Hi everyone I was often asked on YouTube lives, on X, here on the forum why the hell have I been so relentless (always with respect) on the developers for some time (since TSW3 release approx). I will answer today with concrete examples. I haven't played for a long time, and yet since then heavy haul I played almost only TSW. But things are going less and less well, we are sold more expensive DLCs with "more features", and I would have agreed if the quality was there. So today I restarted the game in the hope of being able to enjoy gaming again, but now a simple example why that's not possible: https://www.xbox.com/play/media/FcjNT5xL7J It is just not possible today in 2024 to make a wheat field with yellow bushes. But this is one example among many! No water, too many electrical poles on NCBP, poor floor connections and emptiness visible in too many places on some maps The LGV is a disaster in terms of level design and nothing has been corrected, as well as the TVM security system not being well calibrated on certain portions, passengers do not get on or off at certain stations on many of maps... But ever more expensive DLCs. So I'm not necessarily doing a boycott, but I admit to refusing for 2 years (except the purchase of TSW 4) any DLC from them, as long as an effort is not made. I recognize a certain motivation from the development team over the past few months to push hard on the updates (and they are really good) so I encourage the team to continue like this, it's just not enough for me Today Thanks for reading.
I shall also boycott TSW on the basis that a route released four years ago doesn't have good looking wheat in the fields
That I'm aware of, TGV doesn't have any notable bugs. The OP complains about: Passenger issues aside (since its not a route specific issue), bugs aren't mentioned, and there's not enough detail on the TVM issue to know what OP is on about
Unfortunately the crop assets in TSW just aren't that good. The LGV route overall just doesn't have great scenery anyway but the TGV Duplex is good. The equivalent route in Train Simulator has much better scenery, although the TGV is much simpler. You do, however, have about three times as much track to drive and the Reseau as well, so overall it's the better experience I think.
Wasn't LGV the first route to trial auto generated scenery? It always did look a bit bare and not quite like the south of France but TBH when you're barrelling along at 280 km/h, I'm not exactly checking out each stalk of wheat is individually rendered. We already saw with Sherman Hill (before it got changed) how having too many high poly foliage (in that case, grass) assets without decent LOD too caused frame rates to tank. Ultimately there is also going to be a compromise. It's also far easier to put more detail into shorter routes such as Goblin or Niddertalbahn than a longer route intended for fast running. That said, LGV is probably a route that would benefit from a makeover using more modern scenery techniques and better more efficient assets.
The biggest issues for me in order. As I've said before its a mixed bag because there's genuinely routes I love and that I think are well made, like most of the German content, London commuter, Sand patch and Blackpool. Pre requisites for an awesome route and awesome game in my opinion are these: Route building Branching lines with multiple stock. This increases timetable complexity, allows multiple types of rolling stock. For instance when you have all the dlc, the likes of Koln Achen has lots of variety as well as many other German routes which makes the whole thing come alive. Lately a lot of routes are becoming A to B. I don't think anyone is asking for the world, but some variation keeps the replay ability high. Look at all the branching on Clinchfield for example. Scenery Roads and Vehicles The scenery is definitely improving under DTG especially on the last few routes and I've always been fine with the older German Routes. However a major sticking point for me which is still way under par is the roads and vehicle traffic. The roads are still incomplete (check out the road at South Tottenham under the bridge on the goblin line). The cars shadows don't appear until they are close giving the appearance of them floating and the cars cant seem to turn corners without the backends swinging out. On straight roads alongside the track they are fine. Also they need more variety. It may seem trivial but its a big part of the scenery. A lot of the roads look unfinished, have the wrong markings or have no curbs and lack texture. I mean these things are key scenery objects. Weather System The weather system is a great addition but dynamic weather needs more work. On a typical 50 minute route it will go from clear to rain, always or clear to snow depending on the month. It hardly ever reverts back unless on a rather long route. It also transitions too quickly, sometimes in about 60 seconds which is weird. Weather should build, skies should get darker more slower, there should be light showers for longer and sometimes not a full on storm. Snow is the worst culprit and i have to turn it off as the scenery goes all strange with white trees appearing before snow has had a chance to stick. Passengers Was looking at them last night and they look like a left over relic from a much older game. Passengers still bump into each other, clip the surroundings, wear the wrong attire for the weather etc. Theyve got better in variety but still look like 5 models with random coloured hair. DTG should implement static passengers at stations that appear randomly with luggage etc and work on the pathing and add more animations in.
Loading up old routes and seeing that they are still old routes is a great reason not to buy new routes.
I don't think it was the first route to use auto-generated scenery but it was the first one to use it in a significant portion of the route. While the argument that it doesn't matter because you're driving at speed is fair, the fact that the Train Simulator version is so much better (and very good screenshot material almost throughout) makes the TSW version look even worse. To be fair I didn't notice the issues that much when I first got it in TSW because I didn't have the Train Simulator version at the time, but now I have both versions it's hard to not notice it.
Yes I keep meaning to run the TSC versions, which of course we got free when Focus took over, but haven't got around to it yet. Will be interesting to see how, or even if, it handles the voltage change as I always seem to fluff that up in TSW.
You are able to change between the different power modes. However, as TS cannot distinguish between different voltages it is optional, and I'm not aware if there are performance differences depending on which mode is selected as I've never tested it.
Auto-generated scenery? In the PC Editor, you can find options for a "World Machine", which requires an external tool. Probably it's this tool what creates this auto-generated scenery? Anyone has a clue on that matter where to find more information about that from DTG's side as statements etc.? In the case of grass not even the LOD or the high poly characteristic is the big problem, it's the density. Since grass is usually very dense it is hard to replicate in Unreal. TSG used grass which even moves in wind, but therefore is also extremely performance-hungry. And Maik stated various times that there were problems with scenery and weather effects. It's the choice of the dev what to improve but I guess in the end a dev needs to go with the plus on better performance, just to satisfy the majority of customers. Exactly this concern was subject of a poll I created about the opinion of the individual whether they would be willing to sacrifice performance for better scenery or not.
