What Happened With The Hell Gate Bridge ? :(

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by MaxBenchip, Mar 18, 2026 at 5:00 PM.

  1. mortal1234

    mortal1234 Well-Known Member

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    Looks like a spotlight shining on the train. Like it’s glowing for some reason. I think this is more to do with TSW rather than the route itself…
     
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  2. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    I have just accepted that in TSW's world, overhead lines in tunnels are made out of Radium, and that's why they glow blue all the time. I assume an engineering decision to assist workers maintaining them if the lights go out.
     
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  3. trainsimuser

    trainsimuser Well-Known Member

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    Did they use illuminated paint lol
     
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  4. dtg_jan

    dtg_jan Community Manager Staff Member

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    Hello folks,

    As a quick note, based on your feedback, I have internally flagged that the pillars of the Hell Gate Bridge are looking like this, and I have created a ticket for our team to investigate. The asset is definitely textured, but it seems that certain lighting conditions and distances can cause it to appear as shown in those screenshots.

    All the best,
    Jan
     
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  5. jonnyd7

    jonnyd7 Well-Known Member

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    Maybe I think differently that others in here, but the lighting in a game will never be 100% accurate because your monitor or TV can’t help you see details in extreme light or extreme dark the way your eyes can see it in real life. While some of the lighting can be improved in the game, I’m not going to expect GCT to be as dark as in real life because we wouldn’t be able to see anything just off the platform.
     
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  6. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    For a comparison, here's what the texture looks like on my engine.ini designed to massively tone down the washed out extremes of TOD4
    upload_2026-3-20_2-40-34.png

    Is there a texture scaling issue at play too here? The bricks are about 30% the size they ought to be according to IRL photos of the bridge.
     
  7. Double Yellow

    Double Yellow Well-Known Member

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    Don’t worry guys DLSS 5 will fix the bridge not looking realistic enough ;)
     
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  8. Inkar

    Inkar Well-Known Member

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    Look carefully the texture of the pillars that hold the path to the bridge. DTG applied that texture to everything instead of making the texture of the big bricks for the main pillars and upper part of the bridge.

    Thats the problem.

    hellgatebridge.jpg

    They said they made pretty much everything in this area from scratch, EXCEPT the bridge (unfortunately). Bet it is the same they had in the original TSW1 route.

    They probably didnt need to re-build it completely. Even if it is very noticeable the relatively low polygon count (for today's standards) of the arches at the top, just changing that texture was pretty much all that was necessary to make the bridge not look like LOVE.

    This is like episode 2 of Secaucus Junction. If memory does not fail me, people complained a lot because it was terrible in the Trenton DLC, and DTG put the same thing again in the Morristown Line.

    Its the kind of thing that is so low quality that hurts the eyes. DLCs that could easily be a 6 or 7 just drop in my list to a 3 or 4 because I just don't want to see those assets. Makes me angry each time I see them. Its like throwing all the good work that is around them down the drain.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2026 at 5:02 AM
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  9. Inkar

    Inkar Well-Known Member

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    I'm sure it will make it look exactly like the Golden Gate. :D
     
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  10. trainfan#6965

    trainfan#6965 Well-Known Member

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    Nobody is paying £32.99 for this LOVE
     
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  11. chieflongshin

    chieflongshin Well-Known Member

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    Had a read through this posts so far and I really disappointed someone hasn't mentioned the blade of grass missed out beside the bridge, alongside that stubborn bit of platform based chewing gum (blue piece) that everyone trips over.

    Instead, in over 50 miles of world we've latched onto other things, Release posts are always fascinating to see how people perceive things.

    I've put a good few hours through this now and I noticed there was some decent service variation, getting into GCT is fun at times, heading from Stamford into Penn has a really nice scenically dense area which looks great at night with fog. You'll find some areas whereby you have parallel running , yard moves, and the rubbish trains are nice relaxing runs too.

    Please see attached below the missing blade of grass near the person on the mat which I think is a huge immersion breaker, stands out hugely (Disclaimer - This part may be satirical based on the peculiarities I have smiled about in here)

    upload_2026-3-20_5-57-45.jpeg

    If you have not bought the route though I would say think of LIRR2, busier, more scenery and some really nice unique assets within it.

