Hover Bus (Based on eGrvts)

[Roujin]

Hello,
I hereby present my first newgrf

Some hoverbuses in action :)

Monbourne Transport, 2061-03-05.png (51.04 KiB) Viewed 49335 times

It is a futuristic hovering bus, available from 2030 on. Its graphics are based on eGrvts (with permission from Zephyris), and you can use it together with (e)Grvts, but also as a standalone (just for fun) or with any other vehicle sets. See below [1] for use with different sets.
The newGrf should basically work with TTDPatch, but I didn't test it and it may behave different/strangely because TTDPatch implemented the use of some realistic acceleration variables that are ignored in OpenTTD and thus I did not test them.
The newGrf is tested and works with OpenTTD, but needs a version of at least r14869, else it will not be as fast as it is supposed to.


Due to its unbelievable powerful magick(TM) hovering drive, the hover bus can reach top speeds of 318 mph (511 km/h).
However, since the costs of powering this unimaginable technology are very high, and (at least in OpenTTD) the vehicle is slowed down by curves and inclines badly, the vehicle is only really profitable on bigger distances, preferable with a special road that goes only straight. (The hover bus needs ca. 120 tiles of straight road to reach its max speed!)
For other scenarios, you should use other types of buses available in the (e)Grvts set: for long distances, but not a dedicated straight road, coaches are great; for shorter distances, normal or doubledecker or articulated buses give best results.

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[1] Usage with other sets.
In OpenTTD, you can enable the advanced setting "Enable multiple NewGRF engine sets", and you will have no problems.
Alternatively you can follow the instructions below and set its vehicle ID to any ID from 0 to 254. For example, if you're using eGrvts, IDs 249 to 254 are still free.

For TTDPatch, you can set the first grf parameter to any valid road vehicle ID in decimal numbers (00 to 87). The hover bus will use the vehicle ID you specified. By default, the hover bus uses the vehicle ID 57 (hex) == 87 (dec). Like this you can avoid IDs already used by another vehicle set.

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Copyright
The sprites used in this grf are based on sprites from the "Extended Generic Road Vehicle and Tram Set" (eGrvts) by Zephyris (Richard Wheeler).
Following the conditions of the license of eGrvts,
this newGrf (Hover Bus) is released under the latest version of the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike Creative Commons; ie:
Use and distribute freely for non-commercial purposes crediting me, Roujin (Manuel Wolf) and Zephyris (Richard Wheeler), as authors with a link to this thread (http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=41363) and Zephyris' eGrvts thread (http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=33415). Modifications and adaptations can be made so long as they credit me and Zephyris as original authors, are for non-commercial purposes and are released under the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike Creative Commons license.

[Benny]

Hey, that's pretty cool!
I hereby conclude that this GRF is a succes.

[FooBar]

Grfcrawler?

[Roujin]

Grfcrawler?

I just added it, but I got some errors[1] when I clicked on "send" and it didn't upload the images I wanted to upload Plus, because of the error messages, I thought it didn't work at all, so I clicked again. Now I got a duplicate entry and no images

[1]

Code: Select all

Warning: move_uploaded_file(./grf/252/hoverbus_big.png) [function.move-uploaded-file]:
failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/grfcrawl/public_html/index.php on line 1075

Warning: move_uploaded_file() [function.move-uploaded-file]:
Unable to move '/tmp/phpexTFrN' to './grf/252/hoverbus_big.png' in /home/grfcrawl/public_html/index.php on line 1075

edit: fixed table breaking

[Hirundo]

This is awesome, I hope you don't need a special driver's license do use it

errors[1]

FYI, your error message breaks the forum layout.

[stevenh]

Now you just need some variables to allow the vehicle to lower/lift 2-3px when it stops and starts

[DJ Nekkid]

wont that just require a 2nd set of sprites and a 2nd listing in it's action1?

[Torben DH]

really nic bus but the capacity seems a little low... i mean nowadays busses has 50 seats so it makes no senc that a bus in 20 years will have only 30 seats... maybe make a longer version with 60 seats? but its really cool to see it rocket down th road...

[Zutty]

Sorry to dig this thread up, but I thought it might amuse you to know Roujin that this fantastic bus is SO FAST that it caused my AI to crash, when it tried to estimate profits based on travel time of 0 days!!

[Zephyris]

In soviet OpenTTD you don't crash bus, bus crash you!

sorry!

[Roujin]

awesome

Well, hope that teaches you to account for div_by_zero in even the most unlikely seeming pieces of code.

