Bigger Depots GRF v0.3 [REL.] + Servicing-Stations [WIP]

[kamnet]

As of this time, the only thing Bigger Depot does is provide a sprite for a larger-size depot, so that when you put them back-to-back and side-by-side, they look seamless. When the game still relied on the original TTD graphics, the depot was a smaller building that had grass surrounding it, thus the desire for a "bigger depot".

There is a future intent of also turning it into the "Servicing Stations" project, but that has not yet been fully developed.

[JacobD88]

Most of the depots on this thread (the ones with multiple trains going in and out) I've created with a custom build of OTTD that I've yet to put together a patch for; although the drive-thru depot patch can be updated to conform to current trunk (links are on this thread).

At the moment, the bigger depot GRF will just allow you to place lots of depots adjacent to one another to give the effect of a larger depot but the actual functionality is a long way off i'm afraid. I've not worked on the SS branch for quite some time; shortly after r20000 in fact.

One day i will return to it, but running a franchise is my priority ATM

EDIT: Sorry, i missed Kamnets post on the page change

[kamnet]

Most of the depots on this thread (the ones with multiple trains going in and out) I've created with a custom build of OTTD that I've yet to put together a patch for; although the drive-thru depot patch can be updated to conform to current trunk (links are on this thread)

After all this time, is there any reason to not just go ahead and publish the patch as-is, flaws and all?

[LukasTT]

I think the easiest approach is to allow adjacent depots being one depot with just one name. Maybe also allow building with Ctrl-Key pressed to combine depots which do not touch. Has this been implemented in another GRF/Patch?

Lukas

[JacobD88]

I think the easiest approach is to allow adjacent depots being one depot with just one name. Maybe also allow building with Ctrl-Key pressed to combine depots which do not touch. Has this been implemented in another GRF/Patch?

Hi yes, there is a patch from an old revision of OTTD; it's something i've looked at as part of the SS work, and should be relatively easy to bump to current trunk when i get the time. It is however a separate patch from what Servicing Stations is trying to achieve (permitting special tiles/platforms at a station to allow servicing); so i would have to work on it as a separate patch rather than try to merge two or more projects into a superpatch.

Should i ever get round to finishing all of this stuff, i would want the devs to view each patch individually (as I'm sure they would too) otherwise, there's little chance of anything ever making it to trunk and i'll have wasted years of work by then

With regards to Kamnets request; there would be little gain in me releasing anything now; it's all from r19901 when i last worked on it in 2010. Not only is this pre-cargodist, it's also pre NewGRF specification changes and a whole host of other stuff.

Plan of action is now as follows:

I need to get the sprites finished; this is the easiest job when time allows, and i can dip into and out of it with relative ease around work. It also has the advantage of giving people something to actually look at, so maybe i will attract someone who can actually code, rather than self-teach as they go which is what i have been doing. I should be able to start working on sprites again after the British Transplant Games that my company are official photographers for is over next week and dip in and out till Christmas around work.

After the sprites are finished i need to release an update to the Bigger Depot GRF to add support for different track types and different eras of depot. This should be fairly straight forward as i need to add some parameters to select different sprite sets, as well as add the option to change the sprites as time passes and depots are "renovated".

I then plan to release a station tiles set as a precursor to working on the servicing stations patch. This will give people the ability to build the stations, even if they cannot use them yet.

By then all i have to focus on is patching

[MasterMeNL]

Any news on this? This is one patch that I'm really looking forward to.
Maybe I can help with some stuff too, although I'm not an experienced programmer really.

Regards,

Melvin.

[JacobD88]

Hi Melvin,

Yes still active, i recently posted on the graphics development forum as i'm working again on sprites to update the Bigger Depots GRF and work a little more towards the stuff i need for servicing stations (Although the ISR and DWE already has most things so plan is to fill the gaps)

Sadly great coding skill is where i lack too; but anything you think you can help with please PM me

[ens]

SOMEBODY PLEASE UPLOAD AND SHARE

DRIVE-THROUGH DEPOT NEWGRF

DOWNLOAD LINK

i need this so much

[Eddi]

there is no such thing.

[WWTBAM]

SOMEBODY PLEASE UPLOAD AND SHARE

DRIVE-THROUGH DEPOT NEWGRF

DOWNLOAD LINK

i need this so much

Can you please refrain from using all capitals as it is considered shouting. Also as Eddi mentioned, no such GRF exists and it can't be done with GRFs.

[ens]

Sorry, was a little drunk last night.

