Every vehicle in Transport Fever 3 can be watched from the driver’s seat instead of the usual overhead view. The camera drops to eye height at the front of the vehicle and rides along as it follows its line. You cannot steer or speed anything up from here, but you can turn to look around and sound the horn while the game runs.
Quick answer: Click a vehicle on the map to open its window, then click the small film-camera icon in the lower-left corner of the live preview at the top. Press Space to unpause and ride; press Esc to leave.
Enter the cockpit view
The camera button lives inside the vehicle’s own window, so you need a vehicle selected before anything happens. The steps work whether the game is paused or running.
The camera control is part of the small preview near the top of the window, not the button row along its bottom edge. The map-pin near the top, labeled “Locate”, only shifts the overhead camera to the vehicle.
Controls inside the cockpit
Turning the view is done with the keyboard, not the mouse. Moving the mouse does nothing, and the wheel does nothing either. A single click of any mouse button leaves the cockpit, so avoid clicking while you ride.
| Input | What it does |
|---|---|
| A | Turns the view to the left |
| D | Turns the view to the right |
| W | Moves the viewpoint forward along the vehicle |
| S | Moves the viewpoint backward along the vehicle |
| H | Sounds the horn |
| Space | Pauses and unpauses the game |
| Esc | Leaves the cockpit |
| Left or right click | Also leaves the cockpit |
The viewpoint remains in the direction you turn it rather than swinging back by itself. Hold S for a second to pull back until the horses and wagon’s front occupy the lower half of the screen. Zooming is unavailable, and you cannot change the vehicle’s speed or steer it; it continues along its line.
Set the game speed before entering cockpit view, since the speed controls disappear with the rest of the interface.
What the cockpit view shows
The whole interface is hidden in cockpit mode. There is no bottom bar, no account balance, no date and no windows. Three small readouts stay on screen while you ride:
- At the lower-left, the cargo icon appears beside the current load, such as 0/6.
- At bottom centre, the display gives the line name and upcoming stop, such as “Line 1” and “Heading for The Grove”.
- The lower-right corner displays the current speed, such as 20 km/h.
Above the speed reading are two key prompts: “H Trigger Horn” and “Esc Exit”. They fade after about five seconds, but both keys remain usable once the prompts are gone.
Leave the cockpit and return to the map
Press Esc to exit cockpit view. The camera moves to a new position just outside and close to the vehicle, then tracks it as it drives instead of returning to its previous spot. The vehicle window and bottom bar reappear.
When the camera is following the vehicle from outside, the lower-right displays “Esc Back”. Press Esc once more to close the vehicle window and return full control to yourself. The pause state carries over from the cockpit, so a game that was running continues to run.
Other ways to open a vehicle’s window
Clicking the vehicle in the world is the quickest way to reach the camera button, but the same window can be opened from two other places:
- Press F8 to open the statistics list, switch to the Vehicles tab, and click a row. Its starting pin moves the camera to the vehicle; clicking the name opens its window.
- In the Line Manager, select a line and pick one of its vehicles from the middle part of the window.
Riding along changes nothing in the simulation itself. It is purely a camera, confirmed the moment the screen fills with the road ahead and the overhead interface drops away. When you are done sightseeing, two taps of Esc put everything back exactly as it was.
