Today we are showing the new simulator for the first time as it actually exists inside the game engine. And we can finally reveal its name: Subway Simulator: Prague.
We could have kept working on the station for much longer before showing another screenshot. But we simply did not want to wait any longer. The foundation of Kačerov has progressed enough over the last few days that we want to share its current state already.
It is important to stress that every image in this update shows a development build – a work in progress. This is not the final appearance of the game. Many smaller assets and pieces of station equipment are still missing: benches, bins, information signs, column edging, additional signage, technical equipment and many other details. Some materials, lighting and parts of the environment will also continue to change.
First showcase: Kačerov → Budějovická
The first part we are currently using to test the new technical foundation is being built on Prague Metro Line C. For the first larger showcase and planned showreel, we are working with the Kačerov–Budějovická section.
However, this is not the planned scope of the first playable version. That version is intended to follow the real first historical section of Line C, from Kačerov to Florenc. The first showcase is therefore only the first step, used to validate the technology, graphics, performance and the new way we are building the route.
Why Kačerov
Kačerov was not chosen by accident. Within a relatively small area it gives us almost everything we need to establish the technological foundation of the simulator: the station itself, the connection towards the depot, more open sections with daylight, the transition into a tunnel and eventually complete tunnel darkness.
At the same time, it is the starting point of the historically first section of Line C, and the Kačerov area with the depot is one of the more complex parts of the route from an infrastructure point of view. We are deliberately starting with a location that forces us to solve many of the difficult technical problems right away. If we build the foundation properly here, expanding the route later should not always mean solving the hardest problems from scratch.
We recovered the original sources. But they cannot simply be reused
The good news is that we managed to recover virtually all original source materials from the older WAPP projects – both Subway Simulator: Prague Metro and the later City Transport Simulator. We have the original models, textures, trains, sounds and other resources.
That does not mean we can simply place them into the new game. The original projects were created for a completely different generation of hardware, with very different mobile limitations and with a very different development workflow.
The biggest issue is the original environment modelling. A large part of it was created in SketchUp. That made it possible to build stations very quickly at the time, but the resulting geometry was never designed as a modern game-ready asset. Using it directly today would create problems with topology, UV mapping, lightmaps, normals, optimisation and further processing.
That is why we decided to rebuild every station from scratch in Blender. The old models are not being discarded – they remain extremely valuable blueprints and references for dimensions, proportions, spatial layout and individual details.
From model to real in-game environment
The new models are being prepared from the beginning as proper game-ready assets: with cleaner geometry, correct UVs and lightmaps, normals, PBR materials and room for further optimisation.
The result is then assembled and processed directly in Unity, where the first materials, baked lighting and track infrastructure are already working.
Why we are staying with Unity
Subway Simulator: Prague is being developed in the current version of Unity. We know Unity, we have experience with it, and we do not see a reason to change engines just to make the project appear technologically newer.
Another important reason is our mobile-first strategy. The first version is intended for Android and iOS, and Unity allows us to build one common technological foundation for multiple types of devices without having to create completely separate versions of the game.
Mobile-first does not mean that we want to create a simplified simulator or compromise on the route itself. On the contrary, we want to build the real foundation from the beginning: with appropriate distances, curves, gradients and descents, switches, a more detailed track environment and substantially more faithful graphics.
At the same time, the same geometry, models and a large part of the gameplay systems should later be reusable for a PC version, where more powerful hardware will allow us to go further.
The track is not just one long straight line
One of the larger technical changes is the track itself. We prepared the basic track components in Blender, but in the actual scene we are no longer manually copying the track metre by metre.
Instead, we built our own Unity system that generates the track directly along a defined spline. That spline describes the real path of the route and will later also serve as the foundation for the path followed by the train.
This means the track is not restricted to a straight line. The system is designed from the beginning to support curves, gradients, descents and the actual three-dimensional course of the route. Different sections can also control details such as the side of the third rail, its starting and ending sections, supports and other infrastructure.
What comes next
Kačerov is still not finished, and at this stage we do not want to pretend otherwise. A large amount of detail and many individual assets are still missing.
For now, however, we want to move further with the environment itself: build the tunnels and the basic structure of Budějovická station, so that we have the first continuous section of route and can begin testing the environment as a whole.
After that, we will gradually add more details to both Kačerov and Budějovická, station equipment, signage, technical elements, materials and other parts of the environment. At the same time, we will continue with the track system, movement along the route and the first tests directly on mobile devices.
We want to keep sharing progress continuously. We do not want to disappear for several months and then suddenly reveal a finished result. This time, we want to share the development process itself, including gradual changes and the occasional dead end.
Help us spread the word
When WAPP returned, we had no idea how many people would still remember our original simulators after all these years. The interest so far convinced us that continuing the project makes sense. And the reactions from the community are important feedback for us as well – they show us that there really are people on the other side who are looking forward to the new simulator.
We would therefore genuinely appreciate every share. Send the project to friends, share our posts, leave comments and talk about the project in other communities focused on Prague Metro, public transport or simulation games.
If you have access to discussions on Metroweb, OMSI forums or other transport and simulation communities, we would be grateful if you mentioned the return of WAPP and Subway Simulator: Prague there. Many people who might be interested in the project still may not know that it has returned.
Unfortunately, we cannot simply return to some of the old communities ourselves. We lost access to the original Facebook page, the original YouTube channel and some of the old discussion accounts. On some forums, new registrations are no longer working either. That is why community sharing can help us a lot.
You can follow the new development on the new WAPP Facebook page . We will be grateful for follows, comments and shares.
We want as many people as possible to be with us for the first video showreel and later for the public beta. And the more interest we see around the project, the more motivation it gives us to keep pushing it forward.
This is still only the beginning. But for the first time, we can already show the new Subway Simulator as it actually runs inside the game.
