Modular Locomotive sheds [MLSS 0.5.2]

[supermop]

EDIT: Below problems fixed! I will try to release version 0.0.3 within the hour.

Thanks, zero.eight, that was a really helpful explanation of actions with regard to stations. I do wish the wiki was a little more helpful with stations.

Anyway, I have rewritten my .nfo taking into account the advice in this thread today, and it is closer than ever to working. However, there are some serious issues that raise more questions than they answer.

So far, only two tiles are showing up in the Special Modular Locomotive Shed Tiles category. These are the last two tiles defined in the .nfo. As far as I can tell, the actions are identical for each tile, so there should be no reason to choose these over any other tiles. It may be related to splitting the action 01s into 1 per tile, rather than one for the entire grf.

Edit: After further tweaking, the graphics are looking good for the 2nd to last tile, however it is showing the exact same graphics for the last tile as well. It is still not showing the other 7 tile types.
Anyway, I plan to keep working at this tonight.

Thanks to everyone for helping so far!

Best,

[supermop]

Sorry for this double post.

This is to announce the first release of the Modular Locomotive Sheds station set [MLSS]!

Please see the release thread here: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 99#p880899

Any feedback is appreciated of course, and I'd love to maybe see some interesting screen shots of how people decide to use modular sheds in their games!

The version number is (somewhat arbitrarily) 0.0.3. Things I'd like to do before 0.1 are the inclusion of more roof styles, and maybe adding CC colors to some tiles.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped me get my head around the nfo coding for stations!

Best,

[supermop]

Another double/triple post, but It has been a few days and there is different/new news to report.

BrickDepotTeaser.png (13.17 KiB) Viewed 6273 times

I aim to include this masonry shed to fit in better with older time periods within the next day or so. Graphics had to be a little different to allow for the possibility of the user to place sheds with perpendicular gables next to each other. I wanted to create something in the style of the original depot, while still being a unique design. So far there is only one roof style, but later versions might the depot itself distinguished by fenestration or stuff on the roof. A request was made for a fake roundhouse in this style as well, but that will for now.


On the technical front: is it possible to specify different deopt graphics for different track types via the depot newGrf? Obviously I do not want these graphics to preclude the user from using my other depots within a given game.

Best,

[supermop]

So there hasn't been any feedback since I released the brick sheds a few days ago. I hope no one is having any serious issues with the Grf as released. I have fixed the company color problem I had on the roof junk tiles, but I am waiting until I have more new content to release the next version. My biggest stumbling block at the moment is creating a newgrf for the actual depots that contains both depot styles (and allows both to be used in game). The newgrf specs dont really mention how to deal with depots, so if anyone can give me a hint here I would really appreciate it. The set kind of looses its meaning if there are no depots that match the tiles...

Anyway, how interested are people in this? Do people want to see more/specific types of tiles added? Or is this essentially a Grf for my personal use (in which case I should probably stop bothering all of you about it and move on to my other project).

I'd love to hear any specific feedback/complaints/suggestions if anyone has any. The only real request there has been so far is for a roundhouse to match the masonry sheds, which I now think I can put together in a way that I will be satisfied with. If people think this is a good idea, I'll try to draw it and include it once there is a way to have the masonry depot in game.

Best,

[DJ Nekkid]

if you want to draw a few different types can i include them in nutracks in a way that if your grf is loaded, the depots will be "yours" and not the default ones.

[Jimbow]

I really like your work, its a very nice use of station tiles!

The only reason I haven't been given you feedback yet, is because I haven't been able to test your work in the game yet.

Maybe you can make some non-track tiles with facilites for the people working at the depot. Like an office building, smaller buildings that contains materials needed for the trains, oiltanks. Maybe its possible to make an open-air washer for the trains. So it looks like the train is getting washed when it's waiting at the station (a bit like the moving cranes of the industry station set).

If I find problems, or comes up with more ideas, when I make a test ingame, I will post them here

[supermop]

Nekkid: That would be great. The only other way I could think of getting it to work would be to try to make a competing railtype Grf of my own, which would be almost certainly vastly inferior... I will try to touch up the two depots to get them up to the grapical standards for inclusion in a prestigious mainstream set. If you want me to include more types of depots (say one for every speed or something) I can also make some variations to make them distinct, or add another style (maybe early modern, or post-modern).

Jimbow: I was already thinking of some non-track tiles like buffers etc, extra facility building would be a great idea too! I will need to do some research to see what modern fueling facilities look like (I am fortunate enough to live in one of the few parts of the US with nearly universal electrification, so the depots I usually see from the train don't have much in the way of fuel equipment). I don't know if anyone has used the sheds with ISR tiles yet, but it would be interesting to see if they look good next to each other, or if they clash. I will look into that in the near future.

