Planeset [version 1.5.3 released 2006-10-24]

[krtaylor]

It seems like there isn't any reason for me to even have an HTML page with the technical stats at this point, it's easier and more convenient for us just to use the Excel file. So I think I'll take that page off for now.

Can we just put the IDs in the main Excel file? That will be better than having two warring files. 459, you seem to be the keeper of the file, can you do that?

Can someone PLEASE look at my planes list page, and double-check me on which sprites use company-colors and which don't?

[krtaylor]

where have the helecopters gone?!?!

They're still on the list. It's just that nobody has drawn most of them. Would you like to try? Zeppelins too...

[SuperTycoon]

i've never drawn anything i guess i could try, but i wouldn't know where to start!

[krtaylor]

Easy.

1. Go to the list of planes

http://www.as-st.com/ttd/planes/planes.html

2. Select a plane that hasn't been drawn, that you want to draw.

3. Select a plane that HAS been drawn, and that has a sprite-set posted, that is somewhat similar to the one you want to draw.

4. Save the sprite-set graphic, and use a graphics program to change it from the one to the other. DON'T change the pallette. If you need more colors, there is a special TTD-safe pallette file available for use.

In the Wiki on the Patch website, is more information about drawing vehicles. We'll answer questions you might have.

[Patchman]

new text for your grf (action 8 ) :

Code: Select all

    1 * 181   08 06 7A 65 72 6F 
              2A 20 50 6C 61 6E 65 20 53 65 74 20 30 2E 31 20 2A 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 
              20 20 20 0D 0A 28 63 29 20 32 30 30 34 20 76 61 72 69 6F 75 73 20 61 72 74 
              69 73 74 73 20 61 6E 64 20 63 6F 64 65 72 73 20 66 72 6F 6D 20 74 68 65 20 
              54 54 2D 46 6F 72 75 6D 73 20 0D 0A 68 74 74 70 3A 2F 2F 77 77 77 2E 74 74 
              2D 66 6F 72 75 6D 73 2E 6E 65 74 20 0D 0A 68 74 74 70 3A 2F 2F 77 77 77 2E 
              61 73 2D 73 74 2E 63 6F 6D 2F 74 74 64 0D 0A 49 6E 74 72 6F 64 75 63 65 73 
              20 34 32 20 6E 65 77 20 61 69 72 20 63 72 61 66 74 73 20 21 20 20 20 20 20

This is broken, it doesn't have the two 00 terminators. You probably want one after the second "*" and one at the end.

(Also it should be "aircraft" not "air crafts" at the end, aircraft is the same in singular and plural.)

[SuperTycoon]

My first graphic contribution: the boeing 727 in eastern airlines livery, modified from the origanal by 459 and RPharazon. Just one view at the moment, but if its ok with 459 and RPharazon, and its needed for the set then i'll do the other view. btw, i've discovered i'm ok at converting planes to new liveries, but i can't draw them from scratch!

[459]

Another Beta release of Planeset. Added DH Comet, Sonic Cruiser and proper documentation. Currently the set has 27 planes. List of things to be done is in the documentation.

I gave some fix for the CC Sonic Cruiser. Front and back views weren't in symmetric shape. Changes in the PCX in archive.

Of ID's and 41 plane restriction: You can assign an ID number between 00 and 28 in hex for airplane. Giving, for instance, number 29 for plane ID number leads to an error message. 28 in hex is 40 in decimals. As 00 is also a valid digit, this leads that the amount of max planes is 41 unless someone else proves me wrong

zero1000: Just put those planes so that each company's planes are conscecutive entries. The TTD way is OK, just put those planes so that each company's planes are conscecutive entries and that it looks nice .

[xrel&yrel]
I found one way for the adjustment of xrel and yrel values by hand. Results are not perfect but are not far off:

1. Find a spot in the "middle of the plane" for all sprites as a "rotation axle", somewhere in the middle of the fuselage (doesn't include the rear wing etc.!). Maybe slightly forward from the centre point near the front edge of wings but in the middle of cross section.
2. Write down the coordinates of those points for all views. The xrel and yrel have that minus in front of them, don't get fooled by them.
3. Subtract 2 from those xrel and yrel values and use them as the values.

All planes haven't been modified yet. zero1000, try that scheme for your planes and give me the values. All other people are free to try to adjust those values. If you get better results, report.
[/xrel&yrel]

[whining]
The colors for all planes that haven't been included thus far need reworking (A340, AN-124, Super Puma, 7E7). I want all planes to be in PNG or PCX format with 8bpp and the correct indexed palette as opposed to GIFs and 24-bit PNG's. I was able to get the Sonic Cruiser and DH Comet from 24-bit colors but the colors might be bit off.

