Polishing Ts2020 - Low Hanging Fruit

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by dunkrez, Feb 29, 2020.

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  1. dunkrez

    dunkrez Well-Known Member

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    I've been assessing the bits and bobs required to bring TS on a couple of levels, to polish it up and bring it closer to TSW in terms of visuals and performance. Aside from fundamental core engine updates (dx9 upgrades), there is some low hanging fruit to pick which would arguably increase the quality of the offering. Rw enhancer and a lot of the AP packs help (track and weather) but these details would benefit from some attention:-

    1) 3D trees need overhauling/replacing, they look like they belong in Daytona USA
    2) Colour balance of vegetation and trees needs adjusting, e.g. cowslip is never dayglow green in reality
    3) Reflective surfaces of loco/carriages need to show movement in relation to speed (even if it's just a hack of sorts and not a true reflection)
    4) The people - let's stop having them walking around so much, more standing, better models, and with shadows. There's bound to be a better way of doing this than the current implementation
    5) Loco lights - these shouldn't light up the road ahead during the day
    6) Ancillary model cars - these could maybe do with a complete overhaul
    7) Flora and fauna - let's have more than cowslip at the side of the road, perhaps simple birds flying around, that kind of thing
    8) Map tile loading fps stutter - this would be an incredible improvement, if the way the next tile load could be throttled somehow to minimise any disruption to frame output
    9) UI - the menu, quick drive, scenarios; this would benefit from a radical overhaul, so we can see/access owned loco's and routes etc. without using a sliding bar or having to view 9 items at a time, which is pretty silly at 4k
    10) Water quality, standing water with straight reflections arguably looks a million times better than the current sea/lake/river water. The wave effects on the Riviera Line would really benefit from some attention.
    11) Windows on buildings - these perhaps would also benefit from some adjustments, to make them appear more realistic.
    12) Rock textures - there must be something that can be done to enhance these, so many pixels at 4k

    Just a few initial ideas, I'm going to be exploring how to sort these out. Anyone else with technical experience or with any more ideas to add to this, please do make your thoughts known. I'm relatively confident that we can, as a community, really improve what TS currently offers. At this point, TS perhaps doesn't really need more routes or loco's - it's crying out for fundamental changes to its infrastructure. Some of these changes can probably be achieved by us, rail fans around the globe :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 29, 2020
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  2. English_Electric

    English_Electric New Member

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    The trees, oh the trees! I think for me the blame lies with Just Trains on this one, due to the spamming of a certain 2D tree on Western Mainlines which stands out like a sore thumb, and got me paying more attention to the trees in game. I agree with you that the 3D trees available tend to be pretty awful.

    Anyway, this past week has been a bit of an obsession for me trying to track down any half decent trees. The best I've come up with is this pack which has been used in various German route enhancements (routes not required).

    Specifically from the above pack:

    - CS_addon: Trat020 (I think the others from this set can be ignored, lots of duplicates)
    - Radiomaster
    - Taddel

    I hope that helps somewhat, I wouldn't say everything in there is good but there are some better offerings than usual.
     
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  3. Tomas9970

    Tomas9970 Well-Known Member

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  4. dunkrez

    dunkrez Well-Known Member

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    Both great suggestions, and nice to know I'm not the only train simmer that thinks the trees need a realism overhaul.

    I'll check out the German pack and look into exporting better trees with 3ds max using unreal assets. I think the 2d trees are fine for long distance scenery but the current plastic trees have got to go.

    Train Simulator 2020 is excellent, but there's so much that can be improved upon. Lightweight, efficient trees that look good in 4k are certainly possible.
     
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  5. Tomas9970

    Tomas9970 Well-Known Member

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    Just a quick tip about Unreal engine. You can filter static meshes in the content browser. Then select all of them and right click > export > bulk export. It will take a while to load all of them. You can do the same thing for textures as well.
     
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  6. Cat

    Cat Well-Known Member

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    All very well to have lots of bell and whistles - better graphic quality etc. BUT not everyone has pcs powerful enough to handle these enhancements being suggested here.
    DTG and other devs have to keep this in mind otherwise they could lose a lot of their market.
     
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  7. English_Electric

    English_Electric New Member

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    Naturally it's a balancing act for developers, and I suspect it isn't in DTG's best interests to make TS classic too competitive with TSW.
     
