As the title suggests, I’ve always found sounds to be pretty underwhelming in TSW/2. I feel as overall, sound is pretty low on the list of priorities to fix and/or improve, which is unfortunate as it’s one of the main contributors to immersion. Now I’m not specifically talking about the accuracy of train engine/motor sounds itself, as we all know the fluctuates widely across DLCs, but more of the things which come on the ‘side’ of the DLC. Such as ambience, for example. To help you understand better, I will list below suggestions and fixes I think which need to made to TSW 2. Fixes required: - Rain sounds fluctuate across different DLCs. Sometimes it’s too loud, too quiet, or doesn’t play at all. This applies both in internal and external views. - Standing up inside the train often often results in an external ‘wind’ noise whilst moving around the train. Again, this appears randomly across DLCs. - Certain sounds will just fail to play at all or will randomly play when they feel like it. Station ambient noise, for example. Completely silent one minute, noisy the next. Again, this happens randomly. - Sounds will just abruptly cut in any out, with no reverb and/or fade out. - Opening and closing windows results in strange mixing behaviour across certain DLCs. Sounds will get quieter if you open the window, for example. Improvements suggestions: - Better mixing of sounds so everything sounds more ‘level’ and natural. With less ‘sudden’ loud noises popping in from nowhere. Such as a train approaching, for example. - Better ‘running’/wind noise of train sounds instead of using that awful, obviously looped running sound which is currently used for certain trains. - Better tunnel sounds. Currently, tunnel sounds sound very weak. It hardly sounds any louder than the normal running sounds. There’s reverb, but sound levels themselves need to be increased when running through a tunnel. - Improvements to wheel flange sounds. Relating the the reverb issue, these sounds just abruptly start and stop, with no fade out. - Significantly more ambient noise and sounds are required. Just about every single route in TSW sounds and feels far too quiet as there’s is barely any ambient noise. Sometimes it quite literally feels like a ghost town because of how quiet it is. Now I know some of the above is caused by the port over of preserved content into TSW 2, however newer TSW 2 content still presents the same old sound issues. Significant work and improvements are required to sounds as they’ve been lacking for far too long now.
I suspect that the sound issues are something related to the new Unreal Engine and, hoping to be contradicted, it won't be easy to have them repaired. Other than that, I totally agree with your proposals.
I was planning to make a post similar to this one, but I guess there is no need now. I pretty much agree with everything written here, but I'll add some of my own improvements: - Better train running sounds. If you listen to cab recordings, you'll often hear the loco rumbling and squeaking as the track isn't completely flawless, especially over switches, bridges, road crossings etc. Like the new TGV which kind of includes this (that was a nice surprise) and the how the ICE rumbles on switches. In my opinion, this would greatly improve the immersion. - This leads to the next point. Random flaws in the rails/track that you can hear the wheels pass over would be nice, similar to how there are joint sounds on NTP and TVL but much more rare. This could be tied to the sounds in my previous point. - Apart from the missing tunnel echo and reverb, which should be a must for this sim, we could also have different running sounds on steel bridges but that's lower priority Sound is one of the most important aspects of immersion and I'd love to see DTG focus more on it.
