Gazz292

i think the last time i tried 'programming' for a computer was copying the code from the C64 magazine to make a 'ski-ing 'simulator' took me almost a week to correct most of the spelling mistakes in the 2 A4 pages of code, but i could never find all the misplaced :'s or ;'s etc, so whilst my 8 bit stick man ski'd down the screen and moved left and right on command, the crash detection didn't work as i could pass through all the slalom flags. i realised them programming wasn't for me, my brain just isn't wired that way. I can manage a little basic code for programming arduino's, but i'm really more of a mechanical / electronics guy, hence my little hobby workshop has my lathe, mill, tig welder, pcb etch tank, soldering stuff, boxes and boxes of old electronics i will harvest for parts... one day. and i rely on others for help with code for arduinos / stm's etc, and buy software ready made by others. I have a lot of respect for those who can 'speak computer fluently' and make amazing things happen with lines of code, As well as those who could do a demanding job like driving a train or working as a signaler, or higher up managing the railways (i did try to become a train driver when i was 19, i even had a distant family member who was high up in british railways at York who put in a good word for me, but i failed the medical and that was that, but i likely wouldn't have made the grade anyway, as i'm useless at remembering things.... should i be doing 125 mph here or 20.. what was the last speed sign, damn, where's the sat nav in this train)

I know that steam adds their own crap with estimated release dates that are nothing to do with the software devs, it's just steam giving people a date to shut them up constantly begging 'when will this be out' They also put in other stuff, and usually the word 'early release' gets a link to some of steams own wording on what to expect, and that is often nothing like what the actual devs had planned.... unless the devs change that link to their own. Which has been done now... i'm talking about stuff on steam's pages 6 months to a year ago where it seems some people have got their information from. A lot of people follow the 'if it's written on the internet, it must be true' and throw their toys out their pram when they don't get thing as 'steam' said they would. Then we get all the people going: 'well this isn't good enough, i'm going back to tsw' 'you have just lost a paying customer' 'you said this would release a year ago, it's still not ready, just give me access to it now so i can make a youtube video moaning how it's unfinished and buggy and everyone should avoid it' If only developing software was as easy as some people think, that all code works perfectly first time, that fixing one thing never breaks another. So, those people moaning SimRail is not what you expected, please show me the train driving simulator you have made, let's see 'how it should be done' in your perfect world where everyone gets exactly what they want.

i'd wait at least until the whole simulator is released, a lot of stuff is turned off for the playtests, also, not sure why you would use an arduino to display things on a 'screen' on a real speedometer with a moving needle, yes you need the software to hardware interface that an arduino provides, but to take a software source (the trains speed data' from the sim) and display it on a software based screen (2nd monitor, android tablet, phone etc) you want to keep it all in software, so write a bit of code that grabs the speed and other data from the train, and sends it to another program running on your computer or the android tablet, then write the software that reads that data and displays it on the screen, Same way they did with https://www.ts-mfd.de/ for railworks/train simulator classic, where 2 pieces of software were used, one to extract the data from the train in the game, and send it to the software on the tablet / screen, where it's rendered into a replica of the MFD or EBuLa in German trains.

it's awesome isnt it, I'm not the social type really, so one new years eve i decided to drive a but on Omsi Berlin map through the night, weather was snowy and cold, bus was slipping and passengers moaning, at midnight fireworks went off in Omsi, just as real ones went off outside. Yeah, most people get drunk to celebrate new year, i was driving a virtual bus and marveling at the virtual weather and virtual fireworks 🎇

Yes... YES PLEASE... the live weather in Omsi is awesome, really adds to the immersion when the weather changes to reflect whats actually happening in the area you are driving, The METAR weather servers are there to be used by anyone, when i suggested live weather for tsw, people were saying we shouldnt be using stuff like this, the reports are for aircraft etc... but they are for anyone to use, hence why it's all open and not locked behind a paywall or needing an aircraft number to access.

The first post now has the latest versions as off 05/01/2023. Please have a look and tell me things i have got wrong, spelling mistakes etc, Just posted another update, changed the wording in places and added signal designators... S1, Sz etc, i might have some of them mixed up tho.

gotta remember this is steam we're talking about, the platform that makes up release dates and makes people angry when they find out the developer had no idea steam had published a release date etc.

