West Cornwall Local: Penzence - St. Austell & St. Ives Scenery

I am not going to write a long text here like I usually would because I think the images are clear enough. On top of that it just isn't worth my time at this point. So here is a comparison between St. Ives in real life and what Rivet produced.

Real Life ("British Mediterrenean"):


TSW: ("British Swamp");

 

And your particular beef? Sand not bright enough? Not enough boats? Just asking since you could not be bothered as you stated.

 

Needs to be fixed to match real life since Rivet games haven't learnt from the mistake they did to their first route in game RhB Arosa Line regarding scenery.

 

That is what I am asking about - other than the difference in sand color… what else is do dramatically off?

 

I do think the sand needs to not look like a field and perhaps more tailored assets for the houses

 

So through some more people on the beach- lighten up the sand and Sky…. Do you want every house and building to be photo-imagery or just a few…

just asking to see what is so wrong since I don’t see that big of problem except the brightness and maybe density of objects.

Of course I utilize the simulation to drive the consists and services so not to bothered by some generic representations. The skybox has always been basic so not too miffed about the flatness of the sky.

just trying to established what is a good enough representation in a simulation. Much more concerned over accuracy of the locomotives, accuracy of the track layout and traffic density myself.

 

These are my thoughts….

 

There could be more houses and perhaps a little more vegetation, but it isn't bad either. I'm not local to this route but comparing these two photos the representation looks recognizable in the game. Besides, it's still in development, maybe the final version will be even more accurate.

 

Well, they used mud instead of sand for the beach. They are entirely missing the footpath that runs alongside the car park which, btw, has no cars. The whole town of St Ives has been replaced with two appartment Assets and the breakwater is just a small pathetic piertype thing. The foliage is way too gloomy and in general the whole thing looks dull.

 

I don't care much about what Rivet is doing at the moment.
As long as Arosa remains as it is I'm not going to buy anything they make anyway.

 

I'm mainly refering to the town itself, just off in the background. It looks nothing like it should. Not really easy to describe as basically nothing is right. And yes, the sand being replaced with mud is on my list too.

 

The problem is that, as we don't have an editor, this is the best representation we will ever get of the route in the game. If we could just improve it or make our own I wouldn't pay attention to Rivet either.

 

I’ve always said I don’t expect routes to be pixel perfect recreations, but they certainly have to be recognisable (otherwise what’s the point in basing a route in a certain place). I have no idea what the route looks like in real life, I’ve never been down there. However, the in game screenshot is significantly different to the actual screenshot in your post.

Buildings on a rocky outcrop?

The mud brown sand looks more like the beaches on the Mersey (after the oil spill) and not the bright white sands in the screenshot. I’m interested to know why they didn’t do white sand when it is so obvious.

 

I don't want photo-imagery, I want a decent representation. And what they have done just doesn't come close. It doesn't look or feel anything like it should. I too use the simulation to drive services, that doesn't mean I'll accept scenery that looks nothing like the real thing.

 

Just to add my 2p to that.

I will admit, it's not Reigate levels, whereby the station was pretty difficult to recognise - I did instantly think "that's St Ives" despite having never been there, but with that comparison shot in the OP, I do see it needs a bit of work to make it more accurate, although it doesn't massively bother me.

I do agree, however, that the route looks really dark - it must be using the NTP colour pallette.

 

I will also direct you to the actual town in the background, missing/wrong houses, missing roads/streats, missing foliage and the terrain is wrong too, with just a drop into the ocean instead of a busy tourist street with a beach

 

Yeah it's clearly St. Ives, but that's because of the general terrain. The actual representation is not good in any way.

 

Jasper_Rivet please see above. Nice to see an article drop but hope above helps

 

I may aswell post this here too, the yellow line represents the general location of the car park while the red line represents where the footpath should be. The latter runs parallel to the car park and just a metre or so lower. You can see how the footpath in game just stops abruptly when it should in fact continue a lot further.


Oh, and before someone claims it wasn't there in the 90s, it was. If the car park was there this was. the two rely on each other and the path doesn't exactly look modern eiher.

 

Why is this thread even in existence? It is not PC specific and there is already a perfectly good thread in the Dovetail Live Article Discussion forum. Exactly the same comments/criticisms have been made there.

 

British Mediterranean? Is that Gibraltar? I thought Rivet's next disappointment was located in Cornwall!

 

St Ives is nicknamed the British Mediterranean because of how scenic it is in real life.

 

I suggest you have a look around the "PC discussion" section then, I think you will find a lot more threads that criticise content that has been released or announced.
I am aware that this is not PC specific, but ever since the forums got reorganized there is nowhere to post subject specific threads without also tying it to a platform.

 

a thing I have to point out is that this is still a work in progress, the release could be another 6 weeks away so rivet have plenty of time to fix the scenery

 

I'm not familiar with this route, so initially I thought the screenshots were nice. It wasn't until londonmidland posted a comparison shot on top of doing some research myself I realised the scenary showcased is pretty poor imo. Blindingly obvious things like the sand and buildings in the background don't do the route justice. Yes it's a WIP but why showcase screenshots, especially iconic locations, knowing it doesn't give the authentic feeling factor? Just like BML. Nobody expects pixel perfection I understand but imo they're not appropriate screenshots to show off or appeal to the community because clearly its putting quite a few of us off already. Going forward I hope DTG look into this and perhaps share screenshots of other areas/features during the initial first articles of a route, or simply wait till they're happy with the content/scenary of certain areas.

