How cool is this! Armstrong Powerhouse has released a new pack completely changing vegetation to look much better and more realistic! Seems to be only for UK routes out of the box but you can use the new assets for whatever route you like and you may able to do some clever trickery to swap out vegetation in other routes with APs new vegetation. It looks amazing and I will definitely be buying it when I’m able to! Maybe not for everyone but as someone who is looking for a more realistic and immersive experience in this game this is definitely for me. There are many more “Before and After” photos on Armstrong Powerhouse’s Facebook page if you want to see more.
Already covered in this thread https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/armstrong-powerhouse-general-pack.76766/
Yeah my mistake, I wasn’t aware that thread covered this DLC at the time of posting as when I just checked it’s original thread post a while ago it was just talking about some kind of DLC and how AP are getting creative so I had no idea what it was about. Until of course seeing the thread after I had posted this one…
I haven't bought it yet, but based on the screenshots it's a mixed bag. The AP trees look great, but are quite thin looking. Therefore, if you use trees as a mask for large areas of 2D trees (as I do when making routes that go through forests) they are not as good as the Vulcan Productions trees. On their own, they are decent. My personal preferred option would be to use the updated Wherry Lines for the tree assets as they are separate assets rather than replacing ones already in the game, which annoyingly includes the more modern tree models DTG use which are very good.
I've found some of the new AP trees are just as good 'thick' wise. Just avoid the oaks (bar Oak 1 & Oak 2). Whilst the newer DTG trees are much better looking, I find they do still suffer from: - Oversaturated in colour - LODs popping in at noticeable distances - Leaves during spring, ugh!
Have downloaded the patch for the Wherry Lines, but I'm occasionally seeing a combo of old and new trees as shown below (affecting only trees in asset blocks). Just wondering if other folks have this or is the update released today still not working correctly? I haven't yet purchased the actual foliage pack (this is the free update for the Wherry Lines).
That is because there isn't all the vegetation in the free update, you need the pack to fill those out.
The latest Wherry installer is marked last modified at 16:34 so it might be worth giving it another re-download? Seems to be a few niggly issues.
Cheers guys, I downloaded the new update and those old DTG trees have gone now, I guess I need to the paid pack to fill in the gaps now. Makes sense. Still loving the work, superb effort.
Just looked at the trees in the snow landscape and think the before trees look more realistic. The after trees are weird and unrealistic in my opinion. Did not notice such an unexpected difference in the other shots.
I think the way the swap take place is by replacing trees with AP trees that have the same name. Which is most of DTG trees. It is possible the German Community will do something so the pack can be used on other routes
So to further clarify, with just the Wherry update we are missing quite a lot of foliage - I'd say about 25% ish. Having now bought the foliage pack, everything is there. So bascially the Wherry update without the foliage pack is just a taster. Having a look in the editor now there are quite a lot of new assets available which didn't come with just the Wherry update, which makes sense really. There are some excellent looking assets in there, I particularly like the Oak coppice assets, they really do make the routes feel very countryside like, giving you the feeling of being actually there. Great job.
There was an update for the Wherry lines because of the missing assets. So the asset pack wasn't needed for the Wherry Lines. See the update log.
I think it is, because I updated my Wherry this afternoon with the update and still had ~25% missing. Upon purchasing the pack, all there. May just be me though.
I must admit desptie the diffference this pack makes i feel the same. Not all trees are leafless in the winder and i prefer the older style winter trees. The others look fantastic though
I know, but I still prefer the DTG trees. It's personal preference more than anything, in most cases the AP trees are objectively better but they're just not for me.
This pack does change the look of the routes mentioned. Would be nice if AP could also apply the pack to WCML North and Midland Main Line (London-Bedford) through an update in the future.
Something that annoys me about AP's general enhancement packs is that they apply to the Kuju routes and assets inconsistently. While it's possible to convert those older routes to use AP track, skyboxes, signals and vegetation, it's a hassle and I don't see why they wouldn't do it. Not only would it radically improve the look of the very old routes in TS, community routes using Kuju assets would also he upgraded, improving hundreds if not thousands of routes. Obviously there would be some complications with the signal EP, but everything else would surely be easy to do.
