Michael Blunck's new graphics [http://www.ttdpatch.de/]

RailJade · Post by **RailJade** » 18 Mar 2006 20:34

Are there any plans to have the DB set have the cargos that are in the ECS?

Villem · Post by **Villem** » 18 Mar 2006 21:19

michael blunck wrote:ECS plus traditional goods. However, there will be slight changes in the cargoes, i.e. "beer" from NewCargoes would become a subset of ECS "food".

regards
Michael

Please RailJade, read the thread more.

michael blunck · Post by **michael blunck** » 19 Mar 2006 16:50

> Are there any plans to have the DB set have the cargos that are in the ECS?

Yes, of course.

However, the next update will be for the NewStations set. It´ll introduce "mock sidings" for passenger stations fitting nicely into the pool of already available NewStation tiles.

E.g., there will be a selection of various buffer stop tiles as well as other special tiles to round off those mock sidings (namely over- and underpasses). Especially interesting for DB Set users may be the fact that there´ll be a large number of different coaches, mail vans and dining-cars inhabiting those sidings depending on a bunch of parameters (year, town size, station size, ratings, etc. pp). As usual, there´ll be also a snowy version available.

Check out the attached pictures.

regards
Michael

Rob · Post by **Rob** » 19 Mar 2006 16:52

Water comes in my mouth.

eis_os · Post by **eis_os** » 19 Mar 2006 16:53

My tunnels compared to that work look like toyland sprites

Good work. When do I get them

ISA · Post by **ISA** » 19 Mar 2006 16:54

Rob wrote:
Water comes in my mouth.

You mean slobber?!

Its ameising!

SAC · Post by **SAC** » 19 Mar 2006 17:17

eis_os wrote:My tunnels compared to that work look like toyland sprites

No they don't, but it was a funny remark!

Anyways, excited about this update...even though the ECS is more on top of my list!

collingwood · Post by **collingwood** » 19 Mar 2006 17:39

michael blunck wrote:>
However, the next update will be for the NewStations set. It´ll introduce "mock sidings" for passenger stations fitting nicely into the pool of already available NewStation tiles.

...

sounds good. And would you include that 'Citi terminal station' shown on your website? I was waiting for that a long time ago.

Here's the picture

Villem · Post by **Villem** » 19 Mar 2006 18:12

Those screenshots just melted my brains...so good looking stuff you have there..

Caelan · Post by **Caelan** » 19 Mar 2006 18:50

Those mock sidings, what kind of wagons will they display from your set?

Aegir · Post by **Aegir** » 19 Mar 2006 21:28

That's an all new kind of hotness... I have no hope of competing with that!

That's just... I'm awestruck again, Michael, that's excellent stuff.

Red*Star · Post by **Red*Star** » 20 Mar 2006 00:10

michael blunck wrote:However, the next update will be for the NewStations set. It´ll introduce "mock sidings" for passenger stations fitting nicely into the pool of already available NewStation tiles.

E.g., there will be a selection of various buffer stop tiles as well as other special tiles to round off those mock sidings (namely over- and underpasses).

Perfect. Innovative. Breathtaking.

I love these additional holding tracks... Really great graphics - as usual

.

lobster · Post by **lobster** » 20 Mar 2006 00:36

i have nothing to add to all your remarks but "Bloody hell". brilliant stuff.

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 20 Mar 2006 03:25

Only one thing bothers me about those stations, though. If you have separated freight and passenger tracks at the same station, there's no way to have the trains know which one to use, unless you route them using a signaltower. Which MB's screenshot does have, yes indeed - but it's directly adjacent to the station, which AFAIK is impossible. I'd asked for that feature, and I think it went on the to-do list, but I didn't know it was done or scheduled.

Aegir · Post by **Aegir** » 20 Mar 2006 08:41

Uhh, I don't see the issue, it's the exact same issue you get with any station set.

Oh, and .grf authors don't usually use in-practice real stations from their games in screenshots. Atleast I don't. I cook mine up in a mock setting purely for aesthetic value. Not for their practicality.

