PC This New Hud….

Yup, something in that style sounds good. But please don’t forget that the speedometer should be able to show the currently set cruise control/ AFB speed as well.

 

I mean if you want all that then there’s not much point in making a minimal version, it’ll just end up being the full size speedometer.

Any adjustments you make to throttle & AFB are dynamically shown anyway.

 

What I still miss in TSW, what the TSC HUD has, is the actual 'notch' the levers for throttle and brake are in. Now for most locomotives this is pretty straightforward, but for locos with a lap/service brake or a throttle like the BR143 and BR112 it'd be nice if the HUD actually showed the current 'notch' the levers are in, so a clear distinguish between 'lap', 'service', 'release' and the actual speed setting for the appropiate locos and 'shunt', 'series', 'parallel' for the older locos.

Any chance this could be looked into as well, while you're looking at HUD improvements?

 

Well, an option to have maximum information while using minimal screen space would be nice. Or an option to scale down HUD elements.

Would be nice if the current speedo could be used in combination with the miniHUD. Similarly I think I'm gonna miss the door indication HUD part on the locos which don't have an in-cab light, but haven't been able to try TSW4 myself yet.

 

I don’t necessarily disagree, I just think that at some point DTG are going to tell people to just use the HUD that exists, since this thread has gone from adding in 1 or 2 extra bits, to basically adding the entire hud back.

 

Exactly. It’s gone past ‘the hud is good but needs a distance to go counter’ to give us the default hud back.

That was never the intention of the thread.

 

I don't necessarily disagree, but the community has been asking for more HUD customization options to tailor the HUD to each owns desires for quite a while, but these topics rarely get a reply from DTG staff members. When this topic finally gets the attention of DTG, I understand why people (ab)use it to express other desires related to the HUD.

 

Make the wish come true Matt.

 

DTG Matt,

Sorry to veer widely off topic and ping you again but I wanted to mention Antelope Valley and as you’re here and all that.

You once said once DTG had done something we could hold you to it going forward. Well, Antelope Valley is an absolute next level triumph. Seriously, the scenery is just way beyond anything we’ve seen in this game before. You know what that means now though……

 

TBH that's what I just did anyway yesterday driving the steam loco. I need to figure out if there's a hot key to change HUD style on the fly, i.e. without having to go into Options and do it.

 

It’s absolutely blown me away. Well done to all involved.

 

I find the new HUD options very handy, and removed the speedo HUD since release.

My wish:
Scale HUD options.
Vertical track monitor? At least in my case, I want clutter more to the sides of screen and keep as much centerspace as clutter free as possible.



Track monitor, If you think of the signal bars as valves in a pipe or in our case, flow of traffic, I would change the angle of the black bar when the line is previewed horizontally:


regards,
JT

 

One small suggestion, it would be good if when running all the signal displays (Next Speed Limit HUD, Next Signal HUD and Track Monitor) if the Track Monitor was the higher of the displays as it is longer than the other two and therefore sticks out a bit when it's the bottom one displayed.

 

Makes sense, thanks for the design insight. I'll realign my view on that item

regards,
JT

 

Been really enjoying the new hud as is and for me it fulfills its intent of discouraging watching the distance count down and responding with action. Also helping with route learning I think. I'm up to CH3 on ECML journey and I'm starting to get familiar with looking out for landmarks for upcoming speed changes and places to start slowing down for station stops in the bottom half of the route where the ch2 takes place.

I used to have everything turned off except the top left and would always ctrl-5 to see the current speed limit.

One thing though, because its hard to see sometimes where stopping boards are on the some routes and so I put the ctrl-1 (scenario marker?) on as I'm pulling in to a station. Is it possible to have the distance counter and floating orb thing turned off but keep the blueish glow as I think it defeats the purpose of the new hud. Its also distracting if you have it on when miles away from a stop.

 

Matt, I really appreciate your presence in this thread very much!
After testing the new HUD I'm back on the old one, but I don' use any other assistance like next signal, next aspect, next speed restriction, etc, I just use the new track monitor/ speed indicator bar. I really like the fact that it is now possible to hide the score because this is nothing I need to see while I'm driving, it is only interesting afterwards. Redesigning the HUD is a very good thing and I'm glad that DTG is on it.

