2.5 progress: Beta 9 (October 29)

[Patchman]

Yes, another quick one at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

This one fixes the newstations display problems, and (hopefully) the problem causing desynchs in multiplayer games when one player sells a vehicle and then buys a new one (the order index didn't get copied properly).

Csaba has also fixed the problem with town populations, and new town name schemes getting reset to German when going back to the title screen.

I've decided to release this alpha now because I'm going to get Locomotion tomorrow and might not have time for much else for a while

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 37 (September 8, 2004):

• fixed incorrect newstations graphics display (problem with setting prop 09 for multiple IDs in the same action 0)
• by Csaba:
  • Fix for negative town populations (it was my fault breaking Marcin's code)
  • Fix town name styles always reverting to German on the title screen
  • New property 44 for houses to get number of buildings of same type in the town/whole map (allows a more general solution for limiting number of buildings instead of church/stadium flags)
• fixed multiplayer desynch when selling an engine and buying a new one

[Csaboka]

A new experimental version "alpha 37 vcs" is available.

It isn't really needed for normal users, but GRF coders who deal with new houses may find it interesting.

Changes:

• Additions and fixes in newgrf.txt
• Allowing "ancient" and "protected" building types (more info in newgrf.txt)
• Variable 45 to check if a random town is being generated
• Fixed new house types having their timers screwed up if their
  subtitute type was type 4 or 5
• (devel) Newhouses now uses the features of grfload.asm instead of
  its own functions. (saves some space in executable)

DOS executable (compiled blindly, I can't guarantee it works correctly)
Windows executable
Diffs
Updated newgrf.txt

[Csaboka]

Another experimental version "alpha 37 vcs2" is available.

Changes:

• Some clarifications about buildings in newgrf.txt.
• Sloped multi-tile buildings no longer have extra foundation edges between their groundtiles (needs trkfundw.grf to work correctly)
• Mouse wheel now cycles through map modes in mini-map
• Support for legacy mouse wheel drivers (needed under Win95 and under Win98 for some drivers/mice). Can be enabled by adding 4 to the value of the mousewheel switch. If you have Win2000/WinXP or your mouse wheel already works correctly, you can safely disable it. This feature wasn't tested thoroughly since I can't test it myself. Please contact me if your mouse wheel doesn't work even with legacy support enabled.
• Newtownnames now work correctly with more than 16 random bits per name part, and checks for invalid startbit/bitcount settings.
• Building flag 1 (build only on flat land) now works correctly for 1x2 and 2x1 buildings as well.

DOS executable (compiled blindly, I can't guarantee it works correctly)
Windows executable
Diffs
Updated newgrf.txt

[Patchman]

Hi patch fans,

After a long wait (due to both the release of Chris Sawyer's Locomotion as well as being busy with other things in my life), I've finally had the time to work on TTDPatch again. The result is alpha 38, which you can (as usual) find at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

There are a bunch of changes in this alpha, quite aside from the usual bugfixes and improvements for new graphics authors (see below for details).

One change is how bit switches are handled in the ttdpatch.cfg configuration file. You can now specify them in the form "switch.bit on/off", e.g. "miscmods.gradualloadbywagon off". This makes it a lot easier to pick which bits you want enabled and which you don't. To convert your existing ttdpatch.cfg into this format, simply run "ttdpatch(w) -W ttdpatch.cfg" from a command line.

Another change is that I've written a new "sprite sorter". This sorter is the part of the graphics engines that makes sure things are drawn in the right order, that objects that are in front of other objects actually get drawn that way. The new sorter is much more stable and does a better job in particular when objects are very close (so that their 3D bounding boxes intersect). In TTD, that would cause the sprites to be drawn in a random order, which you would notice for example when ships occupy the same space. The new sorter stops the flickering and always draws the same ship in front. This is particularly needed for some of the new graphics sets with short wagons, where this was also a problem. There is one particular problem with this new sorter that I know of, and that is with trains going on electrified tracks under bridges. It may be that fixing this will require new electrified track graphics, so I'm holding off with fixing it until I'm sure what will be needed.

Csaba has again written a bunch of bugfixes, as well as some improvements to the mouse wheel routines. Now the wheel also cycles the display options in the map window, and he has written support for older ("legacy") mouse wheel drivers. Enable that if your mouse wheel didn't work before, otherwise leave it as it is.

I've also changed the station construction window again, now it shows the new station selection simply as drop-down boxes, which allows for much faster access when you have many new station sets installed. Also, the buttons for larger stations and the new station graphics buttons are added independently, so you can use new station graphics without having the buttons for longer/more platforms.

Finally, I've changed the "Cht: FindLostWagons" sign cheat to not only look for lost wagons, but for lost engines (multi-heads) as well. The name stays the same, but if you previously had some depots you could not remove, yet the sign cheat found no lost wagons, try again and it should work this time. I believe I've also fixed the bug which caused wagons to be lost, if you still find wagons going missing please file a bug report and let me know.

