Welcome to the Unofficial Screenshot Competition! This is a fun and friendly alternative to the official Screenshot Competition run by DTG. Here you can share your themed TSC screenshots using any 3rd party / post shot editing etc. creations which are not allowed in the official competition. Rules: Only TSC shots are allowed. Screenshot should be in some way (can be very tenuously) linked to the theme. Otherwise anything goes. You can enter up to 3 screenshots, posted as separate posts. You can delete and replace if you wish. 3rd party content / Re-shades / Reskins etc. are welcomed but are not mandatory. Previous competition’s winner acts as Judge for this competition (can't enter themselves). The winner chooses the new theme for the next competition (and becomes the new Judge). The decision of the Judge is final. We strongly discourage any negative comment or criticism of another entry by a fellow contributor. This is a light hearted & fun contest! This is a major "we are all friendly" thread and we hope it will always remain so. New entrants are always welcomed! There is no pressure or minimum standard to meet, other than following these rules, enjoying being creative and having fun. Please keep chat to an absolute minimum. Entries will close at 10PM GMT on Saturday, February 7th 2026 and will be judged by me - Craigie-C In the event of this week's winner not responding by 10PM GMT on Sunday, February 8th 2026, a new thread will be created using the results of this week's poll. The theme for this week is: State Of The Art Feel free to interpret the theme however you wish. Good luck to you all.
Mostly state of the art railway technology are seen in the spotlight doing what they do best but every now and then they need to be looked after to continue doing that work looking their best! Here Deutsche Bahn Class 406 '406 460-7' is seen as the leading unit of a state of the art ICE 3M set emerging out of the industrial sidings of München, Bavaria in Germany getting a wash! Motive Power: ICE 3M Route: Munich-Augsburg Scenario: [CS] Wash and Go Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Track Enhancement Pack + Train Sim Community AP Track EP Updated Textures, Reshade
The pursuit of state of the art technology can be a rough journey, with all sorts of ideas being tested to find the cutting edge of the industry so railroad companies can get ahead of other transport industries but their railroad rivals as well! Here Union Pacific Railroad is seen trialing gas turbine electric power in the form of Third Generation GTEL '18' getting ready to roll out for testing at Cheyenne, Wyoming in the United States of America. As we of course know, gas turbine electric power never really caught on. Motive Power: Union Pacific Third Generation GTEL Route: Sherman Hill Scenario: 04. [Turbine] To the Max and Back Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement, Reshade
London, Midland and Scottish Railway Coronation Class '6221' 'Queen Elizabeth' flaunts state of the art streamlining with it's sleek appearance and lovely royal blue and white paint scheme operating a railtour around London, England in the United Kingdom! Motive Power: LMS Coronation Class Route: London to Brighton Scenario: JT SPC - The Surrey Hills Special Enhancements: Armstrong Powerhouse Sky & Weather Enhancement Pack 2.0 + Armstrong Powerhouse Cloud Enhancement Pack, Armstrong Powerhouse Track Enhancement Pack + Train Sim Community AP Track EP Updated Textures, Reshade
Are these edited with AI? Like the prompt trend that was going around on some Facebook groups I saw a while back where people were making their screenshots into hyper-realistic images with Artificial Intelligence like Gemini? Not discrediting your shots at all because I can tell behind the edit they're interesting and well made alongside the fact I'm pretty sure third party post processing with programs is technically allowed as it kind of fits into the enhancements / reshading category. Regardless, might be worth deciding how AI fits into our rules because it can outclass almost any screenshot you can get from the game or edit with traditional software as most of the time it will make the shot almost look straight out of real life with just a text prompt you can type in. I tend to be of the Anti-AI stance and I don't feel it should be allowed as I feel it can remove a lot of effort and creativity in many ways and here it sort of applies as well, as the AI will just do any otherwise difficult editing work all for you. But that's just my thoughts, I have no right to make these decisions myself and I encourage others to share what they think considering it is a relevant topic nowadays and ultimately it's up to this weeks judge to decide what flies.
To answer your question both of my entries were enhanced with Gemini. I saw no exclusion specifically in the rules. I think that there should be a vote on weather to exclude AI enhancements or not. The sad thing is that once you see what AI enhancements can do it is hard to go back. I also have seen superb enhancements done with Photoshop that take hours to do that are almost photo-realistic. AI takes less than 30 seconds and results are determined by your instructions. Both Gemini and Chat GPT offer free limited use options, so those AI programs are not limited to just those who can afford to purchase these programs they are accessible by everyone. One still needs to set up the scene to create something to enhance, so not all is AI created, only the enhancements. If the idea is to make your screenshot realistic I see no reason for AI not to be allowed. If the free versions of AI are no longer available then they should not be allowed. Possibly another screenshot contest with AI allowed would be an option. If AI is allowed, a thumbnail of the original screenshot should be attached.
Yeah I see, no doubt it produces some very impressive results and yep like I said you are free to do with this as you please at the moment because you are correct there is nothing against it in the rules of course. I also agree others should vote or have their say on whether they think it should be allowed in these competitions or not, I've of course already said what I think.
Thank you very much for the offer but I am ok thanks! I tried it initially for some recreational usage out of curiosity to see what it could produce, but I ended up getting tired of it pretty quickly it just didn't interest me all that much. I think a part of that is related to my real life photography practices as well, I never edit my photographs because the way I see it, it teaches me to get my shots as good as they can be in the moment. Yes I'm essentially just handicapping myself as obviously there is nothing wrong with photo editing but it's just the way I like to do things and it seems to carry over to this sort of thing as well, where I would rather just try and get the best I can in the moment of the screenshot and not having to worry about editing later.
I see the AI has changed the Colfax sign to something that looks like Fairfax! I'm just a lurker, so maybe my views don't count, but I think that if you allow AI you will have problems knowing whether a screenshot originated in TSC or not. The second of OldAlaskaGuy's screenshots is so realistic it could have originated from anywhere, including photos of real trains.
I agree, whilst AI might make things look super-realistic, it's not really in the spirit of a screenshot competition? Maybe a separate thread could be set up for that specific niche, I'd certainly be interested to see what folk with AI expertise/interest could come up with.
That is why I added a thumbnail of the original screenshot so you can tell. Craigie-C I am OK with you not considering these for the contest. I thought that I would bring up AI entries. I knew it would come up sooner or later. If someone wishes to create a poll or to simply add an exclusion to the rules. In any case, it should be required to post a thumbnail of the original screenshot for comparison.
The way I see it I think we can allow AI if we follow OldAlaskaGuy's suggestion where if you upload an AI enhanced shot you have to include the original as well, and I recommend that the original be the shot that's judged but the AI is there simply for the fun purposes of potentially seeing what the posters "vision" of the shot may be if it were taken in real life. I reckon that could be interesting and fun, while not taking away the spirit of these competition shots as after all the original shot taken from the game, or manually edited by hand in an editor, is what would be judged in this case.
I know I only occasionally post here, but if AI photos are a thing here, I'm out for good. AI complete gets rid of the craft of taking photos/screenshots. It's far too easy to just tell AI to "fix the lighting," "add people/detail," or "remove object in foreground" that normally you would have to actually plan for and do yourself. This is a lighthearted competition, but we are still trying to take the best photos possible in game, and allowing AI completely voids that; suddenly every screenshot will be perfect, no matter how poor the original screenshot. I propose a full ban on any AI editing here, those who want their slop can have it in a non-creative area of the forum.
At this point, not to alienate long time contributors, I vote to keep this forum as it has been and not allowing AI enhanced screenshots. I have created a separate thread for AI enhanced.Thank you all for your input. I have removed my enhanced screenshots and moved them to the other thread.
