After watching tonight's livestream on SOS, one major takeaway for me and a lot of other community members was the low resolution grass textures by the side of the tracks that was prevalent throughout the route, especially by the Runcorn bridge. Now while some people may not mind how the scenery looks, to me it's a huge problem as I find it greatly ruins the immersion. If this was done to save on performance than I would understand but it would be nice to get some recognition from DTG on the matter. Just so this thread doesn't become completely negative I will say that the engine itself as well as the stations look great and I hope the route is a success but I would appreciate it if we could get an official response on the scenery as it definitely looks less impressive than previous releases.
The preview was on console, which has a lower rendering disctance than a decent PC. I share your criticism - textures and scenery are very important. But I'd wait for a PC preview before I make up my mind.
Hey - thank you for the feedback. There are a couple of factors at play here - console draw distance (although, I'm not 100% how much next week's preview will show improvement for grass textures in particular), and performance. I believe with particles and the dense stations, we have had to economise on scenery density and texture to focus on the driving experience and landmarks on the route. I would advise to check out next week's stream, and as you say, base your judgement on that if you're playing on PC.
I prefer performance over resolution / graphical details, and I have to say I was pretty impressed by the Series X version presented. It was a smooth 60 fps even with all the dense particle effects on the screen. That's very hard to do. I'm sure the PC version will offer higher settings for foliage but I'm glad the team made this compromise to save performance. Smoothness matters most in gameplay scenarios. Steam actually ran better than many regular routes on Xbox.
Issue I have is if a route graphically isnt vastly superior to TSC then I'd rather play TSC as the variety of trains is greater. Now couple that with a AI only fireman and a player controlled fireman and TSC is ahead by a couple of furlongs. And it shouldnt be that way around.
Matt mentioned they want the manual controlled part getting right. That includes all the simmugraphed influences and reactions if the boiler pressure is getting low etc.. Im fine with a start as driver only, as long dtg is seriously implementing the manual operating part of the firemans tasks. Not interested at all to see a forum thread after 2 years called "where is manual firing?" Or anything like that.
As a pc user I sometimes wonder about Dtg’s decisions regarding preview streams. I’m not obsessed about timetable accuracy, power curve modelling, carriage lighting, audio fidelity, etc.. My primary concerns are graphics and gameplay. Previewing a new route on consoles, or in snowstorms, downpours and nighttimes, seems to deliberately downplay the graphics. The initial stream should provide a good overall view of a route at maximum settings. Subsequent streams can flesh out the details.
I also suggest it is a mistake to show the complete route in the stream. It removes the mystery of discovery that a new player will find. It also makes it easier for nit pickers like me to find fault and in some cases (not mine) lead to customers reversing their pre release purchase and cancelling.
Being a forum member from the start, I am a firm believer that no matter how DTG presents a new route, DLC, or just provide general information, there are going to be those that find DTG’s methods, choices or presentations to be wrong. If they presented only a portion of the route, people would complain they are “Cherry Picking” the best and hiding the imperfections. If not presented on the Xbox or PS4/5 - people would insist they were not serious on supporting those platforms. I am glad that DTG does provide previews on both platforms with warts and all.
I was going to make a joke about the grass being rendered at 1958 resolutions for authenticity, but then I Googled out of curiosity and found that 1958 was the year of the first video game, a Pong precursor called "Tennis for Two" played on an oscilloscope. Now I'm wondering what an oscilloscope graphics filter for TSW would look like. Aside 1: 1958 was also the year that a newfangled technology called the "integrated circuit" was successfully demonstrated. Aside 2: The designer of Tennis for Two, William Higinbotham, pessimistically lamented that he would probably be better remembered for his video game than his nuclear non-proliferation efforts. Let's move forward to the present day and compare the success of frivolous video games vs. nuclear non-proliferation. Oh. Oh, well.
I believe first impressions are everything so I think the best logical course of action would be to showcase the route on PC first and then a console preview the week after, especially since the Xbox version of the game has a significant audio bug. I also agree that they should showcase the full route in the stream and if people don't want to be spoiled they don't have to watch it.
1958 was also the year stereophonic records were introduced, and the last year of US production of 78 rpm records (Britain clung to them a little longer).
That's really interesting. So I guess movies were first, then records. Seems strange that huge music acts like the Beach Boys and Beatles were still releasing in mono years after that, but maybe the tech was still too new from a usability perspective. That's before my time, but I do remember stereo simulcasting, where a concert would be broadcast on TV and radio at the same time, so you could watch it while listening to quality FM sound. It's funny how long so many things we think of as old actually lasted. I read recently that the last person to be executed by guillotine in France could have used his last request to see Star Wars. I'm sure steam locomotives are still in use for tours and railfan events, but when was the last steam loco retired from general commercial use?
China still has revenue producing steam lines - mostly industrial but still steam https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/steam.htm
Unfortunately this is no more truth https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-worlds-last-regular-steam-freight-railway-has-closed Actually the last regular timetable runs with steam engines you can find in Poland (between Poznań, Wolsztyn and other locations) - you should try before it's too late Great experience!
Not only were stereo record players beyond the price range of most teenagers in the mid-60s, but the era also happened to be the final period of the Golden Age of British Mono Hi-Fi. There was a surprising amount of resistance to stereo among British audiophiles at the time, not unlike the resistance to CDs 20 years later.
