[BVE] BVE FAQ & Help - Please Read!

Derek Kaye · 27th July 2005, 14:30

Moving on from the thread earlier, I have decided to set up this thread to offer help for users. To start with I have included the control keys.

If you wish to add something, please PM one of the moderators.

You may also find Steve Green's guide on Installing BVE useful at http://www.trainsimcentral.co.uk

BVE 2

2 Handle Cab

A Decrease power to neutral

Z Increase power

< Release Brakes to neutral

> Increase Brakes

? Emergency Brake

1 Handle Cab

Q Emergency Brake

A Increase Brake / Decrease Power

Z Decrease Brake / Increase Power

Common Controls

Enter Horn sound 1

Shift+Enter Horn Sound 2

Ctrl+Enter Continuous Horn (e.g. Bell)

Up Arrow Move reverser forwards

Down Arrow Move reverser backwards

Ctrl+F2 Turn safety system off

Shift+F2 Turn Safety system on

F3 Toggle Mr Angry on/off

Shift+F3, Ctrl+F3 Toggle Door/time/framerate information

F4 Open/Close Timetable

Shift+F4 Scroll Timetable up

Ctrl+F4 Scroll Timetable down

Backspace Speed hold (where installed)

Delete Cancel vigilance device (EB)

Insert Stop continuation chime

End Brake release

Page Up Change to ATS

Page Down Change to ATC

Space ATS verify

BVE 4

2 Handle Cab

A Decrease power to neutral

Z Increase power

< Release Brakes to neutral

> Increase Brakes

? Emergency Brake

1 Handle Cab

1 Emergency Brake

Q Increase Brake

A Move handle to neutral (e.g. Decrease power/brake)

Z Increase Power

Common Controls

Enter Horn sound 1

+ Horn Sound 2

- Continuous Horn (e.g. Bell)

Up Arrow Move reverser forwards

Down Arrow Move reverser backwards

F2 Toggle Door/Time/framerate/speed display

F3 Show Timetable

F4 Zoom in on Timetable

F5 Reload route

F6 Open and close doors

F8 Speed up time

F10 Pause

View Controls

All are on the numpad

5 Home

8 Look up

4 Look left

6 Look right

2 Look Down

0 Zoom out

. Zoom in

Mainline trains typical "extra" controls

Not all trains use these, but they are useful to know. These are the standard ones used by TrainSimCentral-built trains, it's likely others will follow suit but check individual readmes if in doubt. Note that London Underground trains use a different set of keys - see below.

Space Toggle DRA

Insert AWS Reset

Delete Vigilance device reset

Home Increase Wiper speed

End Decrease Wiper speed

Page Up TPWS Tempoary Isolation

Page Down TPWS TrainStop Override

(all on number keys above keyboard)

2 Engine Start

3 Engine Stop

4 Toggle Tail Lights

5 Toggle Head Lights

6 Driver/Guard Signal

London Underground typical "extra" controls

PAGE UP Wipers increase speed / on

PAGE DN Wipers decrease speed / off

SPACE Tripcock reset

8 / 9 / 0 "Custom" buttons - you can turn these on and off but they don't actually do anything to the train. They are used to do things like PA buttons, cab lights etc.

Remember all keys can be customised by the user.

For individual extra keys, see the train's documentation - all differ and this is just a guide!

Edit: updated custom keys bit with LU section - TB

Derek Kaye · 30th July 2005, 12:34

BVE Folder Structure

Some People have trouble finding their way around the BVE folders. Both BVE2 and BVE4 have the same folder structure, which is outlined below.

\railway

This folder contains three subfolders, described below.

\railway\route

This folder contains the route files which you click on when you start BVE. They are normally in a folder which has the name of the route.

\railway\object

This folder contains all the object files required by your routes. You will probably find a few files and a load of subfolders which contain the individual files for the route.

\railway\sound

This fodler contains all the sound files required by the route, such as passing train engine noises, crossing noises etc.

\train

This folder contains all the trains which you have installed on your system. an example of a folder name would be Cl323 or BR_Class87 in the route file, the game looks for the folder name to load the train.

