Every time I'm playing in journey mode I skip the night services. I also choose only day services in timetable mode. I also notice night services are disliked by many. Don't want to debate the reason why as as it stands this is the best we can get. But rather should there be less emphasis on night services like removing them all from Journey mode and/or scenarios? Convince me why this is a bad idea rather than vote yes or no
I don't do journey mode, or many night services, but, to be totally frank, why should they remove them from journey mode if you don't like them. I am sure you aren't alone in your opinion, but I am also sure there are many who enjoy them being there, isn't this the point of journey mode. Unless I have got the wrong end of the stick this seems a rather selfish suggestion as it would be taking away something from many people, for your own benefit.
No, because my eyes hurt from insufficient lighting from the headlights and peering at the darkness in the monitor is not interesting at all((
I like night services. Add some fog and snow and you cant even see how bad some routes look in daylight.
I don’t enjoy night services so I just avoid them. Journey Mode has never bothered me. I play the game just to enjoy driving trains and not for completing anything/ medals / mastery/ collectibles/ achievements or any other non simulation related junk (my opinion, I’m fine with them existing for those that like them). Regarding your question, if night services are playable and it’s just that you don’t enjoy them, then no they shouldn’t be removed. If they are unplayable then DTG should actually fix the route cause of the problem.
Night services are pretty fun to drive… at night Gotta have the right atmosphere for those kinda services!
I would enjoy them if the night lighting was at least a little bit realistic. That is unfortunately not a thing on majority of routes. No, driving train at night does not mean being blindfolded in pitch black, only seeing one flare of a signal per kilometer, at least in mainland Europe. Almost all locos from last 40-50 years have full beam reflectors that are just as strong as high beams in your car, if not stronger. Some routes saw the night getting gradually better, but plenty of them are still nonsense. I do understand why antwerpcentral calls for removing them from journey mode, I am sitting on a LFR journey for a year already, because I need to finish an hour-long night service there which is absolute torture. It is with BR103 which does not have good lights, but still it largely follows towns and wouldn't be nowhere near that dark. It is nice to drive in TSW at night during winter / with snow, that's much more feasible. But in journey mode you cannot select that.
This. I play a lot of journey mode and when I want to complete a journey from a route I haven't played in a while I'm immediately reminded why I did not complete it. Only night services were not completed
Night services are ok on some routes if the train has decent headlights and the stations are properly lit. But I once did a night run in the Flying Scotsman on the ECML and I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going, in the end I started imagining things so confusing was it. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to build a scenario with a beautiful old steam train then gave you black screen syndrome the whole way.
I have never used services of the night But if you mean running trains at night, yes I run and like them in journey mode, but the level of enjoyment depends on other factors. If its clear weather there tends to be more visible in the environment, but driving in heavy rain at night is pretty miserable. However, I imagine in that regard its true to life since even with ambient lighting, outside of stations hardly anything would be visible anyway
Not really that interested in journey mode but I still do night services sometimes, to make things interesting I do it horrible weather, full rain, fog etc.
Having done a lot of night services, one thing I have noticed is the glass in different trains gives a different level of visibility at night. I don't do journey mode so removing all night services really wouldn't matter to me at all. But naturally there's gonna be players that wouldn't like the idea. Maybe dtg could add a option to exclude night services from journey mode.
I've found myself running night services a lot more since upgrading to TSW4 — I think it's the new lighting system (TOD4?) on some of the newer and remastered routes. TSW2 felt unplayable during in-game night time.
Brings a nice change of pace from the daytime, and I get to use and see night running lights! Also, on routes like London Commuter and the East Coast Mainline, freight tends to run at night. I would like to see some nightlighting that noir has helpfully put up. That would look awesome!
It does always seem strange to me that the Jouney services, whose purpose is to give you a nice introduction to a route, do so at a time when you can't actually see any of the route. Seems such a waste of effort putting in all the nice scenery, then getting you to run it in near complete darkness.
I don't tend to run them as the night lighting in TSW is a joke. It's almost astounding how little attention it gets. Only the combination of the Vectron and a TOD4 route are acceptable at night, and even then the lights don't shine that far.
It seems to me it's down to platform limitations - some of the most basic problems probably take too much processing power to adequately model, e.g. street light cones are way too small, don't overlap, and are too dim building lights don't spill out into the environment, they're just white-ish rectangles that don't illuminate anything nearby many lineside buildings are unlit (have a look at Willesden depot, or the PRDC at Stonebridge Park: IRL these are floodlit from inside and out) road traffic headlights have essentially no effect on the environment there's no light pollution in the sky, it's pitch black! When was the last time you saw that in Birmingham... I'm only on "hour 5" of "Teach Yourself UE4 Game Development in 24 Hours" (the lighting chapter), but it's already clear that it's not a trivial problem to solve That being said, I do wonder how other cities such as in GTA V have excellent night lighting...
Best night service I've done is the one in the Niddertalbahn journey mode. TOD4 + Volumetric Fog just give you the vibes.
A good example of when a night service did fit in the journey mode. That one was indeed one of the few night services I've completed in TSW4
Unreal Engine of course supports beautiful lighting that is almost true to reality, but those engines are designed for games where you move around at walking speed, and using them for a simulator where you are moving at 150-250 km/h is a horrible idea. It can still do it, but it will keep calculating everything for every meter along the way, leading obviously to unusable performance. That's why TSW is full of inefficient workarounds and half-working reimplementations of basic rendering-related things, because they are trying to twist screw with a hammer.
