How to drive with F5 No Hud?

[trias10]

Am quite new to TS2017, just picked it up in last sale along with Clear Creek Narrow Gauge. Am currently trying to do some of the Clear Creek scenarios, and the official manual for that states that you should be playing the game with No HUD, using F5 info instead. If you play with F4 HUD, some of the scripts and advanced controls for the steam loco do not work correctly. Also, I notice that the numbers between F4HUD and F5 don't match up, for example F5 100% reverser shows as 80% reverser in F4HUD.

But the biggest problem is, with F5, you don't see the route map at the bottom, or the gradient, which for steam locos is super difficult, as you have to adjust controls soon as you hit a new gradient or you risk running out of boiler pressure. And not seeing how close you are to a station means I run past it all the time and fail the scenario. I have tried using F3MiniHud instead, but it's kind of a worst of everything.

So am I missing something? How am I supposed to successfully drive in F5 mode without having any gradient or upcoming station info? Is there a mod which will enable this?

Also, quick side ask: how do I add more coal and water in F5 mode? In F4HUD there are those big buttons on the right side, but any way to do this with just keyboard in F5?

[mm007.emko]

In Clear Creek I use the F5 hud (in other routes I use F4 for steam locomotives and none at all for diesel). In real life the drivers and fireman knows the track very well. This is not the case for us, players.

Therefore I briefly show the F3 hud to check what's in front of me from time to time.

Adding coal when using F5 hud is easy. Hold F to open fire door and then hold R to set rate of adding coal/wood/oil. Shift+R decreases the rate and holding Shift+F closes the fire door.

Same is for water. Hold I or O to use steam injector (activate the water pump, either using exhaust steam or steam from the boiler). Then you have to open the water valve itself holding J or K respectively. Shift+respective key decreases the rate.

You can very precisely control the amount of fuel or water going into the fireplace or boiler.

Same technique can be used to control blower or damper with N and M keys. Check the manual (hope I wrote here the correct keys).

The F4 hud is OK for most occasions however on this route you need more precision. Therefore the devs suggested using F5 hud.

Reverser or regulator show different values. In F4 or F3 hud the maximum for reverser is 75%. In F5 it's 100%. Therefore the numbers are off. 38%
in F3 or F4 is 50% in F5. Regulator has a delay in F5 for some locomotives.

Hope that helped.

[Rudolf Jan]

For me the problem with the F5 HUD is that it is very poor design. In a cloudy environment you cannot read the text and it it not well organized. A pity that so little attention was paid to this function.

[trias10]

Originally posted by mm007.emko:

In Clear Creek I use the F5 hud (in other routes I use F4 for steam locomotives and none at all for diesel). In real life the drivers and fireman knows the track very well. This is not the case for us, players.

Therefore I briefly show the F3 hud to check what's in front of me from time to time.

Adding coal when using F5 hud is easy. Hold F to open fire door and then hold R to set rate of adding coal/wood/oil. Shift+R decreases the rate and holding Shift+F closes the fire door.

Same is for water. Hold I or O to use steam injector (activate the water pump, either using exhaust steam or steam from the boiler). Then you have to open the water valve itself holding J or K respectively. Shift+respective key decreases the rate.

You can very precisely control the amount of fuel or water going into the fireplace or boiler.

Same technique can be used to control blower or damper with N and M keys. Check the manual (hope I wrote here the correct keys).

The F4 hud is OK for most occasions however on this route you need more precision. Therefore the devs suggested using F5 hud.

Reverser or regulator show different values. In F4 or F3 hud the maximum for reverser is 75%. In F5 it's 100%. Therefore the numbers are off. 38%
in F3 or F4 is 50% in F5. Regulator has a delay in F5 for some locomotives.

Hope that helped.

Super helpful, thank you!

Only thing which is a bit unclear is how to add water. You mention holding I or O to use the steam injector, but then I also have to hold J or K too? At the same time as I'm holding I or O?

Also, with adding coal, after I hold F to open the fire door, will coal automatically begin to be added at some value per second, and pressing R (or holding it?) will simply increase the rate of addition? Or opening the fire door literally only just opens it, I then have to continuously hold R to add coal into an open fire door?

[mm007.emko]

Hello, you don't have to hold the keys all the time. Luckily :) They set rate. In cabin view watch which handles or valves move, how fast and how much when holding the keys. For R you get no visual feedback. You can hear the fireman's shovel, though.

[GegeTS]

Originally posted by trias10:

Super helpful, thank you!

Only thing which is a bit unclear is how to add water. You mention holding I or O to use the steam injector, but then I also have to hold J or K too? At the same time as I'm holding I or O?

