PC (poll) Requested Features/core Game Additions For Tsw

i would like to see the weight of train loads and weight of the slowest wagon. id like to see something like they do on derail valley, which i play, when doing a job you get a booklet saying what you have to do, weight of the load and maybe DTG could put expected departure time and expected arrival time. i know freight should run to a timetable but do get delayed because passenger trains have the right of way. In TSW all we get is, its an empty load or a full or heavy load.

 

@ trainsim matt-
While this poll is a gr8 idea,
I would like to share the following 2 thoughts with you as a customer who would like to spend more time and money on your product but-
Having a scenario editor or just being able to place whatever where ever and go where ever would probably be the single best thing you could ever do for tsw. (ala run8)
I understand you have fixed a few bugs, Perhaps fixing some of the remaining bugs that have plagued this software since the beginning would resonate well to quite well with customers.
ty

 

I voted for improvements to the 2D map - labelled stations at the very least. I'd also really like to be able to see the game stats more easily, either in the game or making more of DTLive (which might actually be better because then I can look at it on my laptop while driving on my PS4). Having the Mastery page on the website is heading in the right direction, but it would be better if it showed all time stats similar to the extensive pages of figures you get in GTA V etc.

A stats dashboard with graphs of everything you do in the game would be ideal, with sections like on the mastery dashboard, but with bar charts broken down by route for: passenger loading cycles, sifa alerts, carriages coupled, scenarios completed, services completed, etc etc (I presume this is all being tracked).

I'd like the Most Popular charts from the Mastery page to be colour coded by route and list ALL of the trains and routes, so you could see not only which trains you'd driven the most, but also where. It wouldn't be difficult to assign each route a colour and then stick to that throughout the dashboard. Something more like this (based on my current all-time game stats - I've only just picked up RSN in the sale)...

 

Thank you for communicating with the community, I, and a lot of other users, really appreciate it.
(It'd even more awesome if you could tell us more about the current state of editor other than "No information i can share" but i guess you have a good reason not to? But anyways really appreciate your posts here)

 

I'm dying to see cab sway. Driving without cab sway is really boring, so it'll make it more interesting. I know cab sway doesn't sound like it would improve anything too much, but to me (and probably others) it makes a huge difference. Obviously, wheelslip is a must. Not having wheelslip is unacceptable to me and detracts from the "sim" aspect of the game.

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention scenery pop. Maybe it's me, but in sunny conditions all the colors in the scenery kinda meshes together into a bland, washed out mess. When it's cloudy, trains, trees, buildings and other scenery items have more defined lines that look really good and crisp. I don't know how this problem can be fixed, but it probably is possible.

 

Raildriver support!!!!
Can't believe it hasn't been mentioned yet.

 

Raildriver support has been mentioned a vast number of times, and Matt has indicated that all though it would nice it is not at the top of the list.

 

What would also be useful to include would be the length of the train. That way, especially on the German routes, it would become possible to drive almost completely without the HUD. You need to know how long to wait with accelerating after the speed limit was raised.

 

Maybe a little popup with a service brief, showing the setup of the train, with carriage weights etc. I normally switch to free cam and have a fly around to see what I'm dealing with at the start, so it would be good to be given that info. Maybe with a little diagram like the Wikipedia train diagrams...

 

Not sure if this would be practical to be honest. For passenger trains it would be a nice gimmick perhaps, but for example on those long freighters, all it would tell you is "it's a damn lot of container cars..." Such diagrams might be more useful in the service selection screen, though.

In the simulation itself, I'd prefer something closer to what real drivers use: Something that contains info about weights, lengths, number of axles, brake force, brake types, maximum speed of the slowest car in the formation, hazardous goods, etc etc etc etc.
Accessible by hotkey or indeed clicking the physical sheet of paper that would be placed somewhere in the cab.

I couldn't find British or US examples, but for DB, it looks about like this:

 

Since the DTG Devs really seem to watch this thread, i will elaborate on the issues with the current lighting.
Here are the major issues (at least the biggest problems i have with it)
1. Station lights/normal lights being turned on too early.
Station lights and also normal lights (so the ones not standing in a station) get activated too early/get turned off to late. When you select any services where its still morning, you will notice that the lights are still on although the sun is already up. Same thing with any evening service, the lights are already turned on way too early and it looks really off.

^As you see its 5PM and lights are already turned on, it looks odd and should be adjusted.
2. Buildings/Vegetation too shiny (especially in the distance!)
Same as before, select a morning/evening service and you'll notice the wayyyy too shiny/reflective buildings and vegetation.
Here an example from the "Setting out" Scenario (RRO; 5AM)

As you can see, the buildings (and train!) are reflecting like crazy although concrete doesnt reflect like that.