Thanks for waiting for the next alpha, and I hope there are still people playing TTD+Patch and that not everybody has converted to Locomotion

Have fun,
Josef

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 38 (October 31, 2004):

• added Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 37 VCS:
  • additions and fixes in newgrf.txt
  • allowing "ancient" and "protected" building types (more info in newgrf.txt)
  • variable 45 to check if a random town is being generated
  • fixed new house types having their timers screwed up if their subtitute type was type 4 or 5
  • (devel) newhouses now uses the features of grfload.asm instead of its own functions. (saves some space in executable)
• added improved sprite sorter to fix flickering especially of short train vehicles; enabled by default, disable with "miscmods.nonewspritesorter on"
• added Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 37 VCS 2:
  • some clarifications about buildings in newgrf.txt.
  • sloped multi-tile buildings no longer have extra foundation edges between their groundtiles (needs trkfundw.grf to work correctly)
  • mouse wheel now cycles through map modes in mini-map
  • support for legacy mouse wheel drivers (needed under Win95 and under Win98 for some drivers/mice). Can be enabled by adding 4 to the value of the mousewheel switch. If you have Win2000/WinXP or your mouse wheel already works correctly, you can safely disable it. This feature wasn't tested thoroughly since I can't test it myself. Please contact me if your mouse wheel doesn't work even with legacy support enabled.
  • newtownnames now work correctly with more than 16 random bits per name part, and checks for invalid startbit/bitcount settings.
  • building flag 1 (build only on flat land) now works correctly for 1x2 and 2x1 buildings as well.
• revamped the bit switch handling, now you can set them using the form of "miscmods.nodefaultoldtracktype on"; use -W to write a new configuration file in that format. The old way of "miscmods 1024" remains valid, of course.
• new callback 19 to append text after cargo type, shown in refitting window and in vehicle display of capacity; use action 4 text ID D0xx to set text.
• new station selection is now done via drop-down lists for faster access
• fixed bug with feederservice income for aircraft getting added to ship income and vice versa
• fixed bug with station +7 button sometimes not getting deactivated for stations which do not support it
• fixed bug with train capacity callback using wrong capacities
• fixed station selection not resetting itself when old station type expires
• fixed crash when attempt to buy new rail vehicle failed
• added Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 37 VCS 3:
  • added some color mapping information to newgrf.txt
  • the state of the newhouses switch can be checked from grfs (bit 59)
  • bug: random house graphics were always re-randomized after loading a game
  • bug: New house types displayed incorrectly if graphics weren't available.
• allow grf to force-activate itself (useful for title screen), use action E on its own GRFID to activate itself
• new action 7/9 variable 92 (BYTE) is 0 in title screen, 1 in game and 2 in editor
• "Cht: FindLostWagons" now also finds lost dual head engines
• reorganized action 3 handling, generic callbacks are now chainable
• fixed "Default" button in grfstat window to correctly handle ! parameter
• added missing factory to "fund industry" window in tropical climate
• fixed bug with fast-wagon sell on dual-headed train causing additional engines to get "lost"
• fixed crash when copying/sharing orders in multiplayer games
• fixed bug with copying orders copying current order index as well
• it's now possible to un-share orders by Ctrl-clicking on the Reset button (this keeps the orders and just makes them unshared)
• newstations buttons and larger station buttons are now added independently from the enhancegui switch
• fixed enhancegui .cfg description in the translations
• fixed bug with newbridges sprite tables not being reset when grf is turned off
• fixed bug with ctrl-buying single head of dualheaded train costing right amount but setting value twice as high

[Patchman]

Notice:

The first version of alpha 38 I've uploaded contained some irritating bugs, such as crashes in the station selection and the game hanging when creating random maps. I've now fixed these and uploaded a corrected version.

If you got alpha 38 between the announcement and now, please download it again!

If you've run mkpttxt.exe already, you need to delete the lines setting "stationnumdefault" and "stationclassdefault" in ttdpttxt.txt, or change them to look this this:

Code: Select all

stationnumdefault="Station \81\FF\C7\00"
stationclassdefault="Station class \81\FF\C7\00"

and then run mkpttxt again

[Csaboka]

Yes, Patchman released an official alpha just yesterday, and I already have updates

Changes:

• Allowing town buildings to be animated (newgrf.txt updated accordingly)
• New switch "moreanimation" to allow more tiles to be animated, so animation can work in big towns with lots of buildings

DOS executable (compiled blindly, I can't guarantee it works correctly)
Windows executable
Diffs
Updated newgrf.txt
A simple animated house GRF (Windows only)

[Patchman]

Hi all,

here's alpha 39: http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Among the usual bug fixes, there are again a number of new switches. Csaba has implemented "moreanimation", which allows more tiles of the map to be animated. This will be important when new animated houses and (later) stations become available, because currently only 256 tiles may have animation.

Marijn has written the "newhistory" switch. This adds a new window that displays a history of all recent news messages, which you can open from the news menu.