A common BVE 4 problem

A problem which often occours with BVE 4 is that a route file installed to BVE4\railway\route will look for a train from BVE4\train when the train is actually installed in BVE\train instead of copying the train over and wasting disk-space, it is advisable to edit the route file to contain something like:

Code:

Before:
Train.Folder Cl323

After:
Train.Folder ..\..\..\BVE\Train\Cl323

Depending on your directory structure, that may need altering slightly to point to your BVE2 folder. An extra 19 bytes is better than an extra 4MB or there abouts!

Derek Kaye · 31st July 2005, 19:28

Useful Links

Links where you can download BVE resources from are listed below

http://www.virtual-rail.co.uk (helpful to source elusive items)
http://www.vince-black.me.cz
http://www.bve-routes.com
http://www.bveroutes-trains.co.uk
http://www.trainsimcentral.co.uk
http://www.railsimroutes.co.uk
http://www.scotrailsim.co.uk
http://www.nwbve.zandreweb.com
http://www.bvetrains.co.uk
http://www.omnieng.co.uk/railspatial
http://www.freewebs.com/dennislance
http://dennislance.zoomshare.com/

Coxster · 10th December 2005, 21:42

As you know, BVE4 only processes .CSV route files but some older routes are in .RW format. Many BVE2 routes work okay in BVE4 (just without all the new features).

How to load a .RW into BVE4:

1. Download the 'BVE Route Randomizer' (BVERR) and configure it for BVE2 usage. It is available from http://trainsimcentral.co.uk/misc.htm

2. Load the desired route with the desired train and exit the simulator.

3. Load BVE4 and select BRRTemp.csv and it will load your desired route and train. Next time you play BVE via BRR, it will overwite this file so you may wish to re-name it to 'RouteName.csv' or something simular.

Coxster · 11th June 2006, 19:18

Here is a list of timetable codes used in the 'Network West Midlands' routes.

Thanks to Steve Green for the explanations!

MA - Maybank
BD - Brookfield
NN - Norton
WL - Wellford
LH - Ludgate Hill

REL - Relieve existing crew.
RELD - Relieved by new crew (usually shows their diagram number so you know who worked the train last).

JL/JU - Join loco/unit.
LL/LU - Leave loco/unit.

AP - Attach portion (couple up).
DP - Detach portion (uncouple).

SB - Short break.
PNB - Personal needs break.

ukneilw · 25th June 2007, 21:41

After 5 months of trial and error, process exploring, and general headaches I am pleased to say I have managed to get BVE working on Vista from a clean install (upgrade installations should work already if you had BVE before.)

Please note if after following these instructions you have a white screen in BVE then the problem is with your graphics card drivers and you should look through the thread for more info. I do not have a solution to this but can tell you that my ATI2600HD works fine as did an older ATI X1300 card which I used to have.

Here's how you do it:

Vista x86 (32 bit)

You need to download 3 files, or if you still have XP copy them across to your Vista installation. Those 3 files are:

dx7vb.dll
dx8vb.dll
d3drm.dll

You can find them on your XP installation under the Windows\System32 directory. The download links are:

http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-.../download.html

http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-.../download.html

http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-.../download.html
Now that you have those 3 files, you need to put them in the Vista system32 directory, this is usually C:\Windows\System32 - best way to do this is to move them using Windows Explorer.
Go to the Start Button, choose All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt. You should get a black window titled "Administrator: Command Prompt" - if not, right click Command Prompt in the start menu and choose "Run as administrator".
In the command window, type in the following (note that <enter> means press the enter key):

cd c:\windows\system32 <enter> (assuming windows is on your C: drive, if not put the correct letter in.)

regsvr32 dx7vb.dll <enter> Click OK on the window that comes up saying dllregserver succeeded

regsvr32 dx8vb.dll <enter> Click OK on the window that comes up saying dllregserver succeeded

exit <enter>

That should be it - give BVE a try.

Vista x64 (64 bit)

Follow the steps above up to and including opening the command prompt. However, instead of copying the files to c:\windows\system32, copy them to c:\windows\syswow64
In the command window, type in the following (note that <enter> means press the enter key):

cd c:\windows\syswow64 <enter> (assuming windows is on your C: drive, if not put the correct letter in.)

regsvr32 dx7vb.dll <enter> Click OK on the window that comes up saying dllregserver succeeded

regsvr32 dx8vb.dll <enter> Click OK on the window that comes up saying dllregserver succeeded

exit <enter>

BVE should now work on Vista x64.

