RapidRail
A fully customisable solution for adding stunning 3D visuals to any railway simulation.
The ‘view from the cab’ is critical when major changes to rail procedures are made – like those underway with the implementation of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). With RapidRail you see exactly what the driver would see in these changed conditions – from stations, signals, signage, and overhead electrification, to weather effects, lighting effects, and night-driving views – ensuring enhancements never become hazards.
For railway operators, infrastructure managers and research institutes using railway simulators, RapidRail can be added to your existing suite of railway simulation tools to provide that all-important 3D view as seen by the driver, or to provide a birds-eye view of your railway infrastructure to help communicate key messages and engage stakeholders or to provide an immersive training capability.
For railway simulation providers, RapidRail can interface with your simulation, reading in train positions and infrastructure state information to provide users with a real-time visual representation of exactly what is happening in the simulation, opening up new use cases, dramatically improving communication and adding value to the simulation.
Features and Benefits of RapidRail
Features:
Stunning realism. Using technology developed in the games industry, RapidRail provides users with an immersive visual experience ensuring that the details and visual cues needed to understand behaviour, train your teams and de-risk infrastructure changes are front and centre.
Create new 3D environments in minutes. Using the RapidRail Environment Editor you can create or import track data and build great looking environments in a matter of minutes. Where geo-specific details are needed, for example the accurate positioning of signals, recognisable station models or the addition of landmarks and key features, the RapidRail Environment Editor has the tools you need.
Rapidly visualise and compare different scheme plans. RapidRail can read and visualise data defining signalling scheme plans (i.e. locations of marker boards, signals, balises, axle counters etc.) from simulators, databases or text files, enabling users to quickly compare results .
Runs on standard Off-The-Shelf PC hardware. RapidRail is designed to run on readily available and inexpensive gaming PCs running Microsoft Windows 10 or later.
Optional Cloud Deployment. To make RapidRail accessible to anyone anywhere, without needing to invest in new hardware, we also offer the option for users to access RapidRail in the cloud.
Accurate. 3D Virtual Environments can be built using existing geographical and infrastructure data, ensuring that the track corridor that you see is a 1-to-1 replica of the real world, or perhaps the new vision for the real world.
Customisable. RapidRail has been designed so we can easily integrate it with new railway simulators and 3D asset packs can be developed or expanded to enable you to build environments representing your specific area of interest.
RapidRail can be used to support:
ERTMS Planning – There are several excellent railway simulation packages that enable the simulation of the new European Rail Traffic management System (ERTMS). RapidRail works with these simulators to enable teams to experience operating with ERTMS, to try out concepts, understand the impact on drivers and signallers, validate assumptions, optimise the railway and reduce risk.
Infrastructure Design – RapidRail enables stakeholders to experience driving a route with new proposed infrastructure. This enables you to collect feedback at the right time, assumptions can be validated, and risks managed ensuring that improvements don’t become hazards, for example ensuring that signals can be easily seen and understood.
Training – RapidRail can support the training of drivers, signallers and other key members of the team by providing the essential “Cab View”. RapidRail can also support training by simulating CCTV views that would be available to controllers in the real world.
Optimisation – Compare different timetable scenarios is an intuitive visual way where stakeholders can immediately see what is happening, identify bottlenecks and suggest solutions.
RapidRail comprises two separate applications:
RapidRail Cab View
Designed to be easily integrated with any rail simulation, the RapidRail Cab View reads:
– train speed and position
– railway asset states (e.g. current states of all signals)
– weather, time of day and other information such as numbers of passengers on platforms, as required
– positions of marker boards, balises, signals, and other scheme assets, as required
from your train simulation at runtime. This enables the RapidRail Cab View to present a view out of the window that replicates exactly what the driver would see, based on the live state of your simulation.
If you don’t need the ability to create and edit the virtual environment, we can set up the environment model for you and can provide the RapidRail Cab View as a relatively low-cost way of generating that driver’s eye view.
RapidRail Environment Editor
If you need the power to create or modify your own 3D railway environments for use with the RapidRail Cab View, the RapidRail Environment Editor is what you need. The RapidRail Environment Editor enables you to create new Virtual 3D rail environment based on GIS data or existing network data and enables your to make changes to existing 3D environments. Whether you are creating a new environment for driver familiarisation, or trying our different infrastructure configurations, the RapidRail Environment Editor gives you the power to do what you need. In combination with the RapidRail Cab View, it provides a complete solution for generating and visualising railway environments.
Interested to explore how RapidRail can help you train your team, de-risk your project, support your research or provide a visual front-end to your simulator?
Fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch.