6th July 2004 @ 00:15
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Quick project update
Firstly I'd like to say thank you to the variety of people
who have contacted me and asked about what progress I'm making with my projects,
it's nice to hear from more people who are enjoying my routes. :) I'd also like
offer my apologies for the lack of updates and news over the past few months, however
this doesn't mean that no progress has been made - on the contrary it's an indication
of how much development is taking place.
As mentioned previously my attention is focused on the
Watford Junction to Rugby project, with
Birmingham New Street to Lichfield being
put on hold until Watford to Rugby is complete - sorry again to those of you wanting
to see the Cross-City North. :) A huge amount of work has been done on the Watford
Junction to Rugby project recently, and I'm pleased to say that the route is in
a fairly advanced stage of development now. It's still
not quite as good as I want to make it, so I'm not willing to show it off just yet,
but I can say that this route should be something special, with
all kinds of details included that in previous routes I've not paid too
much attention to. Not only is the catenary upgraded to re-create an incredible
level of detail and intricacy far beyond what I've produced so far, but just as
much attention has been devoted to the permanent way, lineside
infrastructure and scenery, and all of these aspects are coming together
to create a very realistic simulation of this section of the West Coast Main Line
which is a joy to look at, indeed you may spend more time looking at it than driving
it! These details are all installed and used in a fair part of the route now but
either aren't fully implemented along the whole line yet or still need some work,
but when finished, the route (via Weedon and Kilsby) will be well on the way to
being completed, and Watford to Rugby should be a dream come true for
anyone whose as interested in the railway the trains run on as the trains themselves.
I'm sorry to say I haven't really started the Northampton Loop yet, I really need
to finish the whole Watford to Rugby section via Weedon first, to make development
more straightforward and quicker.
The project has turned into a very impressive piece of
"BVE engineering" which I'm looking forward to sharing with you, however
it's only fair to point out a couple of downsides as well. The first issue is the
performance of the very highest detail Watford to Rugby routes, which are a level
above anything I've done before. From a technical and route development point of
view, at the time of writing and as far as I'm aware, the highest detail version
of Watford to Rugby is I believe the most ambitious and complex route ever designed
for BVE by a significant
margin, and such an increase in scale and detail over a long distance on a four
track highspeed mainline invariably brings problems with it - I'll do what I can
to ensure the routes are enjoyable. However don't worry, with the usual effort I
put into detail levels most people should be able to use and enjoy the route, even
if some details have to be sacrificed, such as a choice between highly realistic
catenary or highly detailed permanent way, but not both at the same time, or perhaps
splitting the route into two sections so all details can be enjoyed. Naturally the
"normal" and lower detail versions should suffer no more problems than
any other BVE route when they're done.
The second minor problem is simply keeping up to date
with the changing nature of the real West Coast Main Line as it's upgraded - I may
not be able to incorporate every aspect of the upgrade by the time the route is
released, however what upgrades have been modelled, such as the new Ledburn Junction,
remodelled Rugby station, most of the upgraded UK1 catenary and associated equipment,
some examples of the new upgraded signalling and a whole variety of other lineside
details, are very realistic indeed and add enough modernity to allow realistic running
of Pendolinos on the route. Should any aspects of the upgraded WCML not be included
in the final release, I will try to update the route periodically afterwards.
Finally apologies for getting another estimated release
date hopelessly wrong (see below), but with a bit of luck I'll be able to start
showing off Watford to Rugby in the not to distant future, and the usual screenshots
and video presentations you've come to expect from me prior to a release should
start appearing. :)
Please see the
Watford Junction to Rugby section of the site for more details, or the
Projects page for a more detailed breakdown of the progress being made.
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16th December 2003 @ 22:45
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Northampton Loop now planned
I'm pleased to announce that I'm now able to build the
Northampton Loop, so it's my intention to develop this route as well as the Weedon
route, either as part of the Watford Junction to Rugby via Weedon package, or as
an add-on after the release of the Weedon route. The Northampton Loop will allow
the use of Silverlink class 321s on the slow lines all the way from Watford Junction
to Rugby, with additional stations at Northampton and
Long Buckby. The Northampton Loop is approximately
3 miles longer than the Weedon route, so the total route length for Watford Junction
to Rugby via Northampton will be approximately 68 miles/109km. Linespeeds on the
Northampton Loop are slower than on the Weedon route, typcially 75mph, so this route
will take longer to drive, and offer some variety for BVE users.
