I was looking thru Steam and came across a Driving Simulator for Japanese Railways https://store.steampowered.com/app/..._Tokaido_Line_Tokyo_to_Atami_E2333000_series/ This is one of a series from this company. https://store.steampowered.com/developer/JR-EAST It is different with a real video of the route you are driving. I don't know if there are any external views or if you only have this Cab View. The price also seems expensive for what you get But the idea of having a real video of the route you are driving instead of just a graphic version is interesting. Peter
It certainly is, I'm wondering about replayability. Same time of day, same weather, same trains, same signaling, same everything. Unless the point is to stream one of the hundreds of dash cams. Signaling is also risky, if you run at a different speed compared to the recording, the world just accelerates or stops. I mean, Youtube Simulator is a fine idea. Especially during the pandemic, people did run or walk on a threadmill while watching an actual hike.
It's basically watching a Youtube ride, and your throttle lever controls the speed of the video. Can't think of a reason why that would appeal to me, as it'll always look the same. I think OldVern has played that one iirc?
Correct! You are essentially driving the video as you say. No variation for time of day or seasons, weather etc. No views out the side of the train or from the exterior. The scenery never changes and no variation in signalling or challenges. You will always pass the same trains at the same location and if you stop, everything else stops. It's a cut above the old style Cab View Driver which used digitised Railscene VHS to provide a similar experience back in pre-MSTS days but IMHO not a true sim and certainly not worth the asking prce, unless you're fanatical about Japanese railways or the particular routes. Put simply, most of the routes have been captured and played on You Tube - watch those instead and it will cost you nothing!
I have this product plus the Zuiki controller and I find it quite immersive. It’s less “cartoony” than TSC and is no different to playing a scenario over and over again. Can you shunt aimlessly for hours? No. But it’s challenging in different ways. Some of the lines take a couple of hours through changing scenery and variable speed limits; lots of which require good route knowledge. You can start at any point along a route. As someone who has travelled in Japan on several of the lines available I find it interesting and the Zuiki controller is made for it (also good for single lever trains in TSC with software). It’s expensive, yes. But so is TSC once you’ve added enhancement packs for every weed, noise, raindrop, engine noise, vibration, weld, bearing, concrete slab….etc. The downside of course is the stop-start video nature of it all but if you’re driving properly you honestly don’t notice it.
You don't actually need all the enhancement packs you mentioned. And only driving a stopping service on the same route would get tiresome A bit like driving a metro or tram route but at least you can have empty and non stop services that are missing on this Japanese route.
Each route comes with stopping and express routes. They’re known as “local” and “rapid” so there is some variation in the playability. Anyway I’m not a salesman for these people but I will say again that it’s very immersive with the Zuiki controller and particularly interesting if you have travelled in Japan so it’s niche but worth a punt if you fit the bill.
