[Route] Twickenham route to be converted!

Good news! the TWI-WAT route is now to be the main route to be converted and hosted especially for this forum!

SW.

Indeed! The route still has an awful long way to go, mainly because it was put on hold following issues with the simulator it was intended for. Development will now continue as a BVE5 route, which should give me and others plenty of practice in learn a completely new set of coding.

Hi all,

Yes this is all good news, as I started to modify the route that came with BVE5 a bit at a time to see what did what. I first changed the track ie it's look to that of the one I used in VIR - WAT and STW - WAT. I have bought 225Studio's Reading to Waterloo DVD and put it on my iPad thingie so I could view it as I worked on Alan's original version.

VIR - WAT is Virginia Water to Waterloo and STW is from Strawberry Hill. I have spent a lot of time on the look of the track and placement of signals etc. Would you guys all like to receive a copy of my progress so far and use it as a starting point.

Ok one thing I do need is a way to convert all that I have one into .x files, anyone can help here?

I can convert all textures etc to .png or the group if this is a help?

Bye for now,

Stephen.

Welcome to BVE5 Support Pages, Stephen!

I now feel much more relaxed about TWI-WAT and its various offshoots seeing the light of day now tha BVE5 is looking so promising. (And it appears that this format doesn't port to Openbve... ) I had lost enthusiasm for continuing the route at one time, with the nagging thought in my head that I'd already spent months on it. I think we need to get together and formulate a plan of action, in order that we don't duplicate each other's work.

Also I have in my possession the full crew route learning booklets, which contain all the signalling information etc. I was a bit short on the gradient profiles of these lines, but after some research at the NRM, I managed to discover these in a book issued by the LSWR in 1887! Obviously I will be willing to share all this information with other authors involved.

I've not had the pleasure of driving the lines you have written, Stephen, but we all know your ability is undoubted, and from the screenshots I've seen the standard is higher than what I've achieved so far!

Alan.

Hi all,

I have a version of Twi-Wat that is driveable and looks quite good along with the Cl.455. I want to know how to get this to the Forum members.

This needs some work but it looks pretty good to me.

Bye for now,

Stephen.

Sounds pretty good.
Umm you could try Dropbox, or something like that. Unless someone here could offer hosting...
Obviously subject to the usual... Copyright etc etc.

Although I'm not completely sure who you are and don't know if you have guillyman's permissions to work on the route and/or host it etc. I'll just say make sure any used items are used with permission etc.

If I'm wrong I've tried to contact guillyman to confirm anyway, so I'm sure he'll fill me in.

Hi all,

Well I have now converted all the files to .csv then to .x.

I have converted all .bmp's to .png's.

I have found problems with anything that I had rotated ie not the default value of .freeobj x;x;x;0. I therefore need to work my way through the route and realign all
the affected pointwork etc.

I have also seemed to have lost some bits from within a few files when I converted them, so Alan could you resend the original file (.zip). This way I can see if it a process
of going from .b3d to .csv to .x. There are also issues with some .face or maybe they need to .face2 ?? on this one too.

I had a grand plan to develop a few routes.

1. Waterloo via Barnes Bridge and back around loop through Twickenham and back to Waterloo.

2. Virginia Water to Waterloo.

3. Strawberry Hill to Waterloo.

Options.

To run by both slow and fast lines and to have various stopping patterns.

Also to offer a variety of traction for the various runs.

Ok, what I am very happy to do is the trackwork and signalling for all the options we decide to go with. I will leave the pretties up to the clever ones.

Bye for now,

Stephen.

I feel a bit embarrassed here, on the grounds that I haven't actually converted anything myself yet due to other domestic commitments, but as I understand it all the tools for conversion will be found here: http://mackoy.cool.ne.jp/bve5/ (Click on "The Main Program.") Having said that, it does imply that conversions will be from BVE4 to BVE5, no mention of Openbve.

It is interesting to hear your observations regarding the rotation of objects. Maybe we could note that here with a view to assisting others in future, or even contacting Mr. Mackoy with feedback. I have already mailed him, but we are still awaiting a response.

@Jamie - Stephen and I have been chatting regularly on Skype and everything is cool. Stephen was one of the pioneering authors who contributed so much to many of the early BVE2 underground routes, but has been laid off with an enforced absence due to illness. He is presently assisting Aaron with the track laying on his Sydney route, and decided to see what he could do with my own work, hitherto suspended from any Openbve release, merely for his own amusement and to re-tune his obvious skills. It is all done with my knowledge and blessing.

P.S. Original TWI-WAT has been re-sent to the email address you signed up with, Stephen.

Ahh ok It's all cool then. Just thought I'd double check.

Hi all,

Ok, I went a bit too far and tried to convert the Cl.455 and with the textures as .png you got the blue screen affect for the widows etc (transperancy issues).

So I left them as .bmp after reading that it is still ok to use them in BVE5 (in trains only).

So some screenies and yes it is drivable along its entire length.

Also in the second screenshot you'll see the issue with rotated objects, nothing that another few hours won't fix!





Bye for now,

Stephen.

Hi all,

Ok it's confirmed the bits that I mentioned in the .freeobj's was lost in translation, so I will redo the few objects that did not convert properly from .b3d to .csv to .x.

So thanks Alan I have receive the files and was able to confirm the above. So in the first screeshot above you'll notice a lot is missing from the end of the footbridge to the platform. Will fix that tonight, must go and get the next train, as BVE5 made me miss that last one!

Bye for now,

Stephen.

Well please can you upload the route to a file hosting site (dropbox,mediafire) and please upload the route, and PM all admin apart from morgan (he hasn't got it working yet) please?

Is there an issue with the positioning of the road bridge too in the first shot? It could do serious damage to any train arriving at platform 4! I never did get the approach tracks to Twickers complete either - the approaching curve is a "guesstimate" in order that I could place the aforementioned bridge correctly...

Good work so far though, Stephen!

Hi all,

Please remember that I'm currently 11 hours ahead of you guys here in Oz, but once you go onto Summer Time and us off ours it will become a more manageable 9. I am on Skype as "taffycross" when I'm at home or have my iPad on at work .

If someone tells me how to put the files up online for all to grab, or Alan may want to control them if so I will send them to him. Still it is nice to have a BVE5 British route up and running.

The first thing I wish to see is a train coming at me or running parallel to me.

Bye for now,

Stephen.

Hi all,

The problem with rotations etc and no textures was caused during the process of me converting .b3d through .csv to .x.

I am now going through the route putting what I can back to how it looked originally. Also all the rotations etc were stripped, hence why I was getting all the pointwork 180 or so out. The other thing that was consistantly stripped was "SetColor" so things were all nice and white.

Still would like someone to tell / show me how to put all this online so we can all drive the route in BVE5.

Bye for now,

Stephen.

Well done on your work, Stephen. There seemed little point in my duplicating what you have done, so please forgive me for appearing lazy.

Regarding uploading the route, I suggest you could do worse than creating an account with Dropbox - with 3GB of free hosting, it can't be bad.

Hi all,

Hope this works.

https://www.dropbox.com/link/17.BpboTEFpap?k=d82230ea4b3c804bc5f1df2d1394bd06&eh=fd0e9ba

For Twi-Wat for BVE5.

Bye for now,

Stephen.

It worked for me, but then I have a Dropbox account. Duly downloaded and I will check it out when I can, thanks.

A little tip for Dropbox, which took me a while to figure out:

If you want your files to be available to certain people only, then upload them to a folder named as you wish and "share" this folder by inviting those people through their email address.

If on the other hand you want your files to be available via a public link then you will observe on your home page a folder named "Public." Drag your files into this folder, open the folder, right-click on your file, select "copy public link." This will bring up a panel with a url for the file, which you can copy into your application. (Note you can do this only with individual files, not complete folders.) Simples.

