Gazz292

i can't wait for the SDK to be released that will allow people to write things to connect to the sim. I'd love to see a SimRail chat app on my phone, i.e. the chat box moved off the main screen and on my phone, with the phone's keyboard under it for typing on etc, so just like sending or receiving a 'real life' text message you can receive and send SimRail text messages... in a more realistic manner i think (your phone when running SimRail text app would be classed as a company communications device, so is allowed whilst driving 🙂

yeah, but do you actually drive on the tracks they apply to? i've driven past a track with them on next to mine.

i have no problems working out if the tracks are rising or falling as i'm driving along. as far as i know, other than route knowledge, Polish train drivers do not have indications of the gradients in cab either, they are not in the drivers timetables, except a 'T' entry meaning that if a heavy freight stops at a signal at that station / post, they may not get going again (hence the reason for the W22 signs on a signal, allowing freights to pass on red at 20km/h)

yeah it's not a bug as such, Easiest way is to imagine that when you are using the number 2 camera, the camera is on the end of a extendable pole / selfie stick, being held by someone located in the middle of the loco, As you move the camera on the selfie stick around, if you have extended the stick out enough and move the camera's position so the stick would hit an object... in this case the shelter..... Then instead of the cameras movement being blocked as the stick hits the object (or passing through the object, resulting in seeing the hollow insides of object parts) the 'selfie stick' automatically retracts enough to allow the camera to pass by the obstacle, extending to the previous length (zoom) as before once the obstacle is no longer blocking it. it does this anywhere in the sim when you are zoomed out enough and move the camera to pass an object that is between the camera and train, it'll do it when a train passes you if you have the camera positioned to the side the train's passing and at the right / wrong distance and angle for example.

or just give us the access to the relevant data in SimRail on out computers, and we can do like people did with TSC / railworks, Omsi etc, and people write little bits of software that we can assign anything that can be seen as a joystick / button to operate any control we like. As everyone has a slightly different idea of how they would make things work, Some are happy with simple joysticks that are operating micro switches. others want the full linear movement of an analog input (potentiometer, hall effect sensor etc), some want to use off the shelf items, others will make custom make the controls and switching mechanisms by 3D printing and / or machining from metal, some make force feedback units so the notches can be varied as each different train loads into the sim etc, etc, etc, But the most important bit is to give us access to every control that works in the sim and let us decide which controls we want to operate, even if a switch is only used once when setting the train up from cold, i'd still want a button or lever that operates it as it's there in the cab of the train.

a while back the departure times worked out to be something like 00:21:54, i.e 6 seconds before the departure minute. i only figured this out by watching the countdown timer and knowing that real Polish drivers timetables use decimal minutes, so the departure time on the drivers timetable would show 00:21:9 but the clock and 'F1' timetable only show to the whole minute. I noticed that things changed and the data from the API's now list the arrival and departure times to the next minute, So the timetables i made for my kindle are all seemingly 1 minute ahead of the times shown on the 'F1' on screen timetable, but are correct when the stop timer ticks down to zero. Hopefully eventually we will get more realistic timetables with the decimal minutes in them, as in real life some station stops are only 30 seconds long! Part of a real drivers timetable showing some of the different decimal minute departures: The numbers in the right hand boxes are the time allowed to run that section, The top box per station entry is for when running on time, bottom box for when running late, again the numbers in the supertext numbers denote they are decimal minutes, 6 normal seconds = 1 decimal minute. Just another quirk of the railways 🙂

at a guess it's not programmed to do anything just yet, I know the devs have said that they animate all the cab controls at the start to make it easier to add in the functionality at a later date. Perhaps if/when the neutral sections become active then that button will be scripted to kill the power to the motors / from dynamic brakes when pressed as you pass a neutral section. For now you can pretend it does it's job, like when driving the EU07 i wind the power wheel to zero when i am about to cross a neutral section.