    Enjoy the route folks.
     
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  12. trainsimuser

    trainsimuser Well-Known Member

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    People are entitled to have an opinon. At the end of the day they are spending money on a paid product. If they find something wrong or not right are you saying they should keep quiet ??

    By not pointing out issues then how do you expect them to get fixed. Feedback is always welcome by any developer be is positive or negative. If no one was to say anything then nothing would ever get fixed.
     
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  13. chieflongshin

    chieflongshin Well-Known Member

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    I totally agree with you. This is why I balanced the grass feedback with good feedback too. I have to recognise not everything will be a 100% representation but I can still really enjoy driving a train on the line without it.

    Appreciate your viewpoint
     
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  14. Anthony Pecoraro

    Anthony Pecoraro Well-Known Member

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    Secaucus was updated in Morristown.
     
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  15. Double Yellow

    Double Yellow Well-Known Member

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    Or DLSS 5 will give some fancy sliver paint when it renders it ;)
     
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  16. mortal1234

    mortal1234 Well-Known Member

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    Any reason why the real Hells Gate hasn’t had a fresh lick of paint ??. It looks like it really needs it…
     
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  17. Inkar

    Inkar Well-Known Member

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    Yes, I think they fixed the invisible floor and not sure if they did much more. The point is it looks worse than everything else in the route.
     
  18. Anthony Pecoraro

    Anthony Pecoraro Well-Known Member

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    There is a wall added between the 2 tracks on the outbound side, different platform textures, new lamp posts, improved ceiling.
     
  19. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    DLSS5 will turn it into the Tyne Bridge, and do the same on any future Sydney route, the way phone filters all keep overwriting photos with the same moon.
     
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  20. Double Yellow

    Double Yellow Well-Known Member

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    I’m not impressed with DLSS 5 from what I saw on the NVidia trailer. It just undermines all the work that goes into character art and modelling. None of the comparison images I’ve seen with DLSS 5 on/off look remotely close to their counterparts. I really hope this isn’t the future the gaming industry is heading towards.
     
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  21. Inkar

    Inkar Well-Known Member

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    Watched a video of Secaucus in the Trenton Line (didn't buy that one) and you are actually right.
    It is really bad in Morristown Line but it was even worse in the Trenton Line (wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it).

    Still terrible, but at least they tried to do something about it even if it wasn't a lot.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2026 at 6:45 PM
  22. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    You don't like a Digitally Layered Slop Slathering all over your games?
     
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  23. Double Yellow

    Double Yellow Well-Known Member

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    What gave it away? ;)
    DLSS5 and its lazy Ai slop has no business in the gaming industry.
     
  24. jonnyd7

    jonnyd7 Well-Known Member

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    Just need a way to get to the lower level platforms. I found a way at the north end of the station upper level to get there and even found a way to get trains through there to go into Hoboken and get around me the “end of the line” message just outside the tunnel. Wish we had it open for us though to ride some of the AI routes in Hoboken though since it’s strictly Diesel on that route!
     
  25. KitsuneKiera

    KitsuneKiera Well-Known Member

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    Probably the only true fix for this kind of stuff would be Raytracing whether in hardware or in the case of UE5 software Lumen. Considering DTG are so bad at doing lighting it may be one of the only places where RT is actually a game changer.
     
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  26. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    Agreed. But we're basically talking either an update to the engine from 4.23 to 4.27, or a fresh game in UE5 (Possibly the option that's less work at this point) in order for that to be an option. The only issue I can see is that TSW is so heavy on hardware as is, that the extra load of RT might push framerates to single digits on all but the most powerful systems.
     
  27. eldomtom2

    eldomtom2 Well-Known Member

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    Plenty of UE games without raytracing that have better lighting than TSW...
     
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  28. KitsuneKiera

    KitsuneKiera Well-Known Member

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    But clearly DTG don’t have the skill/time to make rasterized lighting look good, hence why I say that TSW may be one of the only games where RT would be worth it. RT was always supposed to make lighting easier to implement since it’s all calculated in realtime as opposed to devs needing to know all the tricks to ‘fake’ it, you place your light sources and the engine handles the rest.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2026 at 1:26 PM
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  29. Disintegration7

    Disintegration7 Well-Known Member

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    In this economy?!
     
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