TSW has been out in the wild for 4 years now, and we're now on version 3 (which I just bought in the sale (having previously owned TSW2) to see if things have improved enough to take over from TSC as my main train sim of choice. In a word.....no. I've invested £100s in amazing controllers from TS Controllers (PBC, door panel, horn box, AWS plunger and DSD plunger) and I plan to get more in the future because they add so much to the driving experience, but so far, while Dan has tried his best by adding support for keyboard mappings, it just doesn't work very well. Half of the controls don't work at all, and when they do work, there are numerous issues with things getting out of sync or things not being mapped correctly on DTG's side. I think it's about time DTG made a proper API that allows for these controllers and various popular joysticks to work. Whatever they've done for TSC, they should replicate for TSW, because that works fantastically! One point of praise while I'm here, THANKYOU for allowing us to map the DSD separately from the AWS. Now I can make my DSD plunger work by mapping DSD to the E key instead of Q. Unfortunately this is the only good news I can report. The DRA and guards bell don't work at all. The 395 horn doesn't obey my custom mappings and the only train that my PBC works with is the 465/9. Even then, the master key doesn't work and the power/brake can easily get out of sync if you move it too quickly. I don't have any of these issues in TSC. Until this is sorted out, TSW doesn't stand a chance of becoming my main sim. It'll just be a bit on the side.
Only way this happens is dtg official controlers- so thats like an extra 100 quid atleast. I don't see 3rd party support existing.
I'm not sure DTG would want to get into that business. It's too niche for a big company like that I reckon. Only a subset of their customer base will want to buy them, which probably wouldn't be enough volume for them to bother with the expense of tooling up and production etc. But if enough people demand it, it would be fairly easy for them to add compatibility for common joystick commands and create an API for niche companies like TS Controllers to interface with.
Dan from TS Controllers made the original PBC (which I have). ATS are now making that product going forward (but it's not released yet), so it's possible that Alan will be able to encourage DTG to provide better hardware support as I know he's a big proponent of controllers (it was him who sold me on the idea in the first place). I'm just adding my voice because unless players say something, DTG won't know there's demand there.
All the controller products and the software to go with them, have been made by TS Controllers, with ATS being the exclusive reseller for some of them. The more people that request support for the controllers, then the more DTG will take notice. With controller sales in the 1000's, its not exactly just a small handful of people who use them.
