So… How Is Tsw6 So Far For You?

Got TSW6 starter pack for PS5 and Riviera route plus Voyager. Downloaded nearly 30 old routes and a number of loco add ons. TSW6 start up time is slightly quicker. The UI is almost identical to 5. The content manager is a huge improvement to the confusing mess in 5.

Riviera route is lovely, very well made. It runs fairly smoothly with just the occasional frame drops and stutters. Given the quality and density of the scenery it performs surprisingly well but there seems to be an increase of vegetation and scenery pop up. This may be the price paid for route optimisation and a compromise needed to produce the apparent improvements in smoothness.

The 220 Voyager is a very nice train though needs a bit more work on it. The brake values in the old style HUD only goes to 1 forcing you to use the on screen notification for brake settings and they are only visible for a short time.

The new features are a bit hit and miss for me. I got the Riviera line train and station announcements in the 802 when I first ran the route but they have mysteriously stopped working. I do not hear them now in the 802, 150 or 220 despite them being fully enabled in the settings menu. Not sure why they aren't functional but I am more likely to just disable and forget them rather than face the nightmare of reinstalling TSW6 and almost 50 extra route and train downloads all over again. Having just done that, I cannot face it again for a function that is currently limited to 1 route and is not essential to me.

The other new feature of unexpected events again seem a bit hit and miss. The train faults so far are limited to the 220 suffering an engine stall every few minutes and requiring me to hold the start button down for several seconds to clear. This is just irritating and I am on the verge of disabling the option.

Temporary speed restrictions have appeared here and there haphazardly. The track markings are a bit random and strangely placed and the HUD often fails to correctly indicate them. I got a TSR whilst testing a Class 43 on Great Western Express and the trackside signs were on the track verge furthest away from my position making them very hard to spot.

I have not seen any signal delays on the Riviera line or any where else so again I am not too sure if they are working.

Performance on the whole is quite good with noticeable improvements on some older routes like GWE, NTP and London to Brighton. Especially noticeable is the smoothness when passing other trains at speed, something most obvious on the Brighton route near Victoria. Cathcart circle also seems smoother.

Performance is not always improved. I found the frame drops and stutters actually worse on the Milton Keynes to Euston route and San Bernardino to be so awful that I deleted it. The ridiculous floating cars on that route are a complete joke too...

Overall performance is slightly better than TSW5 but the constant vegetation and scenery pop ups look quite ugly and amateurish. The new features are really hit and miss and of dubious value. The zombie imbeciles that represent passengers show no improvement in their ludicrously stupid behaviour though they seem to have reduced their previous suicidal tendencies of walking along the track.

All in all TSW6 is OK but nothing great. The Riviera route is well made and most old routes run well with some running better than TSW5.

Given the free starter pack upgrade I shouldn't complain but the time and effort required to download every bit of my previous content is getting tedious now and I may well have second thoughts to go through all of this hassle again next time with TSW7 as the benefits seem hardly worthwhile.

 

I'm enjoying it. 45 hours so far. Some stuttering which I can live with. Biggest issue I've spotted is the 'Silent Hill' filter that seems to be applied to the lighting around Aller Tunnel (Paignton branch) - but again I can live with it. The Voyager is great fun to drive, as is the 150. Haven't done much in the 802 yet, and I've yet to fully experience the other new routes.

 

The honeymoon is now over, with two out of the three new routes anyway.

Riviera will remain a go to, but tonight I found myself back on WCML driving the Class 86 with a traction motors and knocked out. But as the final verdict on TSW6 vs. TSW5 it looks and plays no different, even down to the occasional stutter and sound squelch. TSW6 really was the emperor’s new clothes.

 

What are you playing it on OldVern? I play it on the PS5 and I have noticed a difference in the games smoothness, WCML North plays better in TSW6 than TSW5 on the PS5, and other routes too, the different is not big, but I have noticed the difference

 

PC I7 4770 GTX 1650.

Well to be fair the stutter isn't quite as bad as before on Shap and also need to take into account the first run is building the shaders so benefit of the doubt on that one.

 

Got the free pack, all my TSW5 stuff came with it so just carried on as usual.
One thing perhaps it's me but but everything seems wishy washy and now not as sharp and like it needs the contrast and sharpness turned up.

 

I've played around 37 hours in the last 2 weeks, and I've been enjoying all 3 of the new routes. The extension to Leipzig is something I've been wishing for a while and I'm happy it's been added. However, I'm disappointed that the 1442 didn't get a much-needed upgrade and I'm also disappointed with the absence of the S-Bahn Tunnels. The Morristown line has been done really well. Finally, DTG had the right team with the right people which enable them to complete the route and the signalling system properly, unlike the disaster that New York to Trenton was. The Riviera Line was also a route that I've been wishing for a long time. It has some of the best scenery to date and gives me the opportunity to give the GWR HST a good run, a first since GWE released 8 years ago.

The new "Expect the Unexpected" features are broken and poorly implemented, so I've turned them off for the meantime. I think DTG should have added it to one route, test it and listen to community feedback then slowly add it to exiting routes. But it's only there because DTG are using it to justify releasing TSW 6 when all of this could have been added to TSW 5. The Audio Announcements are nice though.

 

I'm not sure what platform you're on, but on PC steam it's identical to TSW5 for me after enabling DX12, matching in-game gfx settings and copying over ini files from the previous game.