10th May 2003
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Website Updates
Firstly, apologies for the complete lack of updates,
progress reports and news, and also an apology to people who have e-mailed me but
not received a reply over the past few weeks, feel free to contact me again and
I'll endeavour to respond. As you'll see the website design has been revised and
it's appearance updated, I hope you like the more sophisticated look! The
Links page has also been updated with some new links.
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Announcing Birmingham Cross-City South
v1.2
No part of this
file, video or audio, may be reproduced or extracted without permission.
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Announcing the version 1.2 upgrade for
the Birmingham Cross-City South with new High Detail XP routes, together with a
completely revamped class 323 EMU by myself and Steve Green.
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Cross-City North and Watford Junction to Milton Keynes
v2 aren't going to be ready for a while, therefore I'm working on an upgrade to
the Cross-City South which will help to make up for the delay in completing my other
route projects. All detail levels feature the semi-functional
AWS system, new fully authentic flange and track sounds,
updated Winter routes and new
Autumn routes featuring superb new tree textures by
Simon Gathercole, Autumn and Summer rain,
together with new 323 wheelslip effects which frequent
travellers of the real Cross-City will be familiar with. Photo-realistic
skies are featured, the anti-flange squeal sprinkler
system installed at Barnt Green is modelled in both the on and off states
with track and flange sounds varied accordingly, and new track
objects and textures are included, featuring new sleeper and higher resolution
ballast textures, along with textured railheads as
featured in WJ-MKC v2. Additional lineside features
such as foot crossings and signs now also feature, as well as my "alpha bridge
shadow" technique which is applied to overbridges along the route.
The new High Detail XP routes
boast an enhanced and sophisticated catenary system,
more lineside details such as pylons, some additional buildings
and added station details, 2000m radius curved track objects, and completely
new custom built detailed pointwork. More information
on the High Detail XP routes can be found below.
You can download a 7.6MB preview video showing off some
of these new visuals and sounds. Don't forget to turn the volume up during playback!
:) The video demonstrates the new "High Detail XP" routes - the normal
"High Detail 9x" routes for Windows 9x (i.e. the same "high detail"
route files BVE users are familiar with in my existing routes) will not look quite
as detailed - please see the Screenshots
page for a comparison.
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Credits:
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Simon Gathercole - Autumn
and Winter tree textures
Steve Green [www.trainsimcentral.co.uk] - Class 150 objects
Simon Townsend - RES textures
on MK1 coaches and GUV's
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Note: If you don't wish to download the video, a collection
of screenshots (from within BVE and from within the Track Viewer) is available.
These don't all show the same locations as the video.
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The biggest step forward lies with the new Cross-City
South v1.2 High Detail XP routes, which use more than
256 Free Objects so they are only compatible with the latest version 2.5 of Mackoy's superb BVE simulator (High Detail 9x and lower remain
BVE 2.4 and earlier compatible). The High Detail XP routes boast an
upgraded catenary system with finer scale wires,
sophisticated return conductor system, cable interconnects
between booster transformers and catenary wires, textured masts
giving a 3D appearance, mast identification plates, and concrete
bases. Also modelled are catenary anchor spans,
and a wider variety of OHLE supports are included.
The High Detail XP routes
also include additional lineside details, in the form
of pylons and transmission wires, and best of all,
completely new and custom built pointwork made by myself,
designed to fit the unique track geometry of the Cross-City South, with details
including guard rails, correctly set
point blades, tie bars,
frogs, and of course electric and clamp-lock point machines. The pointwork
objects at the station throat of Birmingham's New Street station must be amongst
the most complex individual track objects designed for BVE to date. :)
I have also been upgrading the
class 323 25kV AC EMU, with help from Steve Green. The new class 323 package will include a revamped
cab view featuring a night-time panel with authentic back-lit
gauges thanks to cab photos by Steve, and I have created
three new passenger views - daytime standing, night-time standing and night-time
seated. Cab and passenger view varients feature revamped sound
sets, including fully authentic jointed rail and continuous welded rail
sounds, with the rail joint sounds calibrated to occur every
60 feet within BVE. Cab and Passenger views both use different run sound
sets tailored to where you are located within the coach.
High speed and low speed flange sounds are included
which are supported in the route files, and new door and horn sounds are featured
along with more realistic 3-phase AC motor acceleration sounds.
Please note, the High Detail XP routes will only
perform well with BVE when running under Windows XP or 2000, on a PC with
a ~1GHz processor or faster and a decent graphics card such as the nVIDIA GeForce
range or ATi Radeon (the Voodoo5 has been shown to work well with 3Dfx's own Windows
2000 drivers). Attempting to run High Detail XP route files in BVE under Windows
9x or ME may not be a pleasant experience - Windows 9x or ME users will probably
have to stick with the traditional High Detail (9x) route files.
