[Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
Moderator: OpenTTD Developers
[Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
I don't know about anyone else, but when I look at the 'Land owners' display on the small map, it's a bit confusing sometimes about what different colours mean; you can confuse industries (light grey) with the grey or white player, towns with the red player, and as for the dark blue player, their colour is *identical* to the blue 'water' colour (see illustration below)!
When I started implementing these different colours, I thought I recognised them. Then I fired up the original Transport Tycoon in DOSbox and realised that they were pretty much the ones Chris Sawyer came up with in the original game! In TTD, he 'brightened up' the land and sea colours presumably to make them less depressing, which is fine for most smallmap screens, but I think that using the 'duller' colours for stuff not owner by players makes the 'Land owners' smallmap display much clearer, as you know that dark stuff is not player-owned, and light stuff is. Colours also clash a lot less.
With this (small) patch, the colours of the land, sea, and towns are dulled/darkened, and industries appear as black. This does make them stand out a bit, but you sure don't confuse them with any player-owned stuff; if it's black, it's an industry!
When I started implementing these different colours, I thought I recognised them. Then I fired up the original Transport Tycoon in DOSbox and realised that they were pretty much the ones Chris Sawyer came up with in the original game! In TTD, he 'brightened up' the land and sea colours presumably to make them less depressing, which is fine for most smallmap screens, but I think that using the 'duller' colours for stuff not owner by players makes the 'Land owners' smallmap display much clearer, as you know that dark stuff is not player-owned, and light stuff is. Colours also clash a lot less.
With this (small) patch, the colours of the land, sea, and towns are dulled/darkened, and industries appear as black. This does make them stand out a bit, but you sure don't confuse them with any player-owned stuff; if it's black, it's an industry!
- Attachments
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- A comparison of the land owners windows in TT and TTD; the colours were 'brightened up' for TTD, and remain this way for OpenTTD.
- colours-tt-ttd.png (26.56 KiB) Viewed 692 times
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- colours-nopatch-patch.png
- A comparison of the land owners windows in OpenTTD without and with this patch applied; I believe the patched version on the right looks clearer.
- (34.59 KiB) Downloaded 327 times
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- Mapcolours v1.0.patch
- Map colours patch v1.0
- (1.16 KiB) Downloaded 146 times
=== Jez ===
Re: [Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
I would never have thought of this. Nice catch
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if (YouAreHappyAndYouKnowIt) {
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- athanasios
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Re: [Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
10 times better!
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"If no one is a fool I am also a fool." -The TTD maniac.
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Re: [Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
How does this effect the visibility of industries on the industries-display minimap that very carefully do not use the old minimap colors, and happen to use one of the new ones instead?
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Re: [Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
It doesn't, because the land/water/town/etc. colours are only modified for the land owners minimap.
=== Jez ===
Re: [Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
Good, now blue player can no longer masquerade their construction as water :)
If you need something, do it yourself or it will be never done.
My patches: Extra large maps (1048576 high, 1048576 wide) (FS#1059), Vehicle + Town + Industry console commands (FS#1060), few minor patches (FS#2820, FS#1521, FS#2837, FS#2843), AI debugging facility
Other: Very large ships NewGRF, Bilbo's multiplayer patch pack v5 (for OpenTTD 0.7.3)
My patches: Extra large maps (1048576 high, 1048576 wide) (FS#1059), Vehicle + Town + Industry console commands (FS#1060), few minor patches (FS#2820, FS#1521, FS#2837, FS#2843), AI debugging facility
Other: Very large ships NewGRF, Bilbo's multiplayer patch pack v5 (for OpenTTD 0.7.3)
- belugas
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Re: [Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
A few notes about this patch
1) I personally do not like the colors proposed. And I know i am not the only one
2) because of this, it should be made that the colors could be changeable, without the need of a patch option
3) comments at the end of a line are in the form of "blabla; // Something to say"
I know, it is not the case all around the trunk. But you just spot one of many places that need fixing.
By the way, have you spotted the stange pattern of colors in there?
Maybe that C8 value can be better used, than just repeated... Dunno, but... there might be the subject of a usefull patch there...
1) I personally do not like the colors proposed. And I know i am not the only one
2) because of this, it should be made that the colors could be changeable, without the need of a patch option
3) comments at the end of a line are in the form of "blabla; // Something to say"
I know, it is not the case all around the trunk. But you just spot one of many places that need fixing.
By the way, have you spotted the stange pattern of colors in there?
