Dynamic Weather- The Problem

It’s about time attention is brought to the dynamic weather function in tsw4. The idea of it is good and was requested for a long time, but the implementation of it has been poor. I expect to be able to use dynamic weather without the 100% possibility of fog randomly appearing on a clear July day, and then completely disappear 10 minutes later

 

I have two main problems.

1. When it rains it rarely stops, and if it does it tricks you and starts raining again

2. The fog disappears immediately, there’s no fade out which is very immersion breaking

 

Even worse, in winter months when it starts snowing.

Then the snow stays there forever until you quit the session.

 

I understand and respect that many people are dissatisfied with the implementation of dynamic weather, but I would like to add a contrary opinion.

I like the dynamic weather. Sometimes it changes, other times it doesn't. The fog popping only occurs on TOD3 routes for me, but it may be that I haven't played enough to notice it on TOD4.

 

Under a station with an overall roof the weather outside looks blue sky and dry. Yet as soon as your train emerges from under the canopy it is dull, misty and pouring down with rain, even thunder and lightning!

 

Yes, I'm not sure how that programming can be fixed without making it rain indoors
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The bigger problem could probably be solved without undue difficulty, by tweaking the change probability percentages. As it is, the system is biased towards worsening weather. Not every time, but most of the time clear turns to clouds, rain and thunderstorm but the system never seems to go the other way. I suspect one clever person could draw a flowchart and work the problem in an afternoon; it's just simple prob/stats arithmetic

 

Like I have said before, dynamic weather really needs an option to adjust the rate at which the weather changes in the settings, e.g. high - medium - low. High being faster than the current, with low being less, to suit all who would prefer it either way.

The main bug bearer for me is having dynamic weather on slow routes. Speeding along on SEHS and ECML you are more likely to encounter a change in weather as you are travelling a greater distance. On routes like Birmingham Cross-City or Goblin Line, having the weather change from clear sky to heavy thunderstorm in the space of 10 to 15 miles after 30 minutes does not look right.

Other options such as a random starting weather, and disabling dynamic weather on TOD3 routes, would also be beneficial. Especially the latter, as the transition between weather themes on TOD3 is really jagged.

 

Good to hear that this is an issue that has been acknowledged. Is there any specific reason why fog appears so often in tsw4, I never used to have the issue in tsw3

 

And sometimes the fog appears inside vehicles, and rain falls in tunnels. DTG's quality control is atrocious.

 

I must admit I really, really love dynamic weather but in the pat couple of months it has been really off and I have gone back to the old ways, as on every route it seemed to go to heavy fog within ten minutes and then it just suddenly disappeared, which ruins immersion. On some routes it worked like a gem, but sadly on every route it is just the same fog that does a disappearing act. Glad to see there are internal cogs spinning to progress towards a solution though, because as I say it can be a great feature when it works.

 

It would be good to have manually set sliders for each type of weather where you basically set the probability of certain types of weather occurring such as for fog , thunderstorms ,rain etc . If someone doesn’t want fog during the game they could set the fog probability slider to 0 . Or the same with thunderstorms etc. And then for each type of weather if one doesn’t want to manually set the probability, maybe an auto or random check box for each weather type .

 

I use dynamic weather occasionally and it is mainly the very high chance of fog that irks me the most. It almost always happens. I like the idea of settings for the type of weather allowed or the depth of each type although the game is always in danger of having too many settings! Rain coming and going on a journey is what I want most out of the feature and it shouldn’t always give a change either.

 

Yes, rain coming and going is fine, perfectly normal. And some fogginess can accompany rain at certain times of the year as can light dimming.
But I do not like the way fog can develop at any time, even when you start out with clear or sunny weather. It's not natural. Where I live, fog is a fall and winter phenomenon and it's usually patchy and gradually clears as you drive along.
So I only use dynamic weather sparingly.

 

Well, yes, but DTG are developing from a British perspective......

 

Can't be 100% true. If so, then in winter it'd hardly snow

Can't remember the last time I saw a flurry of snow last more than a few hours, in late February.

 

Announced with the usual big fanfare. And then poorly implemented. Also as usual.

Most annoying are the sudden changes on several routes. *POOF* .... and then there was no fog .......*POOF* ....... and then there was no snow ...... *POOF* ........... and then there was rain. Out of the blue sky, of course. The ultimate immersion breaker.

I keep it off when applicable.

 

I think if it were possible to have some control over what the dynamic weather produces , I’d be more inclined to leave it on . Such as if I don’t want fog or thunderstorms etc . occurring during a session .

 

Snow in the uk is basically grey sludge usually

 

If we ever get it.

 

I never really had a problem with the weather system in TSW4 until I got LIRR. But the entire night and weather thing needs an overhaul. I notice in journey mode that I skip the night services and now in LIRR also services based on the amount of fog. Have to drive in timetable mode with static weather. That's not how I want to play TSW.

 

As has already been said here, I am also annoyed by the excessive appearance of fog, and the fact that it appears so abruptly. And the fact that it appears inside the stations looks very bad.
I also find unrealistic the snowstorms with thunder and lightning, that is something that can happen, but very exceptionally and it always happens here.

