TSW Users Among Us

[buzz456]

What's PBR and fbx? Not that I'm going anywhere from TSC but just for educational purposes.

[harryadkins]

Thanks for the great discussion. You've confirmed my observations regarding TSW and Trainz. As for me, I am firmly a TSC fan and think it is an amazing product to have lasted and improved this long. I hope that DTG and other developers will continue to support TSC I've bought several routes and scenario packs this year and a well pleased.

Harry

[cnwfan]

What's PBR and fbx? Not that I'm going anywhere from TSC but just for educational purposes.

PBR is physical based rendering. It uses light ray tracing to replicate how light interacts with materials. Material properties such as roughness, opacity, and metallic causes light rays to bounce back differently. Game engines, such as Unreal and Unity use PBR based shaders to replicate how light rays travel. That is how TSW gets it "photo realistic" look in the game.

FBX is a common 3D model format used by most 3D modeling programs. With TSC, you have to export a model to an IGS format using a special exporter. Then TSC utilities converts the IGS format into their geopcdx format. It would be nice if TSC could just use an FBX format model to convert from, thus eliminating an extra exporter.

[Boss1]

Thanks for the great discussion. You've confirmed my observations regarding TSW and Trainz. As for me, I am firmly a TSC fan and think it is an amazing product to have lasted and improved this long. I hope that DTG and other developers will continue to support TSC I've bought several routes and scenario packs this year and a well pleased.

Harry

I agree, TSC is an amazing product that I have used since its beginning as Railworks. I also hope both payware and freeware developers continue producing more amazing content for TSC.

I will continue to use both TSC and TRAINZ 22 in the future. As for TSW, I have become bored with it and will not purchase anymore editions.

[GSkid]

I occasionally load up TSW and TSC, but I've stopped regularly playing them to concentrate on my huge backlog of games I need to play. It also doesn't help that Europe and the UK are clearly their priority over USA content. And the USA content that we have gotten has been mainly commuter train based with some freight operations. I lean more towards freight trains in general. So unless that changes, I won't be playing it that often.

[lucas]

is train sim world 4 something i should consider buying? currently i have trainz 22 and train sim classic and i mainly enjoy running steam on early 1900s routes. i heard train sim world doesnt have many of those but i dont know for sure.

[cnwfan]

If early US steam ops is the focus, TSW[x] isn't going to get you there. It's primarily modern content with a heavy emphasis on European ops. There are US ops, but it's mostly commuter with some freight ops. If route building is your thing, then I would stick with TSC and Trainz. Just my though.

[GSkid]

is train sim world 4 something i should consider buying? currently i have trainz 22 and train sim classic and i mainly enjoy running steam on early 1900s routes. i heard train sim world doesnt have many of those but i dont know for sure.

It's sort of a tricky question. Although I love trains in general, I tend to like and play diesel-electric/gas turbine ones almost exclusively in sims. I do own steam locomotives in TSC because they came included with routes I purchased. But I have only played around with them a few times.

TSW 4 comes with the British Flying Scotsman steam locomotive if you purchase either the Deluxe Edition or the Special Edition. You could also purchase TSW 5 or the upcoming TSW 6 and just buy the DLC if you want the later version of the sim. The only other steam locos in TSW off the top of my head is the British LMS Class 4F, LMS Class 8F and Thomas the Tank engine. None of which I knowingly own unless they came included with a route in a TSW base package I own.

There is no American Steam in TSW and likely never will be. This is because based on threads I've read on the official DTG forums on the future of steam trains in TSW, it seems the current steam ones are wonky. That DTG has had trouble making them operate well in TSW due to scripting headaches with development in the Unreal game engine and have at least paused all steam locomotive development indefinitely with the sim.

I would have you really take a serious look at the train sim called "Railroader".....

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1683150/Railroader/

Although I don't own it, it seems to be chock-full of old steam locomotives and reviews for it are outstanding.

There is a Florida-based Youtuber called "Schnauzahpowahz".....

https://www.youtube.com/@schnauzahpowahz/videos

He does a bunch of in-depth videos on the Railroader sim and each of it's locomotives. There is no better place to get all the nitty-gritty on the sim as well as other train sims. Watch them before you buy to see if it's right for you. His video thumbnails make it easy to find them. He has a ton of videos going back a ways on the Railroader sim. He's fair and funny in his assessment of train sims. He is a one stop shop for train sim in-depth reviews and their DLC/mods content.

Another highly rated 2nd option sim for steam trains is "Derail Valley".....

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5880 ... il_Valley/


Hope this all helps you. Welcome to our forums!