I was messing around with the debug camera, which basically lets you roam the TSW scene without any limits, and I was amazed at how far the scenery was placed away from the railway tracks on Glasgow Cathcart Circle. In fact I don't think I've seen one 'blank' spot whilst driving on this route, which unfortunately can't be said for other TSW routes. In some other TSW routes, the scenery barely gets beyond a couple of hundred of meters before 'ending' with a nice (not) blank green canvas being quite easily seen whilst driving. Here are some pictures below to show you how much effort has been put into this route. Granted the detail isn't amazing, but its still nice to see assets placed far away from the tracks, heading off into the distance. Bear in mind some tiles haven't loaded, due to the camera being so far zoomed out, so some blank spots will actually have scenery the closer you get.
I've always wondered what made Cathcart so impressive in terms of scenery, lets hope future routes have the same level of depth!
What also impressed my: The scenery was done by RivetGames. This really gives me hope, that their future 3rd party routes will also have such a nice scenery! Thumbs up for this, dear devs.
This is why I think Cathcart really sets a standard. It's not half-made and you can (as you have) see scenery for miles. On top of that; • It's complete Scenery isn't missing and is quite real and the timetable is very good. • Variety As is in real life, the timetable is very varied, with services going here, there and everywhere. • Realism I've been on this line enough times to be able to say GCC is very, very realistic in its look & feel. The scenery feels like Glasgow's Southside, and later becoming the open fields of Lanarkshire/Renfrewshire. • Custom-made Things like the OHLE being brand new, the models of stations as well (thanks Rivet) and a lot more being mostly perfect, and seemingly they are custom made (the stations and OHLE obviously are), just adds to it, rather than things like London buildings in Glasgow or something. • Helpful GCC also adds a bit of a Base for a few Scottish Routes, anything coming out of Glasgow Central, anything going past Shields Road (Ayrshire, Inverclyde), the Paisley Canal Line (Past Shields), the Argyle Line/West Coast Mainline (Glasgow & Newton) Class 314 itself could be reused on other Suburban routes as well. So, in other words, the route is just fantastic.
I really like the custom made assets. The OHLE is one noticeable one, as it would’ve looked very off if they’d have just recycled the GWE OHLE. Another thing I like is the use of the various custom made station furniture assets. Things like the platform lights, benches, train plant pot etc. These are the kind of things which separates one route from another.
The scenery is honestly really good on this route. What often happens on other routes is that there’s a tree line ‘barrier’ adjacent to the tracks, blocking the views whilst driving. This is done intentionally because there’s little to no scenery away from the tracks, so it’s used to cover up the blankness. The trees are placed, even if there’s no trees there in real life. I really don’t like this approach, but I’m hoping they’ll no longer do this in future routes.
I've noticed this quite a few times, especially in Munchen Augsburg. There's flat fields (with no trees) adjacant to the tracks and just before the map ends at the furthermost border, there's this row of trees.
Yes, Cathcart is a really well modeled route. It would be almost perfect but for a couple of let downs: 1. The lack of at least one more train model, and subsequent empty Central Station. 2. The awful lighting, making it, for me, unplayable at night.
Luckily, the second point should be a pretty easy fix. The first point could potentially be resolved in the future if the appropriate train DLC(s) from future routes are ported over as AI portal traffic to/from Glasgow Central.
I think that's one thing that Glasgow was always going to have against it with Cathcart, it feels fairly dead. But even if, for example, there was a 380 it would feel dead (at least for me, who's seen Central in full action) But that's a benefit of Scotland, trains run all over and (in TSW) could theoretically just layer in/out of different routes.
It’s basically a camera which lets you roam the world with no restrictions. You can fly around the world much faster compared to the default camera, as well as fly through solid objects, such as tunnels. You need to download the Unreal Engine Unlocker, and then write a command in the console in order to activate it. So there’s a few steps in order to activate it. For normal game use, the default game camera should be adequate enough for most players.