 

Yes there is. I just told you where it is.

 

The question is will this be adjusted.... we've given early feedback

 

Looking at the sky, the screen grabs are on quite a dull day compared to your photo. I'm not saying the sand couldn't use a bit of a brighten, but it would be interesting to see how it looks in full sun. The sand colour in this St Ives beach shot isn't a million miles away from what they've made.



Those apartment blocks need to go, though!

 

Arosa was such a disappointment, they somehow managed to make the swiss alps look dull (not to mention the missing mountain range)

 

Rivet also knows about the Arosa problems. Have they changed anything? No. They don't care. So why should we think it's different here?

 

For those who don't know the route well, if you look at he pics in the OP the St Ives station is a few hundred yards into the distance behind the DMU, and this is the terminus of the line (so not an insubstantial station for the route)

Generally, I think that Rivet have used stock assets for the buildings rather than making anything specific and whilst the buildings above the station certainly aren't bang on with a bit of juggling they could be much better. The far side rocky outcrop is definitely the wrong size (and not covered in buildings) but the biggest issue is those apartment blocks on the peninsula. It looks like an industrial wharf rather than a posh seaside getaway!

Hopefully something can be done to swap things around a bit and even if they made a fairly low detail specific asset for the peninsula it would be better than those square blocks

 

What I find weird is that the whole peninsula, and those rocky bits near the beach, look much smaller than in real life. Everything feels off as if the distances were scaled down. And those two very big flat apartments don't help regarding this.

 

In my experience the pc discussion is the busiest subforum so it is more likely to be seen here

 

And I see it the other way round... The rock outcrop looks bigger in game than IRL (even allowing for lower tide in game) and the building on the top of that outcrop is definitely more like a placemarker than a cluster of small houses. The peninsula in the background looks square fronted, like a wharf, rather than a natural formation and totally out of place. But it IS distant scenery. If it wasn't the terminal station of the line I wouldn't even be commenting

 

To be Honest, thats what im asking me too. i like the way it looks. for me the close part of the town is accurate enough (i mean we dont have a reingate situation here). Im Sure when its raining the sand takes a darker color too.

For what i saw on the released cornwall pics:

-the 150 looks top (For people want this more dirty there will be a weathering mod)
- as a fan of the thrash locos, the 37 is a good choice (i hope they will ad other rolling stock incl. service layers)

- Scenery is subjective. I really dont expect a molecular copy, but it should be kind of accurate and recognizable, which i do here. For me there is no reason to correct any screenshots with paint at the moment.

 

As you say it's subjective. If you're happy that 100 beach cottages becomes big square blocks then that's fine. Others want it as they do and that's fine too

 

Hornets’ point is that there is already an active discussion going on in the actual thread for the DLC, and it’s basically the same conversation as is taking place here.

 

A lot of that is simply the focal length of the photographer's lens.

 

despite how horrific the scenery is I'm still gonna have to buy the route as its my local route. and I've always wanted a 150 in tsw2, I also do route reviews

 

It would probably be more efficient ( and easier to read and keep up) if there was one thread per subject, but it never happens. It hasn't happened for any of the Rush Hour routes, for instance and there's no likelihood of it happening in the future. Despite what you would like to believe, there is no " actual" thread for the Cornish route or any other subject. The forum is a free for all and we have to live with that.
Personally, if someone has something interesting to contribute, they can " bump" or cross- thread post, on any platform they wish. Not a problem. I read them all.

 

Agree the re skin with Livery designer for 150 is endless, northern, arriva, gwr....

 

I mean the literal official discussion thread for the actual route would completely disagree with that.

 

Yeah, despite our best efforts, the constant necroposting, duplicating of threads, suggestions devoid of any supporting information and abject failure to do a search before posting does support the fact that nobody here has the slightest clue how forums are supposed to work.

This.

 

To be fair I replied here as I only look at the pc section first and I liked the picture of St.Ives.
It's likely however I've replied in another thread

 

You hit upon a point there; the fact there is no General Discussion forum, means useful threads are fragmented across hardware-specific forums.

While we’re on the subject (OT I know, my apologies), these fora are just about the most user-unfriendly I have ever used in terms of account management. No way to change your email, no way to change your forum name. Want to message a moderator? Deaf ears are about all you’ll get. I know we’re only here for the trains, but crikey, I can’t think of a worse place for forum support.

 

I'd say the totally missing Pedn Olva Hotel with it's outdoor swimming pool overlooking Porthminster Beach is a start..... One of the first things you see when approaching St Ives on the train.

 

About the sand, colour, it appears to have been changed, or so it seems
(CL150 Walkaround Video)

 

To be fair, when the article threads devolve into numerous topics, it often proves better to have others.

And it's always good to see different points of view. It's all about feedback, after all, for DTG/Rivet/Skyhook, and this is part of that.

Of course it can be annoying (with the exception of the Suggestions forum, where it's often better), but it's part of the whole forum's purpose.