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BVE Developer Guidelines Revised
I have revised the BVE Developer Guidelines after recent consultation with a number
of Western BVE developers, and the new guidelines are now published. The revised
guidelines take into account not only freeware developers who wish to retain rights
over their work and how it is re-used by other people, but also those who prefer
to release their work as open source, freely modifiable, or under the terms laid
out by the Route Builder Object Library Licence, with the support of the developers
of the excellent RouteBuilder
program. The guidelines are now more flexible to encourage these differing methods
of release, but one important message still remains - if a developer has chosen
to retain rights over their work and copyrighted any of their material, then the
developer does reserve the right to do this if they so choose, and the final decision
a developer takes should be respected - this is what will help to encourage developers
to carry on developing after all, which is in the Western BVE communities interests!
You can visit the new BVE Developer Guidelines page here, and if you agree with
the guidelines and the idea of respecting a developer's wishes, whether they release
work as freeware with copyright restrictions, or as open source, etc, then please
feel free to add your support to the guidelines that a number of innovative and
valuable Western BVE developers already support, when developing your own BVE add-ons.
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Plans for BVE Object Collection
I've decided to include my own seperate collection of
BVE objects here at Rail Sim Routes UK. The collection is currently under construction,
but when it's ready you'll be able to download the objects and use them without
my permission being required so long as I'm credited for them. Unlike my existing
objects which have been designed to be used in the circumstances specific to my
own routes (such as the removal of one side of an object to improve performance),
these objects will offer more flexibility in how they can be used. The only condition
on the use of these objects will be the requirement to credit me if you use them.
Please note, if you want to use objects or files from
within my route downloads, my permission is still required!
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Other Project Updates
Now for a quick report on the progress of my other route
projects, the Birmingham Cross-City North
and Watford Junction to Milton Keynes v2.
Cross-City North is still quite a way from being finished
I'm afraid, however all trackwork is completed, all overhead electrification up
to High Detail XP standards is complete, and the majority of route sounds, basic
station infrastructure, major civil engineering features such as bridges and tunnels
are also complete. This is nowhere near complete enough for me though. :) The remaining
tasks are still major undertakings, namely the construction of Cross-City North
specific lineside buildings, and new scenery designed for the Cross-City North.
Then there are the detail levels and time of day/weather variations to do as well!
Watford Junction to Milton Keynes v2 is relatively advanced,
but only the High Detail XP routes are largely completed - the High Detail 9x and
lower detail routes have yet to be finalised, pending experiments which aim to find
the right balance between acceptable detail on different hardware platforms; a task
made considerably harder due to the higher quality track and scenery - it should
be remembered that the original WJ-MKC v1.x, despite it's now dated appearance,
was behind the scenes almost as detailed and complex as was feasible where performance
is concerned, for a route of that length and scope. The new additions to the Cross-City
South v1.2 High Detail XP routes are derived from the ideas implemented in WJ-MKC
v2, so the XCS v1.2 High Detail XP routes will effectively act as a "testbed"
for many of the ideas implemented in WJ-MKC v2, and any feedback concerning X-City
South v1.2 will be used in the further development of Watford Junction to Milton
Keynes v2.
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Well over 200,000 unique visitors!
Finally, I'm delighted that despite the lack of updates
on the site recently, so many of you are still visiting the site - seeing the counter
now clock up over 211,000 unique visitors gives some
great motivation to carry on developing. Thank you to everyone whose visited the
site and taken an interest in the work I'm doing for BVE!
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18th January 2003
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BVE UK Train Collection back on-line
The BVE UK Train Collection
website is now available again at it's usual URL [www.bvetrains.co.uk], and full service has been resumed. Thank
you to everyone for your patience while the site was unavailable, and for making
good use of the mirror site which was setup during the outage.
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14th January 2003
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BVE UK Train Collection website outage,
and temporary solution
Unfortunately the BVE UK Train
Collection website is not available at it's usual URL [www.bvetrains.co.uk] at present. It is hoped that normal service
will be resumed shortly, however a temporary backup site has been uploaded for the
duration of the outage. You can find the temporary site at http://www.bvetrains.fsnet.co.uk.
Many train downloads are available on the temporary site,
however there are some downloads which are not available yet - this will hopefully
be resolved shortly.
