OpenGFX - Graphics Base Set

[FooBar]

EDIT: @Rubidium: I was about to say the same...

--Original post follows--

ie, getting rid of the "alpha" and "beta" bits?

I rather not do that, as that would make it harder for users to spot if something is considered more or less bugfree (i.e. stable) or considered "use at own risk" (i.e. alpha/beta).

A simple revision numbering system holds (almost) as much information as the linux kernel scheme: a higher number is better, but the number doesn't tell you if the developers think it's stable or not. And given that people don't read the donotreadme (hence the name), I can't expect them to look those things up in some file shipped with the release...

I might drop the double 'broken' (or whatever you want to call that) numbering. So instead going alpha 4, alpha 4.1 alpha 4.2 etc, just doing alpha 4, alpha 5, alpha 6 etc. and only whatever number comes in front of that keeps the periods in it.

Although I'm hard to convince, more suggestions are welcome

[maartena]

I might drop the double 'broken' (or whatever you want to call that) numbering. So instead going alpha 4, alpha 4.1 alpha 4.2 etc, just doing alpha 4, alpha 5, alpha 6 etc. and only whatever number comes in front of that keeps the periods in it.

Although I'm hard to convince, more suggestions are welcome

Lets do Alpha 5!

Question is.... when will we see it. The "rather soon" with regards to the monorail, maglev, and PBS signs is about 5 weeks old now.

[FooBar]

Lets do Alpha 5!

Alright. If you[0] do the coding[1] of the signals[2] and the monolev engines[3], I'll do the various bugfixes in the meantime and add the signals and engines as soon as they're coded. That way we can have a release "rather soon", but this time for real.

I realise that I made the classic mistake of indicating a release of a volunteer based project. From now on I'm applying the otherwise classic "it's done when it's done"

[0] Not necessarily you, maartena, but "you" in general, as in:

iwantyou.jpg (81 KiB) Viewed 10215 times

[1] plain newgrf using Action5 for signals and ActionA for monolev engines will do just fine for me.

[2] see http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=781781#p781781

[3] Blaubus' drawings attached below. Sorry for the zipped bmp, but that's how I got it. Only need to code the engines, as we have the wagons for quite some time now.

[Hirundo]

...coding[1]...
[1] plain newgrf using Action5 for signals and ActionA for monolev engines will do just fine for me.

I assume the coding is not really about the ActionX, but what matters are the sprite rects and offsets of the real sprites

[FooBar]

That is correct indeed. Coding it as newgrf just makes it a bit easier to see what the offsets do when you're working on it, but supplying the real sprites will do just fine.

[maartena]

Heh, you really don't want MY coding. I will have to learn from scratch, create very sloppy coding, make it all buggy, and then some of you would have to fix it again.

[planetmaker]

feeble as the first steps may be. But they're first steps. I'm sure knowledgable people will willingly offer a hand, if you earnestly want to walk that road (as opposed to being carried the way).

And any journey starts with the first step, right?

[FooBar]

Let me say this: the code needed just works or just doesn't work. It's not difficult, it's just fiddly to get the offsets right. Working but buggy code is quite impossible; if it works, it's correct.

Now I hear you asking why I don't do it myself if it's that simple? Well, simple doesn't mean that it doesn't take a lot of time. And time is currently not something I can invest in fiddly things unfortunately...

[frosch]

Just to complain here, before someone complains about ottd

The .obg should use UTF-8 for the description and other fields. (currently it seems to use latin-1)

[FooBar]

It uses whatever Windows Notepad uses by default. Notepad calls that "ANSI"; some sort of extended ASCII.

The next one will be UTF-8
But why UTF-8? I don't intend to use any special characters, so ASCII should be fine as well IMO...

[Rubidium]

But why UTF-8? I don't intend to use any special characters, so ASCII should be fine as well IMO...

Because you are using characters that are not part of ASCII. For example the 'ü' is NOT part of ASCII.

[FooBar]

Ah, you're right indeed. I didn't realise that people's names in the credits part could indeed contain special chars...

[paradigm]

Hello everyone!

