Factorio Forums

TL;DR
Elevated rails become see-through and non-existant to the cursor with a toggle.
What?

A view mode that essentially lets us ignore elevated rails so that when we place buildings or click drag to copy-paste or deconstruct things, elevated rails and supports are ignored. Something that could be easily toggled on and off like alt-view.

Why?
When design factories under elevated rails, it can be hard to see what's going on and there is also the risk of accidentally messing with the rails, causing issues with the train network. For instance, if I'm designing a factory around elevated rails and need to deconstruct a specific entity, but it's completely blocked by the elevated rails, I have to deconstruct the rails to do so, and then put the rails back on, which could lead to potential problems.

Also, in general, would be a nice QoL to be able to see things underneath the rails so they're not as obstructed.

i second this.
in places like this, its really hard to see or change things if there are elevated rails on top
maybe a solution like rollercoaster-tycoon where you could make the rides transparent but still see a hint of them would be a good idea:

Yes, I would love this, too. It's easy enough to just not build under an elevated rail if it's already there. But for me the main benefit of elevated rails is that I can run them through my existing base, which is convenient and looks awesome. But by definition I end up with a bunch of stuff directly underneath the rails.

Stupid me ran my elevated rails next to normal rails (for fun, no real reason), and now trying to add signals or connect to one of the two rail lines is a nightmare...

Perhaps alt-mode can be extended to make them translucent or something like ghosts (but a different colour)?

IsaacOscar wrote: Tue Nov 19, 2024 3:01 pm Perhaps alt-mode can be extended to make them translucent or something like ghosts (but a different colour)?

Maybe the "toggle rail layer" hotkey could keep its current function when we have a rail in hand, but hide/show the elevated rails otherwise.

Hi, recently I got into building a lot of rail intersections with the new elevated rails. I love the new posibilities, but i feel like there's a big issue with trying to build underneath the elevated rails, signaling is the issue to be exact.

Like on this picture of an actual intersection i built - there's a rail signal right under the elevated curved rails, I'm trying to mine it, but at this orientation i cannot. I need to break the elavated rails first (destroying all signals attached in the process), then do whatever i need to do, rebuild it back.
Sure i can copy it all before destroying and paste it back, but i think that's kinda cumbersome and a better solution should be available.

So my proposal: a toggleable mode (similar to how alt-mode works) for elevated rail transparency.
When turned off, we get just the normal view like what we have now.
When turned on, all elevated rails in view get semi transparent (not fully transparent, you still want to see the elevated rails for context) and become non-interactable. That way you can signal everything underneath with ease, just with the press of a button.

Also as it might be only useful for signaling, maybe make it switchable only when holding a signal, and also turn off automatically when not holding a signal? I'm just thinking out loud here, you guys are smart and can figure it out!

Anyways that's it, thanks for reading. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would really welcome this feature as it has been really annoying to signal intersections without this feature.
Thanks to everyone at Wube for your hard work with Space Age, keep doing what you're doing!

+1 I'd definitely use a toggle, to make elevated rails transparent or opaque. (Same for other tall structures, like rail ramps, and tall electric poles.)

While I heartily agree that we need the ability to toggle the elevated rails, you can work around it in situations like this by using a deconstruction planner with an appropriate filter set.

It's not ideal, but it will at least let you get at stuff under the rails without deconstructing the rails first.

Nemoricus wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2024 2:06 am While I heartily agree that we need the ability to toggle the elevated rails, you can work around it in situations like this by using a deconstruction planner with an appropriate filter set.

It's not ideal, but it will at least let you get at stuff under the rails without deconstructing the rails first.

Yep, that totally works for deconstructing (actually i already use that a lot ), but it doesn't fix the issue of building signals. You might be able to place them underneath, but the visual clutter of all the signal placement locations on the elevated rails make it difficult to actually be sure i placed it in the right location. If the placement locations got disabled and el. rails got transparent, I can imagine it would be MUCH easier.

This is a duplicate of 122046

Nemoricus wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2024 2:06 am While I heartily agree that we need the ability to toggle the elevated rails, you can work around it in situations like this by using a deconstruction planner with an appropriate filter set.

It's not ideal, but it will at least let you get at stuff under the rails without deconstructing the rails first.

Not if you don't remember what's under the rail, of it what's under the rails is exactly the same as what's above the rail, which is the case when you have parallel rails running elevated and on the ground, at certain angles the signals line up exactly and end up being exactly one on top of of each other.

TL;DR

Add an option to Hide/show elevated rails from view.

What?

Include a simple keyboard command, or a togglable button on the UI that would hide/show the elevated rails. (Or maybe make then translucent). The idea here, would be to add a way to build / deconstruct things that are placed underneath the elevated rails without removing the rails themselves. While elevated rails are hidden, they should not be removable by right-clicking or deconstructed using a deconstruction planner.

Why?

Elevated Rails are a fantastic new addition to the game. But they are often in the way, both visually and mechanically, when you have to work underneath them.

I'm guessing that factorio is a 2.5D game, (similar to NWN)
you can't see under elevated train tracks... if you could add a circle like NWN has for seeing through second story tiles (trees, buildings... --rail roads---) it would be great.. hard to see your train signals and chests and belts under a railroad.. This circle of visibility allows you to see things around your character even if something is on the 2nd layer