OpenGFX - Graphics Base Set

[Roujin]

If not, what else could be going wrong here..?

Something went wrong while running nforenum.

Thanks.
I found a link to a compiled nforenum r2100 - trying that one now... failed.
Found out it requires some stuff I don't have installed.
Found a binary of r2114 by planetmaker, which does not have these dependencies. Running... failed with same error.
Found a binary of r2284 on the openttd web site... failed with same error.

Uhm.. maybe the problem is something else than using a too-old version of nforenum?


edit: @planetmaker: alright, alright. I'm sorry

edit2: Installed grfcodec r2294 and nforenum r2284, still same error...

[planetmaker]

Hm. Strange. Do you also have gcc installed and in the path? Can you in that case please post the entire log? I don't see quite where or why it fails as it works for me.

make 2>&1 > makeogfx.log

[Roujin]

Hm. Strange. Do you also have gcc installed and in the path?

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$ gcc -dumpversion
3.4.5

Can you in that case please post the entire log? I don't see quite where or why it fails as it works for me.

make 2>&1 > makeogfx.log

Here's the output. It's not much more though. I found an option at the bottom of Makefile.config for more verbose output, but that did not add much more, either..

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[Version check]
Change detected.
echo "[Generating] ogfx1_base.grf"
[Generating] ogfx1_base.grf
grfcodec -e -p 2 ogfx1_base.grf
NFO file missing header lines and version info

[planetmaker]

did you run "make clean" somewhen? If not give it a try. And run make again.

It looks like it finds an existing sprites/ogfx1_base.nfo and then does not re-generate it as it would be required...

I'm honestly surprised that that is ALL output from the Makefile. The verbose feature is not really that much more descriptive than without, so don't worry about that.

[Roujin]

That helped. Now it started and actually (seemingly successfully) ran through a bunch of files. However it then ended with the following error:

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make[1]: *** [sprites/ogfxc_arctic.nfo] Error 5
make: *** No rule to make target `Makefile.dep', needed by `all'.  Stop.

The output (streamed to a logfile with the command you gave before):

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echo "[Depend]"
[Depend]
rm -rf Makefile.dep
for i in sprites/ogfx1_base.pnfo sprites/ogfxc_arctic.pnfo sprites/ogfxh_tropical.pnfo 
...  sprites/ogfxi_logos.pnfo sprites/ogfxt_toyland.pnfo sprites/ogfxe_extra.pnfo;
... do grep "sprites/pcx" $i | sed -e "s|^.*[ 	]\(sprites/pcx/[^ 	]*\).*|$i: \1|"
... | sed "s/pnfo/grf/" | sed "s|sprites/||" | sort | uniq >> Makefile.dep; done
make opengfx.obg
make[1]: Entering directory `/d/repos/mercurial/opengfx/font_tweak'
echo "[Checking] sprites/ogfx1_base.nfo"
[Checking] sprites/ogfx1_base.nfo
gcc -C -E - < sprites/ogfx1_base.pnfo > sprites/ogfx1_base.nfo
echo "[nforenum] sprites/ogfx1_base.nfo"
[nforenum] sprites/ogfx1_base.nfo
renum  sprites/ogfx1_base.nfo
NFORenum v3.4.6 r2284 - Copyright 2004-2009 Dale McCoy.
Processing file "sprites/ogfx1_base.nfo".
Processing complete.
echo "[Generating] ogfx1_base.grf"
[Generating] ogfx1_base.grf
grfcodec -e -p 2 ogfx1_base.grf

Done!
echo

echo "[Checking] sprites/ogfxc_arctic.nfo"
[Checking] sprites/ogfxc_arctic.nfo
gcc -C -E - < sprites/ogfxc_arctic.pnfo > sprites/ogfxc_arctic.nfo
make[1]: Leaving directory `/d/repos/mercurial/opengfx/font_tweak'
[Version check]

edit: split up layout breaking line into multiple lines

[planetmaker]

Hm... seems my dependency checks don't work in all cases.

For a quick hack, you can remove automatic dependency generation by means of the attached diff. Thanks for your patience and persistance.

[Roujin]

Hm.. now (with the patch applied) it goes 'til tropical....

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[Checking] sprites/ogfxh_tropical.nfo
make: *** [sprites/ogfxh_tropical.nfo] Error 5

I ran "make clean" first, then applied the patch, then built.

[planetmaker]

Is there any particular place within the sprites/ogfxh_tropical.nfo which shows an error (wrong sprite,... search for 'error' within)?

[Roujin]

ogfxh_tropical.nfo was not yet generated. There were only the base and arctic .nfo files.

In addition to that (what confuses me even more), the error varied a lot - different times I tried it, one time the error happened in base, other times in arctic, other times in tropical.
Now I've tried building without my changes. First, the same error (5) happened, in base. I decided to run make a second time right afterwards, and it seems to have worked.

Trying with my changes now...

[Roujin]

Okay, I had to run make four times or so in a row (each time getting this error 5 at some other file ), but I finally managed to build it.

Here are two screenshots for direct comparison. Open them in two tabs and switch between them to see the exact differences..
Please note that I didn't change any code, i.e. for letters that got changed in their width. This affects e.g. the (small font) 'r' which has one pixel too much space afterwards, and the 't' which is missing one column of pixels on its right side (I changed it from 2 px to 3 px width).