SimRail is based on the simulator used to train real life train drivers, hence it tries to do things realistically, so adding extra tracks and platforms that do not exist on the real line, allowing trains to run at what ever speed they want when running late etc would just turn it into yet another train game. half the things you mention are already present, some are switched off for now for bug fixes, there's a lot planned like better timetables, random events, But SimRail was released on early access just over 3 months ago, so right now things are kept simple to help with bug fixing.

i have a number pad on my laptop(was on of the must haves when i was shopping for a new one) So i have the driving controls (power wheel, notch lever, train and loco brakes) all on the numberpad, But i also use autohotkey to re-assign a few keybinds only whilst SimRail is running, mostly because you couldn't use numberpad enter to move the power lever / wheel (it was hard coded for dispatcher's talk enter key or something) So via autohotkey i make my numberpad enter key give the numberpad . key when pressed and set that to power decrease, and now i have the 2 largest keypad keys for power increase and decrease. I then went on to set left ctrl for 'fast move' and left shift is SHP/Czuwak reset, and i bound right shift to left shift with autohotkey, so i can reset SHP/Czuwak from either side of the keyboard, then i made the numberpad dot key bound to the left ctrl key, so i can fast move the power wheel totally from the numberpad.

oh yes, is that not in the instructional tutorials people have made on these loco's? It's the same key 'fast move' as used to running when you are out of the train walking about. Same as there's 3 keys for the train brake lever, one of them puts it straight into the off position, And to brake on the EU07/EP08, first tap the brake apply key, this puts the lever into the brake position, then press and hold the apply key to wind whe lever round slowly, If you just press and hold the apply key from the off position, it will go round fast to emergency position.

Not sure how to add things to the wiki, as i've never done that before.... tried to edit the title for the neutral sections - where to pull down the panto to 'where to turn the motors off' but not sure it worked. i made a pdf about neutral sections if it's any use: Neutral section explanation.pdf

A little bit of very basic info about these neutral sections in real life, this isn't implemented in SimRail yet, but some people like to drive as realistically as possible obeying all the lineside signs, and it certainly keeps you occupied looking out for these neutral section signs without RWag64's Neutral Section location info. : The railways overhead power lines in Poland are energised at around 3kV DC, thats 3 thousand volts, Direct Current (the voltage can vary from 2kV to 3.6kV and be within 'spec') This 'low' DC voltage can not travel that far before the voltage drops too much, and the lower the voltage the higher the current that is drawn from the system, which could lead to overheating of the wires, transformers and rectifiers at the sub stations, and possibly the motors on the train. So the overhead wires are broken up into many isolated sections fed from different power sources along the line, as the voltage can vary by upto 1.6kV on each section you need to be drawing as little power as you can as you cross a neutral section, to avoid the risk of tripping a substation out amongst other issues. This is a very basic explanation, there's more to it but most people are not that interested... especially as in SimRail you can just ignore these neutral sections right now and not get a 'points penalty' or cause any issue to the system. : : So, to comply with the neutral section signs.... You do not need to turn the main power switch / breaker off for these sections, you just need to be drawing no motor power, so simply put the power lever / wheel to zero when you see a We8a sign that applies to your track ahead: You can apply power again when the nose of your train passes the We9a sign: If you are driving a (single) loco hauled train, you can re-apply power when the nose of your train passes the We9b sign, which is the above sign with an 'L' on the top of it: If you are driving an EMU, you need to wait until the nose of your trains passes the We9a sign, which is the one without the L on top. This is placed further ahead than the We9b sign because your pantograph is further back on an EMU than on a locomotive, so it may still be in the neutral section when your cab passes the We9b sign for locomotives. : A tip to get the motor power to zero by the time you see the We8a sign is to look for the back of the We9a sign, which is for trains running on your track in the opposite direction, and will be about 100 meters 'before' your We8a sign: The neutral section signs will sometimes be located on posts to the side of the tracks, or on the catenary masts, and in some locations you need to look harder to figure out exactly when the signs apply to your line, and not the line next to you, which may have a staggered neutral section, especially at junctions where tracks join and leave the main line.

