PC (pc Mod) Birmingham Cross City Improvements

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by londonmidland, Nov 18, 2022.

  1. londonmidland

    londonmidland Well-Known Member

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    Thanks. I'd love to work officially for DTG so everyone could benefit from these lighting improvements.

    Maybe one day, eh? ;)
     
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  2. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    Just driven a late night ECS from Lichfield to New Street and it was very immersive, in the past I shied away from driving at night. I love the station lighting effects and it was good to see the signals far off. The lights on the unit seem an adequate brightness without being unrealistic. Nice job.
     
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  3. Cyklisten

    Cyklisten Well-Known Member

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    Nice to see that the bridge near University station is now a proper bridge and the narrowboats can come through ;)
     
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  4. rennekton#1349

    rennekton#1349 Well-Known Member

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    well done mod. I am doing a night run and it looks lovely
     
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  5. Jalio

    Jalio Active Member

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    londonmidland

    Driving at night is absolutely stunning now with the signals. I can see the signals from a good distance and they’re bright! I wish every route had this. It makes such a difference.
     
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  6. Reef

    Reef Well-Known Member

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    I love Birmingham Cross City and the 323 in TSC, and although I swore blind I'd not bother with TSW3 (at the very least until I could pick it up for a couple of quid like I did with TSW2) the raving reviews of the 323 and now this enhancement mod have got my fingers twitching towards the purchase button.
    Only thing is though from bitter experience from the TSC Cross City route I'm going to wait and see what DTG manage to break with their "fix", I'm still hurting over the fact I still can't play the VP 323 pack on the TSC version because DTG royally stuffed it (and their fix/patch still wasn't that great an improvement anyway).

    Looking forward to hearing the feedback once the DTG patch drops, I seriously and genuinely hope it doesn't break your mod as this is next level for TSW1, 2, 3, 4, or even 24!
     
  7. tsw2

    tsw2 Well-Known Member

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    DTG should easily be able to match this quality, the question is why are they constantly not providing such quality?
     
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  8. townsend_simon

    townsend_simon New Member

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    londonmidland
    Loved the wolves graffiti :) hypothetically is there anyway you can use this randomisation to put random TSRs on the route? just to add a bit more immersion, the only other thing id really like to see is random railway workers, you never see them on british routes in TSW
     
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  9. londonmidland

    londonmidland Well-Known Member

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    I was waiting for someone to spot that, I snuck that one in. ;)

    Unfortunately these are things only DTG can add to routes. I can’t add additional assets/I don’t know how to.
     
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  10. londonmidland

    londonmidland Well-Known Member

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    The mod should still work fine after the patch comes out, however you are advised to remove the scenery fix from your DLC folder to avoid any conflictions or bugs occurring.

    The rest of the mod should still work fine, however.
     
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  11. fakenham

    fakenham Well-Known Member

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    This is where the diorama aspect should come in handy, it is in the sim, for example the Boston route, but for some reason they have decided not to put this in the recent routes. I've seen plenty of random railworkers in the Boston route, not sure about any others.

    Another one is wildlife, especially birds, they are there in some routes but I don't think there's any in x-city. All of these small things greatly increase the immersion.
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2022
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  12. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    Little things like that make all the difference but DTG just don’t have an appetite for it. The world still feels utterly dead. Every now and again a feature appears once or twice and disappears into the ether never to be seen again. What’s the bets that the next UK release where GSM-R should be fitted reverts back to a blank texture? I’d guess at least 60/40.

    Remember the falling leaves on RSN? When has that ever been repeated? What a nice touch it would be to drive through the signed ‘low adhesion’ areas on CCL and see leaves falling from the trees. I can’t believe it would be beyond them to tie that into season and weather, so a windy & stormy Autumn day sees falling leaves whilst a calm summers day does not.

    Still (and I’ll keep saying it), at least we have crappy renditions of DTG staff’s cats spammed all over the route instead. On the priority list that’s clearly much much more important…I don’t know why they don’t list them on the Steam Store page as a feature.
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2022
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  13. fakenham

    fakenham Well-Known Member

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    I just wonder if we could add stuff like this in with the unofficial editor, just like Bescot did with his excellent scenery at Barnt Green? I believe the only thing we can't do re scenery at the mo is modify/add track infrastructure and add splines?
     
  14. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    I’d imagine the leaves are a plug-in / feature of the engine that can only be enabled using the editor. I’m sure you could place a static cow or a sheep but anything more than that I think you’d be snookered.
     
