More Focus On Improving Sounds Please

A driver saying it, and their company agreeing and allowing them to action it are two very different things though.

I could offer to assist in some way, but i very much doubt I'd get any official backing.

 

There is no company that can do it, not for the trains and not for the actual costs. If you want to pay 300$ or more for a loco DLC, then maybe it is possible that way. That's a reason why they give it to me for example I am able to make sound in short times. Not the best, perfect or most accurate sound, but a sound at least. Better than nothing, what would be the outcome of trying to give it to non-train people to make it.

 

To me, it seems obvious that companies such as DTG have their limitations with game engine or their inner budget limitations, which even when main personas want certain effect, it’s impossible due to such limits. But still, to me it should be for 100% honestly claimed with releases, and not showing them as ready to release products, to disappoint crowd later. Why not to claim obvious? I think even with such thing, people would appreciate the honesty from creator and still lay their cash to make whole process more beneficial in future. To me, just this that you as TSG, or other studios create DLC’s seems massive, but people seem to be more positive towards TSG releases, because for now you’ve provided really quality feedback/production for DLC’s. Recent release of Niddertalbahn is really properly done map with touch, made of a lot of love in it.

From my perspective, on overall madness on forum for quite a bit of time.

I get point of harsh feedback of some group of people. Me as well, I’d love studios to care about physics, overall structure of DLC to be as best as it can be. Being a railfan and photographer for 10 years, made me be concious about details. But I also realize from the same standpoint, that sometimes this perfect effect is impossible to achieve.

What I think, but may be a bit out of real possibilities, is that first, railfans should a bit tone down with needs, and DTG or other studios should be far more honest and more open to discussion with community. Just that would make threads, such as this one, far shorter than 33 pages of rage. Also DTG, from my standpoint, try to work with community, even by paying or sorting such co-works by other benefits/deals. Not publically, but behind doors even. People were always talented, you never know, when you’re going to find a persona that’s incredibly talented. More love people, its just train simulator. With much more positive look from both parties, we can achieve far more.

Just to finish this essay, I wanted to tell you Mike words of appreciation, of how big of quality you’ve provided to german content. Keep on doing great work, it’s really appreciated by lots of fans that can experience some german machinery with proper sounds/physics.

 

No "rage" from me that seems too strong a word to describe the actual disappointment and a touch of frustration that nice sounds are made by DtG employees but no honest assessment of the facts about sound implementation for increased immersion either it is possible or it isn't. It's just a fact for me that I am very disappointed in the aural world of TSW as many others are too. DtG have used user sound recordings for their projects in the past and do so with AP, so it isn't impossible to obtain.
As an aside but not unrelated topic, TSW's Bakerloo dlc is a prime example it sounds not even remotely like that line and that is why I never use it which is a shame.
Also, you do not need permission to replicate reflected sounds you can do that on a synth quite convincingly.

 

I only buy UK stuff and the sound to me is severely lacking in most routes. Even if DTG were to do a Loco DLC you reckon $300? I would give the sound department over to AP and DTG would save money getting rid of it. And there are more sound companies out there, why does experience with Trains have anything to do with it?

DTG have so called experience with Trains but yet we still get poor sound, how does that work then?

 

You know DTG have used drivers in the past no? Certainly in TSC and that Driver said other drivers were keen to do it and are able so where would the problem be?

 

Simply because of its for trains. Making sound for a train means you should know how that train works, why it makes a specific sound at a specific time or event and so on. Calling that from a normal outsourcing company would rather not work or would be massively expensive. And they could mostly not get the needed sound recordings their selfs because of the lack of contacts, vitamin B needed to get onto the specific train, and what's not also standing in the way of doing train sounds with our (Train Sim) needs. It sounds really easy to say let professionals make it. But it's so massively specific that it does not really work the usual ways. Believe me, if that would work, DTG would do it. The don't ask other train sim related developers (that doing that stuff for a decade or more) for no reason. But also not all of those experienced developers want to provide work to DTG or others. That's a common issue in this niche industry too. The fact that a modder can doo nice sound mods does not meant that he/she is willing to provide that for our (developers) purposes. Ask DTG how many times sound sources could not be retrieved because the asked people won't work for or provide anything to a commercial company. That's also nothing new to these franchises. It's a thing since i can remember (what is more than a decade back).

