Overhead Gantries

[pthompson1983]

Hi, I'm new to the forums but have been playing TTD in various guises since day one! I can't program at all but one idea I've always had (and mocked-up in paint as an attachment) is to introduce overhead catenaries for electric wires - just for the sake of realism, and thinking about junctions and multiple lines (as attached).

Just a thought - if anyone is a talented programmer (which there seems to be a lot of on these forums!) then it could be included in the future - I could knock together some graphics but my skills are limited to paint (as the screenshot will prove!). I suppose you could also attach signals to the gantries as well...

[DaleStan]

The catenary is the wire itself, or, if you prefer, the curve the wire describes. This already exists.

[richk67]

The catenary is the wire itself, or, if you prefer, the curve the wire describes. Please use the correct names for things.

OK genius. What is the correct name for the multiple track gantry that supports catenary wires, then? If you cant come up with it, you shouldnt chastise newbies for not knowing either.

(I know the answer, but that would tip you off.)

[michael blunck]

OK genius. What is the correct name for the multiple track gantry that supports catenary wires, then? If you cant come up with it, you shouldnt chastise newbies for not knowing either.

On another note, why should anyone download a 1,4MB .jpeg just to see a first draft of a cross span?

Posting megabytes of .jpeg displaying only unrelated background noise rather than a small .png showing the real thing is one of the most annoying habits here, IMO.

regards
Michael

[richk67]

I guess from that, that you were never a newbie. Lucky you. Its the guy's first post. Cut him a ton of slack.

[michael blunck]

[...] Lucky you. Its the guy's first post. [...]

I was talking generally. I didn´t say that this habit would be indulged in only by first-posters.

regards
Michael

[Wolf01]

trolling around is become a must this year?
i don't blame the user for the attachment and to not know the exact name of the thing... i have DSL, the forum attachment size limit is 4MB, i'm not english and i can understand well the things in all cases and i don't want to use my shift key, any problems?

@pthompson1983: yes, that would be really cool if can be implemented, maybe in grf without changing the code, but when i modified the elrail code to add the transparency i think i found that most catenary behaviour seem to be hardcoded, like always on left side of the track if the row is in odd tile or right side if row is in even tile

EDIT: this is what i mean (look at the central tiles, not the edges)

[pthompson1983]

Thanks to all those positive replies, it's answered my question - and not thanks to those individuals who seem to have certain, shall we say, "attitude deficiencies" towards new posters and members; I'll keep suggestions and ideas to myself in future!!!

[DaleStan]

No, just toward the ones (new or not) who can't find the documentation or the right forum, or who use completely wrong names. (If I, however briefly, think you're suggesting something that was done years ago, there's a problem with your post.)

And no, Rich, I don't know what they are officially called. Hence why I backed off after you quoted me. (Before I saw your post, even.) But just about anything involving the word "supports" would work just fine.

[AntBUK]

Nothing like getting in to the full on technical stuff. Gantries and Catenaries is about all I need to know or care to know.

I like the idea of gantries spanning the line, maybe even put signals on it well. It's going to be a pain for whoever makes a patch I reckon.

[Ben_K]

Hello Pthompson,

I could knock together some graphics but my skills are limited to paint (as the screenshot will prove!).

Firstly, many of the artists here actually use paint for their work. Its pixel art, so all you need is a palette of colour and a 1 pixel 'pen' and you can create it. Secondly, that picture you did isn't all that bad. Id recommend getting back into paint and getting into some new graphics...

As for the trolls, Dalestan is a known pain. Unless he talks about NFO (in which he is the expert), most of us ignore him. Michael isn't as bad and is excellent when it comes to graphic work. He's obviously in a bad mood today. What he means is, and for future reference, please use a PNG file to post pictures. They are smaller and are better detailled for TTD pictures.

[Timitry]

I think this would be a nice feature, it looks really cool in your picture...
However, how do you think it will look like if there are more than 2 parallel tracks?

[Ben_K]

I guess the odd track would have 'normal' catenaries like we have now. Its a bit like the old way stations worked in TTD.

[michael blunck]

Michael isn't as bad and is excellent when it comes to graphic work. He's obviously in a bad mood today. What he means is, and for future reference, please use a PNG file to post pictures.

Nope, apart from the JPEG/PNG discussion, my main point was that strange behaviour of people showing constantly 1024 x 768 px screenshots (or even bigger) if the real thing they´re talking about could be shown by a 100 x 200 px section as well (or even better!). There are free graphics´ programs (like irfanview) that may be used for this.

regards
Michael

[CARST]

But not everyone out there knows about such programs. You know them, some others know them, i know them, but most people aren't that much into computer stuff, they just visit that website and download the binaries. Then they visit the forum if they encouter a problem or have an idea; same goes for me, too.

So perhaps it would be better to make your point clear and provide a link with the program instead of acting so "angry".


irfanview:
http://www.irfanview.net/

google picasa:
http://picasa.google.com/

[Ben_K]

...my main point was that strange behaviour of people showing constantly 1024 x 768 px screenshots (or even bigger) if the real thing they´re talking about could be shown by a 100 x 200 px section...

Ah, then I apologise, and I wholeheartedly agree with that point.

[NukeBuster]

Perhaps the gantries could also cover 3 or more tracks? Although how would you do that with grfs?