PC All Hud/screen Information Randomly Disappearing; Bug Report (with Image Example) Not Using F1 Key

Edit: I'm not using the F1 key. Just addressing that since its been suggested. F1 key is working normally on my keyboard.

I haven't seen this addressed yet anywhere and had thought it was a one off thing but it doesn't appear to be since I've had it happen like 4 different times now. I can't remember if it happened prior to the Oct. 31st update or not but basically what's happening is, all the information on the screen like your HUD, objective marker with the current time, track conditions like your speed limits and signals, all of that just randomly disappears at random times. One second it'll be there and then a moment later, it's gone. In one sense, it's nice driving the train with absolutely nothing on the screen but really, this appears to be a bug. A lot of that information is useful. Not to mention, you don't get any of the things you normally do when you hover your mouse over an action (like "PRESS E to SIT IN ENGINEERS SEAT" or "CLOSE DOOR".) Again, all of that is gone. No information on the right side of the screen either when you make an action like blowing the horn, moving the throttle, setting the brakes, etc. It's all gone. There's no way to get it to come back, either. Once it's gone, it's gone for good. The only way to make it come back is to either save your game (which I don't do due to the issues with the save game feature) or basically give up on your scenario and exit to the main menu and then reload back into a new scenario, losing anything you've already done. I've attached an image to show what I'm talking about. You'll see the screen is completely blank of any information.

DTG Matt DTG JD DTG Alex - I've tagged all of you in hopes that at the very least, one of you will see this. At this point, I don't know who to tag to get acknowledgement of a bug report. Thanks guys.


This is the full screen, not cropped or anything. As you can see, like I said, all HUD and other information has completely disappeared on its own without using the F1 key.

 

could it be that you accidentally hit F1?

 

oh and bug reports go to troubleshooting, please

 

This may sound silly, but I think your keyboard is the reason. F1 key is probably damaged / not fully releasing.

 

Nope. I tried hitting F1 multiple times when it first happened and it did nothing. I wasn’t anywhere near the keyboard when it occurred in the image above.

My bad. You don’t appear to be associated with DTG or I’d ask if you can move it there so I don’t have to redo this whole post. I’m sure someone will move it. Thanks.

 

no but I think you can still redo it there, it'll probably not be that much of a harm. all we talked about right now is F1 race cars (pun)

 

Matt, I wouldn't have made the post if I thought it was related to pressing the F1 key. It actually wasn't until recently that I found out the F1 key will remove that information. The reason I made this post was because all of that information is disappearing without hitting F1. Like an un-commanded action for it to go away. It just happens completely randomly. As far as I've been able to tell, hitting F1 doesn't bring it back when this happens. If it hasn't bugged, then hitting F1 will remove it but also bring it back, too. I also thought that it removes all the information on the screen but would leave the action points, like to sit in the engineers seat or to close a door or move a switch. But all of that goes away, too. I can understand removing all of the information on the screen but removing the action points, too makes it more difficult to see where to click to make something happen, which is why I was thinking this was a bug. Maybe you can confirm if F1 also removes all the clickable action points?

When I'm in TSW4 again, which should be tomorrow sometime, I'll test it just in case to verify F1 does remove it and bring it back. And if F1 also removes all the clickable action points, too. Unfortunately, I can't test it the way it happened today in my post because it has happened randomly about 4 times or so. So I'd need it to happen randomly again for me to see if F1 will bring it back. By the time I had made this post, I had already exited and reloaded a new scenario which brought everything back. And regarding those above suggesting it might be my F1 key on my keyboard having an issue, while this does make sense, I would suspect that if in fact my F1 key had a problem, this would be occurring far more often rather than at random times. Likely every time I'm running TSW. I'd probably also noticed it, too with things unrelated to TSW4 as the F keys have different commands in Windows and different programs. I appreciate what you can find out about this and what others might be able to weigh in on and as I said, I will do some testing and report back.

 

F1 removes everything. The cursor will still turn into a pointer (hand) instead of the default arrow when you place it somewhere you can click but that's the only visual feedback there is

 

When I have this happen, I don't even get that. There's literally nothing on the screen, including a pointer instead of the default arrow. If I didn't know where to click already, I'd be totally lost. Again, the weird thing is that this has happened multiple times now without ever pressing F1. It does it on its own and as far as I remember, pressing F1 again hasn't brought anything back.

 

amtraknick1993
As this is reported by no one else, it is very likely nothing to do with the game.

1. Go here and check your keyboard
https://keyboardchecker.com/

2. If it works, verify your game files through Steam

3. If it is still happening, do a full virus scan of your system

Needless to say but when encountering issues, make sure you move all mods from the gamedir to a backup folder and see if the issue persists. Also rename your "Engine.ini" so the game creates a new vanilla one.

I'm sure we have a hardware issue here. Sticky key or keyboard controller / cable issue / wireless battery.

I have no idea, but also might want to check this option if it makes a difference.


