Out Now Birmingham Cross-city - Out Now!

Well, well, well. What can I say? The first word that jumps into my head is excellent! Well done DTG this route apart from a couple of minor niggles is of a very high quality, runs very smooth and sounds glorious. It is clear that a lot of time and work has gone into this and I congratulate and thank you for it. Well worth my 30 quid.

Please, please, please though keep this high standard up into the future. Well done DTG!

 

This is just past Lichfield Trent Valley.

A road leading right onto the track.
Dovetail wants you to go here, as there is a cadbury's collectable, right by those stairs

 

Well, the signalmen have to get to their box somehow!

 

Its not a million miles off, just lacking the portacabin and the fences and I would have said theyd done a decent job. Qudos to them for the accurate portrail of the signal box however

 

One of the best first impressions in TSW history for me. So atmospheric. This is 'Cathcart Circle / Harlem Line' type DLC. A quiet one. But BR Class 323 is better than super good BR Class 314, and the scenery is far better here than both CC & HL, in my opinion. The new lighting makes the job. Audio-visual aspect is just good. The very first impression.

And the bad? Let me think... E.g. University Station fps is half overall performance. Weird.

A great choice for the first run, late afternoon, and the freight train rolling into Kings Norton station (Class 66, layer). I am charmed. I am very very surprised this time. I was into scenery after watching the preview stream, but there is a lot more there than scenery. A great train, that's for sure. GJ DTG. BR o7

 

Ah, but if they're driving they'll need a car with a high ride height to drive over the rails to get to the other side, or risk parking their car on the other side of the tracks. Either way, they'll have to leave their cars unattended which may be unsafe given car theft rates in Birmingham.

 

Such a good route; I look forward to one day seeing lots of extra AI layered in as and when new routes or dlcs come along, but really excellent in its own right!!! Top tier content!

for anyone on PlayStation missing the discount, you can get PSN network wallet top ups for often discounted rates to get yourself a lower price… for this, I bought a £30 wallet top up from ShopTo for £26.58, which is better than nothing!

 

I have the impression that some of the speed restrictions are not announced by a preceding indicator (that triangular one). Is this prototypical (about "track knowledge") or am I missing something / is something missing there? BR o7

 

In real life they aren't before every speed restriction so you do have to rely on your route knowledge. The indicators in real life are only there if the speed limit drops by a high enough amount which I should know but, it's half 8 in the morning and I haven't had a cup of tea yet.

 

I read somewhere it's if the speed drops by 33% or more than the current speed limit. I expect there is a former BR or current NR Group Standard that specifies but my Google Fu is not strong today.

 

Yes there is some figure in one of my handbooks but I honestly don't have the courage to hunt through them all today!

 

You can find the details here, it says a third

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_railway_signalling#Permissible_speed_indicators

 

Are the seats really like that (IRL)?

 

I've never traveled on a UK DMU or EMU train myself but the seating around the toilet module of the 323 really shocked me. Very limited mobility if that is the actual spacing. Our trains have far more walking space but granted there are a generation after the 323s

 

I was caught off-guard by that seating arrangement in general. It just doesn't feel right...

If it's modeled correctly, then I can safely conclude that the seats on 323 are placed in a very cramped manner.
Can somebody who rides it IRL, confirm that ?

( Also our character seems a little 'huge' in 1st person. Might be a contributing factor )

 

Compared to more recent stock builds the 323's are relatively comfortable. As other railways have made their rolling stock more comfortable, the UK has taken a step back with ironing board seats, harsh white or light grey interiors and overwhelming fluorescent lighting.

 

I'll be travelling on one tomorrow but from what I remember yeah they are. It's a Commuter train so it's quantity of passengers rather than comfort for passengers.

 

My first impression on seeing the screenshot was a definite no, but clearly it's not far off. Even seeing the photo, it doesn't feel quite as cramped as it looks there!

 

In the screenshot in the game, versus the real life photo, it looks like the seats are a little too wide and taper a little too sharply. I think that's why the aisle looks narrower.

 

What's wrong with the lightning in the cab passenger view, it looks so dark, compares to the real-life one. Did you forget to turn on the passenger cab light?

 

I could forget to turned it on + this is how it looks with shadows settings @ Low. @ Medium everything looks OK but settings @ Low are drastic downgrade of how it looks inside in terms of shadows / lighting. So this could be the reason too

maxed graphics

 

For the first time for TSW, I felt that the DTG team saves in detailing the interior of the car. The frame and bed of the windows of the salon BR323, the side walls and ceiling elements look very simplified. Very high optimization of polygons, which degrades the quality of modeling. The reliefs of rounded surfaces are angular, the textures are blurred. The modeling quality is close to the TC models. I really hope that DTG will no longer save on detailing the interiors of the rolling stock. After all, this is one of the key differences from the TC. I have very high expectations for the future of modeling for TSW. Please do not lower the quality for the sake of performance.

 

Much of the criticism of the TS Virgin Class 390 was the performance because of the quality of the model plus other things too. They can't have incredibly high quality models for the sake of graphics alone. Performance is needed for a game to be worth playing so there needs to be a compromise somewhere.