Speaking of fuel, I might try to make some substation tiles for eyecandy feeder stations as well, although these wouldn't necessarily be part of a depot complex.

Anyway, thanks for your input. I hate to be so pestering in the thread, but feedback is really crucial when deciding how to move forward with a project, especially when you have no idea what you are doing like me.

I have some meetings for my real job drawing real buildings today, so I won't be able to take action on these suggestions right away, but hopefull I will have more content to show soon!


Best,

[Nite Owl]

Run - Go - Do! The idea is amazing and adds quite a few possibilities to the game. The only drawback is the learning curve. That is trying to figure out which station buildings in your set will cover what configuration of track. Plus not all complicated configurations can be covered so that some well liked behaviors may have to be relearned or abandoned in order to use this set. The primary suggestion I would make (and how to do it in a simple matter I have yet to figure out) is that the descriptions of the individual station pieces need to be more descriptive in terms of what specific tiles they will cover. After playing around with the set just for fun I found myself going back and forth with the transparency options to see what I was covering with each click.

The complicated way of solving this would be to make up an HTML Readme file with a picture of each station piece standing alone after being placed on the map along with its description in the station listing. A description in the station listing of "Flat Roof Overlay Tile, Large, Both" really does not give me the information I need to determine what that selection is going to cover or is not going to cover. Again, the learning curve of trial and error. Like I said the idea is brilliant but there needs to be some simpler way of conveying the information as to what a selected station piece will cover on the map. The only other suggestion I would make is to include a station piece that is placed at the visible end of a depot complex that does not have an entrance way in it. Please keep up the great work and I will look forward to the next release.

[kamnet]

I hadn't tried it yet because I was in the middle of building a pre-1900 scenario of my own (boy, that's hard work!), but yesterday I did decide to pull out an old save game that I had built a spectacular service depot with and added modular sheds. Works GREAT! Takes a little bit of art to learn how to use it, but when you have $4 billion laying around you can afford to play

I haven't used the brick sheds yet, I like the corrugated sheds just fine.

[supermop]

Modular Masonry sheds WIP.jpg (44.89 KiB) Viewed 5956 times

Look for more eyecandy tiles in a new release in the next couple of days!

I didn't really plan on doing anything beyond the basic shed tiles for the masonry style, but one thing led to another, and the next thing I knew I was trying to draw hexadecagonal shapes in a non-standard isometric projection.

I am thinking about revamping the nomenclature for the overlay tiles, and coming up with a tutorial after the next Major release (after currently planned content is in the .grf) hopefully this will not me more than a week or so away.

Best,

[supermop]

Small Modular Roundhouse.JPG (9.29 KiB) Viewed 5888 times

So the Modular roundhouse is almost ready. The Basic coding is done but there are a few more thing that need doing. I have a few quick questions to that end:

Groundsprites: I have drawn a brick/cobble paver tile for use in yards around the Masonry sheds, and maybe as a custom groundsprite for the roundhouse tiles. Where do I put it's action 01 ID within the Action 00? Do I just replace the "F4 03" part with the relevant "xx 04" ID? I assume the selected railtype will then just draw on top of the tile...

Property 15: Can I just put this anywhere in the action 00? Will Just typing "15 01" be enough to disallow traffic?

Non track tiles: I have noticed in transparent mode, that non track tiles in ISR have no underlying track, while those in Japan Stations do. Is it easy to disable the drawing of track on tiles? If I do not use the brick groundsprite, I would like to do this, so as not to have those pieces of track poking out from the "corners" of the roundhouse.


Best,


Edit: sorry for the .jpg shot, wasn't thinking.

[ISA]

what about this turning thing for that roundhouse...

[supermop]

I have all roundhouse tiles drawn and coded as of this morning. Also included are outdoor radial tracks and an outdoor turntable, and assorted yard tiles and buffers. I am at the airport waiting to fly to Cornwall for a week, and wanted to release version 0.2.0 today, but when testing it this afternoon, it caused a crash ( proably a numering error on my part) and I didn't have enough time to fix it before catching the subway to the train to the monorail to the airport. I will be home for one day before going to minnesota for a few days, and I will try to get MLSS up on bananas then.

best,

[ISA]

Take Your time mate....

[supermop]

Edit: so before leaving today I did some work on the .nfo, and am please to say that it's not causing crashes anymore. There are a few graphical problems to iron out, but I am not bringing my computer with me, so look for a release by the middle of next week. After version 0.2.x gets up on bananas next week, I will try to figure out animating the turntable. I might need help with that, but hopefully I will be able to manage.

thanks and best,

old:


Ok, back for one day, trying to get this fixed. Still cannot figure out why latest version causes ottd to crash. If anyone wants to take a look and give me some tips, I'd be very grateful!

