Some considerations (issues) in Trainz 2019

Japo32

New member
Hello!

Congratulations for your release, now it looks amazing and compete with other great train simulators and I hope the users content grow to make different countries rail lines.
I have been doing the tutorials. I come from Run8 so the loco is known by me, but I never have been in any real train, so I don't know if Run8 is enough realistic or not (I suppose yes, as other users says).
Ok.. I found several issues in Trainz 2019, not only about realistic things but graphics also:

1. The green lights in the 3D world are too much similar as yellow. Could you please tune them to be more green? I know in the map are green, but I want to travel without the map, so if I have to think, "that traffic light was yellow or green?" then bad thing.

2. Is the counter working? I mean the left side one that count down or up about the longitude of your train. This is huge important when driving a long train, as we do not know when it is going to pass the last car the signal that is limiting us.. or whatever. I see there is an option to press it, but no action is done. I didn't try in other than the tutorial. Hope that if it is not working, please make this feature. Also give us an option to press that counter with hotkeys. Thanks!

3. Dynamic brake. This confuse me a lot. It is totally different than Run8. In Run8 to apply Dynamic Braking you have to:
a) set the throttle to 0
b) wait some seconds (10 or so) and apply the dynamic brake lever. Inmediatelly the amps will raise and the motor brake will be applied.

in Trainz 2019 we have to:
a) Set the throttle to 0
b) Set the ammount of dynamic brake we want (if we press c it is up to 8.. if we do it with the mouse, we can set the ammount). BUT THIS WON'T APPLY THE BRAKES.
c) Once we have set the number of dynamic brake, we have to increase the throttle to apply the brakes. This is very odd for me. Is it real? If yes, then Run8 is doing it wrong. If not, then it would be nice to correct it, I believe. If it is not corrected, then I will do it the way Trainz 2019 does it.. but that would not be the real thing (if it was wrong the way to do it in Trainz 2019).

4. If we want to apply not "boolean" values to some levers, we need to manage the levers with mouse. For example.. I don't find the key to increment/decrement gradually the Independent brakes. If I press "e" it will apply full independent brakes, and if we press it again, it will release it. With mouse it is ok. Also for Dynamic brakes.
Would be nice to add keys to increment/decrement those values gradually. Why? not only because it is nice to have better control, but also because I use JoystickToKeyboard application to control with axis these levers.
Of course it would be amazing that you would allow us to use any axis of any controller to control whatever train we want.. but I start to believe all train simulators have some kind of deal with Raildriver, because I don't understand why none of all of them allow the use and modification of any joystick you have (well TS19 allows the Xbox controller.. but that is too bad I believe)

Thanks and hope you consider this notes in future, as well as the Trackir feature. But I want to say that you made a great job with this Trainz 2019.
 
Welcome to Trainz.

N3V does not make many models used in the program and they haven't done that in years. What they do, however, is package up stuff made by others in the community as DLC and built-in items. With that said, many of these issues you speak of here, such as the knobs and levers not being functional in a locomotive cab, are all up to the content creators to enable in their models via scripts and animations, as well as, signal coronas, and all other content.

Sorry I can't help you with the dynamic brakes because I haven't used that function in many years since the routes I normally drive don't require them so having said that, I'll let others comment on this if they have.

There are keyboard functions available for the throttle control. I recommend starting TRS19 and then clicking on the Main Menu, the three-bar menu in upper left corner, and then choosing Control-settings. This will give you a complete list of keyboard controls, and you can map them to something else too if you find it necessary.

I will say that you can increase and decrease the throttle using the W and X keys. The S, Q,A, and Z keys are for stopping, and other braking functions. This is quite a lot easier than using a mouse to move the knobs and buttons, which I liken to attempting to catch a piece of waving thread with a pair of tweezers.

You saw the information on the joystick functions. Since T:ANE, the just previous but still current Trainz version, the controller function was moved to what is called the Trainz Native Interface, which allows developers to write their own drivers for controllers. At this time, the basic interface was added for game-controllers such as an X-box controller. As you saw in the other thread, this has been taken up by the community to allow for joysticks and other controllers to function.
 