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  8. English_Electric

    English_Electric New Member

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    I don't have the first clue when it comes to making models, but if you come up with something I would be interested to see. 2D veg is perfectly suitable for distant scenery, and I would say that even lineside depending on what it is (weeds, grass, bushes etc are all fine in 2D for me).
     
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  9. IronBladder

    IronBladder Well-Known Member

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    I think the current trees are ok as modelled, though a few more species would be nice, as would blossom in the spring. Also more undergrowth/grass/weeds that display in winter and spring.

    I don't think 4K should get much emphasis at the moment, as many users don't have the kit (me included).

    For me the single greatest improvement would be elimination of tile load stuttering.

    A better range of passengers for stations and in carriage would be good. How about some children, old folk and uniformed modern station staff (even if unbranded)?

    Improved flowing water would be nice, but more useful would be randomised edging/child objects to lofts so stream and river banks could be made to look more natural.

    I agree about loco headlights. They shouldn't work like pocket suns illuminating the ground in sunlight, but even in the day they should light up tunnels and bridge occlusions.
     
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  10. hightower

    hightower Guest

    One relatively simple improvement (although I’ll admit to not knowing how to do it) would be to swop some of the bits in the euro loco/asset pack for better models.

    It can’t be beyond impossible to simply trade out the passengers from that pack (you know, the same 4 or so...brown suit, blue/green hooped jacket, red hair and etc) and replace them with the models found in newer routes, starting with London - Peterborough I think.
     
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  11. dunkrez

    dunkrez Well-Known Member

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    More great points, thank you Ironbladder. I really like the suggestion of station staff along with a better representation of passengers. More tree species would definitely add to the mix (No.1 The Larch).
     
  12. dunkrez

    dunkrez Well-Known Member

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    The "totty" models and the dude in the brown suit really do need replacing. It probably is possible to produce an enhancement pack to sort this out.
     
  13. hightower

    hightower Guest

    I think you’ll find in DTGs newer routes (South Western Main Line & Fife Circle) that the trees are completely different to what came before. They’re a significant step forward.

    Shame they make a step forward there, then in Fife Circles case, get the work experience lad to lay the track on the route.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 17, 2020
  14. dunkrez

    dunkrez Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the heads up, I'll check those routes out later.

    I wonder if it would be possible to approach updating older assets in a software as a service style; would this be in breach of Dovetails EULA or is it fair game?
     
  15. hightower

    hightower Guest

    I might be wrong, but as long as the person(s) involved own all the requisite payware, and nothing gets shared that shouldn’t (I.e. a reskin will have the skin but not the geopdx file) then there is no issue.

    All you would be doing is having the game point to other assets than those originally intended. For example, my current favourite route is a revamped version of the Wherry Lines which swops many of the original assets for, newer, better ones.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 17, 2020
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  16. dunkrez

    dunkrez Well-Known Member

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    I'd like to see that route, I have the Wherry Lines. Thanks for the heads up, I'll get looking for it.
     
  17. hightower

    hightower Guest

    Here you go...

    https://alanthomsonsim.com/?download=railways-of-east-anglia

    There’s an issue with getting the Wherry Lines scenarios to work with it. I think I’ve found a solution which I’ve contacted the author about. Once we’ve discussed it I’ll update here how to fix it. As it stands you can happily create scenarios for it however.
     
  18. hightower

    hightower Guest

    You can see the new trees on the South Western Mainline here...



    They look good, I’m sure you’d agree.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 18, 2020
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  19. English_Electric

    English_Electric New Member

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    They are a lot better on these 2019+ routes in fairness, they don't have that blobby nature of the older ones.
     
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  20. IronBladder

    IronBladder Well-Known Member

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    I think it's a shame that DTG didn't use both types of 3D trees. The new ones better represent the often scrappy/immature ones you see trackside, but I miss the large mature trees that looked nice in the old 3D tree set.
     
  21. English_Electric

    English_Electric New Member

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    The specific set I highlighted from the CS_addon pack has some larger mature trees. Of course, you would have to edit the routes yourself to add them though.
     
  22. IronBladder

    IronBladder Well-Known Member

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    What is the CS_addon pack please? I've never heard of it.
     
  23. English_Electric

    English_Electric New Member

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    Sorry for not replying sooner. I found the pack recently while trawling for trees. It's part of a vegetation compilation used in various German route upgrades, I included a link to the pack above (second post on this thread). There are duplicates within, I would say you only need the subset "Trat020". I think the original modeller is Czech, the tree names seem to be in that language but the models are pretty good.
     

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