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18th November 2002 [Updated 21:55]
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Robert Glass' Scotrailsim updated
with fresh new look, superb route previews, and useful information for BVE users
and developers
Robert Glass has just relaunched his superb Scottish Rail Sim Files website, with two new sections added
which will be of great interest to BVE users and developers alike. Firstly there's
the new Scotrailsim Gallery, where you'll find some
mouthwatering screenshots showing off Phase 1 of the Sandymill
to Invermay Electricfication project which Robert and myself have been working
on, showing off Robert's superb range of enhanced train and scenery objects and
textures, amongst other new route developments; as well as the overhead line equipment
and updated BR signalling I've installed along the route.
Scotrailsim now includes an extensive set of pages explaining
and discussing a variety of aspects about BVE and the tools required to develop
add-ons for the sim, in the new About section. If you
want to learn more about the various tools BVE developers use, such as Mackoy's
Track Viewer or Structure Viewer,
then this guide is a must read - and if you're a BVE user wishing to explore different
ways of enjoying BVE, the guide will be invaluable.
Head over to Robert's Scotrailsim site to see all the
new developments, via this new URL: www.scotrailsim.co.uk
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Steve Green releases Desert Route
version 3
Steve Green, together with Robert Raymond (Bluevoss on
the CroTrainz forums), have released their amazing Desert Route v3 over at Steve's
Train Sim Central.
This huge update sees the route upgraded with smooth curves, new signalling, extremely
realistic passing train objects, and a variety of route files including new night
runs. Also included is the superb Southern Pacific GS-4 steam loco. The route also
includes a fantastic signal randomiser program by Bluevoss, which allows varied
signalling patterns to be enjoyed.
Head over to Train Sim Central for the new routes, utility
and trains: www.trainsimcentral.co.uk
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14th November 2002
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New screenshots of X-City North and
Watford Junction v2
There are some new screenshots showing off my two work
in progress routes, available exclusively at Alan Lee's superb www.jubileeline.org.uk website. The screenshots of Watford
Junction to Milton Keynes version 2 demonstrate the enhanced catenary installed
in the route, as well as the new Dawn and Winter routes - all captured using Mackoy's Track Viewer utility. Likewise, the Cross-City North
screenshots show off some of the early details which are being built into the route,
such as detailed catenary, stations and buildings.
To see these new screenshots, please visit Alan's www.jubileeline.org.uk
site, or to find out more about my routes, see my projects
page.
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New mainline signals and signs guide
launched
Staying at the Jubilee Line website, both myself and Steve Green have suplied
some images of UK signs and signals for Alan Lee's superb new guide to signalling
and trackside signs seen on the UK rail network, and this will be invaluable to
those using UK routes routes (such as the Cross-City and Watford Junction to Milton
Keynes Central), as many of these real-life signs and signals are used in UK BVE
routes. If you've seen a sign or signal in a UK based route and don't know what
it means, Alan's Mainline
Signals and Signs Guide will be of great use!
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Updated class 318 by David White
David White has updated his class 318 25kV AC EMU, with
some fantastic new sounds, and an amazing cab rendered entirely in 3D! Visit David's
BVE in Glasgow
website to download the latest masterpiece from his growing collection of superb
BVE trains.
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6th November 2002
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Major updates for the class 310 EMU
by Steve Green and myself
An all new version of the class 310 by Steve Green [www.trainsimcentral.co.uk]
and myself, has just been released. The unit includes a new full-height and realistic
cab, improved sounds, and improved handling characteristics. Steve has also joined
Robert Glass [www.scotrailsim.co.uk]
and myself at the BVE UK Train Collection website, making his excellent trains available
via the collection, so please head over to the BVE UK Train Collection website to download this new unit for
BVE. Both Steve and myself hope you enjoy the class 310, and the convenience of
having a single source for all our trains!
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New class 311 by David White
David White, who has built some amazingly realistic scottish
EMU's for BVE, has released his latest masterpiece - the Cravens class 311 25kV
AC EMU. This unit features a superb photo-realistic cab, and the sounds are simply
outstanding! Head on over to David's BVE in Glasgow website to download this superb BVE unit.
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23rd October 2002
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Major updates to the BVE UK Train
Collection website
The BVE UK Train Collection website jointly founded by
myself and Robert Glass [Scottish
Rail Sim Files] has undergone a huge redesign,
and can now be accessed via a new domain name - www.bvetrains.co.uk. Both Robert and myself hope visitors will
like the new layout, expanded information about each BVE train, and the ability
to browse the site without having to remember long URL's, and without being pestered
by pop-up adverts which may have appeared recently, depending on what URL you were
using to access the site previously. Enjoy!
Also coming soon to the BVE UK Train Collection, is the Freightliner Class 66/5
diesel-electric locomotive, being developed by Shaun Myers.