The way2good 7E7 looks too small. The 7E7 will be a widebody plane with size quite near of the 777-200. What should be done to it? Shall we draw a more matching sprite for it?

CyberBoy, try to fix the An-124 wings according to this three-view http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/manat ... n-124.html
[/whining]

[459]

Remarks of the Supertycoon 727, liveries and drawing in general:

1. You have removed the center engine air intake. You should replace it.
2. The palette is wrong. See the latest planeset release docs for some whining about it. http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?t=8083 has explanation about palette colors. I want all pics in correct format, 8bpp PCX or PNG with the palette you can find from the package and which is embedded into the PCX file. For instance, I can't use the existing A340 sprite since it's having dark green in it's wings!

I'll write some extra whine about palette to next Planeset release documentation.

[krtaylor]

Supertycoon:

Pretty good first try. I agree with 459's comments. However, I have one comment, unfortunately which is my own fault:

The photo of the 727 on my Planes page is NOT in Eastern livery. In other words, you copied the wrong livery. Not your fault. I'll fix it, and check the others.

LOUD WHINE:

There are two things I desperately need from everyone interested:

1. PLEASE check my table and make sure I am accurately noting which sprite-sets use company-colors, and which don't.

2. For aircraft which do not have a particular company livery listed, I'll take suggestions.

[SuperTycoon]

Thanks 459, I'll use the correct pallette and try again

[459]

Can we just put the IDs in the main Excel file? That will be better than having two warring files. 459, you seem to be the keeper of the file, can you do that?

Currently I have the ID entries in my list but they are in wrong order. I'll put the list for everyone to see as soon as we agree with correct order.

Can someone PLEASE look at my planes list page, and double-check me on which sprites use company-colors and which don't?

-7E7 and AN-124 have their palettes totally wrong. You can't tell whether it's CC or livery since I can't look for the right colors in the i.Mage.
-747 I think the KLM should be the livery. CC also has to be done since the current CC has fixed blue color. I'll try to do that (apart from 1000+ other things) soon
-All others are as you've indicated.

[krtaylor]

OK, I have made these changes. I have also replaced a whole bunch of photos on the page with aircraft in the correct liveries, as noted. There are still a lot (particularly the Airbeese) where I haven't cited a particular airline, because I don't know them well. Suggestions from you Europeans? It doesn't have to be all American airlines.

[fire87]

Hey.. I've got on a little holiday so I haven't been here on a while..
I'm just wandering, should I do something more to the planeset? I don't even know if my changes was going in the planeset

I might try the helicopters but I can't code it..

[krtaylor]

As far as I know, we are using your changes.

Don't worry about the coding, just do the drawing. It'd be great if you'd have a go on the helicopters.

[scottishasttdx]

I can confirm that the 7E7 is in company colour as I have a working (graphics only) version on my pc.

[CyberBoy]

Wow! The new planeset is great!

Yes, plase do the helicopters, and the zeppelins while you're at it (if you can).

I think a planeset requires more than just new planes. Here are some other things that could be drawn:

A commuter train station for railway stations next to airports. Simmilar to subsilver, but without the sheds and street lights.

A Minibus, Airport bus, Taxi and Airport Shuttle for road vehicles designed to serve airports.

A custom large airport, with realistically larger buildings (Airport terminals are much larger than planes themselves).

A custom small airport, with realistically smaller buildings (The airport buildings in grand forks are small compared to planes)

A missile replacing the blimp in the disaster or a fighter jet for an aircraft

[scottishasttdx]

I think a planeset requires more than just new planes. Here are some other things that could be drawn:
[...]
A Minibus, Airport bus, Taxi and Airport Shuttle for road vehicles designed to serve airports.

I've drawn a mercedes/ford minibus before, the sprites and .exe are in my old aircraft topic. I knew they would come in handy someday.
edit: Though I think getting the actual aircraft finished is the only priority at the moment. Things like this will be looked at once the first main release is out.

[krtaylor]

459, the readme should be an HTML file. If you like, I'll convert it, and make some changes also.

I envision the Planeset as including only a couple of things in addition to the planes, which I'll discuss now.

I don't think it's a good idea to include any road vehicles, because of the major potential for ID conflicts. (If you have a good road vehicle, post it to George's thread for inclusion.)

There isn't anything wrong with including an airport train station, but it would make more sense for that to be included in the New Stations set, rather than the Planeset. Unless there was some way to make it visually match the airport, or have some sort of special architecture? Dunno.