Finally, I've written a new switch called "wagonspeedlimits" that introduces speed limits for all cargo wagons, with livestock wagons being the slowest and goods and valuables being the fastest (passengers and mail are unlimited by default). This adds a new dimension and strategic complexity to the game by adding the challenge of having fast passenger trains and slow cargo trains on the same network. Try it out, it's fun

I've also completely rewritten the refitting system. This means there might be new bugs there, although I've tested it a lot. It is now possible for new graphics sets to define cargo "subtypes", to allow you to distinguish between various types of Goods for example, such as "Goods (Cars)", "Goods (Petroleum)" etc. All vehicles can now be directly refitted to these subtypes, if the .grf file supports this new convention.

The last major change was a potentially great improvement for the AI. Now it is possible for new graphics sets to "teach" the AI how to use them properly, for example which rail wagons to build for what services. This was already possible, but now it's been extended to rail engines, road vehicles, ships, aircraft and even stations. Look forward to updated versions of your favourite sets taking advantage of this, if you can stand playing with the AI players

Have fun!

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 39 (November 15, 2004):

• fixed hang when selecting new station class
• fixed longer bridges switch not working
• prevent hang if action 2 refers to its own ID (now it's an error)
• added Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 38 VCS:
  • allow new town buildings to be animated
  • new switch "moreanimation" to allow more tiles to be animated, so animation can work in big towns with lots of buildings
• by Marijn: new switch "newshistory" (-XH) adds window with history of recent news messages, open from info menu
• new switch "wagonspeedlimits" sets speed limits for cargo wagons
• veh. var 42 now also returns most common refit cycle of the cargo type in byte cc as well as a mask of user-definable bits (set by new prop.25)
• speed up grapics display with many vehicles by caching vehicle variables 40-42
• fixed bug with refitting not resetting some vehicle callbacks (length, visual effect etc.)
• fixed bug with plane refitting always using default cargo selection
• (devel) renamed trnrefit.asm to refit.asm and moved other vehicle refit stuff there too
• changed refitting to show all sub-types of a cargo if the vehicle is using callback 19
• Cht: Graphics now opens the GRF status window instead
• GRF status window now indicates which grf file is selected
• allow AI to build steam/diesel loco on electrified routes
• (devel) made runindex list automatic; use ijmp/icall for indirect jmps/calls
• implement AI station graphics selection
• added changes from Csaba's 2.0.1 alpha 38 vcs 2:
  • added callback 1C for new houses: called if the construction state changes, can be used to modify animation
  • added GRF variables 13-16 (93-96 for action D) to specify the size of the refresh rectangle of tiles
  • fixed a bug that caused house gameIDs to leak while loading, and eventually prevented TTDPatch from loading games with new house GRFs on.
  • house animations are now disabled in the scenario editor, which doesn't handle animations correctly
  • added new cheat: "Cht: RestartConst" to restart the construction of the house under the sign. Useful for GRF authors to check out the construction stages.
• fixed funding industries construction the wrong type of factory in the tropical climate
• fixed Cht: Resetvehicles resetting graphics selection to default
• Cht: Resetvehicles (and grf status apply button) did not properly freeze the values at 2050 values after the year 2050
• added disasters, mousewheel, plantmanytrees and toylandfeatures as bit switches

[Patchman]

Marijn has written the "newhistory" switch. [...]

Typo, the switch is called "newshistory". Sorry about that...

[Patchman]

A small update correcting some bad crashes. Enjoy.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 39.1 (November 16, 2004):

• fixed crash at start of game with "newplanes off"
• fixed crash when selling vehicle with refit window still open
• fixed crash when refitting vehicle with cargo name suffix
• fixed crash when clicking on some news history items
• fixed news history not showing correct vehicle after clicking
• fixed news history not displaying accented or special characters
• news history now supports class 3 messages as well (these were not displayed previously), that includes new vehicle types and company status announcements
• allow refitting ships even with single cargo type when using callback 19

[Patchman]

Hi all,

TTDPatch 2.0.1 alpha 40 is now available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Apart from the usual bug fixes (see below for the list), Marijn has added another new switch, "townbuildnoroads", which prevents towns from building any roads whatsoever. This switch is off by default, and if you turn it on, it is your (or your competitor's) responsibility to build roads that allow towns to grow.

Have fun,

Josef.

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 40 (November 21, 2004):

• make sure refit window is closed when closing vehicle window (or selling vehicle)
• allow 15 bits callback results, now anything with bit 7 of the high byte set is a callback result with bits 0..6 of the high byte used as high bits (if high byte is FF, it is converted to 80)
• allow capacity callback to return up to 32511 (7EFF)
• allow setting base cost multipliers via feature 8 action 0 prop 08
• made Cht: RestartConst available in alpha (non-debug) versions as well
• prevent hang when adding wagons with cargo name suffix to train, or when trying to refit vehicle with cargo name suffix
• fixed crash when selling & buying refitted rail engine or plane
• fixed problems with helicopter rotor override
• by Marijn:
  • fixed crash clicking on a news history item
  • new switch "townbuildnoroads on" prevents towns from building roads, you have to do it for them
• fixed bug allowing AI companies to build electric locos in regular depots
• fixed bug with plane callbacks being incorrect after loading game
• fixed bug with standard helicopters getting incorrect rotor sprites
• fixed bug with wagons with callback 5 bit set but cargoids without callbacks defined not being refittable
• fixed crash when station built before alpha 26 has random trigger event
• fixed crash logger not recording correct sprite number
• bitswitch had default option incorrectly written in hex
• fixed train refit button not getting updated when attaching/detaching wagon
• support AI road vehicle refitting

[Patchman]

Hi all,

after a few weeks of waiting, here's the latest alpha version available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

This one has a bunch of major new features.

