After watching the S-Bahn Vorarlberg stream the other night I have to say how impressed I was with the new simple HUD layout. Here are my thoughts on the New HUD The Distance Bar The Distance bar only shows the upcoming 1kM and I don't think this is far enough. While modern trains have a very short stopping distance the older locos take a lot longer to stop, my example is the HST takes about one and a half miles to stop so the distance bar needs to count down from 2 miles (or 2kM when driving European routes) otherwise there will be a lot of misses stops. Another thing that the distance bar could be used is when approaching station or freight stops. One suggestion is for the bar to start charging when approaching the stop marker so that when the train is on the marker it is fully charged and then to start counting down as the train moves past the marker. The bar could use the same idea as the Stop marker that lights up the track, The bar could start by charging red then Yellow then green and as the train moves past the marker go bake to yellow then back to red. The Distance Bar The TS Classic HUD has ability to show upcoming gradients something that's been missing in TSW right from the start, knowing that a gradient change is immanent lets me plan for it, this is really useful when driving heavy freight services.
I like the new HUD. I have always wanted to de-clutter the screen, so it's a good thing. But I am not seeing plain talk from DTG in regards to what the improvements mean for our TSW3 collection. Is the new HUD available for ALL routes? Are the rain and fog effects available for ALL trains? If these improvements are only for TSW4 content, that's not a good look.
HUD - All routes. Rain - Only new TSW4 locos/trains. Fog (volumetric lighting) - All TOD4 routes (made or updated for TSW3 or newer). This is a feature of the route and does not need an update on the locos/trains.
This has been outlined in the roadmap articles: - The new mini HUD will be available for all routes in TSW4 - The new rain on windscreen effects are for the new TSW4 native routes only. (Starting with the initial 3 core routes) - Volumetric fog will be available for all TOD4 routes (ie all the TSW3 routes plus a few others from TSW2)
OK. Clearly I missed that. But if they know the rain effects on the windscreens are very bad, why leave 99% of the locos in that state? There are routes that are just a few months old. Too bad they are considered legacy. I do miss the legacy guys who would bring older routes to the features of the new sim. At any rate, with the release of the editor, here's hoping the modders get at it with a bang!
At some point, the collection would be so large that it wouldn't be possible for them to always be upgraded to the new thing. Even though they are core changes, it applies to new content only. Getting old content the new rain for example requires each train to be updated individually because each dlc is treated as its own game
What’s confusing to me is that one of the hud elements shows signals and speed changes for the upcoming 2km. Why couldn’t station stops and elevation changes be incorporated into that widget?
my point exactly, If DTG made the widget a little bigger they could put a lot more vital route info on it, .
Part of it was because it makes you be looking 90% of the time at the widget instead of trying to drive like a real life driver does.
But wouldn't people also constantly look at the HUD to see when their next speed restriction or signal is anyway?
A fair point; but grade is one significant element of RL driving that you simply can't sense in a computer sim
I vaguely remember last year when they added that pause menu update with the gradient profile, it was said that querying the track gradient is too expensive so it was only available on the pause screen. Seems like a weird excuse considering there are other things that scan the track ahead, but that's what I remember. Do agree gradient and stations should be on there though.
Also in the mini HUD I would like to see a simple indicator as to which side the doors are open in the stations. It is not always possible to see the platform from the cab when ready to close them.
HUD is supposed to replace route knowledge. Gradients and locations of stations are part of route knowledge. I think they should be part of the HUD.
Hey folks. We've made a handy chart on our Knowledge Base with the expected feature sets of each piece of content available (new or Compatible): https://dovetailgames.freshdesk.com...74-train-sim-world-add-on-compatibility-guide Can confirm the mini-HUD is a feature across all compatible content.
I hope stations will make it to the distance bar in TSW4. The distance bar could be one corner of the screen where the most important information can be viewed.
