Yes first thing it's a buggy fiddly mess, but once I had adjusted the weather to hide the dodgy skybox and synced the camera movement with the headset. WOW it was immersive, I've been on the footplate on the west summerset before and for a brief moment in VR I was back there! I could almost smell it. In its current state I could see it making people less accustomed to VR violently motion sick, but it feels like its almost there, and this was just using a github file of janky magic!! I spent hours trundling back and forth in all sorts of locos, not once did I think the scale was off. the only cab I couldn't read was the 150 (surprised not lol)however the class 20 was almost perfect for VR! needless to say I was shocked at how well everything worked, I cant describe the sheer joy of sitting in the cab of the Scotsman, sticking your head out of the cab just to watch the motion, the clarity of everything in the Scotsman's cab was also shockingly good. and I tell you what I've always had a little difficulty with braking distances on a flatscreen, maybe its a depth perception thing, anyway in VR I was stopping on a dime, it was like being at the controls, you can almost feel the momentum of the loco. that being said maybe the reason I was having a good time is the fact my pc was hardly working, I don't think a smooth experience would be had trying this on a potato. my pc is no star ship but its got some oomph!! and there were occasional world shattering stutters. and just to make sure I'm not mistaken. this isn't me having a go at anyone for not doing something, this is me going "Hey guys look at the cool thing I found, can we please get something like this cause it's so freaking cool!!!" all the best, and I hope you can all join me on the VR Footplate one day edited the autocorrect
This has been out for ages. I tried it and got bored with it fairly quickly. It’s very clever, but without a full VR solution including a suitably immersive control system, I can’t see myself ever using it again. Also some of the trains make me feel quite motion sick which I never get with other VR games and I use VR almost every day. There is also no point in implementing VR until they can solve stutters. My PC is a high spec and with ini file changes it runs flat screen pretty smoothly. But in VR the stutters are too noticeable. I think DTG have made the right decision in going for a separate VR game for the Quest headsets. Maybe if that sells well they will consider it for the main game. Though I doubt it will sell well as I’m not convinced the amount of people that like VR and want a train game is that big - but who knows until they try it.
Those who have not yet tried TSW in VR mode should definitely do it. After that, each of you will make your own choice. VR mode has its advantages and disadvantages, which can affect personal preferences. My first experience in TSW in VR mode with the Quest 3 helmet left powerful impressions. The feeling of presence and immersion are amazing. The first impression is that you have become a real participant in the events. For a moment, you find yourself an active participant in what is happening on the railway section, the platform of the station, the marshalling yard! Each car that you attach to the locomotive impresses with its size and grandeur. The railway track and crushed stone are like in real life. The surrounding world and vegetation call to themselves. Walking becomes a separate exciting game mode, in which we study the surrounding world and local features and attractions of the route. Sometimes there is a desire to walk along the route from start to finish, sit on every bench, look under every bush, go into every house (especially on Niedertalbant). Driving a high bridge over a gorge or following through a tunnel are completely different sensations. Exploring the locomotive cabin and inspecting its undercarriage turn into an exciting adventure. It's hard to put these feelings into words - you have to try it once to understand. Now about the disadvantages. The image quality in the helmet is much worse than the image in 4K resolution. Often you have to make a difficult choice - between the beauty that you can see on a 4K monitor and the image that the helmet produces. The performance wants to be better (even though I have a fairly powerful PC - i7-12700K + RTX4080S), freezes, breaks, stutters. It is especially bad at sunrise / sunset, fog, rain, snow. It is also a problem to turn the lens resolution in the helmet to the maximum, it is somehow connected with the performance of the chip in the helmet, the fps quickly approaches zero. The pleasure of the game begins to dissolve, especially on new routes that have good buildings and gorgeous vegetation. After the last kernel update, some shadows appeared again in the right lens of the helmet, which are incredibly annoying. Even with all these shortcomings, VR is a completely different experience, and I often run TSW with a helmet. I really like the ability to use both modes (4K, VR), I constantly combine them in a ratio of about 60/40.
