I'm thinking about getting one for christmas, but I have doubts about it for a few reasons, so I figured i'd ask you guys. Here are my reservations about it: 1) It seems cheaply made from looking at photos, and I have also heard it is smaller than one would think. It doesn't look like it should cost upwards of 200 € (if not much more). A logitech g29 wheel that came with pedals and a gear stick cost me 180 €, and it's made from quality materials such as leather and metal. 2) I've read posts saying it isn't implemented very well on some trains, with the calibration being "pretty poor". 3) This final point is probably to me the most important. Does it add enough to the immersion to make the purchase worth it? When you play a racing game, you "need" a wheel and pedals, when you play a flight sim, you "need" a joystick. But do you really need a raildriver for TSW, or does mouse and keyboard provide sufficient immersion? Personally, I don't think driving on MnK is affecting my immersion that much, at least not as much as empty stations, bad sounds, bad scenery... If someone has a raildriver, please feel free to let me know if my doubts are justified, or if I should buy it straight away, because it makes the experience that much better!
I don't own one, but I've played with it before and it really depends. All of the points you've raised are completely valid in that it's cheaply made, it's restricted to Dovetail's mapping, and it's extremely overpriced. It's also a lot smaller than you think, so if you're an adult male, the throttles feel much smaller compared to a real life master controller handle. I think you should try playing with a controller first, as that feels (in my opinion) more immersive versus K&M, and then move onto the rail driver if you're looking for a better experience
Just a few thoughts before I start work…. I‘d disagree with cheaply built. It might look a bit plasticky, but it’s a solid piece of kit (except the horn switch). Mine has been going for nearly 11 years now and hasn’t missed a beat. I don’t know how big you expect it to be, but it’s about the size of an average keyboard and a lot heavier. In TSC you can download 3rd party software for free that makes it a lot better than with the standard software. In TSW, you are stuck with DTGs implementation and this is not always very good. It is very old technology now but it works. The calibration is fine, but you will need to recalibrate occasionally. Especially if the heat in the room changes. I like mine and use it a lot, it definitely adds to the immersion of driving the train, though itvus styled far more for US trains than British or European ones. I personally wouldn’t buy it just for TSW. It just doesn’t feel as good to me as it does in TSC. You can look through other threads though (for example the Blackpool Feedback) and find people there that won’t drive without it.
I've had mine for almost twenty years and it's survived dust, rough use, and several moves. I've used it extensively for MSTS and Train Sim Classic, and recently OpenRails. I haven't tried it with TSW (I play on Xbox) or the other sims it supports, but as others have said it might not be worth buying for just TSW, especially if there's calibration issues. I really won't play the other PC simulators without it, as the RailDriver just adds so much more immersion and natural control. It's also more responsive than using the keyboard, especially on braking systems where you need to apply and then lap the brakes. It takes up a small amount of real estate but is pretty heavy and very solidly built. The outer casing is metal, and the control knobs are plastic. I don't have a ton of room on my desk in our apartment but it doesn't feel like it's taking over. The only issue I have is that the wiper switch on mine is a little stiff, but other than that it's fine. Just make sure you calibrate it and stay on top of keeping it clean and it'll be a great investment. If you end up using it for TSC I highly suggest using the 3rd party Raildriver & Joystick Interface instead of the PI Engineering program... https://simtogether.com/files/file/929-raildriver-and-joystick-interface/
Can someone share a video or talk about how it works with german trains? All the levers seem to be setup in the wrong direction for german trains and this detent in the throttle lever seems pretty annoying in regular use. I mean, yes, I can see the setup in TSW4 shown in the advanced controls. Makes kinda sense, or maybe not. Some user experience insight would be helpful.
BLU games on YouTube uses raildriver for his TSW streams. He also has a video breaking down the raildriver.
It works okay for me. The default Dovetail bindings are absolute garbage, but there is a mod on the TSC site from a forum member that makes it much more tolerable under the name Roman72. There is a key that he uploaded that is universal for the German trains which makes it much more prototypical by doing actions such as inversing the default throttle behavior and mapping PZB onto the switch toggles.
I have a Raildriver, but whether it is worth it's asking price of currently over $ 200? In the US that is, in Europe they are currently unavailable. I don't think so, for the build quality of various parts is low, the horn lever easily breaks, there is slack action in the throttle making hitting the notches a bit difficult. There also is thermal drift and noise in the electronics. A quality controller these days uses contactless magnetic Hall sensors, which aren't that much more expensive than 1st grade potentiometers. But the railroad simulation market is too small probably to warrant a better all-in-one controller for steam, diesel and electric trains from different continents. A handy craftsman can build his own kit with the use of USB interfaces and the joystick protocal. One can probably even take a commercial joystick apart and use its electronics to wire his own set of handles, levers and buttons to the axis? Still hoping for a better piece of hardware of course, or an upgrade kit to make the Raildriver a bit more robust and reliable.
I have had mine now for at least 4 years now and have found to be great, no more cramping my hands on a keyboard. Sure the cost of it with taxes and shipping makes it a bit expensive, but then what hardware is cheap anymore and will last as long as the raildrvider.
I've not had mine that long but I'm finding I'm using the keyboard more, as mentioned above some engine functions are not compatibled with the RD. It cost me a lot of money, I can't understand why another company hasn't made one. There is a guy on here made his own, it looks good too, wish I had the skill I would do one as well. Col.
if there was official joystick/aviation controller support, that would/could alleviate some of the need for a rail controller, as you could map stuff on that
There is a post on here somewhere a guy mentions using a joystick, I already bought my RD so didn't read it properly. Col.
I must learn how to program those blue keys at the bottom, I never use them don't know what they do properly, I pressed a few and nothing seems to happen. Col.
Each sim has their own functions for them. Here's a link to the templates for each... http://raildriver.com/assets/documents/legends/rd.legends.pdf
or if you use money as toilet paper, you can still purchase some old electric loco and convert it to a simulation cave like replace the front window with LCD panels and hook the computer somewhere lol... I believe OBB had 4020s up for sale sometime in the past
I really enjoy mine. The only problem is that you have to do a lot of manual setup to get it to work with everything.
