US Set Development Thread

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 02 Apr 2004 16:21

Looking at my list, I see you're working on:
- Tank cars
- Covered steel gondola
- EMD SD70ACe
Can't wait to see them!

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 02 Apr 2004 18:10

another (much shorter) steel covered car empty/full versions

PS krtalyor, you are the ultimate picture getting person who also handily lives in america! Can you find me a pic of the opened up covered coil car?

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 02 Apr 2004 18:48

Well, the trouble here is that, as far as I can tell, the top of the covered hopper isn't really hinged, it just sits on top of the car (chained down I suppose.) Since the steel coils it carries are really really heavy and have to be removed by an overhead crane anyway, I think the way it works is for the crane to lift off the lid first, stash it over to the side somewhere, unload the steel coils, then plop the lid back one. I don't think we can really replicate this. So there are two possibilities that I can think of:

1. Funny shaped sprite including the lid. Stations only come in two orientations, and we know there will always be station platforms next to the track. As far as I can tell, it seems that the TTD graphics engine assumes lower-down sprites to cover over higher-up sprites, that's why tall buildings cover over whatever is behind them. So in theory it would be possible to draw the car-open sprite in its normal configuration, but with the sprite being extra-largo so as to show its cover lying on the ground above it (that is, on the far side of the car from you.) When in the station, this would give the appearance of the lid lying on the station platform. Of course there is no overhead crane, you'd just have to assume that a mobile crane came in while you weren't watching. I don't think anybody has ever tried anything like this before but I don't see any reason it wouldn't work.

2. Treat it as if it were hinged from both sides, and split in the middle, in a sort of "clamshell" arrangement. There are in fact cars like this, I just can't seem to find any pictures of them. So, you'd treat it as if there was a seam along the top center of the car, and the two pieces of the cover hinged to either side. Personally I like this solution best.

mnorman · Post by **mnorman** » 02 Apr 2004 18:48

Dan: my new Big boy is shorter than the original version (the original was a massive 68 pixels long in the horizontal veiw-the new one is (well, I think it is) only 63).
I have come up with a problem with the E8s, which I am working on. this is that in the horizontal veiw, there is no gap between them and they seem to merge into a single vehicle.

Oracle · Post by **Oracle** » 02 Apr 2004 21:04

I'm working on the sprites ... just 20 more files left to process

.
Uzurpator, as the BB and Challenger are now shorter, are you a bit more content? And would you mind shortening the AC6 to go along with them? Please?

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 02 Apr 2004 22:04

Oracle wrote:I'm working on the sprites ... just 20 more files left to process .
Uzurpator, as the BB and Challenger are now shorter, are you a bit more content? And would you mind shortening the AC6 to go along with them? Please?

!

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 02 Apr 2004 22:06

krtaylor wrote:
Oracle wrote:I'm working on the sprites ... just 20 more files left to process .
Uzurpator, as the BB and Challenger are now shorter, are you a bit more content? And would you mind shortening the AC6 to go along with them? Please?
!

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 02 Apr 2004 22:19

Born Acorn wrote:

That's an interesting emoticon that isn't in the usual list. Not bad! I see it is named "surprised," but it looks more like a guy with a monocle. Like Mr. Peanut. Or maybe only the left side of his brain is surprised?

I still wish we could finish things off rather than redoing everything, we are never going to get this done...

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 02 Apr 2004 22:23

I often use http://www.cdv-board.de emoticons. Like the xtreme

or notworthy

or even clap

or shrug

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 02 Apr 2004 22:30

Some of these are useful for compliments, I've seen some complaints about boring old

Personally I'll take whatever compliments I'm given, but some people are pickier I guess.

DanMacK · Post by **DanMacK** » 03 Apr 2004 00:05

Born Acorn wrote:another (much shorter) steel covered car empty/full versions

PS krtalyor, you are the ultimate picture getting person who also handily lives in america! Can you find me a pic of the opened up covered coil car?

Coil car looks good =>one thing though, looks a bit too flat, you need about 3 more pixels of deck between the hoods on the side view. Here's a hoodless coil car and here's an empty one. Otherwise, looks good.

DanMacK · Post by **DanMacK** » 03 Apr 2004 00:10

mnorman wrote:Dan: my new Big boy is shorter than the original version (the original was a massive 68 pixels long in the horizontal veiw-the new one is (well, I think it is) only 63).
I have come up with a problem with the E8s, which I am working on. this is that in the horizontal veiw, there is no gap between them and they seem to merge into a single vehicle.

Well, let's just do an E8/9A, just use an F7B instead of a long booster. Longest it can be is 32 px if you want to multi-head, and that's how long my PA-1 is.

BB is smaller? For some reason it looks longer

still, it looks excellent.

Was toying with the stadium graphic and here's what I came up with. Everybody knows that Baseball is A LOT more common than soccer in this part of the world. (However this should be in the Canadian set too since we invented it

) Note this is just an edit, and I havent actually drawn a baseball park spriteset...yet. Plus there's A LOT of modifications I'd like to do, but this gives an idea

.

Lilman424 · Post by **Lilman424** » 03 Apr 2004 04:21

It's pretty good, being a baseball player of 8 years (not anymore, admittingly, but from ages 4-12 I played litle league)
I would at least add dirt to the field to give the field the distinct rounded-diamond shape.
Also, the stands wouldn't be in the outfield, distracts the players. the pressbox wuold definitely be right above and behind home plate.

Sorry, I like baseball

[/code]

krtaylor · Post by **krtaylor** » 03 Apr 2004 04:32

I agree with Lilman's comments. A baseball field is a good idea, and keys into some earlier thoughts on doing American-style buildings. I would hope that after a rest after completing the first version of this set, we might come back at some later time with inspriation to replace large numbers of the buildings with more American-looking one. But the soccer field is a good one to get right now, as you say, there isn't so much soccer here.

DanMacK · Post by **DanMacK** » 03 Apr 2004 04:35

Lilman424 wrote:It's pretty good, being a baseball player of 8 years (not anymore, admittingly, but from ages 4-12 I played litle league)
I would at least add dirt to the field to give the field the distinct rounded-diamond shape.
Also, the stands wouldn't be in the outfield, distracts the players. the pressbox wuold definitely be right above and behind home plate.

Sorry, I like baseball [/code]

Oh I know, I'm not entirely happy with it, but it's just a test anyway. It'll definitely be heavily modified, i just thought thr current resilt was kinda cool

I enjoy Baseball myself, pretty much the only sport I'll actually watch. (Don't watch hockey that often, which seems blasphemous coming from a Canadian

_

Born Acorn · Post by **Born Acorn** » 03 Apr 2004 08:14

and just put some more lines going across the stadium, and voila! an easy Rugby to American football transition.

Krytalor, there are loads more yelow smilies like this baords smilies.

P.S thanks for tose coil car open and empty pics, DanMack

DanMacK · Post by **DanMacK** » 03 Apr 2004 10:25

No prob Born Acorn

And so you can see I haven't completely frittered by day away... Here's the 4-8-2, a modern Hi-Cube boxcar (Chessie System) and the RF16A. Needs a bit of a nose job though I think. I'll work on it a bit further

Oracle · Post by **Oracle** » 03 Apr 2004 15:14

krtaylor wrote: !

I have my reasons...
But the AC6 and (old) BB are a bit oversized compared to the rest, I think. Just looking at them in the vehicle list they stick out like a bit of a sore thumb and that doesn't show the tender. Maybe they were long but I think being so oversized is a bit wrong, although I empathise with both you and uzurpator on this point. I'm only talking a few pixels; just enough to be noticeable.
And I wish I could press on with the sprites but they're not on this computer and I can't access the other one from here.

uzurpator · Post by **uzurpator** » 03 Apr 2004 15:34

Well...

DanMacK · Post by **DanMacK** » 03 Apr 2004 22:43

krtaylor=>Just going through the tech site, and a little nitpick. VIA Rail doesn't run F59PH's, they've never owned them. VIA's most widespread loco is the F40PH, followed by the P42. Just a heads up

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