Does Anyone Else Have Trouble Determining Elevation Gain/loss Without The Hud?

I’m not sure if it’s a me problem or a game problem, but it is difficult to discern all but the sharpest elevation changes in first person mode - and when it is apparent that there is an elevation change, I can’t tell whether it’s an ascent or descent. Any settings I should be tweaking to help with this?

 

Well.. this is a question that needs to be tackled rather with intuition than with reason, I think.
I would like to think that more often than not I can "feel" changes in the gradient based on the train's performance (rate of speed gain or loss, amp-meter development, engine sound... in relation to throttle setting or brake application).

 

I wish every train had a + / - speed trend like the 395 does!, makes it easier to determine, but yes, it's tough, in real life you can physically feel, even slight, changes in speed physically, something that is missing from a static simulation.

 

On most locos and EMUs with analogue speedometers you can, imho, see quite nicely which way the needle is leaning and with how much "reluctance" respectively "determination". So this can make up for the missing physical feeling from your vestibular system.

 

Yes the gradients are hard too spot with the eye. Once you get to know the routes, you learn where the gradients are. You can often tell your on a gradient from the loss or gain of speed but its often too late if you're pulling a heavy train or travelling at high speed.

 

It's not too difficult to tell on US freight routes like CJP, using speed changes and looking at the upcoming terrain elevation.

On the European and UK routes, where the changes in gradient are less drastic, it's sometimes difficult, especially when the emu's and lightweight consists seem unfazed by steeper slopes.

 

Yes, which is why the HUD is there. While I appreciate some people find it fun to go completely without the HUD, this is one of those things that you simply lose in a computer sim because we cannot rely on our normal senses to determine inertia, momentum, equilibrium, etc. etc. etc. that a real train driver can. On a real train you can usually "feel" a gradient. There's no way to re-create that in a sim, which is why this exists on the HUD.

 

Outside of the hud at least on Cajon, the SD40 and ES44C4 have a box with registered speed, and underneath it there is a smaller number that represents acceleration and deceleration. Try to keep that bottom number around zero when you don't to change speed.

 

I wonder if dtg could implement a little tilt of the drivers head going up or down gradients?

 

For small changes in gradient or shallow gradients in general you probably wouldn’t be able to tell even if you were there in person in a real train. Without the HUD, there is no way of telling the gradient unless you see it and there never will be.

With the HUD… The accelerometer in the HUD is not really any use for smaller changes because of its bad design (form over function), and for gradients shown on the HUD using the ratio setting is much better than percentage as it shows smaller changes in gradient better than percentages and more accurately reflects shallow gradient values, which are the ones you will have issues seeing in the game.

 

Just a whacky little idea, I think there's a way to implement a HUD-less gradient detector.

Just keep a half-filled bottle of water, somewhere in the cab ( A pretty normal thing that drivers usually carry with them ! )

The tilt in the level of water will act as the gradient/superelevation detector. Moreover, the sloshing of water can also work as a force feedback to determine hard accelerations and braking.

Thoughts ?!

 

I drive hudless, but every now and then I press 'escape' and the first thing that we see is a gradient map. It is from this that I learn where gradients are. For example on Southern coastway, this map shows that from Lewes to Brighton it is all uphill from Lewes to Falmer. Works for me. Would be good if one could acquire full gradient maps to print and have with you as you drive I think.

 

Route knowledge learning should always include knowing when gradients are going to have an affect on your train.

It's not a case of just remembering where the station stops and speed changes are.