[UNIV] ISR - Industrial Stations Renewal

[Sanchimaru]

Thanks for your replies! I have ellaborated a new list with the names you provided, here it is:
5- open storage shed
6- shipping offices
7- large warehouse
8- storage tanks
9- small warehouses
10- modern warehouse
11- repair bay
12- production facility

If nobody finds any problem about it, we can make them the definitive names and have them ready to be coded. (when someone can code them, off course)

Also, I'm glad that you liked the ground level idea! I hope we can see it done sooon

[Kumagoro]

If i may request something, can you please make it so that all the stuff on stations appears earlier? (meaning when station is more empty) I can barely see some things "flashing" atm

[Sanchimaru]

I'll ask the coder, depending on what the setting is, we can see it so that there are more chances to see cargo piling on the bays.

[Sanchimaru]

We've got news! A new coder has entered working for this set! mart3p has done an initial coding of the switchyard! At the moment it's a sepparate release, but test it and tell us what do you think.
It's a bit complicated to use, but you'll get used to it soon. Just try some configurations

[mart3p]

I initially started the switchyard as an exercise to learn station coding. I was quite pleased with the result so I sent it to Sanchimaru. Now it looks like I'm on the team.

At the moment, as you'll see from the screenshot, a switchyard built in the desert will show desert through the transparent parts of the station tiles. Is this what was intended? I also tried the same thing on snow but it didn't work very well. You could barely see the switchyard rails against the brightness of the surrounding snow.

I see that there are other station tiles in Industrial Stations Renewal that don't have this behavior, but show a tropic-grass base even when built in the desert. Which is preferred?

So, what needs coding next?

[Sir A. Boey]

As you can see in the attachment above, in the first station tilles there are 2 buffer on one tille,
here's my question, this must be eye-candy cause I don't see any sollution to get 2 trains next to each other on those station tilles... but the concept is magnificent keep up the fabulous work

[Maedhros]

I guess this would be a good time to give you the source code for the 0.4.0 release, then.

[mart3p]

... this must be eye-candy cause I don't see any sollution to get 2 trains next to each other on those station tilles... but the concept is magnificent keep up the fabulous work

Yes it's just eye-candy, but isn't that true of all station GRFs?

Of course, the concept is not mine, I believe it was originally Born Acorn's.

I guess this would be a good time to give you the source code for the 0.4.0 release, then.

Thanks Maedhros. I've made my code compatible with your makefile system, so it should be easy to add. Guess I'll now have to learn to use git.

[Sanchimaru]

> Sir A. Boey: Indeed, it's eye-candy only The only real tracks are the straight ones, the ones in the center of the tiles.

Actually, if you look at Michael Blunck's page, he has some great looking stations (which we are dreaming of using since years ago! ) where there are traincars in the fake tracks. I think that's where I first saw the trainyard idea. Also, I think I readed somwhere that the stations GRF is somehow capable of choosing freight cars from the trains GRF and put them on fake tracks as decoration.

Born Acorn drew some switchyard tiles too, which he allowed me to edit for the first switchyard I began drawing, but the tracks were too close to each other (it was 3 tracks in one tile) and at the end I drew everything from scratch using Michael's fake track between real 2 tracks configuration.

> Maedhros: thanks a lot for bringing the first push to the set! keep an eye for it

[Sir A. Boey]

> Sanchimaru: You're right I like the idea that the station tile could choose a train carriage to put them on the fake tracks, I have a grf who does something like that it's called Pseudo-lok.grf it takes a train carriage a turns it into a locomotive and this allows you to put several carriages onto a sidetrack, but I seem to go offtopic here sorry, just to say I like the idea and I love the switchyard great work

[Sanchimaru]

> Boey: oh, I'd like to see that GRF, is it released?

> Mart: I forgot to tell you: indeed, the tiles are supposed to have transparent pixels. This helps make them blend better with the environment and not to look so clean, since it's just concrete at ground level. By the way, my main concern was taht the previously released GRFs of this set didn't show snow,so they didn't blend very well. Maybe Maedhros did it because he realized that problem? Also, can you put a screenshot of switchyard (and industrial tiles too, if possible) with snow under it?

[mart3p]

Here's the switchyard with snow showing through the transparent parts (the industry tiles will take a little longer). You see the problem?

Snowy switchyard.png (21.54 KiB) Viewed 3406 times

I've started going through Maedhros's todo list. I've done an initial coding of the water tower but I'm not really happy with it. Is it supposed to be offset towards the back platform, rather than central over the rails? Also, there are some company colour pixels on the platforms.

Water towers.png (5.02 KiB) Viewed 3401 times

Anyway, there's plenty else to do. I've started looking at the grain silos, they should be fun.

[Ben_K]

I was going to say that I like the idea of seeing some of the ground through the sprites as it looks like weeds on grass and blown sand over desert. I was going to to say that until I saw that snow shot, which is pretty hard work on the eyes! Hmmm.... back to the drawing board I guess.
Maybe it would work but with less visible ground? Also, you shouldn't be able to see breakthrough under the shed/depot!

For the carriages, I think Anders released a transparent locomotive GRF to allow 'only carriages' on sidings etc.

