Steve's blog 2011

TRAINS FOR OPEN BVE AND BVE 4 The way out!

29th Dec 2011

Not much done over Christmas, I've configured one side of the roof on the cab and in the shots below it looks fine but from some angles its rather wrong.

When I finally finish the 47, I will also be releasing a Class 57 version as WCRC just happen to now own 57001.

The 57 will also be released as a complete train, the 47 will be an add on to the BVETMD train cabview.

20th Dec 2011

What have I done in the last few days?

I've added textures to the top of the nose below the windscreen, improved the Overhead Electification orange line around the cabs and started on the cab roof.

I have also made a few changes to the front of the nose.

If you are wondering why I have not finished the underframe, bogies, bufferbeam detail (It does now have 47 buffers fitted though) and the main roof.

That's because the cab roofs are the parts that I am worried about getting right!

What you can see is the third go.

Although I hope to include rotating fans in the main roof......

17th Dec 2011

The grills have now been added to the roof, the roof looks a little too tall and round to me at the moment but I will leave that until I've put the cab roofs on to decide if it is.

The cab nose has been completly reconfigured and the textures altered or replaced. It was made up of 16 textures it is now 42!

One thing I forgot to point out the other day was that I've resized the wheelsets, they were a bit on the small size.

15th Dec 2011

I've now textured sides of the underframe areas, altered the size of the wheelsets and reconfigured the bogie to fit.

In case you are getting bored with looking at the underframe, I've put a bit on the roof!

1st Dec 2011

Work has restarted on the Class 47, at the moment the bogies and the brake rigging is what I am working on at this moment.

27th Nov 2011

The Stagecoach 158 and 9's are now released.

The 165/0 cabview/train has also been reinstated.

22nd Nov 2011

I've nearly finished the new versions of all the Stagecoach 158 and 159 unit's.

Here's a screenshot of the biggest file size and longest one train length wise a 9 car 159 express.

18th Nov 2011

Well I had yet another change of heart!

So I am putting new textures for the EMT and SWT 158 and 9's, on the lastest config.

Here's a WIP shot.

16th Nov 2011

All the new versions of West of England and Wales Class 158's are now available and I've also released a 4 car Arriva Trains Wales Class 143 Hi Res set.

I have second thoughts with the EMT and SWT 158's and removed them from download to add the revised cab to them myself.

The Revised cab will also be added to the SWT 159's.

Development of a refurbished 158 and 9 cab is on hold for now.

14th Nov 2011

I now have added the East Midlands Trains and South West Trains 158's to the site.

I hope to put up the 159's tomorrow.

These have the TSC cabview, to change that to my updated version, remove the panel2 file and the bve4 folder and replace them with the one's from my new/revised 158's.

None of the EMT and SWT units have actually been reconfigured, unlike the West and Wales externals.

But they are more recent work so don't have the same problems rendering of textures.

All of these 158's and 159's are slowing down any really new work and I am moving on to them.

I am at the moment making a new version of the Wales and Borders Ginsters unit, this will be the last work on the 158's and 9's.

13th Nov 2011

Two versions of the Alphaline 158 have now been released, clink on the link for the Central units to download them.

12th Nov 2011

Well the version of Alphaline Class 158, I've been working on is the one in the screenshot below.

It's nearly finished, in fact it just needs the coach numbers, the no smoking signs and the odd sign particular to one of the cars.

So it should get released tomorrow.

6th Nov 2011

I thought I would show what may or may not get released at some point.

Here's what the new version of the Wales and West Alphaline,Wales and Borders etc to Arriva Trains Wales 158 units look like at the moment.

These will be released.

Then you have the West Coast 47 with the Mk1 coaches, work has stopped thanks to doing a bit more to the 158's than I have said I was going to.

I have configured the main roof, although making the textures for it may be interesting there's 20 faces there!

It also has a few faces that have been incorrectly configured in the main roof in the screenshot.

Then we have this, it's a Class 172/1 cab, yes it's exactly the same really as a 168, 170 or 171.

It took me 3 hrs to make because it is, the sounds for it are a different matter I don't have any!

So if anyone would like to record some?

Note the sounds need to be free of background sounds and it would all hinge on me being to make a config that does not allow for the gear changes of a 172, but sounds like it does as Open is very Bve4 on that score.

Then rather slowly, I have been making a new Hi Res version of the Pendolino cab.

Infact it's only hit the buffers because of the left hand side not shown in the screenshot, I've so far failed to draw it well enough to finish it.

