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BVE Upgrade

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LondonBVE

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Lost!
Hi , I'm going to post a suggestion email to Mackoy.

Please gather all your suggestion here.

No same suggestion should be given except the example.

Which means once another forum member post the example

P.S Please think things that are possible within the limit.

Example:
1. I think BVE should improve by giving other platform users a chance to play too. suggestion, nobody is allowed to post that suggestion again.

Thanks.
 
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Sturdjos

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It looks like LondonBVE is saying that he's gonna e-mail Mackoy saying what upgrades would be helpful, if it's possible.

It looks like he wants us to give suggestions, and he doesn't want the same one repeated twice.

Hope this clarifies things :)

Joe
 
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Ok, here are my suggestions...

An option to switch to passenger view when driving- A "train" will now consist of a cabview and passenger view. When switched to passenger view, the main guages such as the speedo and pressure guage should be visible on the bottom left or right.

An optional display window which shows the distance to the next station and the station name.(similar to the MSTS track monitor). (Very useful for route learning)

Allow the installation of "approached controled" signals without an error popping up saying "passed a station that should stop"

Fix the bug alt+tab, windows key bug. You can't switch screens at the moment otherwise BVE will turn black and you have to restart the sim.

Add in derailment feature when overspeeding at a bend- this could be turned off just like MSTS.

Bring back the train/route selector menu- the one in BVE 2
 

Coxster

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You do know Mackoy does it in his spare time, it isn't a job, and if he wants to improve it then he will. From what I could make out after once adding him to MSN he is a very busy bloke. He is rarely on MSN too.
 

Met Driver

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Coxster said:
You do know Mackoy does it in his spare time, it isn't a job, and if he wants to improve it then he will. From what I could make out after once adding him to MSN he is a very busy bloke. He is rarely on MSN too.

None the less, I'm sure he wouldn't mind hearing a few opinions about his superb product. One email can't do any harm, can it? ;)
 

Tomnick

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EmergencyBrake said:
Allow the installation of "approached controled" signals without an error popping up saying "passed a station that should stop"
A bit of a development on the signalling theme...it'd be nice to have a bit more control over what signals can do. As well as proper approach control from red, it'd be nice to be able to hold a signal at yellow until you're close to it (or hold a signal at red until you're approaching the signal in rear - same effect). Flashing yellows would be quite nice too - just to make junction signalling that little bit more realistic. Some sort of 'conditional' approach control would be handy too - for example, 'hold signal X at danger until train is almost at a stand, unless following signal Y is showing a proceed aspect' - that'd be particularly useful for semaphore signalling! How about semaphores that can clear more realistically, maybe even with a proper bounce?!

Maybe I'm dreaming a bit here ;) - I'm just grateful for what we've got already, and while all the suggestions in this thread would improve BVE even further, I don't think it's fair to expect Mackoy to act on them.
 

Coxster

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Seth said:
None the less, I'm sure he wouldn't mind hearing a few opinions about his superb product. One email can't do any harm, can it? ;)
Yes, but it is all down to how people word these letters. One such incident last year is a prime example.
 

Dave A

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Yeh, I agree. I think you should run this email by us (by "us" I mean the resident coders) before you send it off LondonBVE.

I don't really have anything to mention. Its great already, but anything I mention will be more along the lines of MSTS, and will be a bit too much.
 

The Snap

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I agree with Tomnick, and I'm sure Bill EWS will do too. I think the signaling side of things needs a little development, to allow for more complex systems to be 'built' rather than 'faked'. What I mean is, at the moment, in Richwell for example, some of the signaling is faked, by using signal freeobjs, and therefore the AWS doesn’t' work properly, as the freeobj isn't a signal, it is an object.
 

Russardo

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I would be careful here, like it has been said before he works on it in his spare time. I think some suggestions are pretty fanciful, and the signalling is UK specific (focusing on upgrades for the UK may not be Mackoy's primary interest or in the best interests of the program). If you are sure he is open to suggestion, then I think a well worded and relatively short e-mail may be fine. The e-mail should only contain suggestions that are envisaged as been fairly straight forward to implement. Also they should be ones that will add great value to the program (and not necessarily UK specific). I.e no semaphore signals that bounce, one step at a time. And for another example I could imagine that been able to switch between passenger view and the cab would not be too big a task (relatively speaking) and would add value internationally.

Just my thoughts.
 

LabRatAndy

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I agree with Russardo and Coxster here that Mackoy may be open to a couple of well thought out surrgestions put in a polite e-mail. However if he isn't interested in implementing those surrgestions, then we should just accept his decsision. After all he does let the world use his programme for free.
 

ChrisCooper

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Two things I'd like to see, that shouldn't be too difficult to implement, and also wouldn't require existing routes or trains to be heavily recoded (that's another important factor to consider) would be an increase in maximum view distance , which would make it look even better and more realistic on good systems, but wouldn't effect older systems since they could have it set as it is now, and the ability to use the animation part of the x files, which would allow things like flashing yellows. Possibly a little more complicated would be allowing the plug-ins to do more in terms of what BVE can pass to them and what they can pass to BVE.
I think that most developers find reasonable user input to be very helpful, since it gives an idea of what features users would want and what they wouldn't be bothered by having. Oviously, if Mackoy already has good ideas of what he want to do with the next version of BVE, it might be a waste of time, but if he's got various ideas but doesn't know which to spend time on and which to leave until another version, it might give him a nudge in the right direction. Of cource, a freeware developer has much more freedom to produce the program they and the users want, not that is going to make them the most money and cost the least.
 