Best,

[supermop]

Sorry for the doublepost, but I am releasing a new version tonight, MLSS 0.2.0. Included and functional are a modular roundhouse, turntable, and associated yard tiles. Next items to tackle will be adding a few more decorative types of masonry shed, and learning how to animate tiles. Check the release thread for download.

Best,

[ostlandr]

Aha! Here is the dev thread for this.

Anyway, thanks a bunch for bringing this set to OTTD. As one of those players who uses OTTD as a virtual model railroad rather than a "game" per se, these kind of releases are like Christmas.

Anyway, as I mentioned in the release thread, the cobblestone track tiles don't work.

I really like the idea of a larger roundhouse. As the screenshot showed, that Berkshire was going to be a tight fit on the turntable. This one is perfect for the 1840s-1890s.

I hate to be a "gimmee" but one thing I have wanted for years in the game (and have failed in attempts to draw) is a US style water tower as a non-track tile. A sanding tower would be cool too. ISR has tiles I can use for coaling facilities.

[supermop]

Funny you bring that up, as just last night I was researching 19th century american sand houses/towers and watering facilities for ideas for MLSS. I want to keep the set more trans-atlantically generic as well though. The old roundhouse with rotunda was inspired by a combination of old british examples and some early B&O structures. While american trains were the first I saw and was fascinated with as a small child, I happened to live in England for a few years in the 90's, and that's where I was really first exposed to railroads indepth.

I really like the standard ISR coal tipples and chutes, but I feel like my obnoxiously red pavement would be too jarring with them, so later I might approach an earlier style coaling tile that would look at home in the 1850s-80s.

As for this larger roundhouse, the turntable will probably remain small, so as to fit on one tile (i.e. just use the same table). There will still be 16 tracks, which works out to one stall per tile. 32 would look more natural, but would require drawing of new radial tracks incompatible with current structure. As for the building it self, I cannot decide between a concrete or steel frame with brick infill walls (common in early 20th century industrial buildings) or an all over brick exterior (would probabaly have a condcrete internal structure in real life anyway). I am thinking the exterior walls will have large, multipane windows rather than another set of doors, with a possible exception for the four tiles alligned with the standard orthogonal track directions. If there is exposed steel, I dont know if it will be subdued CC, or a dull red or green. These buildings are now drawn, but not textured.

Any more suggestions/requests for the next release?

best,

[ostlandr]

I am personally very fond of the type of turn-of-the-century architecture with steel/iron frames and brick walls. This pic (of a model, actually) is pretty close to my idea of what an American roundhouse should look like. http://media.photobucket.com/image/bric ... tail_w.jpg

Here's something a little more elaborate: http://www.studiozphoto.com/trains/N&Ws ... SON_WV.jpg

Of course, depending on era and location, the materials could be wood, concrete, stone, or any combination thereof.

Funny you bring that up, as just last night I was researching 19th century american sand houses/towers and watering facilities for ideas for MLSS. I want to keep the set more trans-atlantically generic as well though. The old roundhouse with rotunda was inspired by a combination of old british examples and some early B&O structures. While american trains were the first I saw and was fascinated with as a small child, I happened to live in England for a few years in the 90's, and that's where I was really first exposed to railroads indepth.

I really like the standard ISR coal tipples and chutes, but I feel like my obnoxiously red pavement would be too jarring with them, so later I might approach an earlier style coaling tile that would look at home in the 1850s-80s.

As for this larger roundhouse, the turntable will probably remain small, so as to fit on one tile (i.e. just use the same table). There will still be 16 tracks, which works out to one stall per tile. 32 would look more natural, but would require drawing of new radial tracks incompatible with current structure. As for the building it self, I cannot decide between a concrete or steel frame with brick infill walls (common in early 20th century industrial buildings) or an all over brick exterior (would probabaly have a condcrete internal structure in real life anyway). I am thinking the exterior walls will have large, multipane windows rather than another set of doors, with a possible exception for the four tiles alligned with the standard orthogonal track directions. If there is exposed steel, I dont know if it will be subdued CC, or a dull red or green. These buildings are now drawn, but not textured.

Any more suggestions/requests for the next release?

best,

[supermop]

I have a quick question, not sure if anyone will be able to help me out with it... Is it possible to use 2nd company color on station sprites? So far on tiles where I have included the 2nd CC green along with areas of 1st CC blue, only the 1st CC shows up correctly in game, the 2nd CC just appears as the green it is on the pallette, regardless of company colors chosen in the company window.

I would like to be able to use it on some of my shed buildings to pick out areas of detail that would typically be painted, while allowing for some vareity between different painted parts.

Thanks,