Day/Night Cycle

[betawave]

I am aware of the fact, that there is a .grf, which converts all graphics into night mode. Still, in my opinion, is quite limited, can not be used along-side with other .grf files.

So, I was wondering that, is there a possibility to make it even more realistic, have the days pass a bit slower, than before, therefor could be a cycle of days and nights as well. Of course this means a lot of graphical and programming work, but i think, not only me would there be volunteering to help in.

Cheers.

[Arie-]

Take a look in the development forum, a date/time adjustment patch is difficult enough, not even considered adding day night cycles. Furthermore also all graphics have to be drawn twice.

[Zuu]

Regarding the night cycle, isn't it possible to just darken the 8bit palette in the night?

[Lordmwa]

Also you would need to lighten lights and get them to cast a glow

[Rigil]

Inspiration could come from modified screenshots.
Just found this one in Isa's thread :

[andythenorth]

Sounds simple, but wouldn't be.

Dark is easy enough - shift the palette. "Just" needs someone to write a transform for all the colours that runs in an optimised way but doesn't also darken the GUI.

The lights would be difficult. Original and newgrf sprites don't use consistent colours for windows, and vehicle lights (and many sets don't have any pixels for vehicle lights).

So lights would only work if there was a consistent standard across sprites. And that horse has probably already bolted

[Simons Mith]

Given OTTD's timescale, I'd rather have seasons and weather first anyway. And I suspect that horse too is already halfway over the horizon by now...

[SirkoZ]

Beautiful screenshot though, all those little lights.

[ISA]

Just found this one in Isa's thread :

The only one that I have ever made

[prissi]

A simple darkeing, based on palette is easily done (and was done before): http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=15487

Should be even easier now with 32 blitter excluding GUI areas.

[Eddi]

the key element of a night view is not making the objects darker, but making the lights shine. which is quite a bit harder than just a palette change.

[Muzzly]

Would it be not simple to add new specification to newgrf where each sprite should have 4 levels:
1. day ( default )
2. evening ( sun light from west )
3. night ( dark , street light spots )
4. morning ( sun light from east )

[Chris]

Would it be not simple to add new specification to newgrf where each sprite should have 4 levels:
1. day ( default )
2. evening ( sun light from west )
3. night ( dark , street light spots )
4. morning ( sun light from east )

In which case you would have to draw an extra 3 sprites, and code these into the set so that they are compatible with a patch which would provide day/nights, as well as adding lights, which as discussed previously in the thread would be very difficult. So basically vastly increasing the amount of work that people would have to do on a grf. Little gain in the game for a lot more work.

[Muzzly]

In which case you would have to draw an extra 3 sprites

No. The simplest, but not the best way would be just to recolor existing sprites. IMO it's not so much work as redrawing them from scratch.[/quote]

and code these into the set so that they are compatible with a patch which would provide day/nights, as well as adding lights, which as discussed previously in the thread would be very difficult.

Maybe, but I am do not think so.

[Chris]

No. The simplest, but not the best way would be just to recolor existing sprites. IMO it's not so much work as redrawing them from scratch.

Obviously a whole new sprite would not have to be drawn, but it would still be a lot of effort to recolour all of the sprites in a set, such as the 2cc set, and you don't gain much from having a night instead of a permanent day apart from the look (as the passenger numbers would be the same etc.).

[Eddi]

In which case you would have to draw an extra 3 sprites

No. The simplest, but not the best way would be just to recolor existing sprites. IMO it's not so much work as redrawing them from scratch.

the flaw in that logic is that you cannot modify existing sprites, you are not licensed to do so. and even if you can do it for yourself, you may not distribute the results.

[supermop]

Although, anyone with enough ambition and dedication could modify OGFX to create a complete set of day and night sprites to use with a patched game and no additional NewGRFs.

Anyone who felt strongly enough to write a working patch to accomplish this would probably feel up to at least trying to draw the sprites, whether or not it turned out to be a practical endeavor.

Trying to convince other people to modify their grfs, or do the drawing for you (or the coding) will likely be less successful.

I am perfectly happy playing in permanent daylight - I would rather have fluctuating passenger numbers than fluctuating light levels. That said, if someone wrote a good working patch, and provided the requisite graphics, I would make a good faith effort to redraw some of my sprites.

[Eddi]

i love your reasoning. "everyone who is even attempting $BIG_TASK clearly must also be willing/able to do $EVEN_BIGGER_TASK"

[Rubidium]

Given 32bpp graphics are asked for almost continuously, maybe you start with creating those. OpenTTD even supports 32bpp graphics out of the box, yet no-one has even come close to a complete set of 32bpp graphics.

Even with the zoom patch creating a 32bpp set would be less work as you can simply reduce the sprite size to get smaller sprites. You don't need to fiddle with the pixels 4 times per image to get the orientation of the light right; actually, the light already comes from one side so that at least has some trouble. Undoubtedly they also want lights to go (randomly-ish) off and one again, so you need 4 extra sets of graphics in vastly different colourings.

So unless you (= someone/anyone really interested in this feature) dedicate many months drawing the required sprites, my feeling is that such a feature is going nowhere. Basically staying with the chicken-egg problem for eternity; nobody draws as nothing is coded and nobody codes as nothing is drawn.

[Alberth]

How fast do you want the day/night cycle to be?
A day takes 2.something seconds, so 1 second light, and 1 second dark?

Imo that would make the game completely unplayable.