I think this is a deep topic. It would be nice to simply be able to flip-flop two sets of assets, so that I can enjoy routes with the original assets or updated ones. It's not that difficult, at its extreme you clone your Assets folder, install AP, then pick between Assets-TS and Assets-AP per session. Many routes use Kuju-like assets but clone them. Replacing all copies can get messy. Unlike the Kuju trees, the next iteration (2010-2012, Horseshoe, Settle-Carlisle) are route specific. They are nice, too, but very much like an air balloon, bringing much less density than the 3D Kuju stuff. I find the solution of replacing Kuju assets is just halfway there. Yes, you get a different set of trees, but after a dozen hours you'll have the same boredom of them. Also, the old assets aren't that bad. A few are, but even those are often used to create nice places. Most of the time when I scratch my head about the looks of a route is not about individual assets, but two factors: Each route only using a small selection of them, making it repetitive and sometimes lack character, so it would be nice to have slightly different spruce in each area (e.g. age) and of course different grass and flower patches Most old routes in dire need of an upgrade need that due to density, whether it's a forest with trees too far apart, a forest that's 3 meters wide trackside, or the typical lack of ground clutter Both of these require some kind of an update, procedural or else. Just drive the ECML, SDJR and the NEC and you'll see what I mean. And then, adding these trees - and mixing well from other routes - is the ultimate win.
My German/Austrian/Swiss routes didn’t have a single asset updated, so as far as i can tell, no Kuju vegetation was replaced.
Does it change Kuju veg? It is hardly being used since 2014 or so (only by third party routes), with each route bringing its own assets. Before, Kuju and RSDL\Foliage01 was extensively used. This looks more like a DTG veg replacement than a Kuju one, replacing the ugly 3D "balloon" trees on a per-route base, adding their "Scenery" folder to the route's assets. (Of course anyone who has the pack can just install it to an empty folder and see what files are being installed. Would like to know before buying.)
That's what evergreen means and these keep their leaves in the AP pack. Deciduous trees should be bare.
Below is a screenshot I took on the Welsh Marches route with the AP Vegetation and Track pack installed. Definitely transforms the route!
Haven't got it yet, but I'm sure the DTG balloon trees weren't exactly FPS friendly. I'd even speculate on the pack improving FPS.
From a few routes (listed by AP) that I've tried I don't see any drop in FPS after installing the veg pack.
This is the only route I‘ve had time to try so far and it really does transform the it. I hate to use the word immersion as I don’t think sitting in front of a PC can ever be like driving a real train, but it certainly drew me in a lot more and there were times that it was hard to believe I was playing TSC. FPS wise, I always got decent framerates on this route anyway, but I certainly didn’t notice any drop. I thought Clouds EP was a bit overpriced (but bought it and like it anyway). This pack seems very good value.
Just got it. The only thing that's replaced in the Kuju RailSimulator folder is Scenery\Vegetation\Bush_Hawthorn_near_01.bin Full list of affected folders: I always install to an empty folder first and then copy stuff manually to know what's being changed and how to revert it in case there's a reason. For Welsh Marches Branded, just copy the "Scenery" folder from WelshMarchesLine to WelshMarches folder. The change is immediately obvious, and really really looks much more natural than the old trees. If I find the time, I'll create a .bat file that applies the trees to german routes too. But - I do notice a flickering issue with the trees related to shadowing, especially at this point: No FPS impact, running at capped smooth 75 FPS here. Gosh how beautiful that Welsh Marches Line is... And Settle-Carlisle, wow. It suffered badly from the odd "ballon" trees. Now looks really good.
First impression: Not so much a fps hit, but definately a tile loading stutter hit in heavily forested areas. EDIT: I did circumvent it. By compromising on shadow quality. Had it set to highest, and that caused the load stutters. I can live with midquality shadows.
I've played about a bit and am working on an update to swap over the Kuju\RailSimulator and RSDL\IslandLine versions (as I used both in my route over the years). The route looks a lot more 'realistic' - but the 'gappiness' noted above does mean that a little re-work is necessary to infill some areas.However, on other areas the route feels more realistic -this is a nice example where, previously, the line existed in a 'green hell' it is now giving nice glimpses of the scenery beyond (as long as the route builder put some scenery there...)
I did circumvent it. By compromising on shadow quality. Had it set to highest, and that caused the load stutters. I can live with mid quality shadows.
Thanks Kim good to know. I have the shadows set to halfway in the sim currently so good to know. Thanks for the update.
Agreed, ran that exact same service and felt the same. For some reason that route runs at a mega high fps, great route building. I might just have to buy that cloud pack for ultra realism.
The pack certainly enhances the old Settle Carlisle line but it is a crime that this route isn't selected for fine scaling and extending to Leeds by a dev or two, needs cant and tunnel/bridge occlusion plus decent track audio for the same.
If you are using the AP track Enhancement pack, that pack will adjust some of the scenery files to work in with the track better so some of those files will be overwritten by the Fodda Occlusion packs restoring them to default, with added occlusions of course. Has anyone using these packs noticed any issues? I have been doing my own occlusions based on this but it is a rather laborious task tbh
Heres a Settle Carlisle one I did for the AP track awhile ago, cant be bothered writing a read me and doing screenshots and stuff so if anyone thinks its good enough and wants to upload it somewhere be my guest. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tz248j8FvaMESBUAxSYvjCzyLK3O5ZEV/view?usp=sharing