I like some of the night services - but only a few. For me the issue isn't that it's too dark everywhere, because in rural areas between stations it often can be pretty much close to pitch black on a cloudy night. For me, the real issue is the lack of difference between rural nothing and urban... nothing. When you're pulling into a town or city station, you should know it for a while beforehand, due to the likely building up of street lighting, but also the "glow" of the lighting against the clouds. It's the same driving a car - you need main beam to see anything at all on country roads, but hardly at all when you're in built-up areas. Regarding journey mode specifically, I don't really enjoy the night services, but I do them to complete the journey mode nonetheless. It feels as if there is a far higher proportion of night (or snow) services in every journey mode compared to what the vast majority of services would actually be (ie daytime, with non-extreme weather) but I guess they do this to bring some variety. However, I wish they'd frontload the night and snow services less... I'd at least like to get to know the route first before being plunged into darkness and terrible adhesion!
For me, the fun thing is to do an entire timetable whit one train from sunrise services to night, i know that driving the same train for days might be boring but this is the way that i prefer to play, Voralberg timetable whit 4024 take me months to finish
I like night services that have plenty of surrounding lightening from the environment. Routes such as LIRR and Cathcart work well for this. The best time for me to drive is when the sun is peaking over the horizon or the sunset. My personal favourite is driving in heavy rain. I do love a good rain fall, must be the Scottish blood in me.
It is a bad idea because- 1) It is masking the problem rather than solving the problem. 2) It is inhibiting an option in which night lighting may not be an issue for some users. 3) If a solution is found, retrofitting that solution may be easier than redoing timetables, scenarios etc. I.e. when making a change, ensure the consequences and options available thereafter are clearly understood. 4) Vocal voices here may not correlate to an accurate sample size in terms of determining how much of an issue this actually is. 5) It is another layer of criteria for DTG to adhere to when it appears this is challenging already.
Vision on newer routes. especially on LFR like noir said you see literally nothing. I did that 103 trip at night. with no light in my room but my monitor and still I was forced to open the track monitor because I couldn't see or read the speed signs. with newer stock like the Vectron or on TOD3 routes the visibility is fine. and having a switch from rush hour or midday when freight starts up again. I do enjoy the calm ECS moves from time to time. shame most newer dlc's you can't change the destination display yourself anymore. I wonder why.
generally not, since most routes aren't properly illuminated by buildings, lamp posts and other artificial light sources. Railroader uses the 'nuit americaine' effect to prevent the virtual world falling into total darkness.
I like doing them once in a while. Gets my heart rate up a little when I can't see two feet in front of me, and that can be fun in its own way. I'm easy to please though. Mostly because I have no real life experience with any of these routes/locos (or any of these geographical areas in general). That's not to say I wouldn't enjoy it more if it were done better though.
Night services are my favourite. Real nights are dark when there are no light sources. My hard opinion on this:, if a player complains about the night is dark, go play on daytime. (If you dont like rain, just dont go out in the storm) If a player complains the lightsources are missing where they should be, well thats an argument and an entire different thing. As a Nohud driver, i have to rely on the cab instruments, clearly the night runs are not made for a 3rd view perspective. But hey you can change this for taking a foto
I absolutely love night services. In fact, night is my time overall, and that's when I like to pilot any sort of vehicle. Yes, it's a bit more challenging, but also much more tranquil, there's usually less traffic, and the light and shadow effects even on the worse routes for that are much more interesting for me than the silly floodlighting of daytime. And I also hate sun and sunlight overall and try to see both as little as possible IRL as well.
Night, early mornings and evenings are the best times because that's when services really diversify. I especially like the early/late Gatwick Express services on BML purely because of the unique stopping patterns south of Gatwick.
I only play in service mode, and the night services are my absolute favourite ones do. Especially on ToD4-routes where the darkness looks really good. I put the fog-slider to about 20% and then add some rain and clouds on top of that. Maybe even some distant thunder. That makes the night dark but not completely black, and you can still just make out trees and houses against the sky. And when you're passing through a station and the cab lights up for a few moments before you plunge back into the darkness again; that's where I think TSW looks its absolute best! There are a few routes with good night lighting now I think. Midland Mainline, and Southeastern High Speed for instance. But it is really important that it is a ToD4-route. And you need to be in a dark room to get the full effect.
Blackpool Branches has some great Class 08 shunting services in the wee hours of the morning at Preston. Turn off all the lights in the room, get a warm drink, then set the in-game weather to snow and enjoy the cozy Gronk cab for an hour of laid-back shunting.
WCL is excellent at night! Well unless you're driving the 150 of course. But yes I do in principle enjoy driving at night, just that the appalling lighting in TSW makes it such a frustrating experience.
Night services are disliked by a lot of people when the route's night lighting is total trash. Unfortunately, this is the case for the majority of routes. I personally like night services on routes that I am more familiar with, provided that the night lighting is halfway decent.
I must admit a night service where the room you are in is dark does feel very immersive, especially HUDless.
I like a night route. Can be quite tranquil and peaceful. Plus it is generally the only time the amount of passengers mirror real life.
I'm doing fewer night services of late myself. I know that in TSW2 the nights were often way too bright but the TOD4 lighting has gone too far the other way, too much total blackness. I realize there are probably performance considerations in how complex you can make the night lighting but in the absence of that I wish they would just lighten the whole scene a bit at night as a compromise. I suppose some of this has to do with each person's hardware too, their type of monitor and how they have it setup. I'm kinda surprised TSW does not have a gamma slider so we can fine tune it. DW
The most important thing when playing night services is to be in a darkened room, that way your eyes will see a lot more detail on screen than if you are contrasting against a brightly lit room.
I do not really mind doing night services… sort of reminds me of conning a ship at night at sea. As others have pointed out some routes are better than others. Nothing like running a long freight on a cloudy and dark night to replicate being at sea. To be fair though, I usually run the routes during the day to learn them, then run them at night to test my route knowledge. Like about everything, variety so the spice of life.. I do get tired of running the same route in daylight in decent weather so I will mix it up with rain, fog, night running.