This loco will feature superb sounds, excellent performance characteristics designed
exclusively for the latest version of BVE, and a realistic cab created by myself.
Keep an eye on the new BVE UK
Train Collection site for more details!
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New customised trains by Wulf
There are also three new enhanced
trains available to download from the BVE UK Train Collection, in the form of 87025 "County
of Cheshire", 37906 "Slug 6", and 55019 "Royal Highland Fusileer".
These are customised versions of the existing "generic" locos which myself
and Paul Robins originally built, which have had their sounds and performance tweaked
in an effort to replicate the individual characteristics of the real life locos.
These enhancements have been worked on by Wulf, [http://www.zodiac-infosystems.co.uk/rail/bve], and add a touch
of variety and realism to the BVE driving experience. Head on over to the new Locomotives section of the BVE UK Train Collection, and using the new menu system click
the relevant Loco Class buttons, and then the specific loco sub-menu button to download
these new locos. (Note: You can also download the locos from Wulf's Saxon Loco Works site).
Once you've installed the new locos, don't forget to
navigate to your 'BVE\Trains\' folder and read the
various text files within the new train folders, which outline things to look out
for when driving the locos, and for details about the improvements they include.
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New BVE in Glasgow site from David
White
David White, developer of stunningly realistic and atmospheric
Scottish EMUs for BVE, has launched his new website - BVE in Glasgow. The new site is much expanded, and here you
can find all of David's 25kV AC EMU's including the 314, 318, and shortly the amazing
class 311. You can also find a collection of superb sound samples. Visit the new
site here:
BVE in Glasgow
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New Czech BVE site with amazing work
on display
This news item may not cover the UK railways, but I have
to mention this new site from my good friend Gyzma, who is developing some wonderfully
detailed, accurate and photo-realistic objects and work for BVE. My own routes are
well known for the attention to detail especially where my catenary is concerned,
and Gyzma's work which includes catenary shows some superb attention to detail and
technical accuracy, which combined with the superb buildings and train objects will
make his BVE add-ons amongst the best! You can see Gyzma's BVE site here: http://www.bve.wz.cz/
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20th September 2002
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New route screenshots from Mackoy's
Track Viewer
Following on from the release of Mackoy's Track Viewer
utility, I've uploaded some new screenshots of the Birmingham
Cross-City North, Cross-City South and Watford Junction to Milton Keynes version
2. These screenshots are displayed in the form of galleries within each
Route Section of the site, but you can see them directly using these links:
Watford
Junction to Milton Keynes v2 Track Viewer Gallery
Includes some new shots
Cross-City North Track Viewer Gallery Early preview!
(Work in progress, scenery on display is not finished yet!)
Cross-City South Track Viewer Gallery
Includes new scenes
More updates on Watford to Milton Keynes v2 and Cross-City
North will follow soon...
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15th September 2002
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Recent lack of site updates, and poor
e-mail response times
Firstly, apologies for the lack of updates to this site,
and also for any lack of replies to e-mails over the past month or two. This has
been due to myself having a break from BVE development and also where possible,
a break from the upkeep of the site. If you have any unanswered e-mails which are
important, please get in touch again so I can respond!
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BVE UK Train Collection website outage,
and temporary solution
Unfortunately the BVE UK Train
Collection website is not available at it's usual URL [www.bvetrains.co.uk] at present. It is hoped that normal service
will be resumed shortly, however a temporary backup site has been uploaded for the
duration of the outage. You can find the temporary site at http://www.bvetrains.fsnet.co.uk.
Many train downloads are available on the temporary site,
however there are some downloads which are not available yet - this will hopefully
be resolved shortly.
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Watford Junction to Milton Keynes
Central - Version 2
No part of this
file, video or audio, may be reproduced or extracted without permission.
Screenshots
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Announcing Watford Junction to Milton Keynes Central,
version 2 - a complete re-write of the original, coded in CSV format with BVE signalling,
enhanced scenery, highly accurate catenary and other new features.
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In it's day, Watford to Milton Keynes was a good route,
however it now looks dated compared to more recent routes, not least my own Birmingham
X-City. Therefore the route is being upgraded with a variety of new features, and
enhancements to existing features. An interesting experiment is being conducted,
relating to how complex BVE routes perform under Windows XP compared to Windows
9x, and the results so far have led to a new detail level being introduced!
You can download a 5.8MB preview video showing off some
of these new features. Please note, the video demonstrates the new "High Detail
XP" routes - the normal "High Detail" routes for Windows 9x (i.e.
the same "high detail" route files BVE users are familiar with in my existing
routes) will not look quite as detailed.
