So I know that the new lighting system won't be possible on TSW2 DLC routes, and while I was a bit disappointed, it wasn't a big deal. But that was before I played TWS3, and honestly the new lighting feels like a game-changer (not something I really thought would be the case from watching videos/streams). The immersion with that, the new skies, etc actually has taken it up a couple of notches for me... I'm actually now thinking that going back to an old DLC route will feel like quite a step down, and wishing that the new lighting system was backwards compatible! But to be clear, this isn't a moan, I'm really happy with what I've seen on TWS3 so far (and I'm only doing SEHS routes so far!)
Thanks for the feedback, Phil. We're really pleased with it (and it feels like a gamechanger for me, too!) - glad you're enjoying it.
It's not just the lighting (ie the light source), they would have to change the surfaces and materials on the old assets to react to that light, and that's what takes the time. They probably built SoS knowing they were also going to make a TSW3 version, and they rebuilt SEHS from the old version as well, so both of those routes have compatible textures. The older routes won't have
How do the trains from TSW2 DLC work when they layer in to TSW3 routes with the new lighting system? Do the surfaces reflect light in a different way to the new trains?
I think we talk about this in our Roadmap - The last major challenge with the new lighting system was considering Train Sim World Compatible Add-on Collection (previous Preserved Collection), which have all their in-cab screens, the train lights and so forth, all tuned for the old lighting system. It’s a non-trivial task to upgrade routes and trains to the new system – but we know players will still want to bring their TSW3 trains onto their TSW2 routes and TSW2 trains on to their TSW3 routes so we had to come up with a solution. So, whilst TSW Compatible content will not receive the new PBL lighting system, the new system will now detect various types of light and automatically adjust them to fit the lighting system they’re running in. While this will not always result in the perfect lights it will mean that the entire collection is cross-compatible on day 1.
Ah, ok, that sounds like a decent compromise - I'll await the feedback once the DLC start dropping into place.
From what Matt said on the stream (and JD has quoted below) the basic answer to your question is a "Yes... but..." The fuller answer is that DTG have understood that TSW compatible content (TSW2k and TSW2 trains) will layer onto TSW3 and people will also make off the rails scenarios using that content, so what they've done is a "fudge" so that the new lighting system will work in a fashion and to a point, so it should look "good enough", but obviously won't have full functionality of the TSW3 specific content. From what Matt said on stream, the old lighting was done in a manner where it was balanced at a fairly low level, a bit like using a dimmer switch with only the lowest four settings and where "medium" is level 3 Now, they're using a dimmer switch with 1000 settings, so "medium" is level 500, but the old content is still set to level 3, ie a lot lower. SO what they'll have done is a "translation" within the lighting so they'll take 3, multiply it up to a decent new value, then hopefully "finesse" it a bit to account for other new tricks (else all old content would still only have five values (the fifth being "off")). Had they NOT done this the old content would only ever have been at very low level (he commented it would be like comparing a candle to a high spec LED torch), ie completely contrasting to what we get from the new trains. Hopefully it works well, we will find out on the 6th when the compatible content joins the party