Please see the
Watford Junction to Rugby section of the site for more details.
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7th December 2003 @ 00:50
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Latest Rail Sim Routes UK Developments
A number of people have e-mailed me recently wondering
what's happening here at Rail Sim Routes UK after so few updates lately, and as
I've announced my latest project over on the UKTrainsim BVE forum I thought I'd announce it here as well.
While you're visiting the forum, check out the "Euston to Watford" thread,
where you'll see some fantastic screenshots of a new London Euston to Watford Junction
route under construction (not being developed by me, but a talented new developer!).
It's my sad duty to inform you that
Watford Junction to Milton Keynes version 2 has now been officially cancelled. However it's my pleasure to announce that I'm
working on Watford Junction to Rugby via
Weedon instead! See below for reasons why the Northampton Loop hasn't been
built (yet).
This is a 33 mile/53 kilometre extension of the original
WJ-MKC route, bringing the total route length closer to approximately
65 miles/105 kilometers. Watford Junction to Rugby version 1 (WJ-Rv1) is
being designed for BVE 2.9/3.0, and will look it's best running at 1024x768 resolution.
At BVE 2.5's default 480x440 resolution, not all details will be properly visible
due to some of the detail being very fine, however the routes will be BVE 2.5 compatible
otherwise. Watford Junction to Rugby will be one of the longest real-life UK mainline
routes available for BVE, but it will include the range of intricate details familiar
to users of my 'High Detail XP' routes, but with much more on offer as well...
The route between Watford Junction and Rugby via Weedon
features all the familiar WJ-MKC landmarks and more; the new Milton Keynes to Rugby
section via Weedon features some familiar railway landmarks, such as
Wolverton, the Great Ouse viaduct,
Castlethorpe, the complex Hanslope Junction,
Banbury Lane level crossing, Stowe
Hill tunnel, Weedon, Watford
Gap (where the M1 motorway runs parallel to the railway for a short time),
and the famous and distinctive Rugby radio transmitter masts
towering above the countryside.
This route also features a couple of the UK's most historic railway landmarks and examples of pioneering railway engineering,
for example the unique Roade Cutting, a deep cutting
with high brick retaining walls, where the Northampton (slow line) and Weedon (fast
line) routes diverge on two levels, with the slow lines on the lower level running
inside a metal 'cage' to re-inforce the retaining walls before finally diverging.
The route also features the famous Kilsby Tunnel, at
1 mile 656 yards long it's the longest tunnel on the West Coast
Main Line, and when built in the 1800's it was the longest railway tunnel
in the world, and features two large ventilation shafts. Rugby
itself is a complex railway junction, with flyovers at both ends of the
station, evidence of where disused lines diverged, and it's where the Trent Valley
and Birmingham lines diverge. Rugby is the location of the infamous
Great Cetnral Railway girder bridge which couldn't be removed after the
GCR was closed, so this section of bridge has remained above the WCML ever since.
Rugby has it's own yard, and in the case of the pre-2002 routes the station boasts
an impressive overall roof structure.
One of the crowning glories of Watford Junction to Rugby,
and especially the new Milton Keynes to Rugby section, will be the
new scenery developed for the route. While you would normally be travelling
between 80 and 110 mph on this line without stopping, the route is highly scenic,
featuring the most realistic depiction of typical UK agricultural and hilly countryside
seen in any of my BVE routes to date, which provides an immersive
experience and a real feeling of driving along a real railway.
The Watford Junction to Milton Keynes section of the
line hasn't been ignored, major improvements have been made to this section of the
line. Watford Junction's track layout has been re-modelled
to make it more accurate. Several stations have been physically moved as they were
located up to several hundred meters from their prototypical locations in the original
WJ-MKC v1 (!). Catenary has been upgraded to a level
beyond the High Detail XP catenary featured in
Cross-City South v1.2. Stations have been improved with more detail and more
accurate platform lengths; plus Hemel Hempstead, Tring, Cheddington, Bletchley and
Milton Keynes have been remodelled to include missing track details. Scenery has
been enhanced, signalling equipment has been upgraded, and curve radii have been
altered to make the route far more realistic. And more!