We definitely need to have an Art Deco-style zeppelin mooring mast structure, which would be the early heliport. I believe it is possible to make the airport graphics change over time. So the "heliport" would appear as a zeppelin mooring mast until the first real helicopter appeared, thereafter it would be a proper heliport building. There are several good heliport structures already drawn, we could ask for permission to include one of them if we don't want to draw a special one.

Also, we need to have a modern version of the small airport. A good many of the aircraft, even the modern ones, will be able to safely land at small airports, so the small airport needs to not look so 1930s. I'd say, keep the existing small airport, but make it change in 1960 to a more modern one. Again, there is already a modern small airport that's been drawn, which we could use with only minor changes if we don't want to do our own. Remember that the buildings have to be in the same place, since the planes will move in exactly the same way.

--------

Freight aircraft

Someone suggested that we should have different liveries for freight aircraft. Do we think this is a good idea? If so, I see basically three potential liveries: Flying Tigers, UPS, and FedEx. But them we would have to have yet another sprite-set for each plane.

--------

Stopped sprites

Remember that it is possible to have the sprites change when the aircraft is stopped. Thus, propellor aircraft need to have an alternate sprite-set (not in all angles, though) that show their propellors as stopped; this applies to helicopters too. We could also have stopped-sprites for the jet aircraft showing their cargo doors open. Hey, we could even show the hinged noses of the cargo planes as in their open position! Thoughts?

[RPharazon]

Ok, the A340-600 (I think?) Is drawn, But I REALLY suck at engines.
Some of the fuselage isn't finished.
Someone CAN work on the rest, but you have to give them and me shared credit. But one demand: I sorta used one of 459's planes as a base, it's alright with me if he gets shared credit.

[459]

I've added some more documentation for wannabe-graphic/coding people. I also fixed the 747 to have the company color, gave some tweak for A300 engines and made a 5-minute quick CC for Connie to make sure zero1000 kills me if he'll ever see me . I also made it so that remaining original TTD won't appear.

I'd like if any people would try to fix those xrel and yrel values if the airplane behavior when taxing/flying/turning doesn't please. The xrel&yrel quality is determined by: 1. How well centered it is when it's on runway/taxiway AND 2. When it's turning midair or in taxiway, it doesn't suddenly "jump" _noticeably_ (give or take 1 or 2 pixels but not 6+ or that style) behind or something like that. I checked all planes last night for xrel&yrel and I found such problem only from the Embraer 190 and had to fix it. It seems impossible to have combined "perfectly centered on taxiway/runway" and to have the planes so that they don't jump. Even the original planes taxi off the centerline but they don't "jump".

What comes to xrel&yrel, all planes are now in as good shape as I could tune them with my expertise except I left zero1000's planes unedited in case he wants to learn the xrel&yrel tweaking himself.

krtaylor, this release of set has now the documentation you'd want to convert to HTML.

[helicopters]
I experimented with helicopters and TTD built-in helicopter sprite: If you set the action 0 flag 09 from 02 to 00 (plane->heli) the following happens:

-Plane behavior changes to chopper behavior
-Plane sound changes to chopper sound
-The location of propeller is determined by xrel and yrel alone

In other words, there can only be one big propeller. GRF foundations doc doesn't indicate that there is any way of disabling the propeller or to alter their amount. With current technology this means that Chinook and Osprey can't be done properly and they should be knocked out. One should free the "one too many" slot and for the other I suggest either Fokker F-27 or DC-8 Super stretched as a replacement.

Somebody please fix the palette of Super Puma image ASAP so I can code the first complete homemade chopper

[/helicopters]

[whine]
Hmm, what I'm supposed to do: Shorts 330 sprite, scheme for purchase&maintenance costs, scheme for vehicle&model life lenghts... plus all kinds of little s**t that's discovered. Well, at least we've got the planes flying!

[/whine]

[a340]
RPharazon, A340-600 was requested, not Convair 880 with engines missing on some views. I think that A340-600 should be drawn from original A340 sprite by stretching it slightly as soon as someone gets that sprite in proper color and palette. I'll be able to hand the lenghtening since I've done it before.

I might be getting very critical about the graphics and coding work but A340-600 and A321 are planes of completely different size. A340-600 is a 75m widebody and A321 is a 45m narrowbody. In the set the wide and narrow planes are being distinguished by fuselage diameter (see the finished planes for difference) of some pixels. Also, I don't like planes that are jumping on ground.

[/a340]

[dc-10]
Sorry, I couldn't resist (I just had to do that even it doesn't look much like NWA livery and thus probably won't have space in this set. It's not on the GRF...)

[/dc-10]