General North American 3rd Party News (non Dramatic Version)

The download is compressed.

 

Thing is with HIS, they keep making alot of mistakes and errors that they really shouldn't be making this far into the game. They've peaked at Hanover and Mountain Sub, but have fallen off past that.

Also, why is the route branded as "Pro Range?" What makes this as pro as a Smokebox steam locomotive or SS's AC4400CW?

 

Maybe he was working in binary and rounded down?

 

Bozeman Pass added to my web site:
https://sites.google.com/view/trainsimulatorcontent/na-routes/bozeman-pass

 

She. Clearly reading is hard.

 

I'm only 20 minutes into SP's video and my god, how does some of this pass QA?

-Model Clipping on the FT nose.
-FT B unit has 2 EXHAUST PORTS on top of each other!
-The interior of the FT with the edge ware looks like some stylized graphic novel, not a train sim.

 

Exhaust ports on top of each other? Not seeing it

 

Model clipping - not sure what video you watched - must have been distorted

 

Is this a news announcement thread? Why not discuss feedback in the official Live Article Discussion that is set up for each DLC?

 

I though its more just general announcement/discussion of any and all US projects.

 

Guess you're right there.

 

Yikes, those are egregious. It seems with every release HIS reaches a new low. Surely issues like this were pointed out by testers but somehow left broken.

 

Oh my. The download is compressed and gets unpacked when finished (actual size visible under Manage Downloads or DLC Manager) as the game uses uncompressed data else it would be terribly slow. Yes and nowadays we don't need DXT1/3/5 texture compression anymore - full 32bit lossless ARGB .dds please.





And I have not even added the manuals!

Now someone will ask it says 9.22 GB in the manager but 9,879,348,595 byte on the calculator.

Before you file a bug report: that's because in IT, Kilos are 1024 not 1000 and Megas are 1024x1024 not 1000x1000 etc.

So here's the biggest DLC charts:

ANDModel, New Zealand Train Simulator Workshop and JustTrains still in the lead. Then HIS or hers, with RailSim Slovenija catching up quickly!



Tinfoil hat says they are all getting secretly funded by SSD manufacturers to boost storage device sales!

 

For everyone who is for some reason still under the impression that Bozeman is a good route, here are some screenshots of mine from the brief hour I spent on the route before refunding. This is the same level of scrutiny I apply to all routes, the singular other route that I also got rid of at first first was the Feather River Enhanced route. Every other route, pretty much universally no matter how old, holds up better than Bozeman.


Broken GP30 cab


Floating track


Flat out the worst embankment I've ever seen in this game (it's also in FRCE, and the biggest reason that route sucks)


TERRIBLE mountain texturing (look at Tennessee Pass and then come back here, this looks bad anyways but after what Milepost has shown is possible this is inexcusable)


Horrid photo texturing (bad enough every single building is photo textured, but if you're gonna do it at least do it right)

Part 2 upcoming because there is a LOT more.

 

Part two! Because this is definitely the worst release for this game since at least TheLocoshop's SD70M, if not ever.


This is on the 20 mile straight outside Bozeman--except it's not straight, even though it is in real life. The reason? the track isn't aligned correctly, and to keep from being what is presumably a couple dozen feet off the alignment at one end of the straight, they just threw in a curve to correct it. This would be acceptable in a freeware route, but for a payware route? In NO world are things like this acceptable.


The SD45 included with the route is on the right, a freeware repaint of the SP SD45 from over 6 years ago now. Pretty clear which one looks better, for those without eyes, its the freeware one.


Heres the SD45 from the route side-by-side with the SD40-2 From Saluda Grade and the JR SD40-2. For reference, the SD45 is 65 feet long, while the SD40-2 is 68 feet long. Expect here, where all three units are exactly the same length.



Obviously, this is wrong, and there are several other dimensional issues with the SD45 (GP30 has them too, I just don't have any screenshots of them). My best guess is that DTM is as DTM does and built the SD45 which is "new" for this route by modifying either the Saluda SD40-2 or the CSX SD45-2. Either way, unacceptable payware quality, and this is disregarding the bad sounds, physics, flares, and textures, all of which are terrible.

Welp, looks like there's gonna be a part three because oh boy, do I have some more bugs for you!

 

Part three! Hopefully this is the last one, there's really a lot of terrible quality here to photograph, not sure if 5 more images is enough!


More floating track


More horrible mountain textures and rocks very close to the tracks


This looks so shockingly little like Montana, this goes for everywhere on this route, but I think this photo highlights it the most with the Chernobyl green grass in the background

Out of my photos now, here's a few taken by some other people:


Broken SD45 interior


Backwards crossing gates

.....and I'm out of space. I still have a couple of dozen texture errors and other matters of the like, but I think this is enough to summarize why a lot of people don't like this route. Defend it all you want, every single thing I've shown of a photo of here is something that should either have been caught and fixed before release of something that never should of been used it it's current state. Heck, I didn't even go over any of the realism errors or the scenarios, both of which I could write multiple pages about, despite not even really knowing much about NP or BN, that's how wrong a lot of it.

Again, easily worst US route, possibly worst route ever, but if people love driving through bug infested Pennsylvania, oops, I meant Montana, my bad, it looks more like Pennsylvania though, then I guess this routes for you.

 

It is the best NA route released in the last month. Probably the last one for the next 12 months. There is no love for TSC or TSW on NA routes at the moment. Time to expect no future development in TSC (at least on the NA market). Hopefully some 3rd party providers may come to our rescue. Still some love to be felt in Europe (RSSLO, AP etc). I'm happy with my sub-par purchase. It fills in another little gap I did not have. Would have taken me quite a few months to put this together myself. (Maybe will run my AP Class 37 here and see if the Air horn works ;p )

 

Honestly the level of shoddiness HIS is now showing is just depressing, sure the locomotives have always been mediocre at best, but previously at least the routes have been halfway decent, this level of shoddiness should never have made it through beta without being fixed.

 

Are you sure it even went through Beta? DTG focus now is clearly on TSW.

 

Given milepost's route is going through beta, I'd certainly assume so.

 

I wasn’t aware it intersected any current routes. Looked to be on its own

 

If that's your only defense for the route, that tells a lot more about the quality of it then the rest of us pointing out flaws.

 

Not sure why that map is of any relevance to the conversation at hand, but you might want to check your info--Arizona Divide is a Milepost route. Also, Milepost has a route in QA right now, so the whole "only route in the next 12 months" is also incorrect

 

Milepost (Jonathan Lewis) also worked on Bozeman. It's no use saying "they are better than them" because it's always been the same group effort mostly, GN/GX/JL . Just like a TSW TSG Niddertalbahn was made by DTG people just under a different name because DTG wouldn't fund the project. In this case, Gary funds it, but he's not developing the route.

And using "3D 2. Cloudy" with Dynamic Clouds any terrain looks ugly.

 

Gotta enjoy all this love from these Americans! Another route coming to NA - nice.

 

On the plus side, at least finding faults and having a good rant has made them so happy...an early Christmas present perhaps

 

Having laid a lot of (TSC) track in my time it is not like Autocad, you don't have the option to mark the end points, click and a straight line appears. Long sections of track are very difficult (impossible in my opinion) to lay as miniscule fractions of a degree throw you way off course. I Have had to resort to corrective curves many times. the game itself does not give the "Autocad" option despite its origins.

 

I've been using this Right Triangle Calculator to get the angle of the straight track piece. You can calculate the length and height of the triangle by subtracting the difference in the X and Y coordinates at the end points of the track segment. It's been quite the timesaver in my opinion.

 

Is there any more info on this route?
Has it been released outside of Steam?

 

Last Milepost said was that it was with DTG's Q&A department, so not much to do but wait.....

 

Out now, Western Maryland I2 decapod from Machine Rail