SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Derail Valley VR (also 2D)

I did my first ride in the new version of Derail valley, which is called "Simulator". At first, the voyage was dissapointing, the game crashed quite soon. I then relaised that the VR pixel-something slider was back at 100%, I tune that down in many games to 50-70, I set it to 65, and the next two launches were stable. Next I realised it was some time since I last time played it (waiting for this overhaul), some details one needs to know in handling the hand controllers of the G2 VR headset in order to gte all functionbality, its all there, but if you do not know the details, you miss some. And thatr can make you curse. When you can't ignite the lighter (which gets satisfactorily shut down by this typical hand movement you kinow form Zippos... :) ). Or dont know how to shut down the Petroleum light. Or you hold the book with station tables, but cant turn the pages...

I got it sorted out, its all there, but I took my time.

Then I did a simple walk thorugh the coutnryside. The new looks, the sounds, the haze, the change of weather and daylight. Its a new game. Then evenign came, the nights at the steel mill went up, and wetaher chnaged form rain to clear and sunset, then night... wowh, it looks incredibly good, sometimes even photorealistic. The world comes to life with these dynamic light effects. I spend five minutes just playing around with the throw of the pocket light, that good it is done. Or the petorleum lantirn, the adjustable flame size, the warm glow it causes on the close surroundings. That may not be decisive, but it adds tremendously to the atmosphere and immersion. The game looks imo extremely good.

I then used the sandbox mode to freely travel down the rails in the shunter and see what things are looking like now in th world. Industrial machinery is animated now, the factories and installations have a life of their own. The shunter behaves a bit differently now, not drmaatically different, but sufficiently so so that you take notice. There are more loco types now, and the previously existing ones above the shunter should be even more different now, see Squirrels videos above.

This has been handled by the devs now as a full 2D title as well, not just VR. They say that mores tuff is coming, and more locos.

IMO a benchmark title in VR, but also a fantastic train driving sim for everybody interested in real world or model railroads. The immersion is hard to overestimate. As a cockpit-sim as well as an open world title, it excels. The physics side of things make itself felt, and once you start to pull trains of higher weight ypou will relaise soon that gettign that up a hill without overheating the engine and coming to a standstill or even start rolling backwards, or to keep it properly braked during downhill without overheating the brakes, is a challenge and very different from the train sims that have been released so far. The title can be very challenging. Its not called Derial Valley for no reason. Especially the steam loco keeps you busy, I promise you.

While development is continued, I take this thing now as a full game release. The "simulator update" was what I was waiting for (since 3 years or so...) to complete it and push it out of Early Access. I wonder how one can still see it as EA. Even if they would stop now and only squash bugs, it would be a complete game now.

A tip for VR players: when in the beginning you get asked to look straight ahead and stand still to allow the VR system to callibrate, make sure you indeed STAND and do not sit, even if you sit during gameplay later on. That way you make sure you get the scaling right in the loco if you, like me, prefer to drive while being seated.

Outstanding title. Maximum points from me.