PC Automated Station Information System In Lirr Dlc??

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by The7Train, Nov 6, 2018.

  1. The7Train

    The7Train Active Member

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    Hi,

    With all New York based DLC, Dovetail does not seem to add an announcement system. I hope that isn't the case for LIRR. We should be able to program announcements based on our trip.

    Also, is there a conductor feature coming to TSW?
     
  2. londonmidland

    londonmidland Well-Known Member

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    Until Dovetail can figure out how to successfully simulate a working Passenger Information System which controls the displays and announcements, it will just be like any other DLC with it not being available.
     
  3. The7Train

    The7Train Active Member

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    It shouldn't be that hard. A secondary program would take at most 2 hours to do.
     
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  4. keksman

    keksman Well-Known Member

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    We have been waiting almost 2 years for the editor to get released so get your hopes down for this feature to be added anytime soon.
    Adding long promised free features to the game is their lowest priority possible
     
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  5. londonmidland

    londonmidland Well-Known Member

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    DTG *could* use an external program/third party to add announcements but I think they want to do it entirely in-house, especially for their own routes. Also there are things like copyright issues and stuff like that.

    Working announcements are present in Train Simulator, on third party addons. The most recent example would be the U-Bahn Frankfurt II addon by Just Trains’. This uses the IBIS system which controls the announcements (not sure about the displays?) This system is also found in OMSI bus simulator.

    The only way we can hope for working announcements is if third party developers can make a route with them or if the community can somehow make them work once the editor has been released.

    As mentioned, it is not DTG’s top priority right now. We don’t even know how little or much they have gone into developing this system for a start.
     
  6. Daniel Bloch

    Daniel Bloch Well-Known Member

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    Looks like an enhancement to the 2d-map isn't on the high priority list too. No new features since 2 years now. Station names and train numbers would add so much use to the 2d-map with that and a community made timetable to figure out where the trains goes... But still waiting for improvement.
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2018
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  7. Scorpion71

    Scorpion71 Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely this! The 2D map is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard, why didn't they incorporate something similar to that of TS? Totally pointless having a map with next to no information!
     
  8. AlexNL

    AlexNL Well-Known Member

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    External announcer programs work at the push of a button: you press a button, an audio file plays, and the program gets ready to play the next item in the list. Simple and adequate for Train Simulator 2019. Train Sim World is a first person simulator in a fully simulated world (with a service mode timetable), so you'll need something more elaborate if you want to get the immersive experience.

    If you're walking around the world and get onto a random platform, you'll want to be able to look at a Customer Information System (CIS) screen and see when a train is coming, where it's going, and what its calling pattern is. While the game definitely has all this information, it's probably structured the wrong way round for it to be usable for a CIS.

    Imagine it's 08:45 when you're standing on the Down platform at Acton Main Line in GWE. You look at the CIS, and see:
    Code:
    1st 08:48 Greenford           Exp 08:50
    Calling at: ng Broadway, West Ealing, G
    3rd 10:48 Greenford             On time
    
    Once the 08:48 has left, the screen changes to:
    Code:
        Caution: the next train is not
      scheduled to stop at this station.
    Stand well away from the platform edge.
    For this to work, the CIS subsystem would have to figure out:
    - That the 08:48 train is delayed by two minutes
    - That there are 09:48 and 10:48 services
    - What the calling pattern of the service is
    - That there are other services which may pass Acton Main Line, but do not stop there. They should not be displayed in the 1st/2nd/3rd list, but a warning message should be displayed instead.

    I'm not aware of the internal workings of the TSW dispatcher, but my hunch is it works on train by train basis. For each train, it looks to see if it is departure time and if it is, it sets a route based. The dispatcher calculates how far the train can drive until it encounters a conflict (a train with higher priority) and sets signals and points accordingly. The player can then drive the train, while in the background the dispatcher continuously updates the routes as trains move along the railway.

    For a CIS to work, it has to know when trains will pass over a specific bit of track at a given point in time. Furthermore, the CIS would have to know about trains which the dispatcher doesn't even have planned yet, such as services which are yet to start their journey. This can be complicated as trains don't just spawn anywhere - they're formed from other services. It's thus possible for delays to carry over, which the CIS would have to take into account.

    All in all, a CIS can be a fairly complex system. I'd love to see it in-game though :)
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2018
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  9. SamYeager270

    SamYeager270 Well-Known Member

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    It would be nice to think that this was factored into the TSW detailed design. I have a horrible feeling however that this may not have actually happened. Of course it's possible certain assumptions were made that turned out to be incorrect, the work was far more complicated than originally envisaged, DTG had to release TSW by a certain date and since then insufficient resources have been available to progress it. Just have to cross my fingers I suppose....
     
  10. AlexNL

    AlexNL Well-Known Member

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    I have a feeling that TSW's dispatcher is based on that of TS2019. Functionally they are very similar and TS2019's dispatcher has been refined for more than a decade. Writing the dispatcher from scratch would add tremendous complexity to the project and risk the reintroduction of all sorts of subtle bugs and quirks which have been ironed out in TS2019.

    I don't think TS2019's dispatcher was ever built with a CIS system in mind, so adding a CIS system on top of that could be rather complex. Perhaps much more complicated than originally anticipated, which is why it was not added to GWE, RT, or the NEC.

    Dovetail Games is a small company. They have admitted that they currently do not have the resources to backport the PZB improvements from Ruhr-Sieg Nord to the Rapid Transit line, as much as they'd like to. I can imagine that spending a lot of time, effort and money to add relatively minor functionality to the game is not seen as a good investment by Dovetail's senior management.
     
  11. ChooChooKeith

    ChooChooKeith Active Member

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    This has already been done for TS2019 in the U-Bahn route.
     
  12. Boyka91

    Boyka91 Active Member

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    Agree
     

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