Read our Full Train Sim World 5 Roadmap - Part 2 Roadmap Article on our website!
Train Sim World 5 – New Features and Tools
Welcome back to the Train Sim World Roadmap, our chance to share with you all the exciting content we're working on at Dovetail for all of you at home.
In this second part we’re exploring the brand new features we’ve implemented and improved coming with Train Sim World 5 in more detail and checking in with brand new announcements from our third partner partners.
When we started to compile the list of features we’d be developing, we kept players in mind, using community requested features, data-driven surveys, Q&A threads and general day-to-day feedback we see across the online spaces that you’ve sent us to help guide what we work on.
If you’ve missed our recent Dovetail Direct: Summer 2024 event, you can catch back up on our Train Sim World YouTube channel or read the details and information in the first part of our Train Sim World 5 Roadmap.
And just a reminder we have an extensive TSW5 FAQ page that details all of the new features, new routes and bundles available, as well as much more, all ready to ready on our website.
Let’s explore the new features!
A New Way To Play: Conductor Mode
One of the highest scoring features on our last few player surveys was the Conductor Mode (also known as Guard Mode), which has seen interest and appeal grow rapidly since we released this new way to play TSW across a couple of scenarios on Glossop Line and LIRR Commuter.
Conductor mode is back in full swing for Train Sim World 5! Using the feedback from the community to focus on improvements, we’ve decided to make this a full experience across TSW5 routes and selected trains, whilst introducing new scoring and objectives! In a contrast to how you normally experience driving trains, players will be able to enjoy the role of a conductor, inspecting passengers' tickets, moving passengers' bags out of the walkway and operate train doors in time with departures and arrivals.
This mode will be included in all the three new core routes coming with Train Sim World 5; the Class 350 on West Coast Main Line, the Rotem cars and Bombardier bi-level coaches on San Bernardino Line and the DB BR 114 + Dostos for Frankfurt-Fulda. Once the Great Western Express remaster releases in the near future, it will also include the mode for the HST/Mk3's and the Class 166.
A key highlight of Conductor mode is that from one region to another, and one loco to the next – the experience will vary. On San Bernardino, you will need to radio the driver before setting off, however this differs when riding the Class 350 on West Coast Main Line as you’ll use two buzzes, and with the DB BR 114 on Frankfurt Fulda you have a whistle instead. As the protocol in the real world, you’ve now got multiple ways you can experience being a conductor across these routes in Train Sim World 5.
As these procedures differ from one country to another, setting up this feature is not as simple as enabling it across all our content equally, so we’ve chosen the routes and locos we think players will be able to utilise most and get the best experience when playing as a conductor. As a note from launch, this won’t be something that the ICE-T and the Pendolino will have enabled. Our teams focussed on the 350 and 114 first due to the higher stopping frequency better suiting the gameplay of conductor mode.
We are looking at implementation for these locos as a post-release improvement, but it’s also really key that we are growing this mode with your continued feedback, so please let us know what you think when you get to try it from September!
Live Map 2.0
One of the biggest areas we've heard your feedback on is the usability of the Live Map, which in Train Sim World 5 is seeing a new face-lift – improving the experience and providing more information for you to review whilst in a game session.
New Legend markers and a Legend chart will help identify everything happening around you, and across the route you are playing. From physical locations such as platforms, stations, cities, towns, to locations of tutorials and spawn points, which can be accessed via Fast Travel. New tool tips will also give you specific information based on what you are selecting, such as a Signal to give you information on Route Speed and current status, or an AI service that details the current speed and service ID.
Route Hopping
Immersion is a massive part of Train Sim World, and the new Route Hopping feature is a great way to extend your adventures in a single session and minimise the need to move between UI menus as much as possible.
Players will be able to interact with a point on foot across specific stations and jump between like-for-like locations to find other installed routes that share a similar link and continue their experience in the game, exploring a different timetable or taking a journey across a new route.
For example, London Commuter and East Coastway both share a station at Brighton, so you’d be able to start a service on one of these routes, and once you’ve reached Brighton, quickly switch over and continue across the new route, whilst maintaining the same time of day, month of year and current weather conditions.
Chain routes together and explore the world in TSW without being constrained to the main menu to find your next adventure!
From launch, route hopping will be compatible with a range of TSW routes, and you’ll be able to find a breakdown of all the hopping combination on our Route Hopping FAQ Guide.
Fast Travel
Similar to Route Hopping, Fast travel empowers you to explore the world happening around you, in this case giving you the ability to move around the current route you’re playing using the new Live Map 2.0.
While on foot, you will be able to access the Live Map and navigate to various jump points instantly. Whether you’ve spotted some action on the timetable at another part of the map, or you’ve missed your train at the current platform, using fast travel will allow you to catch back up!
You won’t be able to teleport just anywhere along the map, there are specific locations markers which come up for major yards, sidings and stations and in other preset locations, and can be found in the Live Map. This feature will function work across compatible content where existing spawn points are already included, so get ready to jump into Train Sim World 5, and get to the action as you find it.
