EngineerKenny123 wrote:For me, I wouldn't drive a train without the RailDriver. Incredible is the best word to describe it. Yes it is costly, but worth every cent. I fact, I don't buy routes or scenarios with electric or combination throttles because I have to have my RailDriver.
Hallelujah, amen brother!
Bottom line is trains are driven by levers not keyboards therefore Raildriver trumps everything.
You can't brake properly with keys. Unless you have the irritating and unrealistic HUD on display then you've no idea if you're braking or not.....
I use the keyboard, and rarely the HUD, and know how much the brakes are applied by a combination of observing the brake pipe pressure / vacuum and how quickly the train is slowing.
EngineerKenny123 wrote:For me, I wouldn't drive a train without the RailDriver. Incredible is the best word to describe it. Yes it is costly, but worth every cent. I fact, I don't buy routes or scenarios with electric or combination throttles because I have to have my RailDriver.
Hallelujah, amen brother!
Bottom line is trains are driven by levers not keyboards therefore Raildriver trumps everything.
You can't brake properly with keys. Unless you have the irritating and unrealistic HUD on display then you've no idea if you're braking or not. You could press the brake key 3 times and not know if you're applying brake pressure or still advancing through the lap positions only. Likewise you could press the brake button a few times thinking you've applied a gentle amount only to find you're near emergency braking and shuddering to a halt long before you need to.
With RD you can see and feel what position the brake handle is in so you can stop on a dime.
Jimmy - can you not see that this is not as black and white as you seem to be suggesting? You most certainly can brake properly using keys, as I have done since the sim was first released without difficulty.
You may think otherwise but that does'nt alter the validity other other embers' views. The only difference between your posts and the ones you take issue with, are simply your own personal opinion and that of others? With respect, please stop disparaging other peoples' genuine views simply because they differ from yours.
Ash
Ashley Gray
Intel Core i7-7700K @ 4.2Ghz Quad Core, Gigabyte Gaming Motherboard, 2 x 512Gb SSDs + 1TB SATA drives,
16 Gb DDR-4 Corsair RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX1060 6Gb RAM, ASUS Xonar D2X/XDT Soundcard, Windows 10 64 bit
I can stop using the keyboard with perfect precision, even if I do say so myself. I have managed all these years without RD, and expect to continue doing so.
Cannot see myself buying one either to be honest, maybe if they had them in a sale perhaps, but even then only if the discount offered was well in excess of 30%.
I have a Raildriver, but I hardly ever use it. I prefer a mix of keyboard and mouse control, works better for me.
My problem with the raildriver unit is:
Handles are too small - not very confortable to use on longer drives
Poor control of particulary throttle and train brake - works poorly for small adjustments. Often, if I make a slight adjustment, it doesn't register. If I keep adjusting, it'll at some point over control. Quite annoying in my opinion.
The speed gauge wont stay on MPH - It keeps switching between MPH and KMH, also quite annoying.
Where Raildriver excells in my opinion is for shunting and running trains with many stops, like commuter trains. For everything else, I prefer keyboard and mouse.
Plus I use the computer as a computer so having to move the Raildriver out of the way each time I wished to do something else was another reason.
Same reason I put mine away in it's box, I prefer the keyboard now, at least that works on loco's and not just some. And I can do my other stuff with ease.
Best Regards
Martin (smarty2)
Non technically minded individual!
I am kind of surprised at the number of people complaining on price tag fro Rail Driver. I mean really as controllers go in the world of sims, it's a pretty cheap set up compares to racing setups, or flight... TS2014 itself is rather expensive when you start to add stock and routes. This isn't a cheap hobby, just cheap compared to model railroading. My complaints on Rail Driver are not really against the device itself....as I think it is made quite nice. My only complaints is no way to calibrate it in game, like every other modern sim allows in their games, and I can't mention enough how the Zusi train simulator has it set up for in game calibration. That's a head scratcher because 1 guy doing a solo project did it flawlessly.....so why are we still not getting support from the professional company? The issue is that not all loco's use the same controls, and while you can remap controls for buttons on raildriver, this doesn't work so well on the lever type controls. The main issue with the Raildriver is it doesn't seem to work well in fine increments of change, and as it gets no feedback properly from game, you get out of sync between raildriver and what you would have in cab....the only way to semi fix this is to apply that lever all the way on and/or off and start over.....you can not depend on a leaver set at 50% on the controller being 50% in game......that is a problem. A huge problem when doing detailed work and breaking. A problem I do not have with my racing wheel....or Flight sticks. I think what has annoyed me3 most about this, isn't that I dislike Raildriver, but rather just how badly i would like to be able to use it. However the general line from both PI engineering, and Railworks seems to be...tough luck, take it as it is, because neither of us plan on spending any time improving functionality......it is the attitude of both companies that has just turned me off from it.
Again Zusi......created by ONE guy.......flawless rail driver integration....check it out it's free...(the sim itself is of a older fashione MS Train Sim like engine though) .. tell me again WHY they can't do this at Dovetail? Either support the raildriver properly, or work with another company to make something better and support that..... it's just silly that a sim series of this cost and amount of DLC, doesn't have properly working controller.....
With all my complaints said. I think anyone who is in a into the TS franchise enough to have bought 2-3 routes and some trains shouldn't think twice about buying it and trying it out, it certainly will be more entertaining then yet another route, and when it does work, it works very well....it's well built, and who knows maybe someday they will hire the Zusi guy...
It actually amazes me the number of people that use the keyboard. I find using the keyboard as your main control method a backward step. I have spent about 15 years in the FS world and except in the early days of the Commodore 64 have always used a Joy Stick for flying and also for driving sims a steering wheel. As I have said in a previous post I use an Xbox controller as my main control method, which is not perfect but a better choice than the keyboard imho, and the odd times the keyboard and the F4 hud. BTW I sometimes use the mouse.
Intel i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad Core, Asus P8Z 68-V LE MB, Asus GTX 1060 Strix 6GB Gaming graphics card, Windows 10 Home 64 bit, 16gb Corsair Vengeance DDR3 ram, Viewsonic VX2452mh LED 1080P HD Monitor. Seagate Barracuda 1 TB HD, Seagate Firecuda 2 TB HD,
I'm also surprised to see how many people drive by the keyboard.
Sure I do USE the keyboard while driving, for a quick tap on this or that control, but it's not my main nor my preferred method of driving - just the always-there backup. (And of course, some functions are only available by keyboard, or just work most reliably that way).
And I can do my other stuff with ease.
