Gazz292

Just as long as trolls / greifers don't pull a 'homer simpson' and use a drinky bird to spam the 'i'm still here, don't kick me yet' key 😁

ok... if i buy a flight simulator, i expect to fly the planes, and i expect to do so like i am really there in the cockpit operating the controls... as close to reality as is possible with today's consumer computer tech that is. i don't expect to pack a virtual suitcase, get a taxi to the airport, book in as a passenger, wait for the plane in the passenger lounge, then board the passenger cabin of the plane and sit there looking out the window for 12 hours whilst someone else flies the plane for me. Like i don't expect to work as cabin crew, or on the check in desk, as a cleaner, or drive the aeroplane towing vehicles / baggage trains etc. And i deffo do not expect to spawn in and wander around the runway whilst other people are taking off and landing there. if i want to play as a different role to a train driver or a dispatcher, i don't expect to do it so a train driving and dispatching simulator, If i want to pretend to live as an alternative human going about daily life, i'd play the sims, or GTA, or red dead redemption, or one of the many world / base building games, i'd like to see the trains in SimRail modeled as realistically as possible, the controls operate as realistically as possible and so on, the signalling operating as realistically as possible, The scenery is there to see as you go past in your train, But when you start being able to wander freely about, people need pulling off the train or signal box modeling team to create high res textures of all the towns and villages along the route, They need to model all the stations fully, all the underpasses, bridges, levels and to make them so you can wander down them along with all the physics to do that, so the people working on train / signalling physics now need to work on 'walk about' physics, etc etc.

Thank you, i noticed that there were 2 meanings for the W1 sign, depending on if it's mounted on the signal post or as a separate sign before a signal, How do you tell the difference between 3 or 4 state signals? is it just that if you are on a high speed line (is that 160 km/h?) it's 4 state, and low speed line it's 3 state. i originally had another set of signals in the cheat sheet like below... but thought i could be clever and reduce the ABS bit to one line, but i also wanted to show that 'S3' could mean '100 km/h at next signal' if that signal post is the last ABS one (has a W18 sign on the post) Working on putting it back to 2 lines of Automatic Block Signals now

Yeah, i was unsure what phrase to use that is not too long for some of the descriptions..... "Indicators We 8a, We 8b, We 8c “Dead-driving indicators” mean the place through which the electric traction vehicle should pass without drawing traction current from the traction network" .... is what i tried to condense into less than 6 words. W19... i tried to make out that W20 kinda covered that... they both mean reduced braking distance... but i can change it to show that W20 will be preceded by W19, and try and put the differences (again it's that 6 word limit thing.

i think most people know i am hoping for 'Zusi with good graphics' and Zusi is a hardcore train driving simulator..... which is also used to train real drivers, like the simulator that SimRail is based on. So like the people who want a flight sim like thing, that's what i'm hoping for, more realism around the driving and dispatching side of things, Shunting would be good too, something realistic that a train driver would do, but i can see that outside a big yard it would be kinda boring waiting hours between work in the live time multiplayer side of things. i also need to remember to put the 'in my opinion / personally' in front of most of my posts, but i thought that's was automatically assumed on any forum, it's a place to post our opinions, and not everyone is going to agree with them, that's true anywhere in life.

ahh, i added the blinking yellow on the ABS as i saw it in SimRail last time i played, it was a 3 aspect signal, and after passing it the HUD changed to 'yellow, 100 km/h restriction' but i didn't notice if it had the 'W18' shield on the post, meaning that signal was the last ABS one, and the next was a semi-automatic one. Working on correcting the ABS signals now, will upload the new version when it's done.

well, the main thing i worry about is the griefers and trolls, who already have enough ways to disrupt things, being able to travel as a passenger... and pull the emergency stop handles, uncouple the train half way along etc? When walking along the tracks exploring, do you appear as a ghost and trains pass through you, or do you have collision physics added etc? And how does it work on the servers, is someone wandering about the tracks taking up a slot for a driver or dispatcher etc