I'm mostly back on the old HUD for three reasons:
1.Like a lot of players pointed out here it's because of the missing or let's say too rudiment distance information for train stops. I understand the idea, but in reality a train driver has a timetable (at least in Germany - Buchfahrplan or EBuLa - , but I assume it's like this nearly everywhere in the world) in which he can see the exakt location of the next stop, based on Kilometers or Miles. Otherwise it would be hard to drive f.e. in dense fog or snowstorms. I don't want to see in meters counting down where to stop exactly, but I want to have a clue where the next stopping point is, especially when driving an old train like the BR 103 in which you need to turn the power down to 0 before starting to brake, which can last about 30 seconds. In this case the current 1 km distance marker is just not enough.

2.Some gauges and speedos are hard to read on driver's desk. Especially at night. Worst example i s the BR 182 in which you barely can't read anything at night. Same but not as worse is it at the BR 110.3. Other example is the BR 143 (even the TSW4 version of DRA) and BR 112 in which you can't see the AFB marking in the speedo if the instrument's lights are enabled at night. And this AFB marking is necessary to spot in both trains since they are fully driven by AFB control. An other aspect is an personal one - I play sitting on the couch, about 3 meters away from my 40" television. It is very stressful for my eyes to see the speed on the cabin's speedometer, especially if the gauge is very small like on the German train's MFDs.

3. So I would like to just use the simple speedo which is also new in TSW4. DTG say that this is made for beginners but for me it is perfect to reduce the HUD to the minimum I need, even if I loose the information of the terrain's gradients than. Problem with this configuration is that on some trains the PZB indicator lights are not well readable or working precisely. Since I always drive with safety systems enabled this is very important to me. But on the new ÖBB Talent 1 the PZB indicators are completely unreadable in daytime due to much too bright lighting. And on most German trains the PZB displayed in the MFB lacks of the missing alternating flashing 85/70 indication if being in restricted mode. PZB is nothing you can guess, you need the constant trust in what the PZB lights indicate. And this is currently not the case in every loco. So I switch between full and simple HUD depending on the current Train.

Let me say at last that it is sad to hear from DTG Matt that DTG doesn't think about turning the new speed indicator bar 90 degrees to an vertical position because that would bring the HUD near to EBuLa style which - I assume - would be appriciated by many players. But I'm really looking forward to what will come regarding HUD in the future.


My current preferred HUD layout. Clean enough for my taste.

(Please apologize my poor English!)

 

Me too. DTG Matt could have been talking about me in the video last night when he talked about people tending to watch the numbers instead of watching where you're driving. Personally I really don't want specific numbers back, though happy for others to have it as an option if they prefer. Certainly here in the UK, most drivers will not know or care the exact metreage to a given stopping point. That's what route knowledge is for. (The 1km / 2km / 4km thing would be handy for faster trains, though, for sure.)

It's always been possible!

 

I like the new HUD as well - it enables you to drive a route without having to do several weeks' route learning, but if I can just toss in my two penn'orth, could we have an option to make the font size and thus the overall HUD smaller?

I stress the word "option" as I know not everyone had a big screen to play TSW on, but as someone who likes as little HUD as possible on the screen and prefers to use the loco's own instruments, it would be great to have a little HUD (about half the size of the current mini HUD) tucked away in the top corner for me to glance at occasionally.

 

I think the hud from TSW3 was great, just make the small option smaller with the ability to turn off certain aspects like TSW4. That new bar in TSW4, 50/50.

 

I'm having an issue with the Track Monitor: the 2 km lookahead distance is too short on Dresden--Chemnitz specifically.

You don't really go very fast on Dresden--Chemnitz, so you'd think 2 km would be more than enough, but when you're in the tilting class 612, you've got GNT watching your top speed. GNT braking curves can start more than 2 km before the start of the speed drop. That means you will get penalty braked for failing to slow down for a speed restriction that you can't even see on the HUD yet (and the lineside signs don't apply to you, so seeing the speeds on the HUD is essential).