I keep wondering about a server sync'd clock, like an android widget that you can have on your phone which you tell it which server you are on (or your steam ID and it tracks the server you go on) and it shows that particular servers time.. to the second (that bit is missing from most clock widgets) So no matter if you are on the UK server which is currently 1 hour behind, or one of the other servers that is x-many hours ahead or behind local time, a quick glance at this server sync'd clock will tell you the correct time for the SimRail universe. But programming / coding is not something i know. so what sounds simple may actually be almost impossible. ___________ As i only drive the trains, i've also asked the simrail france team on their discord server how hard it would be to add a server clock to the live map, something looking like this : With an option to show the clock or not, and where to show it, as i pretty much always drive with the live map open on an android tablet. I know their EDR thing has a server time clock... that's where i copied the graphic from to insert in to the map. they replied that they are working on a new user interface with a clock planned, but no date for the update is available yet.

i noticed this too, especially as i like to drive with the HUD off and a drivers timetable, the server it's self is on the correct time when you press 'TAB' when driving, but the timetable is an hour behind. But usually when i mention this on discord people just say 'well that's DST for you' 🙂

Just a little thing, You have https://simrail.cz/wiki/index.php?title=Neutral_Sections_-_Where_to_pull_down_pantograph You do not lower the pantograph at a neutral section, you only need to stop drawing motor power, so set the speed control lever / wheel to zero before you go past the We8a sign: You can apply power again when you pass the We9a sign: If you are driving a loco hauled train, you can apply power when you see the We9b sign with the L on the top of it: If you are driving an EMU, you need to wait for the We9a sign without the L on top, which is placed a few hundred meters ahead of the We9b sign... this is because your pantograph is further back than on a locomotive so will still be in the neutral section when your cab passes the We9b sign for locomotives. A tip to get the power to zero by the time you see the We8a sign is to look for the back of the We9a sign that is for trains running on the tracks in the opposite direction: These signs will sometimes be located on posts to the side of the tracks, or on the catenary masts. ________________ Where you need to lower the pantograph will indicated by these signs: I do not think there are any of these signs on tracks we drive on in SimRail yet, i have seen them on other lines as i pass them.

This 'on the fly' timetable maker is amazing isn't it, hats off to Zapach Kreozotu for pulling this off https://media2.giphy.com/media/l4tV2ZqvrLAHD896o/200.gif Unfortunately E-ink displays of the kindle kind are a little bit fussy with what and how they display things, they are after all designed to display individual book pages and refresh (sometimes only partially) on a page change, so they do not like re-sizing, zooming and scrolling things i found. That's why i'm trying to make pdf versions of the timetables more suited to displaying on a kindle / kobo e-ink screen. My idea is to make book timetables that would display as individual pages on a 6 inch kindle / kobo e-ink reader, maximising the relevant information shown on the small screen (so i omit the repeated train data from the right hand side of real timetables and show it only at the beginning of the timetable) But i also wanted to show all information for the speed limits you will find along your route in my timetables even if it's not prototypical... basically showing the speed limits that would be shown by the 'F2 HUD' in SimRail (for signed limits, not signalled limits) whilst still looking like a real Polish train drivers timetable. I put the extra speed limits in italics to differentiate them. Regarding the different speed limit types, from what i've learnt (and i could well have got this wrong).... The drivers timetable shows you the 'line speed limits' : Then you have permanent speed limits : And temporary speed limits : The permanent and temporary speed limits are found by reading extra papers, The permanent speed limits (W9) are found in the 'Dodatek 2' a ~6 monthly publication covering different regions, listing individual tracks permanent speed limits... they are not very easy to read i found (and it took me ages to track down ones from all 8 regions for the year 2018 on google.... i believe only 2 or 3 regions are relevant to SimRail) Below is just one page (of 97) from the June to December 2018 Dodatek 2, 'w Sosnowcu Nr 41' that covers part of the SimRail route (i don't have the dec 17 to June 18 one) i think which speed limit applies to you depends if your a passenger or freight train, if you are joining the line from another one and which particular track you've been routed on, some stations can have can have 20+ different tracks / routes. Then there's those temporary speed limits (Orange W14 signs) From what i've read, drivers get daily printouts of the temporary speed limits... making 3 things you need to read to get the full picture of all your routes' speed changes. And i thought train driving was so easy, just follow the tracks, they will take you where you need to go 😄