...the controller function was moved to what is called the Trainz Native Interface, which allows developers to write their own drivers for controllers.
But that's not what I see happening. The only controllers are the keyboard and mouse. Translating an axis to a series of keyboard commands that run on two different scales is crazy. I think I'm misunderstanding what you've said. To me the "Trainz Native Interface" is the mouse and keyboard. If I, being an amateur Visual Basic programmer can get an interface to "kinda" work, N3V should be able to have full USB support for any device people plug in as a "controller".

Japo32 stated the Independent brake from the keyboard, is a toggle. Using the mouse, it's a slider. I think who ever was appointed to compile keyboard commands, never spoke to the people appointed to scripting the on screen controls.

The steam Engine throttle, from center, has 19 steps to to 75% which is in increments of 4. Coming down from top, it's 15 steps in increments of 5. Same for going in reverse. How the hell and I supposed to program a keyboard interface for something like that? Sure, from top to center and center to bottom and back to center, but stop the movement in the middle... No way to know where the joystick is in relation to the "Reverser".

I think they just got lazy and wanted to sell a pretty product. Kinda like MS Flight Sim going from a Sim to a game. If it's called a SIMULATOR, make a SIMULATOR! But even if it's also a GAME, include Joystick support!

Rant over, time for bed.
 
But that's not what I see happening. The only controllers are the keyboard and mouse. Translating an axis to a series of keyboard commands that run on two different scales is crazy. I think I'm misunderstanding what you've said. To me the "Trainz Native Interface" is the mouse and keyboard. If I, being an amateur Visual Basic programmer can get an interface to "kinda" work, N3V should be able to have full USB support for any device people plug in as a "controller".

Japo32 stated the Independent brake from the keyboard, is a toggle. Using the mouse, it's a slider. I think who ever was appointed to compile keyboard commands, never spoke to the people appointed to scripting the on screen controls.

The steam Engine throttle, from center, has 19 steps to to 75% which is in increments of 4. Coming down from top, it's 15 steps in increments of 5. Same for going in reverse. How the hell and I supposed to program a keyboard interface for something like that? Sure, from top to center and center to bottom and back to center, but stop the movement in the middle... No way to know where the joystick is in relation to the "Reverser".

I think they just got lazy and wanted to sell a pretty product. Kinda like MS Flight Sim going from a Sim to a game. If it's called a SIMULATOR, make a SIMULATOR! But even if it's also a GAME, include Joystick support!

Rant over, time for bed.

Understandable rant! :)

I agree there's a lot here to figure out.

You might be interested in reading this here:

http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/TrainzNativeInterface

and

https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?128929-Trainz-Native-Interface [SUB][/SUB]

In this latter thread, you can't post but it's available for reading. If you are interested in joining the Trainz Dev group send me a PM.
 
I think they just got lazy and wanted to sell a pretty product. Kinda like MS Flight Sim going from a Sim to a game. If it's called a SIMULATOR, make a SIMULATOR! But even if it's also a GAME, include Joystick support!

Well that is a revelation to me. All these years I have been under the illusion (delusion) that the difference between a game and a simulator was that games used joysticks and simulators used keyboards! Silly me.
 
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About the dynamic brake, in USA locomotive they are in different ways, some of them use the way TRS and some the Run 8 form.
 
About the dynamic brake, in USA locomotive they are in different ways, some of them use the way TRS and some the Run 8 form.
Didn't know that! Thanks!

About joysticks... I totally don't understand why Trainz or other train simulator don't include the option to map whatever axis or button joystick you may have. It should be up the the user to decide if he wants to play with mouse, buttons, raildriver or a joystick with axis. For me any flight sim joystick (the throttle part, not the joystick itseft) is perfectly valid for managing trains. Specially the Saitek quadrant or any other that has 3 axis. And I think this is very simple to program to someone that makes simulators like the ones I see...
But what I don't understand is people that don't defend this.

You go to a car sim, and you can use whatever joystick you want, even if you use a flightsim one (stupid.. but who knows.... I know one that use the driving pedals as pedals for helicopters.. and it works!),
Go to flightsims, and you can fly with a pad if you want, or any joystick.
Naval ones.. also
Trains.. not. Understandable... unless they have somekind of deal with RailDriver makers....
 
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