Railworks America

Just FYI:

I've released a small utility that displays an UI replacement for the F5 view with more info and can handle Joysticks/Throttles to control the loco. It can handle:
CombinedThrottle, Throttle, TrainBrake, DynamicBrake, LocoBrake, AFB. Even on scripted locos (where Joystick RailDriver interface fails).

The release thread with more information is here:
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 1&t=139304

Make sure to read the documentation as it's not straightforward to configure because of the way it works.

Update: Version 0.6d released

Distance indicator:
http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 7#p1723307

Download:
http://vega.livecd.pl/~havner/trainsim-helper/

Changelog:

Code: Select all

0.6d
 - FEF-3 support. Not all controls are in the HUD simply because there
   is too many of them, but all that are used during normal startup,
   firing and driving are.
 - Separate Blowers for J94
 - Experimental green speed indicator when speed is up to 5 units
   (mph/kph) below the speed limit.

0.6
 - WARNING: some of my internal configurations have changed a little.
   If you rely on them have a look in the locoss sections.
 - Made an optiom for the program to treat driving backwards as forwards
   (Shift-Alt-S). Very usefull for some locos/scenarios where you have to
   drive backwards for longer periods of time.
 - New axes for the joystick: Small Ejector, HandBrake, Blower, Damper.
   Very usefull for 3rd party realistic locos (e.g. VictoryWorks).
 - Big optimization in the LUA overlay code. Don't check for existance
   of ControlValues per iteration. Check this info only once on loco
   initialization.
 - Inclusion of DataExtractor. New version, integrated in the main
   package. Thanks CobraOne.
 - Separate units detection for brakes. Now a loco displays properly
   BAR/PSI if it has brakes that use both.
 - SteamHeating indicator.
 - Detections and notches configurations for more locos I bought recently.
 - Cleanups in my own configs, they wont take precedence over axes set
   explicitly. ReplaceControls() function for this. They are grouped
   under "Havner's config" comments.

0.5
 - WARNING: keyboard shortcuts got changed again due to steamers addition
 - Support for steamers, see the readme
 - Detection script will notify what loco has been detected
 - Detections and notches configurations for MANY more locos (ALL I own)
 - Handbrake indicator, better CruiseControl/AFB indicator
 - CruiseControl axis for locos other then German AFB
 - Separate Loco and Train brakes indicators (some locos use both)

0.4
 - WARNING: the keyboard shortcuts (F1-F9) got changed again due
   to the addition of Distance and a change with TargetSpeed
 - WARNING: the modifier for ALL the shortcuts got changed to
   SHIFT-ALT due to collisions with TS shortcuts (adv. brakes)
 - Distance/Countdown implementation, see the readme
 - Moved the TargetSpeed to the controls (blue) section
 - Made it possible to use the Patcher without TS registry entries
   and custom named RailWorks folder
 - Handle the windowed mode case, move together with TS window
 - Removed numbers formatting in lua for some variables, pass the full float/double
 - Detections and notches configurations for more locos
 - Minor code changes

0.3
 - WARNING: the script has been split into 3 files, you need all
  - Overlay configuration is in the trainsim-helper-overlay.lua
  - Joystick configuration is in the trainsim-helper-joystick.lua
  - Detections for locos are in the trainsim-helper.lua
 - WARNING: ALL ControlRanges are detected before Locos detections
  - This allows for less code in the detection routines
 - GearControl axis added (Gear Lever)
 - Gear in the Overlay moved to the controls group (blue)
  - WARNING: Because of this shortcuts got shifted by 1 (F1-F9, F11-F12)
 - Vacuum Pipe added to the Overlay (red), Vacuum Chamber ignored (seems irrelevant)
 - Moved the clock to align better with long scenario names and F5 UI
 - Overlay GradientUK format option (1:XXX) (mostly autodetected for UK)
 - Fixed gigantic speed limits for SpeedLimitType == 3 (now it's '??')
 - Add units to acceleration, recalculate from m/s^2 (Kph/m, Mph/m)
 - Moved most of the calculations to C++ for performance and greater control
 - Readme updated (TOC and section on how to receive help)
 - Detections and notches configurations for more locos
 - Source code from now is on github:
  - https://github.com/Havner/trainsim-helper

