DTG Announce new TS2015 features

[kirkheath]

There is a lot more in this engine, I don't know why DTG is even thinking about updating the game engine, it not as though they even use it to its potential now, 3rd party producers like Waggonz/AP build better traction and rolling stock, better and updated physics and far superior sounds than DTG will ever produce and that's with the current game engine.

So think what they could do with a better engine....
It's not just about being able to add the features etc you've outlined, but also being able to run them efficiently. Although some are already fearing that they won't be able to run the new engine on their existing hardware it's possible that a more efficient one will actually run better!

Totally true Gary.

That's true indeed, the vital one for me with this one, will be sounds, will they use different sound engine with it being UE4?

[Irishrailguy]

The main advantage that everyone will benefit from with UE4 is proper data management. We'll finally be able to drive through a route without lagging at the start of every scenery tile, and we know that regardless of how good your system is, everyone experiences this problem. As Gary pointed out, many people seem to be fretting over how UE4 will worsen the condition of their already-struggling computers, however the only thing UE4 could possibly do is make your experience more consistent like most modern games. Games where the frame rate is consistent in most situations, where less-capable systems will experience a faster response when loading assets because the data is streamed efficiently to the graphics card. In any case, complaining about a new engine being the death of your simming experience will prove to no be the case.

Kev

[SuperTux]

This shouldn't have been too much of a surprise, it was pointed out sometime ago that RSC at the time were looking for a UE developer, and I was honestly more surprised by their announcement of DTG Fishing as I would have bet on something like a Ship Sim, however we've not had any decent fishing game and so this is a good one to choose, imho.

Speculation mode: I don't expect too many major changes to their current game engine, I suspect it may not be too nice to work with, probably due to it seeming to have been rushed out by EA/Kuju with no real vision on its future, otherwise we'd have seen them continue to improve it beyond what they've done so far, even creating a 2.0 version of it ("game engines", usually a collection of tools which you see going through different versions as they improve. Obviously Unreal is well known, another example is Crytek or Unity), so instead have chosen a commercial off the shelf product.

Its probably possible to import the 3D models as these aren't binaries and won't need to be recompiled, however UE4 and its likely benefits will allow DTG to do so much more, so if they import a tree for example it will not be enough to leave it at that, especially if we will have better weather simulation, such tree's/bushes swaying etc and it maybe easier and cheaper to start from scratch. I have seen this in Unity, so I suspect UE4 should be no different.

I have done some quick Googling for UE4 and physics:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/IN ... index.html

We'll see what occurs over the next few months to a year.

PS: Can we have the title changed please? The OP states TS2015, but this is not the case and is misleading.

[ightenhill]

To be fairThe title was correct to start with..The thread just ran off talking about the UE4 version though instead..

[davejc64]

If they do plan a completely new Train Simulator in 2016 or whenever, then I'm not really expecting then to do much to the existing TS 2014 other than maybe a name change to TS 2015 and a base Steam version with different routes included, all speculation as I don't know what they have planned.

[ightenhill]

To quote a Dev on the Steam forums all 2015 updates and announcements will be revealed at the German Gaming Trade Show (7 weeks from now) - No hints before it

[david1]

Its horses for courses really, I have invested getting well on over £1500 on RS/TS, but I had invested a lot of money on MSTS too, I have a pile of boxed routes sitting gathering dust right now! I expect that once the new game arrives I will be investing in that one too, you know we won't be able to resist, as the borg say, "resistance is futile", only concern I have though is that cost thing, I can see us paying considerably more for DLC for it! But I suppose I could have a hobby like scuba diving or golf both of which would cost considerably more!

This could spell the death of trainsim, why because as the engine gets better then so does the cost and that is not all, it is the time it takes to produce new items and also other expensive software to use to make them, in MSTS engines and stock were realesed on almost a every day as lots of people made them as freeware with simple tool the only outlay as the building package, reskins could be done using paint that was shipped with most computers, even I made my own skins back then. Then came Railworks, much better graphics but expensive software was need to make stock and a lot of time invested into projects hence the reason why most is now payware. If a new game engine makes it possible to be even better which would be excellent and make for better enjoyment of the trainsimming but at what cost? I had to buy a new computer although there was nothing wrong with my old just to run Railworks, and invested a large amount of time into making my own scenarios rather than playing the game. New content for a new game will not only cost more to make but will take longer to produce, meaning less choice in traction, DTG will still mass produce modern stock with bugs in it and 3rd parties will then take around 2 years to produce quality addons instead of a year meaning that the sim will be getting replaced before we have a half decent collection of stock. Just look at MSTS in 5 years neally everything had been produced, after 7 years with Railworks there are still gaps in traction with modern stock missing and 1st generation units are still really lacking

[ightenhill]

By Death I presume you mean the way we think of Trainsims at the moment ie. Lots of third party content, Editable, Route editing or building from scratch etc etc; I get the impression what DTG want to happen is to have a completely closed product that acts as a DLC store.. In fact pretty much the way they have kept trying to push the current incarnation.