There clearly was a newgrf like this since in the first post of this very topic it says:

+++racetrack has created a patch to allow Drive-Through Depots here... http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 12&start=0 This is really useful to accompany the Bigger Depots GRF+++

I have Bigger Depots GRF and want to archieve this:



But the link to the website with racetrack`s Drive-Through Depots patch is dead!

[kamnet]

That's because the URL is wrong. http://wiki.openttd.org/User:Racetrack/ ... ugh_depots
Although there's no file there, and the URL it links to is dead. That said, I think I may have dug it up from this site:

drive-through-depots.r15905.diff

(68.6 KiB) Downloaded 287 times

Keep in mind that this patch was last updated for r15905, back in 2009. It may take a LOT of work for somebody to bring this patch up-to-date.

[nulio]

Big necro-ing to ask if there's more people that would just love this

[kamnet]

Of course there are, but that's not what holds this project up.

[nulio]

I just think that several people showing interest and love for this can sometimes be that one thing help motivating the developers (ot not).

IMO this is one the really amazing things that would make the game *feel* a bit more realistic. And yet for two years zero posts.

[JacobD88]

Hi all,

I'm still around (Though mostly lurking nowadays - Real Life got in the way)

As has already been pointed out, Racetracks Patch hasn't been updated since 2009, my own patch (which was never publicly released) since 2011.

I would like to get back to it one day; but cannot put a time on it I'm afraid. Nonetheless, this feature is something i really want to get into OTTD in time.

The hardest part of the coding involves getting station tiles to register as suitable for refits (or depots), and beyond that what if a station has some "Depot" tiles and some non-"depot"? Does the whole station allow servicing of trains, or just the tiles a train occupies? (The latter being my ideal, but a logistical nightmare)

What happens for the brief moment a train disappears from the tracks? (which would make signals for that part of the station turn green) How would i avoid crashes as a result? And so on...

It's problems like the above that i never found a clean way to overcome that stopped both myself and racetrack from continuing further (In addition to aforementioned real world things)... As far as we were concerned there was little point in pursuing the production of patches that would never be clean enough for the Devs to consider putting to trunk; we lacked the resources/time to maintain our own branch, so until clean solutions to the problems we encountered were found, why develop the patches further?

Suggestions are always welcome however

[J0anJosep]

I started a different approach to do a similar feature and I did come across similar problems (multiple tile depots). I borrowed the "bigger depot" NewGRF for that purpose.

What happens for the brief moment a train disappears from the tracks? (which would make signals for that part of the station turn green) How would i avoid crashes as a result?

You can try doing everything in the same tick (train disappears - train is serviced - train is placed again in the station). Moreover, the player won't see the train disappearing. But, if the train length changes during the servicing, you can cause some problems with signalling. I hope you can get around those problems.

[Eddi]

But, if the train length changes during the servicing, you can cause some problems with signalling.

you could make it like autoreplace, create a copy of the vehicle, do all the servicing commands on it, and before placing it back, you check the length to fit in the platform. if it doesn't fit, you reinstate the backup, and throw a "servicing failed (train too long)" message.

[JacobD88]

Thanks Eddi and Jaunjo; i'll add both your comments/suggestions to my notes.

Keeping all actions in the same tick is a good idea; why is this not already done with depots? (Unless it's changed since i last played - trains disappear from the tracks briefly when servicing/refitting; at least enough to trigger signal changes and allowing other trains to enter the tile as it registers "free" to the pathfinder?)

I'll have to look into this first should i ever return to the patch as it was one of the largest obstacles and the source of several collisions when serviced vehicles returned to the tracks only to have another one, that had passed through a signal that briefly turned green, crash into it.

Getting the trains to service at stations, and the changes to the train orders code is fairly simple, but the problem was that this made ALL stations capable of servicing/refitting trains and adding a new station tile type was where it got difficult as the issue of mixed tile stations came in.

@Eddi, can your suggestion of "Servicing Failed - Train to Long" messages be extended to detect the presence of another vehicle entering the tiles registered as Depot/Servicing-Station and return the message "Servicing Failed - Vehicle Obstructing Tracks" or similar? Is there provision for such an action already? Or would this require separate patching?

@Jaunjo, thanks for linking your patches in this thread, whilst aware of them through our PM's i didn't want to link to them myself lest i tread on toes. Have you done much work on them recently?

[Eddi]

return the message "Servicing Failed - Vehicle Obstructing Tracks" or similar?

i don't think this is a good idea. you should solve the underlying problem instead. otherwise, there is certainly code in the check whether a vehicle can leave a depot that does this.