Japan Set Development

[krtaylor]

I'd like to see pictures of the trainset you are describing. What I saw was made with Tomy trains (battery-powered with blue plastic track).

[Toni Babelony]

Maybe some work in progress will do?

jrw683a.png (10.9 KiB) Viewed 3426 times

Here's a picture of the real thing:

[dandan]

Using Toni's new mail car sprites, I have produced a new version of the 415 Test GRF which, surprise surprise, now contains mail car sprites. The difference between mail and passenger cars is very subtle, so the push/pull-effect still looks pretty okay. On the other hand, it's hard to tell on sight whether a train has any mail cars. For those of us who (like me) are not really in favour of mail car sprites for EMUs at all, you can set the first GRF parameter to 1 which will make mail cars use passenger car sprites as before.

EDIT: I have also added the third livery available for that train. Don't be surprised if trains from old saves change liveries because of that.

[Toni Babelony]

I'll see if the 415w.grf works properly when I get home. For now an updated spriteset of the 415 and the finished Thunderbird Class 683 and JR East E233 sprites. Only the Class 789 awaits finishing and then we're done with the MU spriting.

After that it's onwards to the 'MU consist listing for coding and drawing mailcar sprites for the 'MU. Maybe some update on the EF81 (it's too dark and needs more liveries )

[Toni Babelony]

Double post as there is only place for 3 attatchments...

Anyway, the Class 789 'Heat' is finished! The last one from the Japan Train Set is finally drawn. All there is to do, regarding the trains, is collecting data and maybe upgrading old sprites.

[krtaylor]

dandan, something seems badly fouled with your EMU test GRF. I do not get mail EMUs. Instead, some of them have the original TTD mailcar in its place, and sometimes it's some random other sprite like the mouse cursor. It's a mess. And the game crashes shortly after I load it, though I think that may have something to do with the trams and not necessarily your GRF file. Has anyone else tried it and had problems? The old test version worked fine.

Toni, we are not going to do the 885 EMU? And I really had hoped for the KOKIFU.

Otherwise, I do think that's it for the trains, other than improved boxcars and steam locos. The tracking website should now be updated with the most current versions of everything.

[Toni Babelony]

Toni, we are not going to do the 885 EMU? And I really had hoped for the KOKIFU.

The 885 is IMO a useless addition to the set as the 683 came out in the same year. Difference is that the 885 is capable of 130km/h and the 683 of 160km/h... Not very fair to add the 885 as this one is probably more expensive to maintain. (more luxurious service and interior)

I'll do the KOKIFU when I get home again when I have the time (and the need) to draw. I'm also reworking the older sprites (not re-drawing them to respect the original authors) for correct pantograph layouts. All 'MU classes are namely going to be coded in the correct order as IRL.

[dandan]

dandan, something seems badly fouled with your EMU test GRF.

Hmm, I'm in trouble here. The problem has to do with the first grf parameter that should switch off mail cars if set to 1. I did that using an action 7 that would check the parameter and then skip an action 6 that would in turn modify the variational action 2 that chooses between passenger and mail sprites.

This works in Open but not in Patch.

After krtaylor reported the error, I found out that grf parameters can be checked directly in an action 2 via variable 7F.

This works in Patch but not in Open.

The second solution seems much cleaner anyway, so I will try to understand why that won't work in OpenTTD. Either I'm doing it wrong or it's simply unsupported. Hopefully, I will find some solution over the weekend.

[mart3p]

I did that using an action 7 that would check the parameter and then skip an action 6 that would in turn modify the variational action 2 that chooses between passenger and mail sprites.

This works in Open but not in Patch.

I have experienced a similar problem when skipping an Action 6 with Action 7. What was actually needed was an Action 9. It then worked the same in both TTDPatch and OpenTTD.

I found out that grf parameters can be checked directly in an action 2 via variable 7F.

This works in Patch but not in Open.

Variable 7F is implemented in OpenTTD. Whether it works or not I don't know, I haven't tried it.

[dandan]

Thanks, mart3p. I was using an action 9 though, just got confused when I wrote this. So that's not it. But it's good to know that variable 7F is implemented, so I will try to find out why that didn't work.

EDIT: Okay, further testing has shown the following: Variable 7F works fine in OpenTTD if I provide the parameter to the jptrainsw.grf instead of the additional jp415w.grf! I currently have no idea why this happens and whether it is intended or a bug. (It has nothing to do with this new engine pool thing; older nightlies show the same behaviour). In the end, it won't be a problem for us since the new trains will obviously be merged back into the main file. So here is the updated grf.

[krtaylor]

Yes, that fixed it, I now get the mail MUs graphics. I will say that all I've ever seen for livery is the blue and white, never the other variants. That's OK, I was just wondering if you'd coded them.

[dandan]

That's funny, I get them all. Just keep trying, buy a lot of engines
There is also the problem that the number of different possibilities a random action 2 can choose between has to be a power of 2. In the moment it's 4 but for three liveries. One is listed twice which probably means it's twice as likely to show up than the other two. It's the blue and gray, not the blue and white though, I think. I should probably use 16 or so choices and split them 5/5/6 to get a more even distribution.

[Toni Babelony]

The 415 doesn't work properly in OTTD. To get the correct configurations you have to buy each unit seperatel and then combine them together. When adding coaches things go mighty wrong... See screenshot.

[George]

See screenshot.

I'm looking at the progress of Japan train set and I would like to say that I do not like the style it goes. On the screen shot the older graphics (green on the shot) is rather good, while the more recent graphics (red) looks like a noise and not a train. May I ask artists to keep the old style and not run up to the number of sprites?

jp.png (8.6 KiB) Viewed 2774 times

P.S. No offence intended, I just wish the set to be better

[dandan]

The 415 doesn't work properly in OTTD. To get the correct configurations you have to buy each unit seperatel and then combine them together. When adding coaches things go mighty wrong... See screenshot.

I can't reproduce the problem. Could you post a savegame and tell me exactly what version of OpenTTD you are using?

[Toni Babelony]

Th 185, 103 and 415.1500 are being replaced with new graphics ATM. Don't worry, we're are getting rid of 'em. They were drawn by me a year ago and I was also disappointed by them, so I decided to make replacement graphics. ^^"

The graphics of the 415 'Test' EMU are final though. The older graphics were too dark. Japanese trains usually have very light colours. Even the trains with darker colours (after 1960 and especially after 1985) are lighter than usual.

---

@ Dandan: I use a self compiled version with the patchpack from Roest and r12932... However, when I use OTTD 0.6.0 the problem only gets worse. When adding the new 415 Test file things go wrong. A savegame for OTTD 0.6.0 is attatched.

[dandan]

Okay, that explains it. The test GRF does NOT work with 0.6.0 (nor with 0.6.1). It requires nightlies that support the new type of random action used. (I did say what the requirements are when I first posted the grf, but forgot this time. Sorry) Why it does not work with your self-compiled version, I do not know. Anyway, we might want the set to work with the latest stable release (0.6.1) so I am thinking about including some replacement code for older versions. At any rate, it only affects the few trains that will use multiple random liveries in a single consist.

[dandan]

Here is another update to the train set. I tried to improve the alignment of loco-hauled trains and wagons. I must say that was a huge amount of work, but it is still not quite perfect ... perhaps never will be. I'm sure it's greatly improved though. I also fixed a few freight car bugs.

EDIT: I have noticed that the alignment changes can cause funny effects with existing savegames. But if trains appear totally misaligned, that should go away after they visit a depot.

[krtaylor]

Thanks! Are you able to update the Readme with changelog info?

[Toni Babelony]

The development page seems to be down... Due to a server problem or due to late payments?

P.s. updating to newer version since Roest's patchpack was updated. Now I'll be able to test the 415 .grf . Good luck with coding!