Many more route variations will be inlcuded in this version,
including the time of day variations (dawn, day, sunset
and night), plus weather effects such as snow, rain
and fog. There will also be different eras, including 1985, 2000, 2002/3, and also
~1965, where the 'Electric Blue' era will be represented, and where possible, disused
lines, sidings and pointwork will be re-instated, and hopefully some now demolished
buildings can be re-instated too.
Finally - with the Watford Junction
to Wolverton section, you can finally drive 310s and 321s along the slow lines!
All line curvature on the slow lines has been either added or remodelled at places
where fast and slow lines diverge, such as Watford Tunnel, Northchurch Tunnel, Linslade
Tunnel, and all stations en-route. This was in fact a difficult task, and was
only really made an attractive possibility because of Oskari Saarekas 's BRR program, which has been used to help create the slow line
versions after all the slow line track was edited. However the resulting route files
have been heavily edited to ensure all curves are correct, scenery is adapted for
slow line running, and bridges/tunnels/passing trains produce the correct sound
effects. With the High Detail XP routes, this means all 4 tracks of the WCML having
high detail catenary instead of only 2 of 4 tracks as was done previously, which
in turn means these routes have an unprecedented level of complexity, and may require
some serious hardware to render at high framerates.
More details about the route, it's exact features and
specifications, and perhaps some exclusive screenshots will be released in due course,
and release is expceted in the first half of 2004. In the meantime, please visit
the new Watford Junction to Rugby via Weedon
section of the site for more details!
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Route Data Appeal
Other routes which interest me are the Rugby to Birmingham/Wolverhampton/Stafford
main line, the Trent Valley line from Rugby to Stafford, and Stafford to Crewe/Liverpool/Manchester,
and any assistance with information covering these routes would also be useful,
although I can't guarantee that I'll be able to build any of these routes because
of time contraints etc. However it would be nice to have the option of doing so,
should the opportunty present itself in future! Please contact me via the
Contact page if you'd like to help or discuss options.
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Watford Junction to Rugby v1 Beta
Testing
I'm not looking for beta testers at the moment, as the
project is scheduled for completion during 2004, however if you can demonstrate
a detailed knowledge of the Southern half of the West Coast Main Line, I'd love
to hear from you any time before then, and I'd value any help you may be able to
offer!
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12th September 2003 @ 00:55
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Important copyright issues relating
to Birmingham New Street public address announcements, and updates to downloads
A few days ago the Birmingham New Street public address
announcements were removed from the Cross-City South downloads due to myself failing
to realise that these public address recordings are copyrighted material, having
been produced by Phil Sayer and Ditra Systems Ltd. Ditra Systems Ltd hold the copyright
to these recordings, and with the kind help of Phil Sayer and Ditra Systems Ltd,
I now have permission to include these sounds in the Cross-City South downloads.
I offer my sincere apologies and gratitude to Phil Sayer
and Ditra Systems Ltd, and this should serve as a warning that if anyone would like
to use these station announcements in their own productions, in whatever form, then
you are not permitted or licensed to copy and re-use these sounds - you must
obtain permission from Ditra Systems Ltd.
Two files have been updated, the
Cross-City South v1.2 Sounds 2 download, and also the
Cross-City South v1.2 Routes download. They contain updated documentation and
the station announcements, as well as the fixes mentioned below. Both downloads
are needed to restore station announcements in all routes.
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Route file errors when processing
Cross-City route files with BRR v10
As mentioned above, the
Cross-City South v1.2 Routes download has been updated, and this also includes
new route files edited to eliminate any errors which might be reported when processing
them with BRR v10, with the "Show route errors" option enabled. To the
best of my knowledge the older route files worked fine within BRR v10 despite these
errors, but I decided to correct them anyway.
BRR v10 is available from the extremely talented Oskari
Saarekas' website [http://koti.mbnet.fi/~lopomo/trainsoft/index.html],
and allows the user to select a whole variety of options designed to add variety
to BVE routes, with one of the most impressive and powerful new features for end
users being the ability to drive trains along tracks other than the default track
as specified in the original route file. I can't recommend BRR highly enough, it's
a superb, innovative and sophisticated utility, and a "must have" for
all BVE users.