The first new feature is called "path based signalling". It allows several trains into a signal block as long as their paths don't interfere, and it greatly enhances all station entrances and exits as well as most junctions. However, it is somewhat dangerous and takes some care to use right, so please read the manual page before trying to use it (or else you may get train crashes): http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/tiki-index.php ... Signalling

Furthermore, Marijn wrote several new features: "windowsnap <dist>" to make windows snap to each other, "newcargodistribution on" to improve the distribution of cargo among two stations serving the same industry, "aichoosechances on" et.al. to set the probabilities with which the AI will attempt to build new services, and last but not least, "custombridgeheads on". This switch allows you to rearrange the track and road pieces on flat bridge heads.

In addition, after a large amount of work to get it working right, Oskar was able to change the resolution of TTD's window (in the Windows version only). Enable this using "resolutionwidth <num>" and "resolutionheight <num>". The width must be a multiple of 4 (or sometimes 32) or you may get distortions.

For more information on all of these features, please see the updated manual pages, as usual at http://wiki.ttdpatch.net/tiki-index.php?page=Manual

Have fun!

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 41 (December 13, 2004):

• made "unknown bit" a warning, not a fatal error
• new train callback 1D to check whether vehicle may be attached to current engine
• (devel) made a few more convenience macro for storeaddress et.al. taking only one or two argument
• allow action 6 between an action 3 and its override action 3's
• new experimental feature: path-based signalling
• new sign cheat "Cht: StopAll" stops all vehicles (except aircraft in flight) or "Cht: StopAll 0" to start them again
• fixed ttdpatch.cfg comments for switches with no command line switch in Windows version
• added changes by Marijn:
  • fixed bug allowing the construction of multiple HQs
  • new switch "newcargodistribution on" for better distribution of cargo among multiple stations serving an industry
  • allow docks on flat land (for canals)
  • new switch "windowsnap <dist>" (-Xz) to make windows snap to each other if moved within the given number of pixels (default 10)
  • draw coast under bridges over water
  • new switch "custombridgeheads on" allows rearranging track and road pieces on flat bridge heads
  • new set of switches to choose the probability with which the AI will attempt to build new routes, enable with "aichoosechances on", then set the individual probabilities with "aibuildrailchance", "aibuildrvchance" and "aibuildairchance", ship routes will be the remainder, with a value of 65535 meaning 100%.
• (devel) by Marcin: fixed bug in nasm resulting in inefficient code for forward references (new nasm version in source zip)
• (devel) fixed multipatchcode not working if search offset was negative and fragment not being overwritten
• fixed incorrect station track types with electrifiedrailways off
• by Oskar: allow changing the resolution TTD runs in (Windows version only), set it with "resolutionwidth <num>" and "resolutionheight <num>"; in fullscreen TTD must be able to find the corresponding DirectX mode for this to work

[Patchman]

Hi all, another quick update at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

This one will be the last one this year, I'm going on vacation tomorrow. So I hope it works rather well

It has mostly bugfixes, especially to custombridgeheads and pathbasedsignalling. Also, wagonspeedlimits now takes a parameter that sets how much faster empty wagons are allowed to go (20 km/h by default).

The full list of changes is below.

There have also been a number of graphics sets that were updated on the TTDPatch New Graphics page, namely the TropicSet (now fully compatible with the latest alpha versions too), the European road set, and the DB Set XL (now version 0.8, an announcement with further details will follow shortly), as well as an entirely new set of town buildings by Zimmlock. Check them out!

Since this will likely be the last thing for me to post before the new year, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Enjoy your early christmas present

Josef.


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 42 (December 18, 2004):

• by Mek: fixed problems with incorrect z offset of vehicles on custom bridge heads
• by Mek: fixed manualconvert not working with tunnels and bridges
• fixed action 5 with different sprite count not resetting internal count
• wagonspeedlimits switch now takes a parameter that sets how much faster empty wagons are allowed to go (20 km/h by default)
• fixed bug with trains not entering depot properly
• by Csaba: fixed bug that could cause the game to hang if some house graphics were not available
• disabled freighttrains setting for the AI
• fixed a bug with tunnels becoming unusable in PBS setups
• fixed a bug with signals on one track piece on a tile but not the other causing unsafe pathfinding
• prevent trains from reversing in a PBS block if they can't reserve a path
• fixed bug with X crossings on bridge heads not setting signals correctly
• fixed bug with Cht: StopAll accidentally stopping aircraft in flight too
• fixed bug with trains sometimes not waiting for free station platforms
• fixed bug with depots occasionally not working in PBS blocks
• fixed bug with refit cycle on new vehicles not being reset
• fixed crash when LA forbids building a dock
• fixed crash when loading some savegames
• fixed problem with rotor override not getting reset correctly

[Patchman]

Hi all,

after a long time of waiting, here's another alpha version for you to try out. Get it at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

NOTE: Due to more stringent requirements for some of the new graphics features, some graphics files may need to be updated. Currently the files which are known to require updates are:

Tropic Set
DB Set XL
New Stations
Canals

I've made updated versions available at http://www.ttdpatch.net/newgrf.html - please download those for alpha 43. They will work in older alpha versions too.