If you get problems after doing this, try turning off UAC as sometimes this helps BVE to run. I wont give detailed instructions how as Microsoft already do that. On your start menu, go to Help and Support and type in "how to disable UAC", choose the how to turn off User Account Control topic and follow the instructions.

If you are interested, the technical reason behind why this did not work out of the box is Microsoft stopped providing backward compatibility for DirectX 7 and DirectX 8 starting with the Vista DirectX 10. The only way around this is to copy the 2 support files across from Vista or download them and register them manually. The d3drm.dll file seems to cause a secondary crash if not present, I have no idea why this is not in Vista.

I tried BVE on NWM on a few runs and it is fine - the only problem I have encountered is that if you run it windowed, the on screen text such as reverser, speed, FPS, etc displays in english with what looks like japanese behind so you can't see it. Running BVE full screen is fine though.

If you still have problems, post them here and I will see if I can help.

Have fun,

Neil

reschanger · 27th August 2007, 23:50

This is version 1.0.0.15 of the Resolution Changer for BVE Trainsim 4.2.1947.25355.
This version comes in English, Italiano (Italian), Deutsch (German), 日本語 (Japanese), 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese) and 繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese) languages.

This tool allows you to change the display resolution in BVE 4 for both window mode and fullscreen mode to anything you want, not just the default 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768. Also, you can enable a new effect: Normally BVE 4 will introduce new parts of the scenery in blocks of 25m, but you can now enable BVE to make the scenery smoothly appear at the horizon.

This is how BVE 4 can look like in mackoy's Keisei Chiba line:

This program is to be distributed in a decentralized fashion. If you want to host it on your website, I would be glad if you did. If you want to modifiy the tool to your needs, the source code is included.

In the attachment you can find the current version to download. Please make sure you read the readme before using the program. Have fun, and please respond.

mbonwick · 21st October 2007, 19:22

Here is the link to the Beginners Guide which I have created. Please post all questions/ comments in the existing thread, which is here

The link to the guide is http://www.trainsimcentral.co.uk/dow...sc/bve4tut.pdf

______

If you are new to the world of BVE, please read this carefully BEFORE posting any support requests.

27th July 2005, 14:30	#1
Derek Kaye Member Join Date: 9 Jun 2005 Location: Loughborough Posts: 188	BVE FAQ & Help - Please Read! Moving on from the thread earlier, I have decided to set up this thread to offer help for users. To start with I have included the control keys. If you wish to add something, please PM one of the moderators. You may also find Steve Green's guide on Installing BVE useful at http://www.trainsimcentral.co.uk BVE 2 2 Handle Cab A Decrease power to neutral Z Increase power < Release Brakes to neutral > Increase Brakes ? Emergency Brake 1 Handle Cab Q Emergency Brake A Increase Brake / Decrease Power Z Decrease Brake / Increase Power Common Controls Enter Horn sound 1 Shift+Enter Horn Sound 2 Ctrl+Enter Continuous Horn (e.g. Bell) Up Arrow Move reverser forwards Down Arrow Move reverser backwards Ctrl+F2 Turn safety system off Shift+F2 Turn Safety system on F3 Toggle Mr Angry on/off Shift+F3, Ctrl+F3 Toggle Door/time/framerate information F4 Open/Close Timetable Shift+F4 Scroll Timetable up Ctrl+F4 Scroll Timetable down Backspace Speed hold (where installed) Delete Cancel vigilance device (EB) Insert Stop continuation chime End Brake release Page Up Change to ATS Page Down Change to ATC Space ATS verify BVE 4 2 Handle Cab A Decrease power to neutral Z Increase power < Release Brakes to neutral > Increase Brakes ? Emergency Brake 1 Handle Cab 1 Emergency Brake Q Increase Brake A Move handle to neutral (e.g. Decrease power/brake) Z Increase Power Common Controls Enter Horn sound 1 + Horn Sound 2 - Continuous Horn (e.g. Bell) Up Arrow Move reverser forwards Down Arrow Move reverser backwards F2 Toggle Door/Time/framerate/speed display F3 Show Timetable F4 Zoom in on Timetable F5 Reload route F6 Open and close doors F8 Speed up time F10 Pause View Controls All are on the numpad 5 Home 8 Look up 4 Look left 6 Look right 2 Look Down 0 Zoom out . Zoom in Mainline trains typical "extra" controls Not all trains use these, but they are useful to know. These are the standard ones used by TrainSimCentral-built trains, it's likely others will follow suit but check individual readmes if in doubt. Note that London Underground trains use a different set of keys - see below. Space Toggle DRA Insert AWS Reset Delete Vigilance device reset Home Increase Wiper speed End Decrease Wiper speed Page Up TPWS Tempoary Isolation Page Down TPWS TrainStop Override (all on number keys above keyboard) 2 Engine Start 3 Engine Stop 4 Toggle Tail Lights 5 Toggle Head Lights 6 Driver/Guard Signal London Underground typical "extra" controls PAGE UP Wipers increase speed / on PAGE DN Wipers decrease speed / off SPACE Tripcock reset 8 / 9 / 0 "Custom" buttons - you can turn these on and off but they don't actually do anything to the train. They are used to do things like PA buttons, cab lights etc. Remember all keys can be customised by the user. *For individual extra keys, see the train's documentation - all differ and this is just a guide!* Edit: updated custom keys bit with LU section - TB Last edited by Jordy; 28th April 2008 at 18:36.

30th July 2005, 12:34	#2
Derek Kaye Member Join Date: 9 Jun 2005 Location: Loughborough Posts: 188	BVE Folder Structure Some People have trouble finding their way around the BVE folders. Both BVE2 and BVE4 have the same folder structure, which is outlined below. \railway This folder contains three subfolders, described below. \railway\route This folder contains the route files which you click on when you start BVE. They are normally in a folder which has the name of the route. \railway\object This folder contains all the object files required by your routes. You will probably find a few files and a load of subfolders which contain the individual files for the route. \railway\sound This fodler contains all the sound files required by the route, such as passing train engine noises, crossing noises etc. \train This folder contains all the trains which you have installed on your system. an example of a folder name would be Cl323 or BR_Class87 in the route file, the game looks for the folder name to load the train. A common BVE 4 problem A problem which often occours with BVE 4 is that a route file installed to BVE4\railway\route will look for a train from BVE4\train when the train is actually installed in BVE\train instead of copying the train over and wasting disk-space, it is advisable to edit the route file to contain something like: Code: Before: Train.Folder Cl323 After: Train.Folder ..\..\..\BVE\Train\Cl323 Depending on your directory structure, that may need altering slightly to point to your BVE2 folder. An extra 19 bytes is better than an extra 4MB or there abouts!

31st July 2005, 19:28	#3
Derek Kaye Member Join Date: 9 Jun 2005 Location: Loughborough Posts: 188	Useful Links Links where you can download BVE resources from are listed below http://www.virtual-rail.co.uk (helpful to source elusive items) http://www.vince-black.me.cz http://www.bve-routes.com http://www.bveroutes-trains.co.uk http://www.trainsimcentral.co.uk http://www.railsimroutes.co.uk http://www.scotrailsim.co.uk http://www.nwbve.zandreweb.com http://www.bvetrains.co.uk http://www.omnieng.co.uk/railspatial http://www.freewebs.com/dennislance http://dennislance.zoomshare.com/ Last edited by David; 20th March 2007 at 01:20.

10th December 2005, 21:42	#4
Coxster Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: 9 Jun 2005 Posts: 9,242	Using .RW Routes With BVE4 As you know, BVE4 only processes .CSV route files but some older routes are in .RW format. Many BVE2 routes work okay in BVE4 (just without all the new features). How to load a .RW into BVE4: 1. Download the 'BVE Route Randomizer' (BVERR) and configure it for BVE2 usage. It is available from http://trainsimcentral.co.uk/misc.htm 2. Load the desired route with the desired train and exit the simulator. 3. Load BVE4 and select BRRTemp.csv and it will load your desired route and train. Next time you play BVE via BRR, it will overwite this file so you may wish to re-name it to 'RouteName.csv' or something simular. Last edited by Jordy; 28th April 2008 at 18:41.