Ahh, i didn't realise tool tips were added recently, When i first got into the EU07 loco, i read the instructional post on the forum, so kinda figured out what the switches were from reading that. i do forget not everyone is like me, i read the instructions for everything i get and often search online for more info, but a lot of people refuse to read instructions, i know some prefer to watch youtube videos of others explaining how to operate things (i had a GF once who watched other people playing games on youtube, i thought she was interested in a game once and bought it for her, she went mad shouting that she is not a geek who actually plays games, she just likes watching others playing them... 😕😖) : I guess tho, there will be people who want SimRail to be more game like, even going as far as the 'easy mode' from railworks, where you had a tonka toy style lever on the HUD, drag it upwards with the mouse to make the train go, drag it down and the train stops. For me half the fun is figuring out what i'm being told by the Sim in the local language, that's why i don't like that the station announcements are in english, i want to hear them in Polish as if i really were standing at that station hearing them in real life. BUT... i have no idea about the dispatching side of SimRail, there i can see that having the displays on the screens translated would be an idea, it might even be an option in the real life systems to change the language.... like i know that in some of the modern trains, the drivers screens have a language change button in the menu's.

My latest version of the Signs part of the cheat sheet is below, i've changed to having the descriptions below the signs, as that makes more sense, i.e. spot a sign in SimRail, look it up on the sheet and read what it means below it. please tell me what i've got wrong, or what should get better descriptions please, this version is sized for printing at A5 the idea being to print it on half a sheet of A4 paper, the signals bit would be on the other half of the A4 paper, but i am still working on them. Changed the picture to show the latest version below, made a few corrections.

it's awesome when you are running late, and as you pull into the platform you hear the 'The delayed train from xxx, to xxx is arriving on track xx... we apologise for the delay' I can almost feel the eyes of all the passengers on the platform glaring at me, as it's always the drivers fault the trains late (one train i got handed by the Ai was 59 minutes late)

Oh yes, in the EU07 at least, you need the side window open to hear station announcements 😞 So when i get in my train, i lower the window... something i had to do in tsw all the time to get a decent level of volume in the cab.

well, there's always going to be a problem using a keyboard with digital inputs to move a control lever that is analog in real life, same with the brake lever in the EU07, the best you can do is make it move around the axis slowly as the relevant keys are held down, and have a key to jump the lever back to the released position quickly. When i've played the Zusi Simulator, i found the keys worked the same as most other train driving games (except tsw, which made the PC controls mimic the console ones, so how fast the lever moves and what notch it goes into depends on how long you hold the button / control down for.... i.e. to get into emergency brake position, you need to hold the button for moving the brake lever backwards down for a few seconds before it will jump past that notch... pressing the button repeatedly to get it to move a notch dosent work.. i hate that) But, AFAIK there are no German trains in zusi with the kind of levers Polish trains use, i know there was an attempt to create a universal european wide train control system using joystick like levers, but this was dismissed by Germany as being unsatisfactory compared to their current system of linear levers, which have loads of standards rules, so getting in different trains feels similar to the driver, same as how they did it with local buses, in the 80's it was the VöV dashboard, in the 90's it was the DVD dashboard layout etc.

so changing all the switch nameplates in the loco's, and languages on the in cab display screens, the signs at the stations and the map names to english is going to get more customers? i know when i played train driving games before, if i got in an american locomotive, there was no way to change the legends of the controls and switches to ...say ... German, the station names were as they are in america, not converted to their Germanic versions of the names, there are already 'tool tips' that pop up as you hover over a control, they are in the major languages that the user selects when installing the simulator,

i stopped hearing announcements at the last station going north before the end of the map about a week ago, but the other day i did hear just the first part of the train departing announcement at that station, but no more, i dont even know what oculus is or does... so i'd say no i dont have it connected... i have been faffing around with the sound modes tho, using stereo when using my laptop speakers, selecting 7.1 surround sound (from the sound menu in the sim) when using my usb headphones or the AV amp in my bedroom, and i love the sounds when using the surround modes... I mostly drive the EU07, and i can imagine there's a lot of near deaf old drivers of that loco about, as the motor generator / converter whine / rumble is loud as F. but all part of the old loco's charm.

OK boss 😛

i didn't think you were allowed to listen to radio / tapes of music whilst driving a train, maybe that's why there's no built in stereo system in the cabs, when you are responsible to the lives of hundreds of paying passengers, you need to be focused on your job of driving the train safely and according to regulations, Of course nothing to stop you playing some music on your phone / tablet / home stereo whilst you drive in SimRail,

yet we know from other posts on the forum that it will be released in stages, with extra features being released when they are ready, So don't go expecting to get the steam train, the 1980's map for that (something i read, could be wrong) every train, the SDK's etc on the 13th.

