News on Tools?

[Bananarama]

A bit of thread drift, no?

[Tomcat]

I occasionally watch Matt Peddlesden's Twitch stream and someone asked him about TSW tools 4 or 5 days ago to which he replied that since DTG has not made an official statement he can't either. I've heard no rumors either beyond folks guessing that it will be later this year which is about as helpful as someone guessing that the sun will rise tomorrow.

I'd be happy to get my hands on the tools right now no matter what shape they are in, even sans instructions.

[buzz456]

I am sure the sun will come up tomorrow. All else is just speculation at this point. Please stand by for real news.

[dogrokket]

A bit of thread drift, no?

Yes indeed. I have been working on a route for a few years now, and ceased operations as soon as I played with TSW. The graphics and game play, IMHO, is pretty amazing. I go back and forth between flight simming and train simming and in both worlds, we move on to new platforms. FSX, while still a great platform, is dying on the vine, replaced by Prepare 3d, which to me, looks the same, but whatever. DCS World is moving on to 2.5 and all for good reasons. The tech framework is constantly changing and game makers are going with it.

From the sniffing around that I've done, I know that TSW is built on the Unreal Engine platform (UE4), which looks to be a very powerful and versatile game engine which works on Mac as well as MS. While DT has not put out any tools yet, to my knowledge, the game engine is available for free and like Blender, there are plenty of YouTube vids and tutorials out there to help us get our feet wet. Here is the link to UE4:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/GettingStarted/index.html You can download the Unreal Engine dealio from this page; you merely have to set up an account.

At first glance, you might go all apoplectic (I did- another bunch of new tools to learn), but being that it is in prolific use out there in the gaming community, there should be a lot of resources to help us along. I downloaded the UE4 engine yesterday, but have not tinkered with it yet (I'm afraid... ), but there are some things right up front that I see that are positives: First up, for you Blender users! There is no need for a secondary exporting script... You merely export your mesh as an autocad format, but what is different, is that materials are exported individually, instead of in one fell swoop. This, and I don't use 3d Crafter, so I didn't look for this, but I imagine it's similar, can simplify the use of all those different shaders that we used in the BP editor. It looks to me like you add them from a menu in the UE4 GUI.

I've also googled how to load DEM data into UE4, and it appears to be on a similar difficulty level as TS.

Soooo, I'm not trying to sell this, but I'm just looking at the glass half full. My guess is, that you could make a whole new Train Game in Unreal Engine and call it whatever you want, like HackWorld or Dogrokket's Train Sim, but I have no desire to go charging down a dark road with no lights on!

If I were DTG, I would be working on a subroutine that standardizes that editing process and keeps all TSW DLC and home developers on the same page, so to speak. I really don't want to have to devote time to making track, trees, grass, dirt, dirty snow, yellow snow, etc, I want to have some of the basic framework that the BP Editor gave us in TS. That said, from what I see, it should be doable and in the long run, the possibilities will pay off. Heck, the first time I delved into TSW, I thought I was in a photographic movie world! Long story short, UE4 looks to be a great game engine. We just need DTG to build a framework that we can work in.

[buzz456]

"If I were DTG, I would be working on a subroutine that standardizes that editing process and keeps all TSW DLC and home developers on the same page, so to speak. I really don't want to have to devote time to making track, trees, grass, dirt, dirty snow, yellow snow, etc, I want to have some of the basic framework that the BP Editor gave us in TS. That said, from what I see, it should be doable and in the long run, the possibilities will pay off. Heck, the first time I delved into TSW, I thought I was in a photographic movie world! Long story short, UE4 looks to be a great game engine. We just need DTG to build a framework that we can work in."

Assuming this is possible it's a shame that they didn't do this before introducing the game to begin with. I know I might be kind of hard core when it comes to amount of time I spend with this whole thing, however after doing everything I had any urge to do on the one route available and finding plenty of things I would want to modify I grew weary of it and haven't been back since. Since it was hot muggy and buggy yesterday I went into my little corner and spent a couple of hours changing some lights out on a locomotive, a couple of hours route building and a couple of hours actually train simming. If all I was looking for was great graphics I would spend the day watching Mystery Train's vids. I am not negative about TSW I just give it a major incomplete.

[Bananarama]

I feel similar, and it's difficult to jump into the UE4 editors without a solid TSW roadmap to follow. This is especially true in regards to DEM - I've read up on the whole process, and to me it seems to be several leaps back in terms of what we're used to. I don't mind jumping through hoops once in a while (convert to this and then to that), but the accepted way of importing greyscale maps, figuring its scale and proportions, and then importing with little means of confirming accuracy, is something better left to the 1990s and Win95.

To me it's like getting a new car that looks good, drives well and has plenty of potential, but nonetheless is locked within a small and gated community. It gets pretty boring driving the same road over and over, and soon the it goes back into the garage to collect dust. Only when DTG gives us the keys to the gate can we go out and explore, burn some rubber and put our new ride through its paces. I can hardly wait.

[dogrokket]

I agree with you guys. I see the potential, but this is like watching sausage making. Oh well, hope they get an editor out sooner than later! I was looking at all the stuff that I've already put in my route and thought aw jeeze. That's gonna be a pain in the butt to redo.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

I think DTG are struggling to bring the UE4 editor down to Konsole Kiddies level while still keep it functional as intended for train make up, scenario creation and world editing.

My mind boggles when even thinking about the scripting needed to put an engine on a piece of track, couple some cars behind it, give it a path to follow, i.e. to make up a train.

I expect the actual asset creation still very much to be a full fledged UE4 editor affair.

[Derek]

Hi, sorry no new news on tools yet, but as I have said they will come in due course.

regards

Derek

[SAR704]

I don't think I've seen a piece of 3d modelling software specifically for one game built in to it, but this sounds like a great idea.

The only problem is having two use two different programs to export to the TSW format, and the TS IGS/whatever files.

It should be optional, otherwise it's like having Origin and Steam coexisting for game hosting... Obviously with EA software being hosted in the former with Steam not being an option.

[sumitsingh]

Is prior knowledge of C++ required to handle TSW from a content maker point of view?

[bnsfsubdivision]

Is prior knowledge of C++ required to handle TSW from a content maker point of view?

No.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

What is the most common scripting language on the UE4 engine? Or more precisely, what language is used by TSW?

Steamcharts shows the interest in TSW is waning. I think most players have run their services and got bored.
Only train and scenario creating tools can revive my interest in TSW, and with a lot of other players as well.

[Boss1]

What is the most common scripting language on the UE4 engine? Or more precisely, what language is used by TSW?

Steamcharts shows the interest in TSW is waning. I think most players have run their services and got bored.
Only train and scenario creating tools can revive my interest in TSW, and with a lot of other players as well.

I agree, I have run their services and am bored! Hoping for DTG to release more locomotives, routes, and a scenario editor.

[cbff33]

I uninstalled TSW. After seeing the multitudes of bugs reported going back to the beta, and most of those bugs not being resolved, DTG has proven that it is all about rivet counting, and keeping control of their product. They should change the name of the product to TAW. Train Arcade World.