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Posted: 17 Jul 2004 18:35
by SHADOW-XIII
look now ... you can see that it will look the same (white nad yellow squares) so the same graphic the same view
only if it will be placed other way (like I draw it at the top) ... the same but less space
the turnings will be exacly the same but position will change ... just take a look
Posted: 17 Jul 2004 18:48
by charlieg
Am I the only person who things the downwards road, in all these illustrations, is far too wide?
Posted: 17 Jul 2004 19:15
by hAmpzter
SHADOW-XIII wrote:look now ... you can see that it will look the same (white nad yellow squares) so the same graphic the same view
only if it will be placed other way (like I draw it at the top) ... the same but less space
the turnings will be exacly the same but position will change ... just take a look
Okey, did this.. Didn't see exactly how it should become until I made a pic.. And it seemed to be quite good! So now I agree with you!

Posted: 17 Jul 2004 19:20
by hAmpzter
charlieg wrote:Am I the only person who things the downwards road, in all these illustrations, is far too wide?
No, I could agree with you there.. It should be about 2 pixels less in width or so I would say!

Posted: 17 Jul 2004 21:00
by George
I also think it would be nice to have roads taking two squares instead of three, as it is on the picture by hAmpzter
Posted: 18 Jul 2004 11:14
by tmesisbob
Regards road width, all of these roads were rendered using the same model for each of the 4 differernt directions, so mathematically (subject to rounding issues) they are all the same size, however they can be easily changed
SHADOW-XIII: I can certainly understand why you wish the roads to consume less space, they would provide a far more elegant solution especially within towns, allowing buildings to be closer to the road, hence wasting less space. However, that system is still a 4 way system in essence, and my objective at least was to try and implement a true 8 way system. I can certainly make the system that you suggest (and indeed I have made a few simple changes to the code inorder to create the roads in the piccy below), and add a few patch switches to allow the player to make thier own preferences

.
Below is a picture showing the in game graphics for both types of diagonal roads. Making smother corners for the right version will be a bit harder though, as I would have to adpot the Sim City 3000 method of using the extra tiles (1and 2) for the curves.
Posted: 18 Jul 2004 14:25
by hAmpzter
I think the true 8-way system looks much nicer, though I would want it smaller as in the 4-way you did there..
But you can't have everything, so I would choose the 8-way!
Is there no code today that could allow a building/rail or so to intersect the "half" square that is left by the 8-way system?
Posted: 18 Jul 2004 21:03
by tmesisbob
hAmpzter wrote:Is there no code today that could allow a building/rail or so to intersect the "half" square that is left by the 8-way system?
Its is all a matter of storage. It is entirly possible to have that half road half rail tile, however the data needs to be stored for that and things start to get really messy. A messy memory layout requires more complex code to deal with all sorts of 'special cases', which in turn will increase processor overheads.
I would be more than happy to have that possibility, but I think that we should let the dev guys sort out the memory layouts first.

Posted: 19 Jul 2004 12:33
by RK
tmesisbob wrote:Regards road width, all of these roads were rendered using the same model for each of the 4 differernt directions, so mathematically (subject to rounding issues) they are all the same size, however they can be easily changed
SHADOW-XIII: I can certainly understand why you wish the roads to consume less space, they would provide a far more elegant solution especially within towns, allowing buildings to be closer to the road, hence wasting less space. However, that system is still a 4 way system in essence, and my objective at least was to try and implement a true 8 way system. I can certainly make the system that you suggest (and indeed I have made a few simple changes to the code inorder to create the roads in the piccy below), and add a few patch switches to allow the player to make thier own preferences

.
Below is a picture showing the in game graphics for both types of diagonal roads. Making smother corners for the right version will be a bit harder though, as I would have to adpot the Sim City 3000 method of using the extra tiles (1and 2) for the curves.
but the right is ttd style because rail tracks are also build like this and look smaller than non-diagonal.
Posted: 19 Jul 2004 13:24
by tmesisbob
RK wrote:but the right is ttd style because rail tracks are also build like this and look smaller than non-diagonal.
We are making OTTD not TTD.

Posted: 19 Jul 2004 14:39
by BobXP
I think hAmpzter's method is the best...
Posted: 19 Jul 2004 16:29
by hAmpzter
tmesisbob wrote:RK wrote:but the right is ttd style because rail tracks are also build like this and look smaller than non-diagonal.
We are making OTTD not TTD.

Exactly what I think too!
BobXP: I didn't do any method, I just liked the real 8-way road-system!

Posted: 19 Jul 2004 18:22
by RK
tmesisbob wrote:RK wrote:but the right is ttd style because rail tracks are also build like this and look smaller than non-diagonal.
We are making OTTD not TTD.

ok, if it is possible, we should take the better one.
but i have a quaestion: will towns build these roads too?
Posted: 19 Jul 2004 18:42
by BobXP
hAmpzter wrote:BobXP: I didn't do any method, I just liked the real 8-way road-system!

no...
here you posted the picture of the road moved over to the right by 1/2 square... i think that is the best method.
Posted: 19 Jul 2004 19:04
by tmesisbob
BobXP wrote:no...
here you posted the picture of the road moved over to the right by 1/2 square... i think that is the best method.
Hmmm, False.
How would one connect these to the existing X and Y aligned roads? The only way using that method is shown above in one of my previous posts.
Posted: 19 Jul 2004 20:21
by BobXP
tmesisbob wrote:How would one connect these to the existing X and Y aligned roads?
Um, like this perhaps?

Posted: 19 Jul 2004 21:12
by tmesisbob
hi,
I have thought about that type of system before. The main problem with this is that the tiles labeled 1 and 2 need to use different tiles from their regular ones.
The red line shows the actual road direction bits that would be set.
Now two methods could be employed.
1) Use some spare bits in the landscape arrays to indicate that these road tiles are to use a different tile. Every time the road or any adjacent roads are changed, these status flags need to be updated. This is a slow and tiresome process.
2) Workout the correct sprite to draw during the render. This requires that the adjacent tiles be examined, thus requiring extra memory reads, and hence slowing the system down considerably.
So if this style of diagonals is used then the roads would probably look like connect2.png instead, of which i personally have no problems with.
Posted: 19 Jul 2004 21:48
by NCarlson
I may be the only one, but I prefer the 4 way system all around, it strikes me as simpler, less wastful of tiles and I also like that it is consistent with how rails are built. I prefe the looks as well. The 8 way system reminds me of the diagonals in RCT (imo terrible).
Posted: 20 Jul 2004 01:23
by Lilman424
how are 4-way roads consistent with 8-way rails?
Posted: 20 Jul 2004 01:30
by NCarlson
I mean the system for going to 8 way road, the one that is like the system used for rails is preferable to the other one proposed.