Earlier this year my son included a 2 Gig Memory Pen with my birthday presents. I had not used one before and wasn't sure what I would actually use it for. However, I eventually started saving a load of photographs of a collection of Trains, Trams Buses Old time photos etc and the immediate affect that I noticed was just how fast a photo popped up on screen when clicking on a file. It was almost instantly.
After a while I wondered if it would do anything for programmes such as BVE4Earlier this week I sent off for two 4 Gig Memory Pens and started to save numerous MP3 files to one of them. The next time I fired up BVE4 I started to wonder if the Pen could do anything for that programme so I downloaded everything onto the spare 4 Gig Pen. It took 1hr 40mins. Perhaps I should have simply downloaded just a few Routes that really I enjoy first! Whatever, the job was done so I made a fresh desktop icon link from the Pen Drive (K). I then changed the name of the Mackoy Folder on my 'C' drive to make sure it wasn't affecting anything.
The BVE4 programme fired up reasonably fast but I immediately noticed that the routes took a little bit longer to load up and configure than from the hard drive, but nothing drastic to worry about.
I only had one Route loading problem and that was with Eezypeezy's three routes, ECML, Tyne Valley and Alnmouth. All the other routes I tried all worked without any error messages. The three routes mentioned all had error messages and opened with just the background graphic and the first signal showing ahead. However, I quickly put this right by downloading the three routes again from Eezypeezy's web site, into the Memory Pen Folder and files and everything ran perfectly.
My immediate interest was to see if this had improved the frame rates any but sadly there was no change that I could notice. They were still down to around 5fps at Birmingham NS and the larger stations on NWM. Whatever, I was soon to realise that there was a definite change and it took me a little while to work out what it was. There is a striking improvement on the stability of the screen image. Standing at stations the screen image is almost rock steady, apart from the slight swaying, that is well known with BVE4.
However, that and then while on the move I was soon to notice even more improvements. Scenery was smooth right to the edges of the screen with much more detail in 3-D effect and with objects. You may recall my mentioning on another thread the strange effect of objects such as a line of trees appearing to be moving forward instead of backwards as the train progressed. This has now gone. This and passing through the overhead gantries are visually more steady and I don't see distant objects redrawing, and especially on the sides and in the distance, being redrawn continually as you move along. Distant objects appear virtually all at once, they just pop up when the visual distance is correct.
As you know, recently Tyne Valley was considerably updated and you noticed the changes and additions. However, this time I was noticing new objects and detail that I had not seen before. The New Stations looked fantastic and full of detail.
There really is a very rewarding overall improvement on the screen and it all helps to make the game that bit more enjoyable. I am starting to feel that the only other change that would improve on this would be working out how to really increase those Frame Rates. I upgraded my computer memory to 2.5 Gig and while it increased the speed of the desktop, windows and files opening up, it did nothing for frame rates.
My next trial was with a High Resolution Route on NWM. I ran the none-stop 170 Route from Maybank to Salford Bridge. Again, there was no improvement to frame rates but with the higher resolution the overall screen image was virtually photographic and so steady and clear.
I am not sure what is causing this improvement but way back in my Atari STE days, using a set chunk of Cache Memory and loading the programmes into it used to speed things up incredibly, in those days of very low MB's of memory. Perhaps something like this is going on when you load up from the USB2 Memory Pen, but whatever it is I am very pleased with the improvement and I plan to leave this Memory Pen as a fixture in the 4 x USB2 Block. After all, if I need the USB socket it's a simple matter of swapping one Memory Pen for another. Likewise, I can easily take the BVE4 programme to another computer.
Now, having said that! Am I breaking any rules of BVE, Route and Train builders by having BVE etc on a separate Pen Drive? I have been saving BE, train and route files on a DVD Data disc for some time now, as a backup, but does a USB Memory Pen become a problem?
The two Memory pens that I purchased are called Dane-Elec and I got them from 7dayshop.com, which I have been using for some time now and very happy with. Their prices are very good and postage very fast. These two particular Pens are going for £7.99 each at the moment, which is very good value for a 4 Gig Pen. The Pens really look quality made and while the cases are in plastic they have a very nice surface that almost feels like silk. They are 2" x 1" and very lightweight.
