2.5 progress: Beta 9 (October 29)

[Patchman]

I've released alpha 9 at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

It doesn't actually contain any code from myself, but Csaba has contributed a few new features instead (as you've read in the message above). I'm in the final stages of writing my PhD thesis and basically don't have any time to do anything except write write write... (and that's writing the thesis, not TTDPatch code unfortunately ) so I won't be able to fix bugs or add new features until that's over, which it will be on January 5th (for better or for worse). So if you send me an email, don't expect a reply soon . There won't be any more alpha versions from me until then, although I'll still publish one if I get code submissions from the other developers, such as this one.

For the full list of changes, please see below.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 9 (December 8, 2003):

• by Csaba:
  • Dropdown lists will appear above the button if they don't fit below it
  • Fixed a TTD bug that allowed trains and RVs to travel on the water of a diagonal riverbank.
  • Added window and windowbox structures to ttdprot.ah
  • Added the ability to release timeslices in the DOS version as well, enabled by generalfixes. You can turn this feature off with mismods bit 13 (value 8192).
• by Marcin: fix bug in gotodepot with hangar orders disappearing when other non-aircraft depots are removed
• by Oskar: enhancegui is no longer a bit switch, the settings can be chosen in the game by the new settings window available from the setting menu bar
• by Csaba:
  • New switches to enable warnings for lost vehicles (vehicles that couldn't get to the next station in the given time)
  • The DOS version gives timeslices away while showing the high score tables and the end game screen as well
  • News messages no longer appear if an opponent's crashed airplane or train is cleared. Also moved these messages to the vehicle info category
  • Implemented a cache for performance scores if both newperformance and showprofitinlist are enabled, so it won't slow down low-end machines so much.
  • Showprofitinlist colors only the last year profit, not the whole line. It shows the exact performance score with newperformance.
  • Various small improvements of my older switches
  • Fixed a small bug with transparent station signs (they appeared with normal letters even in the farthest zoom level, which caused incorrect display)

[Csaboka]

Hi!

New version available at http://www.csucsposta.hu/csaboka2/ttdpatch/

Changes since alpha 9:
- Fixed lost vehicles assuming every vehicle to be lost. Also fixed minor bug in cfg file.
- Lost vehicles switch now considers depot orders as well
- Enable palette animation in windowed mode for the Windows version. It seems that it was disabled intentionally, but I don't know the reason why... It needs as much CPU time as the fullscreen mode now (it used to need less because of the lack of animation). If your computer can't cope with this, simply disable Full animation in the options menu.
- Fixed signs not going red in road/rv crossings. (in fact, they went dark blue instead of red, but this was pretty hard to notice)

[Patchman]

Marcin has posted an experimental alpha version, and an updated 2.0 rev 1 at http://kufel.immt.pwr.wroc.pl/~mgrzegor/ttdpatch/

For those who prefer a stable version, there's 2.0 rev 1.1 MG, which is almost the same as 2.0 rev 1, except that two bugs in the 'gotodepot' feature are fixed (one of them being a retrofit bugfix from 2.0.1 alpha 9, by the way).


For those who aren't afraid of the alpha versions, there's 2.0.1 alpha 9.1 MG, with a long-awaited feature: Ctrl key working in the multiplayer mode. For now, the following Ctrl-key patches work in multiplayer:
- signal type selection (with extpresignals on)
- buying additional train engines and changing the direction they're facing (with multihead on)
- borrowing and repaying the maximum amount (with debtmax on)
- removal of industries, transmitters, lighthouses etc. (with the appropriate bits of morebuildoptions on).

The peculiar behaviour of extpresignals and multihead in the multiplayer mode is now gone; you change pre-signal types and buy additional engines the same way as in the single-player mode, i.e. with the Ctrl key.

Some Ctrl-key features, however, still don't work in the multiplayer mode:
* Shared orders, since the way they're currently implemented is incompatible with the multiplayer mode.
* Planting trees over rectangular area; the current code is ill-behaved with respect to multiplayer and will have to be reimplemented.
* Fast train selling; I'm still uncertain if the current implementation is really the Right Thing to do.

But don't worry, all these features will eventually support the multiplayer mode as well. For now, if you can test the new multiplayer features, please tell me if they work right!

[Csaboka]

New experimental version alpha 9 vcs 2 at
http://www.csucsposta.hu/csaboka2/ttdpatch/

Changes:

• - Windows version needs less CPU time when showing the high score table and the game end screens
  - Selectgoods is now able to "forget" cargos: if no cargo of a given type is picked up in a station for the given number of days, all cargo of that type is removed from there and won't appear until a vehicle tries to pick it up again. The default is 365 days. To restore the old behaviour, specify 0 days to disable forgetting.
  - Constant map refreshing: the original code refreshes the map window every 64 ticks (the upper half first, then the lower part 32 ticks later, then again the upper part 32 ticks later and so on). However, if you add 1024 to your miscmods setting, the map will be refreshed every tick. This consumes 64 times more CPU time but it looks better as well.
  - TTD had a bug that made it crash if you right-clicked on the two buttons at rhe bottom of lorry station build window. This is now fixed.
  - Cht: ResetThisStation to reset only one station. If you specify a number between 0 and 11 as well, only that cargo type will be removed form the station. (For the ordinal number of cargos, refer to the cargo payment rates window. The first cargo in the list is number 0, the second is number 1 and so on). This cheat won't reset your rating as the forgetting feature does (it would make cheating way too easy)

PS: This version doesn't include the new features of Marcin's latest build, so don't use it for multiplayer games

[Csaboka]

New experimental version alpha 9 vcs 3 at
http://www.csucsposta.hu/csaboka2/ttdpatch/

Changes:

• - New switch maprefresh to specify how frequently the map window should be refreshed. The miscmods flag won't work any more.
  - Made shared orders, plantmanytrees and fastsell compatible with multiplayer
  - The cost of planting a tree on farmland now includes the cost of clearing the fields as well. (It used to cost the same everywhere, allowing removing farmlands in a very cheap way)
  - Unnecessary farm fences are removed everywhere, not just in deserts and snowy areas.
  - Station windows could show too few cargo icons if more than 2.550 items were waiting.
  - Fixed a bug that made TTD assume that trains can enter a depot from the wrong direction. This fixes some issues with signals going red unnecessarily, but there are still cases when this could happen.

Not that the diffs include changes made by Marcin recently because the multiplayer fixes depend on them.

[Csaboka]

I've released TTDPatch 2.0.1 alpha 9 VCs 4. It can be downloaded from:
http://users.tt-forums.net/csaboka/ttdpatch/

(Thanks to Owen, I have a new website now)

This alpha is dedicated to fixing multiplayer issues. I can't promise anything for sure, but it has a fix that seemed to fix unstable multiplayer game under my Windows XP. The fix needs at least DirectX 5 to be installed on your machine, because it uses a more recent DLL than the unpatched TTD. If you have generalfixes on and the needed DLL is present, this fix will be applied. There was another bug in the patch: using the dynamite tool caused immediate loss of synch in multiplayer. This is fixed as well. I've disabled engines emitting smoke while slowing down on a station because it seemed to desynch multiplayer games, and is unrealistic anyway. The subsidiary management code caused a hang when trying to manage a company, so it has been changed.

There are two other improvements to multiplayer. The first is a warning message about desynchronization of games; now both players will be warned as soon as the loss of synchronization is sure, so they can use sv2flip to resynch games before it gets worse. However, desynchronization always happens for a reason, so please let us know if you find a reproducable loss of synch. If you don't like this feature, you can turn it off by adding 16384 to your miscmods setting, but please note that this disables warnings on the other side, so both players should turn it off to disable these warnings altogether.

