Nice job, spikeyorks You may wanna check my TOD4 mod (that old dim lighting and high blurry bloom, always making me wanna clean my spectacles because it appears fogged up (x2.3 as opposed to TOD4 standard 0.05) on TVL is just depressing)
Thornaby depot is quite busy with a variety of locos and wagons parked up. Some locos are at the refuelling points. Whilst others are stabled awaiting their next turn of duty. Finally we get to Tees Up Yard where the scenario ends. So that's 3 scenarios down. One more and I think I will upload
Ah yes I did notice your TOD4 mod. I was going to give that a go once I'd finished my scenarios (and tidied up some formation errors). Like you I'm not overly impressed by the TVL lighting but I just love the route. And, blowing my own trumpet, it is even better once more parts of it get opened up. I must admit your 'new sky' screenshots look very impressive
It'll just look darker (actually the sky will be brighter due to TOD4's ambient light scattering) at night due to station lamps being too dim for TOD4. But in daytime, it really breathes new life into the route. Simply rename the mod suffix when doing night drives.
Had a 'play' with the lighting mod and have more or less worked out what I'm doing. Started off getting the foggy look but changed that to the 0.001 setting and things improved no end. My scenario that starts at midday looks a bit washed out with the mod so I think I will need to tweak other settings to improve that. However my early evening scenario is greatly improved by the mod & fog adjustment. (See below). I have to say that I don't think I have ever seen TVL look so clear. Is there a setting by which I can get a bit more blue in the sky? (I have tried playing around with my settings but haven't had much luck so far. I'm more thinking about midday in this instance).
That's where JetWash's ini would come in. He's more knowledgeable than me regarding the TOD tweaking. Among many things, he's reducing the AutoExposure Bias to -0.5 and lowering TimeOfDaySystem.SunIntensity. You can do that live using GodMode, after changing autoexposure you need to click on reinitialize timeofday system. I haven't checked if disabling the AutoExposureBiasCurve helps, just came to my mind, I take it they are route specific presets which may not fit TOD4.
One of the ways to improve the blue in the sky is pretty much kill the very low resolution high cloud that is there by default. There’s a line in my ini mod that does just that, and really improves the look of the sky to me.
Yes these high clouds are annoying and should be given their own slider. (in TSC I can choose to have Fair Clouds only, High Clouds only or both combined using AP Sky and Weather EP.) They brighten up the ambience way too much. JetWash, you're talking about this one:
Bingo! Indeed you should disable the AutExposureBiasCurve - you'll immediately have more contrast. These curves are made for TOD3, so just let the game use the default TOD4 curves by disabling it! Look to the ground so the Exposure will start to brighten up things, then untick the box and Reinitialize TOD. See for yourself. I'll put that in the mod description as I think it is vital to disable the route preset curves for the old routes. EDIT: this would need further investigation and I withdraw that recommendation, at least on NTP it looks worse.
Last few screenshots from me before I wrap up this scenario. Some parallel running with a short freight that has come off the Concrete Works sidings at Allens West. Some clearer shots of Thornaby depot / Tees Yard. Now it would seem that I'm off to investigate Jetwash's mod. No rest for the wicked By the way I now have 2106 different formations in my home-made formation manager mod. 1323 in my BR Blue mod. 440 in my "Invisible" mod......this creates loose consists/spaced out consists. 343 in my Class 66 mod. You'd be surprised that, even with this many formations, you can still think "if only I had........."
