PC Tsw4 Enhancement | Lighting & Graphic Enhancement V4.7 (inc Lossless Scaling Guide)

JetWash any chance you pick up Niddertalbahn in the autumn sale?

 

Indeed. I’m away from home at the moment but as soon as I get home I’m definitely looking at Niddertalbahn & maybe New York - Trenton, there’s nothing else in the back catalogue I’m interested in really. Obviously once I’ve set those routes up I’ll update the mod.

I’m also going to look again at the bloom settings on the TOD4 routes. It occurred to me the other day that in most cases I hadn’t adjusted that since this was a ‘one ini fits all’ mod, with a generic 0.17 setting. I want to look at what the routes have set as default then compare that against the current mod settings and see where the sweet spot lies. I noticed, for example, Blackpool - Preston has 0.05 as a default number.

addry#6825 I won’t, don’t worry. Maybe in future in a sale but no way at £30. Edited to add - Just watched some more of the stream and revise that to ‘not even in a sale’. It looks awful and the sounds are terrible - the contrast with BPO couldn’t be more stark.

I noticed in the stream that mention was made of the ‘glowing’ fences that pop-in to the detailed LOD right in front of the player. It beggars belief that that fence asset/spline that has always shimmered and suffered so badly with pop-in is still being used so liberally on new routes. We know they have fence splines that don’t do this, so why is that one particularly still being used? If they wish/have to use it why don’t they fix the LOD on it so it doesn’t look so damn awful? It’s just so lackadaisical.

 

What are we looking at & which route is it? Remind me not to buy it, the scenery looks like an Amiga game.

 

I found the ToDv4 lumen routes fortunately do not have the PostProcessVolume defs anymore, so they're more consistent in looks.

 

Amiga? Yeah, looks like Copper bars, the sky!

To those who don't know what I'm talking about, the Copper (Co-Processor) was a chip that only had three instructions (MOVE, WAIT, SKIP). It was possible to manipulate the colour registers at each vertical position of the cathode beam independent from the graphics processor. That's the distinctive Amiga platformer look, having these colourful backgrounds while the game uses a palette of 32 colours only....

 

I was referring to the sparse, poorly lit distant scenery but that also works!

 

You must then be talking about Atari, right? :P

Anyway, off topic but this was the first open world game I've played (discovered Mercenary much later). It was utterly immersive at the time, and you could drive tanks, fly helicopters, row your boat and explore a big archipelago... Ten years later Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis came (now Arma)...

Hunter (1991)

https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=512

 

Lukas did mention he wants to fix this during the stream, remains to be seen how it'll look once released.

 

I just got Niddertalbahn in the Steam Autumn sale for £20.99 and it is as good as everyone has raved about

 

Been working on Niddertalbahn since I picked it up in the sale this morning & hope you'll all agree it looks much better with the mod. The distant scenery is night and day better. For reference this is 7am ish at the end of October;

Default


With the mod installed


ps No idea why but the screenshots always look much darker when uploaded here and viewed on a phone (my phone at least) than they do in reality.

 

does anyone know an ini command to make free camera movement slower than it already is? for some cinematic movies or whatever

 

...Not to mention all the parameters in nVidia settings, for those who have those cards?

 

Omg yes! The image has so much more depth now!
The semaphore looks a bit dark, but maybe that's just the screenshot effect you mentioned

 

That's because phones are commonly using the sRGB colour space.

Which leads me (you know me) to a nice association, the wallpaper that could kill your smartphone:

 

The shadows cast by the train are way too light for one. With direct sunlight being blocked by a large solid object like that, the shadows should be MUCH darker.

 

I think that 86 C over a sustained period like running a US freight route would be hard on the GPU. Clinchfield used to cook mine at 89-90 and I lowered scenery and sky to medium and it runs now at 65-75. I run at 1920x1080 with RTX3060, everything else on highest settings.

 

Afraid I don’t. Doesn’t mean there isn’t one but it’s not something I’ve explored before.

 

I use the following for Shadows, if that helps? Adapted from Jetwash/Bescot. I am not a UE expert, but shadows at a distance are good res with these settings. (RTX3060/1920x1080)

r.AllowLandscapeShadows=1
r.DistanceFieldShadowing=1
r.DFDistanceScale=3
r.DFFullResolution=1
r.Shadow.FilterMethod=0
r.Shadow.DistanceScale=3
r.ShadowQuality=3
r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=5
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=4096
r.Shadow.MaxCSMResolution=4096
r.Shadow.SpotLightTransitionScale=4096
r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold=0.03
r.Shadow.CSM.TransitionScale=2

 

Query: does injecting your .sav file overwrite any pre-existing .ini tweaks?