Raichase · Post by **Raichase** » 20 Mar 2006 09:52

krtaylor wrote:Only one thing bothers me about those stations, though. If you have separated freight and passenger tracks at the same station, there's no way to have the trains know which one to use, unless you route them using a signaltower. Which MB's screenshot does have, yes indeed - but it's directly adjacent to the station, which AFAIK is impossible. I'd asked for that feature, and I think it went on the to-do list, but I didn't know it was done or scheduled.

It's all eyecandy. REALLY good eyecandy though

.

It's not like Trainz where if a train gets lost going into a station there is hell to pay (I've had two IC125's smack into each other that way, it wasn't pretty)...

Just play with "low" towns and "low" industries, and you have plenty of room for your stations.

michael blunck · Post by **michael blunck** » 20 Mar 2006 10:31

First of all I´d like to thank for all those kind words, although some more constructive criticism would have been appreciated as well.

Now, let´s answer a couple of questions:

> When do I get them

Very soon.

> would you include that 'Citi terminal station' shown on your website? I was waiting for that a long time ago.

Well, mmh. That specific station had been nearly forgotten, possiby due to a couple of reasons. Firstly, because I´d like to release a small group of such larger stations rather than only one unit, and secondly because meanwhile there are quite a number of novel patch feature which would have to be included into that station as well, like "non-track tiles", etc.

So yes, sort of such a station will be included but not in the next release. Sorry. Good thing would be that there will be more than one of those stations when released.

> Those mock sidings, what kind of wagons will they display from your set?

There are quite a number of the "normal" DBXL´s coaches, mail vans and dining-cars included, to be precise 42. These represent the most used coaches for local and long-distance services. Due to restrictions of the size of a station "sprite layout block" it´s not possible to include more of them (we´re running easily into "combinatorial explosion" when having more than one "animation" per tile, i.e. because there´s already passenger loading "animation" for the same tiles). So, rail cars or coaches for train sets like 420 or ICE are not included.

> signaltower [is] directly adjacent to the station, which AFAIK is impossible.

Well, yes. That would be a bug in a real set-up, sorry. To get clear pictures I placed the station tiles on empty ground rather than to show them off in a "real" game situation where there would have been one extra tile of track required between the signal tower and the station to get trains sensibly routed. And no, that feature you asked for hasn´t been included into the patch as of today.

regards
Michael

Aegir · Post by **Aegir** » 20 Mar 2006 12:43

@michael_blunck

This is going to sound like I'm sucking up to you, but to be honest, you set the standard for .grf authors around here. I have an exceedingly hard time trying to find somthing to actually fault with your graphics and code.

About the _only_ things I can however find, which are rather meaningless, is on the final image, the large yellowish building, you can see pavement underneath it, in the backgrond, but it's at a different height to the rest of the platforms.

And also, the other thing I notice is that some tiles don't get full fences around them

There. That's about the only things I can pick, out of all of that.

michael blunck · Post by **michael blunck** » 20 Mar 2006 12:58

> you set the standard for .grf authors around here.

Hehe. Well, IMO everybody may set the standard even higher for the benefit of the game.

> the large yellowish building, you can see pavement underneath it, in the backgrond, but it's at a different height to the rest of the platforms.

That´s intentional. The tiles at the front are lower than those at the platform side.

> And also, the other thing I notice is that some tiles don't get full fences around them

Well, yes. In my system, there are generally no fences in track direction except for non-track tiles. That has been discussed before but in any way you could easily use non-track tiles to get additional fences.

OTOH, the whole "fence system" would need to be reworked since "overbuilding" had been made available. Unfortunately, there´s no easy solution to the general problem (vars 40+x) neither to the even uglier "snow on platforms" problem.

regards
Michael

The Irish · Post by **The Irish** » 20 Mar 2006 13:14

michael blunck wrote:First of all I´d like to thank for all those kind words, although some more constructive criticism would have been appreciated as well. ...

Well, it's hard to give you any criticism, when your work is so close to perfect.

I particularly love the yellowish building in your last screenie. It reminds me of the station of my hometown Schaffhausen, Switzerland. It has the same sort of layout with the three towers and the middle parts. even though the middle tower is not so big.

Was this your inspiration? Maybe it could be called Schaffhausen ingame?

Best pic I could find with a quick search:

http://www.picswiss.ch/01-SH/f-SH-01/SH-02-26.jpg

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