In pretty much any other situation, I'd be happy with the length of the Track Monitor adjusting dynamically based on your speed, but please allow us to set it to a fixed 1/2/4 km length too for edge cases like this.

 

Having an issue where changing from Minimal HUD to Normal HUD in the settings doesn't actually reflect in-game. Stays as the minimal HUD regardless.

 

Distance to next stop would be nice, but speed is critical too, as on my ultrawide monitor I can seldom see the speedo in the cab without moving the camera down far, etc.

 

I think this only happens while you're in a service or scenario. If you change while at main menu, it should take effect from the next service or scenario.

I don't know if feature or bug.

 

Although I liked the idea of the Track Monitor, I don't seem to notice upcoming speed limits as well as with the Speed Limit HUD. I guess it catches my attention when the speed limit HUD suddenly pops up 4km in advance, whereas the Track Monitor seems to be always there and a number appearing on the track monitor is so minor it doesn't catch my attention. Plus obviously with the Track Monitor I only have 2km to notice it, whereas with the Speed Limit HUD I have 4km to notice it.

I've switched Speed Limit HUD back on, but I'm keeping the Track Monitor in case of multiple speed limits following up shortly. I notice the Track Monitor only pops up when the Speed Limit HUD is popped up as well. (So Track Monitor dissappears when there's nothing to show). Not sure that's the intended behaviour, but I kinda like it. Keeps the screen clean whenever possible, but provides the info when it's needed.

 

Agreed 100%. Also, I'd love a 'Door state' on the minimal HUD, as I sometimes mis=press the door close button and it only tells you when they've actually closed. Cheers.

 

Only one request from me - I want to be able to see the distance to the next station stop (as a number, not on a track monitor), without having the speedometer HUD in the bottom right (both version of which are overly large and intrusive).

Currently we seem to be able to get distance to next speed restriction in this way, but not distance to next station, which seems odd.

I find using the track monitor involves spending all your time staring at it trying to judge the distance to the speed restriction or station, whereas with a number it’s one glance to get your initial braking point, then you can place all your focus on what you can see through the front windscreen, as a real driver does.

The TSW3 HUD options were perfect for me - I could select just the very small amount of HUD information I wanted, and otherwise keep the screen clear.

 

In TSC the track profile scale switches range depending on your speed (I think three different scales).

 

This is exactly what I did as soon as I loaded TSW4 the first time. Gradually, I'll gain the courage to minimise the information given to me there, pay more attention to the train dashboard, etc.

 

Sounds promising.

Any chance of seeing objective markers (mostly station stops) appear on the track monitor?

 

I still use the normal HUD but with the addition of the track monitor (there is actually no choice other to at the moment) but one thing I don’t like about it is that the speed limits turn red as they get to the end or the bar. This is unnecessary as it is getting to the end anyway but also catches my eye as it changes because it appears like there’s a red signal I missed appearing in the corner of my eye. It leads to mild panic. It should stay white in my opinion as there is no need for a colour change to signify it is approaching.

 

Agreed. After years of playing TSW1/2/3 my mind associates a red speed limit to an overspeed warning, as that's what the speedo does when overspeeding; it turns red.

Speed limits shouldn't turn red just because you're approaching them. I'd be OK with it if they do that when I'm still travelling a speed above the limit, but not when I'm already at or below the speed limit. It's confusing.

 

If it's any help or offers any insight, this is how I currently set up my HUD. I've learned to live without any signal HUD (which I find mostly misleading for not displaying more advanced aspects and not displaying distant signals, so I've learned to drive without). No ugly intrusive objective marker or stop marker. Also no notification popups whenever a adjust a lever (I find popups way too distracting and intrusive). Using the speedo mostly to see current speed limit, although cruise control speed, door status, throttle/brake lever status and accelerometer are very useful to me. Might try to use the minimum HUD once it displays objectives over longer distances, but I do fear I'll mis those useful bits. Might try sticking with the current HUD setup and not using minimum HUD, but I do plan giving it a try.