 

If they exist in the main engine.ini file then I believe so. I’m not entirely certain as to the relationship between the two which is why I recommend that the main file is clean. If you overwrite another GodMode.sav with a new one then you will lose any previous settings.

 

Are there any numerical adjustments to "medium" you would recommend for an older system with 4GB VRAM? Smaller cahce sizes etc?

 

I’ve removed all streaming VRAM parameters from the latest version. If you find Medium too much Low essentially contains only the lighting changes, so you could have the game set up as you use it now with the changes to the lighting coming from GodMode.

 

For us Nvidia card users, is there somewhere that shows the recommended settings in the Nvidia Control Panel that might compliment the mod?

 

It turns out stock Medium works fine (I will tolerate 30 fps, and usually get 45). I find that the default GodMode lighting is good with TOD-4, but older routes look better at about 3 to 4, otherwise they're too dark.

 

Can I ask what you mean by ‘3 to 4?’ I’ve actually made many of the pre-TSW3 routes lighter than they are by default so if you feel some are still too dark please say which ones and I’ll look at it. There are no actual lighting changes in those routes at all other than some tweaks to the gamma.

To put it another way, 95% of the lighting on the TOD3 routes is default.

 

I’ll reply to your DM mate but in the meantime I’ll screenshot my settings and pop them in the manual.

 

As those screenshots I shared above didn't quite do it justice here's small video to highlight the difference between default Ultra on Niddertalbahn (yes, believe it or not that is Ultra with no shadows in the distance) and my mod. Also note the difference in the sky / clouds between default and the mod. This is still a WIP btw.

The video is below;

Niddertalbahn Lighting on Vimeo

It is taken from a service at 7am on October 25th. The sun is low in the sky and is not casting light on the facing side of the distant hill. At this time of day, at this time of year and with the sun where it is things are dark in the real world, particularly in the Lee of buildings or structures. This is sunrise over Stonehenge at Summer Solstice (June-ish IIRC) for comparison.

 

Much appreciated as always. Thanks!

 

Due to impulsivity, v3.5 will come with new pre-sets for Niddertalbahn and Linke Rheinstrecke

 

Mind you, the photographer had his aperture cranked right down and used a fast shutter, and may have added a filter, since he was shooting straight into the sun.

 

What I meant is that - important caveat - given my monitor and graphics card setup legacy routes are too dark at default 1.0, meaning what should be dark gradients just come out as pools of inky -256 black; I have to use something between 2.5 and 4.0 for shadowed areas to look natural. TOD-4 routes don't do that.

 

Are you talking about the gamma (color.mid) setting? If so something must be miles out with your monitor or Nvidia settings as ~0.5 is the default number for the vast majority of pre-ToD4 content. A figure of 4.0 must be completely blown out is it not?

 

So I've used the BRO settings for Maintalbahn, and this is one of the routes where the benefit of the work from JetWash is just amazing!

Stock:


Jetwash (BRO):


So the route can look beautiful...

 

Query: how do you transfer an existing route profile to a new route that JW hasn't made one for yet? On Blackpool I can't even get the GodMode menu to come up.

 

For GodMode to come up, you'll need an updated version. Version 0.42 and 0.43 were published today to support Maintalbahn, prior to that it didn't work there either. https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/mods/c3-train-sim-world/c75-utilities/i2703-tsw-god-mode-alpha-043

In GodMode, you can click the small "ini" button in the top right, select a route (like BRO) in the dropdown and you'll see its .ini contents. Copy them, use the dropdown again to go to the route you want the settings applied to (like Maintalbahn) and paste the settings there.

 

I can't even get the menu bar, so no .ini icon to be clicked on. Even though per the manual Blackpool is included in the version (3.4) I have.

 

Do you have the current version of God Mode (0.4.3, not 3.4) installed? God Mode supports Blackpool from version 0.4.0 upwards, that'll give you the menu bar, and if you use a current .sav of this lighting mod (3.4) the .ini field in the menu bar will be populated for Blackpool.

 

That was the problem; still had old version of God Mode. Installed the current one, works great.

 

That’s all great news, and that copying is working and giving good results. Remember in this instance you can use the skylight intensity slider in the ‘Environmental Settings’ of GodMode to set it back to 1.0 then adjust to suit your new route. When you hit a figure you’re happy with go into the dynamic.ini and replace the existing skylight intensity setting with your new number. The line to edit is this;

r.SkylightIntensityMultiplier=

I’m hoping to get v3.5 out later today or tomorrow (more likely tomorrow) which addresses a number of issues and adds Niddertalbahn and Left Rhine to the presets.

