Planeset

A complete aircraft replacement for TTDPatch

Co-operative development by TT-Forums members

August 2005

Official release; version 1.0

What is the "Planeset"?

The Planeset is the first comprehensive TTDPatch airplane set available. It is designed as a complete replacement for the original Transport Tycoon Deluxe airplanes. Its aim is to offer more diverse selection of airplanes compared to original TTD airplanes; to give a unique graphical look for them; and to offer more real-world airplane running specifications. Original Transport Tycoon had real names for the airplanes, but for some reason they were "mutilated" for TTD. For instance "Boeing 727" became "Darwin 100", "Lockheed Tristar" became "Guru Galaxy" and so on. The planes in Planeset have the correct names. All operational parameters such as passenger/mail capacities and running costs reflect the actual aircraft better without such anomalities such as A300 with passenger capacity equal to B777 and higher than the A330.

With the Planeset, you should always have an appropiate airplane available for any air route you decide to run. However, the number of planes allowed is limited by TTD to 41 planes, so don't lose your head if your favourite airplane isn't included in the set.

Who is responsible for the "Planeset"?

The Planeset was developed by some members of the Transport Tycoon Forums (administered by Owen Rudge) with interest towards getting proper airplanes for TTDPatch. On some parts it might include some elements previously developed by others. If you believe your work has been used and you are not properly credited, please post your concern in the forum for immediate attention. Second-hand complaints will be disregarded; specific complaints with evidence will be rectified as soon as possible. Please bear in mind that the TTD vehicle sprites are very small, and as such there is unavoidable similarity between similar vehicles. The original TTD sprites have been used as the basis of the work to retain similarity in graphical style when compared to original TTD airplanes.

If you wish to comment on the released set or if you want to contribute to further development, use the "Planeset (official topic)" thread located in the Forums.

What climates can you run it on?

Temperate, Arctic and Tropical. It's mainly tested under Temperate so if you find something really weird in Arctic or Tropical, report.

Files included in the package

Installation

  1. The Planeset is developed to run with latest TTDPatch Alpha version. This release has been tested using 2.0.1 alpha 55 (July 9, 2005). Please obtain the latest TTDPatch Alpha version to make sure Planeset works properly with you.
  2. Copy the "planesetw.grf" file to the "newgrf" directory in your TTD main dir.
  3. Add the entry "newgrf/planesetw.grf" to your "newgrfw.cfg" file.
  4. Make sure that you have "newplanes on" set in the "ttdpatch.cfg" file.
  5. To set plane speeds relative to other TTD vehicle ground speeds, edit the "ttdpatch.cfg" file. Set "planespeed n" where n is 1, 2, 3 or 4. Running costs are dependent on speed of plane with factors 1.0-1.6-1.8-2.0 for planespeeds 1-2-3-4. Do NOT use setting "planespeed off" or "planespeed on"!
  6. The Planeset replaces all planes in the game. It can not be used with any other replacement graphic set that alters airplanes in any way unless that graphics file is especially designed to replace specific planes of Planeset.
  7. This version of Planeset DOES NOT work with OpenTTD (as of version 0.4.0.1). A version called "Planeset - The 459 Remix" with slightly different vehicles is designed especially for OpenTTD operation.

THIS RELEASE IS FOR TTDPATCH WINDOWS VERSION ONLY!

How is the Planeset built?

The Planeset is built from planesetw.nfo and planesetw.pcx file using Josef Drexler's GRFCodec program. If you are planning to do any modifications or further development for the set, please base your work on these files. The PCX has right palette and the NFO is made slightly easier to look at than the NFO you'd get if you decoded the GRF file. The PCX file is manipulated with i.Mage 0.98 and the NFO file is manipulated with high-tech programs known as Windows Notepad and Windows Wordpad! The NFO file requires some understanding how it works, TTDPatch NFO Foundations (link below) and the NFO file are the best documentation for you.

The PCX and NFO files are included because they are first-class development reference for those who want to learn drawing and coding. With them, you can with least trouble experiment how to do things and especially how to not do things!

I want to draw new graphics or liveries to the set. What should I do?

I: You need an appropiate drawing program. Windows Paint will not do. The program that was used in Planeset graphical development is called i.Mage. It's slightly buggy, tricky to use and hard to understand at first - in other words it has the perfect development tool feel! ;) Maybe the best feature of the program is the fact that it doesn't have too much features but everything needed in the editing can be found. In other words, you won't drown in the sea of menus and submenus.

II: The right palette and color depth. In i.Mage the ttdwin.pal can be loaded and it works but I recommend the following for beginners: just open the planesetw.pcx and all the planes currently in set pop right in front of your eyes in the form they exist when they are coded for a release of Planeset Beta with the right palette! Especially with other programs, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EXACTLY THE RIGHT COLOR FORMAT AND PALETTE which is PNG or PCX with 8-bit indexed palette as in ttdwin.pal or planesetw.pcx. Failure to use proper palette will cause your work to be useless: Indexed palette color numbers and order are also meaningful in addition to the RGB values since they define which colors are "magic colors" and which are not.

III: With patience, start to draw. If you are drawing new models, consider using the TTD built-in planes and the planes already drawn for Planeset as a reference and basis for new work. Extracting built-in planes out from TTD data files is most easily done with GRFCodec operated by GRFWizard GUI. Whether it is for a completely new design or company livery for existing model, the way you'll learn drawing is trial-by-error. At the Forums there is an explanation how palette colors work. There are many "magic colors" in the palette that are more than just a color in a picture. For instance there is the "magic company color blue" (color #198-205) that identifies your vehicle in the game from your competitor and the blue color #0 you see around every plane that stands for transparency. Don't misuse magic colors!

For new liveries, please avoid changing the shape of existing plane. For new designs, getting the right isometric shape is important. You can use all existing work for reference and "drawing wires" technique will prove valuable in drawing wing shapes.

I want to code a plane. What should I do?

Take a look to TTDPatch NFO Foundations and learn it yourself. There's a walkthrough that can be applied for airplane creation process as well. See the included planesetw.nfo file for reference how different planes are coded whether if they used a new sprite or if they reused existing TTD sprite.

Known bugs and glitches

Further development include the following

Limitations of original game

History of official releases

History of beta releases

Credits

The Planeset is a result of joint development effort with work of many people. It is entirely nonprofit. Permission is given to reproduce or redistribute it in its entirety according to the terms of the GNU Public Licence. The work of Planeset can be freely used as reference material as long as "The Planeset development team" is mentioned as source.

The Planeset development team (with their respective forum usernames):

Links

Planeset homepage
TT-Forums official Planeset thread
TTDPatch site
i.Mage site
TTDPatch NFO Foundations