Railworks America

Finally a studio update turns up! Some background info on the latest DLC plus some progress updates on CSX:HH engine simulation and the editor.

February 2019 Studio Update

Good to hear CSX:HH and NEC:NYC are getting some love and attention from DTG again.

Bring those physics improvements on and start working on improving the other areas of these DLC, like sounds, particles, occlusion etc.

CSX:HH will remain the compulsory base asset still upon which all other DLC are dependent?

So once incorporated, any physics, sounds, particles improvements become available to the other DLC as well?

Glad to hear the editor is getting closer!

Great news.
Time to pull our socks.

It seems that they still do not care about the sound of the locomotives, the smoke from the chimneys that, in TSW, is very bad, not to say horrible.

VITORMARQUES wrote:It seems that they still do not care about the sound of the locomotives, the smoke from the chimneys that, in TSW, is very bad, not to say horrible.

This statement adds no value to the conversation. We can talk about "What if" and "They screwed me and you too!" scenarios till the cows come home. The truth is that they are not obligated to share their roadmap or bug list with us. What they have shown is incremental improvements to the product.

“DTG is not obligated” and nobody wonders why?
But it helps to be transparent and open for DTG to restore faith in their products and intentions, which for me is lacking.

TSW newly announced DLC is more of the same boring back and forth running with fixed consists to a fixed schedule, ready made for the consoles and kids hunting for collectibles with us PC players only being the guinea pigs.

My wallet does the voting and it said “no” even to a 20% introductory discount , knowing the DLC will be 50% off in the next sale after the first and when the reviews and bug reports have come in. Perhaps it is even better to wait for an updated DLC bundled with the promised extra stock?

Bring on the fixed US Diesel physics and the promised Editor and I will evaluate and reconsider spending money on TSW again.

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha well said

... and improving the sound and the effect of smoking on locomotives is not a product improvement / simulation? To me it gives me a tremendous pleasure to hear a perfect snoring in the trains and to see the effect of the smoke when there is an acceleration or the opposite, perhaps to many aficionados also, reason why there are passionate of this simulation only to produce these effects. In some views, in this simulator, I do not even hear the sound of the locomotives, and I have everything materior the best ... however I will continue to buy this product, to give support because the graphics ... there is no better ...

Yes, the models of locomotives and cars are well made. DTG has contracted these out to professional 3D artists.

It is the implementation of physics, lighting, sounds, particles using the UE4 game engine that is DTG’s task.
I am still not convinced UE4 is the right game engine or wether DTG really has mastered its every detail.
Self illumination of locomotive exterior and interiors, the use of light and shadow in the cabin, gamma and/or HDR, glass and weather effects thereon, still need improvements IMO when looking at rolling stock in detail.

The new DLC still has all locos bright red, glowing even in the darkest of weather.

February 21 the DLC will be released and we’ll have first reviews within a couple of hours, and more thorough evaluations within days. And the usual fanbois vs critics arguments flaming up again.
SteamDB graphs should have the usual peak before player numbers drop again.

VITORMARQUES wrote: ... however I will continue to buy this product, to give support because the graphics ... there is no better ...

And THAT is why nothing will ever be fixed.

I can't wait for those tools

Overshoe wrote:

VITORMARQUES wrote: ... however I will continue to buy this product, to give support because the graphics ... there is no better ...

And THAT is why nothing will ever be fixed.

Plus one. I can really care less about graphics. If the trains run and play like butt, I won't touch them or support the company behind them. There's far better options in the 3rd party community on TS Legacy than what DTG is offering.
In the article they talked about how AC4400CWs work, but as AC4400CWs are our pet project and a lot of time has been spent researching them, two notebooks filled on trips that I ran them, I doubt I'll be impressed.

Boss1 wrote:Glad to hear the editor is getting closer!

Hmmmm, well, not quite, we have now found out through the DTG grapevine that a Closed BETA comes before the Open BETA, and after that comes all the tweaks to get things right before they release anything to the Global community, so, as it is March next week, I would hazard a guess that there could be another 3-6 months before the community sees anything to play with, so, not as close as many folks might think......

Cheerz. Steve.

In the meantime all sorts of fun stuff goes on with TS2019. It will be interesting if these folks can rescue this wounded duck.