Combine this with the new functions in Photo Mode - which we’ll talk about shortly - and you’ll truly be free to play how you want!
Photo Mode Enhancements
Coming with Train Sim World 5 is a new update for Photo Mode, which will allow you to take even more breathtaking screenshots with new quality of life additions and filters that to help you snap the perfect shot, any time of day, under any circumstance.
First up – get your magical abilities ready, with these improvements you’ll be able to control the time of day, month of year, and alter the weather instantly, all within Photo Mode, which will allow you to make your shots look just the way you want and leaving your current service completely untouched by the changes.
Change Weather
If you’ve ever hit pause too early whilst getting ready to capture the perfect screenshot, we’ve added an option just for you – With the updated Photo Mode, you’ll be able to advance the train forward for a few frames on the track to help you perfectly line up the screenshot, just how you planned.
Advance Time
Whilst we’re speaking of aligning the best shot, the photo mode camera is now also unlocked from its set orbit around the train, so you can enter and explore with a no-clip style approach around the trains, and even into the interiors, to push your screenshot capabilities to the limit.
In addition, we’ve added new filtering options, including a Sepia filter that will appear to age your photos so they seem older, a new motion blur setting, as well as a Graininess slider which will allow you to add some roughness to the screenshots you take, and together all of these tools will provide creative new ways to have endless fun and show off your trains and routes in Train Sim World 5!
Track Shadow Rendering Draw Distance
A surprise hiding in the shado- Okay I'll stop with the puns, but as teased in our roadmap yesterday, we’ve been able to improve the rendering draw distance system for shadows on the tracks, so you will no longer see a harsh cut of shading following ahead of the train as you drive!
We know this has been a key request from the community to improve, and our teams have managed to add this without impacting your performance across our routes. This will be a feature for all Train Sim World 5 content as standard, and we’ve also implemented it across a range of Train Sim World compatible routes, which includes:
- Salzburg-Rosenheim
- Nahverkehr Dresden
- S-bahn Vorarlberg
- Kassel-Würzburg
- Maintalbahn
- Linke Rheinstrecke
- Bremen-Oldenburg
- Niddertalbahn
- Semmeringbahn
- LIRR Commuter
- Antelope Valley Line
- Cajon Pass
- Boston Sprinter
- East Coast Main Line
- London Overground Suffragette Line
- Southeastern High Speed
- Glossop Line
- LGV Méditerranée.
We know this is another big improvement to the immersion that you've been asking for, and our teams will look at opportunities to bring this to more of our compatible collection in future.
Digital Display Screens
As we introduce more and more trains with interactive display screens into Train Sim World, we’ve wanted to implement a feature that will aim to improve the accessibility of using and viewing these screens, to support a whole range of people who engage with our titles.
You will be able to zoom a digital screen to fit your entire window without any motion shaking, and you will be able to navigate this much more easily with dpad controls to move around the screen, without the need for a joystick or finer inputs.
This will be a standard feature across all content in TSW and will function across all our back catalogue of compatible content. We always take opportunities to help improve our accessibility so that we can welcome everyone into our simulators, please feel free to provide our teams with any feedback for this new development via our Player Feedback Forum which will be set-up once Train Sim World 5 launches.
Tutorials, Guides & Training Center
Oh, and did you notice the new style? One of the first things you’ll see when opening Train Sim World 5, is an updated UI across all our menus. This year, we’ve also taken the opportunity to add new functions within our UI that support text, images and videos.
Train Operations
Within the menues, you will find a new Train Operations section which will support brand-new tutorial guides you can find to help learn, directly available from the main menu or the pause menu mid-session for easy, instant access.
We’ve taken feedback from new players coming into Train Sim World and used this to help improve the tutorial flow and adjust our difficulty levels in our training modules to provide a better experience when starting out.
BR 146.2 & Dostos in Training Center
Additionally, we’ve also added the BR 146.2 & Dostos to the Training Center for help all players when learning German locomotives, and everyone who joins us with the Free Starter Pack will be able to enjoy these too!
Additional Changes
Xbox Audio Improvements
With the release of Train Sim World 5, all Xbox consoles will now support improved audio compression to increase the quality of sound effects across all content to address sound artifacting which were negatively impacting players on the platform. We appreciate the community patience on this, and we hope you’re able to enjoy the improved experience coming in September.
How have achievements changed in Train Sim World 5?
We also wanted to touch briefly on achievements - we have heard player feedback and understand that repeating the same achievements you unlocked in the previous game is not fun. For this reason, Train Sim World 5 will start with a clean slate, introducing a brand-new set of achievements that are only applicable to new content.
New Layer Selector Functionality
Bringing more QoL to timetable mode directly from community suggestions, you can now find a 'Layers' button where you can select / deselect options based on applicable compatible content that works with the route. You’ll see both add-ons you have installed and add-ons that aren’t currently owned so you can get a better view of what extra content is available.
This should give you more control on what layers you want to see appearing on routes, which can be useful to disable any non-prototypical layers that you may not want to appear, or for users on 8th generation consoles (Xbox One, PS4) to help support performance by limited the layers.