I may release the version hosted by TSC beforehand.

Then of course, there's the Class 66's, I have not done any work on them for a few months.

But that's only thanks to a change of priorities and it's only me...

The container wagons have new textures from the ones that permission of use photo wise was removed from and they will now be released.

It will be a download that offers the same sort of framerates as the new Class 143's.

So just a bit slow if your computer is not up to it!

5th Nov 2011 (a bit later!)

I've now added 3 ex Central Trains versions, ATW, W&BT and EMT.

5th Nov 2011

The Central Trains 158's are now released on the DMU downloads page.

The revised 'silver' Wales and West to Arriva Trains versions will follow soon!

25th Oct 2011

I've now reconfigured the 158 external, the first train or trains are still a week or two from release.

This because I am making the TSC Class 158 train/cabview slightly better (I hope) as a true 2D 2048 resolution Open Bve train.

It has also been extended upwards so you can see out of the windscreen better and the TPWS has been moved from the totally incorrect position it was in.

I've configured the main roof of the Class 47 and done a bit more work on the bufferbeam area, although it currently has my Class 60 oval buffers and bufferbeam.

That's a first for a 47 or 57 in real life!

17th Oct 2011

I am still working on the 158 config, this includes the settings to make it work in the night views of the now unavailable NWM route.

Which is a bit of a pity that it is, it's an excellent route and nearly all my work is related to that route in some way.

A revised cab will also be included in the download, I also hope to make a refurbished cab version for the later liveried 158 and 9's.

A new Unit external is on the cards as well, I have a choice of two a 170 or a 175.

A 170 can of course also be made as a 168 external and the 175 would really need me to make the current train/cabview a bit more photoreal.

So what might be next?

On another note anyone that has downloaded the 143's and have pressed the - key for the horn beep sound and pressed it again to switch it off, try leaving it a while before you press it again and see what happens!

9th Oct 2011

I've also gone back to the 158's, not only am I reconfiguring all of them to render correctly in the latest version of Open but removing all the z-fighting and replacing quite a few textures.

Although most of it is needed thanks to yet another renderer change to Open since I made them!

But having to rewrite configs in what I've made is a a bit of a pain!

Or hours and hours!

Back to the 158's, I've started on the Central Trains version, configuring it to work in NWM night routes, with rotating wheels, door interlock lights, on the door buttons as well and altered the body tumblehome.

It's also being made with making it more simple to add the rest of the 158's and the 159's textures to the same config.

I would put up a shot of the 47, but dispite doing many hours work on it it basically looks the same!

Note there's quite a bit in the screenshot I have not reconfigured.

27 Sept 2011

Now the 143's have been released, back to the the 47.

So back to trying to make the cab at least look correct er ish!

It's shown in this screenshot, with 11 of my Mk1 coaches behind it and I get a frame rate of just over 20fps.

So dispite removing the interiors in the Mk1's they are just a little big.

The train might end up a bit shorter!

24th Sept 2011

I've now finshed the exhausts and am now making a new front coupling.

I've done most of the coupling, I just need to add the stick out bits!

It's been configured with replacing all the 'box' couplings in all my external Unit's in mind.

I've also removed the couple of config errors that you can see in the screenshot of a couple of days back.

I am also making a few changes to the cabview/train sounds and config.

Not forgetting, it's also configured to work in the latest version of Network West Midlands at night.

But it should be fine in older versions of NWM and any other route.

22nd Sept 2011

All the effected textures on the underframe have now been replaced, the internal is finished and I am now finishing off the exhaust.

I also want to replace the front couplings, at the moment it's got the one I've used on everything for the last couple of years and I think this should have a more accurate one's.

Rather than a box!

The West Coast Railways Class 47 has had the pipework added to the left hand side of the bogies and the drivers side cabside bent a bit.

I've also replaced the Class 66 texture on the animated wheels with a Class 47 one.

20th Sept 2011

Here's a screenshot of the 143 from the rear cab, I might just finish this one shortly!

Recent work the door buttons, the Emergency Ladder and the Disabled Ramp.

There is a bit more work on the interior, adding the door locks and then I can finish replacing textures on the underframe.

13th Sept 2011

Well what have I been doing whilst this site was closed?

Progressively replacing all the FGW textures with ATW ones in the 143 'huge' external/internal and adding some new ones!

Thanks to a set of photo's I took at Radyr (look it up on Google Earth!).

Here's a few shots of it, I have also started to make a 47 to put in front of the Mk1 coaches I made over last Christmas.