BrnoBVE - the new beginning

You might want to give it to a specialist company, it's incredible how much data can be recovered, as long as the disc is physically reasonably intact... Of course this costs quite much, but considering the data at stake (the photos both of your first dates and of your daughter) it probably is worth the try.

With "reasonably intact" I mean "not shattered into thousands of pieces". Specialist firms can even restore data from disks broken in half!

Commiserations on your data loss. No words will be enough, and advice is never appropriate, there's the saying, "Closing the stable door after the horse has run away", springing to mind.

Your three options, of course there's no reason why you can't do them all, if the time can be found. Of the three, I think the idea of a new and different route is attractive. I found that, after Ballyfeckin, it was refreshing to tackle the Welsh route and enjoy working on a "clean sheet".

I'm ambivalent, in a way, about more tutorials. I ask, "Does anyone actually use them?". There's so little evidence and so few people seeming to be involved in building projects. As long as the Denis Lance tutorials and Luigi Cartello's Object building guide are still obtainable (and they are at the moment) I think it's enough. I found them quite sufficient to learn how to build stuff. If anyone out there is determined to get started and make stuff these are all they will need, plus the time, patience and determination that goes with it.

I'm reminded of a quote from (I think) playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who said, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach!". By that wisdom, seeing that you can perhaps you had best go and "Do!"

Well, just a few days ago, someone on this board explicitly cited Dexter's tutorial videos as an inspiration and help, so I think continuing work on them does absolutely make sense - especially since videos adress different learning types than written tuts.

I don't think tutorials are the number one priority, but the community is so split up, it's better to have a couple up. I do remember the tuts from bvebrasil.com.br, they were very simplistic, you had to have some prior knowledge, but they helped get us or me? going.

New routes are always welcome, but don't stop giving downloads for First Brno, please.

I have been thinking similar to graymac with each of the three options that would give a good project. Starting a new route would be interesting. I have also thought which I have been thinking for a while that more tutorials would be of use. However seeing that people have used and learned content creation from these tutorials and there is little interest and projects happening at the moment it is probably not the highest priority.

New tutorials may encourage new developers but like me if you really want to produce content it's very possible to do by  following the tutorials and putting in the time and effort. That has worked for me for my work which is continuing at the moment.

And regarding your data loss and I know this won't help in this instant but it does show the importance of doing backups just in chance something happens. Drive failures can happen and I am sorry to hear your lost.

I voted Brno, but considering your valid arguments I'm on team "new route" now!

Now, I am not against continuing the old route, but there's one thing that haunts me in my sleep. I have started building the route a few years back, and come to think of it, I was an absolute beginner at that time, which means there are some things in the route that were done inefficiently and are probaby wasting your hardware resources.

You're not alone with those thoughts. I've considered "improving" or renovating my older routes and honestly come to the conclusion that it isn't the best idea of how to spend my time. My original "Ireland West" route (no longer available) for BVE4 was just about adequate, but obviously I can do far better now. I thought about updating it - there were no camera views and objects only had "frontal" faces suitable to view from the cab only. Textures were .bmp format and some of the coding had minor errors, etc,etc. I began to renew/optimise things**, but soon decided the result wouldn't be as good as making a new work from the beginning.
I don't know if any of you have done house building renovation at all? I have! And honestly, building a new house is easier than a major reconstruction of an existing place. Same with these routes.

From which you may take the inference that Ballyfeckin isn't likely to be extended or altered - it's really too big a job and I wouldn't get the satisfaction from doing it that I got from creating the original.


** I handed over the Ireland West files with the improved bits entirely to Stephen Cross, who wanted to do something with it - with my blessing and full encouragement to release the outcome as his own, or whatever he liked to do with it. It hasn't been seen or heard of since, but maybe one day??