New Pendolino cab at BVE4Trains

If you haven't tried it already, the new Pendolino cab at BVE4Trains is very much worth giving a go. It's a big step forward on the previous one (which was by no means a bad effort in itself).

Especially impressive are the size of the cab (particularly impressive looking on a widescreen monitor) and the resolution of the image, which is very crisp and realistic in appearance. Also the windscreen wipers, which are a work of art in themselves.

I would make two small requests for improvements. Firstly, the speedometer reads slightly incorrectly. It's not a problem at low speed, but by the time the speedometer shows 125mph the train is actually going at 131mph.

Secondly (and this isn't directly related to the new cab) there are some issues with the simulation of the train's performance. With full power on level track the BVE pendolino reaches 60mph in 50 seconds. The real thing (a 9 car set, as simulated) does it in about 55 seconds, so a very reasonable approximation. However, the BVE Pendolino gets to 125mph in 2 minutes 30 seconds. This is much quicker than the real thing, which takes 3 minutes 45 seconds to get to that speed.

A revision of the performance simulation to bring the BVE Pendolino more in line with the real thing would be great to see one day.

Overall though, the new cab is another great piece of work; a big 'thank you' to Steve Thomas for his hard work.

Why not e-mail Steve at stevegr(at)bve4trains.com - it might make him then

Just downloaded and tried this new version. Very impressed. Clear instruments and labelling and you can almost smell the newness of the cab. Fine piece of work. Really must upgrade my computer to get the best out of it!
Jim

I would not upgrade your computer just for the 390 alone Jim.

NWM as a route will be getting larger and more Hi Res with new branches.

Martin C of BVETMD has quite a few cabviews in the works and I don't mean just the one's he has announced!

So I hope the update would be to make everything run better!

Including everything from around the world in Bve.


390 externals, no at the moment I don't have the shots to make one James.

Performance wise what are you figures based on?

I've actually slowed the Pendo down a bit from when the Bve4 one was released, now it will only get to about the design speed of 140 mph.

Putting it more correct by your figures is quite simple as Dexter has pointed out, but the speedo might be a bit harder to put right.

Infact you would be hard pressed to find any speedo in any released train/cabview that is correct across the speed range.

The needle is actually flat or vertical in the animation but the rest of the gauge in the cabview is not, so they always end up being some sort of compromise.

Nice to hear news of NWM. Liked the new Pendolino cab also. I used the exteriors from the older Pendolino I had. They are better than the grey box!
Regards Stu
Edit I hope I am not breaking any rules by using the exterior from the other unit.

Stevegr wrote:

Performance wise what are you figures based on?

I've actually slowed the Pendo down a bit from when the Bve4 one was released, now it will only get to about the design speed of 140 mph.

Some figures were given to the press when the Pendolinos were introduced, and they appeared in certain publications such as Modern Railways. My own recordings suggest they were a pretty good reflection of how the Pendolinos perform in reality.

James wrote:

Stevegr wrote:

Performance wise what are you figures based on?

I've actually slowed the Pendo down a bit from when the Bve4 one was released, now it will only get to about the design speed of 140 mph.

Some figures were given to the press when the Pendolinos were introduced, and they appeared in certain publications such as Modern Railways. My own recordings suggest they were a pretty good reflection of how the Pendolinos perform in reality.

I've heard from a driver of them, and read a few places before, that if you opened the taps and let them go for long enough, you could probably get around 160 out of them...

Brilliant turn of phrase - "open the taps".  Love it!

If you switch off all safety devices and wait long enough, you'll also be able to run a shunting engine to crazy speeds... Up to the point where the driving dynamics can't be contained by the wheel/rail-system. (At least I suppose the construction of shunting engines will reach that point at a lower speed than the speed, where air friction becomes higher than the engine's force).