NewGRF Road Stops

[PNDA_]

Hey all,

After NRT I think it's also a good addition to add Road Stops for NewGRFs (NotRoadStops?).

I've been working on/off for a few months now to bring support for road stops. In the below screenshot you can somewhat see what can be done currently. I am open for various suggestions in this thread and feedback.
I'm currently only considering multi-tile stops, but we'll see.

You can download and build the binaries below for OpenTTD and NML.
I hope people will make beautiful NewGRFs and I can't wait to see them all!

OpenTTD fork: https://github.com/spnda/OpenTTD/tree/roadstops

NML fork: https://github.com/spnda/nml/tree/roadstops


Credit for the sprites in this image go to Erato and Captain Klutz

Oh and I've always been updating and deciding on things on my discord.

[perverted monkey]

[GarryG]

After NRT I think it's also a good addition to add Road Stops for NewGRFs (NotRoadStops?).

Great idea .. I started working on object Bus Terminals so some of those bus stops you shown above could go well with what I doing.

Busy most of day with family commitments, but hope checkout what you done later this evening.

Cheers pal

[GarryG]

I am open for various suggestions in this thread and feedback.
I'm currently only considering multi-tile stops, but we'll see.

Looking at the image .. will the bus be able enter off the street direction of the arrow I drew and stop similar to what I show here?

Bus Station.png (38.02 KiB) Viewed 18748 times

If they can do that I could make some interest large bus terminals for them.

At the moment the way the bus stations are where vehicles enter and do a 90 degree turn to park in the bays, very hard to design a nice big bus terminal for that style.

Looking forward to see how your project progresses.

Cheers

[PNDA_]

Looking at the image .. will the bus be able enter off the street direction of the arrow I drew and stop similar to what I show here?
If they can do that I could make some interest large bus terminals for them.

At the moment the way the bus stations are where vehicles enter and do a 90 degree turn to park in the bays, very hard to design a nice big bus terminal for that style.
Cheers

No, the way busses enter bus stations has not changed (yet). All stops in that list are oriented the same way and there is just no fence being rendered in the one you mentioned. But it is certainly a thing to think about.

If I were to introduce this though, how would a user see the difference? My first idea was a flag on a bus stop to have the stop be rotated 90°, but then some road sprites would have to be remade/added....

[GarryG]

No, the way busses enter bus stations has not changed (yet).

That's ok pal. Was just a idea.

I think the control of RV in those type of bus station and the truck loading bays all controlled by OpenTTD itself.

Train Stations we can have a variety of styles .. so your idea to have a variety of bus stations and truck loading bays great idea.

[GarryG]

Wonder if these can be improved and same done to through bus stops and truck loading bays.

Bus termials-2.png (24.07 KiB) Viewed 18629 times

Called "Truck and Bus Parking Lots"

Not sure where I got it from as file dates year 2010 .. could not find it on Bananas just now (but maybe I not look properly).

Created by Kevin Fields, licences under GNU GPL v2.

The person who made them took out the buildings and other pieces.

Be good if a full set could be made for all 6 positions without the buildings and shelter sheds .

[2TallTyler]

Called "Truck and Bus Parking Lots"

Not sure where I got it from as file dates year 2010 .. could not find it on Bananas just now (but maybe I not look properly).

This was made by kamnet.

[GarryG]

This was made by kamnet.

Thanks you for reminding me .. much appreciated.

[kamnet]

This was made by kamnet.

Thanks you for reminding me .. much appreciated.

All I did was change the code for the walls. And that was so long ago I don't remember what I changed. And I remember that it was just enough work that I didn't want to fool with the rest.

[GarryG]

All I did was change the code for the walls. And that was so long ago I don't remember what I changed.

Sounds like you have a memory like mine .. I only remember what I remember and forget other things

[wallyweb]

For the past several weeks I have been working on drive through road stops for bus and truck.
I have not made any code changes (patches). It's all grf.
I found I had to use Action A to reposition the street lights so that they were consistent in their location on the sidewalks.
Next I used Action 5 to remove all the "furniture" stuff so as to leave me just the blank sidewalk to build on.
After that I used objects to build on an adjacent tile such that a choice of "furniture" modules could be overlapped onto the nearest road stop sidewalk.
Lastly, using ufiby's ISR roads as a guide, I built a set of ISR compliant drive through truck stops.
Just a few more tweeks and it will be ready for a release.
Because of the heavy use of OpenGFX and ISR graphics, it will be GPL licensed.

If somebody is able to patch NRT so that the drive through road stop code and road station code are given accessible variables, then much of what I have done will be moot and unnecessary.

[PNDA_]

Update!
I know of one issue, that the default road sprites dont get rendered on custom bus and truck stops (NRT roads do get rendered fine)
Everything else seems fixed, including the regression tests and AIs.
I've also added a few newgrf variables (of which two still need implementation). Aswell as let it inherit all variables from the BaseStation, making them cargo aware.
- view (The view from 0..5 of the stop)
- current_roadtype (Needs implementation)
- terrain_type
- build_date (Needs implementation)
- town_zone

Any suggestions for features/variables and anything relating to this are welcome.




(Roads from U&Ratt, stops by Chris / Erato)

[LaChupacabra]

Hey PNDA!
Glad you didn't abandon the project. This will be a really cool feature, as GarryG has already shown.

Some time ago, not aware of your work, I posted a proposal to allow the construction of various stops as in the case of stations. Perhaps you have seen. The proposal included 3 window layouts for the construction of the stops. One of them was almost identical to the one you used, although that also seems to be the most obvious and well-known layout.

The proposal also included other smaller arrangements. I will describe them briefly, maybe you will find something worth your attention.

Minimalistic

New window for bus and lorry stops construction - minimal.png (10.76 KiB) Viewed 17004 times

It is slightly larger than the present one - it has 4 lines for selecting stops (the number would increase as the window stretches). This layout would be non-previewing and would require different stops to be written to a separate line of text. Why so? Initially, it seemed to me that the number of new stops may not be too great, but this probably will not be true and with time this arrangement would cease to be functional.

Flat

New window for bus and lorry stops construction - flat.png (17.91 KiB) Viewed 17004 times

The purpose of such a layout is to avoid covering the construction and playing field. The window is much wider, but it doesn't penetrate the screen where the action usually concentrates.
Such or a similar arrangement could be used in the future as an option for both stops and train stations (it is not a necessity for now).
The window layout could be changed using a button similar to that in the case of the finance window.

"Current"

New window for bus and lorry stops construction.png (24.07 KiB) Viewed 17004 times

My graphics, apart from the additional option of selecting the stop side (see below) and accidentally moving the station name to the left side, differ only in one small detail - the width of the orientation selection field is the same as the width of the station group selection field. It's a small thing, but it makes the window layout a bit more pleasant.

[LaChupacabra]

Any suggestions for features/variables and anything relating to this are welcome.

Ok.

Other ideas and issues:
1. Limiting the adjustment of the window width to the name of the stops
2. Station folders (grouping stations on the list)
3. Unilateral stops
4. Stops-bays with parking parallel to the entrance road.
5. Non-road stops, road terminals and stops with another layout
6. Stops as waypoints?

[LaChupacabra]

1. Limiting the adjustment of the window width to the name of the stops.
In the case of railway stations, there is a problem of excessive window width when using certain sets.
The problem is probably the lack of limitation of the name length, which causes some authors to abuse this possibility. In the case of Auz stations, GarryG used this field to explain the function. The effect of this is that 99% of stations may have short names and one in one variant will have a long name, which means that the entire window will be permanently enlarged and sometimes it is even difficult to find the cause. Before there are problems also in the new window, it would be worth preventing this.

[+] Spoiler

I see two solutions here:
A. Introducing a limitation of the maximum length of the name of a group of stations and a variant of stations - this will be the most appropriate solution, largely due to the new developers of add-ons, who may not always be aware of the effects of certain decisions. The standard width of the stops window is enough for 20-30 characters (in the case of stations it is 15-20). I think the limit of 30 or slightly higher was more than enough 99% of the time.
B. Station description / name in two lines - if the author of the add-on wanted to use longer names or an additional description, he could use the second line of text below the orientation selection field. This would increase the size of the window, but it wouldn't be very bothersome. The minimum number of station selection lines could be reduced to 4 (the default size could still include 5).

