Animated Buildings on large scale

Caelan · Post by **Caelan** » 15 Mar 2006 08:17

Would it be possible to have animated buildings on a large scale? I think it would be great to have buildings that have people walking by, lights that go on and off from time to time. Some activity in the city aside from transport!

I do not know if this is possible on a large scale (eg majority of the buildings...) Aside from that, are there people willing to have more animated buildings? (Windmills, crowded plazas, illuminated buildings)

Csaboka · Post by **Csaboka** » 15 Mar 2006 09:17

You should be careful what you wish for.

Yes, I'd like more animated buildings in towns, but not on a large scale. First of all, it would eat a lot of sprites. Second, it would need more CPU power to update the screen. Third, and most important, it would annoy the hell out of you after a short while, I think.

SAC · Post by **SAC** » 15 Mar 2006 09:28

Csaboka wrote:You should be careful what you wish for.

Yes, I'd like more animated buildings in towns, but not on a large scale. First of all, it would eat a lot of sprites. Second, it would need more CPU power to update the screen. Third, and most important, it would annoy the hell out of you after a short while, I think.

I must say that was my spontanious reaction to this approach as well. I mean, after awhile when a descent infrastructure has been built up by the player there's plenty of activities everywhere. And I don't think a lot of animations would really add anything - but annoyment!

Besides, wasting sprites for something that really doesn't add anything of importance to the game is not what I would recommend. But it's a matter of personal taste I believe! Still, I wouldn't mind having cars running around my streets which I believe would add up to the realism factor of the game! But that would be as far as I would go!

Wile E. Coyote · Post by **Wile E. Coyote** » 15 Mar 2006 09:31

Cars on streets were discussed in the past AFAIK. That will certainly be great improvement for visuality and reality, but it's impossible (or at least very difficult) IIRC.

Caelan · Post by **Caelan** » 15 Mar 2006 09:44

I was actually not referring to cars on streets, but more to animated buildings: with people walking on sidewalks etcetera...

SAC · Post by **SAC** » 15 Mar 2006 09:52

Caelan wrote:I was actually not referring to cars on streets, but more to animated buildings: with people walking on sidewalks etcetera...

I know!

It's just that it was what popped out of my head when thinking about this!

On another note, if adding people walking on the sidewalks, would it be possible to add animation to the road sprites themselves? Still I guess it would require lots of new sprites...

Post by **Dave** » 15 Mar 2006 16:53

Of course that would then lead to, for example, traffic lights - in which case then people would want a new code for junctions...

However, maybe with some animation of road sprites, it would be cool to add a bit of realism and add pedestrianised zones... While they would take up space, and so on, it'd look more like a real city centre (every city centre that I know is a pedestrianised zone - Birmingham, Manchester, Wolverhampton and so on.

As for adding AI cars, people and so on to roads - does that even happen in modern games? Think about GTA - that game is made for action on the streets and even so it can only load cars in the immediate area. I think that to have AI cars, people and so on would be to take the game in a whole new direction.

But maybe I've rambled OT somewhat, apologies.

Either way, I like the idea of minor animation... but not so much that it'd do my head in. Meh..

Dave

Sonicelo · Post by **Sonicelo** » 15 Mar 2006 17:09

very nice exemple wiht cars is Industry and Trafic giant

RSpeed tycoonfreak · Post by **RSpeed tycoonfreak** » 15 Mar 2006 17:46

Csaboka wrote:You should be careful what you wish for.

Yes, I'd like more animated buildings in towns, but not on a large scale. First of all, it would eat a lot of sprites. Second, it would need more CPU power to update the screen. Third, and most important, it would annoy the hell out of you after a short while, I think.

I don't agree.
You will have about 60 extra sprites, yust modify the concrete road titles.
If you do that with about 3 diffrent sprites per road title it would look very nice i think.
Im talking about people who moving over the concrete parts near roads

Or do i make some misakes?

BTW It's a really good idea!

Purno · Post by **Purno** » 15 Mar 2006 18:20

I think it's getting annoying indeed, and it would even look ugly if every piece of road had the same animation and same people on it.
I think it's better to let animation be something special, people could walk on a plaza or something.

prissi · Post by **prissi** » 15 Mar 2006 20:59

I can have a look how it looks using the SimuTTD version:

SAC · Post by **SAC** » 15 Mar 2006 21:06

It sure adds to the realism, but I'm not sure what the townfolks thinks about having traffic lights huge as redwood trees near their houses...

Sonicelo · Post by **Sonicelo** » 15 Mar 2006 21:11

well we could ask them ^^

SAC · Post by **SAC** » 15 Mar 2006 21:12

jebartle · Post by **jebartle** » 15 Mar 2006 22:05

Animatiom is nice, but can be overdone! I would like more in the stations loading and unloading and such and some of the industries. Has anyone thought about sounds at the stations for unloading and/or loading various cargos? Just a thought.

JEB

Csaboka · Post by **Csaboka** » 16 Mar 2006 08:17

Hey, hey, people, stop for a moment. Animated roads aren't possible (yet). Even if they were, it wouldn't be enough to simulate realistic pedestrian traffic or car traffic, since every tile would do its animation independently from the others.

Similarly, pedestrians walking in front of buildings are impossible, since houses would need to know who walked out of the previous tile to continue the animation of that person.

What is possible is having animations that can run independently for every house.

I remember when Zimmlock created a cinema for TTRS that had a blinking yellow text on it. People immediately started demanding to stop the blinking, since it's annoying in the long term. Would you like a town filled with a lot of "animation noise" that distracts you from whatever you're doing? I think I wouldn't.

Csaboka · Post by **Csaboka** » 16 Mar 2006 08:23

jebartle wrote:Has anyone thought about sounds at the stations for unloading and/or loading various cargos? Just a thought.

Stations can't currently have sounds, but I guess it would be easy to add with the current newsounds support. OTOH, trains can have load and unload sounds. Could you say an example where a station making sound would be useful?

Wile E. Coyote · Post by **Wile E. Coyote** » 16 Mar 2006 08:33

Csaboka wrote:I remember when Zimmlock created a cinema for TTRS that had a blinking yellow text on it.

Wasn't it with blinking yellow colour?

Csaboka · Post by **Csaboka** » 16 Mar 2006 09:15

Yes, it was, but it doesn't matter. The point is: it was animated in an eye-catching way, and you don't want that too much in towns.

prissi · Post by **prissi** » 16 Mar 2006 09:18

You could make pedestrians like cars with no order (or random ones) and limited lifetime (say ten hops).

Every time a house is spawned or changed, you create a pedetrians than dricves randomly around.

Transport Tycoon Forums

Animated Buildings on large scale

Would you like to have a lot of animated buildings in your game?

Animated Buildings on large scale

Who is online