I have just managed to get a few moments to look at your work, Stephen, and it appears that you have taken things forward more than I had imagined! I've not yet got BVE5 installed fully, but have examined some of the conversions of objects in the route. An observation or two:

I noticed that whenever a texture contains a transparency that you have created an alpha-channel in the texture. Now I'm not certain exactly how BVE5 handles this, effectively having similar dependencies to openBVE, but I know that in the latter sim, this caused some very unusual transparency effects where you aren't expecting them, which is what I experienced in the openBVE viewer.

The answer is to flood the previous 0,0,255 blue areas in the original files with 0,0,0 black. In the case of the alpha-channel files in your download, the simplest way I know of curing the problem is to save the offending texture as a .bmp which doesn't support the alpha channel, then save it back to .png.

Problem solved. But thinking further, could this be utilised to make the objects ok for BVE5 use, but not allowing them to port successfully to openBVE? Or am I being too cynical?

Hi all,

I have now gone through all of the files and Twickenham is now 0;0;0 for all transparencies. This took a while but now that all the original files have been converted any new ones would be made with 0;0;0 from the start.

Also version 5.2a gets rid of the problem I was having with the train not being accepted. So once again you can drive Alan's Twickenham route in BVE5.

The convertor works again properly and a file csv2x that can be found through the bveTs site also works a treat. Just drag and drop and it converts all files including the .bmps for you. Another thing those directions on how to get "older" utils to work on Windows 7 machines is also works a treat.

Enough treats for one day.

Bye for now,

Stephen.

Nice one Stephen! Any links yet to the updated work?

Hi All,

When time permits I will bundle all up again and put it up on Dropbox.

I still trying to get the signalling etc to work, alas no success to date. One thing is now the blue has been replaced by black I can clearly see through the gaps in objects, hmm need to fix these discrepancies too.

Bye for now,

Stephen.

I wonder if the problem is caused by the observations I made above, Stephen? In your earlier upload you had created an alpha channel in the .png files for the transparencies, rather than simply filling the blue areas with black. This can produce weird transparency effects where you don't expect any.

In the meantime I cannot run BVE5 - I have installed it, but it is asking for a different version of DirectX. I have downloaded this, but on attempting to install onto my PC it is requiring an Internet connection which I presently don't have since the b***h who is my landlady pulled the plug out of spite. I hope to have the problem sorted soon.

Ok, just reporting back - I managed to run BVE5 finally, see this link here. I ended the evening with a successful run on your first version of TWI-WAT, Stephen, although I still need to move a few things into their correct places.

It seemed strange running my own route with signals! (I normally ignore these. ) Thank you for your efforts here. I have also observed the unusual gaps in otherwise solid objects. As eezypeazy noted, there seems to be a "dithering" effect at the edges of the transparency, but not on all objects. I right-clicked on the screen to see if settings could be altered to solve this, but there was no change. I am now resolved to avoid transparencies where possible between faces which join at right-angles. A better approach would be to utilise vertices common to each surface at the joining edge. A few more faces, true, but nothing annoys me more than holes in solid objects.

And Stephen, magnificent work, especially with details such as point motors having been added, and that wonderful bridge over the Thames, but one thing which jars on my eye is the texture you have chosen for the ballast. Maybe Australia has ballast like this, but in the UK the rail authorities tend to allow it to become much muckier than you have depicted. Great work though!

One observation I made was that It was possible to pull away from a station prior to the "doors being closed" or receiving the guard's signal at the correct departure time. In all the other versions of the sims this has not been possible, so I wonder if this just happens to be the case with BVE5, or whether it is something to be set in the route file...?

Regards,

Alan.

I did some more work to Twickenham Station last night, thought I'd share a screenshot:



It's getting more like the real thing every day!