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Welcome to the Railsimroutes.net Blog, where I'll be posting progress updates, work-in-progress screenshots, information about the progress I'm making with active projects, as well as anything else I feel is worth mentioning. Hopefully more frequent updates here will make the wait for upcoming releases more bearable! News from 2008, all the way back to 2001, can be found in the News Archive.

Railsimroutes.net YouTube ChannelMy openBVE videos and other comments from users and myself can also be found via my YouTube channel.



Blog and Progress Updates


Updated openBVE developer tools and openBVE v1.2.6.1, upcoming Network West Midlands updates, upcoming Taipei Metro route for openBVE, and server upgrade

Posted by Anthony Bowden on 7th April 2010 at 6:00 am

openBVE v1.2.6.1 and updated openBVE developer tools

openBVE LogoopenBVE v1.2.6.1 has been released, which includes a bugfix relating to the Options.UnitOfSpeed command, which could for example, involve an incorrect speed limit being determined when the Route.Limit command is used. Please » download the latest release « if this issue affects you.

Also, when I posted my last blog entry, I forgot to mention that the » openBVE Route Viewer « has been updated. When your route is loaded, you can now simply type in a distance via the main number keys (not the numberpad keys), and hit Enter — the camera will then be moved directly to the location you just entered. This is an immensely useful time-saver.


openBVE RouteViewer v1.2.6.0 with Jump to Track Position feature--click to enlarge

openBVE Route Viewer screenshot — click to enlarge

Also, when you pass a CSV format route or object file as a command line parameter to either Route Viewer or Object Viewer, the tools will now auto-detect whether the CSV file is a route or an object, and load the appropriate tool automatically. Please see the Tools section within the » Developing for openBVE « pages for more information. For developers who haven’t used the command line for opening routes or objects before, it can be done as follows (obviously replace the path and file names according to your own setup):

RouteViewer.exe “<YourDrive>:\YourPath\FileName.ext”
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Network West Midlands openBVE updates

Information IconThe » Network West Midlands « (NWM) team have announced some promising updates for the first 2010 release of the route network, which should make some good use of openBVE’s capabilities and features. We can look forward to such delights as random moving traffic on overbridges, moving passing trains similar to what I’ve demonstrated in one of my early YouTube videos, various points of interest, multiple eras, random routing/weather conditions/other features thanks to openBVE’s » $Include directives «, 3D signals, trees and lamp posts similar to those I’ve shown previously, along with the addition of catenary based on my own high detailed Cross-City South OHLE objects throughout the routes, where a very nice job has been done with their implementation. Some excellent new track textures have also been prepared for the route.

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openBVE / Network West Midlands screenshots — click to visit the NWM news page

Please visit the » NWM website « for more information and screenshots.

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Upcoming Taipei Metro route for openBVE

Information IconI noticed some new screenshots of the Taipei Metro Xinbeitou Branch Line, being developed for openBVE by » BVETRT «, and I wanted to mention them as I think they look superb. There’s richly coloured scenery, the detailing of the stations and near-track areas looks fantastic, and the railway infrastructure is very well modelled and convincing. Also take a look at this » YouTube video « of the line as well.

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Taipei Metro Xinbeitou Branch Line for openBVE — click to read developer’s blog entry
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Server upgrade

Railsimroutes LogoLastly, my webhost kindly migrated Railsimroutes to a new, high performance shared server recently, and they also installed the Nginx reverse proxy webserver in conjunction with Apache, which I’ve noticed has increased the responsiveness of the site along with page loading times. The migration went smoothly, but if anyone has had any issues with the site during the last three weeks, please let me know.

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5 Responses to “Updated openBVE developer tools and openBVE v1.2.6.1, upcoming Network West Midlands updates, upcoming Taipei Metro route for openBVE, and server upgrade”

  1. desirouk says:

    Dear Anthony,
    Thanks for giving us news. The Taipei Metro Screenshot and video, I have seen it before (as published in a Hong Kong Website). But unfortunely, the authur of the line said this route will not be releasing, as many concerns like legal problem of announcement files, illegal usage of materials. This is a pity that a fantastic route is not releasing :(.

    Work hard on the X-City Line 🙂 Suppots You!

    • Anthony_B says:

      Can you tell me anything more about the situation? Is it a dispute between developers which could be resolved if only they would talk calmly to each other and consider the future of the community along with their own needs, or something else? I do know that this route looks far too good to be allowed to fade away, because of yet another dispute over damned copyright. In my view, openBVE is meant to show us all that we can share our work freely and happily without the need to restrict and control everything, and without ending up with these kinds of community-damaging problems, and such bitter arguments just aren’t in keeping with the philosophy behind a free and open source project. Surely there must be some way the people involved could reach a compromise for the benefit of us all?

      • desirouk says:

        First of all, I need to find that post back before I furthur explain.
        But surely that, it is not easy for Taiwasnese developers, esp, TAipei Metro One.
        Because the Taipei Metro have reserved rights f using PA or materials, etc.
        So as the video seen, the PA, motoring sound, all the sound have replaced to be a nice music…

  2. BVETRT says:

    If I releasing this route. It no concerns like legal problem of announcement files, illegal usage of materials.
    Because there problem files are PA and etc sound, it has copyright.

    • Anthony_B says:

      Thanks for posting, and I’d just like to compliment the high quality of the work you’ve shown so far. I had a similar problem with station announcements in my Birmingham Cross-City South route, and I had to remove the station announcement sounds for a short time. I was granted permission to use them afterwards though, provided I credited the copyright holders. I think the main concern was that I did not gain anything financially by using the sounds. I now have a set of alternative copyright free recordings which I’ll be releasing along with the next Cross-City South release for openBVE, which is most appreciated.

      Have you approached Taipei Metro yourself and asked if they would let you use the PA recordings, or have they refused? Do they know that your route is entirely free-of-charge and that you would not gain financially by using the sounds? Could you consider releasing the route without those problematic sounds? It would be a pity if nobody ever got to see the route on their own computers, even if they were unable to experience all the sounds.

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