As many fellow simmers have observed, especially in night scenarios, some elements are overly bright with adaptive bloom. I've done a bit of research and looked into the responsible file, dev\Shaders\train_post_bloom.fx. //-----TWEAKABLES--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------// float PreBloomBoost : CUSTOMPARAM0 = 6.0; float BloomThreshold : CUSTOMPARAM1 = 0.65; float PostBloomBoost : CUSTOMPARAM2 = 3.0; float width : CUSTOMPARAM3 = 5.5; float gToneMappingEnabled : TONE_MAPPING_ENABLED = 1.0; Then I looked into my pre-2020 (when this file was issued) backup and compared the two files. And I found what is responsible and in my opinion completely useless change of parameters. PreBloomBoost = 2 BloomThreshold = 0.45 PostBloomBoost = 1.0 width = 1.5 If you have the Windows SDK installed you can edit the .fx file and compile it using the .bat files in the Shaders folder. I suggest that DTG should officially revert back to the old parameters. It was well balanced. And looking into the original pre-2020 file I also see it was meant to be customizable because it had slider definitions with min and max values. float PreBloomBoost < string UIWidget = "slider"; float UIMax = 4.0; float UIMin = 0.0; float UIStep = 0.1; > = 2.0f; So the best thing would be: make it customizable in the Graphics settings.
Just to demonstrate. First Picture. Adaptive Bloom before TS 2020. Second Picture AdaptiveBloom since TS 2020. .
I noticed the same and thus don't use the feature anymore. The Northeast Corridor was absolutely horrendous with it, with literally glowing catenary. They also messed up weather settings as well, completely white skies during midnight are one thing, but massively bright orange and lemon skies from 5 am during Winter morning isn't fun either. I've posted some shots about it before. I also had before/after as I had screenies from when I originally played said NJCL scenarios. On a similar mishap, sounds are also messed up. Much of the environment sounds cut off sharply at a small distance, most of München-Garmisch platform sounds are dead due to it, but also the panning is ultra aggressive, most sounds are coming from one ear. I'm convinced that they don't care, and/or hired a (color)blind (and deaf) person to do the job. Or a fool that loves messing around, and they have no QA whatsoever to catch it. Garage company. I'd prefer TS 2019 executables and configuration. That was the best so far. First 64 bit, fast menus, few bugs.
Hi. The white skies could be a result of playing scenarios that use the SilverLining weather blueprints (3D 1.Clear, etc) without having DynamicClouds enabled. I disagree with many advising to turn DynamicClouds off. Most scenarios use standard weather anyway, like High Iron Simulations' Gary Dolzall seems to like "2. Cloudy" very much, and those are not affected by this setting anyway. And scenarios that use 3D weather have different lighting that gets screwed up in certain conditions (nighttime, fog) when you disable DynamicClouds. Just try it for yourself! And with AdaptiveBloom I don't like having it turned off as some routes and assets are simply too colourful and Nintendo-ish. I like the moderate desaturation. Always a good idea to make a backup of the core files, glad I can use the old train_post_bloom.fx.o!
I found my Adaptive Bloom shot: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1898469888 I remember that around this time of day, it suddenly turns on, and the colors come on. As you can see Rob recommended to turn it off and since then it's alright.
Interesting find. Care to make this .fx available to download? Would be interesting to do a side by side comparison on my machine. If not, care to answer a few additional questions instead? 1) is it just the Visual Studio Code editor that's needed or is it the full SDK suite? 2) Which .bat do you need to use to recompile? 3) Does/can this file change anything else? 4) Is it unique to each persons particular setup or the same file (content) for all?
Hi Reef. The .bat files are in the Railworks/dev/Shaders folder. They need the "fxc.exe" which is part of VisualStudio or the SDK as I gathered. I don't have them installed, as I had a backup of the train_post_bloom.fx.o which I use. I don't know if I am allowed to upload it for copyright reasons. It basically just applies the bloom effect and colour desaturation. It is the same file for all and is not touched by your settings, as it is not a config file but a compiled shader.
