Transport Tycoon Forums

Okay, I'm new to the whole graphics thing, but one thing that's always bugged me in TTDLX was the lack of proper motorways. I know that Motorways are not planned to be implemented (anytime soon/at all), but why not at least be able to have some as eyecandy?

With the introduction of NewObjects, I think this may now be possible;
Basically, what it could be is an eyecandy object that overlaps a spaced out dual-carriageway like above, creating the inside lanes and central reservation. This has the potential to create many puzzle pieces that may include signs, overhead displays, hell, even Service stations?

So what does everyone think of this idea? Feasable? A pipe dream? The graphics in the mock-up above suck?

Please, offer your critique!

I like it!

Dudoronron wrote:Please, offer your critique!

Not bad. I'd use a width of two tiles for the highway only though. Otherwise it'd look to me too much out-of-proportion with the usual rails.

now that openttd suports new objects, you can make a normal road and only the middle part as new object.

Yes, ColdIce has the correct idea. Thanks for the comments everyone! However, I'm concerned that, due to the way the tiles are organised, the inside lane won't overlap the road tile closest to the screen. Can anyone confirm/deny this, or suggest a work-around?

Depends. But it will glitch, if there's an overlap.

Damn.

What about if I created my own roadset to go with it, that contains no base to the road tile? Because road tiles come with a grass base for it, but perhaps, without that, I can get it to work how I'd like?

Or if it was made into a new type of road accessable from the road submenu (much like tramways are)? Granted, this is far more complex and really is a last resort. If neither of these are feasable then there's not much point carrying on drawing these tiles.

Dudoronron wrote: What about if I created my own roadset to go with it, that contains no base to the road tile? Because road tiles come with a grass base for it, but perhaps, without that, I can get it to work how I'd like?

That'd only work satisfactorily, if you'd introduce road types... but then you'd not need the NewObjects approach anymore. Currently road tiles are ground tiles. They're not drawn on anything, but they're the ground themselves.

I know that road tiles are the ground tiles, but they all have grass either side of the road, which can/will cause problems when overlapping. If I was to create a roadset to work with the NewObjects that was JUST the road and no grass, could that achieve the effect I desire?

The graphics look brilliant! My only suggestion on how to implement this (addressing the tile overlap issue) is to redraw the normal road tiles to cover the full tile width... Then it should be simple to design graphics which tile seamlessly from the central reservation to the road...

Action Ain the GRF Specs allows for the replacement of the default TTDX sprites. I don't know if this works in OpenTTD as well. This would be the ideal and simplest way to address your challenge. Also, for the median between the roads, newobjects would definitely be the way to go. For an object that spans the roads, newobjects would have to support irregular layouts as is done with newindustries (A challenge for the devs )

Gotta love those graphics, Well done.

Thanks for the comments everyone, glad you're liking the graphics.

For the road tiles, I have several ideas, and I will put them here in order of (what I think will be) simplicity of implementing it. I don't want to create a new road tile exclusively for motorways, as it would look plain wrong as a normal road. That is why I wanted something that would overlap normal roads, so it would be easy to create, be functional in-game, and also mean road tiles can be used in normal use.

Okay, here are the ideas I have thought about;

Creating a new roadset which is JUST the road and no grass or extras (I will draw a mock-up of what I mean tonight after work)
Making motorway road tiles a new option to build under the road tab, like tramways are.
Having the road detect when the specific motorway NewObjects are placed, and change the road tile to suit.

Also, I don't know what I am going to do about motorway bridges. I could create specific bridges to be used with the motorway, but I don't think I'm currently up to the standard to draw a good bridge, and I'm not sure what images are needed to create a bridge anyway.

The idea I have about bridges would be 3 bridges disguised as 1 bridge. Bridge 1 would be the outside 2 lanes, Bridge 2 would be the inside lane of each direction plus central reservation, and Bridge 3 would be the other 2 outside lanes. Kind of like this;


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bridge 1 (Edge of Bridge)
########################## Bridge 1
########################## Bridge 1
########################## Bridge 2
============================= Bridge 2 (Central Reservation)
########################## Bridge 2
########################## Bridge 3
########################## Bridge 3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bridge 3 (Edge of Bridge)

Comments on that idea, or any ideas of your own, anyone?

I like it too, I read that topic fast because was a bit hurry, but could'nt see the question! What/how about curves?

I think you will have big problems getting the bridges to look right... I just dont think there are enough bridge slots available to do what you would like to do, I'm also not sure how you would be a ble to create something that looks and behaves like a bridge but is actually coded as an object. I would say leave the bridges as they are.

No, I was meaning just have them as proper bridges, not bridge-shaped NewObjects. That means the central bridge *could* be driven over, but, since if it is used properly, there will be no road connecting it, it will just be for show.

EDIT:

Okay, what I mean by "just the road" is this;


This would be the extent of the road tile. As you can see, it's just road, no grass, no nothing.

Duplicate it to represent the gap between each road as it would be set out in-game.

Add the NewObject. Since there is no grass or anything on the foreground road tile, there is nothing to overlap the part of the NewObject that enters the box of the foreground road tile.

Would this work? Or would it still glitch?

I think you will find that road crop vehicles will be drawn under the object making them invisible on the near side and glitchy on the far side...

Dudoronron wrote: Location: Newcastle, UK

Hehe. Don´t you drive on left in the U.K?


IMO, this whole "concept" is flawed, mixing real road tiles with newobjects. There will be a bunch of unsolvable problems.

Best thing would be to implement additional road types properly, as proposed here: http://wiki.openttd.org/Peter1138/Roadtypes

regards
Michael

Zephyris wrote:I think you will find that road crop vehicles will be drawn under the object making them invisible on the near side and glitchy on the far side...

I think you've possibly misunderstood what I meant. I meant create a new roadset with those road tiles. They would not be part of the NewObject.

michael blunck wrote: IMO, this whole "concept" is flawed, mixing real road tiles with newobjects. There will be a bunch of unsolvable problems.

Best thing would be to implement additional road types properly, as proposed here: http://wiki.openttd.org/Peter1138/Roadtypes

Although that would be the easiest answer in terms of use for the end user, as well as sorting the images, I am not convinced that would be the best way to do it. For starters, I have no idea about coding, so, unless someone comes along and offers to code it as more graphics are produced, I would like to keep it as simple as possible for myself to (try and) code. Secondly, this may mean that cars would be able to drive down the central reservation, which would just look wrong.

Obviously I'll look into it, but at the moment, I'm not entirely convinced.

Best or most correct route isn't always within easy reach. So the world proceeds on less good, or even 'plain wrong', but nonetheless stuff gets done

http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/ ... festo.html

Hello!

I really love the idea of this motorway project. Is it going on?

cheers,

atis