11th June 2006, 19:18	#5
Coxster Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: 9 Jun 2005 Posts: 9,242	'Network West Midlands' Timetable Codes Here is a list of timetable codes used in the 'Network West Midlands' routes. Thanks to Steve Green for the explanations! MA - Maybank BD - Brookfield NN - Norton WL - Wellford LH - Ludgate Hill REL - Relieve existing crew. RELD - Relieved by new crew (usually shows their diagram number so you know who worked the train last). JL/JU - Join loco/unit. LL/LU - Leave loco/unit. AP - Attach portion (couple up). DP - Detach portion (uncouple). SB - Short break. PNB - Personal needs break. Last edited by Coxster; 14th June 2006 at 08:46.

25th June 2007, 21:41	#6
ukneilw Member Join Date: 25 Jun 2007 Location: Birmingham Posts: 13	BVE FAQ & Help - Please Read! After 5 months of trial and error, process exploring, and general headaches I am pleased to say I have managed to get BVE working on Vista from a clean install (upgrade installations should work already if you had BVE before.) Please note if after following these instructions you have a white screen in BVE then the problem is with your graphics card drivers and you should look through the thread for more info. I do not have a solution to this but can tell you that my ATI2600HD works fine as did an older ATI X1300 card which I used to have. Here's how you do it: Vista x86 (32 bit) You need to download 3 files, or if you still have XP copy them across to your Vista installation. Those 3 files are: dx7vb.dll dx8vb.dll d3drm.dll You can find them on your XP installation under the Windows\System32 directory. The download links are: http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-.../download.html http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-.../download.html http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-.../download.html Now that you have those 3 files, you need to put them in the Vista system32 directory, this is usually C:\Windows\System32 - best way to do this is to move them using Windows Explorer. Go to the Start Button, choose All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt. You should get a black window titled "Administrator: Command Prompt" - if not, right click Command Prompt in the start menu and choose "Run as administrator". In the command window, type in the following (note that <enter> means press the enter key): cd c:\windows\system32 <enter> (assuming windows is on your C: drive, if not put the correct letter in.) regsvr32 dx7vb.dll <enter> Click OK on the window that comes up saying dllregserver succeeded regsvr32 dx8vb.dll <enter> Click OK on the window that comes up saying dllregserver succeeded exit <enter> That should be it - give BVE a try. Vista x64 (64 bit) Follow the steps above up to and including opening the command prompt. However, instead of copying the files to c:\windows\system32, copy them to c:\windows\syswow64 In the command window, type in the following (note that <enter> means press the enter key): cd c:\windows\syswow64 <enter> (assuming windows is on your C: drive, if not put the correct letter in.) regsvr32 dx7vb.dll <enter> Click OK on the window that comes up saying dllregserver succeeded regsvr32 dx8vb.dll <enter> Click OK on the window that comes up saying dllregserver succeeded exit <enter> BVE should now work on Vista x64. If you get problems after doing this, try turning off UAC as sometimes this helps BVE to run. I wont give detailed instructions how as Microsoft already do that. On your start menu, go to Help and Support and type in "how to disable UAC", choose the how to turn off User Account Control topic and follow the instructions. If you are interested, the technical reason behind why this did not work out of the box is Microsoft stopped providing backward compatibility for DirectX 7 and DirectX 8 starting with the Vista DirectX 10. The only way around this is to copy the 2 support files across from Vista or download them and register them manually. The d3drm.dll file seems to cause a secondary crash if not present, I have no idea why this is not in Vista. I tried BVE on NWM on a few runs and it is fine - the only problem I have encountered is that if you run it windowed, the on screen text such as reverser, speed, FPS, etc displays in english with what looks like japanese behind so you can't see it. Running BVE full screen is fine though. If you still have problems, post them here and I will see if I can help. Have fun, Neil

21st October 2007, 19:22	#8
mbonwick Established Member Join Date: 26 Oct 2006 Location: Milnthorpe (Nr. Kendal) Posts: 5,285	BVE FAQ & Help - Please Read! Here is the link to the Beginners Guide which I have created. Please post all questions/ comments in the existing thread, which is here The link to the guide is http://www.trainsimcentral.co.uk/dow...sc/bve4tut.pdf ______ If you are new to the world of BVE, please read this carefully BEFORE posting any support requests. __________________ Last edited by Jordy; 31st July 2008 at 18:08.