The biggest change (other than those additions) is that solicitr ‘s mention of the gamma on non-ToD4 routes made me go back and look again at them. After a bit of experimentation I’ve completely re-done the lighting on all the TSW2 and earlier DLC which looks much much better than it did. I’ve added the skylight intensity and autumn tree commands into the those routes as well as adding a command which clamps the jittering on stationary objects (particularly the OH wires and catenary) that is particularly bad on those older DLC. If the default jittering is 100% I’d say this command reduces it to 10% or less. A noticeable improvement.

As a result of the above I’ve now stopped using the ReShade TAA shader so will remove that as a recommendation and from the manual. No longer using it buys back a few FPS which is never a bad thing. Finally, I’ve also gone through the manual and tidied it up further.

Cheers & thanks for using the mod.

 

look nice thank u

 

Version 3.5 up on TSC. Changelog below;

- Added pre-sets for Niddertalbahn and Linke Rheinstrecke
- Fine-tuning of various parameters across a number of ToD4 DLC
- Rebuilt the lighting on pre-ToD4 routes from scratch
- Added command to clamp the jittering seen when stationary on TSW2 and earlier routes back in. With that I’ve removed the recommendation to use the ReShade TAA shader and, therefore, have removed it from the manual
- Updated manual (version 1.4)

TSW4 - Lighting & Graphic Enhancement Version 3.5 - Train Sim Community

 

I believe it's either sherman hill or the one with the metrolink?

 

I honestly don't know why the North American routes are painted with such scant regard. The European routes get more attention it seems

 

Hey everyone,

Apologies if this one is a bit blunt but I just want to put to bed the myth that there is no such thing as a stupid question. 99% of questions I’m getting about this incredibly easy to use mod are covered in the manual. I wrote it for a reason, if you haven’t read it already and are having an issue then please do. If your issue isn’t covered in the manual then let me know and if valid I will add it.

I’m happy to help anyone improve their experience of the game, and particularly in using this mod, but at least do me the courtesy of reading the manual before asking a question. Only if the manual hasn’t been read do they become ‘stupid’ questions.

Thankyou

 

Maybe Because they are American? If this seems a bit cynical on my part, it is not intended to be hurtful rude, or crude, it is the nature of the beast.

And with the issues of licensing and getting the access wasn't as difficult as it's stated, maybe things would be different. Then again look at how the American rail and train industry is, I see and have seen just in the area I'm in how long it takes to correct just A single crossing, not to mention how guarded things are. And if it was not for the modding community, The American routes wouldn't look as well as they are.

 

How do I install this ?

 

Just had my first run on Niddertalbahn with the mod installed and it was incredibly beautiful, thanks so much!

For the low preset, the ToD 3 settings include the r.D3D.ForceDXC and r.Shaders.FastMath rules while those for ToD 4 don't, is there any reason for that? They don't seem to break anything, so I don't think I have to remove them (despite using DX11), but still wondering why those settings are there for older routes but missing on newer ones?

Also, in my opinion disabling checkpoints is a bit intrusive for a lighting mod. I know savegames can be wonky on some routes anyway, but they did save me from having to fully restart 1h+ runs after SPADing near the end, multiple times, so I consider checkpoints a core game functionality. Having to re-enable them for every route separately, after every update, is pretty tedious. If you want to keep that setting, would you mind moving it to the Engine.ini section in the manual, where the ts2.dbg.JourneyChapterLockOverride=1 setting is recommended already?

 

Low is lighting changes only, therefore anything performance related is removed. Feel free to add it back should you wish. Low was also intended for people who would rather use DX11 to be able to do so without having to start hacking through the files the,selves removing those commands.

This isn’t just a lighting mod, if it were ‘low’ would be all that’s there. It’s lighting, graphics and (by extension) performance. The checkpoint saving causes the game to pause / hitch hence I disabled it. In the manual it says;



Just as you might want them enabled I absolutely guarantee if I enable it across the board I will have people complaining that I’ve done so. This is the sort of thing that DTG should have as options in the menu but as they don’t I have to make a call on it. In my opinion disabling it and therefore removing the pausing is better than leaving it enabled. If you have longer routes that you’d rather have it enabled on then it literally takes less than 5 seconds to do. You do ‘t have to ritually go through every route after an update but simply change a route as and when you play it. As I said, it takes seconds.

Hope that adds some context.