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  15. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    londonmidland,

    Just wondered, are you able to adjust the lumin values of the 323’s taillights? As with the 465 they seem to be far too dim, much like the LED signals were.
     
  16. londonmidland

    londonmidland Well-Known Member

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    I’ve not checked regarding the taillights. I’ll have a look later on.
     
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  17. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    I’d do it myself but don’t know where to start :)
     
  18. Sharon E

    Sharon E Well-Known Member

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    Today's DTG update include the missing scenery which LM's patch fixed, so guess we need to remove it from the game.
     
  19. rennekton#1349

    rennekton#1349 Well-Known Member

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    You only need to remove the scenery tiles.
     
  20. SprattyHeath

    SprattyHeath Well-Known Member

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    [​IMG]

    I would suggest not doing that as the update has not even remotely fixed the chronic scenery problem along the Redditch Branch
     
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  21. rennekton#1349

    rennekton#1349 Well-Known Member

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    I'm assuming there are no conflicts with the mod and dtgs improvements?
     
  22. Sharon E

    Sharon E Well-Known Member

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    That was my question, if there would be conflicts. If none appear I will reinstall the mod for the scenery.
     
  23. rennekton#1349

    rennekton#1349 Well-Known Member

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    I guess the only way to find out is to try it out ourselves lol and see if it works
     
  24. SprattyHeath

    SprattyHeath Well-Known Member

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    I can confirm that the scenery mod still works even after the update. upload_2022-11-28_17-25-15.png

    upload_2022-11-28_17-24-53.png
     
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  25. londonmidland

    londonmidland Well-Known Member

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    For those that have recently downloaded my Birmingham Cross City Enhancement mod, the good news is that you DO NOT have to remove the scenery fix we did.

    Today, DTG released an update for the route, to ‘fix’ the scenery.

    Here is a comparison between DTG’s attempt (top) vs our attempt (bottom). I’ll let you decide which one looks better…

    For those that are wondering where you can get the mod from, you can download it from here

    159DB168-5CB1-48B7-8A7F-73F2CB8B9956.jpeg
     
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  26. Cheesypuff2

    Cheesypuff2 Active Member

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    It's embarrassing that dtgs attempt was abysmal, it's a real shame the quality they put out sometimes. Shame concole users can't get the benefit of the mod either
     
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  27. alexjjones6024

    alexjjones6024 Well-Known Member

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    DTG Hold your heads in shame, actually cannot believe you call this a fix. I'm bitterly disappointed you would leave out a key section of the route. Surely you could just spend the appropriate time to make it right.

    Awful,awful,awful.
     
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  28. Sharon E

    Sharon E Well-Known Member

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    Mod reinstalled to get the full effect.
     
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  29. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    DTG Alex & DTG JD

    I’m mystified. Referencing londonmidland ’s post a couple up from this, are you absolutely certain that the scenery ‘fixes’ on the branch were included in this patch? Looking at Google Maps there is no stretch of track between Barnt Green and Alvechurch that looks anything remotely like DTG’s representation in the game. Worse still, I can see almost no difference between DTG’s effort pre and post patch. Am I imagining things, is it actually any different? It really looks like a narrow gauge railway running through a park.

    I’m really struggling to see how on Earth someone has actually signed that off as correct and satisfactory for the second time. JD, you said this patch was going through ‘thorough testing, as always’. Really? Honestly? Surely you can see how terrible it looks….
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2022
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  30. Jeannot41

    Jeannot41 Well-Known Member

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    Unless at DTG they loaded the mod from LM :|
     
  31. Mattty May

    Mattty May Guest

    Sigh!!!!!! Absolutely no contest here.
     
  32. bescot

    bescot Well-Known Member

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    It took me a few hours to populate the lineside with trees, foliage and the bridge parapet for the mod. Most of that time was fighting with the editor, cooking, packing, checking. I'm sure with DTGs professional team and the proper editor, a much better job could have been done than my effort, even in a couple of hours. Astounding really.
     
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  33. tsw2

    tsw2 Well-Known Member

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    DTG needs to get their act together...i mean that was the case since years but they still did not mange do get their act together. Not even with TSW3 (3rd attempt, 4th if we count rush hour).

    Something needs to chnage in the way DTG approaches projects!
    How can modders so easily outclass DTG by a mile every time?

