Railworks America

Looks like Dovetail is finally giving users the tools to build their own routes (and locomotives) in Train Sim World. Could this be what's needed to finally spark a renaissance in the train sim genre?

https://live.dovetailgames.com/live/train-sim-world/articles/article/train-sim-world-4-coming-soon?utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dtg-tsw4-launch-standard-22-8-23&utm_id=dtg

I had completely ignored the TSW series altogether till now as a result of no route editor and no tools to allow content creation as I suspect many others have as well. It will be interesting to see how receptive folks are to these tools and if any payware vendors will bite at what is being offered with the PC version. I won't be jumping ship anytime soon but still it may be interesting to experiment much like I did with Rail Simulator / Railworks for a few years while still using MSTS. My only gripe with TS Classic and all other Rail Sims is with route editors in general. It takes far too long to build detailed routes of any considerable length yourself, especially if you are short on personal time due to a busy career and then spending what little time is left with your family and other necessary matters where you may only have an hour or two here and there, it can take years to build your own route. It gets to the point where you forget where you left off with your route at times. Automation of some features of route building would be a game changer for me if it allowed me to get to the finish line quicker yet not comprise the level of detail I was trying to convey within my route. Plunking down track, roads, trees, grass, bush, terrain and even some structures can all be automated as I showed in a post years ago. Even with TS Classic I had always thought that there is more that can be automated given some of the prototype tools made over the years like KRS Tools (not supported anymore) which plunked down forests and terrain textures quickly. I can only imagine what could potentially be done with TSW which I will be watching with interest to see where things go.

I agree. TSW has not earned my respect yet, so I will wait and see how others evaluate this package.

Harry

I logged back in to see if after 10 years it could possibly be true that an editor would be available. I have sort of followed TSW and found it to be barely incrementally better. It just doesn't pop. The unreal engine is capable of much more, because it seems like a huge amount of effort was spent on locomotive detail and route faithfulness at the expense of look and feel. Some of the textures could be from TS Classic and the LOD limits have whole forests popping in and out of existence. Give the unreal engine, It's certainly understandable that these issues pose significant challenges that have taken these past 10 years to sort out.

I would suggest that putting an editor in the hands of gifted artists and engineers is one important way to overcome these challenges, and that this has always been true.

So, we shall indeed see. Interesting that Run8 and Trainz didn't catch on so much meantime.

Hope everyone is doing well!

jK

Hopefully you will be able to port over all older content including Sand Patch grade.

This is a very surprising development. DTG talked about having an editor before the launch of TSW1. When it didn't launch with one, they said it would come in the future. Then a few years later, they basically said it was dead in water. Now all of a sudden it"s back and on the way. Kudos to them for finally following through with their initial promise.

The sheer amount of new features they are adding to TSW4 makes it the biggest single upgrade ever to either TSW or TS Classic. I'd rank when TS Classic got a new graphics engine (Dynamic Lighting) over 10 years ago as the second most impactful upgrade to their sims. I'm looking forward to the new free roam mode.

I was kinda shocked and happy they have the Antelope Valley commuter route. It was originally part of the Southern Pacific railroad's freight route from their Taylor yard in Los Angeles up to Mojave. Then over Tehachapi Pass, up the San Joaquin Valley to their Roseville Yard where trains start over Donner Pass.

When SP built the Palmdale Cutoff over Cajon Pass in 1967, they slowly phased out this original line. Freight operations effectively stopped in 1979....a year before the Palmdale Cutoff went from dark territory to CTC signaling in 1980. The Taylor Yard terminal was closed in 1985 and most of the yard demolished in 1988. West Colton yard took over classification operations from it. SP sold the line in 1990 and they would eventually become Metrolink's tracks. Metrolink has a maintenance facility that was built on the southern end of the old Taylor yard grounds.

Union Pacific (having merged with SP) is allowed to send the occasional freight train over this route to Mojave when they have track issues on the Palmdale Cutoff. But they are almost always at night when Metrolink has no trains running. When UP's Coastline route is closed for major track work, Amtrak detour's their Coast Starlight trains over this route too. The southern half of the route snakes through Soledad Canyon and is the most scenic part. The northern part is high desert terrain.

Looking forward to it!

Cranked up my old project for TSW.
All these presentations are in unreal engine.

LONGHOOD


SHORTHOOD


BOGIE/TRUCK


COUPLERS


SIDE PROFILE


CABIN (HAND PAINTED)


https://vimeo.com/866303070

nehasingh wrote:Cranked up my old project for TSW.

Absolutely beautiful texture work! (..and modeling)

Holy cow
That looks more real than the real ones.

That is one fine piece of locomotive! Brilliant!

Here's a spec sheet on the editor. I loaded it up and there will be a learning curve. The "import assets" accepts a wealth of file types, but not Blender directly that I can tell. But I know next to nothing about it at this early stage.

https://dovetailgames.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/80001089320-train-sim-world-4-pc-editor-beta-faq#What-can-you-create-with-the-PC-Editor?

Started my project