The changes are almost too numerous to list them all. Briefly, Oskar found a way to allow people to have more graphics files active simultaneously by boosting the limit of active sprites to 11383 for each feature, instead of 11383 in total as it was before.

Csaba has written a number of bugfixes, as well as several new graphics functions, in particular the beginnings of a new industry switch. Currently, this switch can be used to give new graphics to the existing industries, without changing much of their functionality yet.

Marijn has worked a lot on improving TTD's user interface, and added the ability to make windows "sticky" (they won't be closed by the "Delete" or backspace keys), as well as making several windows resizable, including the map and depot windows. The map also has a button that allows it to follow the main view. In addition, he wrote a new railroad construction interface that follows Locomotion's construction interface. You can either choose to use this interface by default or stay with the regular interface. In either case, opening the railroad construction window while holding Ctrl opens the other choice. To make the most out of these new interface features, please download and install the "gui(w).grf" graphics from the TTDPatch New Graphics site as well.

Have fun trying out all the new features, and please bear with me for a couple of days with some of the bugs that have been reported already that aren't fixed yet in alpha 43. I'll have a little more time now so it shouldn't take too long to get most of the bugs ironed out.

Josef


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 43 (February 13, 2005):

• by Oskar: allow more active sprites, now 11383 per grf feature (disable this with miscmods.smallspritelimit on)
• include Csaba's changes up to version alpha 42 VCS 4:
  • a small tweak in the savegame compression algorithm that saves 3-4% according to my tests (can be disabled by miscmods.noenhancedcomp) The decompress code hasn't been touched, so it's 100% backwards compatible.
  • trains no longer break down at signals (can be disabled by miscmods.breakdownatsignal, can be refined if forum people say so)
  • callback 1E for houses to allow choosing the color mapping independently from the sprites
  • added property 1C and extended variable 44 for houses to allow "building classes"
  • newindustries patch and new industry tile support. It's far from usable yet...
  • added variable 40 for towns, and refactored some code to allow this
  • fixed a bug that made morecurrencies disable the wrong currencies after Euro has been introduced
  • fixed a bug that caused glitches when house random trigger 2 was used for multi-tile buildings
  • fixed a bug with random trigger handling for newhouses
• included Marijn's changes:
  • fix display of coasts under bridges
  • Support for resizable windows.
  • Support for sticky windows.
  • New "locomotiongui" switch to build rails and signals with a locomotion-like gui (if not enabled by default, Ctrl-click on the rail building menu)
  • Added a tooltip when resizing rail-depot windows, displaying the size of the depot
  • Added a remove signal button to the signal tab in the locomotiongui.
  • Made it possible to de-select the signal build buttons in the new gui.
  • New miscmods flag: displaytownsize; displays the population of a town in brackets after the name of the town in the main view.
  • New enhgui feature: in the minimap window a new button is added, when this button is pressed, the minimap will auto-center it's view with the main view.
• show error message about missing newgrf(w).cfg only if a file other than the default filename is specified using the newgrfcfg config file switch
• fixed bug with wagon speed limit set to FFFF not removing the speed limit
• allow callback 14 to return up to 255 tile types
• fixed bug with incorrect vehicles in regular/electrified depot
• fixed helicopters having incorrect cargo capacities
• made preprocessing of assembly code work again
• added a mechanism to prevent changes in texts.inc from messing up news messages in the queue of existin savegames (see new textdef.ah and morenews.asm)
• changed display of reserved paths to make them more visible in complex tiles

[Patchman]

Hi all,

latest alpha available here: http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

This one is again more focussed on fixing bugs, especially in the path-based signalling feature. For example, the train reversing problem should be all but gone now, and even if a train has problems, you can now reverse it manually. Also other problems with rail under bridges and trains trying to go the wrong way through a one-way signal should be fixed.

Mek has continued to work on the new Locomotion GUI feature, and now the centre tab with the station building tools is available as well.

For a full list of all the bugs fixed and other changes, see below as usual.

Have fun!
Josef

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 44 (February 27, 2005):

