Gazz292

i've noticed this too, i can get about 50 to 60 fps easily on my laptop using the ultra settings in SimRails graphics menu (running auto power mode on the laptop, where the rtx3070Ti is running about 120 watts... it'll run at 155 watts in power mode... but i only get maybe 7 fps more then, and it's like sitting ontop of a fan heater... and in quiet mode it pulls ~70 watts, but i get 17 fps) But lately it just does not seem as smooth as it used to be, it's more like a certain train game i gave up on last year, where i used to get about 20 fps in stations (on the same laptop!)

A guide i made for the signs and signals you will find in SimRail: The zip file attached at the bottom of this post contains a portrait and landscape version of the guide as seen above, in both .png and .pdf formats. You can print the guide out or display it on a phone / tablet / 2nd monitor, allowing you to look up what that signal or sign was telling you that you just zoomed passed whilst driving in SimRail. 🙂 The image above is a low quality preview, please print out the high quality version in the .zip file at the bottom of this post. The idea of the landscape guide (shown above) is so you can print it out on a sheet of A4 paper and fold it in half, giving you a handy A5 sized guide with the signals on one side and the signs on the other side. Or keep it full sized in either landscape or portrait if you wish. If you can, laminating the print out will make it last almost forever (or until mistakes are spotted and i need to re-release the files) When printing, it might help to set your print settings to 'fit to page keeping aspect ratio' and 'centre on the page' if that's an option. Alternatively, you can display the guide on a phone or tablet. If using a tablet, 2nd screen or large phone, simply displaying the whole guide may be fine, but for a normal sized 'tall and skinny screen' smartphone, it may be too small to read unless you zoom and scroll about the picture. So i have also made 3 condensed views of the guide arranged for better viewing on a phone screens, you can flip / swipe between the 3 images/pages on your phone and view them in a format that fills a 'typical' smartphone screen as much as possible, however this version does not have the info panels telling you things about passing an automatic block signal at red etc, that the full guide has, so i would recommend reading the full sized guide first to see a few explanations about some of the signs and signal types. The 'Printing or Displaying the pictures' Read Me file explains how to 'use' the images with more detail / waffle. The 'Understanding the guide ' Read Me file has some info on a few Polish railway rules and how to read the semi-automatic signals. There is also a folder called 'Textless guides for translation' inside this folder are the 2 full guides plus the phone sized ones with all the graphics but empty text boxes, the idea being people can add the text below the pictures in their native language then share the translated guide with others (If you translate the guide , could you please post it in this thread) You can open the .png versions in an image editor then add you translated text over the empty boxes, or use a PDF editor on the .pdf versions, and you should be able to type directly into the text boxes. Big thanks to jmluengor for the idea of a pdf version to edit. ---------------------- Below is an animated .gif showing the 3 pages that make up the phone sized pages showing the signals and signs as if you were flipping between them (the preview is low quality) The small print: I have drawn all the signal and signs myself in Inkscape as vectors, but i based the signals and signs on other peoples work, listed below: The signal aspect images are based on the ones on the polish railway signals Wikipedia page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_railway_signalling That page has a creative commons 3 license (CC BY-SA 3.0) : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Which means i am allowed to re-mix and distribute the content as long as i reference the page i based my version on, and link to the relevant CC3 license. The sign images are based on the ones shown on : http://pkprepo.net/wskazniki-kolejowe-pkp-epoka-vc/ That page has a creative commons 4 license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Which means that i needed permission to "Re-mix, Transform or Build Upon'' the content, i have been granted that permission by E-Mail from the author of the website. Change log for V2: Added railway vehicle head and tail light codes, Updated the W8 and D6 signs text (when the sign is blank it means 20 km/h limit ahead) Changed shunting signal identifier text to include 'Tm' T meaning shunting only signal, m meaning it's used for manoeuvres . Signs and Signals in SimRail Guide V2.zip

the SimRail dev team said that controller support will be added later, the early access is more about getting the sim running well and bug fixes as they roll out new features later on.

When it's dark (or in tunnels... like the london underground) some drivers greet each other by flashing the cab light on and off. In Poland, flashing headlights is a danger / distress signal, there's even a setting on the Elf's (and possibly traxx and Pendolino's) headlight switch to do this (SOS mode i think the tool tip is in english) In the PKP rule book it mentions § 15. Alarm signals 1) Signal A1 "Alarm" Two white lights flashing on the front of the locomotive and simultaneously one long and three short beeps of the locomotive audible device, or one long and three short beeps of the workshop siren, trumpet, whistle or telephone ringing, repeated several times : ____ . . . a) the A1 alarm signal is given to notify railway employees of the existing or possible threat to traffic safety, personal safety of employees, third parties or all railway property. b) the A 1 alarm signal is given by the traction vehicle team in the event of the train stopping for an unknown reason on a track of a two- or multi-track route, or in the event of finding an unsignaled obstacle to the train's movement on a route track, c) the A 1 alarm signal should be given until it is determined that there is no obstacle to driving on the adjacent tracks, or until the obstacle is properly removed, d) after receiving the A1 alarm signal, the traction vehicle team of another train traveling on the route should regulate the speed in such a way that the train can be stopped before the obstacle encountered, e) employees with equipment intended for giving sound signals should repeat the alarm signals heard sounds until the action starts and rescue. I flash the top headlight on and off a few times when a human driven train is coming towards me as a greeting, according to the above rules that should be ok, but i'd imagine that in real life any flashing train headlights should be seen as a possible danger signal?

There is a problem using modifier keys, or setting one key to be a toggle function, Thats why the keybinds only work a single way ... needing a second key to turn a control backwards like the power / brake levers. Hopefully this will be sorted, as it is a pretty big 'annoyance' to have to use the mouse to turn switches back off... some people like driving using the mouse to operate the controls, others hate it... i'm one of those who hate it... partially due to pain when using the mouse for too long. I think the best thing that can happen is the key binds can be set on a 'per train' basis, so you can set up the same key to operate controls found only in some trains, one example is the 2 keys used for the 'shunt' lever in the EU07, that's not found in the other trains, but then neither are the cruise control keys found in the EU07.

I've got a 'spare' kindle paperwhite sitting on my computer desk waiting for the day we get the paper timetables that would sit on the clipboard in the EU07, Also got a couple of android tablets for the full EBuLa and MFD like screens, But all this will happen when the SDK's are released i think, when people with the programming knowledge will be able to access the data directly from the simulator.

i figured it's the inside of the glass that hasn't been cleaned properly, hence why it does not change when the wipers are used.

that kind of thing will be implemented later on, The early access thing is to fix the bugs and test things with the basic simulator, hence why the date is set for July, Seasons are on the road map, as will be times of days for SP afaik. As mentioned above, to drive at night when it's daytime in real life (or vise versa) go in multiplayer and chose a server on the other side of the world to you.

as keeps being mentioned, there's some reason why modifier keys and toggle keys can't work in SimRail at the moment, This is something that needs sorting, but right now the devs are working on getting the simulator stable and fixing bugs.

i always drive with the live map running on a tablet mounted next to my laptop's screen, then i can see all the AI trains and signal boxes around me as they have a 'bot' icon.

so using the cruise control buttons to speed up and slow down and stop the train in the platforms is allowed! why bother with the control handle at all if you can just press '0' when you want to stop at a station, and say '120' when you want to leave the station.

I guess if there's an emergency reason to put the signal back to danger, the dispatcher would maybe use the radio stop too? Or even talk on the radio to warn the train? I know a lot of countries have all singing and dancing trains that basically drive themselves, but most trains in Poland are driven the old fashioned way, the driver's brain is the computer, you react to the line side signals and signs appropriately, with a max speed of 125 Km/h that isn't that hard to do..... after all it worked fine for the first couple of centuries after railways were invented 😄

Latest version is 1.8.1, now includes ETCS signs and text-less versions of the guide for phones (as well as the main guide) to add the text in your native language.

Re: the se saw / zig zag power method, it was something i read about modern German trains, something about the continuous steady power used more electricity than getting upto speed then coasting, then powering back upto speed etc. There's also something about the use of 2 loco's uses less power together than a single one,

Put on some over the ear headphones, set SimRail sounds to 7.1 surround instead of stereo in the menu and use your headphone software to turn on virtual surround sound (or connect a pro logic surround sound AV amp to the computer if you have the 7 speakers in your room) You will hear the hasslers ticking way louder, and the rumble and whine of the converter will be almost too much, the loud thud as your loco's wheels go over points wakes you up if you are dozing a little, the flange squeal of not only the loco but the coaches / wagons behind you sound amazing. Then play about paning the camera in the cab around (or use a head tracker ... FaceTrackNoIr will act as a 'middle man' and convert most other head tracking methods from web cams to IR units into a TrackIr signal that works in SimRail... then you really start to have fun with the sounds moving around as you move your head.

why must SimRail copy the train driving 'games' all the time? This is something new and exciting, a multiplayer real time train driving and dispatching 'Simulator' Starting off based on the Polish railway system, based on the simulator used to train real drivers.... and people keep going on about 'tsw does it like this' 'derail valley does that' 'run8 has this feature' so i want you to turn SimRail into a clone of these other games. Why can't we have one train based game/simulator that's at the more serious end of the spectrum, where it's simulating the real life of the train driver and dispatcher... yes i know we can't flip between outside and floating views in real life and teleport to the cab / signal box from 200 meters away, but pretty much the rest of SimRail goes a long way towards making you feel you are at the controls of a real train, or dispatching real trains in your area.

i think some people have no idea how a multiplayer real time train and dispatching simulator works. You can't just reset the server for the other 75+ players because you want to do a cold start of a train as it's spawned at the beginning of the timetabled day. So the alternative is you will have to give up the ability to join a server and get control of a train at any time of the day, You will need to join the server, choose the train you'd like to drive, then wait ... and wait... and wait until that train which is already running on the server, being signaled by other people and the AI, and seen by other drivers on the tracks pulls into a station / change over point, Then you will have a couple of minutes to stop what ever else you were doing and get in it and take over before you delay the other services timed around your train.... i doubt you'd be sat watching the trains progress on a map for upto 3 hours waiting for your time slot to take it over?? With a cold start, you'd need to be logging into the server at the exact time the train is spawned, a lot of trains are cold started early in the morning and then stay running all day, i don't fancy setting my alarm for 05:00 / 5 AM to get up and take over a virtual train that has just been spawned on the server... which if no one else takes over needs to automatically cold start and get moving to be part of the days traffic.

I think that the current method of having a single global key binding and camera view FOV etc that apply to all trains needs changing, We already have trains that have controls that other's don't, so for things like the field weakening / shunt lever in the EU07 we have 2 keys set to that, then the cruise control + and - buttons in the Elf take up another 2 keys making 4 keys taken up for 2 different controls, but those 4 keys are never used at once in a train, So a way to bind the same key to multiple inputs that are only active in their relevant trains is something i think we need... as well as the ability to use modifier keys to expand on the number of key binds available... 50 or so keys can be used on a typical keyboard, but add in 'Shift' 'Control' and 'Alt keys you triple the number of keys that can be used... add in that left and right shift, controls and alt are possible, that gives you 6 times the number of possible keys to bind controls to. It's the same with a global in cab FOV, i changed that for a nicer view of the cab in the EU07, but when i drove the Elf, the view was too wide and if i put the power/brake lever into the 'apply full brakes' notch, i couldnt grab it again with the mouse as it was now out of view until i moved the view down. So we deffo need to move away from the global settings for cameras and key bindings, and to a set per train, as when other people start making trains from other countries we will rapidly end up with a 200+ line long list of key binds to set, I'm not sure how joystick control will help this, hopefully we will be able to set joystick buttons to any of the controls in a train (and hopefully be able to read the control position like is done in railworks / tsc. allowing us to positively move a lever to a set position, and not just send the 'move 3 notches' command and hope the in sim lever moves in sync.

i don't know about PKP, but using the cruise control 0 button to stop the train would get you sacked on most other railways, On the German railways the drivers do not even use the AFB lever to slow down to a lower speed (say 120 to 100 km/h) because it does so in such a harsh way the passengers would be complaining about the rough ride they are getting, So the drivers turn AFB off and slow down gently using the electric brake and the seat of their pants feel to slow down in a way the passengers won't notice, then set the AFB lever to the new lower speed which they are now traveling at and re-enable it.