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Credits:
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Simon Gathercole - Winter
tree textures, and enhancements to my own Summer tree textures
Steve Green [www.trainsimcentral.co.uk] - Class 304 objects
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Note: If you don't wish to download the video, a small
collection of screenshots is available. These do not all show the same locations
as the video.
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Pending further verification of performance under
Windows XP, the route is being updated with the following feature list:
- Introducing a new detail level - "High Detail
XP". Under the Windows XP operating system, experiments with 1GHz Athlon and
GeForce cards indicate the old problem of BVE stuttering or pausing when complex
objects are loaded is considerably reduced, allowing the "High Detail XP"
routes to feature more detailed objects. With this detail level for example, the
bitmaps currently used to represent lengths of overhead wiring have been replaced
with true 3D models without any stuttering or framerate loss occuring within BVE.
So far, overhead wire objects with up to 600 vertices have worked without incident!
The final route will include wire objects with fewer vertices however. For the XP
user, this means the "High Detail XP" routes will offer higher quality
catenary, more trees, and more richly detailed scenery.
- All new track objects and textures, with realistic
3D rails and British outline sleepers. Also includes higher resolution ballast textures.
- Adjusted curve radii to aid realism at higher speeds.
The cant has also been adjusted on many curves to increase realism.
- Smooth curves throughout, including pointwork with
point motors as in the Cross-City South.
- More rich scenery, with many more trees** and refined
textures. All new Winter tree bitmaps are provided, courtesy of the very talented
Simon Gathercole. These new textures enhance the Winter routes considerably! Simon
has also improved the appearance of the Summer tree textures.
- New Winter textures, with much better looking snow
lying on the track.
- New MkI catenary system, as good as if not better
than the catenary included with the Cross-City South**. Includes 3D effect registration
arms, true zig-zagging of wires throughout the route, "point to point"
wiring, truly accurate overlaps, and booster transformer gantries.
- Catenary and overhead wires upgraded to WCML PUG1
standards
- Previously missing and incorrect bridges have been
added or corrected.
- Full conversion to CSV format, complete with proper
BVE signalling, making use of .Pretrain commands.
- "TPWS Ready".
- Updated passing trains sounds, with some new samples
added.
- New Dawn and Night variations.
** Only the "High Detail XP" routes, designed
for BVE running under Windows XP, feature the maximum number of trees, and the highest
level of catenary detail. The "normal" Windows 9x High Detail routes will
feature less detail to ensure acceptable performance. Exactly which details will
be included, and what level of complexity they will retain, hasn't been decided
yet - this will depend entirely on how well the routes perform under Windows 9x
with various details enabled or disabled.
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Amazing new Track Viewer utility from
Mackoy!
Mackoy has just released a truly fantastic utility for
BVE, which will transform the way you look at your favourite routes! The all new
"Track Viewer" program, which allows you to view a BVE route using a freely
moveable camera, will let you to see routes from any angle you wish - simply stunning,
and it shows some great potential for the future of BVE! Also, Mackoy has released
an update to his Structure Viewer program, which allows much finer control over
the viewing of BVE objects than the previous version.
You can find these two gems on
Mackoy's Official BVE
Website. For help with using the new Track Viewer,
please read the this thread on the TrainsimUK/Crotrainz forum.
Screenshot of WJ-MKC v2 using Mackoy's
Track Viewer
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New Rail by Rail Guides for BVE routes,
including WJ-MKC and the Birmingham X-City South
Matt Starkie, well known for his superb "HST Scream"
sound samples in use with Steve Green's HST, has been busy producing some excellent
route guides for BVE. Each guide is in HTML format, and includes the mileages of
signals, landmarks, tunnels, junctions and so-on. Designed to Railtrack standards,
these guides will enhance your BVE route driving experience by allowing far more
realistic route learning to take place, thereby and giving you a greater knowledge
of the routes you're driving. Visit Matt's new Rail by Rail site, to download route guides for several popular
BVE routes. The collection will also expand even further!
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New BVE Help pages launched
Quite a number of e-mails are received here at Rail Sim
Routes UK from newcomers to BVE, who are unsure about what BVE actually is, or who
have trouble finding and downloading the program; therefore I've
launched my own "BVE Information and Help" pages, to guide newcomers
to this site through the downloading and installation of the essential BVE files
required in order to use my own routes, as well as instructions on using different
trains with routes. You can read through the new guide
here.
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Fancy yourself as a respected
BVE developer? How to do it properly!
