Why does it take so long to complete routes/DLC on Train Sim World 2? I had the first release of Train Simulator a few years ago and new DLC seemed to be released every couple of weeks. Is it because they have to create three games (PC/Xbox/Playstation)? I appreciate the routes are higher quality that the original Train Simulator routes.
Most of the routes include bespoke assets which take a while to model accurately. The quality in TSW compared with TS is poles apart too.
Train Simulator also has a ton of 3rd party developers releasing their content on Steam as well, something TSW only has 3 of ATM (Rivet, Skyhook, and TSG).
Maybe the fact that much of the company is working remotely has something to do with it. I'm sure they have the latest technology, but it's bound to slow things down.
When were routes being rapidly released in TSx? I've been playing that for a few years now and the DTG releases have always been one every few months. Yes other devs released in the meantime, but not DTG I would imagine the definition of the routes also accounts for the dev time required to make TSW routes a bit, as does the QA which they have in place now, which they didn't as much previously.
As rightly pointed out above, there are a large number of 3rd party teams releasing new material for Train Simulator, while Train Sim World is a more exclusive crowd for now. It's also a far more labor intensive task to make a route for TSW, particular when we regularly focus on adding new functionality where we can.
Thanks DTG Protagonist, I thought that would be the case. Will 3rd party teams be able to work of more new material for TSW in the future?
1: Getting a licence . This may take days or weeks to ask for a licence and get it 2: Planning the locos , route length , etc . 3: Research. In many cases a few people from the dtg team will have to go to a different country to gather resources for a route . 4: Art . There may be lots of difficulties in making a route , for example the scenery may be difficult to place 5: The final piece will quite possibly have bugs , as it is extremely difficult to produce something with so much technology and not have anything wrong with it , so dtg will need extra time to remove these bugs . After this the route should then be ready to release
For a single route, we can easily be looking at 10, 20 even 30 miles or more, Google maps will tell them so much, even videos or visiting the location, But getting all of these details, landmarks and assets in place for one mile might take days, even weeks, So for 30 miles it could literally take months. Then there's the stations, overall detail and accuracy of those, which might take another team months of research and asset creation. The locomotives, Some are hard to find, and even harder to get raw footage of, which would mean part of the team have to travel to them, as well as get permission to see more than just a standard passenger section, (increasingly difficult with the current world climate and the pandemic). But while the scenery and stations need to be accurate looking, a locomotive has to feel, sound and perform as expected as well, accurate speed, acceleration and braking, all of which could again take multiple months. The scenario and timetable creation is all much more straight forward, But then when everything above is done, there's then the task of merging it all together into one package, And even when complete, there's certification, Which usually takes 2 weeks, IF it passes first time, If Sony/MS pick up the slightest issue, there's then days/weeks to squish bugs, before it's then resubmitted, with yet another 1 week+ each time it re-enters certification. When all of that is finished, Then they can set a release date, leak content, and throw together any last minute patches to go live 0-day or on day-1but no matter what, Creating DLC for any game takes months and months, So to see something new every few months means they're doing a damn good job.
IMO, they should take more time to work on routes. 2-4 months just ain't enough. Lot's of detail and quality is lost in certain places.
Well it's like developing any other content. It takes time to create content. But with TSW2 locos fully 3d modelled so you walk thorough them. Then theres all the coding involved. Making the route realistic as possible aswell.