 

One of the worst things about the sound in this game is that when you turn your head away from the source of a sound it gets exponentially quieter, it makes playing with headphones on horrible.

 

That's a different "problem" to what we discussing here. I will not try to explain the whys. All i would say is, yeah, it's there and it's not headphone compatible. It was the same in all the other train sims. There are various reasons why it is as it is. Getting rid of it would need a new tech for audio that is not there. Don't try to compare with the games who have good sound. Compare what the sounds does and then search for similarities in other games and you will find the same problems. I'm out now of this discussion, because my explanations are often only gotten as excuses (what is definitely not meant so). Nevermind...

 

It's not as simple as you think, they have to rig the train with microphones and then let it run its routes to collect the data.
They're not going to let a driver just climb under the train to put microphones next to the things they want to record without some form of authorisation from the company. Some sounds, maybe.

 

AP have denied DTG access to their sounds in the past, and AP don't work with TSW, they've only sold sound files to DTG
so I don't think that's the panacea you're looking for

 

Well, they better get one then!

 

So what is DTG excuse for all the bad sounds? And if people refuse to work with DTG then why is that their problem? Sounds more like a DTG problem to me.

I'm just looking at possible solutions to the problem. I find it interesting as to why Ap denied them access? Again this sounds like more a DTG problem than anything else. If DTG wanted to do a deal I'm sure they would have. Surely there has to be a reason why people and companies don't like to work with DTG?

 

Unfortunately this often doesn't work because not everyone wants to work together for the benefit of a particular section of gamers.

AP can choose to do whatever they wish, and if they don't want to sell their sounds to DTG that's totally on AP and nobody else
At the time TSW was a new-ish product and in competition with APs own products on TSC so it's more likely that AP were "protecting their own products" rather than anything DTG were trying to do
DTG did try to "Do a deal", so again, that was APs decision in that instance (and one they have decided otherwise since such as the 465 sound pack which they did license / sell to DTG)

 

Wonder if we will get an update from the devs on this subject?

 

Actually I have created a thread which is all about why this statement is now no longer true.
https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/how-to-edit-audio-for-trains.64410/

You can make any train sound for the game even using some of the sloppiest recordings ever. I would say that YouTube is more than sufficient. Even a video taken from a Samsung Y would still have its uses. You don't have to use recordings directly - they can just be your reference for creating sounds. And from there, YouTube becomes your most valuable resource. If you can't access a train which is all over YouTube, there's still no excuse for it sounding poorly.

Currently, you can implement sound into TSW from PC but it's a nightmare to get it right quickly. Some things will work and some things will not, but there are many different parameters set to mix a sample. For traction motors, as Maik was saying, you can probably find more information about the drive online. Maybe someone has breadboarded the control system already and you can find out what it's supposed to sound like at what speed? Videos like that helped immensely with the 385 sound mod. If not then hop on YouTube and take a best guess. An educated guess goes a long way in sound if you can't find anything online or get there in-person. You don't need someone to vend their content to you commercially just to be able to watch it.

 

I started actually building this mod the same time I posted on this thread to prove that there's no excuse. The following (yes sure it's a plug from me, by me, to me but... egg) demonstrates what kind of mix you can build just from watching acceleration videos from YouTube. I haven't stepped foot on Southeastern Railway since February, I only used old recordings and matched the train sound to what YouTube says.

bit.ly/3MMe531


I have no SDKs, no DTG editor, no nothing. I didn't even use the TSW3 Unofficial Editor. I just used the plain old UE4 Editor, FModel, and Audacity open-source audio editor - making use of long-established Train Sim World parameters as my own customer.

 

how to get that reflection that appears in the video sometimes?