A new BVE in development called "openBVE"

JLE Creator (old) said:

I have got some problems with some routes, like the Northern Line route and routes that involve tunnels that are used in underground routes, they are very transparent, any ideas.

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I have not encountered any such problems with routes I've driven to date on the latest release (which include a couple of my own unpublished BVE2 routes and Clarendon).

OpenBVE is much stricter regarding the transparent colours in textures and these must exactly match those specified in object files otherwise the background areas will be displayed, and I suspect this may be the problem. If you can post a screenshot of the problem it would be useful to help with the diagnosis.

Will this version or future versions include moving/passing trains?
Looks good though !!

First of all, if there are route developers here on this forum who use X object files, I beg you to read this article and help me out on the topic if you are interested in making your routes compatibile with openBVE.

Second, to answer adamp's question: openBVE started as a simulator similar to BVE in the way it works, thus there is only one rail internally. This is very efficient for the graphics engine and does not require complex paths that could be taken in a whole rail network, keeping signalling and everything very simple. I have prepared parts of the program to be expanded into a network-based simulation, thus the possibility of as many functional rails as a developer intends (similar to MSTS and nearly all other 3D train simulators out there). But currently, this is not the case, so only the player's rail is functional. BVE routes sometimes employ an invisible "previous train", which makes the signalling more interesting, as there is actually a train driving in front of you, yet it is invisible. This "previous train" is currently made visible and uses the same 3D exterior objects as the train you drive, making routes with short run-intervals like subways more interesting to play as you can actually see the "previous train". Everything else is static, and existing BVE routes cannot be magically made alive with traffic due to various reasons.

Thanks for the warning re not supporting compressed .x format; fortunately I tend to use uncompressed text (never seing any performance benefit from using compressed).

I've found the ability to illuminate each face independently when using .x format is invaluable for simulating lighting effects. Careful use of the specular and emissive properties can really enhance the appearance of objects and help bring them to life and I am grateful that OpenBVE will support this (IMHO under-exploited) format.

I wonder what hidden feature does OpenBVE contains and are you still going to use .csv format or another format for OpenBVE only routes?

A little off topic: Mackoy has acknowledged the problem with Vista for BVE4 and BVE2 by putting the Vista logo along with the not supported written in red.

openBVE Version 0.6 is available.

This version introduces the following things:

• BVE 4 panels (including day-time/night-time transition) can be displayed are are working for the most part, except for indicators which depend on the ATS DLL plugin, which is not yet available in this version.
• A faux night-time blend is available for panels (and exterior objects) not employing a night-time texture by default.
• Sounds for BVE 4 trains can be played, although not the ones triggered by the (not yet implemented) ATS DLL plugin.
• Lighting is available for BVE 4 routes using it, including ambient lighting and diffuse lighting.
• A difference in functionality compared to BVE: If a polygon has a day-time and night-time texture (as BVE 4 panels do), lighting is not applied to those polygons, but influences the transition into the night-time texture for low lighting conditions.
• Custom BVE 4 signals are supported, as well as signal glow, albeit a current difference in the way the glow is applied.
• Different quality options are available for the renderer, including mipmapping and anisotropic filtering. See http://openbve.zxq.net/features_quality.html.
• New blending modes are available which developers can start experimenting with: additive and glow both add the color values to the scene, which is useful for creating lighting effects such as coronas around light sources. See http://openbve.zxq.net/compatibility_objects.html and http://openbve.freeforums.org/signal-graphics-used-in-openbve-t43.html.
• The CSV and B3D formats have been extended to employ emissive light and the new additive and glow blending modes.
• Some performance optimizations have been made to the renderer, resulting in slightly higher frame rates on some routes.
• The temporary option of loading exterior car objects via the settings.cfg has been removed in favor of a permanent configuration for individual trans. See http://openbve.freeforums.org/extensions-for-existing-bve-trains-like-exterior-t133.html.

