It's not really about being a direct competitor. But games like this show what would be possible technically, which makes one question what the LOVE is DTG doing then. This game looks better than TSW, while running miles better than TSW and only requiring a fraction of hard drive space. Now sure, Running Train is not a complete game yet. It has many things missing. But to put it in perspective, it requires less storage space than TSW's smallest route, Isle of Wight. All this while the Isle of Wight pak file is just the DLC content. And Isle of Wight contains a single train model. Running Train includes 3 trains and 40kms of track, yet the complete software only requires 2.5 GB of storage. So while it can't replace everything TSW does, and there is nothing wrong with that, it really makes you question whether DTG's efforts are worth paying for or not. Because you see what things could be. Then you see what they currently are.
You will only understand that when stepping deeply into development of a game like TSW is. It's useless to try to describe the technical and fundamental differences between those two games since people have their manifested opinions about TSW and DTG and anything new that looks fancier is automatically the new "TSW-Killer" simulator. Running Train and TSW can't be more different in what they want to achieve and how they technically work. You get the idea when you have done a few runs up and down. I can see that in the videos already. Take a closer look. Also seems you will be bound to the cab all the time in that game. Lot's of details can be left out when doing that. The train has to look good only from a defined set of camera angles. In TSW on the other hand you are able to inspect every nit closely what needs way more details on the 3d models and the textures what consumes a lot of space on disk. And not only on the trains but also the stations and the whole route near the tracks. All that is not happening in Running Train. There you, funnily, run a train, that's it. Maybe some stressful, typical Japan style point chase too.
Especially YOU will come up fast with things that you don't like on that game. I mean your expectations on a train sim are quite high. And IIRC it's not only graphics you have high needs, what Running Train might "fix" for you, somehow. We do, and it's cheap compared with how many men hours are in those products (quality aside, also bad quality content needs lots of time to spend into and time costs money).
Yes, you remember correctly. Releasing a €36 DLC without active suspension (only to then include it in a patch) is scandalous to me. Maybe we should try to ride a real train every now and then to understand this situation. Now, no one should justify this situation. Trains without oscillating movements are like basic sleds on snow. What's more, the aggravating factor is that they should have been a feature from TSW4 onwards.
Why? William, who made that loco technically, explained it more than once why he decided to put it aside as long as it makes problems. I don't see any big issue with that. Not at all. And movement was there all the time. Same type of movement that Running Train will have (only). Suspension was then added as a extension to that behaviour. Technically, from SimuGraph seen, it is nearly the same component where it happens. Such things need time to grow since suspension physics is heavy compute wise. And it is still way to basic but that's for performance reasons. For some trains it works good, for others not. Not sure what TSG can do about it. I'm afreaid it's nothing than use what is there and not uses it when it doesn't fit.
Sure, keep telling yourself that. TSW is simply very unoptimized and handles storage space very badly. That's a known fact that not even the studio will try to deny. Through the years they have mentioned many things that they know are broken, unoptimzied and done badly. But hardly anything ever gets fixed or improved. I mean ffs, it took them 9 years and 6 iterations to realize that maybe you should unload trains from the memory once they're off screen. That tells you everything you need to know about the state of this software... I love TSW, it has it's positives, it's probably my most played game. But as a software it's in a state that is very hard to defend. I see you are trying though, so good luck with that!
@stijn.claessens System requirements: Minimum requirements: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system Operating system: Windows 10, 11 (64-bit) Processor: Intel Core i7-7700HQ or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X RAM: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050M (4 GB VRAM) DirectX: Version 12 Storage: 4 GB available storage space Recommended: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system Operating system: Windows 10, 11 (64-bit) Processor: Intel Core i5-12400F or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X RAM: 16 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (8 GB VRAM or better) DirectX: Version 12 Storage: 4 GB available storage space
Not fussed about this really, if it helps out performance I'm all for it. Personally I just want to drive a train from the cab, as realistically as possible. Some folks would have issues with this though, which is fair enough. I'm just excited for a new train sim arriving, can't wait to try it out.
First, right, visually TSW is not there. I tried to analyse the behaviour (with my own knowledge of how these things can be done). I might be wrong, i don't have the game yet to get a first hand analysis of that, but to me (and just to me) it looks like a repeating pattern of precomputed animation stuff, including visual rail/track deformation. Yes, it looks good, i like it, but it is not real physics. In TSW we have two systems: The old one that is like what Running Train does (without rail deformation and axle z-movement). It was there since the very first TSW (CSX Heavy Haul). The amount of that movement depends on a parameter set in the track properties (unevenness). That parameter is often set to a low value these days because most modern railroads have welded and perfectly laid tracks like in Germany. The new system, called suspension, does real physics calculation depended on forces and track properties. Such a system needs quite a lot of compute power and so it is massively restricted to how exact it can work. As i said already, the actual outcome from it is not that quite satisfying all over. The infrastructure system only knows about rail gaps (two sizes) with a hard coded dip pattern, what causes that unrealistic dip into the gaps we see all over in TSW. I personally tried to overcome this problem with different settings to the suspension parameters. At some trains like the 218, 140 or the ICE-T it worked well, on others not like the 483 cab car, 430 etc.. This is mainly because of the masses of the trains (yes, the mass, namely body, boogie and axles masses get into account with suspension calculation). The problem i see is the limitation of computing exact values because of performance reasons. When getting to usable suspension values the calculation gets out of range and does weird things like the drifting bogies in SE-curves when standing still. I have no idea if that can be improved yet. That's a task for core engine programmers. PS: What TSW and also Running Train is missing is the sinus run of the axles and the resulting sideways movement of a train. I miss that a lot. It was a thing in TSC, but there the other movement was missing completely.
