Planeset

A complete aircraft replacement for TTDPatch

Co-operative development by TT-Forums members

June 2006

Official release; version 1.5.2

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 in TTDPatch

  1. The Planeset is developed to run with latest TTDPatch beta version. This release has been tested using 2.5 beta 5. Please obtain the latest TTDPatch beta version to make sure Planeset works properly with you.
  2. Copy the "planesetw.grf" file to the "newgrf" directory in your TTD main directory. (TTD[Patch] DOS users: In this and the next step, remove the 'w' from planesetw.grf and newgrfw.cfg.)
  3. Add the entry "newgrf/planesetw.grf" to your "newgrfw.cfg" file.
    The PlaneSet optionally takes a single parameter, which behaves as a bitswitch. Add up the value entries for the items you want to enable, and place the resultant number at the end of that line. The default value is 0.
    Bit #ValueMeaning
    01Force purchase-date for all livery selections (Some livery changes (the ones that are visually almost identical) use last-service-date for selection by default.)
    12Disable Russian names for Russian planes. (Russian names will not appear unless these Russian glyphs are also loaded.)
    24Disable the CC liveries where valid original liveries exist.
    38Disable the original liveries.
    It is an error to set both bits 2 and 3.
  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"!
  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.

Installation in OpenTTD

This version of Planeset DOES NOT work with OpenTTD (as of version 0.4.7). A version called "Planeset - The 459 Remix" with slightly different vehicles is designed especially for OpenTTD 0.4.7 operation.

There is a patch available to make the official Planeset work in OpenTTD; it is available in this thread. This patch is gradually being added to the OpenTTD trunk which is close to fully supporting the Planeset, as of r5338.

  1. Ensure you are using a nightly build r5338 or later or use the OpenTTD MiniIN.
  2. Copy the "planesetw.grf" file to the "data" directory in your OpenTTD main directory .
  3. Add the entry "planesetw.grf" to your "openttd.cfg" file, below the [newgrf] heading. (If the [newgrf] heading does not exist, add it at the end of openttd.cfg.)
  4. Calculate the required parameter value as shown for TTDPatch (above). Add the parameter after the "planesetw.grf" entry in your "openttd.cfg" file.
  5. 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.

How is the Planeset built?

The Planeset is built from planesetw.nfo and planesetw.pcx file using Josef Drexler's GRFCodec program. These are no longer distributed, as they contain absolutely nothing interesting; produce them by decoding planesetw.grf and (optionally) running the nfo through NFORenum's beautifier. The PCX will have the right palette. The PCX file is manipulated with i.Mage 0.98 and/or The GIMP and the NFO file is manipulated with high-tech programs known as Windows Notepad! The NFO file requires some understanding how it works, TTDPatch NFO Foundations (link below) and the NFO file are the best documentation for you.

Back when 459 coded things, the PCX and NFO files were first-class development references for those who wanted to learn drawing and coding. When DaleStan took over he stripped the comments in the process of reordering the file in a way that did not make him go completely insane. Between grfcodec's quoted string support and NFORenum's code beautifier many of the comments became unnecessary anyway.

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

I: You need an appropiate drawing program. Some programs that were used in Planeset graphical development are i.Mage, The GIMP, SpriteEdit, and Windows Paint. Use whichever program(s) work best for you, but be warned that Windows Paint can easily produce a file with an invalid palette (see II).

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 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 less useful: 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. The way you'll learn drawing is trial-and-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. 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.

Known bugs and glitches

Further development plans 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
The GIMP site
TTDPatch NFO Foundations