 

I created a few mock-ups with suggestions for improvements to the mini HUD, mainly implementing the current speed. It also includes a proposal for new speed limit display colors so you can be warned you’re getting close to the limit before getting a scoring penalty.

Made an extra post because of all the text and images, you can check it out here: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/how-to-add-speed-display-to-mini-hud-with-images.74781/

 

Huh - that's weird. I tried that before but couldn't seem to remove parts of the HUD using Ctrl+5 etc, but I just tried again now and it works fine. I must have been pressing the wrong button or something the first time!

Thanks for your help!

 

For anyone who finds the HUD too big, it appears you can still change the size of all elements of the HUD by adding to the bottom of the engine.ini file:

[/Script/Engine.UserInterfaceSettings]
ApplicationScale=0.600

(0.600 is an example, making the HUD 60% of the normal size - play around with this figure until you find the size which suits you)

It makes the starting menus smaller as well but they're still fine to use.

Here's the HUD I'll be using (the text looks difficult to read in the image but it's fine in the game itself).



The biggest benefit is that big grey bar covering the top of the windscreen isn't anywhere near as bad.

 

While I strongly agree that for people who have difficulties with differentiating certain colours (what you called "colour blind") there has to be an option which makes two different things recognizable not only by a difference in colour, I don't follow your argument there.
I myself have problems with different shades of green and red, meaning problems to decide (especially in an instant) if a certain colour is red or green. Nevertheless, the suggestion from JT-Nor was - in my understanding - not to remove the black bar, but rather to "turn" the orientation of the black bar, so in case you have a green symbol (free), that the bar is parallel to the track (looking like you can go on), and if you have a red signal, that the bar is 90 degrees to the track (like "blocking" the way), which makes sense to me.
Personally, I would like that more, because every time I look there, I think a split second about what the symbol means (yes, I can understand it - I find it a little confusing/irritating so far nevertheless). Probably that will go away with time (we will see), and many people like it the way it is.
But the argument, that it HAS TO BE like that because of "colour blind" people, is not a good one, in my opinion, since "colour blind people" as me are still capable of understanding context. And since one can still distinguish a "|" from a "-", JT-Nor's suggestion could still make sense even for "colour blind" people.
If you prefer the symbols to be "unturned" or if their orientation is turned by 90 degrees because the track is shown from left to right (in a way turned by 90 degrees, as well), that is another question, probably a personal preference. As long as it is consistent, I can live with both. But personally I would prefer JT-Nor's suggestion over the way it is now (or at least to have the option to set it up that way).

 

After doing a few TVL runs, where I turned the HUD on, I must say I am quite a fan of the new HUD as it certainly improves the experience, as you do feel much more involved than with the previous HUD. This is going to be good to use when I haven't played a route recently enough to go fully HUDless but don't want the clutter of before when relearning.

 

Thank you! I've been wanting to be able to do this for so long - you're a star!

 

First time driving the Class 101 again with the new HUD, and although I really like the basic HUD, I do miss the indication for the gear I'm currently in. Might need to go back to the full speedo just because of the gears...

 

Wow, it looks like there are such varying opinions, wants and needs on the HUD, that every element of it could be completely customizable in appearance and position and color and style and type of numbers and symbols. The problem is that this is actually possible!

 

As a short term fudge, could you alter your cab view angle so you can see the gear lever?

 

That's how I drive. Scenario marker is on, new HUD with everything besides the distance to next stop orb configured to off. Then I hide the entire HUD with F1. So HUD including the orb is hidden but the blue glow is still there so I see the stop marker. For anything else (distance to next stop, speed limit, current task..) I can quickly toggle the HUD with F1.

 

It would be nice if you can place HUD sections or even separate HUD elements anywhere you like on the screen, just like you can rearrange single elements of the interface of some web browsers, like Firefox for example.

Having the option to so, would give players the ability to create costumized HUDs, sharing only the information they want to have, where they want to have it.

 

Great idea.