Few days ago I bought two routes I'm not particularly interested in, but given they were both sold at 8 Euros on Steam, I decided to give it a go. The two routes are Clinchfield and Sherman Hill. While Clinchfiled was a bargain, because I found the route very peculiar and enjoyable, I was shocked by Sherman Hill. First of all sounds: I think SD70 is the worst sounding locomotive I've ever driven in TSW. Sounds are poorly mixed or even missing at all. Then scenery: I have to say that scenery in Sherman Hill is worse than Arosa and by far. Last but not least performance: extreme stutters in the middle of nowhere. How can be a route so underwhelming? Not even worth for 8 Euros in my opinion ...
There's a big thread which answers a lot of this here to help you. Scenery is because it's a prairie. Stuttering because of grass (solution in thread). https://forums.dovetailgames.com/th...back-thread-how-would-you-answer-these.48870/
What is wrong with the scenery? I have traveled a bit between Cheyenne and Cody WY and feel the route represents the area rather well… especially the large wide open high plains vistas. Biggest problem I have with the route is the performance, which has been acknowledged by DTG. Matt P. Has mentioned it in stream and they are working on a fix. There are work arounds, I found reducing the foliage slider under the advanced tab to medium helped a lot. Sherman Hill finally provides prototypical length American freight and is quite a challenge to bring a mile long freight down from the summit. Was a favorite route for me in TSClassic and my go to route for modern freight in TSW2. Granted, if you are looking for a high speed run or a challenging schedule to keep, this is not the route for you. American freight is an acquired taste.
Near the tracks scenery is decent, but given the landscape it's extremely flat, distance scenery is extremely blurry and it's much more evident than in other routes. But I can bear with the scenery: actually the thing that is probably preventing the route from being used more is the sounds of the SD70, absolutely awful.
Yes, I'm fairly familiar with that stretch of East Wyoming and the scenery is pretty accurate, though it's missing one or two landmarks apparently. I wish it were a little busier and the night lighting is a little surreal, and of course it's missing the Cutoff but, personally, I'm not having any performance issues with the few runs I've done so far.
Like I stated, the distance vistas look very realistic to my experience traveling through the area in real life. Sounds are a personal taste, so can’t really comment one way or the other, just that they do not bother me much when bringing a consist down the slope. I do hope they improve them for you.
There is a sound mod that gives both locomotives much better sounds. Though personally I didn't mind the original sounds either. As for the scenery, I think it's pretty good. After all, it's just big empty fields. My biggest problem with is that you can very often see the terrain tiles ending, which is pretty bad. Also the non-exsisting scenery around the quarry. But along the mainline, it's pretty good, I enjoy driving on Sherman Hill.
I do have to agree with the lackluster depiction of the quarry, it is much better represented in TSClassic, was thinking of the views when slogging up the grade …. A bit busy going down the grade to do much sightseeing
Answer to Op If you dont get entertained enough by this landscape go for another route instead of criticize the work of Dtg. There is so much water in the pacific, cant believe somebody thought its a good idea to put so much salt into it.
WRT the sounds: DTG have been very transparent about the problem here. They had a sound survey of a live SD70ACe in America lined up and ready to go- but then COVID hit and it had to be canceled. So they made the best compromise they could think of, which was to borrow and tweak the Class 66 audio: same prime mover, but with fewer cylinders. (However, the horn is spot-on. Best US horn in TSW to date, if we don't count the forthcoming CSX SD40. Except of course it isn't loud enough. DTG would have to put safety warning labels on the game if they ever made US horns loud enough.)
The sound was apparently based on the UK Class 66 which is much more heavily silenced than its big US cousins. An appeal for sounds was made but appears to have fallen on deaf ears ( pun intended). As regards the scenery, the problem is not the grassland per se but the fact the route author decided to plonk hi res procedural grass tufts as far as the eye can see, dragging the FPS down to single figures. There were also at least a couple of locations where I’m sure I saw the edge of the world so far as the DEM (terrain) data is concerned. If the performance issues could be fixed without having to turn the sim down to Amiga 500 level graphics it wouldn’t be a bad route, but until then it shall remain largely unplayed by myself. Just glad I only paid the dirt cheapo Festival Of Rail price as no way worth £25.
Surreal... these pictures were taken at 1 am ; night sky, practically daylit planet... I know American trains have bright headlights, but even they shouldn't be illuminating the scenery to the side...
I think this brightness would be acceptible from a gameplay perspective if they gave it a bit more bluish tint. That way it would look like night, while still giving you the chance to actually see something. But I don't understand. Your pictures are pretty bright for a night run, yet when I did night runs it was completely pitch black and I couldn't see a thing. Maybe you did the run in clear weather and I had clouds?
On a clear night without urban light pollution, starlight illuminates a surprising amount- and moonlight almost brilliant. But roll in an overcast and it gets inky.
It was a clear night, no moon. but I even had the same experience walking around collecting items, so it was quite bizarre to have the landscape so visible. It's not the night landscape I usually encounter.
If you’ve ever been at sea on a clear moonless night, it’s astonishing how much you can see by starlight
in the tropics, at sea on a moonless night you could still almost read a book… . Crossed the Pacific from the Panama Canal to New Zealand then on to the Antarctica. All at at about 14 knots… plenty of time to appreciate the sheer beauty of the night sky without any light pollution since we ran pretty much darkened ship, only lit the required navigational lights topside. In the more isolated parts of the high plains, you have the same effect.
There's a way to fix this it would be an improved headlights The pitch dark issue affects HRR Schnellfahrstrecke Köln-Aachen Riesa-Dresden Clinchfield and Sherman Hill
I bought this during the recent sale and was disappointed in how choppy it ran. After changing the foliage setting based on LeadCatcher 's suggestion, it runs nicely for me now. It only took me forever to figure out how to get it moving though. Haha.