The second feature makes the game fall back to single player if it can't connect to the other side for more than ten seconds. This allows players to retry connecting or exit TTD normally instead of having to kill it by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del. This feature is currently for Windows only, but I'll do it for DOS as well if I have more free time. If you prefer trying forever instead of giving up, add 32768 to your miscmods switch.

This version contains some bugfixes as well:
- The lost vehicles switch now considers non-stop orders as well.
- The lost vehicles switch handled small airport hangars wrong.
- Shared orders weren't restored properly after selling and re-buying a vehicle
- News messages about an airport being cleared could appear for opponents' airplanes as well.

The meaning of the parameter of selectgoods has changed a bit: 0 turns it off, 1 turns it on with 365 days forget time and 2 turns it on without the forgetting feature. The meaning of other values is still the same. This was necessary because some people specify 0 instead of "off" and 1 instead of "on", but these values mean very short forgetting time in the new version. To avoid such surprizes, it's a good idea to use "on" and "off" for on/off switches instead of 1 and 0.

[SHADOW-XIII]

By Marcin Grzegorczyk:
http://kufel.immt.pwr.wroc.pl/~mgrzegor/ttdpatch/

Version 2.0.1 alpha 9.2 MG (2004-01-08 ):
- Included Csaba's changes up to 2.0.1 alpha 9 VCS4
- New switch, 'networktimeout' to sepcify the time after which WinTTD will abort the network connection if there's no response from the other player
- Out-of-memory messages are in a normal format now (LANG_TOSTARTTTD is obsolete)
- The table of settings displayed by the 'verbose' switch now can be scrolled, and no longer causes the console to resize; the switch descriptions are displayed in one-column format now, so they may be up to 76 characters long instead of the former 36
- Some of the in-game red messages (e.g. bribe attempt failed) are better formatted now
- Bug fixed: saving enhanced GUI settings didn't work in the DOS version
- The enhanced GUI settings chunk is now treated as optional
- The -!S+ devel switch writes ranges correctly in the switch comments
- Improved communication between the code loader and ttdpatchw.exe
- It is now possible to translate some of the error and warning messages TTDLOAD may display at its initialization stage (e.g. not enough free memory for some TTDPatch features)
- Fixed bug in the L6 array chunk load/save code (used to add 4 bytes of trailing garbage)
- (devel) BCC is now called with -a- (no data alignment) instead of -a (default data alignment) to prevent problems
- (devel) Increased the number of possible feature bits from 128 to 256
- (devel) The order of switches in the switch settings table is now determined in sw_list.h rather than switches.c
- (devel) GCC doesn't strip symbol information and doesn't optimize the code if DEBUG=1

[Csaboka]

New experimental version 2.0.1 alpha 9 VCs5 available at

http://users.tt-forums.net/csaboka/ttdpatch/

It contains only one new feature: TTD used to ignore crashed aircraft except blocking the runway. You could even destroy the airport below the plane and rebuild it to make the runway clear again. Now you get an appropriate error message ("Aircraft in the way").

The real reason why this version was released so soon after vcs 4 is that I've found another multiplayer desynch reason in the patch: The games could desynch with showspeed on and realistic acceleration if their window was open while they climb up a hill.

This version doesn't contain Marcin's recent changes, so it isn't worth downloading unless you want to play multiplayer. Alternatively, you can use the MG version with showspeed turned off to prevent desynchs.

[Csaboka]

WARNING! Alpha 9 VCs 5 is broken

While I was fixing the MP bug I mentioned I accidentally broke realistic acceleration of trains. Please use Marcin's version instead of mine and turn off showspeed when playing multiplayer. The correct fix will be included in alpha 10.

