msts-trains Transparent Driver Aids

transparent driver aids

For me, fully transparent driver aids have always been hard to read over certain backgrounds. TV news stations routinely place text over a semi-transparent black screen and it is highly readable, yet the background still shows through, albeit muted. Taking a cue from this technique, I created these semi-transparent driver aids for these 4 commonly-used aid windows: Track Monitor (F4), Switch (F8), Next Station (F10), and the Controls & Gauges Display (F3).

These new aids give you a hint of the background whizzing by yet display the information clearly on any background. Selected information is accented in bold, colored text, drawing your eye to the important text items. As an additional (5th) update, the Heads Up Display (F5) is now accented in bold text for easier reading. Each driver aid change can be installed separately. These new driver aids are available on the train-sim.com site. Search for the file trans_da.zip.

Semi-Transparent Driver Aids

I felt it unnecessary to make the Notebook (F11) and the Train Operations (F9) aids semi-transparent. Use of the Notebook halts TrainSim when it is displayed, making transparency irrelevant, and the Train Operations aid is probably best left alone as an opaque window.

I always found the Heads Up Display (F5) hard to read, especially on my CRT monitor. Making the text bold seems to help quite a bit. It seems to be less of a problem when using an LCD flat panel monitor.

I have not discovered if it is possible to make the siding/platform text bold, or the compass text.