Do you think whatever content dtg is bringing this summer to train sim world will include an upgrade to Unreal Engine 5? Please vote in the poll below.
Yes. Just like last year when I proclaimed it was definitely happening, I hereby proclaim that this time it is most definitely happening. For real. It is much more likely this time round though and would explain the one year instead of two between game titles. Simrail will have been identified as a big competitor and TSW needed to compete with it for sales, especially when it comes to console. For this, the latest game engine was required, and also some more investment to pay for the change, hence the purchase by Focus. And if TSW4 releases using UE4 I will wait and proclaim once again that UE5 is coming at the very next opportunity. I mean, we all know it has to happen at some stage.
Unless they have an easy way to convert existing, just released and soon to be released content I would say probably not. OTOH I wouldn’t put it past DTG to release now and worry (alright laid back consider) flashing all the existing content over time, as I believed happened from TSW1 to TSW2. The difference now is a far larger back catalogue.
Since the tone of the TSW4 conversation has switched to "will TSW 4 support our existing DLC?" I would like to remind that the rumour surrounding TSW 4 started because all the existing DLC was found on Epic for a new version of TSW. So no matter if it's UE5 or not, the existing DLC is waiting to be downloaded.
It’s your salt buddy, you use however much you like. I’m keeping my bag for the winter when it gets icy
I voted “yes” (I’m in the minority, I know). I could have voted “no” as well really But, I don’t think it will come soon- I don’t believe TSW4 is coming this year but it wouldn’t surprise me if TSW4 comes next September (24) and runs on Unreal 5. Sadly, I think that will signal the end of current DLC’s and time for a whole new adventure PS Nice poll Nathan, good idea lol
No. And I don't understand why people keep thinking UE5 would be some saving grace regarding graphics. TSW is full of visual bugs and poor scenery on UE4 and it would not be any different in UE5 either. They are simply not utilizing the engine properly and don't take enough time when creating routes to polish them enough. What they need is some more experienced employees in UE to actually make use of the engine properly, and more development time per route.
So are we saying, that with more experience of UE4 DTG could resolve all the issues we have with TSW3 or at some point are we going to have to move to UE5 regardless? I only ask as I’d hate to lose all my DLC, which I presume would be the case with UE5? Thanks
Actually I want to say something I have a freind who works with UE4 and dosen't want to change to UE5 and theres a lot of valid reasons not to. UE4 is a lot more lightweight which while for major companies isnt really a problem slowly adding everything up is. The only two actually relevant diffrences between the two are that in UE5 you can have up to I think 10 billion polygons (which I dont think DTG are even close to being that high) while UE4 handles I belive 100 or so million. Also theres Lumen - I'm... not sure what lumen does but it exists and have something to do with lightning. UE5 would actually do barely anything for TSW in the large scale of things.
They actually probably could. I dont know if you understand how UE works or not but UE4 is ALWAYS going to be for download there never getting rid of it - thats been confirmed by EPIC. Theres no point for TSW to change just because UE5 dosent really bring anything relevant into the TSW industry other then making DLC's way more laggy and take up way more space.
TSW will move to UE5 when the advantages outweigh the disadvantages at some point. I play Railroads online and they moved to UE5 recently. It made the game unplayable for quite a lot of people, because it requires far more resources. I am not sure if this is solved in the end. The simulation quality and landscape of Railroads Online cannot even try to compete with TSW in complexity. So I am not sure we should aim for UE5. Better leave it to the devs to find out if we need to do that.
Has anyone said that on this thread? What people think UE5 would do or not do for TSW is largely irrelevant to whether or not DTG are going to use it. They don’t use the game engine in any vanilla state anyway, it is just a base for development and is always heavily modified. All we do know is that DTG appear on the “developers using UE5” graphic used by the makers of UE5 and that DTG periodically ask for experience in both UE4 and UE5 in their requirements for new devs on their open roles pages. What we don’t know is how far down the development process with regards to bringing TSW to UE5 they are. They already use a small amount of UE5 code in TSW3. The full swap could be now, it could be in another three years, and is likely to still use some code from UE4 if it serves the purpose better. Nobody knows. That’s why we’re all having a guess.
Just look at any other Unreal Engine 4 game and see for yourself how well they can look. It's up to the developer how they make use of the game engine, and if you don't take the time to do it properly, then your game will look bad, regardless if you use UE4 or UE5. The problem is that DTG learnt the basics of making a game in Unreal Engine, and did a pretty good job in creating a train simulator. But they never went beyond to learn more and take the time to improve graphics further. For example, just look at how it took a community member's mod to improve how the skies and clouds look in game. Then they only switched to 3D volumetric clouds after many years, when the community has been linking them "Unreal Engine 4 volumetric skies tutorial" videos for ages. Or how there is still only ONE train in the whole game using realistic headlights, the remaining 99% still using default light cones that look horrible, making night time driving unenjoyable. Let's not even get started on the broken mess that was the "new and improved" lighting in TSW3, making everything overly bright and washed out. Or how they still have issues with material properties after so many years, like the overly reflective ballast and terrain issue. And the list could go on. Simply switching to UE5 won't fix these issues. They need to learn to use the game engine properly. Not in this thread, but people have been saying "can't wait for TSW to switch to UE5 so it will look so much better!" for like a year now (or whenever UE5 released). They don't understand that simply switching to UE5 won't solve anything, especially if DTG will continue to use it in such a newbie way like they do now.