[SHADOW-XIII]

http://kufel.immt.pwr.wroc.pl/~mgrzegor/ttdpatch/

Version 2.0.1 alpha 9.3 MG (2004-01-15):
- Included Csaba's changes up to 2.0.1 alpha 9 VCS5b:
- Bug fixed: loss of synchronization in multiplayer when using the 'showspeed' switch
- TTD bug fixed: crashed aircraft not considered "in the way" when removing an airport
- New switch, 'toylandfeatures' to enable some landscape features of randomly-generated games that are normally disabled in the toyland climate: bit 1 - create lighthouses; bit 2 - create random clusters of trees in addition to isolated random trees

[Patchman]

After a long wait (or not so long if you were following Csaba's or Marcin's releases), I've finally found the time to release the next alpha version at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/ .

Because Csaba and Marcin were so busy adding new features to the patch, the list of changes below has gotten pretty long while I was writing my PhD thesis. I'll just summarize the new features and major changes. You can read about all bugfixes in the full list of changes. Hopefully we can get pages up on the Wiki at wiki.ttdpatch.net for all new features.

Both Csaba and Marcin have put a lot of work into making multiplayer games work better, both in the DOS version and the Windows version. For example, Marcin made the Ctrl key work for most features and Csaba added the rest. A lot of possible desynchronizations have been removed as well, and there's a good chance that multiplayer games might be quite stable in alpha 10. Probably still slow unless you have a fast network, but they should work.

In addition, Csaba wrote the new Cht: ResetThisStation sign cheat, which works like Cht: ResetStations, but only for the station it is placed over. He also wrote "maprefresh", which refreshes the map more often.

Because network games would lock up on one side if the other side crashed, Marcin wrote the new networktimeout switch that terminates the connection if the other side doesn't reply in a certain amount of time, by default 30 seconds. He also wrote toylandfeatures, which enables lighthouse and clusters of trees for the toyland climate.

You might get a message when loading games saved with alpha 9 that the savegame is using features which are not available. You can ignore this message when upgrading to alpha 10.

Anyway, now that I'm back to the patching, the next few versions should be coming out a lot faster.

Have fun!

Josef

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 10 (January 17, 2004):

• fixed bugs with train properties 1B and 23 not working
• fixed bug with new grfs always showing english names if ttdpttxt.dat present
• fixed bug with landscape6 chunk in savegames having four trailing bytes of garbage
• fixed bug with action 7/9 GRFID tests only working on grfs above the current one
• Included Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 9 VCS1:
  • Fixed lost vehicles assuming every vehicle to be lost
  • Lost vehicles switches now consider depot orders as well
  • Enable palette animation in windowed mode for the Windows version
  • Fixed lights not going red in road/rv crossings
• Included Marcin's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 9.1 MG (2003-12-15):
  • The following Ctrl key features should work now in multiplayer: 'debtmax', 'morebuildoptions' bits 3 and 4, 'multihead', 'extpresignals'. The special behaviour of 'multihead' and 'extpresignals' in the multiplayer mode has been removed.
  • Bug fixed: possible loss of synchronization in multiplayer when checking the cost of building a new depot (with 'gotodepot' on)
  • Bug fixed: with 'buildwhilepaused' on, if a vehicle generated income at the title screen TTD would crash
  • Bug fixed: with 'buildwhilepaused' on, tile animation procedures used to be called when TTD ran out of text effect slots (could cause a sync loss in multiplayer)
• Included Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 9 VCS2:
  • Windows ver uses less CPU time when showing the high score table and the game end screens
  • The 'selectgoods' switch is now able to "forget" cargos not picked up for the given number of days (set to 2 to disable this "forgetting" feature)
  • Constant map refreshing
  • TTD bug fixed: TTD will no longer crash if you right-click the catchment area on/off buttons in the lorry station orientation window
  • Cht: ResetThisStation to reset only one station; if you specify a parameter between 0 and 11, it will reset only the corresponding cargo type
• Included Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 9 VCS3:
  • New switch, 'maprefresh' (-YR) to specify how frequently the map window should be refreshed (in ticks)
  • Shared orders, fast consist selling and planting trees with Ctrl now works in multiplayer too
  • TTD bug fixed: planting trees over farm fields includes the cost of clearing the fields now
  • Leftover farm fences disappear everywhere, not just in snow or desert (enabled by 'generalfixes')
  • TTD bug fixed: Station windows could show wrong number of cargo icons if more than 2550 items were waiting
  • TTD bug fixed: Trains no longer assume they can enter a depot from the wrong direction
• Included Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 9 VCS4:
  • Bug fixed: dynamite tool used to cause a loss of synchronization in multiplayer
  • Bug fixed: train engines no longer emit smoke or sparks when they're braking at a station
  • WinTTD now uses DPLAYX.DLL instead of DPLAY.DLL if possible (requires DirectX 5 or later, but seems to fix hangups under Windows XP and allows connecting to a specific host) (enabled by 'generalfixes', 'win2k' or 'networktimeout')
  • TTD will now warn both players if the games get out of sync (enabled by 'generalfixes', 'win2k' or 'networktimeout'; may be disabled by miscmods bit 14)
  • WinTTD will now abort the connection if there's no response after a certain time (enabled by 'networktimeout')
• Included Marcin's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 9.2 MG (2004-01-08 ):
  • New switch, 'networktimeout' to sepcify the time after which WinTTD will abort the network connection if there's no response from the other player
  • Out-of-memory messages are in a normal format now (LANG_TOSTARTTTD is obsolete)
  • The table of settings displayed by the 'verbose' switch now can be scrolled, and no longer causes the console to resize; the switch descriptions are displayed in one-column format now, so they may be up to 76 characters long instead of the former 36
  • Some of the in-game red messages (e.g. bribe attempt failed) are better formatted now
  • Bug fixed: saving enhanced GUI settings didn't work in the DOS version
  • The enhanced GUI settings chunk is now treated as optional
  • The -!S+ devel switch writes ranges correctly in the switch comments
  • Improved communication between the code loader and ttdpatchw.exe
  • It is now possible to translate some of the error and warning messages TTDLOAD may display at its initialization stage (e.g. not enough free memory for some TTDPatch features)
• Included Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 9 VCS5:
  • Bug fixed: loss of synchronization in multiplayer when using the 'showspeed' switch
  • TTD bug fixed: crashed aircraft not considered "in the way" when removing an airport
• Included Marcin's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 9.3 MG (2004-01-15):
  • New switch, 'toylandfeatures' to enable some landscape features of randomly-generated games that are normally disabled in the toyland climate: bit 1 - create lighthouses; bit 2 - create random clusters of trees in addition to isolated random trees
• make sure Marcin's new Win loader code can detect old loaders and suggests deleting ttdloadw.ovl if necessary
• action 2 feature 0-3 property 40 is number in consist (calculated)
• allow division/modulus operation for action 2 variational ids
• make monorail&maglev paper wagon available in temperate climate as well, with moreindustriesperclimate on
• fixed bug in display of cargo types available for train wagon refitting

[Csaboka]

New experimental version 2.0.1 alpha 10 VCs available at

http://users.tt-forums.net/csaboka/ttdpatch/

It contains multiplayer improvements only, you don't need to download it if you don't ever play multiplayer.

While playing multiplayer games, TTD used to eat all the CPU time waiting for the other side to respond. This patched version, however, uses a more efficient waiting method, radically reducing CPU usage.

After upgrading, TTD should never use 100% CPU time, except while fading out the screen (before showing high scores, for example).

[Patchman]

I've released alpha 11 at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/ .

Aside from additional multiplayer improvements by Csaba, most of the changes are not of immediate use for most people, but they improve the capabilities of the new graphics files. Including improved train wagon refitting, alpha 11 also introduces the concept of callbacks, which allow the graphics files to affect how the game works in a more sophisticated way. To the graphics authors, this feature of callbacks is explained in a new Wiki page at http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/tiki-index.php ... FCallBacks .