0.2a
 - Added M8Brake to the list of controllable TrainBrakes
 - Fix for the patcher to handle very old locos that don't provide Initialise()
 - Fix for the patcher in case there are already 2 scripts named the same but one .lua, one .out
 - Detections and notches configurations for more locos

0.2
 - Next speed limit + distance
 - Keyboard shortcuts for turning off the whole overlay or just parts of it
 - Command line switches to disable joystick support completely
 - Command line switches to turn off the overlay or just parts of it
 - Notched levers support (needs to be configured manually per loco)
 - An option to redefine warning strings
 - Patcher template updated to pass frame interval for future use
 - More examples in the code for the new functions
 - Internal code changes
 - Docs updated, changelog and todo added

0.1a
 - Changed the BRs in the readme to be readable in notepad
 - Fixed BAR/PSI display for some locos
 - Added Reverser control

0.1
 - initial release


Awesome. Thanks.

Downloading now.

Will you provide support here or is it best to post on UKTS' board, where your main thread is?

Brilliant, thank you :) You even put the speed and speed limit in.. that's great.

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:Will you provide support here or is it best to post on UKTS' board, where your main thread is?

Yes, I will try. But the latency here might be higher as I'm still on trial and my posts are moderated.

Nope your free now, that was your second post to prove your a person. Welcome aboard.

artimrj wrote:Nope your free now, that was your second post to prove your a person. Welcome aboard.

Thank you, makes me wonder whether I've chosen a wrong forum to post this to (as I like both, UK & US rails). It took me around 25 posts and a desperate message to moderators there to be taken out of trial and remove the ~20h latency in posting.

This is great work.
I especially like the possibility of making a custom display.
I would love to see only the gauges on the screen: air brakes, speed, ammeter.
Even better, I would put them in a different window on one of my secondary monitors.

I've been pointed out that I uploaded the readme file with not windows compatible break lines. Notepad can't handle this. Any better editor can (notepad++). I've uploaded 0.1a with the readme fixed, so if you had problems reading it it should be ok now.

Hi Havner, that's a great program. Thank you so much. I have never used a controller for Train Sim but I always wanted to try, no better time than the present.

I have a problem though. In step 4 it says "Now open the trainsim-helper.lua. This has to be done in a good text editor". I can only find the trainsim-helper-engine-template. lua file. All the others are out files. Where does the lua file I need to edit reside? I am using Notepad++.

Thanks again,

Rich

Sorry Havner, I found it. No problems at all!!!

NYWhiskey wrote:Sorry Havner, I found it. No problems at all!!!

Glad to hear that :-)

I'm working on the next version. Already added:
- next speed limit + distance
- keyboard shortcuts for turning off the whole overlay or just parts of it (CTRL+SHIFT+F1-F12)
- command line switches to disable joystick support completely (no warning for no joysticks detected)
- command line switches to turn off the overlay or just parts of it (possible to override with shortcuts in runtime)

Working on notched levers now.

Havner wrote:- keyboard shortcuts for turning off the whole overlay or just parts of it (CTRL+SHIFT+F1-F12)

That should prevent any accidental activation except if you have a cat.

Shameful bump for a new version released. Main post updated.

Looks great. Thanks for making it available.

Unfortunately I mostly run steam engines, and hope that someday you may see your way to including support for them.

gwgardner wrote:Unfortunately I mostly run steam engines, and hope that someday you may see your way to including support for them.

Ok. After I get some pleasure from using my helper (instead of just writing it) I will try to implement steamers. But I need help with this.

1. What additional things should the overlay display? Injectors? Shoveling speed? Watering speed? I know very little about driving a steamer with manual fireman.
2. What additional things should it be possible to control with throttle? Things that are analogue. Meaning they are not togglable but you have a rotary, lever etc to control them.
3. And most importantly I need engine's .bin files for a few advanced steamers. I ony own few from EU locos pack and the Fowler from the Academy.

EDIT:

ad 3. by the engine .bin file I mean a file which is loco's/engine's main definition file. The one holding all the ControlValues
4. Also it would be great to have an input mapper file for a loco. So I can see what the author actually wanted the user to control (and how).