took me a while to spot my spelling mistake... good catch sir 😇

yeah, but in tsw you can press a button to jump out of a train doing 280 km/h, and sit at the side of the track with your camera whilst it's whizzes past, then you can press another button and be teleported back into the cab. At least in SimRail when you select the outside view camera, you are sitting on an invisible pole that's tethered to the centre of the train (and you can't see your driver in the train, as the driver is you, sat on that pole holding the camera) 😄

mee three, Even if there's a text file we have to play with to adjust the HUD, being able to turn bits off like the next signal aspect, but also being able to move where they are positioned on the screen, I am hoping once SimRail is fully released, someone with programming skills can write something that can grab the data that fills out the current 'timetable' HUD element, and have it so it can be shown on a phones screen, Then add a few extra bits to the 'timetable' like distance to next stop, current speed limit, up-coming speed limits and distance to next signal, Then we can drive with the main screen HUD-less and showing the view a real driver see's, and have a phone / tablet / 2nd screen displaying the bits from the HUD.

oh, haven't you heard, Polish trains have built in teleporters 🤯

i've said this elsewhere, but i really love SimRail, i can see how amazing it is and can become, and i want to support the people who are making this all possible, i'm done with lining dtg's multi million £ pockets. I'd happily pay £30 right now for the past few weeks access i've had to the playtest, and i'd pay any reasonable price for the full simulator, even if if's £100, and a monthly charge of £10 to access the servers Running servers 24/7 isn't cheap, especially nowadays with electricity costs going through the roof... some people don't realise that the price for commercial electricity is not subject to price caps, so whilst we may pay ~40p a Kw/h at our home, in a server farm / office building it can be ~£1.80 a Kw/h!!! (and that's why you usually have to buy a subscription to console multiplayer games)

SimRail supports TrackIr already. The way you operate the levers in the trains is how a real driver operates them... and this being a simulator, that is simulated, The 'ELF' and 'traxx's' levers are spring loaded in places, they are not like the standard German levers where you just move the lever to a position and leave it, and that sets the power / braking amount, On these Polish trains, you set the power and braking with a joystick type lever, i agree they are awkward for someone coming from playing German train driving games, I find i prefer to use my mouses scroll wheel to operate those levers, left click on the control lever in the train, then move your moses scroll wheel up or down a notch or 2, and the lever moves in sync with it, i find this a much nicer way to drive.... of course one day i will make a replica lever with those movements on it, but for now the mouse scroll wheel is much nicer than key presses i find. I even use 'autoHotKey' to bind a keyboard key to be my left mouse button, so i hover the mouse pointer over the power or brake lever, then press '\' (the key i chose) and that is the same as holding down the left mouse button, it keeps the lever in the train active, and i just move the scroll wheel on the mouse up and down and the lever follows. Re: the EU07's 'extra throttle positions' If you hold 'Left Shift' and then press the key to increase throttle, it will wind the wheel round fast to notch 28, repeat that and it'll wind it fast to notch 43, hold 'Left Shift' and press the key to decrease the throttle, and it will fast wind the wheel to notch 28, repeat to get to notch zero, takes about 2 seconds to wind all the way around, Remember tho, when increasing the throttle, you need to pause in notch 1 for the 'starting contractors' to engage (blue light on the dash goes out) then you can fast wind to notch 28 or 43,

ahh... the one in my signs section is a 'DO' portable shield, not an 'OT - 1, 2 or 3 mechanical distant signal' it's a temporary sign placed at braking distance + 200 meters before a 'D1' shield, which is the red oblong shield that means 'STOP, track closed' From the 2020 signal book : DO signal "Behind the warning shield there is a stop shield" but i see how it can be confused,,, i will change it's description to something like 'caution, expect stop ahead' or something like that. I believe SimRail will have an earlier time period track system to go with the steam train when that is released later, when that happens i will need to add the old mechanical signals to my sheet, but for now i am keeping them out as it can be confusing enough for someone new to SimRail to learn the signals and signs likely to be seen as they drive, i struggle myself with wanting to give too much info at once and get technical, but i want the cheat sheet to be something people can pick up and glance at as they pass a signal or sign.... find the relevant picture and read 'ahh, that semi-automatic signal combo means i should....pass this signal at vMax, and expect a 100 km/h speed reduction at the next signal.... or ... i should have turned the traction power off as i passed that weird blue diamond signs with a face on it.

Just remember the version i posted yesterday (03/01) is wrong, i am working on it right now, and will have the corrected version ready to post soon for people to look at and tell me if i have other mistakes to correct, The idea is i release a zip file with high resolution versions in different formats, so it can be printed say in landscape on A4 paper, folded in half to make a double sided A5 sheet, and versions to display on a phone and flip / swipe between the panels etc.