Mart3p, welcome and thanks for taking up the coding again!
(And those NG sprites are in process at the moment, they will be sent once I get back from my holiday!)

[Maedhros]

I have to point out that I didn't really test the stations in anything except the temperate climate, so there was no plan involved! The behaviour on snow and in the desert are just the way it turned out...

[mart3p]

Also, can you put a screenshot of switchyard (and industrial tiles too, if possible) with snow under it?

The new grain silos receive their first delivery!

[Sanchimaru]

> mart: About the snow, I don't know what to do... it's certainly hard to see, but on the other hand, isn't that what would actually happen? I'd like to hear everyone's view about this matter. If it doesn't really look well, I can prepare some special snow sprites for them. Other than that, the regular industrial tiles seem to look alright since the tracks are well visible.
The water tower seems to be terribly misaligned! that's my fault, I have to fix that quickly before Born Acorn sees what I did with his sprites!
And you managed to make the grain silo! it was really complicated, I had a hard time figuring out how the different pieces should be arranged, and Maedhros couldn't put it into the previous releases.

> Ben: Sir, you are absolutely right! the soil under the shed shouldn't have transparent parts under it. Thanks for the common sense!

[mart3p]

About the snow, I don't know what to do... it's certainly hard to see, but on the other hand, isn't that what would actually happen? ... Other than that, the regular industrial tiles seem to look alright since the tracks are well visible.

Yes, the regular industry tiles look fine; the only problem is the switchyard. While I agree that this is probably what would actually happen, what you can’t see from the screenshot is how difficult it is to build when you can’t see the rails.

I have one idea I want to try, which is to use one of the snow/grass transition tiles as the switchyard base tile. If this works it would avoid the need for additional sprites. I will give it a go and post the results.

The water tower seems to be terribly misaligned! that's my fault, I have to fix that quickly before Born Acorn sees what I did with his sprites!

I’m glad you agree there’s a problem with the water tower, it’s not just my eyes.

And you managed to make the grain silo! it was really complicated, I had a hard time figuring out how the different pieces should be arranged, and Maedhros couldn't put it into the previous releases.

Well I think I got all the bits in the right places. It still has a few problems as a single platform station, but it’s almost there.

[Sanchimaru]

Well, I have been testing the switchyard a little bit, here is what I found:
- I like how you made the tiles "detect" when there must be a middle fake track. However it is not always working alright with all the tiles, see the screenshot below.
- There are some clipping problems. If there is any sprite editing needed to fix it, let me know and I'll work on it

Nice work! this is beginning to look great. I am thinking of making a new rail depot that fits the switchyard.

Here are the new sprites for the fixtures, check out the updates:
- water tower correctly aligned, and I made the beams be more visible.
- rail cranes and overhead cranes totally renewed! Now designed to work as animated sprites: when a player builds a piece of "crane on rails" or "overhead crane" station, in each track there will be one crane placed randomly. When the station detects train loadunload activity (or even better, when the track where the train is detects it, if possible) the cranes will begin moving up and downwards along the rails. I hope this is not too much work

[mart3p]

Well, I have been testing the switchyard a little bit, here is what I found:
- I like how you made the tiles "detect" when there must be a middle fake track. However it is not always working alright with all the tiles, see the screenshot below.

The logic works by each tile checking the type of tile to either side. If a side tile is found that is capable of showing a middle rail, a rail is shown on that side of the current tile.

Of the three problem areas you have marked in your screenshot, the central one is next to a middle buffer tile. At present the 'outside' middle buffer tiles are not capable of showing a middle rail on their outside edge, there are no sprites for this. If we added eight more sprites this could be fixed, the sprites required are marked with a redline (indicating the position of the new rail):

Mid_buffers.png (3.77 KiB) Viewed 2995 times

The other two places you have marked are places where, with the current logic, a middle rail is shown. To try and avoid these cases, would make the logic much more complex and restrict the options of the player. That's why I included the "Track no middle-rail" tile, which can be used in these positions to prevent a middle rail being shown.

- There are some clipping problems. If there is any sprite editing needed to fix it, let me know and I'll work on it

I will look into the clipping problem; I thought I'd fixed that.

Nice work! this is beginning to look great. I am thinking of making a new rail depot that fits the switchyard.

Here are the new sprites for the fixtures, check out the updates:
- water tower correctly aligned, and I made the beams be more visible.
- rail cranes and overhead cranes totally renewed! ... I hope this is not too much work

Thanks for fixing the water tower that looks much better. The new animated overhead crane sounds like an interesting challenge.

Here's what the switchyard looks like on a snow/grass transition tile. It certainly looks better, what do you think?

Snowy switchyard 2.png (13.59 KiB) Viewed 2994 times

[Ben_K]

Here's what the switchyard looks like on a snow/grass transition tile. It certainly looks better, what do you think?

Much better! Perfect in fact. I didn't like the idea of losing the snow altogether, so that's great work!

In fact, the only other suggestion I would have would be to make the rails and buffers a little more defined. Its not essential in this new version that mart3p has coded, however, I think in general some of these tiles could do with a tad more contrast in places.