PlayStation Lightning (weather) In Oakville G P 38 Journey M39621-1

So, I have recently been dipping into the half-finished Oakville DLC, given that TrainSim-Adam is about to look at the route from a "Preservation" perspective (even if, in this case, it requires a a "Notre Dame" style complete rebuild from the ashes)........ and anyway....

I ran the M39621-1 service in the GP 38-2 journey, and found the lightning flashes.....

And I do not think that these are meant to be there, because they do not appear under Timetable Mode for either the GP 38-2 or the GP9RM, for the same numbered service module. This is interesting in its own right, because it seems that the Timetable Mode services that appear under Journey are distinctly different modules (which, in turn, might explain a lot of trophy issues related to counting services...).

After observing it for a while, the lightning effect is clearly not a glitch. - it is a a designed (test) feature, and I suspect that it only exists in the published game because this bit of test-bed work wasn't removed from the final release (I am using TSW 2020 here, as Oakville doesn't currently deserve the drivespace under TSW 2 on my PS4 Pro).

The lightning has the following qualities:

- it looks REALLY good, as an effect - I really like it;
- there was no accompanying sound (maybe they ran out of channels....?);
- it was used on a service that was programmed without rain (which is a shame);
- it could occur quite distantly (maybe even on the next map tile...?), or quite close, anywhere in the FoV;
- it occurred metronomically - every 8 seconds, perfectly (it seemed to);
- the textures used varied thickness, angle in sky, length, etc. on each strike;
- the light burst was reflected off all appropriate surfaces, respecting shadows and occlusion - and this is particularly effective on OSD because of the layout of the scenery;
- the light even reflected off diesel exhaust particles (not such a good effect, and potentially computationally very expensive); but,
- it (surprisingly) doesn't slow frame-rate on the PS4 Pro (although maybe this is because it is so brief).

But it should probably be removed (from TSW 2020 and TSW 2 versions), for the following reasons:

- it's clearly merely a test (but if DTG do want to include it, then maybe add rain and sound...?);
- the metronomic reproduction of flashes could cause issues for people with epilepsy (or there needs to be a warning, including warnings for relevant localisation);
- if DTG were testing AP code, then maybe this wasn't meant to make the final cut in the shipping build...?

For my own sake - I am happy for the lightning to be left in - but maybe DTG's QA people would have a different view, if they had been given a chance to look at the OSD DLC before it was published.....


This Journey service module also has some other interesting features that were not ironed out (or were being tested). Although testing of slip (and maybe slide) were apparent in the TVL DLC, it appears that DTG went further with this module in OSD - it has some more extreme slipping physics - in fact, at one point I thought I had completely broken SimuGraph because I completely lost control of power and braking about half-way through the service for a considerable period of time (like a minute or so). For the rest of the OSD DLC, however, the balance for the physics is really good, especially on mixed consists.

Anyway - after thinking all of the above through, I noticed that Dave Mel had previously discovered this module a year ago, here:

https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/journey-m39621-01-with-gp38-and-lightning-strikes.20752/