New map features

[te_lanus]

Ok tried today and it compiled fine. I did do HackaLittleBit's idea of installing tortoiseHG, why that help I have no clue

[HackaLittleBit]

Ok tried today and it compiled fine. I did do HackaLittleBit's idea of installing tortoiseHG, why that help I have no clue

The way I have it set up is that I have one directory which is trunk.
That one I use to pull updates from openttd.
Beside I have more directories.
Those ones are clones of my trunk directory.
Only in those ones I mess around.

Any question no problemo

[wallyweb]

For some silly reason, station masters do not appreciate it when we dismantle their station halls or drop columns through the roofs in order to build bridges across their stations, so today we introduce a revolutionary new concept in bridge construction engineering.

Availing ourselves of Well's time machine, we jumped into the future to study that other great transportation system, the Space Elevator, where we found that the required materials are available today with the strength and rigidity of carbon composites and the tensile strength of carbon nanotubes and the more recently discovered, graphene.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we proudly introduce the Carbon Bridge ...

Carbon Bridge 1, 1st May 2000.png (178.27 KiB) Viewed 4351 times

Carbon Bridge 2, 1st May 2000.png (160.64 KiB) Viewed 4351 times

Here is the construction kit, Alpha version:

CarbonBridgeTest_0_0.grf

(38.99 KiB) Downloaded 100 times

This bridge replaces the currently available Silicone Tubular bridge.
It will be moved to one of the three new bridge slots if and when they become available.

Still to be determined are:
- Introduction Date (Is 2000 early enough?)
- Cost (Very expensive but considering that this bridge sequesters carbon, credits are available to offset the costs)
- Maximum Speed - (Is unlimited too fast?)
- Minimum Length (Currently there are options serving three uncolumned tiles. Should our minimum be four tiles?)
- Maximum Length (Whatever OpenTTD permits?)

Please give this bridge a good workout and post your thoughts and suggestions.

Enjoy

[TrueSatan]

Wow looks nice wally

[HackaLittleBit]

Nice job wally
But is it ready?
I see snow tracks or is this intentional?

[wallyweb]

Nice job wally

But is it ready?

It's ready to use but it's not save game ready untll Beta.

I see snow tracks or is this intentional?

We used a light gray concrete for the rail roadbed. Should we add some carbon fibre to darken it down?

[HackaLittleBit]

We used a light gray concrete for the rail roadbed. Should we add some carbon fibre to darken it down?

Ahh concrete, ok I did not think of that.
A bit darker..., maybe the fourth color from the left? (0,49)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm_ChLgaado

[wallyweb]

We used a light gray concrete for the rail roadbed. Should we add some carbon fibre to darken it down?

Ahh concrete, ok I did not think of that.
A bit darker..., maybe the fourth color from the left? (0,49)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm_ChLgaado

The concrete is a solid colour. We'll add a little noise to darken it down a bit and see how it goes. Thanks for noticing. This is the type of feedback I am looking for.

[HackaLittleBit]

Cirdan can you have a look at bit 5 of m0 in houses.
In tile_make_house proc you initiate m0 with value 1100 0000
first 5 bits are used with SetHouseTriggers prog.
I think it is never used.
Thanks.
Edit: Ok I saw it. It is not used.
I was looking at the description on the bottom of landscape.html and I forgot to look at the table at the top of the page.

[TrueSatan]

Good thing I still can edit my post haha
Here is the Bridged Version of Cirdan's NMF
Version:g2505861bM

And as addition tracerestricted version as well.
Looks like it runs without any problem.

[cirdan]

For some silly reason, station masters do not appreciate it when we dismantle their station halls or drop columns through the roofs in order to build bridges across their stations, so today we introduce a revolutionary new concept in bridge construction engineering.

Availing ourselves of Well's time machine, we jumped into the future to study that other great transportation system, the Space Elevator, where we found that the required materials are available today with the strength and rigidity of carbon composites and the tensile strength of carbon nanotubes and the more recently discovered, graphene.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we proudly introduce the Carbon Bridge ...

Looks very nice!

This bridge replaces the currently available Silicone Tubular bridge.
It will be moved to one of the three new bridge slots if and when they become available.

See below.

Still to be determined are:
- Introduction Date (Is 2000 early enough?)
- Cost (Very expensive but considering that this bridge sequesters carbon, credits are available to offset the costs)
- Maximum Speed - (Is unlimited too fast?)
- Minimum Length (Currently there are options serving three uncolumned tiles. Should our minimum be four tiles?)
- Maximum Length (Whatever OpenTTD permits?)

Considering the natural progression of bridges in TTD, if you intend to release this one as an addition, I would suggest placing it after the silicon bridge, so later introduction date, somewhat more expensive and definitely faster (just my opinion).

Cirdan can you have a look at bit 5 of m0 in houses.
In tile_make_house proc you initiate m0 with value 1100 0000
first 5 bits are used with SetHouseTriggers prog.
I think it is never used.
Thanks.
Edit: Ok I saw it. It is not used.
I was looking at the description on the bottom of landscape.html and I forgot to look at the table at the top of the page.

Yes, it is free, as docs/landscape.html shows.

Here is a new patch that raises the maximum number of bridge types in the game from 13 to 16. You will not see any change with this patch by itself, but it allows NewGRF authors to define new bridges with ids 13, 14 and 15 without replacing existing ones.