well, i was hoping for SimRail to be more of a Simulator than yet another train based game, We already have 20 or more different train driving games out there, even ones where you can earn points and medals for walking around and finding things (and they have to display legal warnings not to copy this in real life, as some people will actually try hunting donkey statues along live railway lines because they have seen it in the game) What i don't want to see is SimRail become so diluted with lots of different 'modes' that the main part... driving and signalling the trains realistically becomes 'just another point scoring arcade like train game' Or it becoming more of a 'sims' type game: Play as a second man and just sit there looking out the window for 5+ hours as you are not needed, play as a passenger and ride the trains, play as a signal technician and travel out to fix signals, play as a poster guy and change advertising hoardings, play as a breakdown gang and go out to fix trains / infrastructure, play as a train spotter and collect train numbers and wave at the drivers, play as a vandal throwing stones at the passing trains, play as a trespasser and wander about the tracks causing the trains to be restricted to 10 km/h until you are caught, play as a drunk and pee / puke in the carriages, play as transport police and deal with the vandals, fare dodgers, trespassers and drunks, play as a station cat hunting mice and tripping passengers up.

A guide i made for the signs and signals you will find 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 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 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

dont forget to add in the game of pokemon too, so people have things to search for when wandering around the tracks, maybe have broken signals and points that the wanderer could fix by walking upto them, Thing is, SimRail is a simulator for train driving and dispatching, it's based on the simulator that is used to train real train drivers, It's also got the multiplayer aspect, where there are only a certain number of slots on each server, i for one don't want them taken up by people who want to play train spotter or wander around the railway on foot, that kind of thing is more suited to a single player game... like tsw... which already does this. people playing tsw already moan that bad things happen when they stop their train in the middle of a section and get out and go wandering looking for donkeys and collectables, like other trains running into the back of the train they left for half an hour... imagine people doing that when the trains stuck behind them are live drivers who are trying to ... 'drive'

cheers guys, i can stop trying to find bad drivers and conflicts on my laptop now 🙂

i'm not sure if i have an issue with my laptop, or it's a thing in SimRail. I have been driving the EU07 pretty much exclusively, and i've always noticed that using the train brake lever, sometimes it will be silent when i move it from running position to the first notch, other times i will get an air noise, but it will cut in and out... like 'pssshhhttt....<silence>..... psshhh .... <silence> .... ssshhhhh ... <silence> ... ffffttt.... ftttt....fttttt....pssshhhh' I've also noticed that sometimes when i operate a switch, or move the power wheel / field weakening lever after a while of doing nothing, i don't get the first sound playing, or like the very last bit of the click / thunk sound, but afterwards all sounds will play fully as i move the wheel round more or turn the switch off again (i.e wipers and washers to clean the flies off the screen) i'm not that good with computers, so i am not sure if this is something i need to find out what's blocking the sound on my system, or it's something others have noticed and get.

i read a post from someone recently saying that they like to drive at max speed and ignore signals, as when they pass a red it will teleport them back to just behind it! this was supposed to be a way to get back on schedule if you're running late they thought! obviously i think that if you are going to do that, why bother with a train driving simulator, go play need for speed or GTA.

Yep, in the uk the signals show the route ahead, so it's upto the driver to know if that route has a 20mph limit at the points... there are speed marker boards, but i don't think they warn you of the speed limits on the route you're about to take until you are about to diverge off the main line. http://igg.org.uk/rail/3-sigs/svgh9gi4.jpg It used to be all the driver may have is a print out / written schedule of what stations to stop at and the time expected there... that may well have changed nowadays tho, Most of Europe uses speed signalling, so if you get a '40 km/h' signal ahead, it's likely you are going to be changing line and going over speed restricted points, But the driver is expected to have a printed or electronic schedule / timetable that shows the expected route they will take, and you use the hectometer boards to know where you are and what speed to do (or the electronic ones usually know your location, and move a pointer for you to see what speed it is now and will be ahead, Obviously getting diverted off the usual route changes things a little... but as said above, the signals and signs warn you of the speed limits ahead.

