Skip to the next event

It would be nice to jump forwards to just before the next timetable event. This is already implemented in Train Director where pressing k when all trains are stationary jumps to 3 minutes before the next event.

zandoodle in post 141219 said:

It would be nice to jump forwards to just before the next timetable event. This is already implemented in Train Director where pressing k when all trains are stationary jumps to 3 minutes before the next event.

Have you read the Wiki and the bit about the F3 key controlling sim speed or have you just dived straight into Sim Sig?

I always thought the quiet hours in the middle of the night were for intense contemplation of the Rules & Regs. You know, from a relaxed posture with the eyes closed to minimise distractions.

It would be nice to jump forwards to just before the next timetable event. This is already implemented in Train Director where pressing k when all trains are stationary jumps to 3 minutes before the next event.

northroad in post 141221 said:

zandoodle in post 141219 said:

It would be nice to jump forwards to just before the next timetable event. This is already implemented in Train Director where pressing k when all trains are stationary jumps to 3 minutes before the next event.

Have you read the Wiki and the bit about the F3 key controlling sim speed or have you just dived straight into Sim Sig?

Really and entirely unsure why such an unpleasant tone has to be taken to a question. What the OP asked for and the F3 speed control are not the same thing.

AlexH in post 141224 said:

northroad in post 141221 said:

zandoodle in post 141219 said:

It would be nice to jump forwards to just before the next timetable event. This is already implemented in Train Director where pressing k when all trains are stationary jumps to 3 minutes before the next event.

Have you read the Wiki and the bit about the F3 key controlling sim speed or have you just dived straight into Sim Sig?

Really and entirely unsure why such an unpleasant tone has to be taken to a question. What the OP asked for and the F3 speed control are not the same thing.

Sorry I did not realise that having to wait three minutes was such a big problem.

What I want is a way to skip large periods of time where nothing is happening without the possibility of going past the event or being overly safe and still waiting a long time(although still shorter than with no increase in speed).

zandoodle in post 141232 said:

What I want is a way to skip large periods of time where nothing is happening without the possibility of going past the event or being overly safe and still waiting a long time(although still shorter than with no increase in speed).

I understand what you're asking, though I think you're the first person to ask for it.

From an implementation point of view, the problem is that there isn't a single definition of "event". One could be added - and I can see the benefits - but it would be a major rewrite of much of the Loader. It's not trivial. Furthermore, if a train is moving then it has an "event" every second as it decides whether to accelerate or brake based on line conditions ahead. Even if all trains are stationary (rare in most SimSig timetables) the train could be about to move for some reason. Even trains entering isn't trivial - the train doesn't necessarily enter at the timetabled time for a whole range of reasons, some sim-specific. So I'm not saying it's impossible, but I am saying it's a lot harder than you might think and I'm not seeing a justification for the work involved so far.

There is a debugging feature called "auto-pause" which allows a developer/tester to have the sim pause whenever one of a range of specific events occurs (e.g. specific/any signal changes aspect, train enters / starts moving / stops moving; you can select which ones cause a pause). It's Geoff's call whether we make that generally available.

clive in post 141234 said:

zandoodle in post 141232 said:

What I want is a way to skip large periods of time where nothing is happening without the possibility of going past the event or being overly safe and still waiting a long time(although still shorter than with no increase in speed).

I understand what you're asking, though I think you're the first person to ask for it.

From an implementation point of view, the problem is that there isn't a single definition of "event". One could be added - and I can see the benefits - but it would be a major rewrite of much of the Loader. It's not trivial. Furthermore, if a train is moving then it has an "event" every second as it decides whether to accelerate or brake based on line conditions ahead. Even if all trains are stationary (rare in most SimSig timetables) the train could be about to move for some reason. Even trains entering isn't trivial - the train doesn't necessarily enter at the timetabled time for a whole range of reasons, some sim-specific. So I'm not saying it's impossible, but I am saying it's a lot harder than you might think and I'm not seeing a justification for the work involved so far.

There is a debugging feature called "auto-pause" which allows a developer/tester to have the sim pause whenever one of a range of specific events occurs (e.g. specific/any signal changes aspect, train enters / starts moving / stops moving; you can select which ones cause a pause). It's Geoff's call whether we make that generally available.

A basic definition of "event" could be:
- Any message appearing in the message window (would also allow a certain degree of user filtering, by disabling messages that shouldn't pause time)
- Any F7 message appearing
- Any incoming phone call

But the big question is ' Do we need such gameish features, for what is the most accurate UK signalling simulation around ???'

Meld in post 141236 said:

But the big question is ' Do we need such gameish features, for what is the most accurate UK signalling simulation around ???'

There's already game-ish features like the F11 menu, train list, or more related, the fast-forward feature. I see this as an improvement to the latter thing.

But the big question is ' Do we need such gameish features, for what is the most accurate UK signalling simulation around ???'

Dionysusnu in post 141238 said:

Meld in post 141236 said:

But the big question is ' Do we need such gameish features, for what is the most accurate UK signalling simulation around ???'

There's already game-ish features like the F11 menu, train list, or more related, the fast-forward feature. I see this as an improvement to the latter thing.

Perhaps SimSig is a little too focussed on portraying the reality of a signalling simulation for someone such as yourself who sees so many game-playing improvement opportunities.

But the option to run the simulation at maximum speed whenever there is a gap allows even a couple of hours of simulation time to pass in just a few minutes of real time. However, that does require the operator to be keeping track of what is going on and reverting to the speed of choice just before the arrival of the next action requiring signaller intervention. Most players seem quite happy to put up with that, probably because one of the main attractions of SimSig for those players is that it requires the operator to concentrate and make decisions rather than letting someone or something else do the hard work and the thinking.