Just to note though that my mod is set up to alter routes on a per route basis so the TOD3 routes are TOD3 in the mod, as they are TOD3 by default. It will likely look very odd with this mod that changes the lighting system on old routes to TOD4. If you wish to utilise it you will need to copy a set of TOD4 settings into the given route’s GodMode box and adjust as necessary. ps If you have them installed you will also need to remove Aran’s Modified Time of Day System as these are also only compatible with the routes as they were originally
This is a VERY rough approximation of something that would work on EastCoast Way and GWE which uses an approximation of my Ultra settings. As you should already be aware, because none of the actual lights are getting altered here for TOD4 you will, in many circumstances see no signals, no environmental lighting, either too bright or too dim headlights and cab lights and so on. I haven’t bothered touching anything related to night lighting as the modded TOD3 routes are absolutely unplayable at night under the TOD4 lighting system. r.ViewDistanceScale=2 foliage.LODDistanceScale=3 foliage.DitheredLOD=6 grass.CullDistanceScale=2 grass.MaxUpdateFrequency=60 r.D3D.ForceDXC=1 r.Shaders.FastMath=0 r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.001 r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=-2 r.Streaming.MipBias=0 r.StreamingPoolSize=1000 r.LightMaxDrawDistanceScale=5 r.MinScreenRadiusForLights=0.02 r.AllowLandscapeShadows=1 r.DistanceFieldShadowing=1 r.DFDistanceScale=10 r.DistanceFieldAO=1 r.BlurGBuffer=-1 r.DepthOfFieldQuality=6 r.RenderTargetPoolMin=400 r.SceneColorFringeQuality=1 r.BloomQuality=5 r.FastBlurThreshold=7 r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=1 r.LightFunctionQuality=1 r.Shadow.FilterMethod=0 r.Shadow.Virtual.ResolutionLodBiasLocal=1 r.Shadow.DistanceScale=5 r.ShadowQuality=5 r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=4 r.Shadow.MaxResolution=2048 r.Shadow.MaxCSMResolution=3072 r.Shadow.SpotLightTransitionScale=2048 r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold=0.001 r.Shadow.CSM.TransitionScale=2.0 r.Shadow.PreShadowResolutionFactor=1.0 r.CreateShadersOnLoad=1 niagara.CreateShadersOnLoad=1 TimeOfDaySystem.AutoExposure.ExposureBias=-0.8 TimeOfDaySystem.AutoExposure.MinBrightness=3.6 TimeOfDaySystem.SkyLightPollutionLuminance=0.175 TimeOfDaySystem.BloomIntensity=0.17 TimeOfDaySystem.SunIntensity=60000 TimeOfDaySystem.CloudShadowVolumetricResolutionScale=1 TimeOfDaySystem.Clouds.HighAltitude.CloudDensityMult=0.2 TimeOfDaySystem.VolumetricCloud.LayerHeightScale=2.6 TimeOfDaySystem.VolumetricCloud.LightPollutionMult=0.001 TimeOfDaySystem.VolumetricCloud.SampleCountScaleView=0.8 TimeOfDaySystem.VolumetricCloud.SampleCountScaleShadows=0.7 TimeOfDaySystem.StarIntensity=30 TimeOfDaySystem.MoonIntensity=1.0 TimeofDaySystem.LegacyEmissiveAdjustments.EmissiveMultNonLamp=2000 TimeOfDaySystem.CloudShadowVolumetricStrength=0.4 TimeOfDaySystem.VolumetricCloud.RenderTargetMode=1 TimeOfDaySystem.AutoExposure.SpeedUp=10 TimeOfDaySystem.AutoExposure.SpeedDown=5 TimeOfDaySystem.ColorGrading.ShadowGamma=1.04 TimeOfDaySystem.MinimumCloudSpeed=0.375 r.ToneMapperGamma=2.55 r.Color.Max=1.00 r.Color.Mid=0.5 r.Color.Min=-0.0001 gm.AutumnTreeMuliplier=0.9 r.SkylightIntensityMultiplier=0.2 r.Upscale.Quality=4 r.TemporalAA.Upsampling=1 r.TemporalAASamples=3 r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.1 r.PostprocessAAQuality=5 r.Streaming.FullyLoadUsedTextures=1 r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=2 r.LandscapeLOD0DistributionScale=3 r.AmbientOcclusionLevels=2 r.AmbientOcclusion.Method=1 r.GTAO.Combined=1 r.GTAO.ThicknessBlend=0 r.GTAO.Downsample=0 r.GTAO.FalloffEnd=200 r.GTAO.FalloffStartRatio=0 r.GTAO.SpatialFilter=0 r.GTAO.TemporalFilter=1 r.GTAO.UseNormals=0 r.VolumetricFog.GridPixelSize=4 r.VolumetricFog.GridSizeZ=128 r.VolumetricFog.HistoryMissSupersampleCount=16 r.LumenScene.FarField=1 r.LumenScene.FarField.FarFieldDitherScale=100000 r.Lumen.ScreenProbeGather.Temporal=1
Thanks for your suggestions JetWash At the moment I'm not brave enough to tackle all of these changes but I will give it a go once I have finished my mods and got them up and running. Currently I'm finalising formations with Mk1s just to make sure that I can still add my liveries to them. (It would be great if I could find a way to get more than one version of each coach running in-game). Anyway here are some more screenshots of test scenarios used to view the Mk1s.