Small thing DTG, Steam doesn't like your HTML umlaut encoding in the ads (Blackpool & Ormskirk)

 

I have not experienced this before, but do have a good amount of mods installed, so mods can't be the problem

 

When tracing bugs, you should never rule out anything. It's a three seconds thing to grab the mods and drag them out of the game folder.

 

It has happen that it has fade out making the UI barely able to see but that only happens if you do instructions to fast and won't let the game react

 

I just to confirm, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced the hud disappearing (Xbox Series X)

 

I appreciate the help, Matt. And it is possible this could all be on my end which in that case, I apologize for all the trouble. But it is certainly appreciated! I made the post just in case it might not be just on my end and only after I’ve had it happen around 4 times or so as I said.

I have the following mods installed, all of which are very regularly updated and not causing any issues within TSW4:

- God Mode
- Graphics and Lighting Overhaul
- Signal Lights Flare Fix
- Cab View camera fix

No Reshade or any other outside mods. I should also note I run on DX12 and use an engine.ini file via the graphics mod that supports this and is widely used with no issues.

Okay, let me give this a try to verify everything is indeed in working order. Again though, I would think if it was a keyboard issue (it is wireless along with the mouse) or if it was something related to game files or one of the four mods I listed for Matt, this would be occurring far more often, likely every single time I run TSW4 as the issue would be present every time it is running. It seems to only occur once in every say, 15-20 runs of TSW4. And thats just a rough estimate. Could be more, could be less. Yes, I run it quite often. Lol.

Come to think of it Matt, while I haven’t noticed every single time it has happened, it does seem to occur when there is a tiny hitch or micro stutter, which are almost nonexistent for me at this point using the mods I listed above.

 

I did my testing today. The F1 key works as it's supposed to, hiding the information on the screen and bringing it back up. Like I said in my reply above, anytime I've had this "issue" happen, it was un-commanded by the F1 key. It was never pressed yet all the screen information disappeared. At this point, I'll need it to happen again to test and see if F1 will bring it back up when it disappears on its own. That's just the weird part. That something is causing it to disappear on its own. My keyboard is working fine. No issues with the F1 key. See below.

Appreciate the help. I used the keyboard checker and my keyboard checks out. No issues with any of the keys. F1 is working properly and is not sticking. I pressed it multiple times and watched it release. I verified the game files and that also passed. Steam detected no issues with TSW4 game files. I ran a full virus scan this afternoon which turned up nothing. I wasn't surprised by that result. I use McAfee for virus protection and its always doing system checks on its own and removing and quarantining any potentially harmful files or viruses.

As an added note, this issue occurred for the first time before any of the mods were installed I listed above. It was actually because I experienced this that I decided to install God Mode and the graphics and lighting overhaul with the tweaked .ini file. So I doubt it's anything related to engine.ini since it first happened prior to tweaking it. See my screenshot below just to verify my keyboard is in fact working. I really don't know what could be causing this.

 

McAfee? No comment.

There were issues reported with Avast, blocking the sound in Train Sim Classic for example. False flags.

I won't go into further discussion why I'm only using Windows Defender though, and do not give a 3rd party like McAfee, Kaspersky, etc full control over my system and access to all my data and on top of that messing up my system and performance.

 

It is possible there is an intermittent fault with the keyboard. Swap the keyboard out for another and see if the issue occurs with a different keyboard. If it doesn’t then the keyboard is the issue.

 

Yeah, not to mention McAfee is horribly overpriced. I think $100 every year is a bit much. Other programs charge half that. I guess I just keep paying every year cause I’ve had it for like 15 years. So it’s just what I know. When I get the notification it’s expiring, I just renew the subscription and carry on. But I totally understand your viewpoint.

At this point, I’m not ruling it out as a possibility. I’ll have to order a new mouse and keyboard and then see if it ever happens again. Time will tell.

I guess I’ll leave this thread on the back burner for now. Maybe if someone else has the issue, if there even is one, they’ll find this and report about it. I’ll come back to it if I have any further updates or information.

 

I am experiencing a similar error on the Glossop line when passing through the 2G57 service. The hub and the next goal have disappeared, it is impossible to complete the service.

 

Usually those disappear when you complete the objective. Like arriving at the station you were going to. You hear the little chime go off, too. Did everything on your screen completely disappear when this happened? Did you try using F1 to bring stuff back on the screen?

The initial issue I reported here was everything disappearing off the screen un-commanded on its own and F1 not bringing anything back up.

 

Only time I've seen this issue come up with is certain timetable services on MGP with I did DM you about DTG Matt and myself and others subbed tickets for the problem.

 

Seeing something like this all the time.on Glossop Line service 2G52 under its grim up north on PS5

Everything seems fine until you lock the doors, then all info top left disappears and the next objective marker for next stop does not materialise

It's not just the only thing that breaks. If you went on to Dinting and stopped, the game will not recognise that you are at the next objective, so it breaks the whole service