[Lindsayts]

I have transferred these post from Trainsim.com

Twopol said.....

"The F5 display currently seen in Open Rails will continue to exist in 1.0 and beyond, although it is probable it will be hidden by default. As for the displays, I think the main HUD/F5 area has been used too much for debugging in the past, but we now have a whole info page for locomotive data (and there's a lot there for steam). Hopefully, we can get people to clean up the display to just the key information."

CJakeman replied.....

"That's my intention as soon as the current activity slows down."


There's a real problem here, As I said before steam loco's are ___very___ complex machines if one wish's to set up an eng file to suit the new OR steam code one needs access to most of these values. If the display becomes completely unaccessible then all the current work on the steam code will have been in vain. IF I say IF OR wishes to have accurate steam loco performance a model developer ____________MUST_____________ have access to this display in order to tune the eng file values correctly. Just because most of the population has no idea about how steamers work ___SHOULD_NOT____ stop those few of us who are interested from tuning the eng file for correct performance.

If the OR is to be so "simplified" why go to all this trouble with steam code to begin with? It will almost certainly never be possible to get true accurate performance for all machines just from a couple of parameters no matter how "intelligent" the code is, for the machines themselves have just to many variables.
These "variables" between machines giving each individual steam loco its own personality, something almost all drivers of steamers have commented on.

Lindsay

[James Ross]

Lindsayts, on 22 October 2013 - 11:22 AM, said:

There's a real problem here, As I said before steam loco's are ___very___ complex machines if one wish's to set up an eng file to suit the new OR steam code one needs access to most of these values. If the display becomes completely unaccessible then all the current work on the steam code will have been in vain.

I think there's been a bit of confusion here. I want the main part of the HUD/F5 display cleaned up - the extended info pages (like locomotive info) are not changing and do not need cleaning up. I worked hard to make sure the data on the steam locomotives fitted compactly, but also readably and without sacrificing ordering/grouping as much as I could specifically so we can keep it as detailed as it is.

[Lindsayts]

James Ross, on 22 October 2013 - 11:31 AM, said:

I think there's been a bit of confusion here. I want the main part of the HUD/F5 display cleaned up - the extended info pages (like locomotive info) are not changing and do not need cleaning up. I worked hard to make sure the data on the steam locomotives fitted compactly, but also readably and without sacrificing ordering/grouping as much as I could specifically so we can keep it as detailed as it is.

Thank you for clearing that up. Its much apreciated.

[Genma Saotome]

Is the function to log data into a .csv file still usable? Does it include steam locomotive data? IMO that's where the analysis of locomotive performance should be done.

[copperpen]

While poring over a set of data might be useful, it is also useful to observe in realtime exactly what is happening as a result of making changes to eng file parameters.

Far as the normal F5 HUD is concerned for steam locomotives, the manual set is fine, it is the AI set that needs a few more items so the user can see if something is going wrong.

We have steam generation and usage along with driving control settings, brake settings and speed. To that I would add tender/bunker fuel and water levels so that the user can see if more needs to be added at a refuelling point to continue the activity. There are some other items that will require manual control by the user and therefore some indication that they are on or off. Steam heating is one that springs to mind right now.