The markets changed now.. DLC and micro transactions are the only way gaming companies can exist - especially outside major publishing houses. The initial sale of the core is now only a small part of creating on going revenue so its important you control that revenue.

[37114]

I get the impression what DTG want to happen is to have a completely closed product that acts as a DLC store.

So does that explain why they're currently recruiting a new Head of Third Party Content now that Matt Peddlesden who was previously in that role has moved on to be Technical Designer of the new version of the game?
http://www.dovetailgames.com/vacancies/ ... f-htpch004

And to quote Matt

'Unreal Engine 4 comes with some absolutely top-of-the-line tools that offer features and capabilities that we are keen to leverage in the next generation Train Simulator. At this point it's still too early to say exactly how we will package these tools for use by our content creators, but we very keen to ensure that significantly improved developer tools are available to the community and to third party developers.'

They'd shoot themselves in the foot completely by not allowing third party developers or indeed casual players to build and create with it.

[david1]

By Death I presume you mean the way we think of Trainsims at the moment ie. Lots of third party content, Editable, Route editing or building from scratch etc etc; I get the impression what DTG want to happen is to have a completely closed product that acts as a DLC store..

I think that when the new game comes out it will be last trainsim, because they are just going to make it to hard for 3rd parties to make content, 1 has stopped making stuff for Railworks, DTG aims at the young and not the diehard fans, so the sim will be full of modern plastic rubbish, at least now we can use imagination with modern routes and Use BR blue era stock but you can drive a pendolino and imagine it is a class 87. Me like so many people of here have bought most content that is available, but the masses that DTG aim at don't buy that much, I youngster gets TS for Xmas or birthday then then buy a few addons and then get bored and move on to the next game, the only case is that there a lot of people that will buy a few items, but if us few that buy nearly everything stop buying what would happen.

If only plastic is going to available for the next generation of the sim then I wont be playing it, lets face it DTG have made very little older content (class 31,33,37,47,55,76,77,86,101,421,423) everthing else has been done by 3rd parties, which with limited resources is going to make it very hard for them to compete.

[malkymackay]

David1 read the post above again..
Making content for the UE4 engine shouldn't be any harder than it is now. Both Max & Blender can handle formats compatible with UE4. If you use Blender & Gimp for content creation, like I do, the tools don't cost a penny.

[37114]

David1 read the post above again..
Making content for the UE4 engine shouldn't be any harder than it is now. Both Max & Blender can handle formats compatible with UE4. If you use Blender & Gimp for content creation, like I do, the tools don't cost a penny.

If anything it will be easier.

[ightenhill]

David1 read the post above again..
Making content for the UE4 engine shouldn't be any harder than it is now. Both Max & Blender can handle formats compatible with UE4. If you use Blender & Gimp for content creation, like I do, the tools don't cost a penny.

My understanding is though you still need a specific dev created toolkit to get them to do anything inside the finished game rather than just the raw engine.. If it ships with a toolkit gggrrrreeeat but I cant see it being priority..

Going back to 2015 I cant see anything major happening as I think the games at the point they always wanted to get it too (a store front for regular DLC releases).. It would be nice though if they at least gave us - more cheerful music (Its like coldplay walked into the room just to depress me) , a more efficient front end (some things seem to need way to many menus to do things) and more graphical options (please let us get rid off the gormless and suicidal passengers and why did they remove the particle slider - it used to have a fps effect for very little visual penalty)... As its fun (though pointless) to speculate, my guess is the front end will become Free to Play.

[malkymackay]

My understanding is though you still need a specific dev created toolkit to get them to do anything inside the finished game rather than just the raw engine.. If it ships with a toolkit gggrrrreeeat but I cant see it being priority..

Please see above..

And to quote Matt

'Unreal Engine 4 comes with some absolutely top-of-the-line tools that offer features and capabilities that we are keen to leverage in the next generation Train Simulator. At this point it's still too early to say exactly how we will package these tools for use by our content creators, but we very keen to ensure that significantly improved developer tools are available to the community and to third party developers.'

[ightenhill]

Spent too many years involved in politics to read anything into that but spin waffle. but Im crossing everything