let's talk about this... the light cone is too bright, the headlight textures on the vehicle are way too dim. and it's not only on the Vectron; ICE 3, ICE 1, Talent 2 and many other trains are affected by this. hell, what is this?
TOD4 is so bright, that TOD4 "optimized" locos and rolling stock are much, much, much too bright when used on TOD3 routes. The other way around TOD3 rolling stock is too dark in many occasions on TOD4 routes. But even a lot of TOD4 stuff is broken, for example Niddertalbahn you can't see the instrument lightning even if switched to 100% if daylight is in the cab. Or for Linke Rheinstrecke the PZB Indicators are just too bright if you don't tune down the brightness. Voralberg the SBahn PZB lights are too bright etc. The lightning of the game is broken, that's it in short.
Removing this line from your engine.ini may help (I think this one mattered a lot when I decided to update the ini file to my likings)
Interesting. I will try this on Boston Sprinter where the indicator lamps cannot be seen in the cab of the F40PH F40PH, only in tunnels.
Might I suggest that you don't use dimmed beams? The Vectron doesn't seem to have a texture for dimmed beams. Full beams and marker lights work fine, just not dimmed beams.
They will be brighter, but then screens on other units will be blindingly bright and unreadable in low light conditions. This aspect of the game is completely broken and no one size fits all because from loco to loco there is zero consistency in the emissive levels of the screens or instruments. 550 worked for TSW3 but is too dark for TSW4. If you have 550 in your file you are still using the TSW3 version of the overhaul. A TSW4 specific version is in the works but there is also an interim TSW4 version on TSC.
There is a set of custom game variables that may help with locomotives headlights. Variable names, description and default values are included next: "ts2.dbg.RVV.LightingAutoAdjust.EnableAdjustments": { "Flags": [ "SetByConstructor" ], "Helptext": "Whether RVV lighting auto adjustments are enabled", "type": "Int32", "value": 1 }, "ts2.dbg.RVV.LightingAutoAdjust.HeadlightAttenuationRadius": { "Flags": [ "SetByConstructor" ], "Helptext": "Attenuation radius to use for legacy train headlights when using physically based lighting", "type": "Float", "value": 10000.0 }, "ts2.dbg.RVV.LightingAutoAdjust.HeadlightAttenuationRadiusThreshold": { "Flags": [ "SetByConstructor" ], "Helptext": "Attenuation radius above which lights will be regarded as headlights", "type": "Float", "value": 500.0 }, "ts2.dbg.RVV.LightingAutoAdjust.HeadlightIntensityBright": { "Flags": [ "SetByConstructor" ], "Helptext": "Intensity (candela) to use for bright legacy train headlights when using physically based lighting", "type": "Float", "value": 200000.0 }, "ts2.dbg.RVV.LightingAutoAdjust.HeadlightIntensityDim": { "Flags": [ "SetByConstructor" ], "Helptext": "Intensity (candela) to use for dim legacy train headlights when using physically based lighting", "type": "Float", "value": 50000.0 }, "ts2.dbg.RVV.LightingAutoAdjust.LegacyLightingLightIntensityMultiplier": { "Flags": [ "SetByConstructor" ], "Helptext": "Intensity multiplier to use for physically based non-headlight lights when using legacy lighting", "type": "Float", "value": 0.009999999776482582 }, "ts2.dbg.RVV.LightingAutoAdjust.LegacyLightingLightIntensityMultiplierHeadlight": { "Flags": [ "SetByConstructor" ], "Helptext": "Intensity multiplier to use for physically based train headlights when using legacy lighting", "type": "Float", "value": 0.029400000348687172 }, "ts2.dbg.RVV.LightingAutoAdjust.ReapplyAdjustments": { "Flags": [ "SetByConstructor" ], "Helptext": "Reapply auto lighting adjustments to all RVVs", "type": "Command" }, "ts2.dbg.RVVUpdatePrimitiveBounds": { "Flags": [ "SetByConstructor" ], "Helptext": "Whether to regularly update bounds for RVV components in the texture streaming system", "type": "Int32", "value": 1 }, I didn´t test them yet but maybe a solution is to reduce TSW4 light intensity/bloom and increase headlights intensity to have a more armonized headlights behaviour on both new and legacy routes/trains. If someone wants to experiment please let us know about results. Cheers
There still another problem related to rain reflections. A combination of the headlights issue with heavy rain results in this: However external view gives a nice behaviour, with headlights cone producing good results and rain being less reflective and more transparent. Basically you can´t see anything from the cabview Image is too bright due to headlights and rain is not as transparent as it should be. So everything ahead is white. The rain problem is something old that I remember from TSW2 era indeed. Cheers
Laika’s better rain mod helps that significantly but I totally agree, 6 years and countless iterations of the game, that isn’t anywhere near good enough
TSW3 KWG night (rain storm): TSW4 KWG night (rain storm): Same locos, same service, same date. For the 185 it seems like only the upper light is having a light cone. The loco is the KWG version in both cases btw. so should be TOD4.
