Currently there's only gatwick airport in the series, and a heathrow junction drivable. Looking foward to expand some choice of airport like luton parkway and stansted, and make heathrow drivable.
There are licensing, access and security issues with the Heathrow branch. Although the service is now operated by GWR rather than HEX and Connect, the line from Airport Jn is owned by BAA who it appears are not willing or interested in having it in a train game. The irony of course being, that Heathrow Airport itself including all the radio frequencies, ILS etc has been in Flight Sim since the year dot!
So you mean it's copyright protected to use the tunnels imagery on TSW, they are supposed to be purchased by national rail or TFL which they seem pretty encouraged. While I assume it won't be a problem to stansted and luton parkway because they are owned by national rail
Absolutely no idea. Probably something like that though, or the tunnel layout could be used by terrorists if made public in detail.
Some companies just decide that they aren't going to have their property in a computer game. There could be a multitude of reasons or it could be that Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited just aren't interested in entering into a licensing agreement.
I'm not going to say it's stupid from them... Actually, yes, I will say it anyway. TSW isn't GTA. But besides, how do model train manufacturers do ? Can it be compared somehow (when it comes to representing a commercial brand) ?
At the end of the day, DTG are not a company who play fast and loose with licensing. So far as the UK is concerned even more so now as they are unlikely to want to jeopardise their good relationship with the Department Of Transport. Though it does remain a puzzle how the physical infrastructure of operating the actual airport for aircraft doesn’t seem to be an issue for flight simulation, as I said before.
Radio Frequencies and ILS are public knowledge and you can only gain access to such from a closed set of sources (plus they are used to fly into the airport, which isn’t accessed by the public). Tunnel designs and things that run under the airport and could potentially be accessed by the public are where the security issues lie. So I can understand hesitation of not being willing to share those details for a train sim.
I noted above, but the airport access points aren’t open to the public. Also if you know the ILS or radio frequencies, they are already public info but you can’t do anything with them. The rail area is open to the public and tunnels can be accessed. So I could be wrong but I’d think that’s the differentiation between why is considered more risky than the other.
You are not obliged to represent things exactly as they are in reality, especially emergency exits that one might use, for example.
Of course, these are aspects of primary importance, but for what poses security concerns, for example a discreet door not far from a station platform in a tunnel, that amount to an unsignificant detail. Another example were the comments about the front door that you cannot open on the Underground stock, but it didn't go any further. I think we can find a way to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds (ménager la chèvre et le chou) !
We can hope, but having worked with security firms for BCP planning I can assure you once they take a stance on security level it’s very hard to convince them otherwise, even if it’s for non-nefarious reasons. And if it’s only for a train sim game, they aren’t going to make that exception.
Those aircraft enthusiasts play it fast and loose, some FS airports have amazing details inside them, perfect for a terror unit's research. And didn't Airfix once release a model of an MOD jet that was supposedly top secret?
