, both DTG and 3rd party. Even if you were to stick to DTG stock stuff, you can still apply AP's weather pack and other filters if you want to. Variety is the spice of life. If you stick to a limited genre, you and this competition run the risk of going stale. Anything smaller than 4' 8.5" is narrow gauge, and there's huge diversity within in it. The modern high intensity Swiss and Japanese routes are very different to the heritage steam routes of the US and UK, but all have their own challenges and charm. I suggest you embrace railways in all their variety, it will give you much more fun.
Because they prefer to moan and complain about a competition thread they don't even compete in. Such is the way of the world today.
I personally have my reasons to not compete in the unofficial contests, not to mention I've barely touched TSC in the last few months as well.
IronBladder At which point has any criticism been aimed at Blazin or when as he been unsupported in his choice of theme, and how it has been dealt with? As far as I can see there has only been polite suggestions / requests that the theme may not be suitable and we have all offered nothing more than positive alternatives.
Alright, I have a few things to say about some points that were brought up. I'm not exactly sure how I want to word my response on my opinion to this so bear with me, but I don't think it's ALL about that. For me I almost always am submitting DLC from the Steam store and not 3rd party but of course I do use 3rd party enhancements. In my opinion this thread is all about freedom of choice and creativity, you can choose whatever DLC you want with whatever enhancements you want from whatever store you want, 1st party or 3rd party, etc with friendly competitors open to newcomers. Unfortunately the argument that has broken out over this week may be putting off said newcomers. Yes, these unofficial competitions have many 3rd party UK content submissions but that is simply what most participants like and since there is so much high quality 3rd party content out there compared to other countries of the world, there will be more submissions of said 3rd party content with people wanting to show off the cool DLC that they own and there is nothing wrong with that. But you must remember it's not ALL UK content, I often try to make my submissions varied with each post being a different country if I am able to do that, and there are other competitors who enjoy posting non-UK content! I understand you said you have your own reasons for not participating which is absolutely fine, but the reason why there seems to be so much UK content is because people like you who would post awesome USA content do not participate therefore limiting more variety to submissions. Like I said, it is fine if you have your reasons but please remember you are welcome any time and it would be awesome to see some of your great USA screenshots get submitted. While I agree on your points that I think there is certainly enough content out there for some great submissions for narrow gauge screenshots and people should consider embracing more variety in their DLC, at the end of the day some people just prefer certain DLC to others and there is not much that can change that. Also, I appreciate your defense of me but I think the constructive criticism was completely alright and supportive, I was kindly let known that my theme was a bit poor of a choice for this kind of contest and I was happy to make a new thread with a Freestyle theme as suggested. Final thing I would like to say, if we are to talk further here please make sure to be kind in your responses... If we let this discussion here get out of hand and we start bashing each other further here, then this thread at worst may get locked and that would absolutely not what we stand for as the rules state it is a fun and friendly contest! So as I stated, please be constructive in your responses if we are to make more replies to this thread. I am always open for respectful discussion!
Cheers Blazin totally agree with your comments. As always let us get back to keeping this thread as it has been for the past ...yrs. I personally just get somewhat annoyed when non contributors jump in with their criticism of a thread they do not even partake in with their negative comments. You will always have my full support going forward. My very best wishes.
You guys can say that the theme is restrictive, but there have been themes that were much more restrictive that were only restrictive for non-UK folks-for example the there was one theme about a specific type of British DMU-but no one said anything, because it was British. Honestly may as well just rename the thread from unofficial screenshot competition to AP screenshot competition, since the regulars are unwilling to post anything else.
Errrrrrr .............. excuse me where are the restrictive themes? These are all the themes from this year. Bridges Billboards & Signs Sunrise / Sunset Freestyle Scenic Railways Trainspotters / Railfans Structures / Architecture Reflections It's All About The Freight Low Angle Celebrations Landscapes The Sun Spring Connection Colourful Tunnels In The Middle Of Nowhere Express Passenger Side On Sheds / Workshops / Depots On The Beach Up Close / Fine Detail Industrial Freestyle Steam Out Of The City Preservation The Moon Leaning Into It War / Military
The only theme I can remember heavily being mainly UK based was a theme on Slam Door rolling stock, which is primarily a UK thing. And that was my own theme too! It was one of the first I ever chose and I now know it was too restrictive and my fault. But that was over a year ago now. Also, I don’t mean to be rude, but did you see what I said? I’m a regular, I often try my best to participate every single week if I can and I’m always trying to submit screenshots from different countries and trains as well as often using Steam DLC stock since I don’t even own a whole lot of AP content and I’ve played through everything I have requirements for from them. The only AP thing that shows up in all of my screenshots is of course the weather and track enhancements, which just make my experience and immersion much better all around and in my opinion, make my screenshots look better and more realistic. I also know at least 2 other regulars who often post submissions that are outside of the UK. I don’t appreciate your negative comment on it should be renamed to the AP Content because that’s really not what it is. Your submission will not be discriminated again just because it doesn’t use AP stock. Plenty of non-AP screenshots have been chosen as winners, and even a few using little to no game enhancements or third party DLC at all have also won! Again, don’t mean to sound like a broken record but maybe if more people like you were to submit some great non-UK shots it wouldn’t seem so much like what you claim this contest is. We really try to be as friendly and inclusive to all content as possible which is why we are so upset at these comments…
I used to post screenshots here regularly, but that “slam door stock” left a really bad taste in my mouth, and I feel that I gain nothing from posting here anymore.