 

fog should be changed
it chance percentage should be lowered a lot
as it is now fog will appear almost always if the service is long enough in duration

 

The basics need to begin with reducing the possibility of changeability to start with. Dice roll needs to be in 1 in 20 chance or even less. Then the severity of any changes also needs to be exponentially less so far more chance of getting a light shower which you pass through, than these black as night Wheel Of Time style thunderstorms. And as already mentioned it needs to change back. Or starting off as wet but changing to clear.

Seems to me what we got was something of a tech demo which is great, but needs properly refining into something more plausible.

 

Dynamic weather..is it really? What DTG didn't bother with was smooth transitions and we assumed they would. Foggy day one minute and the next clear day can see for miles with no sign of the fog at all? Lighting changes between weather is another give away, it is a clear day then suddenly cloud appears and the light changes right away. We need dynamic weather with smooth transition periods.

 

Very valid points - Another beef I have with dynamic weather is changing to rain in places that get very little rain -- Cajon is pretty much arid along the whole route yet dynamic weather gives us the annual rainfall on most every run . I disable dynamic weather on most timetable runs since I feel it is less than realistic most times and set the weather that would most match the season.

 

Why can't the system parse real weather servers and offer up real weather based on forecasts or historical weather?, it's something that flight sims have offered for a long time.

 

This was something I wasn't interested in at first but yeah, I'd like to see this implemented in future, Project Cars 2 also did this.

 

Matt mentioned that this wouldn't happen in a TSW3 questions stream. I can't remember why.

 

Just finished my first run on MML. Departed Leicester in bright sunshine; by the time I reached Loughborough I was in a thunderstorm with thick fog. I hear MML is a nice route, but I haven't seen it yet.....

 

Another problem with the weather system, on Bakerloo Line you experience wheel-slip underground whilst its raining overground. Even if you haven't been outside yet.

 

Is there any chance of it actually being able to rain in winter?
UK routes get WAY, WAY too much snow. It never snows even close to how often it snows in TSW.

 

An option to choose between either or a percentage of one happening over the other would be nice.

 

We should have an option to choose the temperature

 

a funny effect of this, you can start a run with snow on the ground, but it rains, and the snow disappears in the first minutes

 

This is why I use GodMode… and set the weather to custom. Then I can adjust the weather using GodMode and make changes to it while I’m running a session. If I want it to be a little more cloudy, just move the slider a tiny bit. I want heavy rain for a while and then switch to light rain, adjust the slider. It’s super simple. I always check the weather app on my phone (as well as live webcams) for the current weather conditions in the area I’m driving a train in. Then set the weather via GodMode accordingly. It might be pouring rain at one end of the line and clear at the other. This is common in the real world. This is not possible with setting the weather prior to starting your session as it will never change. And as discussed, Dynamic Weather is just too unreliable and incorrect. GodMode easily allows you to achieve what a lot of you are trying to.

I realize this is not an option for users on a console but I’ve seen several posts by people on PC and I’m surprised none of them are using GodMode… it would literally solve this weather issue being discussed. And it’s free and has no impact on performance.

 

Great or here is a funky idea...how about DTG get it right in the first place?

 

Not always easy to get something right first time, so don't really mind that.

I would expect instead that it is improved upon.

 

Which most of the time it never is. Or if it is, something else breaks

 

I play on PC and Xbox fwiw. I do use a few mods here and there on PC, but GodMode just seems TOO complicated. I realize it's probably not once you get used to it, but that's just my perception.

I kinda wish there was a "lite" version of the mod just for weather settings until DTG sorts it out.

My biggest beef is the fog to clear transition- it's just really rough. Agree with others that being able to more granularly adjust settings would solve a lot of this.

Dream for me would be to stream live tod/weather based on location if you're signed into DTL.

 

It’s definitely not too complicated. It’s actually incredibly simple. I’ve seen far more basic mods be more difficult to understand.

 

I’m providing a simple solution to a problem that’s not likely going to be fixed, and in a decent condition for a very long time. If you’d rather complain about the issue instead of take my advice in the form of a free mod that fixes the issue with dynamic weather by giving you full and complete control of what you’d like, whenever you’d like it, WHILE you’re driving in a session, be my guest.

 

It couldn't be easier- download the file, put it in the folder, you're good. Access it by moving your cursor to the top of the screen, Sliders or number input, whichever you like better.

 

I am on console

 

That’s why my original comment you replied to stated that what I was saying was specifically for PC users since a vast majority of TSW players are in fact on PC. And a lot of the complaints (and I’m not discrediting them - it’s without a doubt a valid complaint I had too before I found GodMode) could be solved by using GodMode. Again, I’m just providing a free solution and work around to the dynamic weather issues.

 

Fair enough i'll give it a try. Wasn't trying to say it was bad btw, just maybe giving insight as to why some PC players don't use it already.

Like i'm looking at it right now on Trainsimcommunity and the list of features is slightly overwhelming- and i get it's mostly aimed at enthusiasts, which is great, but trying to think from a more casual player's perspective as well.

My laptop is borderline as it is so i try to run mostly vanilla for performance reasons too.

But above all DTG should make a lot of this available in-game so everyone can enjoy it.

 

I basically use it to adjust weather and light levels. Just like my phone, I leave most of its capabilities alone.