Last night I noticed Matt using the keyboard to walk whilst showing the new raildriver functionality and I am curious are any of you using raildriver have it set up without a keyboard and if so what controls you have assigned for walking (or other keyboard duties)? Some of you might not agree with this logic but if I am looking at a controller that replaces keyboard and potentialy shelling out £200 then that imersion is a bit interupted with, oh yes back to keyboard for ingame tasks.
Currently, you can not remap any functions in the Raildriver beta that has been released, that functionality will be coming so now, if the function has not been mapped, you have to use the keyboard. That being said, I usually use Raildriver and Keyboard in the other sims that support Raildriver and do not find that it breaks immersion any more than using a mouse + keyboard. Even in my flight simulations where I have a Hotas setup with rudder pedals, there are still activities where I must resort to mouse and or keyboard input. To be honest, the best immersion I have had in any simulation has been in Derail Valley since it is room scale VR and all controls are manipulated with the VR controllers where you have to actually “grab” the brake or throttle handle and move around the cab to see and or reach other controls. Short of that, I will say using the Raildriver does add much enjoyment to my runs in TSW and look forward to it being fully supported on the preserved collection. Best
I have used the raildriver for years. but I always have the keyboard handy too. I have a smaller wireless keyboard and it works great in combination. I just see the keyboard as an extra "control panel", of sorts. So raildriver, keyboard, mouse...best combo, for me. I never saw this take anything away from the immersion, but to each his own.
Many modern locos have a 'keyboard' on the dash, e.g. the TGV (though it's alphabetic rather than QWERTY/AZERTY).
I tend to use the levers for throttle and brake, but keyboard and mouse for everything else. It doesn’t break the immersion for me. The raildriver levers really add to the driving experience. For buttons, it doesn’t really matter to me whether it’s on the raildriver, a keyboard or a mouse click.
With my Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS Script I have mapped most the common keyboard keys to buttons and hats (views, HUD controls, map, controls for walking around, etc.) but my right hand is always on the mouse, and I have mapped a couple buttons on the mouse to perform functions as well, like pressing E to go through doors, sit, etc. With this setup, I tend to use the keyboard very little, but still always keep it handy. The key thing that is nice about this is I don't have to move my hands very much to do everything in the game. When I reach for the HOTAS or mouse, the functions I care about are always right at my fingertips, vs. the slight hunt and peck or CTRL or ALT keys required to control some things on the keyboard. It is much more fluid looking around or running around the locomotive, and I can do it all without looking at my hands or my controls (or keyboard). When they add the ability to remap buttons on the Raildriver, and/or provide DirectX controller support, I imagine many people will want to do what I just described (if you have enough buttons) and use the keyboard less. Then again, most people are intimately familiar with the keyboard controls, so I'm sure most will use what they know.
I find the same, I've been using RD since very early in its release and find RD + Keyboard and at times mouse is no issue. It just works and doesn't really break the immersion. The most common times I use keyboard are: getting up and getting off the train moving around outside using the external cameras manipulating the points in yards on the map (needs mouse) None of these things have train controls. I use it the same way in Run8 and Trainz and even the original MSTS which I still very occasionally use. Paul
Personally I use raildriver for the driving and then pickup my xbox controller and use that for walking around, and also moving external cameras, because it's just better than trying to move around with keyboard for me.
