Here are two parts in this thread. One is about a skybox improvement I recently came up with. The other one is about a speed limit problem I've posted in Issues Discussion. I write it here again so that I think it won't disappear very quickly, as lots of new bug reports come up every day in that forum. So firstly it's the speed limit problem. I don't know if any staff has seen this and put it into the future fix plan, as this is really annoying and leads to uncomfortable driving behavior. Here's a brief description: It seems like since the new scoring system from TSW4, the game regards the lowest limit (PZB, LZB, ATC, ETCS, TVM430, etc.) as the correct speed limit, instead of always the track speed as in old versions, and causes that some normal braking procedures before reaching the new speed target is considered as overspeeding. Full discussion and description here: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/speed-limit-problem-for-score.84535/ And second it's about the skybox. Recently I thought there should be an improvement on the skybox, which I think can make the game more realistic. We've been using ToD 4 to make the environment looks better and it did. But I thought the sky still looks a bit unrealistic when I firstly see the new lighting. And now I'm sure it really looks a little bad. 1. The whole sky is still a little too white during day time, especially when it's sunny, no clouds and fog. It should be bluer (especially the far away sky? It's too white). 2. It's about sunrise and sunset. I think the far away sky from the sun (west when sunrise and east when sunset) or even the part which it's not near the sun should still be blue. Now when the sun is above the horizon, whether going up or down, the whole sky is red and orange. There should be a transition of the color in the sky according to the distance from the sky to the sun (red-orange-light blue-dark blue (maybe purple as well )). 3. The rain and snow sometimes doesn't match the sky. I use dynamic weather and sometimes there's less clouds right above my head in the sky but it starts raining or snowing.
And here's a new suggestion on reflection. It looks like some surfaces of the objects are too smooth that they glow too much under the sunshine or lamps after reflection, like some plantations and the ballast bed of the railway and the platforms. I think their surfaces should be rough but the reflection on them is too high. I can even see the reflection of the sun/lamp on some of them. And does the sun shine too much? I also think the sunglow in the sky is too large... (which makes a large area around the sun too white)
One more idea: the lighting should change a bit as I think the scenery is too red/orange at dawn & dusk and too bright and yellow in the day. And more details to the ideas I earlier posted: just took a timetable and it started snowing when the clouds just come up in the sky and the sun still shines. The snow should come later. And it seems like the color transition now is circles around the skybox and in the center is the bluest area. The horizon is red/orange at all directions when dawn & dusk. But it should be related to the distance to the sun, the farther the darker, the nearer the lighter/redder. (the dawn & dusk color transition: the sun - red - orange - light blue - dark blue (maybe purple as well) - far away sky)
Just played some old routes to complete my mastery challenge. And I found it strange that sometimes the sky looks very great but sometimes it looks very unreal. For example, I took the 766.2 tutorial in Riesa - Dresden. The white clouds and blue sky looks fascinating. But when I set it as sunny and clear sky in timetables in the routes, the sky is too white and the sunshine makes everything a bit yellow. Here are some picture where I think the sky looks good, especially the blue sky:
Here are some that I think they're bad.... too red and orange at dawn & dusk (exclude the clouds): too white:
Just took a morning timetable in Riesa - Dresden. It should be getting blue at dawn, not this purple in the middle of the sky. And now the sun is rising above the horizon. But the horizon is yellow from all directions. It should be a little dark blue far away from the sun. The transition should be like a stripe, not circle. And the sky overhead shouldn't be this purple. It should be already much bluer. Now the sun is already above the horizon. Most of the sky should be light blue.