There has been much debate and argument recently within
the Western BVE community, concerning copyright, use and/or modification of files
without permission, and the problems surrounding these issues. Some of these problems
may well be attributable to a lack of knowledge about how the Western BVE community
works, or through just not realising that free downloads are subject to copyright
just like any other intellectual property. When a route or train developers' work
is taken and used without permission, it shows a lack of respect for that author's
work, and the author's themselves - and this leads to resentment which in totally
unnecessary and avoidable. It also leads to new up and coming BVE developers potentially
landing themselves in hot water because they don't realise that it's both wrong
and unfair to use another person's work without asking or consulting original authors
first.
Therefore, I have launched a new set of guidelines for
new or would be BVE developers, which if followed, will ensure that no existing
developers will be offended through misuse of their work by accident, and will help
new developers to enter the BVE community on the right note. These guidelines have
received the backing of a couple of prominent members of the Western BVE developer
community, and you can read the new guidelines
here.
For responsible
BVE Development
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Birmingham Cross-City North Progress
Despite the break from BVE development, and subsequent
upgrade of WJ-MKC, significant progress on the Cross-City North has been made since
it was announced. Currently, almost all track is laid and finalised. All electrification
work has been completed, although certain aspects need to be re-coded to make more
Freeobj commands available. Around 50% of the scenery is now complete, with trees,
textures and landscaping added in. All bridges encountered along the line have been
finished and added to the route, and work on station buildings has been started.
Such details as mileposts are now included, many of the route's sound effects have
been implemented, and accurate gradients will be implemented next.
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And finally... Over 100,000 unique
visitors to the site!
Last month, the counter clocked up it's 100,000th unique
visitor! Thank you to everyone who has visited the site since it was launched in
2001 as a site purely dedicated to the Watford Junction to Milton Keynes Central
BVE route, with the subsequent transformation into Rail Sim Routes UK with the addition
of BVE trains, the BVETSS homepage, and not least the Birmingham Cross-City series
of routes. Your support is appreciated!
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10th July 2002
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Updates for Classes 220 "Voyager"
and 221 "Super Voyager"
John Owen [http://brsounds.cjb.net] has recorded some excellent new and
realistic engine and door sounds for Ben Martill's Class 220
"Voyager" and Bryan Dudley's class 221 "Super
Voyager", both available from the BVE UK Train Collection. With John's invaluable assistance,
I have also updated the Train.dat files to offer a more realistic playback of the
two DEMU's engine sounds. The two updated trains now sound more realistic, and you
can download these two gems from the
BVE UK Train Collection site.
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Edited at 18:50 -
If you downloaded the Voyager or Super Voyager prior to 18:50 this evening, could
you please download the two files again, as I mistakenly included the wrong sound
samples in both downloads. My sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may
have caused.
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I have also updated the Links
page, you can find a couple of excellent new sites there, including the new Fast E-Rail and Merseyrail Project
sites.
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5th July 2002
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Edinburgh to Dundee
Don Clarke has upgraded his fantastic
Edinburgh to Dundee route and 2x37 locos to
make use of the BVE Track Sound Standard [BVETSS].
New track sounds are added for the under and overbridges along the route, and now
any BVETSS compatible train can be used with Don's Edinburgh to Dundee route, and
you'll still here these new, more relaistic sound effects. Head over to Don's site
[http://gotopcs.net] to download
the latest update to this BVE masterpiece.
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Now In Development: Cross-City North
- Birmingham New Street to Lichfield Trent Valley High Level
Note: Route shown in early stages of development - appearance
will be improved as progress is made
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As visitors may have noticed from the homepage, the site
has now been updated with details about my next forthcoming route for BVE - the
Birmingham Cross-City North from New Street station to Lichfield Trent Valley High Level.
A follow-up to the successful Cross-City South, the highlights of this BVE route
will undoubtably be the complex trackwork around New
Street station, Proof House Junction, and from there
to Aston where the Cross-City North diverges from the Birmingham - Walsall line,
and passes beneath the infamous "Spaghetti Junction".
Complex scenery and lineside features are being included,
like the Lawley Street Freightliner terminal, "Spaghetti Junction", and the multi-level Lichfield Trent Valley station, where the Cross-City line
passes directly above the Low Level platforms on the busy 4 track Trent Valley section
of West Coast Main Line. All new and highly detailed and accurate MkI catenary will
be included, increasing the level of complexity achieved
in the Cross-City South and far surpassing what was achieved with
Watford Junction to Milton Keynes... Visit the new
Cross-City North section of the site for more details, which will be added
to as and when progress is made.
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14th June 2002
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New Class 357 "Electrostar"
EMU
Those who follow the BVE section of the Crotrainz Forum
regularly, will know that a class 357 "Electrostar"
EMU has been in development by ROBsLab for some time.
