Dashboard visibility?

[Chukkzy]

This game is very cool, I think during the few days since I picked this up this became my mostplayed game. One thing however is a bit meh, and that is the Dashboard instruments readability, especially since I tried playing this with manual shifting I find myself squinting at the dashboard a lot. Is there any mod out there (or a way I simply did not find yet) to make the Dashboard a bit more visible? Maybe some HUD like functions?

[MichaelF]

what is your scaling set to in your options. it has to be atleast 100% or more for the hud to be readable

[Chukkzy]

It is on 100, I tried higher but it seems to make no difference in terms of size (I guess it cannot be). I just find it incredibly hard to see in several truck models, in others its fairly big and straight forward by design and I can see it nicely.

[margalus]

scaling makes no difference for that. Different trucks have different dashboards. some do seem much clearer than others. I don't know why that is, if they were all made by the same team. I like the classic Volvo FH16 dashboard the best. It has most of what you need to know easily visible and it's fairly clear and easy to read also, not as blurry as some seem. Sorry I couldn't really help you

[MichaelF]

Originally posted by margalus:

scaling makes no difference for that. Different trucks have different dashboards. some do seem much clearer than others. I don't know why that is, if they were all made by the same team. I like the classic Volvo FH16 dashboard the best. It has most of what you need to know easily visible and it's fairly clear and easy to read also, not as blurry as some seem. Sorry I couldn't really help you

when I had my scaling on 50 I couldn't read the dashboard and when I put it on 150 I could read it.

[Sirrus]

Scaling could help to reduce "blurryness" a bit, but not much after that. As for different dashboards, I think it came from desire to depict different trucks to maximum detail possible, and make them different as they are. Yet in real life our field of view is generally wider than one we have with monitor, and find proportion between "realism" and "ergonomics" is very difficult.

As for displays, I think old Volvo has best display - large and easy to read.
Scania has second place, it's only a tad smaller, and, sometimes, less readable.
Then we have a gap, where we have new Volvo, and Majestic (I won't lace one above the other, I say both have upsides and downsides).
Pair of Renaults somewhat between this group and one that's next - I can't name their displays small, but I can't name them champions of readability either.
Finally we have tail-end group, consisting of both Ivecos, MAN and DAF. All four have rather small displays, and, what's worse, while old Stralis' display is not that small, but choice for font/background colours is horrid - dark blue on light blue? In real life, Stralis' instruments' cluster has a "angular" size of about of my monitor, so I don't have problems with reading it. In-game display is at least five times smaller, so it's basically death sentense. MAN and DAF displays are smaller, but they somewhat contrast enough, and at least I can notice whether tempomat is on or off - on Iveco's I can't do that. Reading numbers from displays on those four trucks is somewhat uncomfortable.
Speaking of New Iveco, I can't get rid of feeling that something is wrong with Field of View - it doesn't feel the same as the other truck.

Regarding your manual shifting (I play in travels a lot, so I can't have wheel and shifter, so I play with sequential mostly), I can only suggest practice and looking at tachometer, or listen to the engine, though trucks' manufacturers on their courses seems to discourage such practice, advising using tachometer only. With some practice you'll be able to set required gear, and even will be able to flip them with ease, without staring into tachometer for long. In sequesntial mode it's quite easy, though flipping through two gears is rather annoying at times. If you have road advisor, you can look for gear number there, I think it displayed in left corner. Just keep in mind that some trucks' engines have different optimal revs range, that is changed as you progress through them.

[Chukkzy]

I kind of became used to drive by hearing more (this is actually the first time I manage to shiftstick in a game, wow! You always learn new things :D), also I noticed it helps if the lights are turned on on the dashboard day as night as that seems to make it more clearer to see.

I kind of got the hang now, just stopping the thing is still a bit tricky lol.

[SilentEd]

You could look for mods for your current truck.
There are also mods that change the position of your road advisor or put that thing with gearbox and damage and so on to a different location.
I must agree that the Volvo has the best unmodded display. There are aome nice mods for Scania though.

[Peter Wilhelmsson]

I started using ETS2 Telemetry Server and display my dashboard on my tablet.

http://forum.scssoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=171000

I built a holder for my tablet out of foam core. I just cut the pieces using a straight object as guide and a sharp knife, then glued the pieces together with a hot glue gun. Hell, ordinary sturdy cardboard cut from an empty box of pretty much any kind will also do the trick.

Now, if you want a REALLY cool dashboard, it's actually both CHEAP and SIMPLE to build a fricking AWESOME dashboard using an Arduino mini-computer. You can buy all the hardware you need (the arduino board, LEDs, servos, and buttons or even a frigging IGNITION KEY from eBay. There are hundreds of sellers based in China and Hong Kong that sells electronic components DIRT CHEAP and with FREE international shipping! Sure, you have to wait for the components for a few weeks, but when you buy 50 tactile buttons for 4 USD, or PS2 gamepad joysticks for a buck each, or color tft displays for 10 dollars, it's hard to complain.

ETS2 Dashboard prototype from cardboard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_hX7DgiCQU
(check his blog for more information and even the code he used for the Arduino)

Or this Arduino-powered 7-segment display speedometer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AluHE-Dysc

Or this cardboard prototype with ignition key
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmMzcmmTsbE

[FrAgGeD_BE]

You can try to lower the brightness on the dashboard by pressing F4... Helped me alot !