Progress has been a little bit slow recently partly due to me starting a new job however I think I have now completed my first main pass through the various formation combinations (loaded and empty) of most BR locos and rolling stock. At the moment I have a total of 4714 formations that, pleasingly, all seem to load in to TSW4 OK. (Also, right now, I'm leaving TSW5 well alone). Testing my newest formations has seem a few more interesting formations appear in scenarios. This includes a double HST set and a 4-car CL101 DMU set (actually 8-cars as it is 2 sets coupled together) amongst others. A few of the newest screenshots can be seen below.
The pretext of this scenario is that an HST has broken down on the main lines just south of Darlington and that, to clear the ECML, the service stuck behind it pushes the failed unit in to the station where both services then terminate in PL4. Other delayed services then appear running 'wrong line' through PL1 before the player service can then set off. A bit of a change from the normal TVL methinks A delayed parcels service avoids the Darlo chaos by heading north on the avoiding lines whilst, in the next shot, another HST arrives at PL1 heading north. Still a bit of work to do with the scenario including the tweaking of a few extra paths on my TVL paths mod. Watch this space
Testing out my Balfour Beatty CL20s on Tees Valley. These were originally created for use on a Peak Forest paths mod which still hasn't even been started. (Due to the way my formations are created I have to use single 20s and flip one of them. This requires me to make liveries with a different number of each side). So here is a fictious orange version of 20 905 and 20 901 leaving Darlington with a train of lime hoppers. And here's what happened when I accidentally selected a single 20 formation when I wanted to see how my blue pair worked Although the whole mod creation process is taking ages I am now getting there. Over 7,000 formations in total (with 6,500 in this mod alone) covering BR Blue. There are then separate mods for the Class 66 and, also, an Invisible wagon/loco mod that creates rakes for use in sidings etc. Will keep working in TSW4 until it is finished. As always everything here is selectable from the in-game Scenario Creation menus. No fiddly editor functions to worry about here
Have been creating a few light engine consists concentrating mainly on pairs of locos (flipping the rear one so that I can use a dual numbered livery to to give the impression of two separate locos). Or in one formation (4 locos). Here is a 'pair' of red-stripe Railfreight CL37s. (The problem with these is that you end up with a headlight at both ends which is a pain). Here is a formation of 4 different CL08/CL09 shunters with different liveries. (The front one being a very old Felixstowe docks livery). Class 08 hauling 2 HST power cars anyone? (Could really do with losing the HST exhausts mind). 2 more CL37s. This time in Railfreight Grey livery. Finally a picture with a little bit of everything in it. As always, all the above have been created using the normal Scenario Creation tools. A few more light engine specific formations to make and test and then we are, finally, there.
A few more screenshots taken from my test scenario (that now needs to be rebuilt because I have split up my .pak files).
After splitting up my .pak files I discovered that I hated having all my formations spread across a number of different files. Also the act destroyed any scenarios that had already been created as they now incorrectly referenced the stock. So I've put everything back together again. All 6962 formations So I now have another scenario that is complete and gives the player a nice freight run from Darlington Civil Engineers sidings to Tees Yard passing plenty of AI on the way. As the screenshots following will show. The player service (CL31 hauling a short rake of BBAs) is parked in the civil engineers sidings at Darlington waiting for its departure time. There will be a fairly long wait and this will give you plenty of time to watch other services arrive, depart and pass by the station. Like a CL101 hauling a separate newspaper van. Whilst another 4-car CL101 waits in the bay platform and a southbound HST awaits its departure time. A northbound express hauled by a CL47 arrives at Darlington having already passed by the player service. An internal shot of a Pacer and a CL101 DMU standing in the same platform at Darlington. The southbound HST waits for its last passengers to board.