Jim

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EmergencyBrake said:
passenger view, the main guages such as the speedo and pressure guage should be visible on the bottom left or right.

Why? You can't see where you are going!?!
 

Coxster

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Russardo did point out something I was trying to get at. Mackoy is Japanese and this is a Japanese simulator and he probably isn't in the know of specific British signalling. Afterall, if it wasn't for 'BRSigs' we'd still be seeing double-yellow signals as single green & yellow aspects!
 

nutter

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One simple suggestion for me. Moving trains.

We have guards in the UK there isn't really a need for manually opening doors (other than underground, but as i understand it, these are automatic anyway) and the developers seem to have got around the limitations of the signalling well, with only flashing PC's needed to make it an exellent sim

anyway, I feel cheeky for asking for moving trains because he does it in his spare time and BVE is already amazing, and i'm willing to except it as it is.

could it be possible to make a patch on the BRsigs plug in to get it to have flashing yellows, maybe coding it so a signal shows 2 aspects (one of PC's, and another blank) alternatly. Just an idea (i have never looked at plug-ins at any level)
 

Simon_G

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nutter said:
could it be possible to make a patch on the BRsigs plug in to get it to have flashing yellows, maybe coding it so a signal shows 2 aspects (one of PC's, and another blank) alternatly. Just an idea (i have never looked at plug-ins at any level)
No. BrSigs isn't a plugin as such, just a set of signal objects. As Chris pointed out, Mackoy would need to implement the animation features of .X format to enable flashing signals. Depending on how the graphics of BVE are written, this might be a major piece of work for him. Ditto moving trains I suspect.

I don't see any problem with asking for more signalling features: so long as we try and keep them reasonable generic they should apply to signalling systems worldwide. My aim would be to lure BVE away from being just a Japanese EMU simulator and increase the number of configurable features. It's almost impossible for Mackoy to notice the bits of Japanese practice he's hard coded into the sim without input from people trying to represent different systems.

So, my top two for signalling:
- flashing aspects
- approach release (perhaps speed dependent, so that timed sections can be modelled)

Extended signalling logic to do things like sequential release would be nice, but probably a lot more development work.

Illumination:
- display cabs correctly whatever the level of ambient or directional light, using only the brightness value to mix between day and night panels. This would allow night routes to be created by reducing ambient light, without making the panel unreadable. Anthony B. emailed to request this one a while back, but didn't receive a reply :(.

Plugin and train:
- play separate adjust sounds for under- and overrun
- tell the plugin which side the doors have opened so it can drive appropriate indicators
- allow the plugin to open/close the doors
- allow the plugin to lock doors open/closed

The above would save an awful lot of unnecessary plugin code and tricky beacon positioning for route developers.

- allow the plugin to specify fractional power notches
- allow the plugin to monitor control keys directly and manipulate the power handles

Basically, I wanna do a tap-changer plugin for proper AC electrics and this is what I reckon is needed.

I can think of about another 10000 enhancements I'd like to see in BVE, but I think that what I've listed should be reasonable easy to implement without recoding the entire simulator. I could be totally wrong and any way as has been said before, I think Mackoy has his own agenda.
 

66526

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It would be nice to see the 37 and 47 with a realistic westinghouse brake (release, initial, application, full service, emergency).
 

Dennis

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Presumably, if the animation features of .x files could be utilised then there would be no limit to the types of moving object which could be added.

The one thing I would most like to see improved is the view when zooming in, particularly the way the background texture is magnified, which looks awful unless a quite high resolution image is used.

Increasing the viewing distance by a couple of hundred metres would also be good (and with the ever increasing capabilities of computers, should not be too detrimental to performance,particularly if developers make proper use of .x files and construct their objects sensibly).

I should imagine that if Mr Mackoy is still developing BVE (and I would assume he is given the recent 'rebranding'), most of what is being requested is probably already on his 'to do' list.
 

Dave A

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I dunno if this is BVE or the trains themselves, but I think the speeds are very un-realistic. E.G. On the Northern, Tottenham Court Rd station is closed, pass through at 5mph, when I do that, I feel like I'm coming to a complete stop?!
 

darkavenger38

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David V2 said:
I dunno if this is BVE or the trains themselves, but I think the speeds are very un-realistic. E.G. On the Northern, Tottenham Court Rd station is closed, pass through at 5mph, when I do that, I feel like I'm coming to a complete stop?!


the speed limit for that is 15 mph


Regards
Tom
 

Met Driver

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The speed limit for trains passing through closed LU stations is always 5mph.
 

Dave A

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Yes, the big yellow boards with "Station Closed 5mph" seem to give it away :mrgreen:
 

Met Driver

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David V2 said:
Yes, the big yellow boards with "Station Closed 5mph" seem to give it away :mrgreen:

Yes I'm well aware of what the boards display - I was simply correcting the comment made here FYI.
 
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