It works in the second image because the rain is not in front of the train. The rain effects are centred around the camera, move the camera near to the front of the train (for example: inside the cab) and the rain will be in front of the train again. Move it away, and the raindrops follow the camera.
Meanwhile, over on another UE4 game… Remember that Gelaxo’s first image is from a game that is at least 7 years old and on it’s 6th annual release. As I said, it’s just not good enough.
Important to say that your video is on UE4 as it is two years old. The Bus changed to UE5 in the meantime. Just saying it before someone else claims it is UE5, the video is still using UE4. And yes the effects in The Bus are great!
To be fair engine is capable of amazing things. This is a photoreal and interactive demo, and that´s still Unreal 4 running on a mainstream PC by 2019: The problem is that DTG never cared to configure engine properly for the current open world simulation they need. In most cases they are using the default Unreal project parameters like 400 MB caches, less than 1 km viewdistances, all possible ancient optimizations that add severe workload in our case just to save 100 MB RAM, not complex textures, etc. And that´s further optimized so that in can run on consoles, when even nowadays mobile phones do not need many of such optimizations. So basically they use a configuration for the following I mean they implemented many nice things in many cases (despite the bugs) but on the other hand the engine optimization itself has been always on the lowest priority. At least I have not seen so many significant technical improvements over the years except new clouds and most recently the light enhancements and volumetric fog. It´s the 4th iteration of TSW and an evolution of Train Simulator saga which exists even for longer time. I have used DTG games for quite a long so I´m not inventing things. TSW was a significant technical leap compared to Train Simulator saga. After that we have only seen DLCs and some cosmetic enhancements basically but many aspects of game are still using the original TSW1 features. The new additions were not created by DTG. Engine already supported many of them much earlier than they were activated in game but were simply not configured in the game core or content. Sounds for instance still use the same 16 sound channels setting from years ago when they could be perfectly using the 32 channel setting (that´s just a variable change in the configuration) and they fade out at the same ridiculous distance, around 100m only. For instance a quick search on youtube tutorials reveals which are the real efforts needed to enable volumetric fog in game: a few mouse clicks. This feature already exists in engine since Unreal 4.16 and we have Unreal 4.26 since TSW2 indeed: Cheers
Well then they fixed the headlights. I'm off to see because I love day time running and haven't seen night yet... haha
Jupp, it started with TSW3 and has gone worse since then. I also ask myself based on the pics above (BR185, BR110) how the hell it can happen that their is ONE lightcone attached to one of three lamps? How is this possible? I mean when the work instruction is "Make light cones" the guy who made them thought "OK let's attach one lightcone random to a any loco" No one will ever notice this? How it is possible that such sloppy work is OK? I mean it is unbelievable! I can't imagine working like this personally. How big must the time pressure be to do things like this? 1h to adapt all rolling stock which is affected? Same is for inside locos, instrument brightness and indicators. Based on the information here it is clear that their is just random numbers typed in as the lightning is inconsistent. I would have thought that someone tested it found out a good orientation value, fruther testing and voila it should be number XYZ but instead it seams like their is no "standard" for this it is guesswork or something on any loco.
I'm running it at night. All I think needs to be done is get a cone shape going. It seems on Sherman Hill the headlight illuminates an area of 120-130 degrees which the ditch or AUX lights actually do. I wonder if the headlight is not working at all. The lighting is amazing I love it. Matt did say they need to work on the headlights. Hopefully after more urgent fixes are complete this can be a project. I run during the day mostly and I think the lighting is 20/10. It's amazing.