After much hard work, the class 357 is now completed, and can be downloaded from
the new Unofficial c2c Website - http://www.c2crail.cjb.net/.
The unit features excellent motor sounds, with several
custom sound recordings to make the unit more realistic and a pleasure to drive.
Several WJ-MKC and X-City route files are also available on Rail Sim Routes UK,
for the 357 to run on. They can be found here.
The 357 is also BVETSS compliant, so
the unit can be run on any BVETSS compatible route while having the correct track
sounds retained.
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8th June 2002
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BVETSS Updates on Robert Glass' Scottish
Rail Sim Files
Robert Glasshas just completed
the conversion of his Sandymill to Invermay routes
and Class 158 over to the new BVE Track Sound Standard [BVETSS], which now means that these
BVE add-ons on Robert's site are now fully comptible with the routes and trains
available on this site and Steve's
Train Sim Central. As a result of the BVETSS updates, Robert has added in passing train sound support to Sandymill - Invermay and
the class 158, so please visit Robert's
Scottish Rail Sim Files to download the latest updates, which make these already
excellent BVE add-ons even better!
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James Withers' Class 91 loco and Class
313 EMU
James Withers has very kindly
given me permission to host his ECML Class 91 electric
loco and Class 313 EMU in the
BVE UK Train Collection, as unfortunately James' ECML site [http://www.ecml.freeserve.co.uk] is not available at present.
I've also updated the trains to comply with the BVETSS standard, and these two trains
can be downloaded from the BVE
UK Train Collection. I've also received the go ahead to update the class 91
panel to include a full height variation, which I will undertake shortly.
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5th June 2002
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Class 221 "Super Voyager"
Tilting DEMU, by Bryan Dudley
Bryan Dudley has just completed
a superb new train for BVE, the new Virgin Trains Cross-Country
Class 221 "Super Voyager" 125mph tilting DEMU. Owing to bandwidth
problems at Bryan's Railtech
site, by agreement between Bryan and myself the new Super Voyager is now available
within the BVE UK Train Collection
for all BVE users to enjoy.
The Super Voyager features new
cab lighting effects, and you can see these in effect when the train doors
open or close. The class 221 is a tilting unit, therefore Bryan has also included
clear and detailed instructions on how to easily enable tilt
on routes where the 221 is used, please see "Readme.doc" after installation.
The Super Voyager is BVETSS compliant,
therefore you should download the BVETSS compliant versions of any route if available,
before using the 221. Please see the previous news item dated 5th June for details
on the BVETSS updates within the BVE community, and visit the BVE Track Sound Standard page for more details.
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5th June 2002
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BVE Track Sound Standard
![BVE Track Sound Standard [BVETSS] Compliant - Click for more details](../bvetss/bvetss10.gif)
For some time now, the experience of using main line
BVE trains on routes they weren't specifically designed to run on, has been flawed
in one serious way - the track sounds which are played are often incorrect because
the non-default trains include track sounds configured for running on a "default"
route instead; unfortunately most BVE routes and/or trains don't have their track
sounds configured in the same way, hence the problem.
To try and solve this issue, with the help of Steve Green
[Train Sim Central]
I have formed a new "BVE Track Sound Standard" [BVETSS],
a clearly defined list of preferred track running sounds which main line routes
and trains should use. If and when the BVETSS is widely adopted, then any BVETSS
compliant train will be fully compatible with any BVETSS compliant route, and this
will allow main line routes and trains to be experienced as
their designers intended, regardless of the route and train combination
being run.
Several BVE developers have already
shown support for BVETSS, or have agreed to start creating BVETSS compliant
routes and trains. If you're a BVE route or train developer, why not visit the BVE Track Sound Standard page and consider
adopting the standard for your own BVE add-ons, and display the
BVETSS Compliant GIF's and links to indicate your routes and trains are
compatible with some of the best Western BVE add-ons available? At the same time,
you would be promoting the BVETSS and encouraging others to adopt the standard when
designing BVE add-ons.
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Changes to Downloads on this site
and other BVE Sites
The Watford Junction to Milton
Keynes route, and all the trains available within
the BVE UK Train Collection,
have been updated to take advantage of the new BVE
Track Sound Standard; and as such the relevant files should be downloaded again
to ensure you have the latest BVETSS compliant versions of all these BVE add-ons.
I have also added in the "engine fade in/out effects"
which Steve Green used in his HST and 170, to all the locomotives inlcuded in the
BVE UK Train Collection, to enhance the sounds. Please
note the Birmingham X-City South Route is already BVETSS compliant, and doesn't
need to be downloaded again.