Cheers.
BillEWS.
After a while I wondered if it would do anything for programmes such as BVE4Earlier this week I sent off for two 4 Gig Memory Pens and started to save numerous MP3 files to one of them. The next time I fired up BVE4 I started to wonder if the Pen could do anything for that programme so I downloaded everything onto the spare 4 Gig Pen. It took 1hr 40mins. Perhaps I should have simply downloaded just a few Routes that really I enjoy first! Whatever, the job was done so I made a fresh desktop icon link from the Pen Drive (K). I then changed the name of the Mackoy Folder on my 'C' drive to make sure it wasn't affecting anything.
The BVE4 programme fired up reasonably fast but I immediately noticed that the routes took a little bit longer to load up and configure than from the hard drive, but nothing drastic to worry about.
I only had one Route loading problem and that was with Eezypeezy's three routes, ECML, Tyne Valley and Alnmouth. All the other routes I tried all worked without any error messages. The three routes mentioned all had error messages and opened with just the background graphic and the first signal showing ahead. However, I quickly put this right by downloading the three routes again from Eezypeezy's web site, into the Memory Pen Folder and files and everything ran perfectly.
My immediate interest was to see if this had improved the frame rates any but sadly there was no change that I could notice. They were still down to around 5fps at Birmingham NS and the larger stations on NWM. Whatever, I was soon to realise that there was a definite change and it took me a little while to work out what it was. There is a striking improvement on the stability of the screen image. Standing at stations the screen image is almost rock steady, apart from the slight swaying, that is well known with BVE4.
However, that and then while on the move I was soon to notice even more improvements. Scenery was smooth right to the edges of the screen with much more detail in 3-D effect and with objects. You may recall my mentioning on another thread the strange effect of objects such as a line of trees appearing to be moving forward instead of backwards as the train progressed. This has now gone. This and passing through the overhead gantries are visually more steady and I don't see distant objects redrawing, and especially on the sides and in the distance, being redrawn continually as you move along. Distant objects appear virtually all at once, they just pop up when the visual distance is correct.
As you know, recently Tyne Valley was considerably updated and you noticed the changes and additions. However, this time I was noticing new objects and detail that I had not seen before. The New Stations looked fantastic and full of detail.
There really is a very rewarding overall improvement on the screen and it all helps to make the game that bit more enjoyable. I am starting to feel that the only other change that would improve on this would be working out how to really increase those Frame Rates. I upgraded my computer memory to 2.5 Gig and while it increased the speed of the desktop, windows and files opening up, it did nothing for frame rates.
My next trial was with a High Resolution Route on NWM. I ran the none-stop 170 Route from Maybank to Salford Bridge. Again, there was no improvement to frame rates but with the higher resolution the overall screen image was virtually photographic and so steady and clear.
I am not sure what is causing this improvement but way back in my Atari STE days, using a set chunk of Cache Memory and loading the programmes into it used to speed things up incredibly, in those days of very low MB's of memory. Perhaps something like this is going on when you load up from the USB2 Memory Pen, but whatever it is I am very pleased with the improvement and I plan to leave this Memory Pen as a fixture in the 4 x USB2 Block. After all, if I need the USB socket it's a simple matter of swapping one Memory Pen for another. Likewise, I can easily take the BVE4 programme to another computer.
Now, having said that! Am I breaking any rules of BVE, Route and Train builders by having BVE etc on a separate Pen Drive? I have been saving BE, train and route files on a DVD Data disc for some time now, as a backup, but does a USB Memory Pen become a problem?
The two Memory pens that I purchased are called Dane-Elec and I got them from 7dayshop.com, which I have been using for some time now and very happy with. Their prices are very good and postage very fast. These two particular Pens are going for £7.99 each at the moment, which is very good value for a 4 Gig Pen. The Pens really look quality made and while the cases are in plastic they have a very nice surface that almost feels like silk. They are 2" x 1" and very lightweight.
Cheers.
BillEWS.
hock:
