Dear Train Sim World Forum, I hope this is the right subforum. I was undecided between the Suggestions page and this one - but as I don't think this will ever be implemented as an actual game feature, the modding community seems a much better place to propose it. So here goes: This is a pitch for the Immersive EBuLa HUD. A brainchild of mine that I have been carrying around with me for a few weeks now, instead of doing the sensible thing and starting to write my master's thesis. What is an "Immersive HUD"? Great question! An immersive HUD (in this case) does the sacreligious thing of displaying a HUD element as if it were part of a train computer. Currently, the TSW doctrine is to model the cab of a train "as realistically as possible" (whatever that means to TSG and its partners) - and if something cannot be recreated, it is cut. Hence the empty displays on many modern trains, most of which are not relevant to the functions of the simulation. Meanwhile, HUD elements are strictly "on top" as player aids and do not interact with the simulated world. An immersive HUD would break with this doctrine and merge HUD elements with the simulated world - in this case by displaying them on cab screens. So what is the deal with the EBuLa HUD? For the uninitiated, EBuLa is the electronic timetable for train drivers on the German network. It shows upcoming track characteristics, speed changes, stations and arrival and departure times of stops. If you jump into a German TSW loco and see an empty screen: that's where the EBuLa would be. Now, adding the EBuLa to TSW has been discussed before, but I don't think it will ever be implemented. The EBuLa is a complex beast and to recreate it honestly would be a very difficult endeavour for what I assume to be a very small demographic of hardcore fans. However, while doing some research on the EBuLa (further procrastinating on my master's thesis), I realised that it condenses a lot of the information that a player like me has to rely on using the HUD for. So I asked myself: can you design a HUD element in the style of the EBuLa on the corresponding screen in the train's cab, which really just summarises the information from the HUD in an immersive way? Well, I tried and came up with this: My aim was to only use elements that the game already knows and communicates through the HUD: Upcoming signals, signal aspects, track speed changes, whether you are passing a station and what your current "mission objective" is. All I did was take this information and rearrange it in the style of the EBuLa. Of course, this solution would only work on German locomotives. However, I think the implementation would be quite simple, as it would just aggregate already existing HUD information. Who is this for? Filthy casuals like me who still want an immersive experience! I'll be honest: I have neither the time nor the motivation to learn a route by heart. I like to jump around routes a lot, I don't play regularly, and I only play for a few hours at a time (although it's incredible how much this game lives rent-free in my head compared to the time I actually spend on it). Sometimes I'll use an external camera to look at the train or the scenery while I'm driving, or just check my phone IRL. So I will always be dependent on a HUD. It is just a shame that turning off the HUD for more immersion always means a huge jump in difficulty. You either memorise the route or use the HUD, there is no in-between. The immersive HUD tries to bridge this gap. So, when will you be done with the Mod, Guddi96? Well, that is the crux of the matter: Probably never - at least I won't. I haven't even started yet - remember, I have a master's thesis to write. I don't think I'll have the time or patience to learn a new tool like the editor and I never have really played around with game development tools or modding before. The concepts you see above are just google slide... slides. Nevertheless, this idea has occupied a large part of my brain for the last few days. I put it here in the hope that someone will pick it up and try to implement it. I would love to see what really talented hands could do with this concept. Anyway, back to researching the driver shortage in German transport companies. Thanks for reading. Cheers!
I had a very similar idea once and proposed, if DTG can't implement a fully functional EBuLa system to the core, instead of leaving the EBuLa screen completely blank and useless, use it to display the timetable under the T key. In this way, we would have at least the timings, when to arrive and when to depart on the screen. Didn't end up in Train Sim World 5 unfortunately. The idea to even include more information is brilliant. My guess is that it would require a bigger change/addition to the core and the way how locos are built, though. Plus, it would take ressources to built something which somehow isn't quite a replication of reality / the "real thing". I think if DTG wants an EbuLa, they want it the correct way. So unfortunately the suggestion wasn't really considered. However, in my opinion, getting one or a few HUD elements to the screen, would be so helpful already. In theory, it isn't even a new feature at all. We just want a feature already in-game to be shown at a certain other place in-game. It should be possible to link the EBuLa display with HUD elements, since other displays are linked with HUD elements as well. Good luck with your mod idea. Would be amazing if this is possible. Just as a recommendation: If you ever step away from the plans to do it as a mod, consider place this also in the suggestion forum, as I think noone else would be interested to do such a mod and this would be absolutely great to be implemented from the official side.