And now Vegetation and ground texture:

Look at the grass. Is it yellow? green? a mixture of both? I dont know, but it looks really odd. It seems to shine too much thus making it appear not good. Also compare the grass and ground texture to the next screenshot:

That looks muuuch better. The grass has a natural colour the ground doesnt look like a mirror that reflects sun light. Now what did i do to
make it look so good? I simply turned around, so in the opposite direction of the sun. In my opinion this should be the case no matter in what direction you look.
3. Trains too reflective (Debatable)
Now, this is a controversial one. In my opinion trains are currently too reflective (Only in the morning/in the evening)
(Read my next post, since i've already posted the maximum amount of pictures allowed in a post)

 

LIRR/M7. Notice how it almost becomes as bright as a sun. (Imagine how much energy you'd get if you built a solar panel on top of it.!)

BR185.5. Like i said, controversial but imo too reflective (Setting out scenario; 5 AM)

2.1 Ground Texture reflections
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/624305106430459905/643080109401702400/unknown.png
As you can see on the image, the ground textures tend to look really odd on sunrises. You see a pattern that repeats itself. As it seems to be the case with other objects too, it is too reflective/gets too bright.
Here's a comparison:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/624305106430459905/643081638179241984/unknown.png



So, to sum things/my problems with the lighting up:
Lights turned on too early.
Grass/Vegetation/Ground/Buildings too reflective
Trains too reflective.
Also, the light seems to get more powerful (not proven) on said evening/morning services/scenarios compared to afternoon ones so adjusting the power of the sun may also help (?)

Another minor problem:

These signs always look off when light shines on them. They have a weird looking outline that make them look odd. Would be great if that could be improved.

 

Tough one to fix probably. If conditions are right (at dawn or sunset usually), metallic or glass objects - such as cars and indeed trains - CAN be bright like crazy, indeed almost as bright as the sun. I agree though, TSW sometimes assumes the condidions for that are right too early.

But look at these photos I took one evening at Essen Hbf:


It's pretty close to what we see in TSW sometimes. Only the bloom effect is too intense.

 

How about a companion mobile app that shows the HUD, schedule, map and all stuff a real driver would have, such as train length and weight?

 

M7s are very shiny irl, so that’s not unrealistic.

 

One can always adjust the engine.ini file if the bloom is too much (always assuming youre on pc).

 

Well yeah, like i said, pretty debatable.
But the other points like too shiny Vegetation/Buildings are really annoying and break the immersion quite a bit imo.

 

Are you able to alter your engine.ini settings? It fixes these issues if so..

 

I didnt know you could adjust the time the lights get activated and the reflection of the grass, ground and buildings?

 

Blind mown... Mind blown, I mean.

No, seriously, that seems like a fantastic idea.

 

This thread is full of dreams. Reality will be much more depressing.

 

It doesnt fix those issues but it does fix the ones you reference as follows-
"the other points like too shiny Vegetation/Buildings are really annoying and break the immersion quite a bit imo"
Regarding light times etc, I appreciate this can be important to you. To others, probably not quite so much otherwise we would probably have seen more requests across the various other wish list threads. This isnt to rain on your parade, just a reality check of what is likely to get prioritised. Id like to see your suggestions implemented but other features will probably get attention first.

 

Hey Matt!

My opinion about some of those features.
Chageable wether would be great if so that players stays in game after he finish service. (maybe just chose season in start)
There comes in play time skip feature. Players will have option to skip time to next service (only when >on foot<). With this it would be helpful to have timetable of all services in game (when waiting for srvice).
Time skip would stop players from leaving to main menu and everything restarts. (weather, locos) Read below
But there is nasty bug when you complete a service and start new one without going to main menu to pick one, that new service have some problems after you save, quit and came back play service later. It does not show next stop in top left corner, just like you are not driving it.
And with players stay in same savegame longer, game could have tehnical faulties (locos, wagons), and disruptions caused by weather (rails, infrastructure). There again come time skip, which in case of some great damage you must wait few hours to be damage fixed.
Those two features must be (if someday implemented) made very very good, otherwise game will not be fun anymore if you came to dead end and only thing to do will be to leave.
And last about display screens. Really, why is this not alredy in game?

If you have any question contact me back and thanks for reading.​

 

Well, i find that fixing the base game is sure as hell more important than adding other features. Buggy Base Game --> Buggy Features.
Also, can you list the engine.ini commands concerning the shininess of buildings and vegetation? Thank you.

 

Maxxxxx It’s not the trees and vegetation are shiny, it’s more that they don’t have shadows far away. Their shadows render in at a closer distance.