[planetmaker]

Thanks Roujin for going through this and also providing a good comparison screenshot here. It's a lot of work, but I really appreciate it and cannot be valued high enough, it makes comparison and judgement easy

Concerning the fonts: I think it is especially a good improvement with the small font face, making it more clear, especially p,b, and so on and the numbers. Also most touched letters in the large font improved, especially e and c improved.

Some minor points though:
Within the small font:
"t" changed the side of the horizontal dash. That makes it now indistinguishable with the 1, I'd keep the old version.

With the large font:
the "a" is quite bold on the rhs of the letter; I'd make it as thin as the other letters, some kind of compromize between old and new.
I like the old "r" better with less curvature.

[Zephyris]

Make sure your x-heights are consistent, the b jumps out as shorter than all the others...
Why is the a that wierd shape?

[Roujin]

Thanks for your comments, that's exactly why I made the comparison screens - to get others' opinions

Concerning the fonts: I think it is especially a good improvement with the small font face, making it more clear, especially p,b, and so on and the numbers. Also most touched letters in the large font improved, especially e and c improved.

thanks

Some minor points though:
Within the small font:
"t" changed the side of the horizontal dash. That makes it now indistinguishable with the 1, I'd keep the old version.

Actually, I widened the sprite to three pixels so the t has a pixel on each side - however I did not change the code accordingly, as I mentioned. Thus the right pixel is not shown ingame.
Would be glad if someone of you would do this (which sprites got widened or shortened is easily seen from the difference images I posted..)

With the large font:
the "a" is quite bold on the rhs of the letter; I'd make it as thin as the other letters, some kind of compromize between old and new.

Yes, you're right. It stands out too much like this.. I shall retouch this again.

I like the old "r" better with less curvature.

Noted. Will try to make it more like before again

Make sure your x-heights are consistent, the b jumps out as shorter than all the others...

I found myself here at a tradeoff between readability and consistency. I understand that these lines usually have to be on the same height for all the letters in a font, however I found that the 'b' and 'd' letter are a bit hard to read in the original font, which I believe is due to the only 1 px tall "top end" of the letter, compared to a 4 px "base".
So I purposely broke the consistency rule at these letters. Please have another look, also taking readability in account. If you still think it's better like it was before, then so be it
I'd like to hear others' opinions about that matter, too..

Why is the a that wierd shape?

Well, I found that it improves overall readability. On a low-level view, it might be strange to put the pixel there, but in normal-zoom and in conjunction with other letters, I have the feeling that my version gives the impression of an a more than the current version.
The current version somehow resembles an inverted big 'D', or something.

Here too, I'd like to hear more opinions.

Please don't understand me wrong here Zephyris - I do not disregard your opinions, I'd just like to hear more of 'em - especially for the small font where there's only a tiny space for alternations. And in the end you guys can decide which of my changes to commit anyway.

--
So, I'd like to forward Zeph's questions to everyone else..
a) The 'b' and 'd' in my version were made smaller (and thus inconsistent), for the sake of readability. Do you notice this? Is it disturbing? Or do you think it's better than the old version?
b) Which 'a' letter do you think is better, the old or new one?
(.. both regarding small fonts)

[planetmaker]

Actually, I widened the sprite to three pixels so the t has a pixel on each side - however I did not change the code accordingly, as I mentioned. Thus the right pixel is not shown ingame.

Ah, I see...

If you want already see yourself: the tiny font is in lines 238-460 and the large font lines 464-688 of sprites/ogfx1_base.pnfo. The real sprites have the format
-1 path/to/pcx x0 y0 ZZ height widths xoffset yoffset
with x0/y0 being the upper left corner of the sprite.

[Small font]
I found myself here at a tradeoff between readability and consistency. I understand that these lines usually have to be on the same height for all the letters in a font, however I found that the 'b' and 'd' letter are a bit hard to read in the original font, which I believe is due to the only 1 px tall "top end" of the letter, compared to a 4 px "base".
So I purposely broke the consistency rule at these letters. Please have another look, also taking readability in account. If you still think it's better like it was before, then so be it
I'd like to hear others' opinions about that matter, too..

Indeed, even if it might be a bit inconsistant there, especially b,d,P,D are not much better distinguishable.

EDIT: attached a quick diff for the source, changing the sizes. I haven't tested it actually whether I missed something or not.

[DanMacK]

Question...

Have the Toyland locomotives been drawn yet?

[DJ Nekkid]

they all have afaik

[Zephyris]

Depends what you mean by "drawn", they all have a sprite, but it is just a copy of the normal climate version. The same is true of many of the toyland graphics, including all vehicles, airports, and bridges.

[DanMacK]

I see that.

So may I present the Ploddyphut Choo Choo and a Preview for the others.

All are modifications of my NARS sprites and are released under the GPL

[mrMann]

I'm confused, wouldn't the Powernaut Choo Choo and Mightymover Choo Choo sprites be better the other way around? Or are those original sprites actually from the NARS?

[DanMacK]

Well, the Powernaut Choo Choo is the Wills 2-8-0 sprite essentally, so I used my replacement Wills The Mightymover is basically my Gresley A4 from Temperate with the nose of a PRR T1 Duplex. (Hey, it's Toyland...)