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NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 09:17
by one billion daleks
This GRF replaces the default green oneway arrows with white arrows.
These arrows are drawn to match the UK Roadset.
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 09:35
by Zephyris
Nice little grf, something i have wanted to do for some time! The perspective on the arrow does look slightly off though, anc could be a bit brighter...
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 09:49
by one billion daleks
Cheers Zephyris!
Yes, it was darned tricky trying to align the arrowhead with the centre-line!
There's only 3 pixels to play with when creating the point of the arrow, and I'm no graphic artist I'm afraid!
If I aligned the arrowhead correctly, then it ended up out-of-alignment with the 'stem' of the arrow.
Otherwise it ends up slightly above or slightly below the centre-line ... bugger!
You tend to see the same effect with those radioactive green blobs used by the game
But if someone with superior graphics skills would like to volunteer at having go at improving on my attempt, I'm happy to post the PCX file.
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 09:51
by LordAzamath
Yes the angle is wrong...
On the other hand.. nice grf.. (You still don't use png's for screenies

)
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 10:03
by one billion daleks
Yes you're right lordazamath, the angle could be better ... but I was working with an area of about 6x8 pixels - if I changed the angle the whole arrow got narrower and longer and just stopped looking like an arrow.
Hey, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
And I did create a PNG image, but it was 27kb - so the JPG was actually smaller for a change!

Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 10:08
by Zephyris
even if the file size is larger png is better for reviewing gfx.
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 10:16
by LordAzamath
.. and file size isn't larger.. I guess you used some funky program

.. This is w/o compressing made with GIMP.. A png screenshot..
But I agree, you should add more contrast if you want it to be used on other road types too..
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 10:42
by FooBar
one billion daleks wrote:And I did create a PNG image, but it was 27kb - so the JPG was actually smaller for a change!

Try saving to png-8 with indexed colours, instead of the unindexed png-24 (which I think you're using).
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 10:56
by one billion daleks
Yes lordazamath, I am using a cruddy freeware download that apparently inflates PNG files!
Thanks for that isometric arrow Zephyris ... that's just a simple inverted pyramid with a stem sticking out of it. So you'd think that would be pretty easy to duplicate, but when I create one (with a 5-pixel base), once it's scaled down it just looks askew! This is the same problem I had with my arrows ... I expect it's dead easy to fix if you know how, but I'm totally ignorant on this graphic design stuff!
EDIT: OK, I think I just figured it out ... fingers crossed!
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 11:14
by Zephyris
Thats better, but please use pngs, its so much easier to see whats going on, even if the file size is larger...
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 11:32
by one billion daleks
OK, thanks for that isometric arrow Zephyris ... I've now implemented that one in the GRF on post #1.
I think the grayscales may need a bit of work, but the basic idea looks better with that arrow
Yes, I will use PNGs when I've found a compact freeware graphics program that handles them ... I will also have to find a new screengrabber, as I currently use ScreenHunter, and that only creates JPGs or BMPs unfortunately.
Thank Q!
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 11:43
by LordAzamath
You can use Gimp for example.. Irfanview can convert between bmp and png.. And I don't know of older paints, are they capable of making pngs but the one what came vith vista, can do it..
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 15 Jan 2008 11:44
by Zephyris
I reccomend paint.net (with a pcx plugin) or ms paint...
Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 20 Jan 2008 15:31
by glx
one billion daleks wrote:I will also have to find a new screengrabber, as I currently use ScreenHunter, and that only creates JPGs or BMPs unfortunately.
Try pressing ctrl-S in OpenTTD

Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 21 Jan 2008 00:06
by one billion daleks
Thanks for that tip glx

... it's great to see developers provide helpful advice using a High-Level Language like plain English!
Though actually, I am already familiar with Ctrl-S ... what I was looking for was a utility that would let me grab just the relevent portion of the screenshot, like the JPG grab in post #1.
I've since discovered some freeware called EasyCapture, which creates PNG grabs ... plus it provides tools to add cursors, arrows and, transparent speech-bubbles to your grabs too! So I shall be having some fun with that in due course
Cheers though!

Re: NewGRF: Oneway Roads UK
Posted: 27 Jan 2008 14:34
by glx
You can crop the ctrl-s screenshot with any image editor. You can also add arrows, or anything with the editor.