Well heavy rain does actually reflect. In a car during the day heavy rain actually reduces your visibility.
Wet surfaces do that and reflect very much, I never experienced rain to be reflectiv in a way that it nearly blinds my view ahead. It is possible that fog reflects you to state of blindness if you have high beam lights on. But german locos don't use high beam lights, so the effect is not just wrong but also disturbing in the game. Nice that daytime running is good for you, but it doesn't solve any problems with the night lightning and the other overall faults with TOD4. Whatever if you like to aknowledge them or not, they are their. As DTG would always hold their word. The problems with TOD4 are here since the release of TSW3, as said above since then it has gone worse, not better in any case. And other stuff has been patched to a state where it no longer works, like the headlights of Cabcars at Linke Rheinstrecke. The lightning is not only broken but inconsistent.
In a car the lights are below you, very close to road indeed and you are also very close to road too. In locomotives they are much higher and in many cases the headlights are above you. That´s the problem in game because there´s when you have no visibility. The lower headlights don´t produce a so extreme effect in game. The problem is caused by the top headlight only and by the excessive bloom and size of rain drops 3D models. On the other hand the water can reflect light to some extent as well as snow but fog or really intense snow is what really blinds you, not rain, and that happens because there´s a virtual white wall in front of you but that´s still not as reflective as a construction wall painted in white would be for instance. What blinds you in that case is the light refraction as it travels along the fog or snow area resulting in such a virtually illuminated and difuse plane, not the reflection of the individual snowflakes or rain drops as then come in front of lights. Rain is made of too small drops in real life and there´s still lot of empty room between them, but in game the rain is made by too big and long 3D bars that, additionally to their extreme size and their extreme close spawn ratio with other 3D bars, react completely to bloom at its max level. This is how snow looks like in a real train with all headlights below you (Bombardier Traxx). Around 1:50:00 you have a combination of low light, moving snow and falling snow: This is how rain looks like in a real train with headlights below and above you (Vossloh 3200). At 5:00 strong rain starts: In both cases lack of visibility is caused by water or snow on windshield, not by water or snow reflections ahead of train. Cheers
Aircraft landing lights are mightily more powerful than train headlights, and unless you are in cloud (which is effectively fog) you can see through the heaviest rain. Yes, there is an element of reflection in the same way there is in a car, but your forward vision is never compromised in the way TSW depicts.
If you think TSW lighting is 20/10, then you must have never played any videogame that actually looks good. I mean sure, there can be some pretty scenes in TSW, without doubt. But most of the time the lighting is incorrect, with eye adaptation, brightness and material reflectiveness being all over the place. In comparison, I got Hmmsim Metro recently and now that looks like what you would expect of a modern train simulator. By the looks of it I think it might be using UE4 as well. Go check out some videos of it.
Blinking heck. It is UE4 and by the looks of it is different league to TSW. How can two train sims made using the same engine look so damn different? It features a recreated game engine built on Unreal Engine 4, significantly updating the graphics and audio for a more immersive experience. It also includes several new gameplay elements, such as a detailed cab view. Unlike the original games, it does not support add-ons from other train simulator games. Meanwhile, in TSW4
The answer to that is easy - the developers of Hmmsim Metro actually learnt how to use UE4 properly, I assume. The lighting is great and atmospheric. Headlights actually illuminate the track in front in dark, while not being overly bright in daylight. Light effects and eye adaptation actually looks good. Metal and glass surfaces are nice and shiny, while terrain and track ballast actually looks good! It also runs much better than TSW. Now to be fair, Hmmsim Metro does less than TSW. There is no 24 hour timetable mode, just a predefined selection of services. There is also no free walking around, currently no passenger and crew models in trains and I think no weather either. Due to the lack of free walking and camera movements, the scenery is also nonexistent over areas that you don't see straight from the cab - which might help free up resources. But what you see is great! Another thing I really like about Hmmsim Metro is how it features AI only rolling stock to add life to the route - like a high speed train and a generic older type passenger trains. Also some freight cars in a yard. Sadly TSW barely does this, even though the potential in it is great - just think of how MSTS and TSC used to populate routes with AI only stock. Anyway, long story short, I would not compare TSW and Hmmsim Metro performance wise, as the gameplay is totally different. But Hmmsim Metro shows how an UE4 game should look. The potential would be there in TSW as well, but I am afraid they are way too far in spaghetti code territory and the broken lighting system to fix it by now. Maybe if they would really start over from scratch, learning by past mistakes and maybe with some more UE4 experienced helpers at hand.