    By the way...i say easily but HUGE RESPECT to the modders.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2022
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  34. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    Depressingly it’s actually 5.

    1 - TSW CSX:HH
    2 - TSW2020
    3 - TSW 2
    4 - TSW Rush Hour
    5 - TSW 3
     
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  35. Reef

    Reef Well-Known Member

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    The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results..

    At this point I'm trying to work out exactly who's insane though, DTG or its customers..
     
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  36. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    Ain’t that the truth!
     
  37. alexjjones6024

    alexjjones6024 Well-Known Member

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    Once again, representatives are quiet.

    We need answers, that is not an acceptable fix for scenery, you cannot expect this to be the final piece and case closed. You deliberately avoided showing us this branch line on the pre stream and it is still no better at all!

    It needs to be fixed.
     
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  38. tsw2

    tsw2 Well-Known Member

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  39. lcyrrjp

    lcyrrjp Well-Known Member

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    In my opinion this sort of hounding of those in the DTG team who come on the forum to answer questions and give us information is pretty poor. They’re not obliged to come onto this forum, and attacking them and tagging more people because they don’t answer a question within 24 hours (and actually it wasn’t even a real question - just a complaint) is rude and unlikely to encourage them to keep interacting with the forum in the future.
     
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  40. Reef

    Reef Well-Known Member

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    Rubbish!

    It's their product, it's their forum so yes they are "obliged" but more importantly it's our money that pays their bills.

    So yes of course they are (and should be held) accountable if things aren't as promised or advertised.
     
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  41. londonmidland

    londonmidland Well-Known Member

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    I would genuinely like to know why the ‘fix’ to the scenery was like a ‘spot the difference’ game. Despite the scenery being widely criticised, why was it barely touched? Are we getting another fix with includes a more substantial fix?

    Seems odd that the rest of the route is very nice looking and then you get this section of the map. It’s like it was a last minute decision to include it, but you didn’t have time to model it properly.
     
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  42. redrev1917

    redrev1917 Well-Known Member

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    It's about time DTG hired London Midland, if only to save themselves from further embarrassment
     
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  43. rennekton#1349

    rennekton#1349 Well-Known Member

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    Considering how quickly the route update came out after the route got released, they might have not had time to make it very detailed lol. But i don't get why they couldn't make it good in the first place.
     
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  44. redrev1917

    redrev1917 Well-Known Member

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    Yet part time modders where able to do it?
     
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  45. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    I hadn't realised they were screenshots of the updated version, I couldn't tell the difference that is for sure! I am sure we would have waited a bit longer for a more noticeable improvement.
     
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  46. londonmidland

    londonmidland Well-Known Member

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    Morning guys.

    I've updated the red aspect signals in the BCC E.P mod to help players better differentiate between red and yellow aspects. I've added a slight 'pink' tinge to the red aspects.

    The updated signal colours have now been uploaded and added to the BCC mod. You can download it under the name '!!TS2Prototype-WindowsNoEditor-BCCRevisedSignalColours.pak'

    You do not have to remove or re-download anything else for this to take effect.

    red new 1.png
     
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  47. Jalio

    Jalio Active Member

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    Great stuff! Thank you
     
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  48. londonmidland

    londonmidland Well-Known Member

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    No problem :)
     
  49. SprattyHeath

    SprattyHeath Well-Known Member

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    Hi guys, it's been a fair bit since the BCC Enhancement had released. I recently decided to go back and see if there was potentially anything along the route I missed that could do with some slight touch ups and found that Redditch Station was missing a few details so below are some of the minor changes I've made to it.

    Firstly Redditch Station building itself by default looks like a bit of a modern shack, it was missing the station signage & glass near to the roof so I hopped onto blender and did some quick Mesh & UV edits to fix that.

    Render in Blender:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    (Ignore the untextured posters, I didn't bother to apply the textures on the materials as there wasn't any need to)

    Final result in TSW:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    Secondly I've also included some of those Thorlux Lighting posters that you see along the fencing at Redditch station. I quite by accident found these whilst I was looking through references on Google and decided to have a shot at adding them myself, all the textures were scratch made by myself with Paint.NET, I'm quite happy with how these turned out!
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Hopefully this should breathe a little bit of life into the rather plain looking Redditch Station.

    Thanks all :)
     
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2022
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  50. Sharon E

    Sharon E Well-Known Member

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    Link to these great Redditch upgrade please.
     

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