Another change is that the LANG variable now understands the common notation of ISO-3166 country codes, e.g. LANG=en or LANG=fr. This will make it easier to run TTDPatch on Linux, where the LANG variable is usually set in this format.

In related news, the manual and FAQ are now fully migrated to the Wiki system at http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/ . The manual there now also documents all switches of the latest alpha versions, so you no longer have to wait for the next release version to find out what the new switches do if you missed an announcement. Being fully searchable, the wiki should make it a lot faster to find answers for your questions.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 11 (January 26, 2004):

• include changes in Csaba's 2.0.1 alpha 10 VCs:
  • more multiplayer fixes
  • TTDWin now doesn't use 100% while waiting for reply from other player
• the environment variable LANG now accepts standard format cc_CC@dd.encoding, although only the cc part (ISO-3166 country code) is used at the moment
• action 2 vehicle prop 40 now returns total number of vehs in consist as well
• for actions 0..5 and A, abort with wrong version error if no action 8 before, to prevent crashes from old graphics files with no action 8; also check that param 6 really is terminated by FF
• fixed bug with the tempset not automatically deactivating when the dbset was loaded and already active
• fixed memory leak when loading language data (esp. for list of languages)
• rewrote train refitting, and added new prop 1C to set refit cost
• introduced "callback" feature that allows patch functions to depend on graphics features
• added callback for making wagons powered and the corresponding sparks/smoke production
• fixed steam position in N direction when using prop 22
• replaced windows version literal constants with labeled constants
• train info window didn't show weight added by powered wagons, and it wasn't added when not using realistic acceleration either
• in depot window, when unattached wagon line is shown but doesn't fit, the scrollbar sometimes showed more rows than were really there

[Csaboka]

New experimental version 2.0.1 alpha 10 VCs 2 available at

http://users.tt-forums.net/csaboka/ttdpatch/

It contains improvements only for the Windows version, so no DOS executable is available. It's based on alpha 10 because I couldn't download the sources of alpha 11 yet.

The new feature contained is "enhancemultiplayer" to enable more than two players in multiplayer mode. For more information, see this post

[Patchman]

I've released alpha 12 at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/ .

Mostly it fixes bugs introduced by alpha 11, such as wagons having no capacities and incorrect values. However, I've introduced one change which makes it impossible to use the shared/copied vehicle orders feature when the current vehicle already has orders. Previously, when you clicked on a station and didn't notice a vehicle in that station, the game deleted all current orders and copied/shared the orders of that vehicle. Now that only happens if there are no orders already. If you want to copy or share orders and a vehicle already has an order, click "reset" before attempting to copy.

I've also added another callback, which allows the .grf file to change train wagon lengths to make short wagons (or tenders) depending on various things, e.g. the engine. I've removed the AIBoost feature, although the switch is still there but it won't do anything. Finally, now the train and road vehicle refit buttons appear and disappear properly without having to close the window.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 12 (January 31, 2004):

• fixed morebuildoptions bit 5 being impossible to turn on
• fixed bug with action A for other climate files being reset when changing climate (e.g. loading non-tropic game from main menu)
• added an action 2 callback for wagon length
• fixed bug with wagons that had no capacity and incorrect value (also prevented AI from building train routes)
• copying or sharing orders from other vehicles is now only possible if the order list is empty
• reset train&rv window struct on entering/leaving depot to show/remove refit button as appropriate
• removed AIBoost switch entirely (although currently it's not yet declared obsolete, it just won't do anything at all)

[Patchman]

Hi all, I've released alpha 13 already, at the usual location http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

In addition to fixing the crash people have reported when buying aircraft or opening aircraft windows, it adds a new switch for people running the Windows version of TTD in windowed mode: stretchwindow <size> resizes the TTD window to the given horizontal size by stretching the pixels. This means it doesn't change the real resolution, but it makes the game window larger on very high resolution monitors. The stretching that's required slows down the game so you need a relatively fast computer and graphics card for that. This switch does absolutely nothing (except perhaps a small slowdown) in fullscreen mode, or in the DOS version. For more info see the manual entry at http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/tiki-index.php ... etchWindow .