[wallyweb]

Here is a new patch that raises the maximum number of bridge types in the game from 13 to 16.

And at last, here are the unguaranteed Windows 32 bit binaries ...

OpenTTD-NMF-16_bridges-test-g2505861bM-Win32.7z

(5.46 MiB) Downloaded 100 times

OpenTTD-g06020f91-tracerestrict-cirdan-brg-Win32.7z

(5.48 MiB) Downloaded 87 times

and for you to see how it all works, the new and improved Carbon Composite Bridge has been moved to its own post below.

[TrueSatan]

Here are the cersion for Ubuntu 14.04 64bit for the "normal" Cirdan branch
and JGR's tracerestriction one.
Have fun. Looks great with Wally's bridge

[wallyweb]

It would seem that the forum's 3 attachent limit is still funtioning as intended, so I moved the Carbon Bridge comments and files to here so as to make room for JGR's traceristrict compilation above ...

... and for you to see how it all works, here is a new and improved Carbon Composite Bridge ...
Availability: January 1, 2000
Minimum Length: 8 tiles (including ramps) to span a minimum 4 pillarless tiles
Maximum Speed: 1000 km/h
Cost: Rather expensive
Slot: Bridge #16

CarbonBridgeTest_0_1.grf

(40.49 KiB) Downloaded 89 times

For pillarless spans of less than 4 tiles, the default Suspension Bridges at length 7 tiles will do the job. Also TBRS has a variety of options, but there are issues (see below).

ISSUES:
Action0 - Cost Factor Maximum FFh:
For TTDPatch, there are only 11 bridge slots with bridge #11 (Tubular) getting the maximum.
OTTD extended slot availability to 13 and adjusted the Cost Factor so that Bridge #13 (Silicone Tubular) got the maximum.
Cirdan's NMF now offers the maximum 16 bridges. Adjustments had to be made and Bridge #16 now has the maximum Cost Factor of FFh.
This required an adjustment to a Global setting for Cost base multipliers. The adjustment was done within Carbon Bridge, but it affects all bridge GRFs loaded above Carbon Bridge. The loading order of bridge GRFs is critical. You can see the effects in the image below:

Carbon Bridge Menus.png (30.69 KiB) Viewed 3810 times

You will also notice a related issue with the menu icons.
Outside of an ActionA Real Sprite replacement, the icons are not accessible.
The Suspension, Cantilever and Tubular bridges each have real sprites for only one bridge. The two extra bridges are recoloured and have no real sprites of their own. This includes the menu icons.
That is why you see the same icon for several bridges.

A possible fix might be to have the menu icons accessible via an Action0 property.

[cirdan]

You will also notice a related issue with the menu icons.
Outside of an ActionA Real Sprite replacement, the icons are not accessible.
The Suspension, Cantilever and Tubular bridges each have real sprites for only one bridge. The two extra bridges are recoloured and have no real sprites of their own. This includes the menu icons.
That is why you see the same icon for several bridges.

A possible fix might be to have the menu icons accessible via an Action0 property.

Bridges use an Action0 to define their sprites, but I see that other entities use an Action3 for that (particularly for UI sprites). I could really use some help from a NewGRF expert here to know what the difference is.

[wallyweb]

I could really use some help from a NewGRF expert here to know what the difference is.

I'll have a go at this but a guru may want to correct me on this.

Bridges use an Action0 to define their sprites,

Not quite. An Action0 assigns properties to a NewGRF feature. Bridge sprites are defined within the game's internal code. For other features (trains, stations, industries, etc.) Action1 is used to define sets of real sprites (as opposed to pseudo-sprites). Action2 is used to group sets of sprites from the previous Action1 together, and make them accessible by a variational or random action 2 (chain) or an Action3.

... but I see that other entities use an Action3 for that (particularly for UI sprites).

Action 3 assigns graphics sets (referenced to by (chains of) action 2(s) to feature IDs (vehicles, stations, houses, industries, ...).

Usually there are two Action1s per set, one for the game sprites and one for the GUI sprites. Action3 ties them together.

Better questions might be why weren't bridges included in this structure and would doing so now break existing games?

[cirdan]

Thanks for your explanation. However, I still do not feel comfortable enough to make a decision about this, so I think that I will leave it to somebody with more knowledge than I have to design how this should work in NewGRF land, and then I will make the corresponding changes to the code.

[Hafting]

The image below demonstrates that the player does have default bridge options where the pillars do not penetrate the roof of the hall.

I do not see a problem with a pillar going through a roof. Realistically, a station may get built under a bridge - of course they won't mess with any pillar holding the bridge up. They just build around the pillar, and the end result is a pillar through a hole in the roof, and a narrow spot for people on the platform (if we can see through the roof). The roof do not need to be of a type that can support a pillar - the pillar is seen to go through (or assumed to go through).

A roof extending through the bridge forming a roadblock is much worse - but the player can always build roofless station tiles himself, if automating is too hard. Or possibly use a grf providing a low flat roof?

[wallyweb]

I do not see a problem with a pillar going through a roof.

That functionality is still there. The Carbon Bridge is merely an exceedingly expensive way to avoid pillars for wider stations. What might be interesting would be for a station artist to design a station to look even better when built around pillars.

[Timeflyer]

can't load this grf with Stable 1.5.3

Fail: