[Genma Saotome]

A very long time ago I proposed camera sets, each set having 1 to 9 cameras, sets for tracking, sets for the engineer... and a set for the brakeman. The idea here is there a roles performed on trains, why not have camera sets for them? One of the undeveloped ideas was to tie commands to sets, perhaps in the form of a GUI, so the engineer would have a GUI showing the sorts of commands an engineer would use, a different set for the steam locomotive fireman, etc, etc, and that brakeman again, pretty much what Siebren shows in the above post.

IMO this idea would be particularly useful for multi-player.

I expected some sets would have most, perhaps all of the commands -- tracking is the most like running a model railroad, but as stated above, adding or removing cars from the train, spotting them at an industry or picking them up, is quite different than the other roles, and again, IMO, what's missing in OR is the information needed to do this job: How the car is identified BY SIGHT; where does it belong? Dealing with this should include sprite text, a GUI based player aid, dismounting/mounting from any unit on the train (record keeping needed to know where the brakeman is at present).

There is a lot that could be done... I do hope this catches some programmers interest.

[scottb613]

Siebren, on 24 July 2023 - 04:01 AM, said:

Hello Scott,

Nice proposal. And I do agree the F5 HUD is only for debugging. However seen via the webserver it is more acceptable than via the main window. And scrollable.

I do not yet see a programmer interested in this proposal. And for me this is too complicated coding wise. What I could code is the following proposal:

Keep the Train Operations and Car Operations Menus as they are now.

But make the lines that are of no use gray and unclickable, for instance the Toggle Handbrake when no handbrake available. And the brake hose for the first locomotive.

And I would change the lines to actions instead of toggle. So that you know what you are doing when you click. This is what a railway employee in the real world would also see. No need for the F5 HUD anymore:

Toggle Handbrake to set / Toggle Handbrake to off
Toggle Brake Hose to connected / Toggle Brake Hose to unconnected
Open Front Angle Cock / Close Front Angle Cock
Open Front Angle Cock / Close Rear Angle Cock
Open Front Bleed Off Value / Close Rear Bleed Off Value

I do not intend to change the rest of the lines in the Car Operation Menu.

regards, Siebren.

this is how it would look like, open/close still to be done:

Hi Siebren,

Nice work.
:sign_rockon:

Yeah - battles to advance ORTS is done one little step at a time. I understand very well - we have to work with the skills we have.

Keep up the good work.

Regards,
Scott

[ExRail]

>"Toggle Handbrake to set / Toggle Handbrake to off
Toggle Brake Hose to connected / Toggle Brake Hose to unconnected
Open Front Angle Cock / Close Front Angle Cock
Open Front Angle Cock / Close Rear Angle Cock
Open Front Bleed Off Value / Close Rear Bleed Off Value"

Those Two states should also be available as controls, that can be controlled and displayed on my own Train Ops page on a MFD in the 3D Cabview.

When I can control and display all this in the Electric Status, why not the rest of the F9 window
http://www.elvastowe...ttach_id=125316

ORTS_LOCO_Toggle_Handbrake
ORTS_LOCO_Toggle_Front_Angle_Cock
ORTS_LOCO_Toggle_Rear_Angle_Cock
ORTS_LOCO_Toggle_Brake_Hose_connection
ORTS_LOCO_Disconnect_Rear_Coupler
ORTS_LOCO_Disconnect_Front_Coupler


Also lots of possibilities after making this: http://www.elvastowe...post__p__299253
if the many ORTS_ neede for replacing F7 was there. I wonder what can be accessed and controlled from C# script.

[Siebren]

Created a pull request https://github.com/o...nrails/pull/860 for this change. Trello card https://trello.com/c/Bva4dtYW

Unset Handbrake/Set Handbrake
Disconnect Brake Hose/Connect Brake Hose
Close Front Angle Cock/Open Front Angle Cock
Close Rear Angle Cock/Open Rear Angle Cock
Close Bleed Off Valve/Open Bleed Off Valve

Lines now show the action which will take place when pressing a line. And non valid actions will be grayed out.

And also a small change in the BRAKE INFORMATION HUD. Where sometimes an unset handbrake is not shown as 0%, sometimes it does. Now it always does show up as 0% (unset) or 100% (set).


The rest of the toggle lines are still to be done. I'll look into these after this change has been accepted. For shunting the brakes are important. The rest is less. And the results for these actions are less clear, I guess. Still have to look into this.

Edited by Aldarion: correction of trello card link. It had punctuation in the end corrupting the link

[Siebren]

I'm always a bit confused about the Brake Hose entry in the Car Operations Menu, is the hose in front or at the rear of the car?

Therefore I've changed this entry into two entries: Connect Front Brake Hose and Connect Rear Brake Hose:



Just the menu changed, no data changes. If for the above example you click Disconnect Rear Brake Hose the brake hose between 0-0 and 0-1 gets disconnected. Seems easier to me. And more realistic. Is part of the above mentioned PR.

[pschlik]

Nice change, having only one toggle for the front brake hose was not the most intuitive thing by any means.

[Siebren]

I've changed the electrical menu entries now also. Looks like this:



Can be found in the unstable OR version "Open Rails U2023.08.23-0522 2023-08-23 06-28-17" or later.

[Weter]

Hello.
Imo, such rare-used actions are much more comfortable to access from the menu like this, than to remember complex keystrokes to operate them by keyboard.
Thanks the great!

[mbm_OR]

Hi Scott,

I've been working on your idea, to update the "Train Operations"<F9>, window for some time.
The interaction with the check-boxes, does not seem to be very friendly.

The new proposal now presented, could be a more user friendly feature.
We need to use the keystroke sequence <Ctrl><Alt><F9> to activate this new feature (for testing purposes only).


This window shows the whole train in vertical mode. Any car can be selected by clicking on the Car ID. Two arrows will then appear pointing to the selected car.

By clicking on the selected CarId the "Train Operations Viewer" window will be displayed.

From the "Train Operations Viewer" window, we can set all the available systems, as in the “Car Operation menu”:

• FrontBrakeHose
  
• FrontAngleCock
  
• CouplerFront
  
• CouplerRear
  
• RearAngleCock
  
• RearBrakeHose
  
• HandBrake
  
• BleedOffValve
  
• ToggleElectricTrainSupplyCable
  
• ToggleMU
  
• TogglePower
  
• ToggleBatterySwitch

This is where all the symbols are placed:

The red cross on the handbrake symbol (or another), indicates that it is not available.

Any changes made in this window will also appear in the "Train Car Operations" window.

After a change in the braking system that keeps the train stopped, the CarID changes to a cyan colour. In this way, it was easy for the user, to find out which car was stopping the train.

A click on the right arrow hides all non-system brake symbols, inside the "Train Car Operations" window.


To make the text bold, click the left arrow.


While the "Train Operations Viewer" window is visible, we can modify the "Train Car Operations" window, but if we open the "Train Operations" window <F9> and click on any CarID, the "Car Operation Menu" will appears and it will point to the previously selected CarID in the "Train Operations Viewer" window.
The "Car Operations Menu" is updated from the "Train Operations Viewer" window.
A click on the CarID in the “Train Operations Viewer” will close the window.

If the train is very long and not all the cars are displayed in the "Train Car Operations" window, we can scroll by clicking on the white down arrow (vertical scroll bar) at the bottom right.
Once the required car has been selected, it will remain visible on the last row.


To test this feature using the unstable version (U2023.10.02-0822), we need the whole files zipped from this file:
New update (11/10/2023)

Some png files are also required in the “/Content” folder:
New update (11/10/2023)

Regards,
Mauricio

[eric from trainsim]

I like that... the left-right orientation is too cumbersome on a long consist.