Japanese Localisation – Coming soon!
Later in the year we’ll be added to our list of supported languages with Japanese.
Third Party Partners
Athena Simulations – Welcoming a new partner to the TSW family!
We are delighted to welcome a new developer to the Train Sim World family, as Athena Simulations unveil their first content for Train Simulator World 5. The name may be new, but the team is composed of developers with a rich pedigree of TSW content!
Athena: “We’ve been working on a new gameplay pack - ECML Diesel Railtours - bringing exciting new content, both for the East Coast Mainline route and TSW5 as a whole. Highlights of the pack include a brand new Class 47 locomotive, modelling what is often regarded as the most iconic member of the Class, 47484 Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
The locomotive, featured in its special edition livery was often used on numerous railtours and hauled the Royal Train, from its base at Old Oak Common shed. Utilising the latest in modelling techniques in TSW5, the locomotive features custom 3D nameplates and 3D number plates plus a highly detailed model. The team have even gone so far to recreate the variations in each cab end, after the real locomotive was rebuilt after accident damage!
The pack also brings a range of Mark 1 coaches, in BR blue and grey livery as much requested by the community! We are also thrilled to announce the inclusion of 10 custom scenarios for East Coast Mainline, with new features such as complex depot movements, the opportunity to run around your train and coupling double headed formations for very special railtours between Doncaster and Peterborough.
We’re grateful to welcome Athena Simulations to Train Sim World, and we can’t wait to announce more details of their first release coming soon!”
Rivet Games – Update on Fife Circle Leven Branch
Rivet Games are very busy adding the recently opened Leven branch to our Fife circle route, and are expecting to release this in the early autumn. They’re not quite ready to start sharing screenshots but thought that some readers may be interested in some of the research they’ve been gathering.
Rivet: “Ordinarily we use a wide range of reference material for making routes including cab ride videos, track and signalling diagrams along with photographs gathered on research trips. Due to the newness of the branch line, one of our normal references, Google Earth images, are not available (the images in Google are a few years old - when the railway was still disused) and so we had to improvise. Fortunately, we were able to arrange a flight in a light aircraft and survey the new route from 1200’ – a couple of the reference images are shown below. Our flight track is shown on the map, in blue.”
Skyhook Games – Scotrail Class 158 Levenmouth Rail Link livery
The teams at Skyhook Games are also working hard on further improvements to the Scotrail Class 158, and this month, we’ve been able grab a few in-development screenshots for a new custom livery they’ve creating – the Levenmouth Rail Link livery.
This will also come with improvements to the Fife Circle line route, with new gameplay and a new Fife Circle timetable to take full advantage of the upcoming Leven branch expansion.
We look forward to sharing more with you soon on the developments for both Fife Circle and the Class 158.
More Cargo Line is on the way!
As a final mention, Skyhook wanted to confirm that they are currently developing new Cargo Line volumes to continue the series!
- Cargo Line Vol.3 Intermodal — New FCA twin spine wagon with new containers.
- Cargo Line Vol.4 Military — New KWA well wagon with custom cargo.
We look forward to sharing more details and screenshots of these in future!
An update from Alan Thomson Simulation
We’ve reached out to Alan Thomson Simulation, who are excited to tease more details for their first route in TSW, which is in the final stages of development.
ATS: “For those who are not aware of us, Alan Thomson Simulation or ATS for short, is made up primarily of railway and sim enthusiasts and was setup in 2018 to bring together some of the finest individual train sim talents and to create a new community hub for fans alike.
Over the past two years, some of this core team, amongst a host of new members, consisting of train drivers, guards, engineers and various others, have in our spare time learnt and trained to become game developers using the Unreal Engine editor.
Since the turn of the year, ATS has worked extensively, to develop its first Train Sim World route. Our 3D artists have now finished sculpting all of the fantastic artwork that this route has to offer, from the ultra-slick and modern, to the classical Victorian architecture, the various stations, bridges and signal boxes that have been carefully crafted for this route, offer an incredible amount of detail to ensure the most authenticity. Alongside this, our Environment Artists are putting the finishing touches in to this urban metropolis, capturing every detail, with a host of new assets to ensure the most in-depth & accurate route detail.
Whilst ATS can't unveil the route at this moment in time, you will see much more to come in the coming weeks as we welcome Train Sim World 5, until then, here's a sneak peak at early testing, can you guess where it is....”
Roadmap Livestream
Be sure to join Executive Producer of Trains Matt, and Senior Community Manager Alex, who will be live tonight to discuss the entirety of both roadmaps in full, alongside the other details from the Dovetail Direct, and answer your questions live.
The stream will begin from 18:00 UTC / 19:00 BST on our YouTube and Twitch channels, and we can’t wait to see you there! If you’ve got any questions you want to ask us, please add them into our Train Sim World 5 Q&A thread ahead of the event tonight!
Find out more about Train Sim World 5 by following @trainsimworld on X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok.