Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
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Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
Hello!
I've been wondering for years why only MB's Newstations has a void station tile (bare ground with rail without any platforms, pavement or buildings, just like any railway track). It's (or it should be) the most basic freight station tile in my opinion, it's extremely common IRL as well in freight yards to not have any infrastructure besides quite a lot of tracks. Anyhow it never got included in ISR either and since then several new rail graphics have been made and now we have railtypes, too. MB's Newstations supports none of these unfortunately. Also we have at least 2 new quite substantial freight station sets since then (DWE and CHIPS) but neither of these two included it either.
Yesterday I sent a pm to the authors of these two sets asking whether they'd consider adding it and I got the answer from andythenorth that he considered adding it but the void station tile is not compatible with railtypes specs. He also advised me to ask here why that is so. So yeah, that's the question. What makes a void station tile unimplementable with railtypes while more complex station tiles are fine? Is it the fact that a void station tile would have no sprite whatsoever besides the bare ground and the rail drawn over it? If so wouldn't adding a small transparent object fix this? Is there any workaround? If yes, please share and then andythenorth might add this tile to CHIPS in the future hopefully.
Thanks a lot in advance for the explanations.
I've been wondering for years why only MB's Newstations has a void station tile (bare ground with rail without any platforms, pavement or buildings, just like any railway track). It's (or it should be) the most basic freight station tile in my opinion, it's extremely common IRL as well in freight yards to not have any infrastructure besides quite a lot of tracks. Anyhow it never got included in ISR either and since then several new rail graphics have been made and now we have railtypes, too. MB's Newstations supports none of these unfortunately. Also we have at least 2 new quite substantial freight station sets since then (DWE and CHIPS) but neither of these two included it either.
Yesterday I sent a pm to the authors of these two sets asking whether they'd consider adding it and I got the answer from andythenorth that he considered adding it but the void station tile is not compatible with railtypes specs. He also advised me to ask here why that is so. So yeah, that's the question. What makes a void station tile unimplementable with railtypes while more complex station tiles are fine? Is it the fact that a void station tile would have no sprite whatsoever besides the bare ground and the rail drawn over it? If so wouldn't adding a small transparent object fix this? Is there any workaround? If yes, please share and then andythenorth might add this tile to CHIPS in the future hopefully.
Thanks a lot in advance for the explanations.
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
I didn't check all details, but I think a void platform can be coded like any other platform, just with transparent platform sprites.
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
I see we are thinking along the same lines, suggesting using the transparent colour to circumvent the alleged limitation.
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
It's possible to make such a void tile. However you'll always have one issue: the ground will always be grass. That means in arctic above the snowline: grass. In tropic in the desert: also grass. The grass type is the correct one for the climate (so grass/arctic grass/tropic grass). You can check for snow/desert and add an overlay to fix that, but that way you can only be compatible with either the TTD baseset or the OpenGFX baseset. The problem is there that you have to include the snow/desert graphics in your grf since there are no graphics with snow/desert where only half the tile is covered in the baseset.
The answer you got from andythenorth was based on the answer I gave on IRC. That answer came down to the above.
See the attached test grf for how it behaves.
The answer you got from andythenorth was based on the answer I gave on IRC. That answer came down to the above.
See the attached test grf for how it behaves.
Last edited by Yexo on 23 Jun 2011 18:08, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
So technically the half platforms of the Canadian Station Set (and any other station tile where a part of the base tile is shown) would also suffer from this problem if they were updated to support the railtypes feature?
And if I got your answer right it's technically doable just quite complicated and would need two grf versions to support both the original and the OpenGFX base set? Is there no way for a newgrf to detect which base set is used and show the snow/sand overlay accordingly?
And if I got your answer right it's technically doable just quite complicated and would need two grf versions to support both the original and the OpenGFX base set? Is there no way for a newgrf to detect which base set is used and show the snow/sand overlay accordingly?
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
Correct.Nagyzee wrote:So technically the half platforms of the Canadian Station Set (and any other station tile where a part of the base tile is shown) would also suffer from this problem if they were updated to support the railtypes feature?
The opposite, it's very easy.And if I got your answer right it's technically doable just quite complicated
Sadly, that is true. This means that it's impossible to support properly in multiplayer since all players need to have the same grfs but can have different basesets.and would need two grf versions to support both the original and the OpenGFX base set?
There is no way and there won't be a way.Is there no way for a newgrf to detect which base set is used and show the snow/sand overlay accordingly?
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
Well, I expected worse. It's not a huge thing imho that the snow and sand might look a bit weird (the grf being optimized for one base set, the user using it with the other). I'd go for it if I were in some freight station grf authors' shoes. I'll start using your test grf till then, it will be very handy for me even without the snow/sand support. Only downside is that it takes up one more place on my already long grf list.
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
Removed the grf from my previous post since it wsan't really meant to be used ingame. It needs a proper grfid at least. Please fix that before you redistribute it.
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
Could you add a name and grfid to it then maybe and re-upload? I don't think it would become widespread if you only post it here but some of us would find it highly useful.
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
I'll discuss it with andythenorth again and maybe include it in CHIPS.
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
Thanks a lot, much appreciated.
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Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
my thoughts on this is just add a parameter to provide graphics for the Original TTD graphics or the OpenGFX graphics so that things will hopefully look alright.
Proud Canadian
Nekomasters Projects! (Downloads available on BaNaNaS!) \(>^w^<)/
# NARS ADD-ON SET 2CC | 2cc Rapid Transit For Me! (2ccRTFM) | 2cc Wagons In NML (2ccWIN)
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Nekomasters Projects! (Downloads available on BaNaNaS!) \(>^w^<)/
# NARS ADD-ON SET 2CC | 2cc Rapid Transit For Me! (2ccRTFM) | 2cc Wagons In NML (2ccWIN)
# NML Category System (Organize your GRFS!) <- TT-Forums Exclusive Download!
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
That works fine for single-player games, it doesn't for multiplayer.
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Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
well then I guess some people are going to have to deal with it being one way or the other.FooBar wrote:That works fine for single-player games, it doesn't for multiplayer.
Proud Canadian
Nekomasters Projects! (Downloads available on BaNaNaS!) \(>^w^<)/
# NARS ADD-ON SET 2CC | 2cc Rapid Transit For Me! (2ccRTFM) | 2cc Wagons In NML (2ccWIN)
# NML Category System (Organize your GRFS!) <- TT-Forums Exclusive Download!
Nekomasters Projects! (Downloads available on BaNaNaS!) \(>^w^<)/
# NARS ADD-ON SET 2CC | 2cc Rapid Transit For Me! (2ccRTFM) | 2cc Wagons In NML (2ccWIN)
# NML Category System (Organize your GRFS!) <- TT-Forums Exclusive Download!
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
There's been a .grf around since 2005 which I believe has everything you wish (except for climate support), it supports both NuTracks and OpenGFX+ Landscape.
bare_tiles-w.grf
Made by Aegir, so perhaps have a search through the forum for it, as I dont have the license for the .grf, so not sure if i can distribute it
bare_tiles-w.grf
Made by Aegir, so perhaps have a search through the forum for it, as I dont have the license for the .grf, so not sure if i can distribute it
(British) Modular Stations Set - Thread: | Website:
Swiss Set - Thread: | Website:
Route Map Creator
My Screenshot Thread
Swiss Set - Thread: | Website:
Route Map Creator
My Screenshot Thread
Re: Void station tile not compatible with railtypes?
That's what I've found after a quick search:
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=414594#p414594
So is this the last version:
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=323771#p323771 ?
Anyhow it's not that economical to have a separate grf only for a bare station tile so I'd prefer inclusion into a bigger station set. Let's hope Andy is positive about the idea.
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=414594#p414594
And then no newer version in that thread or on Aegir's homepage.Aegir wrote:The bare tiles .grf isn't to be used anymore. Development on it has been halted, and it should not be availible for download anywhere, except for the older versions floating around on the forums attachment system.
I would appreciate it if all future questions and comments about my station sets be forwarded to my projects thread, linked in my signature undeneath.
Thank you and good day.
So is this the last version:
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?p=323771#p323771 ?
Anyhow it's not that economical to have a separate grf only for a bare station tile so I'd prefer inclusion into a bigger station set. Let's hope Andy is positive about the idea.
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