help getting started

Having downloaded and ran the supplied japanese route using bve5, i must say i was a bit disappointed at the frame rate, I do use a quad core powered pc but it wasnt very good, however the question is this...can someone explain the order in which one goes about things, i.e. where do i get route viewer from, all of my old bve4 bits were deleted some time back, there doesnt seem to be a link to it on the new bve5 site, secondly what has to be done to get something converted to run...Eeasypeazy`s write up has helped a lot but old, decrepid idiots like me need a bit of help...any other info you may feel i need please dont be afraid to mention it...regards

Greetings, Alan, and a very warm welcome!

We are all on a learning curve here, so I will try to offer whatever help I can.

Firstly the old BVE4 tools are available from here: http://bvets.net/old/make4/tools/ - Mackoy moved all of his work to a new site, this one for those who want to navigate their way through.

For your conversion to BVE5 tools, go to here: Editing Tools and download the "Data Converter."

I'm actually playing catch-up myself, so I hope the information given is correct...

Hi all,

Just downloaded the latest convertor off the BVE5 site and now the Cl.455 does not convert and I can no longer run Twi-Wat.

Comes up with an error on the params (for train) and the only option it gives is to abort the loading of the route.

Bye for now,

Stephen.
PS Slowly working my way directory by directory coveting / changin all transparencies from blue to black.

Hi Taffy, sounds like your doing exactly what i am trying to find out...can you let me know the way that you are doing things...I presume that all of the object files produced via bve4 or open bve have to be changed to allow bve5 converter to do its job, i.e convert image files to .bmp, change all transparency from blue to black and then use object viewer to convert to .x files...Is this basically what has to be done....regards

Hi all,

Look at my progress reports in Aln Valley - I seem to be slightly ahead of you.

The latest version of the 'convertor' changes all the bitmaps to .png, but doesn't do it 'cleanly', so that more transparency issues become apparent. BUT, if you've used object viewer to convert the objects to .x files, they'll work with .bmp files perfectly well (although I'm about to start examining each for transparency issues just to be sure).

Also, the 'convertor' this time used the 'traditional' folder structure rather than placing the files into 'My Documents'.

Similarly, I've 'converted' the class 142 from Oovee, and a cursory inspection of the 'converted' file reveals two additional files - vehicle.txt and parameters.txt - in the train's folder; the rest are all the same.

Now, if BVE 4 and openBVE don't throw a wobbly if the files 'vehicle.txt' and 'parameters.txt' are included in the train folder, then the need to 'convert' existing trains might simply be a case of preparing a set of appropriate 'vehicle.txt' and 'parameters.txt' to distribute as 'patches' to existing trains, which shouldn't be too much work.

The 'convertor' produces a file called 'map.txt' which is essentially the route file using the new syntax. It also produces 'signals.csv', 'sounds3d.csv', 'stations.csv', 'sounds.csv' and 'structures.csv'; 'map.txt' (which I'm presuming could have any other name), simply calls on these .csv files, which are just lists.

So, with a little bit of experimentation, it's possible that the sum of our BVE 5 knowledge might make a tremendous leap forward this week!

My cunning plan is to carry out these experiments during the week and to produce some 'packages' that people might test, hopefully by next weekend.

Could we carry on this conversation in the 'Aln Valley' thread, please? Makes sense to keep it all together...

Edit at 1316: Right, first experiment: I copied vehicle.txt and parameters.txt into my usual train folder, and openBVE and BVE 4 didn't object to their presence... so train conversion is going to be a doddle!

I also discovered yesterday that one of the links I gave offers a converter from .csv to .x, without using the viewer. Trouble is I write all my objects in .b3d, so these would have to be converted to .csv first...

If it could work in Windows 7 then it would be a great help for those of us on the newer operating systems.

guillyman wrote:I also discovered yesterday that one of the links I gave offers a converter from .csv to .x, without using the viewer.

The BVE 5 convertor converts .csv objects to .x automatically. There doesn't appear to be .b3d to .x except via the viewer..

To me, it's looking more likely that conversion of legacy routes to BVE 5 will be vary laborious; which is why I'm tending towards creating new content rather than trying to convert stuff.

I've spent the first half of this afternoon's football commentary fiddling with my stone bridge; it appears fine in openBVE and BVE 4, but in BVE 5 the edges of the transparent area have gone transparent and gaps opened up:



Looks to me as if BVE 5 is applying some 'dithering' to the edges of the transparency...???

I'm going to see if I can find the original picture and redo it.

Hi all,

Sitting watching two channels and praying the odds are going to be denied and ManU win again, please, please.

OK I have converted all of Alan's .b3d files to .csv and then the converter does the rest. I have also labourisely changed all .bmp to .png. I am now working through directory by directory changing transparencies to black. I always keep old versions of files so I can go back a version.

Need more info on how you get trains to work, but I have a lot of work to keep me busy before I need to convert the route again. I use OpenBVE suite of things to check work, my OS is Windows 7 so I can't get the old BVE tools to work for me (any suggestions?). I find it quite ironic that I now use OpenBVE as a development suite, often have a little chuckle to myself.

Won't be able to sleep if ManU pull this off.

Bye for now,

Stephen.

And a further update from me...

I've completely rebuilt this bridge. It looks fine in BVE 4 and openBVE, but I still have the transparency issue around the edge of the tunnel mouth in BVE 5.

I suspect that my next best move is to package the whole thing up and let some of you report back what it looks like on your pcs... but that's a job for later in the week!

I have found that in openbve there were often dicrepancies even between the object viewer, the route viewer and the game itself regarding these gaps at the edges. Therefore, whenever possible I used to ensure that edges where two textures met were defined by a series of vertices common to each mesh. This did away with the need for transparencies, thereby making re-skinning easier, and also created an edge which was dead smooth, with none of the "stray pixels" effect. A few more vertices, and maybe faces, but openbve was more tolerant of this than BVE4. Maybe the same principles could solve your problem here, eezy?