This update adds the ability to create a "switchboard" which you can put anywhere on your layout to display a map of the track (and control turnouts with little switches!).
You can make as many of these as you like, and you can choose which track they display.
This means you can have different switchboards for different parts of your layout!
On the same topic as skyboxes and turntables, this is another feature from the old "top of the south" layout that you can now create yourself!
These switchboards are designed to be like the real-world switch panels you find on real model railways!
You can customize the width/height/size etc of these switchboards and give them a name. As an example, the "Miami Shelf" layout (accessible by starting a new game and choosing it from the list) now has switchboards included.
These switchboards also appear inside the cab of your locomotive when you are driving in miniature!
This means you can control the turnouts around you from inside the cab, plus the switchboard also shows an icon for where your train is on the map! (plus the direction it is facing)
The potential for these switchboards is pretty crazy, members of the community have already started using them to map out their huge yards, like this:
(created by Doggo The Doggo on the Discord server)
Setting up and customizing switchboards
To make your own switchboard, start by grabbing one from the "Room -> tools" drawer.
Then place it on the ground/table/wall.
Then use the "Edit options" popup (Q on PC) to open the options menu for it.
From here you can change some basic settings like:
- Set the name label text
- Show/hide the name label
- show/hide the turnout control levers (like if you would prefer to have these hidden and just show the track map)
- Set whether this switchboard will show up in train cabs. (this is very useful if you want to have one big switchboard for your whole map, but then have lots of smaller individual ones for each area. You can make only the small ones show up in cabs!)
- Change the rotation of the track (if you want to display the track map at a different angle)
You can click on the "Board size options" button to access more display options like:
- width/height
- scale factor (this will zoom-in/out the map)
- offset center x/y (this changes the center of the map, to move it up/down left/right around the board)
If you go back to the previous menu and choose the "track region options" button then you can set up which track this switchboard will use.
Click the "add bounds box" to spawn in a cube (just like with skyboxes!) which you can then place on your layout. You can place as many as you like to cover the area.
any track inside these boxes will show up on the switchboard.
Click "back" to apply changes and the new track should appear on the switchboard!
Please keep in mind that these "bounds boxes" cannot be rotated! they need to follow a 90-degree grid. This is a technical limitation, but you can place as many individual cubes as you like to work around this.
Anyway, that's all for this update!
It's great to have another one of the old legacy features finally built into a tool that everyone can use, this means I am one step closer to making a full-on remaster of the "top of the south" layout using modern editing tools!
Lots and lots of updates are on the way, and plenty of stuff to look forward to! In fact there may even be a big competition/jam just around the corner *wink* *wink*
Enjoy!