Greetings,
Michelle

@LondonBVE: openBVE will feature its own route format necessary to overcome some of BVE's restrictions. Also, I don't understand why everyone is celebrating when Mackoy, who hasn't been active for years, suddenly announces what everyone else already knows: That BVE does not work under Windows, for which it has been written for.

reschanger said:

openBVE Version 0.6 is available.


Different quality options are available for the renderer, including mipmapping and anisotropic filtering. See http://openbve.zxq.net/features_quality.html.

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What an improvement the filtering generally makes to the appearance once the correct choices have been made for the quality settings :grin:

I would urge users of the v0.6 to check out the different settings, inappropriate filtering may result in the complete disappearance of some objects!

► openBVE 0.7 is available.

This version introduces support for the ATS DLL plugins. As it is impossible to create a binary-compatible host for these plugins, they, depending on how they were written, react differently in openBVE under certain circumstances. Without the source code for them available, it is impossible to debug them to find out the causes of the different behavior. With active support from developers though, problems with some plugins can hopefully be resolved in the future. This does not mean that no plugins are working. In fact, most of them do quite well, at least most of the time.

With the plugins available, BVE 4 panels are also working almost fully now, rendering (most) BVE 4 trains playable. Furthermore, BVE 4 signal glow has been given an overhaul so the glow renders better now. Lighting has also been modified to work differently on panels. In BVE, in addition to the daytime/nighttime panel images, lighting was still applied on top of them, rendering panels almost completely dark on night routes. openBVE handles this differently now and does not apply lighting to daytime/nighttime images, but instead biases the transition into the nighttime images for low lighting conditions. This will allow routes to be daytime/nighttime without a change in the route file, textures used or anything else besides making the desired changes to the lighting conditions. Additionally, fog now uses a smooth transition for both the color and the ranges. Finally, the program consumes a little less memory as the result of some optimizations, also resulting in a little speedup as a side-effect.

I am not too sure if this has been discussed, but I tried openBVE 0.7.0.8 on Windows Vista x64 and once I launch the installer, this error occurs.

I can get Open BVE to fire up and a train and track appear but most objects dont seem to load i.e. track texture, signals and gantry`s. Is there something Im doing wrong??

Ps - From what I can get to work it looks great!

PPS - Im using Network West Mids and a C66.

EDIT: Pic added.

Just Click Ignore. This is something to do with the X Files used on BVE 4 routes which are not yet fully supported. There will be errors until version 1.0 is released

Jack

DelticFTW said:

I am not too sure if this has been discussed, but I tried openBVE 0.7.0.8 on Windows Vista x64 and once I launch the installer, this error occurs.

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There is no installer. I don't know where you've downloaded openBVE then, but probably not at the official site. As there is no installation required, all you need to do after downloading the archive is to extract EVERYTHING into one folder, not just the EXE file. If you try to run the program directly from within the archive, this will of course also not work.

jacknottm said:

Just Click Ignore. This is something to do with the X Files used on BVE 4 routes which are not yet fully supported. There will be errors until version 1.0 is released

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The first error in KingboyD's screenshot is indeed related to an invalid X file (Microsoft's specification is very strict here), but the others seem to be problems with CSV or B3D object file. Usually, most routes and objects contain a lot of errors as developers simply did not pay attention to adhere to Mackoy's description of the file formats, but BVE issues error messages only in some cases, not in all. openBVE on the other hand shows everything that is invalid, thus helping developers to fix the problems. Additionally, the behavior is largely unpredictable on what happens when an error internally occurs in BVE, but is unreported. If you assume that these errors will vanish with version 1.0, then only if developers fix them until then. There might of course be an option to simply not display the error box, but I fear that developers will continue not to be aware about the problems upon doing so, as it would always be more convenient to disable the error box in the first place.

openBVE 0.8 has been released today.

New features include:

• Added support for X files (text, binary, compressed text, compressed binary) to the necessary degree
• Added support for BVE 4 timetables via route and train
• Added support for automatically generated timetables
• Introduced new route commands: Options.BlockLength and Options.UnitOfLength, in order to use different block lengths but 25m and to customize the unit of length to use
• Introduced new route command: Track.PointOfInterest, in order to set up points in the route file through which one can cycle through with the camera
• Introduced new object command: (Set)BlendMode, in order to choose between blend modes and to enable glow with custom glow modes and application distances
• New fly-by camera allows to focus on the train from a fixed location

The X file format, which is not seldom used, is now supported for the most necessary parts. Complete support is unfeasible for many reasons, but the current implementation should suffice for most objects in use.