Code: Select all
MK(0xC8, STR_0126_WATER),
_owner_colors[OWNER_WATER] = MKCOLOR(0xC8C8C8C8); /* Water */
If you are not ready to work a bit for your ideas, it means they don't count much for you.
OpenTTD and Realism? Well... Here are a few thoughs on the matter.
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Music from the Bloody Time Zones
OpenTTD and Realism? Well... Here are a few thoughs on the matter.
He he he he
------------------------------------------------------------
Music from the Bloody Time Zones
Re: [Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
That sounds like bigtime overkill to me. I don't know why you don't like the new colours, but they just seem better to me as you can more easily see the player colours highlighted.belugas wrote:A few notes about this patch
1) I personally do not like the colors proposed. And I know i am not the only one
2) because of this, it should be made that the colors could be changeable, without the need of a patch option
I'm not sure what you're saying here; the comments are wrong?3) comments at the end of a line are in the form of "blabla; // Something to say"
I know, it is not the case all around the trunk. But you just spot one of many places that need fixing.
Yeah, it seems to define 4x8bit palette values that determine a 4-pixel 'pattern' on the map. Having them all the same colour seems to be the most visually pleasing on the landowners map so I kept it that way.By the way, have you spotted the stange pattern of colors in there?
=== Jez ===
- belugas
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Re: [Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
You already have users who do not like the new scheme. What are we going to say to all the complains that might occur about it? There has to be a way to please everyone on the matter. The fact that YOU like it does not means EVEYBODY MUST like it. After all, CS himself changed it...jez wrote:That sounds like bigtime overkill to me. I don't know why you don't like the new colours, but they just seem better to me as you can more easily see the player colours highlighted.
not the content of the comment. The code style of the comment. You wrote "/*blabla*/" while, at end of line, it should be "//blabla".jez wrote:I'm not sure what you're saying here; the comments are wrong?3) comments at the end of a line are in the form of "blabla; // Something to say"
I know, it is not the case all around the trunk. But you just spot one of many places that need fixing.
It is part of our coding style
I meant that onthe current code, there is a definition for one color byte (0xC8) which is then repeated 4 times (0xC8C8C8C8) in a macro. I am thinking in making it so there would be no need for that repetition. Maybe i'm expressing myself badly...jez wrote:Yeah, it seems to define 4x8bit palette values that determine a 4-pixel 'pattern' on the map. Having them all the same colour seems to be the most visually pleasing on the landowners map so I kept it that way.
Would not be the first time
If you are not ready to work a bit for your ideas, it means they don't count much for you.
OpenTTD and Realism? Well... Here are a few thoughs on the matter.
He he he he
------------------------------------------------------------
Music from the Bloody Time Zones
OpenTTD and Realism? Well... Here are a few thoughs on the matter.
He he he he
------------------------------------------------------------
Music from the Bloody Time Zones
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Re: [Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
Make the colors changeable seems a bit overkill to me too. What about making it an option to use the new colors? People who don't like the new colors can stick to the old ones that way, without making the patch unnessecerily complex.belugas wrote:You already have users who do not like the new scheme. What are we going to say to all the complains that might occur about it? There has to be a way to please everyone on the matter. The fact that YOU like it does not means EVEYBODY MUST like it. After all, CS himself changed it...jez wrote:That sounds like bigtime overkill to me. I don't know why you don't like the new colours, but they just seem better to me as you can more easily see the player colours highlighted.
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Re: [Patch] Better land owner smallmap colours
I have also thought of one colour scheme for owner map that may also be usable. So that your tracks would be for example orange and track of competitors would be in some shades from bright green to bright blue. While it will make harder to distinguish between competitors, it would be easy to distinguish your tracks from competition and from the terrain around it.
If you need something, do it yourself or it will be never done.
My patches: Extra large maps (1048576 high, 1048576 wide) (FS#1059), Vehicle + Town + Industry console commands (FS#1060), few minor patches (FS#2820, FS#1521, FS#2837, FS#2843), AI debugging facility
Other: Very large ships NewGRF, Bilbo's multiplayer patch pack v5 (for OpenTTD 0.7.3)
My patches: Extra large maps (1048576 high, 1048576 wide) (FS#1059), Vehicle + Town + Industry console commands (FS#1060), few minor patches (FS#2820, FS#1521, FS#2837, FS#2843), AI debugging facility
Other: Very large ships NewGRF, Bilbo's multiplayer patch pack v5 (for OpenTTD 0.7.3)
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