[LaChupacabra]

2. Station folders (grouping stations)
(This is an idea that applies equally to the window for building stops, stations and objects - it doesn't need to be added now.)
Today there are no add-ons with stops, but how many of them will be in the future, it is not known. In the case of stations, just like objects, the problem of their excess and the problem of finding them appeared.
I think the solution would be stop folders (they can be expanded, but that's not needed). GarryG created such fake folders for its objects - that's exactly what it is.

This works great, but in this form it has some imperfections that could be resolved by introducing the actual function.
A. Main tab (folder) grouping elements - it should be possible not to include station selection and remain empty - all add-on components would be available in subfolders.
Alternatively, it could contain a description and presentation in part of the choice of orientation.
B. Text Color - Garry used yellow for the group names. This is good, but the problem is that both the part of one add-on and the less extensive add-on are marked with the same color. This can be solved in at least two ways. One is to use an additional gold color for stations without subfolders. The second is to use only black color, where subfolders would stand out with edge spacing.
Below, is an example build on the current view of the station list, how it could look like.

[+] Spoiler

[LaChupacabra]

3. Unilateral stops
They would be useful especially in cities where bus or tram lines intersect.
Currently, in order not to cause a problem, you have to put a bilateral stop on each side of the intersection, which doesn't look very good. They would also work well in some industrial station layouts.

Unilateral stops comparison.png (46.05 KiB) Viewed 16975 times

Bus terminal 24.png (44.85 KiB) Viewed 16975 times

The choice of the direction of the station could be made below the orientation selection box and also in-game by pressing Ctrl + LMB (both> left> right> both> ...)
This may be added later, but you might want to anticipate this feature.

[LaChupacabra]

4. Stops-bays with parking parallel to the entrance road.
GarryG wrote about it. So far, he has created a lot of interesting graphics of bus stations and freight terminals that are adapted to such a layout - I think it would be worth adding this possibility. If not now, then in the future.
The choice of direction could be the same as for one-way stops.

[LaChupacabra]

5. Non-road stops, road terminals and stops with another layout

I think that's definitely one of the things requested, stations specific for trams or roads.
Also consider whether you're shooting too low and should support special multi-tile stations with custom movements, and perhaps diagonal platforms support.

You wouldn't have to create it all, but it would be nice if you could foresee adding new stop layouts in the future.
I don't know much about coding and I don't know how complex it all is, so what I write may not make sense, but ...

My idea is that each tab should have assigned types of stops.

1. Default layouts - would be 6 basic familiar layouts. Below the orientation selection box there could be an additional option:
- for stop-bays: choice of perpendicular or parallel parking
- in the case of drive-trough stops: selecting the side of the stop
2. Non-road stops - here it would be possible to add objects that would additionally have station functions. In the future, these facilities could have an impact on the station's assessment, its capacity and the rate of cargo loss.
Each such "stop" would be of a certain size just like in the case of objects, without the option of resizing and dragging like in the case of railway stations. Bus stations are usually much smaller than rail stations so there is no need for that.
There would only be a choice of direction or variant. It is important that the size of the preview should be limited and not adapted to the size of the graphic. The preview could be quite big and show one of the directions of the object, and below it would be the choice of the direction - it would be advisable due to the possible sizes of some station objects. Alternatively, there could be a choice of two, four or even six directions / variants, which would be perhaps the simplest and the most consistent. It is important that there is information about the size of the object under the description.

Non-road terminal v0.2.png (52.3 KiB) Viewed 16911 times

3. Terminals using standard stops and roads - because some terminal graphics may overlap the stops, it would be good to anticipate the possibility of building a station consisting of both stops and facilities and roads, taking into account the type - it may be one dedicated type of road that could be include in various additions with roads.




4, 5, 6, ... Stops and terminals with a new road layout - it is worth considering a place for new variants that could arise in the future.

New bus stops layout.png (62.91 KiB) Viewed 16911 times