Exactly, There's plenty of train games out there that allow people to 'mess about' There's train games that allow you to : Run it like a model railway. Run a 'business' as if you decided to buy yourself a locomotive one day, and drive it from company to company asking to take goods down the line for a fee. Create unrealistic consists and drive about as if you owned the whole railway and it's your private playground. Pretend you are a railway photographer and do nothing but set up screen shot after screen shot whilst your train trundles away driverless down the track. Stop your train on the main tracks and jump out to search for soft toys, or walk the tracks looking for posters to 'put up' or signal phones to 'fix' to 'earn graphics of medals' (who exactly is impressed that you've collected xxx number of gold medals in a train game anyway?) But when you want to drive a train in real time, realistically as if you were doing the job in real life (with some limitations of course), with other real people driving other trains on the line, and real dispatchers working together to keep those trains moving safely and on time, with good graphics, sounds, physics etc, well that's SimRail. We are 3 months in and what we have is amazing and kinda unique.

i think that every now and then SimRail gets a small number of kiddies people who buy it with no idea what a train driving and signalling simulator is (or do know and deliberately want to mess about) They don't care that other people are trying to drive and dispatch realistically on the server they try to take over, they just want to mess about, as to them their train is the only thing that exists / matters, they either don't realise or don't care that the servers have other people on them who bought SimRail with the intention of learning the routes and driving / dispatching properly. I remember another train driving game when it was released had people 'demanding' realistic crash physics !! it was pointed out that it's hard enough getting licences to use real train operators logo's and items in a game / simulator as it is. add in people who want to just make youtube / tiktok video's of racing and crashing the trains with this licenced content showing is more likely to result in licence's being revoked and no new ones issued. There are people out there who can not tell when a video is of a game / computer simulation or real life, and they go into full on karren mode phoning the companies up to complain about the dangerous practices they've just 'witnessed' in some youyube / tiktok video that was posted to their knitting circle facebook group with the title 'OMG, just look at this dangerous train driving, glad i go everywhere by car'

yet people who have been testing these things say this 'visual bug' only appears when the player of the train is using the number 2 camera'

This reminds me of a steam review of SimRail i read where someone moaned that "Polish trains are so hard to operate, our trains are so much easier to drive" When asked which trains he had driven in real life, as you could guess, the reply was 'none, but the train i drove in 'some cheesy mobile game' needed just 2 buttons pushing to make it move and stop! _____________________________ Back to this guy in the forum here... : Erm... a railway is not like taking your car out for a sunday drive around the countryside, you don't get to choose where you take the train and which route you take, that is all planned weeks / months in advance. Your job as a train driver is to run your allotted service, passengers are going to be a little pissed off if they get on your train expecting to be taken to the destination they bought a ticket for and you instead decide to take the train in the opposite direction and not stop at any stations. But of course you are just living up to your screen name... is that you are a 'dick' or a 'pussy' ?

I understand that the 'camera' is the driver eyes, You get to see all sorts of things... at one point if you exited the cab when stationary using key 3, and everyone else see's your figure in the sitting position with arms folded walking around as if doing the squat dance. But get up from the driving seat, walk to the door and exit through the door and you were seen standing / walking around normally. That's the thing here, it's not just you in the sim in multiplayer, other players can see your figure even if you can't, which is why the camera is associated with your in sim figure.

dang, just had a look and my settings.conf is already set on True for that one 😞 i've been playing around 'calibrating' my monitor lately (just by eye with the built in win11 calibration tools atm, but i'm thinking of getting a hardware auto calibrator camera 'thing' to at least get all the screens in the house looking the same) But i've found that the better i get the colours and HDR settings, the more i notice the shadows popping onto the individual trees as i go along which is the effect i think i was confusing with changing from 2D to 3D trees (could be both)

Amazing how an 'arcadey 'game' is based on the actual simulator used to train real train drivers.

Have you ever seen a train go past you in multiplayer and the driver is floating Infront of it, or to the side of the cab? That's the driver of that train using the outside view camera (2) i guess that's just how SimRail is programmed with regards to the multiplayer aspect, you 'play' as the driver or dispatcher, seeing through their eyes, and other players see you wherever you may be. Now we need to add a cameraman filming a documentary about you driving a train in SimRail (or put the number 2 camera on a selfie stick)

usually you'd have low poly models of the trains for the ones that are placed to fill out a goods yard, basic views of the interiors through the windows if you get close enough, no working parts etc, they just become scenery objects then?