With Watford Junction
to Milton Keynes, the Route Files and
all WJ-MKC add-ons should be downloaded again, and the
Class 87 and 310 should also be re-downloaded. WJ-MKC objects and sounds
need not be downloaded again. To clarify, if you have already have WJ-MKC v1.1 installed,
then you can simply download these following smaller files to make your copy BVETSS
compliant:
WJ-MKC_Routes.exe (357KB)
WJ-MKC_Cl321_Add-on_01.exe (220KB)
WJ-MKC_Dusk-Night_01.exe (46KB)
Don't forget you need the new
Class 87 and
310 as well!
The main line routes and trains available on Steve Green's
Train Sim Central
have been updated to become BVETSS compliant; and the main line routes and trains
on Robert Glass' Scottish Rail
Sim Files are also being updated - and for the first time all the main line
routes and trains on our sites will be fully compatible with each other.
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3rd June 2002
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I've been lucky enough to receive some
excellent digital AWS sound samples from John Owen [http://centralsim.tripod.com], and I'm pleased to announce
that these are freely available for all BVE route developers
to use in their own routes; just remember to credit John for the sounds!
You can find these new samples in the new
BVE Sound Samples section of this site. I have also updated
the Birmingham Cross-City South to
make use of these files, however if you have already downloaded the route you can
download a small patch here:
X-City Digital AWS Patch.
Finally, readers of the BVE section of the CroTrainz forum will be aware of the plans to standardise the
track running sounds on main line BVE routes and trains, in an effort to put an
end to incorrect track sounds being played on non-default route/train combinations;
I will be announcing more details about this initiative hopefully sometime during
the coming week, when at the same time all the route and train downloads on this
site will be updated to comply with the new standards. The plan has already received
more widespread approval, and several BVE route and trains developers are already
in agreement with the idea and prepared to support the initiative. The updates will
also include some enhancements to the sounds of the trains in the
BVE UK Train Collection.
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25th May 2002
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Robert Glass has just released
an excellent update to the class 158 "Express" DMU,
and he has drawn a superb and completely revamped full height, animated panel complete
with moving power/brake handles and headlight status indicators.
John Owen has also supplied some new sounds for the class 158, and as we've
come to expect from John these are excellent, and really add to the realism of driving
the unit. The new class 158 can be downloaded from the Trains section of Scottish Rail Sim Files.
The complete Circle Line by Paul
Jobber has also just been released over at Steve Green's Train Sim Central, and this LUL route is simply stunning. The
quanity and quality of lineside and station details is impressive, and the new full-height,
animated cab found in the updated "C" Stock train combine to make this
a superb route to drive. I'd thoroughly receommend it!
Steve Green has also released a new version of the class 170 "Turbostar" complete with a superb full
height animated cab and more of John Owen's superb sound samples, as well as a great
new class 319 EMU, available in both AC and DC versions
- why not try the AC version of the 319 on my own
Watford Junction to Milton Keynes Central route?
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22nd May 2002
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I'm pleased to announce that Chris
Cooper has finished an update to the Class 303 25kV
AC EMU, and the unit now features brand new authentic
sound samples kindly supplied by John and Peter Douglas, including new
door opening and closing samples, ambient background sounds, and "screeching"
effects when the brakes are applied hard. Chris has also added in a
functional Line Volts indicator light, like that featured on the Class 323.
To see this in effect, you need to press the "/" key while a route using
the 303 is loading, to have the indicator light off when the route starts. When
the brakes are placed in the "EB" position, the light will illuminate.
Please download the new 303 from the BVE UK Train
Collection.
Also keep an eye out for Chris' new Class 90 AC electric
loco, Mk3 DVT (Driving Van Trailer), and an updated Class 325 Dual Voltage Postal
Unit - all coming to the BVE UK Train Collection
in the not too distant future!
I have also updated the Links
page recently, and you can find new links to several BVE and
railway sites.
Finally, I'd like to thank the many people who have already
downloaded the Bimingham Cross-City South,
and especially those who have e-mailed me with your feedback, comments and praise.
I really appreciate this, and it's what makes BVE development so worthwhile. Thank
you for your overwhelming support, and if anyone has any more comments, please feel
free to e-mail me. :o)
Much of the feedback so far, has also revealed that the
hardware requirements I indicated for the route are a little overstated, therefore
if you're concerned that a particular detail level won't function on your machine,
don't be afraid to try the higher detail levels as they do seem to work on even
some lower spec. machines. Much to my suprise!
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Rail Sim Routes UK, 2001-2007.
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