I’ve just skimmed through the live stream video on YouTube and I’m amazed at how populated the trees are and how good the hills and mountains look! Even though I have absolutely no interest in this route personally, it’s the first TSW route I’ve seen without any obvious gaps in scenery or plain green hills and slopes which a lot of routes often suffer from. It begs the question, have DTG found a new technique and solution to place so many trees down, which don’t look like garbage, and which also don’t massively affect performance? If so, that’s a good sign for future routes. Some screenshots I’ve picked from the stream showing the scenery:
Matt has finally had his way with trees. We mustn't go overboard however, or all we will get will be forest routes and logging camps...
A good amount of details, not only trees. Nice ground texture composition too and nice color palette (not-only-mono-washed-green). The stream looks very dark, but this is some YouTube 'issue'. Sometimes it feels like Matt is showing something that we can't see there. This is also visible in other materials on YT, not only in those from DTG. Maybe it's just me. I do not know. I have a slightly custom configuration of audio-video codecs.
Imagine how good a rendition of the West Highland line would look using these forestry techniques! One can only dream of trashing a tractor (or even better a “McRat” class 27) from Helensburgh Upper to Fort William and Oban.
The route looks absolutely fantastic in those screenshots. I hope it doesn't disappoint once we get it. I saw early screenshots of Arosa that looked really good too, and then...well, you all saw on stream the other day what it really looks like. I have more faith in this one, though. I have been waiting for another true US freight route for quite a while now. Love SPG but I have played it to death, so nice getting something new and fresh, and a little older too. I really appreciate the older more nitty-gritty type trains and routes, instead of all the shiny, clean, and computerized modern stuff doing hundreds of miles per hour.
Not only are there a ton of trees, but there are also trees of different shades of greens and green-yellow. It actually looks like a forest now, more so even than Sand Patch Grade.
Of course the Clinchfield is formidable, the most beautiful line of DTG today, it is certain, the progress is immense since the beginning. I can't wait to ride on it. In the meantime, I'm training on the Sand Patch with my personal "GP38 Clinchfield" to get used to the new colors ... Available on TSC of course. PS: the Sand Patch remains my favorite line to this day ....
