End of TSRE is near------

[haverfordwest]

As someone who ventures in both TSW2, TS2022, ORTS. I will say, ORTS still has the most realistic looking environment, and feel.

So in your opinion buddy, which routes have this realistic looking feel to them, in OR ?

Mike.

[geepster775]

Those joining the hobby anew are quite content to buy DTG TS or TSW and have a ready to go simulator.

I can't speak for other areas around the globe, but ORTS does have a North American plug and play option right now. Download the app from the open rails website and add 4 payware routes from a vendor that is linkable from the Open Rails website that are designed intentionally to be segregated FAR FAR FAR away from any MSTS or Trainsim file library legacy material. Road and track systems are auto-installed via the route installers into a shadow ORTS installation that no new user coming from the Steam side who is seeking the simple life ever needs to be aware of. The route vendor collaborated with Goku to host a simple one click install version of the TSRE consist editor, so NO Trainsim forum account (or any other freeware sharing website account) is ever required. Only 4 routes now, but 4 more on the way.

[CSRX]

So in your opinion buddy, which routes have this realistic looking feel to them, in OR ?

Mike.

Anything from Trainsimulations, as their recent Mullan Pass and Ruel Sub routes have raised the bar.

CP MacTeir Sub, with updated textures by Ted K.
CN Blackfoot Sub, also updated by Ted K.
Paul Charlands Dominion Atlantic, Conn River Line, and Springfield Terminal routes.
L&HR 1970's and 1940's versions.

All of which, have a much better overall realistic environment than anything I have touched in TSW2, TS2022. Sorry if that offends you.


I'll even toss in my own route I am building.

ORTS:
MEC Mountain Division


MRL Mullan Pass


CN Ruel Sub



And now some TSW2, TS2022, that in my opinion, looks very cartoonish, and very dark, making it unrealistic. I even made adjustments to the ambient brightness, contrast, and sun light, and it still look, cartoonish.
Marias Pass


Alaska Railroad


B&O Mountain Sub



End result, I treat ORTS like an actual simulator and game mixture. TSW/TS2022, I treat as simply a game, with no realism, just plug and play.

[R. Steele]

For the most part -- the usual >>> TeapotTempestLarge.jpg -- but Shawn's comparison screenshots do show some truth about the visuals ( this from a commercial photo lab owner/operator and Dye Transfer {look it up} print maker, MA in art & photography -- if anyone is looking for credentials or cares about such stuff ) -- Unreal Game engine is visually skewed towards hyper-realism...excellent for modern gaming environments as stated, RUN8 is also skewed in that direction.

IF one chooses, you can run Monogame OR and use ReShade to get that same color & gamma set of curves that UnReal achieves.

[CSRX]

For the most part -- the usual >>> TeapotTempestLarge.jpg -- but Shawn's comparison screenshots do show some truth about the visuals ( this from a commercial photo lab owner/operator and Dye Transfer {look it up} print maker, MA in art & photography -- if anyone is looking for credentials or cares about such stuff ) -- Unreal Game engine is visually skewed towards hyper-realism...excellent for modern gaming environments as stated, RUN8 is also skewed in that direction.

IF one chooses, you can run Monogame OR and use ReShade to get that same color & gamma set of curves that UnReal achieves.

Unreal Engine was mainly used for Unreal Tournament, and eventually Gears of War. It's still used for the Gears series, and if you pause on 0:12 on this video of mine, you can see the dark elements they were going for. Unreal, in my opinion, doesn't work well at all with TSW/TS2022, and even the latest Nascar game. Just looks far too dark, cartoony, and unrealistic overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLoMiU-wz6c

The 2006 version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbFNiwBHzlg

Interesting enough though, how Rod Ferguson, the original developer of Microsoft Train Simulator, moved onto creating the Gears of War series..

Anyways, my apologizes for taking a different course. Just that, not all of us are going to abandon ship even is TSRE no longer gets updates.

[haverfordwest]

Anything from Trainsimulations, as their recent Mullan Pass and Ruel Sub routes have raised the bar.

CP MacTeir Sub, with updated textures by Ted K.
CN Blackfoot Sub, also updated by Ted K.
Paul Charlands Dominion Atlantic, Conn River Line, and Springfield Terminal routes.
L&HR 1970's and 1940's versions.

All of which, have a much better overall realistic environment than anything I have touched in TSW2, TS2022. Sorry if that offends you.

I'll even toss in my own route I am building.

And now some TSW2, TS2022, that in my opinion, looks very cartoonish, and very dark, making it unrealistic. I even made adjustments to the ambient brightness, contrast, and sun light, and it still look, cartoonish.


End result, I treat ORTS like an actual simulator and game mixture. TSW/TS2022, I treat as simply a game, with no realism, just plug and play.

Thanks very much buddy, i have some of the older routes. I wasn't looking to do a hatchet job on OR. As i have used it a lot with UK routes.

Thanks again for the recommendations and taking the time to reply.

Mike.

[geepster775]

Borrowing a video clip from Bessemer, one area where I do give the TANE/JointedRail franchise a big thumbs up is the diesel exhaust depictions. Love the brute force ejection of near-vertical exhaust as the helper engineer throttles up, and especially how the near-vertical nature of the plume moves along with the engines as the train gets underway, and how the exhaust rises to 3x the height of the engine itself at higher throttle levels. There is so much force out of the stack that any typical wind in the atmosphere cannot bend or distort it.

Pure class. Showing how it's done. The open rails version just lays over and "hockey sticks" way too soon.


https://youtu.be/VU3qwJoLOnk?t=1726

[R. Steele]

Borrowing a video clip from Bessemer, one area where I do give the TANE/JointedRail franchise a big thumbs up is the diesel exhaust depictions. Love the brute force ejection of near-vertical exhaust as the helper engineer throttles up, and especially how the near-vertical nature of the plume moves along with the engines as the train gets underway, and how the exhaust rises to 3x the height of the engine itself at higher throttle levels. There is so much force out of the stack that any typical wind in the atmosphere cannot bend or distort it.

Pure class. Showing how it's done. The open rails version just lays over and "hockey sticks" way too soon.

On of the BIG disappointments in OR --- the diesel smoke plume. I admit it was an advancement when the "wind" effects were coded -- exhaust volume is easy to control...there's nothing for force.

Now if controls were coded to simulate this >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCbUQrXrY3A

[muskokaandtahoe]

A brief thought on appearances; to some degree, large or small, what you see is art. It doesn't matter if it is applied to the locomotive or to tessellated grass, it's all art. And if the artist thinks high saturated art is the way to go your sim images will look like photographs (because cameras super saturate everything). But most things in the world do not appear with highly saturated color.

In my own feeble attempts to make art I find it's rather hard for me to get to a good de saturated image. I don't know if that's because it is fundamentally hard to do or perhaps because I don't know what I'm doing.

My point in writing this is to suggest you use a critical eye when reviewing screenshots -- does it REALLY look real or does it look like a super-saturated photograph? IOW it might not be the sim software at all that makes things look good or crummy but (1) how we look at things and (2) how the artists looks at things. The quality of the art matters a lot.

[jonpd]

I guess I don't understand the premise - "the end of TSRE is near"? There will always be route and activity development for ORTS. Are people going to go back to the MSTS tools? I don't think so. TSRE with all of its flaws is still light years ahead in capability and stability of what the MSTS tools were. As someone who initially developed with the MSTS tool and is now using TSRE exclusively.