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21st June 2003 @ 18:10
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Corrupt Cross-City v1.2 sound download
Many thanks to the very helpful people who alerted me
to one of the Cross-City v1.2 sound downloads being corrupt (x-city_south_sounds1.exe)
- unfortunately my FTP connection appears to have let me down on this occasion!
I have reuploaded
x-city_south_sounds1.exe and can confirm the download works properly, and would
like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by having to download the file again.
If you don't want to download the entire file again, you can also download a small
patch that adds the missing file: Sound Patch
The only file in the archive which appears to have been
affected is the sound file responsible for one of the most dramatic sound effects
on the route, the loud and relentless flange and curve rumbling sounds on the sharp
curve approaching Barnt Green station - it's well worth downloading this again and
re-running the route to hear the sound. :)
Finally many thanks for all the kind words and thanks
I've received via e-mail and forums already, it's genuinely appreciated!
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21st June 2003
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Birmingham Cross-City South v1.2 and
upgraded 323 package now available
I'm pleased to announce that Cross-City South version
1.2 is now available, along with the comprehensively upgraded class 323 EMU by Steve
Green and myself. The Cross-City South is now updated to reflect the line in it's
present state, with updated station areas at Barnt Green, Longbridge, Northfield,
Kings Norton, Bournville, Selly Oak, University and Birmingham New Street stations,
as well as the introduction of Voyagers on Cross-Country services (Voyager objects
thanks to Steve Green),
and is available in several detail levels - Low, Medium, Standard and "High
Detail 9x" routes for the majority of BVE users (High
Detail 9x is the new name for the traditional High Detail routes), as well
as the new super detailed "High Detail XP" routes for Windows XP and 2000
users.
Making their debut are the new
High Detail XP routes for those BVE users with fast "games machines"
who also use Windows XP or 2000 - these new routes offer far more detail, and push
the envolope considerably further than the other detail levels, but
will only perform adequately on Windows XP or 2000 with decent hardware to back
it up. As I reported last year, there is a significant difference in the
amount of detail BVE is able to cope with before it begins to pause and stutter,
depending on what operating system you use, in this case using BVE with Windows
XP/2000 allows far more detail to be achieved without serious pausing and stuttering.
The High Detail XP routes merely take advantage of this phenomenon and inlcude more
detail than would normally be included in a typical BVE route.
Therefore, if you use Windows 95/98/Me,
and regardless of how fast your PC is, please don't expect the High Detail
XP routes to perform well on these older operating systems - they most likely won't.
Please use the High Detail 9x routes instead.
You will also need the new class 323 EMU package to use
Cross-City South v1.2. The new class 323 features new and more realistic sounds,
as well as a night time panel complete with illuminated gauges, for use with the
Dawn, Sunset, Dusk and Night routes. Version 2.0 of the class 323 is available from
the BVE UK Train Collection,
or via links on the Cross-City South v1.2
section of Rail Sim Routes UK. Also available are new passenger views, which feature
their own unique sounds and panel indicators.
Please also make sure you read the documentation before
you drive the route, or after you encounter a problem, it's in HTML format and located
in your Cross-City South Route folder ("C:\Program Files\Bve\Railway\Route\Bham_X-City_South\Readme
- Cross-City South.htm" for example).
Three issues to highlight here though - firstly the "Route\Bham_X-City_South\HighDetail" route
folder is no longer used, being replaced by the "Route\Bham_X-City_South\HighDetail9x"
folder instead. Dummy route files with compatibility notices are placed in your
old "HighDetail" folder to avoid you accidentally using the old route
files instead of the replacement "High Detail 9x" route files. Secondly,
when you enter the cab at Redditch, the 323 will be
"shut down", and you start the unit by moving the brake/power controller
to brake position 3 (B3). When this happens, you'll hear the AWS horn sound continuously
as the AWS test commences, the AWS horn must be cancelled by
pressing the "Insert" key. Thridly, please note that due
to the large number of objects and Freeobject placement commands,
High Detail XP routes require BVE v2.5.x to
work. All other routes are compatible with
BVE 2.4 and earlier. If you receive errors while loading the High Detail
XP routes, check what version of BVE you have installed!