Also, with adding coal, after I hold F to open the fire door, will coal automatically begin to be added at some value per second, and pressing R (or holding it?) will simply increase the rate of addition? Or opening the fire door literally only just opens it, I then have to continuously hold R to add coal into an open fire door?

No need to hold press R key all the time to adding coal just press this key a bit longer (or press it few time) than other toggle keys and your rate will be set like you shovel much quickly to fil the coal. The same when you stop to shovel coal with the combination keys SHIFT+R thus the shovel hearing sound stops. To fuel the water, first open the injector either the exhaust or steam then open the corresponding water valve either key K or key L. The layout of the keyboard in the game is enough comprehensive when fueling water in the boiler. For key O for the injector use the key L for' the corresponding water valve placed on the lower keys row on the keyboard. The same apply for the key I injector and the key K for water valve.
Only keys I and O (injectors) are toggles keys while keys K and L need to be stopped using SHIFT+K or SHIFT+L because for fueling water it is at a some rate depending how long you press respectively the keys K or L. When you press these keys about 3 seconds or less, I presume you reach the maximum rate and the considered water valve is fully open. Again no need to press these keys all the time I presume only few seconds are needed to open fully the valves.
Remember: key I for injector correspond key K for water and key O for injector correspond key L for water. When your boiler is plenty enough close first the water SHIFT+K or SHIFT+L to close the water valves then close the corresponding injector either I or O.

All the best
Cheers
Gerard

[GegeTS]

Originally posted by mm007.emko:

Hello, you don't have to hold the keys all the time. Luckily :) They set rate. In cabin view watch which handles or valves move, how fast and how much when holding the keys. For R you get no visual feedback. You can hear the fireman's shovel, though.

Sorry and just went to writte my answer...

But to add some accuracies, if I remember well using F4 HUD or displaying them I believe you are not able to use the keyborad keys or something like that. Thats not working properly and you can't watch the 3D cab levers moving as expected. I experienced this few times.

Using keyboards keys are available for F3 HUD or F5 view. I can be wrong and I can confuse with using the mouse pointer acting directly on th 3D cab view on the levers or firedoor may be.

[trias10]

Solid, thanks everyone!

I have just done a clear creek run and gotten a handle on adding coal and injecting water. All I need to work on now is my timeliness into the stations :)

[GegeTS]

Good work and nice fun ;-)

[mm007.emko]

Originally posted by Gege21:

But to add some accuracies, if I remember well using F4 HUD or displaying them I believe you are not able to use the keyborad keys or something like that. Thats not working properly and you can't watch the 3D cab levers moving as expected. I experienced this few times.

Yes, it's true. Keys for injecting water and stoking coal don't work in F4 hud, you have to use the big buttons.

[GegeTS]

Originally posted by mm007.emko:

Originally posted by Gege21:

But to add some accuracies, if I remember well using F4 HUD or displaying them I believe you are not able to use the keyborad keys or something like that. Thats not working properly and you can't watch the 3D cab levers moving as expected. I experienced this few times.

Yes, it's true. Keys for injecting water and stoking coal don't work in F4 hud, you have to use the big buttons.

Ok my brain is not still broken

[GeneralGeldenhuys]

As other said, use F3. You can switch between F3 and F5 by just pressing F3 twice.

As time goes, you will later not needing the F5 hud anymore. Only to check the coal levels. When I play the WLoS (Western Lines of Scotland) I play mostly with no hud at all. I know when to shovel coal and for how long. I played so much on that route (awesome btw, excellent route showing typical scottish rolling hills) that I know every turn, gradient, bridge and station on that route.

[GegeTS]

Originally posted by GeneralGeldenhuys:

As other said, use F3. You can switch between F3 and F5 by just pressing F3 twice.

As time goes, you will later not needing the F5 hud anymore. Only to check the coal levels. When I play the WLoS (Western Lines of Scotland) I play mostly with no hud at all. I know when to shovel coal and for how long. I played so much on that route (awesome btw, excellent route showing typical scottish rolling hills) that I know every turn, gradient, bridge and station on that route.

Yes me too when I wish to drive a steam loco, mainly I use the quick drive to be without stress, and choose the WLoS route and the Black5 loco pulling 5 coachs. I dont know very well the route but my main pleasure is to fill the boiler and coal switwhing time to time between the F3 and F5 full HUD to look at what is going wrong or well to drive this loco on the best. I use only my mouse pointer to act in the 3D cab view with the different levers and firedoor to be much immersive. And doing so I can move the brake handle faster than using the dedicated keys on the keyboard.