A Class 08 potters about to the west of the station. A northbound train of HEAs heads past the station on the avoiding lines hauled by another Class 31. The HST departs for York and London. As another set heading north arrives. Meanwhile a Peak has come to a halt on the through lines.
A short CL31 freight pulls in to the Civil Engineers sidings. After which a 6-car DMU comes in from the Middlesborough line. This clears the road for the Peak to depart. Which in turn clears the road for the Player service to set off. As it departs the Blue Pullman HST arrives.
The Blue Pullman pulls into the station and passes the CL08 shunter. But the Player service is long gone. We pass a pair of Choppers on a coal service. And a CL40. Before passing the Chrome Works sidings.
Then on to Allens West. Where we pass an orange Pacer. Another CL40 whizzes by at Eaglescliffe as it heads for York. Then a single CL20 on a short rake. Before we enter Thornaby Yard just as a Blue CL101 enters the station.
After passing through Thornaby we then head to Tees Yard where the scenario ends. As always these screenshots have been taken from a normal scenario that has been created using both my formation and extra paths mods. They certainly can help bring an old route back to life and will, hopefully, be available to download within the next fortnight or so.
My first attempt at a new scenario involving a pair of HST Powercars. These have visited Thornaby Depot for some repairs and are now to be driven back to Darlington. The Powercars moving away from Thornaby wagon works sidings. Passing the loco stabling sidings. Before reversing and heading back towards Thornaby passenger station. A pair of CL37s await their departure time from Tees Yard. The Powercars are spotted passing Thornaby DMU sidings as they approach the main line.
Another pair of CL37s are pulling in to the yard as the powercars exit it. As they leave Teeside they pass a CL40 on a passenger service. Approaching Eaglescliffe. Yet another pair of CL37s pass by. This time hauling a stone train. Semaphores and HSTs.
A Class 08 at Allens West Chrome sidings. Speeding through Teeside Airport (devoid of passengers as usual). A CL47 hauls some Turbots. Around the bends before Dinsdale. And again.
Passing a Pacer at Dinsdale station. Arrival at Darlington. Passing by the parked Research CL101. More DMUs in the bay platforms. We have arrived Will add a final set-back move for the player service to 'park' the powercars in the sidings. Still not bad for a first run.
Playing about in Thornaby depot / Tees Yard has now got a few more AI services running at the beginning of the scenario. It's been fiddly to get things working but now I have approx a dozen moving AI services within the confines of the yard. A single CL20 pulls away from the refuelling siding. And parks up in front of a CL31/CL101 combo. As a CL45/CL47 combo replaces it. An ICI CL08 is also stabled in the Wagon Works sidings. A pair of Choppers pass by on a coal service.
The Network Rail HST also passes by a bit later As does a CL37 hauling a mix of wagons on the main lines. There is a collection of wagons lurking around the side of the Wagon Works. And several DMUs resting in the DMU sidings awaiting their next turn of duty. A CL31/CL20 combo passes hauling a short rake of BBAs.
A CL08 arrives hauling some TEA tanks. Whilst a CL101 DMU rakes heads for Darlington. A CL40 hauled mixed freight appears. Whilst a CL47 waits at the front of a train of JNAs. A pair of Pacers depart Thornaby and head for Middlesborough. And all of this happens in a busy opening 15 minutes of this new scenario. TBH I'm quite pleased with it
Have now added an extra shunt at the end of this scenario which moves the Powercars on to the siding by the turntable at Darlington. Here are some more screenshots (mainly of the Darlington end). First one image that I forgot to include in the earlier sets that I quite like. Arrival at Eaglescliffe just as an 8-car CL101 rake pulls in to the other platform. The DMU service about to set off for Middlesborough. As we depart from Eaglescliffe a single CL40 passes heading for Tees Yard. Arrival at Darlington see us change ends again and drive back out of the station to the down side sidings.
The powercars continue to drive out of the station heading for the sidings. Back out in to sunlight again. View across Darlington station platforms in the sunset. The powercars pull up alongside the old turntable (with the station in the background). Where they park up for the night. And that is Scenario 3 more or less finished
Scenario 4 sees the player driving a CL31 on a DMU replacement service from Darlington to Saltburn. (Screenshots from the first run through with approx 50% AI in place). At Darlington a blue CL37 departs the down sidings with a very short freight. A CL47 heads south on the avoiding lines. A hotch-potch of stock stands in the civil engineers sidings. A CL08 appears from around the back of the station. A CL40 sets off for York and, eventually, Liverpool.
The sky has brightened a little bit as the player service departs. And rounds the bend onto the Teesside route proper. We pass a pair of blue CL20s hauling some mineral wagons. The rain starts again as we pass the Chrome Works sidings. It is quite a busy service today.
A CL101 DMU pulls in to Allens West heading for Darlington. A train of TEA tankers from the Stockton line trundles by. Surprisingly we get held at Thornaby whilst a steel train comes out of Tees Yard. What was the signaller thinking? A long-distance view of the player service passing by Thornaby depot.
Decided to do away with the rain in the end (my combination of an early TSW route with the TOD4 lighting mod didn't look so good in the rain). So here are a few more screenshots of the 100 minute long scenario. Start of the same scenario but in sunnier times A Class 47 calls on a semi-fast ECML service. A CL40 from Liverpool pulls in to Platform 4. Player service eventually departs. Much better weather today
Around the bends at Dinsdale as a pair of CL20's heads the other way. We now DO call at Teeside Airport. There are even some passengers there now. A train of vans passes us near the Chrome works. Heading for Thornaby. As we depart Thornaby station a steel train departs Tees Yard.
Got any spare wheels going cheap Guv? Another steel train passes by on the Tees Yard approach line. Arrival at Middlesborough. Well that was a surprise Passing a DMU at South Bank.
A pair of CL37s waiting to come off the Lackenby branch. Closely followed by a single CL20. Lackenby itself is fairly busy with a few rakes of BBAs. And HEAs. Powering through British Steel station to.....
Redcar where we pass a 6-car CL101 rake. Over the level crossing. Before passing a Pacer parked in the siding. Passengers waiting for an eastbound service at Redcar East. A train of PGA hoppers passes by hauled by a pair of CL31s.
Trundling along near Marske. Rounding the bend on the approach to Saltburn. As another pair of CL37s comes off the Boulby branch. We pull into Saltburn as a blue DMU departs. Now its off to the beach for some fish & chips. So that's 4 scenarios more of less done. Doing these has highlighted a couple of errors with my paths mod that I will need to correct but, and I know I have said this before, I must be nearly there now. I also need to pull together a list of liveries that I have used and, somehow, get everything written up. (Note that all scenarios will work with default liveries). It really does seem never ending !!!
What a busy scenario! And it all looks so 'inhabited'. Well done David, I look forward to exploring Tees Valley once again. I hope those blue 37s with no numbers are not mine! Or is that something else to get sorted?
Hi Dave. It is quite busy now. There are 75 pieces of AI (including the 'statics') in this scenario. These scenarios take a bit of time to set up but each time I make one then that is available to copy as a template for another. There are couple of issues with my Thornaby depot rakes as I can see some buffers poking out through one set of shutter doors. I will need to fix that (although the player would never see it in this scenario). Don't worry I don't think the unnumbered 37s are yours. They might be the start of a livery by me using your colour pallet but, until now, I hadn't noticed the missing numbers. I'll have to add that to my list of jobs to be done.
This is something that I should have thought about earlier. Using more than 1 version of each type of rolling stock. For instance, in the images below, you can see a CL66 hauling a rake made up of the 2 different TEA models. (HFP and PBO). The HFP wagon is the blue one and has a different number of each side (every other one being flipped) whilst the PBO one is the green one which, in this instance, is single numbered. So, in this rake, you have the appearance of 3 different TEA liveries. As always the formation below has been pulled from Scenario Editor having no need of the DTG Formation Designer. The LHS Greenergy TEA is No1 whilst the RHS one is No7 giving more variety in running numbers with next to no visual issues. There are several items of rolling stock that have more than one model so I will see what other mixed formations I can come up with. (Perhaps Maroon and Blue/Grey Mk1s in the same rake?).