Head over to the
Cross-City South v1.2 section to download the route, I hope you enjoy it as
much as I do, especially if you've ever travelled on the real line or seen it recently!
Please remember - you need to download the new version
of the 323 as well. If you don't install the new version, then you'll miss the new
Cross-City and 323 track, flange and miscellaneous sounds, and this will spoil the
realism of the route. Also the Dawn, Sunset, Dusk and Night routes won't work without
the new version of the 323!
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Performance tips for Windows XP and
Windows 2000 users
Users of Windows XP or Windows 2000 might have noticed
that their BVE framerates may be capped at either 25fps or 21-22fps depending on
their CPU speed. Under Windows 98 the maximum framerate is usually 29-30fps. You
might be able to get 29-30fps within BVE under Windows XP/2000 by following these
steps: Firstly before you run BVE,
start Windows Media Player, and play any sound file
using Media Player. Then, stop playback of your sound
file, but leave Media Player running. Now
start BVE normally with Media Player running in the background, and when
you enter the cab you may find your framerate has gone higher than it used to be,
up to a maximum of 30fps as with Windows 98. What effect this tip will have depends
on the power of your PC of course!
Users of lower end PC's who also use Windows 2000 or
XP, may find that the High Detail XP routes will work, and may also find that performance
can be improved if a new user profile is created, followed by a reboot, and upon
Windows restarting, logging into the fresh new user profile in order to run BVE.
This may help to improve your BVE performance, especially if your Windows installation
is older and hence become a little "cluttered" over time. Many thanks
to John Owen for
this tip.
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Cross-City South v1.2 and the BVE
Route Randomiser
I'm aware that the original Cross-City South v1.0 had
some compatibilty problems with some of the BVE Route Randomiser's features, especially those relating
to signalling and randomisation. I've added some extra commands within the Cross-City
South v1.2 route files which to the best of my knowledge should go some way to solving
these problems, and randomised Train Intervals should now work and affect signalling
accordingly (several tests showed this to work successfully, although on one occasion
there was a signal stuck at red - the cause is unknown at this stage but if found
it will be rectified provided it doesn't compromise the realism or accuracy of the
route). Approach controlled signals such as those outside Longbridge and Holliday
Street tunnel may also not behave prototypically if randomised signalling is used.
Selecting BRR's "Random Starter Aspect" should not cause any problems
now, despite there being no signal at Redditch station.
BRR provides the easiest way to change the train that
a route uses, and I recommend using the utility to make use of the class 323 passenger
views. You can change trains with or without using randomised route settings, so
this is the easiest and most user friendly way to try out the various passenger
view options, whether you wish to randomise the route or have all the signalling
and adhesion settings work as they've been programmed to.
The only BRR feature I wouldn't recommend using with
Cross-City South v1.2 is the randomisation of track quality, as these settings are
already defined within the routes depending upon location, track type and so-on,
and these settings reflect the track conditions on the real route.
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Birmingham Cross-City Photo Galleries
I've added new photo galleries
to the Birmingham Cross-City South
and Birmingham Cross-City North
project sections of the site. The galleries contain photos of the real Cross-City
line, and might be of interest to those who have never seen the line in real life,
and of course to those who do know the real line. Why not look out for landmarks
and features you can see in the Cross-City South photos when driving Cross-City
South v1.2!
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What about Cross-City North?!
I know some of you will be wondering what's happening
with Cross-City North after I've been working on upgrading Cross-City South instead
- rest assured this project is very much alive and development is continuing! The
features included in Cross-City South v1.2 were going to be introduced with Cross-City
North instead, so while you'll have to wait longer for Cross-City North, at least
you get some of the ideas planned for use in Cross-City North earlier, which also
means the route might be improved even more than it would have been otherwise. :)
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...and Watford Junction to Milton
Keynes version 2?
The WJ-MKC v2 project is still in development, however
this upgrade has received less interest from the public than the Cross-City North,
therefore it's not a priority at the moment. This remains a project I wish to complete,
and it deserves to be finished because of the work done so far.
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Rail Sim Routes UK, 2001-2007.
Some copyright material is hosted on this site, click
here for details.
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