I wish the headlights in any of the train Sim world series looked that good! Bottom line, the headlights and flares in TSW are terrible and not realistic looking at all. The US freight locomotives all have white dots where the headlights are which looks ridiculous.
The base (CSX Heavy Haul) is 7 years old now, which isn't an excuse for updates. TSW4 is a few weeks old only, problems persist since ages. And as I said several times without getting rid of some of the problems the pile of problems and broken stuff is just growing. They introduced TOD4 as new lightning system with TSW3. Broken, no fixes. The same TOD4 is one year later in TSW4, still broken. Nothing has changed. Also I would think that a developer in 7 years learns how to use the tools, instead it seems more like someone found the Volumetric Fog checkbox by accident after 7 years of development. TSW is not using UE4 in its full potential, even after 7 years, that's the point for me. EDIT: Hmmsim Metro and The Bus are both still in early access. TSW4 is the fourth iteration or "update" of TSW and it feels still more early access then the other two titles.
That´s correct. You can notice that by several easy reasons, among others the following basic things: passengers 3D models react to bloom as if they were metal surfaces, many trees don´t have distant field occlussion, some trackside cabinets are classified as grass, instead of as static objects and many rolling stock is missing parts of the sound class definitions, resulting in silent wagons as in Hagen route case, just to mention one example. On the more advanced features side you can find things like: threads use the old render thread sync method while Unreal clearly states that RHI sync shall be used, old shaders compiler is used instead of the new DirectX one, shaders compiling uses an ancient optimization intended for mobiles that not only produces incorrect shaders but also results in degraded performance due to a fast math workaround that ignores floating point. DTG has made a good work on many other aspects, just to be fair with them, but such amateur errors, in particular those ones that are clearly against the official engine documentation guidelines, are not expected to happen nor exist in the 4th iteration of the game. Anyone how claims to know the engine properly won´t fail there, because there´s no excuse to fail other than not being aware of the technical features available in engine. I´m sorry but that´s my honest opinion. Maybe people needs to take some time to read and maybe someone else needs to supervise that what is delivered really works and it´s correctly designed, and not only that it looks fine in the screen and appears to work because game just doesn´t crash. That´s what people does everywhere during any development process, from low cost products up to high-tech SW. Cheers
Gees, it’s just so painful to look at. As you said above it’s just downright sloppy. There is no excuse at all for that to look like that.
Hard disagree, even with it's bugs its significantly better than TSW2 lighting, which looked absolutely terrible. Not much different from TSC. There's a reason I pretty much never drive the pre TSW3 routes, and it's due to their terrible lighting.
issue on that is that some TSW2020 and TSW2 routes are so much cooler than TSW3 and TSW4's routes, if you want to compare it that way.
Some of the earlier routes are cool yeah, but they look extremely dated at this point. Peninsular Corridor is a fun route, with decent locos. But the lighting and scenery is awful. Some of the mountains just look like blobs, and the water looks like a solid surface. Same for Clinchfield, terrible pink trees for some reason? Bad looking mountains, and bad lighting. I really wish they'd update more of the older routes like they did with Sherman Hill, and Boston Sprinter. Peninsular Corridor, Brighton Mainline, and East Coastway are the three I would love updated the most.
excatly 100% my thoughts. a shame they can't atleast put the TOD4 lighting everywhere from earlier than TSW3. I don't really need new ohle rendering or whatever, TOD4 is enough, so everything looks better again.
TOD4 would be great and obviously an improvement if they bothered to fix light values for everything. Headlights need correction, indicator lamps and cablights need correction. Tunnel shadow volumes also need fixing and most of the routes have the weird flashing when entering tunnels. The bloom effect when transitioning between dark and bright areas is also a step in the right direction, but still quite a bit off.
Enjoy your night incursions. This is probably fixed now in Number 4. Not? Picture below from the one year old ´legacy´. Brillyunt!