 

Left side: Looking at the direction of the sun // Right side: Looking at the opposite direction

 

https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/a-guide-to-engine-ini-settings.4672/

Also consider Reshade.

https://reshade.me/

 

Idk which command you mean, but i want the base game to have acceptable grass in sunrises and sunsets and not let it only be possible through some engine.ini tweaks (But lets not turn this into a discussion and let other people post their suggestions)

 

But why though? You made a progress by adding the destination boards outside the trains with (i think) Main Spessart Bahn and lately the ones inside the train in the BR 422 but the ones on the train stations dont work yet. Furthermore, no other simulator developed on the unreal engine has ever had the issue you guys have regarding the PIS. Tourist Bus Simulator, Fernbus Simulator, Bus Simulator 2018... all had working destination boards, announcements etc since the beginning. Why do you guys still have such a big issue with it?

 

All the locomotives are so new looking. Would be nice to have some weathered locomotives.

(https://www.flickr.com/photos/sp8254/311672733/in/photostream/)


(google.com)

 

The M7 is shiny, but not blinding. I'm around them all the time and they've never been as bright as the sun. Definitely not realistic.

 

That would be incredible! I'm gonna add onto that and say we should have the TS20-style HUD track diagram as part of that companion app. What I mean is that instead of using the bubbles you would have the little diagram from TS20's HUD on your mobile device's screen. As someone that plays a lot more TS20 than TSW this may just be personal preference but I think something like this would be really helpful to some people. Instead of spreading information all over your screen like it does in TSW it tells a lot of information in one place. If you don't know exactly what I meant (I suck at describing things) here's an example:
Yes, I know it looks kinda dated but some minor styling and color changes could make it look a lot better.

 

The issue with that is that most companies won't permit DTG a license to represent their brand in that way, despite the fact they let their own real world locomotives operate in that state. If CSX produced an advertisement they would use a photograph of a locomotive in good condition, so they expect the same from DTG in TSW.

 

I agree. The bubbles of upcoming stops, speed limits, and signals are a little annoying to me as they can get in the way and are sometimes distracting.

 

In TS20, there are weathered variations of some units.
Weathered

(http://www.gameloo.info/2016/03/train-simulator-2016-steam-edition-full.html)


(google.com)

 

Yeah what’s the reasoning tsw has to be perfectly new and clean but ts2020 doesn’t have to be?

 

You can turn them off in Settings.

 

That MIGHT be due to licensing agreements. E.g. Railway companies being like, you can depict our trains in your game, but only in perfect condition. Don't make us look dirty and rundown.

After all there are weathered trains, but only the old British Rail ones.

 

And let's not forget that stupid feature where the measurement doesn't stay in miles. I'm used to applying braking at 0.20-0.30 miles from the station in TS20 so remembering what that is in yards is a pain and often leads to me overrunning the platform. I really wish DTG would just add the option to keep distances for objectives in miles, no matter how close to them you are. That wouldn't be in any way difficult to implement.

 

Maybe as a workaround, it helps to put it into metric. Even if it's not you natural way to meaure, the numbers will stay consistent thanks to metric being base 10: 1.3 km - 1.2 km - 1.1 km - 1000m

 

I completely agree with you. TSW looks so sterile without the weathering. Making a train extremely rusty and dirty isn't what we want, just some normal looking weathering. Just a little dirt is fine. I am aware that NTP's locomotives are weathered but all the modern stuff is spotless if I'm not mistaken.

 

Pretty much, yes. The older German locos (BR143 and 155) show tiny little hints of paint degradation and such. The lighting must be right to see that them though.


Addendum: At least speaking for DB, most of their newer stock - 146 etc. really IS that nice and shiny. In which case, it is only fair and realistic to depict them that way in the game.

 

I also have my statistics. Exactly I prefer the time played over the distance traveled (it is fairer). I like to change trains and tracks and so I play gradually according to the time played. Unfortunately this data cannot be read anywhere, so I have to enter it manually after finishing the task. It would be nice to have it officially on the web.

 

It would be nice to have a button on the graphs to toggle between time and distance.

 

Just some extra proof that the M7's aren't as bright as the sun.

 

Very true! Although I tend to stop way short because I see the distance begin to count down really fast, and my first reaction is to apply the brakes. They really should just stick to one measurement.

 

Matt,

Is there anything that can be done to improve the anti-aliasing? The flickering especially over the OHL but other textures/objects, really spoils the gameplay for me. That has been my only constant gripe with the TSW, apart from that no complaints!

 

Weathered? It needs a couple of locos after they've been through the autumn season operating on the UK's railhead treatment train.

Spoiler: RHTT

Before.

After.

 

Increase the screen percentage a bit.