There are only limited keybindings available, I was told it would be possible to activate every control in the cab to have a keybind assigned to it, but we'd run out of keyboard keys to use long before we reached the end of the list, Some controls are only found in a certain train and not others, so we'd need a way to assign the same key to multiple controls, i.e. the ones for cruise control do nothing in the EU07, as it doesn't have cruise control, but what if i want to use the + and - keys to operate the shunt/field weakening lever when i am driving the EU07, but the cruise control when in the ELF? Also, at the moment there's no way to use modifier keys, so as other sims/games use say 'V' for wipers on, and 'Shift V' for wipers off, that can't be done in SimRail (yet?)

i don't play as dispatcher, but i can see how things like opening windows in the signal boxes could be cool to have, we have them in the train cabs... and if they can get the sound attenuation things working so that opening the windows makes it a little louder in the cab, that would be good for the signal box too... you can hear the trains louder with the windows open... nad when the windows are closed, the sounds of the level crossing warnings could be quieter... i read some people don't like how loud that is in one of the signal boxes.

The ability to extract data from the trains / sim, So people who know programming (not me, i'm into the mechanical side of things) can use them to put data like speed, destination, position etc on tablets / 2nd monitors, and we can have a more immersive experience with a train cab like setup, From as simple as a phone and an android tablet mounted on the computer desk next to the main monitor, displaying the trains 'dashboard' data, Below is railworks / train sim classic, and TS-MFD is extracting the data and displaying it on the tablets as a MFD on the left that mimics the in train left hand screen, and a working live updating EBuLa on the right hand tablet : To full blown replica driving cabs that you would find at a train drivers training facility, or transport museum.

That i did, i was the weirdo on youtube who wore a BVG drivers cap when driving, as i had mounted the TrackIr led's on it. Back in 2011 i bought a dashboard from a scrapped MAN NG272 bus ... (later on i took my then gf on a 'trip' to Germany to see the xmas markets in Berlin and other places... and on the way called in at various bus scrapyards to buy more parts... and collect the BR111 train driving desk stuff... this was in a Smart ForTwo tiny car, luckily i had a tow bar on it, as i bought a cheap bike rack and a plastic garden store box and some ratchet straps to put the train stuff in, as i'd ran out of room inside the car) Then i got help from a guy from Brazil called Thiago (on the AussieX forums) to make the ''Gazz.opl'' plugin that got some of the lights and the gauges working with omsi, and worked my way forwards.. but always having the bus dashboard sat on my computer desk in the living room, Made an adapter to mount a bus steering wheel to my drivingforce GT wheel, Got hold of a british Almex ticket machine, and made a new button plate for it on a laser cutter at my local hackspace to turn it into a Berlin version. Helped a little bit with Komsi.. a much better and more user friendly way to control the lights, gauges, ticket machine etc. I was working on the IBIS unit next... by then i'd split up from that girlfriend (not because of the driving sims) and 8 months later met someone else... and then my world fell apart, Didn't have access to my tools etc, and generally ruined my life... but i did find out i have ADHD and other things that explained to me why i am 'weird' : It's only the past couple of years i've started re-making my workshop, and i started on a new version of my NG272 Fahrerarbeitsplatz / driving cab, i said to myself that 2023 would be the year i complete it... but now SimRail is coming out, and my plans may change again 🤪 I think i have it sorted in my mind how to have the full 6.5 revolutions of the bus steering wheel, with a custom force feedback program (EMC FFB) and a ~150 watt scooter motor, that will drive a NG272 steering column and wheel (on the floor behind the seat in the pic) The seat... erm...yeah... was brand new from an iveco truck and cost me £30, but i have it mounted on a proper suspension seat base from a bus, i will see about covering it to look more like a MAN bus seat sometime. I have all the steel to make the proper frame for the dashboard and locker to the left of the seat that NG272's have for extra switches (and i'll mount my electronics in there, the PC lives in the compartment infront of the dashboard, and the monitor (42" tv) will sit ontop of that. I just need to get my arse into gear and get on with the steelwork... cutting it to size and welding it together... i even bought a tig welder as my workshop is wooden, and i didn't want to mig weld in there (mig splatters molten metal all around you, TIG is basically electric gas welding, nice and gentle) : In 2021 i was working on a 3D printed MAS3 IBIS unit, and the thermometer from the original Berlin buses in Omsi : I even managed to mess with the data from Komsi to get it onto the LCD with the early/late timer thing on the right hand end of the screen (this is a replica IBIS, not my real one, that i need to gut to make work with Omsi. But this year (2022) i got hooked on tsw and went on with making the mostly 3D printed 'EuroRialDriver' which ended half done when i realised that tsw was just never going to work well with it, due to them not allowing joystick input for controlling the trains.

I'm wondering about the LOD settings in SimRail, programming stuff is not my strong point, so this is probably obvious... but i'm wondering how the 2 LOD settings should affect things in the simulation. I know LOD stands for Level Of Detail, and it's for switching between low, medium and high resolution versions of objects as you get near or away from them. But am i thinking correctly that just having the 2 LOD sliders in SimRail as far to the right is 'best? I've read a little that having these kinds of settings too high can affect how much of that wavy like patterning you get on things like railings and lattice work.. like catenary poles, i've moved the sliders about but can't say i notice much difference. I'd love to find a way to make the rail shadows draw further away, so they are not popping out as i move along the track, but i think that is a problem all rail simulators / games suffer from, and it's not a LOD thing?

Maybe have a laptop in the signal box, and when the dispatcher has no trains to route for a while, get the virtual laptop out and play SimRail as a dispatcher in a busier box, or as a train driver whilst you wait the next train into your area 🤪

i got fed up of tsw* as that is always the same run, it's all scripted so you soon get to know which signals you'll be held at, what the other train moves around you will be etc. thats why i read about people who say they've 'completed the game' what they've done is driven every timetabled run once, and there's no point running them again as they'd already seen everything. i too would get bored if every run as a 'green lighter' drive at max line speed, stop at the stations on time... repeat for the next 500km. I love the randomness live drivers and dispatchers bring to SimRail, It's awesome when i keep getting speed checked by amber signals ahead that clear as i approach them, and i realise there's a 'live drivers' train ahead of me, running late but going just a little slower than i am, then i can ask the dispatcher if i can 'overtake' them at an appropriate place, this is the kind of stuff that separates a simulator from a game i think. *i also lost interest in tsw as they changed from saying they will offer joystick controller support, to only offering raildriver support, So the controller i was working on became useless,

i wonder how things will work regarding the SimRail team fixing things as the sim is released,... is the problem with the sim, or with the private server... can they get access to these private server logs etc?

That's because the driver is holding the camera... and floating around the train 🙂

I notice with the 31/12/22 update, the Hassler recording speedo/tachometer in the EU07 had been 're-calibrated' 🙂 Thankyou SimRail team. It now reads the same speed as displayed on the HUD (still with the realistic mechanical device's needle jump that is awesomely re-created) so we can now turn the speed part of the HUD off if we want, and not have to worry too much about the previously under reading in cab speedometer. I've also noticed the clock in the tacho head reads the correct time too. : I'd still like to see the ability for us to customise the HUD, i.e select just the individual parts of it we want to see, For me i'd like to be able to display : Current speed limit Distance to next signal... but NOT the signal aspect. Speed limits ahead Distance to next post / station stop Maybe the 'Throttle Position' display, but not the brake, or current ones, as the gauges tell me that info. Timetable panel Chat box I wonder once the SDK's are released, will they allow people who are good at programming/scripting/coding (i.e. not me) to make a 'pop out' panel with the info on it, that could be displayed on a 2nd monitor, or on your phone/tablet, leaving the main screen clear to see the beautiful artwork in SimRail as a real driver would see it from their cab, and a glance at your phone gives you the timetable panel, and the speed and distance overlays.

i personally think the points scoring stuff should be more hidden, as it's clearly worrying some players who are chasing points all the time, even causing arguments on some servers where the dispatchers are role playing single line working due to a 'pretend' signal failure, most drivers are ok with that, adds to the realism etc, But some really hate it, and i've heard some pretty nasty comments when a driver would lose a few points due to being held up and 'made late' due to the single track working thing. . I can understand losing points for not stopping at a station with a passenger service, but losing points for 'missing' freight layovers isnt really fair, as often it's the Ai that's decided to let you straight through, and when its a live dispatcher, they often ask if you are ready to depart early as they have a route free for you. . . . I don't care one bit about points myself, but i do understand there needs to be some way of recording your progress, as it seems that in the full release you will need to 'earn' a certain rating to drive more difficult trains? and 'ratings' are really needed for the dispatchers to work their way from a simple pass through signal box to the complex multi route ones, so as to avoid total gridlock with someone totally new to the sim trying to take on a big signal box and being out of their depth.