I'm sure the EU07 uses both motors all the time (one per bogie) but in the 1-28 notches they are in series and 29 - 43 notches are in parallel? that's the normal way to do it in DC motor trains, So the 1 - 28 notches the power goes into one motor, then out and into the other motor before going to the rail return, so they share the 3Kv input and each motor see's 1.5Kv and turn slower, then when you get past notch 28 they are connected in parallel, so both motors receive 3Kv each and turn faster. Hence why one ammeter shows the 2 motors series connected with upto 600 / 750 amps, then when you go to parallel connection each motor can have it's own ammeter, so you now need to add their readings together to get the total current drawn... upto 1200 amps in parallel notches.. 600 amps per motor / meter. With the EU07 in the sim, the field weakening / shunt lever should do nothing whilst the resistors are in circuit (notches 1 - 27, and 29 - 42) but if you've used it in the series notches it wont advance into the parallel stages until the field weakening / shunt lever is put back to zero (or if you have switched to high current.. as that's for the series notches only) If hauling a heavy freight, then using the field weakening / shunt lever in the series notches is often needed, with a passenger train i don't bother, and only use the lever when i want to get to max speed in notch 43, But if i want to hold the speed at about 90 km/h, if notch 43 and no field weakening / shunt is too much current (~220) making you over speed, dropping back to notch 28 and using the lever can often get you cruising along nicely at about 90 km/h, with about 180 amps or so. Not sure if Polish train drivers are told to drive in the zig/zag / see saw method German drivers are, which is to : power on to get upto speed, then power off and coast for a bit, power back on when you've lost about 5km/h, as this was found to me more efficient than running at a constant current draw for the speed.. which is what the modern thyristor / IBGT mosfet based motor controllers do.... So the old 'bang - bang' method of motor control used less electricity.

ahh, never considered that might dump some sand under the wheels, i know that button applies the loco brakes when pressed.... wonder if we see sand coming out the pipes when sanding.

anyone know where the sanding button is in the EU07? i think it is one of the foot controls, but neither the pedal or the button on the floor are operatable with the mouse, there is a 'sanding' circuit breaker in the breaker box, but i've not found a way to apply sand in this loco yet.

some train driving games all you do is turn a lever / key switch then move 1 lever and that controls everything, i know some trains look like that's all there is to it, but there is more. What we have to do in SimRail is only a small part of setting up a real train, in the EU07 you'd be in and out of the 'engine room' setting various valves and switches during set up, plus i'd imagine checking / changing the chart paper in the hassler tacho, and possibly some other things relating to the hassler to set up (or do you just sign on the chart paper and add your driver number, or is it a new paper roll per driver?) To get to pendulino, traxx and Elf going you'd need a drivers smart card, pin code, be able to enter a valid route number, then perform the system tests, brake tests etc, For the closest thing to setting up a real loco would be Zusi, there you have some engine room gear you have to set correctly, but even they have left some things out for security reasons... ... people have tried to go joy riding in trains before, and there was/is a problem in Germany with some people activating the steuerwagen / trailer driving cab whilst the train is being driven from the loco end.

The alternative could be to have a manual on how to drive each train, and one on the signalling rules and regulations. But we all know that the 'type' of person who complains that it's too hard to operate the controls in a simulator won't read a manual, i know some people have bought SimRail thinking it's the cheaper alternative to tsw, not realising that tsw is a game, and SimRail is a simulator, and get mad that it's harder than they thought to drive a train in a simulator.... some even claim that Polish trains are far too complex, and their countries trains are so much simpler to drive!

30 minutes whizzes by when you are being told 'now move the lever highlighted, then press this switch' the thing is, the tutorials are not just about how to get the train moving and stopping, it's teaching you how to read some of the signals and signs, approaching stations, opening and closing the doors, pressing the radio ZEW3 button to get the AI dispatcher to change the signal for you etc etc. All stuff you will need to know when you go into MP and take on a 3+ hour service.