Train geeks rejoice: New video game puts you in Caltrain driver’s seat

Fans of transit can now experience the joys and complexities that come with operating a Caltrain train set.

Released Thursday, a new first-person simulation game features nearly 50 miles of Caltrain’s Peninsula Corridor route, from San Jose to San Francisco, complete with all 26 stations along the way, real-to-life timetables and train details that mimic each nut and bolt. The segment from San Jose to Gilroy wasn’t included.

The game, Train Sim World 2020, is available on PCs, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Earlier iterations have focused on trains from around the world, but for the newest edition, senior producer Matt Peddlesden said his team was looking for something they hadn’t done before. And Caltrain, which is only offered in the deluxe version of the game, presented a new experience for players.

“The scenery on the West Coast is different from what we’ve done before, the driving is different, the trains are different, and Caltrain was a great partner to work with,” Peddlesden said, “so it seemed like an obvious choice.”

It helped, too, that Caltrain’s vehicles use a different braking and train control system, he said. Train engineers earn points by how accurately they can stop the train at the platform and keep an on-time schedule without speeding. The trains are all Caltrain’s legacy diesel fleet, most of which will soon be replaced with modern, electric train cars — something Peddlesden says he hopes his team can include in future iterations of the game.

To match the look and feel of the real route, Peddlesden said he and his team spent hours poring over maps and images of the line and then spent a week riding Caltrain to collect sounds and images in person. The most challenging part was capturing the ever-evolving San Francisco skyline, which can be seen from quite a distance away, he said.

Skylines are difficult for developers because the visual field is typically dominated by the objects nearest the virtual player. Adding in long-distance objects can slow down the game, Peddlesden said, forcing it to take longer to load. But leaving out a bit of skyline might also leave locals feeling like there’s something missing.

“That was one of the particular challenges on this route,” he said. “But I think we’ve come up with a good solution for that.”

What isn’t in the game, Peddlesden said, are the other things Caltrain engineers have to deal with, such as cars getting stuck on tracks, pedestrians jumping in front of trains or passengers interacting with them. That’s mostly because those real-life circumstances often result in a train sitting for several hours while others remove debris or handle a medical emergency.

“And that doesn’t make for a very fun game,” he said.

Seamus Murphy, a spokesman for Caltrain, said staff have not reviewed the game comprehensively since it came out, but worked closely with the game makers as the visuals were being developed. Dovetail Games, the makers of Train Sim World 2020, put a tremendous amount of time and effort into the simulation, Murphy said.

“I also understand that the game features some of the most iconic rail systems and corridors in the world,” he said, “so it makes perfect sense for Caltrain to be included.”

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