So I've noticed on the North American routes for TSW 2020 and TSW 2(Peninsula Corridor, SPG, LIRR), the grade crossing signals on these routes function... sorta. It seems like no matter if a train is present in the crossing block or not, the signals are perpetually activated, the gates are always down, lights always flashing, bells always ringing (except the revamped SPG for TSW 2, which has no bell sound at all). I remember back when CSX HH first debuted, the crossings were functional, and to be honest, they worked pretty well. I would love it if the crossing signals were returned back to a fully working state. It's kinda neat to see the crossings actually working and functioning to warn of approaching trains. While it may not matter if you are driving a train down a mainline at 40, if you are walking around exploring the world, or just straight railfanning, it looks kinda wonky to see forever malfunctioning grade crossings.
I believe it was in the first Q&A stream, Matt said they got rid of animated crossings because they were inefficient and took up too much memory or slowed the frame rate or something like that, so they decided to do static crossings after SPG. Matt also said they know why they are inefficient and they know how to fix it, it just isn't high on their priority list at the moment. They want to focus on the TSW2 Release and the preserved collection. I really hope they add animated crossings back to the game. I love standing at a crossing and watching/listening as the gates go down as a train approaches.
I agree I want the functional grade crossing back, and plus I would like to have the AI trains blow their horns.
I totally agree with you, that working crossings would increase the immersion in a big way. In my opinion it’s especially stupid, on the Peninsula Corridor. There are some crossings always closed, even if there’s never going to be a train crossing, because the underground or whatever this is, hasn’t been modeled. Only the Caltrains are there. So, working crossing would help a lot, but at least the crossings shouldn’t be closed all the time on sections, where no trains are going, like the underground on the peninsula corridor.