The new options for block length and units of length allow developers to use any unit they want, for example to base routes on yards, miles, inches, feet, chains etc. and using custom block lengths to more accurately model after real routes.

The new points of interest allow to set up points in the route file the user can cycle through for more interesting and more easy to use predefined camera locations and directions. The new fly-by camera can not only follow the train's movement, but also zoom in on the distant train if so desired.

The timetables not only allow to show the BVE 4 ones as predefined in the route and train, but are also available as automatically generated ones, similar to BVE 2, but with more information: The station name, arrival times and departure times have been complemented with travel time and maximum speed limits for the track in-between stations as frequently done in Japanese timetables.

reschanger said:

openBVE 0.8 has been released today.


New features include:

• Added support for X files (text, binary, compressed text, compressed binary) to the necessary degree
• Added support for BVE 4 timetables via route and train
• Added support for automatically generated timetables
• Introduced new route commands: Options.BlockLength and Options.UnitOfLength, in order to use different block lengths but 25m and to customize the unit of length to use
• Introduced new route command: Track.PointOfInterest, in order to set up points in the route file through which one can cycle through with the camera
• Introduced new object command: (Set)BlendMode, in order to choose between blend modes and to enable glow with custom glow modes and application distances
• New fly-by camera allows to focus on the train from a fixed location

The X file format, which is not seldom used, is now supported for the most necessary parts. Complete support is unfeasible for many reasons, but the current implementation should suffice for most objects in use.

The new options for block length and units of length allow developers to use any unit they want, for example to base routes on yards, miles, inches, feet, chains etc. and using custom block lengths to more accurately model after real routes.

The new points of interest allow to set up points in the route file the user can cycle through for more interesting and more easy to use predefined camera locations and directions. The new fly-by camera can not only follow the train's movement, but also zoom in on the distant train if so desired.

The timetables not only allow to show the BVE 4 ones as predefined in the route and train, but are also available as automatically generated ones, similar to BVE 2, but with more information: The station name, arrival times and departure times have been complemented with travel time and maximum speed limits for the track in-between stations as frequently done in Japanese timetables.

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This is great news! Keep up the good work.

I'm just waiting when I can play BVE4 just as I could with the normal BVE.

Download is broke

And with BVE5 now in production, youll be able to get the Real-Mackoy, so to speak.

FusionRail said:

And with BVE5 now in production, youll be able to get the Real-Mackoy, so to speak.

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Correct. There is no need for dreadful clones when you can have the original. Why bother with Mackoy-decoys when you can have bug-free and perfect programs by the inventor of train simulators himself? Thank god I can finally throw my waste of time out of the window now that the reincarnation is the works. Just to say the actual words...

Personally i wouldn't even bother getting BVE5 id just get OpenBVE because the maker (reschanger) is active so if there's a problem your bound to get help from her :grin:

0.8 Works much better!! Still a few problems with scenery but otherwise its looking good imo 8)

Nice work Res :grin:

reschanger said:

Correct. There is no need for dreadful clones when you can have the original. Why bother with Mackoy-decoys when you can have bug-free and perfect programs by the inventor of train simulators himself? Thank god I can finally throw my waste of time out of the window now that the reincarnation is the works. Just to say the actual words...

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Seems fair enough... It will work exactly how it should do, and without people having to create work arounds for your versions. I mean 'HDBVE' should be renamed as the actual files which bitmap BVE use cant be 'High Definition' anyway.

All seems rather pointless sorry to say

FusionRail said:

All seems rather pointless sorry to say

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If you think that the resolution changers are pointless (whose names are Resolution Changer for BVE by the way, not HDBVE), then please keep enjoying BVE 2 at the ultimate resolution of 480x240 (!), which, as long as you are blind, might well suit you. Other people will see some sense, I am afraid to say. And given the fact that openBVE is not a clone of BVE, but quite a different program, other people will see some sense in it, too.