Thank you for the reply. You make some very good examples and I’m understanding more now. As I said earlier I am now definitely in the UE4 camp. There’s hope for all my DLC’s after all
Great contribution. I didn't really have a view on this but this post is a really good point and very well made. Thanks Dinosbacsi
Lighting not lightening. It makes it so that lighting is more dynamic and realistic just like in real life.
....Where in tarnation are you getting Ligtening from? And even then - UE4 does that basically already - UE5 is just a headache for all of us - especially that we know DTG already struggle with UE4 - let alone an even more complicated area of graphics.
Read your post again. You said "something to do with lightning." which i think was a typo on your end
You make some excellent points: UE 5 is a monster and if they went to it now, it would be beautiful, but I don't think Routes could be very long or complex. I can't imagine Kassel-Wurzburg in UE 5 and how much memory and hardware resource that would require. But I'm not an expert at all. I think the UE 4 version the game has now can be optimized a bit.
Well... not.... really. Define good graphics really. A lot of games with argueably subpar graphics are amazing - Any 2D game and a few stylized games are really good.
Consistent graphics. A specific style. For me TSW doesn't have to have top notch graphics. This game could look better with worse graphics. The problem with TSW is that the graphics all over the place. The trains look awesome, the scenery looks meh and the NPC's are ridiculous. Top that with performance issues and you have bad graphics.
All true but it won’t stop them moving when they feel they want to. There may be advantages for them on the development side and hopefully with or without the change they will spend more time on optimising the game and extending draw distances etc. UE5 could help with that if they use it well but as you say they don’t fully utilise UE4 now. It’ll all come down to dev budgets whatever they do, that’s the limit they work to.
Mmh, I’d never thought about it like that before, but now you’ve pointed it out I see what you mean. Good shout.
TSW itself is kind of platform that DLCs can be ported. make the platform to fit UE5 is one thing, but what about DLCs? moderate every single DLCs to new game engine...don't expect much.
If/when UE5.x lands it will be as it has always been. If old DLCs can be ported, they will port them but as they are now. New features are for new content only.
So, please excuse my ignorance, is that the same as when TSW3 came and we could take old dlc from TSW2 onto TSW 3 but all future content only worked on TSW3. Meaning, potentially if there was a TSW4 I might be able to keep my DLC ? Personally, I’m happy with TSW3 to a certain degree and would be happy with a couple of fixes.
Tsw2 to tsw3 didn't require an engine change. It was the same 4.26. when tsw4 or tswx comes if ever with ue5, the amount of work would be huge. You're jumping to a brand new unreal engine. 4.26-5 so if that happens and the dlc list is huge, it might be better to start from scratch than to port hundreds of dlc over
UE5 visuals because of the poly count and better lighting, and performance because of the increased speed will certainly improve the game. However, UE5 will be more demanding of our hardware. You might need more RAM and a better CPU/GPU combo to take full advantage of it. DTG will be thinking very hard about the pros and cons of an engine upgrade and the impact on the player base.
The engine they use now appears pretty robust. Seems better hardware can handle the load, it’s just about optimization. Maybe? I can only imagine the work and flexibility of what they designed to import all the maps on different levels from former titles. Seems like DTG already invested heavily in the engine, doubtful they would just leave it behind… Every game, other than Rockstar (why R*, just why?!) had updated last gen titles for next gen hardware with great results. Edit: unfair to GTAV, that is sick on next gen.
Looking at the leaked info from the Epic Store I think that you will be able to keep using your previous content with TSW4 or whatever is coming.
Lumen should remove the need for light baking Polygons - not sure how many are in use, but since an entire 1kmx1km (1 mile x 1 mile?) is loaded at any given time it could potentially help if there's less overhead, may increase render distance (shadowy tracks anyone)
Think thats too soon. I said it in another thread that i believe this might be the last TSW Update under UE4 Flag. So just an update (TSW4 would also make sense if you consider that they might going UE5 next year, then called TSW5) TSW5 could be the point where Gen8s are not supported anymore, would be a sensible agenda that gives DTG more time to work with UE5. But im absolutely no expert on that site, maybe next year is still to early for UE5. I think we just have to wait a bit longer and then we all know. Although its fun to speculate around a bit
Yes because Gen 9 consoles can handle it. That means the East German ore mountains in UE 5 with Xbox Series X enhancements for DCZ Bahnstrecke Dresden Chemnitz Werdau
Remember it's your own opinion Also remember change is good and important. It helps people to grow TSW upgrade to unreal engine 5 would definitely happen. I wouldn't expect anytime soon. Maybe TSW 4!.
I don't think the reasons I listed where opinions - they where facts about the differences the experted opinion of that it'd do litterally nothing for TSW but make it worse.
I'd rather expect a new game where everything will be rebuild from the start be released using UE5. I'd call it "Train Sim Universe" to differentiate it somehow from "Train Sim World", at least to stop people asking if previously purchased DLCs for TSW will be compatible with it.
Because path tracing and the like cost a bunch in terms of CPU load, etc. Meaning poorer FPS on most systems which currently run TSW3. PC owners can upgrade hardware, sure, but the 9th gen consoles are not going anywhere for a while, and already have performance issues in TSW3.