I am following the development of OpenGFX since its early beginnings and I really have to thank everyone involved for what they did so far. This is really a very professional looking replacement!

One thing that is keeping me from actually using OpenGFX is the font. It has been improved quite a bit, but I think it still (Alpha 4.2) needs some tweaking. Especially the tiny and the large font size look terrible right now. So I tried my best and went through all characters of the normal and tiny font (the large size will certainly take some time) and did my best to make them look better (and sometimes finally usable). I tried to keep the general look of the font. The biggest change I did was to replace the lowercase letters in the small font with uppercase letters.

See a comparison with Alpha 4.2:

Font example

opengfx-font-example.png (46.71 KiB) Viewed 2625 times

While I managed to edit the font and test my changes with grfcodec, I am no expert concerning all the GRF/NewGRF stuff. I changed the widths/heights/offsets of the sprites where necessary and it looks right. Attached is the top part of opengfx1r.grf (the first 673 sprites) and the part of the NFO file.

Please tell me what you think... most characters look ok now, but there are still some pixels at the wrong position here and there.

[dbkblk]

Woh ! this font look much better than before ! I have to admit that the old font is somewhat boring me because it's sometime hard to read (despite the work on it is wonderful, this need some tweaks!) ! Keep up the wonderful work guys

[Bilbo]

One thing that is keeping me from actually using OpenGFX is the font. It has been improved quite a bit, but I think it still (Alpha 4.2) needs some tweaking.

Err .... I thought too that the font needs improving. So I have improved it. You can get result of my improvements at these posts:

Basic fonts: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 38#p779338
Extra fonts: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 84#p779384

So you have probably done the same work I've already done earlier.

But I modified only the base size of the font, so if you have improved other sizes of the font, perhaps your efforts can be combined with mine (or perhaps some characters in my improved font can be replaced by yours if they would be better)

[FooBar]

Please tell me what you think...

I don't know what specific things you've changed... In general it looks ok, but I really don't like the lowercase t, w and y. The t looks like a dagger and really misses the curve at the bottom. w and y seem to be taken from a different typeface.

I think it would be good to combine your and Bilbo's efforts into a single improved version of the font. Because you know what you've changed maybe you can have a look a Bilbo's previous submission and create some image or so that only shows the things that you would like to change and not the unchanged characters (easiest would be to use the spritesheet you created earlier and just somehow indicate (simple line under the sprite?) what should be changed according to you).

That's IMO the easiest way to combine both into OpenGFX.

Appreciate your input

[Ammler]

OK, here it is my first attempt to make grf with graphcis, YEAH! Now I did more than just Action0 and F, dunno what is easier.

DevZone Ticket

The NewGRF just has the engines, yet, as that was asked, but I might also add the waggons from Blaubus to compare and decide which to use for the final set.

Greets
Ammler

[Ammler]

Here are the most important missing house sprites, which would remove the black boxes from temperate (or arctic intro?)


http://dev.openttdcoop.org/issues/95


http://dev.openttdcoop.org/issues/98


http://dev.openttdcoop.org/issues/104


http://dev.openttdcoop.org/issues/105

[DJ Nekkid]

OK, here it is my first attempt to make grf with graphcis, YEAH! Now I did more than just Action0 and F, dunno what is easier.
Greets
Ammler

I've already drawn the Chimaera about 2 years ago, it's not THAT bad sprites i think?

edit:
a few posts down on this post:
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... &start=340

[Ammler]

I've already drawn the Chimaera about 2 years ago, it's not THAT bad sprites i think?

They are indeed nice. But I am not sure, if they would fit the OpenGFX style. IMO, they are nice for an additional (I guess already planned) OpenGFX+. I hope, you are fine with that.

Anyway, I have included the wagons of Blaubus to the NewGRF, too. It has a additional parameter to switch them off. (Parameter=0)

Please check the NewGRF and vote for you favorites wagons. I am also not really happy with Lev3, what do you think, specially in \ view.

Related ticket: https://dev.openttdcoop.org/issues/102

Greets
Ammler