Furthermore, I appreciate comments with some meaningful content. For example, if you don't like openBVE, you could tell me what it was you don't like, what could be improved, etc. This is what would be called a constructive comment. Simply telling me that you don't like it is also acceptable, but does not yield anyone more knowledge than before. However, you already surpassed the point of making useless comments, so to say, by falsely accusing me of stuff that is not true. Your first comment of "youll be able to get the Real-Mackoy" implies that I am some sort of false Mackoy, which is untrue, as I am not Mackoy, but someone else. Thus, you seem to call me some sort of fraud which I am not, and this makes your comment not only pointless, so to say, but rather, it does not make you look all that good either.

For these reasons, I will not comment anymore on this. If you don't like any of the work I am doing, keep it simple as everyone else does, and just don't use any of it, while keeping the amount of false accusations to a zero level.

I'm glad that, unlike many BVE route and train producers, you are not put off by 1 or 2 individuals who seem to have personal vendettas against you!

And so you shouldn't be! What you have done so far looks great and I look forward to future versions!

Cheers

Jordy

Jordy said:

I'm glad that, unlike many BVE route and train producers, you are not put off by 1 or 2 individuals who seem to have personal vendettas against you!

And so you shouldn't be! What you have done so far looks great and I look forward to future versions!

Cheers

Jordy

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Indeed, carry on the great work mate, its much appreciated.

umm i would like to play it but 1 problem i think the sites gone down:cry:

VirginTrainFreak said:

umm i would like to play it but 1 problem i think the sites gone down:cry:

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You might have tried an outdated link. The site moved from http://openbve.zxq.net/ to http://openbve.uuuq.com/.

I can't believe that anyone who receives something for nothing can be so cruel and unthinking as to criticise and make accusations from such an ignorant stance. OpenBVE is quite different to BVE in that it is a platform that is so open that there is almost no limit as to what may be added over the years.

Whenever I have had to contact the author the replies have been almost instant and helpful. You can't ask for more than that. With respect to Mackoy I can't remember that ever being possible. I am one who appreciated the work put into producing BVE for some time now.

There is no reason why you can't have both OpenBVE and BVE running on your computer. BVE is exellent for what it does and with the prospect of BVE5may show considerable improvement but I feel sure that this would not have happened (this quickly, at least) if it hadn't been for OpenBVE.

Because they are two quite different programmes and that it will take some time for all BVE routes to be upgraded to work properly in BVE, if ever, then you can continue to enjoy the routes and trains that run on BVE and also the quite excellent improvemets offered by OpenBVE. There should be no need for any pointless argument for one or the other. Some BVE authors may never update their routes therefore BVE will always be useful for those and for any new BVE only routes. Other authors may not wish to work on dual route & train files and stay with BVE. It's a fact that some may go over to OpenBVE only. It's a personal choice thing.

As for those who have got themselves wound up to the point of having some sort of vendetta against Michelle then that says more about them than it does about Michelle. It's only a game folks, and a free one at that. Get a life, please. If anything they should be thankfull that OpenBVE came along when it did and got Mackoy back to being interested in the BVE fraternity who had been left feeling that it was all going to come to an end. Now we have two systems of choice and real progress with both. Surely that must be a positive improvement on the virtual static state BVE was in less than a year ago.

If you don't like OpenBVE then just don't download it. I expect that there are many who don't like BVE too. There is no law that says you must use either programme. Personally, I would rather enjoy what both programmes have to offer. Enjoy yourselves, life is just too short and there are so many really serious and nasty sides of life to be concerned with.

JLE Creator (old) said:

I have got some problems with some routes, like the Northern Line route and routes that involve tunnels that are used in underground routes, they are very transparent, any ideas.

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Have you got any problems with entering stations so like you can't see into them properly?

If you come into a station and it's all black and you only see things in little bits, you have to download the Open BVE scenery for that route.