There have also been several changes to the grf capabilities again, including a new version number 06 for 2.0.1 alpha 13 or higher.

Finally, from now on several switches that were turned on by default no longer are. They are servint, feederservice, selectstationgoods, multihead, newstartyear and planespeed. This means when using the -a command line switch, or when running TTDPatch for the first time without a ttdpatch.cfg, these switches will be left turned off while the others are turned on.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 13 (February 2, 2004):

• set the default for servint, feederservice, selectstationgoods, multihead, newstartyear and planespeed to be turned off
• reorganized common.h switch definitions
• added switch to scale window size in the Windows version of TTD when set to window mode, now the window size can be anything (but pixels are simply doubled, no better resolution); don't use switch in fullscreen mode
• fixed crash when opening aircraft window in Windows version (also happened when buying new aircraft of course)
• allow prop 22 to only add effect, but no wagon power/weight (add 80)
• Cht: NoUnload now applies to all vehicle types, not only trains, but can choose vehicle type with optional parameter (0=trains, 1=RV, 2=ships, 3=aircraft)
• fixed bug with sign cheat parameters not getting applied correctly in some cases when reusing signs
• three new graphics actions: 0B: generate error messages, 0C: NOP to comment out actions, 0D: set grf parameter (can do math too)
• new variable 8D for action 7 checks TTD version type, DOS or Windows
• defined new grf version number 06 for 2.0.1 alpha 13 or above
• fixed bug with incorrect train refit cargo list in other climates and with paper in temperate

[Patchman]

Hi all, there's another alpha version at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Aside from several fixes to crashes and bugs, there's again not much new for most people, the improvements are mostly for graphics authors. However alpha 14 will be required for the upcoming DB Set 0.6 XL, so you should download it anyway. Since the main focus was fixing things and making the graphics work (especially the new DB Set), it should be fairly stable, at least compared to the last few alpha versions.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 14 (February 9, 2004):

• fixed crash when using action B with severity=3 (fatal error)
• fixed error when using actions B, C or D before action 8 (now it's possible)
• fixed crash when using action 4 for non-vehicle names
• fixed Cht: ResetThisStation and Cht: ResetVehicles not working
• fixed bug with 80+x vars not working in action D
• added callbacks for load/unload speed to all vehicle classes
• fixed bug with callbacks not using default when they failed
• fixed issue with train sort order (prop 1A) not being overwritable; when a second grf loads, the list may already be shuffled from earlier grfs. To fix, use a separate action 0 for prop 1A with num-info=00, this resets the order
• define writable variable 8E that sets y offset in train info windows
• allow action D to set patch variables too (for var 8E)
• make sure action 6 does not write beyond the end of the sprite
• new action 7 test 8 to check if GRFID is inactive but will become active later
• new action E to prevent activation of not-yet-activated graphics files
• fixed bug in stretchwindow making mouse jump when right-clicking in fullscreen mode as well as sometimes in windowed mode
• by Owen Rudge: copy gamegfx.exe to ttdloadw.ovl using CopyFile API instead of command.com

[Patchman]

Because of a silly bug in alpha 14 that made it impossible to load/unload the ICE trains of the DB set XL, I've posted alpha 15 already.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 15 (February 10, 2004):

• fix load amount callbacks causing trains to take forever when loading

[Patchman]

Here's the latest alpha version: http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

For a change, this one does have a few new things for players (as opposed to just new graphics authors). The first change is related to vehicle names. These will now be remembered if you sell a vehicle and immediately buy a new one. Also, with generalfixes on, all vehicle messages (getting old, lost, in depot etc.) will use the vehicle names, instead of just the vehicle number as it is now. You can disable this change using miscmods bit 10 (value 1024).

