Pathfinder penalty for road vehicles (r17469)

[Roujin]

This is not exactly a new patch, but one I made some time ago that never got much attention. I didn't make an own thread for it back then, so I'm catching up with that now.

Newest version: r17469

The newest version works with both NPF and YAPF as pathfinder for road vehicles.
If you want to customize the settings (e.g. via console), they are named as follows:
for NPF: pf.npf.npf_road_vehicle_penalty
for YAPF: pf.yapf.road_vehicle_penalty

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Older versions:
r17455
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Description:
What does it do?
In technical terms, it adds a new pathfinder penalty to YAPF (note: current version also NPF) that applies to all tiles that have a roadvehicle on them which goes in the same direction as the planned path of the currently pathfinding vehicle.
In simple terms, it makes vehicles avoid routes where there already are vehicles. This means that if there are multiple routes with roughly the same distance available, the vehicle will choose the one with less traffic.

Here's an example:
It's a simple sort-of-highway (only that the lanes are not LLRR but LRLR), and as you can see some vehicles are using the left, some the right lane, despite having the same destination.

yapf_vehicle_penalty.png (89.07 KiB) Viewed 5339 times

I hope some of you will enjoy this patch. I'd say it's 50-50 eyecandy and useful. Eyecandy because it (hopefully) makes traffic look more natural; useful because it might help avoid some congestions if a fleet of buses with the same orders won't always take one specific, predetermined path, but diversify a bit...

[petert]

So its something like this (I'm not sure):

This train picks the path with less traffic instead of waiting until the first path is open, may have been glitched because trains have no orders

[Roujin]

Uhm, I wrote "road vehicles" in several places, most noticeable in the title of this thread. How come you're expecting this patch to do anything on trains?

[petert]

I was simply suggesting that trains already preform the same feature, and comparing this patch to the behavior of trains.

Not the reaction I was aiming for.

[Zephyris]

Mmm, like it, does it produce noticeable differences in towns? Is there any significant performance hit? And does it take into account trams?

[Terkhen]

This seems very useful. A road vehicle that is loading/unloading in a drive through station in the same direction than the current vehicle gives penalties too?. I think that could help with the problem reported at FS#1944.

Edit: Another question... why do you increment SAVEGAME_VERSION to 200 instead of by 1?. And in the SDT_CONDVAR you use 100 instead of 200.

[pavel1269]

This seems very useful. A road vehicle that is loading/unloading in a drive through station in the same direction than the current vehicle gives penalties too?. I think that could help with the problem reported at FS#1944.

It should, as there is another a route, with less traffic

Looks very promising

[Roujin]

Mmm, like it, does it produce noticeable differences in towns?

Probably depends on the value you set it to. Choose a high value and your vehicle will take any detour if it sees another vehicle in front of it (shy vehicle )

Is there any significant performance hit?

Good question. I haven't done any big-scale tests with the patch. In theory, it shouldn't be too bad - iirc YAPF doesn't run continuously, but only when needed (e.g. on a crossing where the vehicle could take different routes). Then, I'm using the existing check VehicleFromPos on each tile the pf walks - it kind of depends on how well this function works. It's not working naively, but using some sort of hash, so I assume it's more or less efficient.
If anyone makes a big-scale game with this and notices performance hits (outside the usual), please inform me

And does it take into account trams?

Not tested, but it should.
edit: tested, works like a charm see attached savegame

yapf_vehicle tram test.sav

(40.53 KiB) Downloaded 129 times

This seems very useful. A road vehicle that is loading/unloading in a drive through station in the same direction than the current vehicle gives penalties too?. I think that could help with the problem reported at FS#1944.

The cost is calculated for road stops too, so it should work. However, I do not know the details of the mentioned problem - maybe my patch helps, maybe not. But please see for yourself, if it does help "accidentally", that's fine

Edit: Another question... why do you increment SAVEGAME_VERSION to 200 instead of by 1?. And in the SDT_CONDVAR you use 100 instead of 200.

The first one - well, why not. Saves me from changing it every time trunk bumps. Of course if it were to be included to trunk, I'd change it to +1 instead.
The second one is a bug, thanks for noticing. Will fix soon.
PS: I made this last mistake (not updating saveload properly) on all three patches of mine I updated yesterday night. Gah

[Roujin]

Here is a new version for r17455.

yapf_vehicle_penalty_r17455.diff

vehicle penalty for r17455

(5.3 KiB) Downloaded 143 times

Fix: Loading trunk games. (thanks Terkhen)

[Terkhen]

This seems very useful. A road vehicle that is loading/unloading in a drive through station in the same direction than the current vehicle gives penalties too?. I think that could help with the problem reported at FS#1944.

The cost is calculated for road stops too, so it should work. However, I do not know the details of the mentioned problem - if vehicles ignore penalties on going to road stops and just take the closest part they can find, my patch won't be of any help. But please see for yourself, if it does help "accidentally", that's fine

The drive-through stop problem is *almost* completely solved with this patch. The real problem remains, but since road vehicles tend to choose empty stops they seem to work way better. I will do more serious tests later, but I don't remember being able to put 200 coal trucks between two maximum sized road stops in a 128x128 scenario

[Gedemon]

I was thinking of something like that yesterday while looking at my buses bloked by a full loading AI, this one will be very usefull

[2007Alain2007]

Dose it work with all path finders or just YAPF?

[Roujin]

Currently only YAPF is supported.

Which pathfinder are you using? A different one?
Is there a good reason not to use YAPF (for road vehicles)?

[petert]

Some cool screenshots from how this great patch works:

[Roujin]

Anyway, here's a new version (for r17469) that also works with NPF. Beware that npf got its own setting, not shared with the one from YAPF.

Note: This version works with both NPF and YAPF, despite the name

yapf_vehicle_penalty_r17469.diff

vehicle penalty for r17469

(7.31 KiB) Downloaded 152 times

[2007Alain2007]

I just askinged about it becuse a patch has to keep all settings in the game working

I did not know if it would break/ not work at all

Thank you very much

[Roujin]

I see. Well I think regarding pathfinders this is not necessarily a must - there are already things in trunk that only work with YAPF, not NPF (nor original PF). But in any case now my patch works with both YAPF and NPF (sh... I just noticed I named the patch "yapf_...", that's a misnomer).

I think YAPF and NPF should suffice. Original PF is strongly discouraged to use anyway. And I don't know at all how it works and if it's even possible to apply any penalties or such.

[2007Alain2007]

Thank now all we need for roads is to make 1way roads use both sides but that would be a patch in its own

[petert]

Thank now all we need for roads is to make 1way roads use both sides but that would be a patch in its own

Such a patch exists.

[Terkhen]

He means that in a one way road, vehicles only use one side of the road, leaving the other only to overtake vehicles. This patch allows vehicles to choose between different roads, but they still only use one side of the road.