This is strange ! A quick drive down from Omiya to Ueno can be performed while running JR East, the game, which features video run down the same in the same unit offered on TSC by Union Workshop. My PC has enough memory to have both available: i pause one, run down to a station, pause, Alt-Tab and it is STRANGE ! i sometimes use z key when i should use A key because the TSC cab is so close to the video cab and i am watching the soghts mire than anything. One of the stations with overhead concrete and then green steelwork is uncanny. Down to Akabane the bridges are just right. Along the way, there are the trains in their yard on your right. It is uncanny, time and again, even if some difficult architectural features are mussing here and there ... If UW does this route for TSW in Unreal 5 one day it could be fabulous ! As it is, JR East is a great complement to our TSC on this one route down to Ueno.
The problem with the JR East sim is that being video clip based, it's always the same run in terms of tie of day or weather. You also get the oddities of other trains or people freezing or walking slo mo when you stop or slow down the train. I bought a couple but not currently installed as the video footage requires a massive HD footprint and I think the concept works better on their single track rural routes rather than busy main lines. They are also quite expensive and thus far Ongakukan have not offered any sort of sale discount. But yes it is fascinating to compare the two.