Like I said, that was my first ever theme after one of my first ever wins and even one of my first times participating in the unofficial screenshot competition in general and it was clearly a mistake I made in theme choice that I’ve tried to avoid ever since as I’ve gotten more used to judging. That was over a year now ago like I mentioned and as Craigie-C mentioned with listing the themes for this year so far, it’s clearly been a LOT less restrictive since then. And honestly, there is nothing to “gain” from this contest. You don’t really win anything. All you really win is some recognition for a great screenshot which you shouldn’t really be participating for if you want to have the most fun. It’s best to participate for the fun activity of taking screenshots and contributing them to an enjoyable thread to see what other people can come up with. And if you do win, you get the fun activity of being able to pick your own theme to see what people can come up with and choose your favourites by the end of the week. Every judge has different standards for what makes a good screenshot and theme ideas, it makes for a fresh and interesting contest each week.
You have to listen to the views of people who aren't yet competing or your competition will grow stale and clique. People who haven't yet entered, but might in the future and those who have entered previously but don't currently, can have valid points to make. You've already got three or four previous competitors commenting (generally unfavourably) on what's happened. I think it would be better to find out what might entice them back, rather than dismissing what they say. georgeuk90 entered the only valid screenshot, why was he not declared the winner? If you think about that, you'll probably get some idea on what needs to change to bring in new blood.
At one point I was a bit salty, too, but we discussed it and I think we have all grown. Assuming you still play and capture, I'd be happy to see you keep posting, in here and the generic screenshot thread. At least the latter. My theme last week was as simple as autumn colors. That's a good point, no submissions yet so maybe he could judge and recommend a theme. I suspect in most everyone's head this week just failed, and we don't have rules for that. Aside from posting together we have three contributors until the deadline. (My serious entry is the first, with the snowman.) I second this point very much.
I totally agree with your statement entirely. To the rest of our community:- This thread is (and always has been) all inclusive to anyone and everyone, regardless of what DLC they run from anywhere in the world, 3rd party or not. The thread was originally set up back in 2021 by a core of us screenshot lovers that were not allowed to be a part of the official DTG comp as we use 3rd party content. (Yes that includes the likes of AP) so naturally it became a base for AP content users to show off and share their screenshots, and that has continued. You have also always been able to show off American / German / Rest of the world 3rd party content They have always been welcomed and always will be, they have been winners in the past and can also be, going forward . It is and always will be non- AP exclusive As a snapshot the podium week 40 included No AP LNER Peppercorn A2 No AP DB BR 402 Munich - Garmisch-Partenkirchen line No AP MJW Class 60 on the JT MML To me that just goes to show whoever ends up on the podium can post whatever He/She likes and enjoy the fun of the comp. I totally agree this weeks arguments have not been good for the theme, but must state the main arguments are from a small number of forum members that rarely contribute to this thread, and some that have never contributed at all, but feel they have right to hijack and dictate how we should take the thread forward. May I suggest further commenting on this matter would be better being discussed privately in a group chat rather than continuing to fill this thread with unnecessary arguments that would not be constructive and end up in possible further negativity. Cheers
May I question why if you knew the theme was Narrow gauge, and you could see we were obviously struggling for contributions, and the routes you quote come under that category, why did you not contribute, and more than likely, win, and get to chose next weeks theme rather than wait to till the comp ended and then give criticism?
Posted 7hrs before the comp closed. I agree let us all take it private or just stop this petty argument.
No, posted 3 hours after Blazin cancelled the comp and started this week's Freestyle theme. I'm signing off now because it's obvious this competition isn't for me.