• by Mek: added station tab in locomotion GUI plus some fixes
• it's now always possible, but not always safe, to manually reverse trains
• if train needs to reverse but cannot due to path-based signalling, a news message is generated to notify the player
• changed station prop 09 to allow > 255 sprite layouts
• fixed division by zero in resizable window code
• fixed bug with display of cargo amount for default cargo type using wrong cargo type
• (devel) ensure action 0 handler functions are called during initialization to allow them to properly allocate memory
• (devel) support directly testing bits in patchproc arguments
• allow 0 and 1 (or any non-zero number) as arguments for bit switches, not just on/off
• fixed bug in PBS causing some reversing trains to unreserve track pieces of other trains, thereby causing train crashes
• fix rounding error in small running cost values
• fixed bug in PBS pathfinding causing unsafe behaviour if the first signal on a wrong track is at the same distance as a bridge piece on the right track
• fixed bug in PBS with trains leaving station sometimes reserving path across the wrong signal
• fixed another bug causing trains to sometimes reserve unsafe paths
• fixed bug in PBS causing train to try to route the wrong way through one-way signals
• fixed most situations in which trains were unable to reverse
• fixed bug with non-existing track pieces sometimes remaining reserved
• fixed infinite loop in new performance calculation if vehicle cost was set to zero
• added mechanism to expire vehicles n years before the end of their phase 2, i.e. before their model reliability starts to drop (action 0 props 26,1B,16,16)
• fixed bug with missing or wrong track foundations in stations with callback 14
• support callback results in regular action 2 as well for standardized access to loading/moving state and cargo amount
• fixed refitting of trains with wagons with different text suffix but same F2 value, now refits only those wagons that use the same text suffix
• show number of trains that share orders in "End of shared orders" message
• fixed bridgespeedlimits (broken because of wagonspeedlimits)
• fixed bug with incorrect purchase list display with resizable windows
• support planes carrying cargo other than passengers by default (if not refittable to passengers, first refittable cargo option is used)
• support not using the default cargo type for stations by defining cargo type FE, thus not displaying sum of all cargo, but no cargo
• fixed bug with dual-headed engines having wrong speed with multihd off
• fixed slow planes and helicopters speeding up when broken down
• made planespeed take a parameter from 1 to 4 that is the speed up factor
• by Oskar: fix bug in resolution switches affecting the jukebox
• prevent AI from building AIRank 0 locos

[Patchman]

Hi all,

The newest alpha is up at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Since alpha 44 totally broke the newhouses feature (it's all my fault), I brought the next one out earlier. But it's not just bugfixes either, Marijn has added support for drag&drop bulldozing if you have enhancegui on. But be careful, you might accidentally wipe out a town or five with careless mouse clicks...

At the same time, Csaba was busy on the newindustries feature, and alpha 45 now includes the first working (if relatively incomplete) version of newindustries support. Wait for new industry sets to come out soon

Have fun with alpha 45 and I hope this one didn't break anything serious like the last one did,

Josef


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 45: (March 2, 2005):

• (devel) changed random and variational action 2 to use call table
• fixed bug in building new stations not being multiplayer safe (and causing wrong layouts when using the Locomotion GUI to build it)
• fixed GRF Status window apply button not respecting persistent engines correctly after 2050
• by Marijn: bulldozer now supports drag&drop (with enhancegui on)
• integrated Csaba's changes from 201a44vcs:
  • new house callbacks:
    • 1F: Decide acceptance of tile
    • 20: Decide the length of current animation frame
    • 21: To trigger conditional destruction
  • new extra flag to allow synchronized animation for multi-tile buildings
  • added ability to play sound effects during house animation
  • bug fixed: If a savegame was loaded without house random bits, multi-tile buildings got different random bits for their tiles
  • bug fixed: newhouses was broken in a44
  • new debug cheat: "Cht: WhereAmI" to display tile coordinates (available in debug builds only)
  • New industry type support, doesn't yet work nicely together with moreindustriesperclimate
• (devel) fixed findstring to not search beyond original TTD memory size
• new station prop. 13 bit 1 to use cargo divided by station size for the station graphics
• made early retirement compatible with persistentengines
• fixed bug with incorrect display of rail and road vehicle purchase list
• added station var. 44 that indicates if station tile is PBS-reserved

[Csaboka]

Warning: Alpha 45 is broken

Now it's all my fault that industries have incorrect names until you enable both newindustries and locomotiongui. I've released a hotfix version that solves the problem.

DOS version
Windows version

[Patchman]

Hi all,

latest alpha is up again at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

This one is again mostly bug fixes. Sorry, I haven't had time to work on the path-based signalling feature either, so you'll still have trains stopping when they try to reverse and can't. However, a lot of other bugs have been fixed (see below).

In addition, Oskar has written code for a new station type: bus stops (with newstations on). These are stations that act like simple bus stops on the side of the road, so they need to be connected at both sides. Busses can't reverse while on a bus stop.

Have fun!

Josef

All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 46 (March 15, 2005):

• by Csaba:
  • Fixed the industry name bug
  • Added some array clearing that was left out from the previous diff
  • Fix to the "action 1 must always precede action 2" bug
  • House building tool with ctrl-rocks in the scenario editor
• fixed crash when viewing verbose switch list
• added all bit names of active bits in bit switches to verbose switch list
• added more details to "invalid sprite" error, showing type of error and, when possible, which byte of a sprite is triggering the error
• allow defining action 3 for a station which has not had prop.08 set; in this case the action 3 is ignored, the same as for houses and industry tiles
• fixed bug with aircraft sprite not getting updated when var E6 changed
• (devel) changed default Makefile not to use gcc-2 because it's a cygwin package that's no longer maintained; gcc 3.3.x works fine anyway
• fixed bug in DOS version with drag&drop dynamite getting "stuck" to the cursor
• TTDPatch now supports the Windows-style language definition like LANG=1031 too
• fixed bug with some news messages mentioning town of destination not town closest to current position
• in vehicle callback 1D, var.action type 82 will now use the engine of the destination consist, not the source consist
• (devel) moved veh.lastspeed to veh2
• fixed bug in random graphics feature
• fixed AI not building correct vehicle and station types
• fixed incorrect display of plane stats
• fixed bug with refitting not working except when paused, and it should also be safe to use in multiplayer games again
• by Mek:
  • new bit setting for locomotion gui to use TTD's station building window
  • switch between TTD's station building window and lomogui with Ctrl
  • fix incorrect display of too long station names in dropdowns
• by Oskar: allow bus stop construction (with newstations on)

[Patchman]

Hi all,

the latest alpha is up at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

Apart from hopefully fixing all those nasty crashes that I've introduced
in alpha 46 (sorry!), alpha 47 has a few quite nice features. The first
one improves your station construction options: you can now build
smaller stations over existing stations, thus "overwriting" them with
new station styles. This is especially useful with the newstations 0.3
set as it allows building almost anything you want. Due to some
internal limitations, you may sometimes notice existing tiles
reconfiguring them even if you didn't touch them, in that case try
building your station in a different order, or rebuild the tiles in
question.

Oskar has added the capability to build bus stops with foundations (if
buildonslopes is on), and while he was at it, he also added support for
building certain types of railroad track on steep slopes as well. To
fix games that suffered from invalid truck stops due to a bug in the bus
stop feature in alpha 46, he added code which fixes that to the Cht:
ClearGhosts sign cheat (as well as fixing the bug that caused them in
the first place!).

Csaba has kept busy writing the newindustry support, which is also
coming along nicely.

Finally, I've made some small changes to path-based signalling again.
If a train is unable to reverse in a PBS block and has to be stopped
because of that, its window will now open immediately to alert you to
the problem. In addition, trains will never pass a PBS signal that is
followed by another signal with no regular track in between, to prevent
crashes. Make sure to always leave at least one piece of track between
a PBS signal and the next signal that follows it. Also, when you
activate the sticky pin of a window, it will now not be closed when the
window list is full (unless all windows are sticky).

That's it, I hope you'll have fun with it, and make great new station
layouts!

Josef


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 47 (March 20, 2005):

• fixed bug with action B not accepting severity 03 (fatal error)
• fixed miscmods.notimegiveaway not working in the Windows version
• fixed crashes when trying to display various graphics error messages
• station var. 44 now has bit 2 that states whether PBS is on/off
• fixed incorrect graphics in new stations with electrifiedrailways off
• allow building new rail station pieces over existing station to allow easier construction of custom station layouts
• fixed bug with autorenew not taking into account early retirement set by .grf
• new station prop to disable drawing of overhead wires in case of sprite sorter problems
• by Oskar:
  • fixed station direction not getting reset when building truck station after building bus stop
  • (devel) make it unnecessary to generate .lst twice for correct relocations
  • Cht: ClearGhosts now fixes invalid bus/truck stations as well
  • allow bus stops on sloped land (with buildonslopes on)
  • allow rail track on steep slopes
• by Csaba:
  • started working on a new industry generation window for newindustries
  • support for a new text class, permanent texts. (class D800h)
  • industries now can have custom names and messages via this mechanism
  • TTDPatch texts are no longer saved and restored for action 4
  • new industry property 1F to set industry name (not documented yet)
  • new town variable (41) that tells the index of the town in the town array, can be used to emulate some "dedicated" towns.(not documented yet)
  • new industry tile variable (43) to tell the relative position within the industry (not documented yet)
  • fixed a bug that caused the wrong industries to appear during the game
• fixed bug in station prop 09 not using right TTD default if numtile!=08
• fixed wrong colour for coal mines in map window
• fixed bug: placing more than 49 station tiles at once (e.g. 7x8) would overwrite various patch variables and cause random problems
• sticky windows are no longer replaced when the max. number of window is reached (unless all windows are sticky)
• added station size info (var 88) to AI callback
• PBS signals which have a signal following them now never let trains pass through (or else this could cause crashes)
• when train can't reverse in PBS block and has to be stopped, the train window is opened immediately to alert the player

[Patchman]

Hi all,

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

This time I had some time to work on PBS a bit more. It's getting ever closer to working 100%. To make it a bit more customizable, it's now a bit switch, see the manual page for more details. As a consequence, I've removed the "noautopbsblocks" miscmods settings since it's been absorbed into the pathbasedsignalling switch proper.

In addition, I've modified the gamespeed switch a little. It now displays the current speed setting in the statusbar to the right (if faster) or left (if slower) of the date. The fastest setting is now much, much faster in fullscreen, running the game at the maximum speed your CPU can cope with.

I've also added a new sign cheat, "Cht: DeleteVehs" that removes from the game all of your vehicles on the tile where you place the cheat. Sometimes vehicles get stuck badly and can't be removed, this sign cheat is a last resort to fix that situation by simply removing all vehicles on that tile from the game.

