Japan Set Development

[NekoMaster]

what about adding some older station stuff for the steam age?

[Toni Babelony]

Toni!!! Great to have you back. That's the best news the Japan Set has had in a while.

Thanks for the warm welcome. First and most of all, I'd like to apologise for my sudden disappearance. I suddenly lost interest and got a girlfriend (still have her), so there was little time and motivation from my side. I'm however very happy to see that you're still working on the JapanSet and are still motivated! Awesome!

There has been a lot of progress behind the scenes actually and I was going to release the new version soon. However, I am still waiting for some steamer sprites from DanMacK *cough*, but it seems he currently does not have time to work on them. I am also working on the stations, but progress is slow at the moment and will be even slower for the next couple of weeks. So, no, I do not have a release date right now, only the famous "soon" (TM).

That's great to hear! Today I've been working on a renewal of the freight wagons, so they are compatible with FIRS, plus so that they have correct lengths etc. I've added a few attachments of the things I've been working on today. I was quite annoyed by how the freight wagons look (not the correct dimensions, etc.), so I decided to do an overhaul. I think drawing should be done in a few weeks. Loading capacities aren't decided yet, so that's still open. If you're up for it we could release this as a separate set, include it in the set, just use the graphics to update the current wagons (which is also fine by me) or totally ignore the thing.

Toni, I will PM you with some development stuff.

Thanks! I'm waiting for it!

what about adding some older station stuff for the steam age?

Yep, that's in my planning. It's a bit sad to see no nice station buildings and fitting platforms in the early ages, so that'll be done as well by me.

So.

I hope I can keep up my motivation to reach some of my goals in the coming time.

[Dreadnoughtw]

welcome back Toni

got a few questions for ya
is there a way to put the Shinkansen track with a catenary?
(if the Shinkansen track alrdy has it, disregard the question but answer the next one)

if the track alrdy as a catenery how tha hell u can see lol? xD

im using NuTracks btw dunno if this GRF some how conflitcs with the jap set

i also thout about this but instead of using the monorail tracks as Shinkansen tracks cant it be somehow changed back to a normal but very high speed track?

thx in advance for the amswers and keep up the good work

[stevenh]

Dreadnought... the catenary in OTTD will show up once the Japan Set supports RailTypes.

Dan dan has been working hard on this and it will all come together in due course.

[Toni Babelony]

I just wanted to say that we're working hard on a new release of the JapanSet. Dandan is putting down the heat on the coding progress (and some graphics) and I'm working on renovating the graphics.

Next to that, I'm secretly working on a Toei Interlocking Add-on Set (TIAS) (Tokyo 1,435mm gauge trains: Keisei RR, Keikyu RR, Hokuso Kaihatsu RR, Hokuso Kodan RR, Chiba Newtown RR, Chiba Express RR, Toei Asakusa Line, Shibayama RR and Shin-Keisei RR). It's easy for modern types to correctly match the years, find data and stuff, but for material built before the 1960's it's a bit of a drag. I'm getting along however. This set should already have some rolling stock in 1923 and some nice variations until now (commuter and express trains). There'll however be no freight trains in this set (as is common on standard-gauge networks in Japan). I'll probably throw in a few work trains as well for your graphical enjoyment.

In the far future you may also expect an update on the standard JapanSet with an AC traction section for the alpine climate. This set will focus on northern Tohoku AC 20kV, 50Hz rolling stock (electrics/EMU) and replace some diesels/DMU that don't fit in that area. It should be harder to play with as it won't contain any commuter trains and fewer Shinkansen. Hokkaido rolling stock will probably only be those who pass through the Seikan tunnel and run on JR East territory exclusively. JR West stock is also featured, as long as it also runs (near) JR East territory and is AC 20kV, 50Hz, not AC 20kV, 60Hz, which is Kyushu territory.

Locomotives (ED91, ED44/45, ED70, ED71, EF80, ED75 (still needs a few livery variations), ED78, EF71, EF81 and ED79) have already been drawn, so no need to worry about that any more. I think this set will be even more interesting after this is finished. This set will feature some standard rolling stock on 1,435mm gauge tracks as well, so you can build a mini-shinkansen.

[Toni Babelony]

Continued from: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 00#p978269

I liked the ads, they could be made to appear at random.

The graphics are almost two years or so old and I did a quite bad job on the ads at that time. Next to that, the buildings looked really chaotic (in a bad way) to me.

I've also removed the air-conditioning units etc., since the buildings looked even more chaotic with those things on 'em, plus it wouldn't be logical to have items scattered all over the place as if the building was customised afterwards to cater special needs of the people inside (they are all railway related businesses after all). That wouldn't be logical IMO, since it was built with those needs planned ahead (and thus incorporating them in the final design).

Come to think about it: maybe the rooftops need a few well placed air-conditioning/heating units. What do you guys think? Keep it clean or not?

P.s. having ads on the buildings appear at random would mean a massive heap of sprites. Take a look at what is now the basis for the modern modular station set in the attachment...

[Hyronymus]

Continued from: http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 00#p978269

I liked the ads, they could be made to appear at random.

The graphics are almost two years or so old and I did a quite bad job on the ads at that time. Next to that, the buildings looked really chaotic (in a bad way) to me.

I've also removed the air-conditioning units etc., since the buildings looked even more chaotic with those things on 'em, plus it wouldn't be logical to have items scattered all over the place as if the building was customised afterwards to cater special needs of the people inside (they are all railway related businesses after all). That wouldn't be logical IMO, since it was built with those needs planned ahead (and thus incorporating them in the final design).

Come to think about it: maybe the rooftops need a few well placed air-conditioning/heating units. What do you guys think? Keep it clean or not?

I'm for adding details to buildings and vehicles. Not too much, just a few things that make it look more realistic.

[planetmaker]

Come to think about it: maybe the rooftops need a few well placed air-conditioning/heating units. What do you guys think? Keep it clean or not?

The buildings look nice. But mostly I think they need not few, but many more neon signs and ads added to the buildings, especially the higher ones. The amount of signs which could be put on buildings was one of the things which kinda amazed me in Japan. It felt like at least twice the amount from what I'd see here in European cities in downtown areas.

[Toni Babelony]

The thing is with Japanese station buildings, is that they are mostly kept quite pristine and clean in comparison with other commercial buildings. This is mainly because the stations don't have to promote themselves as a building sight, since everybody knows what's inside. These are mostly a big department store, offices and very occasionally a hotel, all ran by the railway company, so there is no real need for advertisements. That's really my argument to the story

Anyway, if there is really a lot of demand, I can make a version with some railway related advertisements, but I don't think it will look nice on the refurbished buildings. Now the street side of the buildings have a facade that doesn't really need any ads.

P.S. the graphics aren't finished! Don't go using them yet!

[Emperor Jake]

The new buildings are looking great! Without the Japanese style billboards and signs, they also won't look out of place in modern non-Japanese settings

[kamnet]

I like both styles. While I'm not a huge fan of all the advertising and I don't use them much, I've seen some incredibly attractive screenshots with them.

[Toni Babelony]

For now I have only the ad-less buildings, since we have to focus on other, maybe even more awesome things. As Emperor Jake states: it is now usable outside a JapanSet setting. This is for me also quite important, as I'd love to see examples of them being used otherwise.

At the moment we're focussing on adding early motive power in the Japan Set, so you can already begin in 1872 with constructing railways and operating 'em. Next to that, we have had a quite massive revision of the graphics, statistics and other useful stuff in the railroad related items.

The stations are also being worked on hard. We're adding old to modern to relatively futuristic station designs, and a new feature foundations that are in line with the station buildings used. This makes building with the Japanese Station Set even more attractive, especially on slopes.

I hope these are enough teasers to make you guys and girls a bit hungry for the coming up releases! It's gonna be a massive party and everybody is invited (bring your own drinks)!

[NekoMaster]

I'll be bringing Sake if you guys dont mind, I really like the stuff

Anyways, I cant wait for the next big release, it's going to be awesome :3

Are the new stations going to support NuTracks?

Also, will the japan set ever get its own narrow gauge nu tracks?

[andythenorth]

Is there a Japan industry set in the works?

FIRS is stuck at the moment due to lack of interest, but it will restart sometime.

A Japan economy for FIRS could be interesting, if it was kept simple, we could vary a few things (swap grain cargo for rice perhaps).

[dandan]

There is no Japan industry set in the works, and TBH it's not very high on our (long) list of priorities. But I also always thought that a Japanese modification to an existing, well-tested industry set would be the better approach.

At the moment, our goal is to wrap things up for the next major release, hopefully still before the end of the year. And yes, Nekomaster, that release will definitely include a nice set of narrow gauge tracks. Screenshot somewhere a few pages back. NuTracks will also be supported.

The Japan Set consists now of 10 ever growing grfs and, at a certain point, development had become a bit too time-consuming for me. But recently, Toni, DanMacK and me have made really good progress towards the next version.

Once the major release is out of the way, I would like to maintain the whole Japan Set in a different way with more frequent, incremental releases, like many of the newer sets. So, Andy, let's talk about Japanese FIRS again a few months from now, okay?

[oberhümer]

NuTracks will also be supported

Just to make sure you know, NuTracks parameters are being changed completely, so don't count on those. I hope to get somewhere until the end of next week.

[dandan]

Thanks for the warning, Oberhümer. I'm not relying on any of the NuTracks parameters, only (to some extent) on the railtype labels.

[DanMacK]

Second page?! Unacceptable!

I've added a number of new steam locomotives to the early years, and there are more to come. I've also started on revamping the original steam locomotives. Results are below for the 9600 2-8-0. Also the in-progress steam loco list. More to come.

[DanMacK]

More as promised! The more I found out about Japanese trains, the more the 581 in the set bothered me I fell in love with the 581/583 series, and decided to revamp it for the set.

A LOT of diagonal work still needs to be done, as well as shading, but here's the basic outline of planned liveries for the 581/583 as well as the 419 and 715 that were rebuilt from them.

[Sanchimaru]

Hey, great work everybody!
I'm afraid I haven't been around for quite a while
This is already looking great, thanks to all for your fantastic work.
I'm not drawing too much lately, but I wanted to say everyone that you are free to use any of my sprites to modify them or for use in any other set being developed in these forums.

Keep it up, this is the set I once helped give life to, it pleases me greatly to see it still running and looking awesome