Varying Signal Visibility In Terms Of Distance

[Thistle Whistle]

Hi,

Difficult to know whether I'm right on this, but what I seem to have found is that some signals are visible from a longer range than others.

During the initial playtest I took a mental note that on a straight section of track I could see signals from around 1.1km away.

On Early Access launch I first ran an ED250 from Warsaw, and on that new section of route while travelling along the straight sections I noticed that signal visibility was down to 0.6km.  I thought I must have just been mistaken about my initial recollection.

But yesterday I was lucky enough to jump into an ED250 departing Warsaw and ran all the way to Katawice and a fabulous un-delayed service, but on that one journey I did indeed appear to find that signals up at the Northern end of the route were only visible from 0.6km but later down the line were visible from 1.1km.

Have I noticed something unusual or is there a reason for this?

Cheers.

[Thistle Whistle]

Thinking further and I'm wondering if it's linked to time of day i.e. draw distance is further at night.  My journey was at night, but maybe started in twilight hours then part way it switched to 'night mode' longer draw distance?

If that's the case, I wonder if that method is necessary, as during the day, even with a longer draw distance, it would still be harder to make out the signal, though not impossible - therefore more realistic.  The signal will still come 'naturally' in to view.

And I'm talking mainly about this coming from the point of view of having the signal visibility enhancement setting at minimum (100%), though as far as I can tell, that doesn't affect draw distance.

[FluffyAdmiral]

The light signals will indeed get more visible when it's darker. At night you can clearly see the signals from very far away, while during bright daylight, you need to be very close to clearly see the indication.

 

 

[Jesitim]

In real life it is the same, at night you see signals from multiple km away. At daylight you usually see one section. Also depends on the lamp in the signal.

[FluffyAdmiral]

Lamps in polish signals are pretty bad in terms of visibility. 

Check out this cabview from one of the Polish routes and see how quickly tou can spot the signals even in 4k

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by FluffyAdmiral

[SurvivorSean]

As far as the sim goes, this is a time of day issue.  It is also a limitiation of computers even at 4K of the visual spectrum and how the human eye perceives light in real 3D instead of a 2D screen even at high resolution and colors.

In real life (I would assume the same could be said of the video though I didn't watch it just going by the description) some color light signals slightly move off the line of sight, actually get dirty, lose efficiency.  For example I remember some color light signals that were new instalation in 2000 that went up in my city here in Canada.  Today in 2022 even at night I can tell they are not pointed properly or don't show as well as they once did.

Thanks

Sean

[Thistle Whistle]

Thanks guys.

The signal enhancement setting at 100% does exactly what you're all describing, which I completely agree with.

At night, you can see the signals distinctly. In the day, it's much harder. It's very natural.

But I just think what would be even more natural is that the signals are still drawn at the longer distance and allow them to resolve into view, both by your screen and your eye. They will still be hard to distinguish against the brightly lit scenery until they get reasonably close. Some locations it may be easier to see them than others.

This approach would also mean there would no longer be the need to have the signals suddenly be longer reaching when the clock ticks an arbitrary x o'clock. As the night gets darker, the signals get more distinct. Again, all very natural.

What isn't natural is them popping in at 0.6km every single time, which is especially noticeable when it does start getting darker, but it hasn't switched to the longer draw distance.

Surely this alternative would be a good way to approach it?

Granted, any signal enhancement over 100% is going to be even more of a 'cheat' with this setup, but there's not much we can do about that other than not use it.

[darryl0768healy]

On 1/20/2023 at 1:11 PM, Jesitim said:

In real life it is the same, at night you see signals from multiple km away. At daylight you usually see one section. Also depends on the lamp in the signal.

Here in New Zealand we have one line thats long and straight for dozens of KMs. We can see signals about 20km away