A Real Db Train Simulator

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by BigH, Sep 29, 2020.

  1. BigH

    BigH Active Member

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    Train Simulator from Deutsche Bahn (DB) in Hamburg simulating a BR 101. Unfortunatly the video is in german.
     
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  2. breblimator

    breblimator Guest

    ZUSI as sim-engine?
     
  3. Trainmania100

    Trainmania100 Well-Known Member

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    Always wondered why these simulators have a perfectly realistic cab but early 2000s train sim engine
     
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  4. bassman612

    bassman612 Member

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    I used to be a pilot for a regional airline flying DeHaviland Dash 8's. I always wondered the same thing. We trained in a full motion simulator with a real cockpit, but early 90's software to run it.
     
  5. kennyjamesscott

    kennyjamesscott Well-Known Member

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    The problem is that the graphics suck in there. I mean, it's bad bad.
    Yet again, it's not meant to be for enjoyment but more like for training.
    Thou, airline pilots at least get more pleasurable experience in terms of graphics (been in Finnair A320 simulator)
     
  6. bassman612

    bassman612 Member

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    This train's graphics are bad, but the Dash 8 simulator I trained in was worse. It could only display nighttime as it was all black and white except for a few colored lights at the end of the runways. Most of the training was done in clouds to simulate IFR conditions so it really didn't matter. We never saw much other than a black screen except for a few moments before landing.
     
  7. kennyjamesscott

    kennyjamesscott Well-Known Member

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    What program/sim did they use?
     
  8. bassman612

    bassman612 Member

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    It was a custom made one for US Air at their training facility in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was built in the early 90's. I don't think they use it anymore, but I'm not sure. It's been 8 years since I've been there. I had to quit flying due to medical reasons; can't hold a 1st class medical certificate anymore.
     
  9. kennyjamesscott

    kennyjamesscott Well-Known Member

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    I'm sorry to hear that. As a person who loves flying, I know it's not easy to not being able to fly. So I feel for you.

    Well, I was on the state of the art xplaineish sim. Not xplane as it was also custom made for civil aviation so bit more advanced than that.
     
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  10. Winzarten

    Winzarten Well-Known Member

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    There are various reasons for this.The first one is that their are either one-off SW, or heavily customized off-the-shelf SW. You want the train to perform as close to the real one as possible, both in physics, but also in operational flow. Thus all systems, including train management systems and communication need to work. + there is ton of additional functionality, like monitoring and configuring the sim by the operator.

    This is a huge development project, payed by a single customer, so the price for such SW will be in the milions (just the SW). SW development is insanely expensive, in my experience, working in high QA fields, a single addition/removal of menu items can easily cost over 10000$ overall, and this is for a rather simple desktop app. Not a multicomputer SW solution.
    This means that you really get what you payed for. Want fancy graphics? Sure, but you will pay the development. Usually it is not worth for the purpose of the sim. Because of the cost, you don't want to buy these things often, certainly not as often as graphics improve in the gaming market.

    Another aspect is paperwork. The SW as a whole need rigerous certification (which is also not cheap) to be usable as this kind of training tool. That also means that every change done to the SW has insane amount of paperwork associated with it. This is expensive, both financially and timewise.

    As for the cab. On one hand it is super important, because you want to build the muscle memory of the driver. Thus things need to be where they are IRL, with the same tacticle feedback. On the other hand, this is no problem for the company, as it already has access to these train parts in their inventory. So using them for the sim might be actually cheeper than designing and producing set of new, single purpose controls.
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2020
  11. TilmannB

    TilmannB New Member

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    It is not ZUSI on DB Simulator, they have a own software for that. Only on easier and "cheaper" simulators are with Zusi. Most use by private railways companies.
     

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