Another change is the button at the bottom of refit dialogs, which now shows a generic "refit vehicle", instead of "refit aircraft" or "refit ship" which would also show up for trains or road vehicles.

The last visible change will be that from now on, the water at the edges of the map will flood into adjacent tiles as well. This can be somewhat dangerous if you play a game where this would flood major areas of the map, and so you can disable this feature using miscmods bit 15 (value 32768). For a list of all current miscmods bits, please see http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/tiki-index.php ... &pagenum=2

This alpha also includes Marcin's recent fixes which should help with running TTDPatch under Linux using wine.
All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 16 (February 18, 2004):

• got rid of old, misguided myalloc code
• made vehicle news messages (old/lost/in depot) use vehicle name, not just the number, enabled by generalfixes (unless miscmods bit 10, value 1024 is set)
• save custom vehicle name when selling and buying again
• make edges of the world flood too, enabled by generalfixes (unless miscmods bit 15, value 32768 is set)
• change refit window button labels, "refit aircraft" and "refit ship", to generic "refit vehicle" that fits all four types
• allow accessing other grf's params in action 0D (source2=FE, data=GRFID)
• included changes from Marcin's version 2.0.1 alpha 15.1 MG:
  • Windows version can do without MessageBoxW (apparently required to work under the current version of Wine), but then if an error occurs it cannot display the message
  • The 'stretchwindow' switch is no longer displayed in the DOS version's switch table
  • (devel) removed duplicate code to obtain the handle of USER32.DLL

[Patchman]

Hi all,

I've uploaded TTDPatch 2.0.1 alpha 17 to the usual http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Thanks to a lot of work by Oskar, TTDPatch now allows building canals and locks for shipping routes across the land even at altitudes above sealevel. To use them, set "canals on" or -Xl, and install the canal graphics from http://www.ttdpatch.net/newgrf.html . You build canals and locks with the "buy land" tool from the docks menu. Locks are built automatically on slopes and allow the ships to access the higher levels of water. For the manual page on canals, please see http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/tiki-index.php?page=Canals .

In addition, Oskar has made a new window, which allows changing the active graphics sets more conveniently than "Cht: Graphics". To use it, open the "New Graphics Status" from the toolbox menu, where all the other settings are as well. This gives you a window with a list of installed graphics sets. Clicking on a set gives you some more info about the set.

You can activate or deactivate those sets which have a green or red flag. Simply click on the flag, and when you have chosen your settings, click on the "Apply" button. Note that you cannot activate graphics for the wrong climate or if they otherwise refuse to be activated, e.g. trying to activate the tempset when the dbset is already active won't work.

Files with a blue flag are special patch graphics that can't be turned off in this window, you have to turn off the corresponding switch instead, for example electrified railways or presignals. Finally, you may see some files with grey flags. Those have been disabled by the patch because they have invalid sprites or otherwise don't work.

Note that while this window should work in multiplayer games, I've added that code relatively late and haven't been able to test it in multiplayer games. Basically, when using this window, all changes as well as opening and closing it should happen identically on both computers. If that is not the case, or if it causes desynchs or crashes, please report it as a bug.

Now have fun playing with the canals and choosing your graphics sets!

Josef.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 17 (March 1, 2004):

• by Oskar:
  • new switch "canals on" or -Xl, allows building canals and locks using the "buy land" tool from the dock construction menu
  • new window showing active and inactive graphics
• prevent introduction dates and reliabilities (etc) from getting rerandomized everytime "Cht: Resetvehicles", "Cht: Graphics" or the "Apply" button from the GRF Status window are used
• added GRF status window to toolbox menu; changed look of that menu
• fixed bug with some vehicles showing incorrect graphics after new grf was deactivated
• switch -!S- writes switch list in XML format to switches.xml and aborts
• fixed bug with wrong vehicle being shown in news message (the text was fine, but the view area showed the wrong vehicle)
• fixed another bug in action B with severity 03 ("invalid sprite" message)