Is an overhaul of the keybinds menu needed?

[Gazz292]

(a post in the SP part of the forum spurred me to make this post)
I've been making suggestions to have a keybind for every control that works in the trains since SimRail came out, and i'm not alone in asking for this,
I'm one of those who really really does not want to have to touch the mouse at all when driving a train, as it breaks immersion big time.

Most people i believe drive using the keyboard, and i can imagine that most people doing so do not enjoy having to have to grab the mouse,  move the view, then drag a switch on or off,  when most of the other controls have keybinds.
i get that some people do drive solely using the mouse! 😬 for them keybinds do not matter anyway, everything already works with mouse clicks and drags.
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We have been getting the odd handful of new keybinds added with each update, for which i am grateful for, i recall back when SimRail first came out, one dev said they could assign every function to a keybind if they wanted, then another said they would only assign functions that you use whilst in motion to keybinds, ones you'd use when stopped you can use the mouse for 😖

One of the reasons i once read about not having all functions bound to keys (not by a dev) was that there are only 78 keys (not including the F keys) that can be assigned on the average keyboard with a number pad, and you need about a quarter of those keys for non driving functions. 
But with the 3 modifier keys we can now use with those individual number and letter keys.. we get 312 keybinds we can assign.
Plus we can also combine modifier keys... i.e. a keybind can be any combo of SHIFT and/or ALT and/or CONTROL plus the individual letter / number key, and we are now up to about 546 keybinds we can set. 
I am aware there's some issues with certain keybinds where modifier keys are used, causing the non modifier keybind to operate as well, i can only guess that's a bug as it's mostly with the keybinds added with the december 2024 update that it does that.

Now if we could have the ability to assign joystick buttons in the keybind menu, then we really will never run out of key / button assignments.. as you can just keep plugging in more joystick boards in button boxes to get another set of buttons assignable. 

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Finally... getting to the title subject: 
The keybinds menu for train driving is a bit confusing and long right now... it really needs an overhaul as there are entries all over the place, sets of switches that are grouped in the trains you have to hunt around for and so on (i.e. the light switches in the older loco's, headlight, cab light, instrument lights etc)

An idea would be that we have the ability to bind keys / buttons to each train type... so you'd have multiple pages in the 'train driver' section with the different train types on each page that you can scroll sideways between,
You can have a 'universal controls' page that shows up first when you click on 'train driver' key binds button.
And that page has a button to click to set all trains to have the same keybinds copied over for all functions that the trains share between them (like power controls, brake lever movement,  pantograph switches, cab activation switch, battery, horn, the 'all headlights on/off keybind' etc)

Then you can go into the specific train page to assign keys individually, with different train types having different keybinds assignable if we choose..... say you want to use the left and right arrow keys to move the EU07's power wheel, and 2 keys above each other for the power lever in the EN96 and E186, different keys for the ED250 as that lever works differently to the EN96 and so on, same with the brake levers etc, like how we can save different seat positions for the different trains now.

And you also have the key assignments for the buttons and switches found only in specific trains on those pages,  like the emergency panto drop button in the EN57, cruise controls on the modern trains, door buttons on the EMU's, the multi position rotary light switch in the E186, the pulpit light switch and so on. 

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Another thing is that all toggle switches need to have a seperate on and off keybind, as there are 2 or more states those kinds of switches stay in when you release the keyboard key,

Then add the ability to set the on and off keybind for toggle switches to be the same keybind if you want, i..e you press the same key once for on, press it again for off (but make that optional, keeping the ability to assign different keybinds to each state of a toggle switch as we have now with the pantograph, instrument and cab light switches etc)

Then ideally have a different keybind for all rotary switch positions like is done with the radio channel keybinds, but also have the option to have a 'Next / Previous position' keybind to move the rotary switch around one notch each way as we have with the wiper and radio channel switches now. 

 

 

Edited Monday at 03:43 AM by Gazz292
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