[flowover]

really nic bus but the capacity seems a little low... i mean nowadays busses has 50 seats so it makes no senc that a bus in 20 years will have only 30 seats... maybe make a longer version with 60 seats? but its really cool to see it rocket down th road...

Sorry to catch this and reply after a month. This makes perfect sense to me. I'm not comfortable travelling by bus at all. With my daypack, jacket and other carry on items, I'm crammed into my seat on them. It would seem that if the busses get people to their destinations faster, then the company could afford to run with less seats and improved passenger comfort. Plus with all the hover technology, some room for seats may be compromised. Two perfectly good reasons why the capacity is less.

[Zuu]

Faster speed => air resistance.

Actually the maglev, to take another example is quite silly. At those speeds the friction from the wheels are much lower than the air resistance. What they did was to reduce the wheel friction, which is already only a minor factor at those speeds.

I don't recall exactly at what speed but somewhere between 100 and 200 km/h I think (probably more towards 100 than 200) it was when the air resistance become higher than the wheel friction.

So for buses it actually make more sense to use hover technology than for trains, as tires have higher friction than steel wheels.

[planetmaker]

Faster speed => air resistance.

Actually the maglev, to take another example is quite silly. At those speeds the friction from the wheels are much lower than the air resistance. What they did was to reduce the wheel friction, which is already only a minor factor at those speeds.

I don't recall exactly at what speed but somewhere between 100 and 200 km/h I think (probably more towards 100 than 200) it was when the air resistance become higher than the wheel friction.

So for buses it actually make more sense to use hover technology than for trains, as tires have higher friction than steel wheels.

If air friction was what counts and not the overall engine power(s) needed to achieve a certain velocity. Hover vehicles have a high overhead as they have to provide their own air cussion which constantly needs maintaining.

Opposed to that, maglev as it's currently applied to trains makes more sense: it allows you to externalize the power source. The traction power is generated by the tracks themselves while the vehicle itself only has to maintain a static magnetic field.

[Eddi]

the friction from wheels is really not the advantage of maglevs over trains.

part of the important aspects is what planetmaker described, transferring the power generating part from the engine to the rails.

the other part is mechanical. wheels at high speeds also rotate at high speed, that produces very harsh requirements on the materials used for wheels and axles. the DB had really huge problems with that in the past half year with their ICE-T fleet, because of microscopic damages. all this trouble would not be relevant if there were no mechanically moving parts, like with maglevs

[Aphfaneire]

the friction from wheels is really not the advantage of maglevs over trains.

part of the important aspects is what planetmaker described, transferring the power generating part from the engine to the rails.

the other part is mechanical. wheels at high speeds also rotate at high speed, that produces very harsh requirements on the materials used for wheels and axles. the DB had really huge problems with that in the past half year with their ICE-T fleet, because of microscopic damages. all this trouble would not be relevant if there were no mechanically moving parts, like with maglevs

Eh... What wheels?

It's Magnetic Levitation. The Track create's a magnetic field that levitate's the train and pushes it along the track? There is no wheels involved anywhere in maglev's. They float inside a mono-rail like track and are propelled by the track, or in conjunction with depending on the system.




I have to report that i can't get the grf to work. I activated it and the bus didnt show up in my vehicle list. Im using multiple vehicle grf's for my trains perfectly well, but for some reason it isnt picking up the bus.

[Comm Cody]

What year is it in the game. It has to be 2025 or later for it to show up.

[DaleStan]

Eh... What wheels?

Most maglevs do have wheels, AIUI. Rather like most airplanes have wheels.

Maglev, like wings, doesn't provide enough upward force below a certain speed, so the vehicle needs some backup system lest it end up with its belly on the asphalt.

[petert]

Great Graphic! Nice work.

[Eddi]

the friction from wheels is really not the advantage of maglevs over trains.

Eh... What wheels?

i should have formulated this more explicitly:
the advantage the maglev have over trains from not having wheels is not that they reduce friction, because the effect of friction from wheels in trains is negligible.

and there are generally two types of maglevs. one more static and one more dynamic kind.

the static kind (e.g. the german technology) allows levitating even while standing, so these do not require wheels. (they might still have wheels for maintenance purposes etc.)

the dynamic kind (e.g. the japanese technology) kicks in when the maglev hits higher speeds (~100km/h i once heard), so these need wheels to accelerate first.

it's a little similar to comparing airships to airplanes.