Finally, Mek has again surpassed himself and made diagonal rails draggable, so that you can now build those pesky stretches with just a simple drag of the mouse. He also added some new miscmods settings that fixed a limitation in TTD that required industries to be close to the station *sign* to deliver cargo to the industry, as well as completely disabling messages about vehicles getting old.

Have fun!

Josef


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 48 (March 30, 2005):

• action D can now access patch switch parameters through GRFID FFFF0000
• added bitwise AND and OR to action D ops
• fixed another bug with trains not being able to reverse
• made final gamespeed setting much faster in fullscreen display
• game speed setting is now displayed in statusbar date area
• Cht: DeleteVehs to delete all vehicles on a tile (whole train even)
• fixed with PBS on custom bridge heads not working right
• fixed bug with trains sometimes taking very roundabout routes in PBS blocks
• added forgotten signal wait times back to verbose switch display
• now non-junction tiles will be shown darker too in PBS blocks
• PBS is now a bit switch, to select various settings
• added veh var 44 that gives aircraft height above ground and airport type
• fixed bug with tunnels sometimes preventing trains from passing PBS signal
• by Mek:
  • NS and EW rails are now also draggable
  • fixed the incorrect display of coloured texts in drop downs
  • added some miscmods switches, one to increase the maximum distance between station-sign and industry for cargo accepted at the station to appear at the industry, and one to disable
    the vehicle is getting old news-messages

[Patchman]

Hi all,

I've finally uploaded the latest alpha version. You can get alpha 49 as usual at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

The long delay was mostly due to me having to fight with Windows about who's boss in my computer. Besides occasionally refusing to work, or locking up when I was testing the patch, it recently decided that I had no sound card (despite all evidence to the contrary), and that DirectX was an illusion. No amount of reinstalling helped. So eventually I decided that I had it with Windows, and moved my whole patch development to Linux, which I'd been using as my main OS for years anyway.

After a few initial difficulties, I'm now able to develop the patch entirely on Linux, so we're set for a steady stream of alpha versions again. No thanks to Windows

So what's new? Apart from the usual bug fixes and minor improvements to various newgrf features, there are a few new items as well. The first one is a new "Fund Industry" window written by Csaba, who also implemented the display of snow in the temperate climate. This needs a .grf file to enable the snow line though, so wait for one to be released some time in the future. Another new switch, "townroadbranchprob" might be useful to reduce the number of streets that get built in a town.

Mek hasn't been lazy either, and wrote the "fifoloading" feature (fifo=first in, first out), which lets trains that have "full load" in their orders get loaded in the order that they arrive at stations. This isn't perfect yet, for instance this means that there will never be more than one train being loaded at once, and sometimes there are problems when trains are sent to the depot from a station. If you find that a station is "stuck" and doesn't load any trains at all, try the "Cht: ResetFifo" switch.

So enjoy the new version and look forward to even more new stuff soon!

-Josef


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 49 (May 1, 2005):

• support sprite sizes > 32KB (now up to 64KB supported)
• fixed bug with station overbuilding not working near map edges
• fixed road vehicles sometimes stopping in front of bus stops
• fixed gamemode variable 92 getting set too late when loading savegame
• fixed traffic jams when bus leaving bus stop breaks down or is stopped
• made action 1 nument and action 5 numsprites an extended byte (use FF xx xx for word values)
• added changes by Csaba:
  • Added property 0d (land shape flags) to industry tiles
  • Added property 20 (prospecting success change) to industries
  • Documented changes being undocumented in the previous version
  • Drop down menus now use the actual screen height instead of the hardcoded 480 to decide when to "drop up"
  • Finished the new industry generation window, now it should be able to do anything the old one did, including funding prospections
  • Newhouses bug fixed: when deciding whether to call callback 1C for the first time, the wrong byte was checked
  • Minor bug fixed: coal mines had strange color on the map in the Win version with newindustries being on
• gamespeed now takes a parameter that specifies the initial setting
• implemented action 10, GOTO labels for action 7/9
• fixed crash when too many station types are available in a given class
• by Mek:
  • fixed bug where building track built the wrong track piece
  • new switch `fifoloading on' (-YF) to set trains to load in the order they arrive if they have are set to full load
• embedded oslash glyphs in newspaper font size (with generalfixes)
• added changes by Csaba:
  • new switch: "tempsnowline", currently supports a stationary snow line only, without snowy trees
  • New callback 22 for industries to allow disabling industry types according to global variables (especially date)
  • New triggers 02 and 04 for industry tiles
  • Added 16 random bits to industries
  • Added variable 18 to allow passing extra information to GRFs during callbacks
  • Added variable 97 to allow defining the snow line (can be modified via action D)
  • New switch: townroadbranchprob (I hope Oskar is happy now
  • Fixed performance scores showing up negative if they're above 127
  • Fix: house overrides weren't cleared after loading a game
  • Fixed some bugs copying original industry build chances
  • New debug sign cheat "cht: snowline xx" to set the snow line height to xx (decimal)
  • Tweaked random bit handling so it supports separating 80 and 83 modified bits
  • Fixed a bug that prevented newtownnames from working after entering a game from the title screen.