Build a Locomotion clone from Open TTD source code

[Mainline421]

Build a Locomotion clone from Open TTD source code there have been a lot of posts recently about Loco clones

There are a lot of problems in LOCO,
for example, there is no automatic system to refresh the old trains with new ones.
also, it is very hard to manage the lines after there are more 100 or even 1000 lines in the map.
and etc.
since the development of LOCO is stopped, so i am thinking to make a new engine by ourselves.
or if with enough developers, we can even make the graphics and musics ourselves.

if you are interested in this program, please contact me and tell me what you can do. Even if you can't write code or draw graphics, you are also welcomed if you can give some useful advises!

my e-mail is REMOVED
later, i will post the whole plan.

Correct, so start making a clone like openttd

Maybe, You can try to start from current OpenTTD code, It would be easier than starting from zero, but the game must be licensed as GPL (free license).

For example, You can start adding a map array based on Locomotion 3D space.

Yet for some reason all topics above seem to have been abandoned. Loads of stuff needs improving although I must disagree with the 1st post and do not think there should be a system to refresh old trains with new ones. I do not know C, C++ or C# so I can not do any coding but I don't want to be the leader of this project and I could probably create some graphics and help with other aspects of completing the game if you are interested in this project please post here. The only reason I am posting this is to make this project start.

[Illegal_Alien]

Hmm, getting a dejavu.

Another "I want a Locomotion clone but i cant do anything."

[Leanden]

You want to be the leader of this project yet know nothing about coding. Good luck with that. If you want to get people on board, it may be worth starting with some knowlege and work of your own before trying to bring people into the fold. Also you may notice that the OpenTTD project doesnt have a "leader", it is completely community driven with no single person dictating all the progress.

I think you really have the wrong idea with this, unless you plan to pay people to code for you, you won't get far im afraid.

[Alberth]

I am feeling very generous today, so I offer you my current GPL-licensed code base of FreeRCT (see at freerct.org as well as at google code).
It doesn't do a lot yet, which means it is a pretty clean base to start from.

I will continue to build towards the goal of FreeRCT. I don't know if code development can be shared, but it may be useful.

Albert

[Mainline421]

You want to be the leader of this project yet know nothing about coding. Good luck with that. If you want to get people on board, it may be worth starting with some knowlege and work of your own before trying to bring people into the fold. Also you may notice that the OpenTTD project doesnt have a "leader", it is completely community driven with no single person dictating all the progress.

I think you really have the wrong idea with this, unless you plan to pay people to code for you, you won't get far im afraid.

I thinkyou will find the 1st post says

but I don't want to be the leader of this project .

Hmm, getting a dejavu.
Another "I want a Locomotion clone but i cant do anything."

I can do a lot to create the game especially graphics and the stuff listed here http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=45734&tab=credits excluding music and a lot of the stuff this game would not need also I can probably learn some basic coding before the game is finished. I already know basic java script and CSS so I am not new to programing.
I know a lot about coding just not in C, C++ or C#. Also Thank for pointing out that OpenTTD is completely community driven.

I am feeling very generous today, so I offer you my current GPL-licensed code base of FreeRCT (see at freerct.org as well as at google code).
It doesn't do a lot yet, which means it is a pretty clean base to start from.

I will continue to build towards the goal of FreeRCT. I don't know if code development can be shared, but it may be useful.

Albert

Finally a relevant post also that might be very useful as you are an OpenTTD Developer I am assuming the codes will be quite similar? it looks very useful as RCT2 and loco have some of the same code everything that has been posted on the blog so far looks useful, but of course I am assuming this will change soon.

[Illegal_Alien]

The point is graphics are not the problem; finding people who want to code it are. I do know some coding languages but not enough to make a Locomotion clone. (Would have done that by now.)

Javascript and CSS wont get you far with making a game.

Also Locomotion does not have such strong community as OpenTTD and TTDPatch. Wich makes it even more difficult.

[Mainline421]

The point is graphics are not the problem; finding people who want to code it are. I do know some coding languages but not enough to make a Locomotion clone. (Would have done that by now.)

Javascript and CSS wont get you far with making a game.

Also Locomotion does not have such strong community as OpenTTD and TTDPatch. Wich makes it even more difficult.

Well obviously CSS wont get you far JavaScript could but it would take a lot longer. With OpenTTD source and some Free RCT code it shouldn't take much coding maby some people from the OpenTTD community would be interested not very many I think If you do know some coding languages maby you could help with the project at least?

[Alberth]

it shouldn't take much coding

LOL

I have been busy for 3 months, and I can just draw a surface, rotate it, and have a window with 2 buttons (which are currently non-clickable). I have done nothing w.r.t. to the real game, just busy building supporting infra structure (mouse handling, display, windows, widget trees). I still miss lots of very basic stuff, eg save a file, dates in a year, messages to the user, etc etc.

So far, I am mostly at familiar ground; a tile engine is not so hard (this is the 3rd one, I think), and the gui system, well, I have done a similar design in OpenTTD already
Slowly, I will leave the familiar stuff, and do new things, like animation, and 'mood' of visitors. Getting coasters to move will also be a new one for me.

Coding will slow down heavily, I expect.
(Assuming I don't grow tired of it, do something wrong, or get stuck.)

I am not even thinking when it will be finished, ask again in a year or so

[Kogut]

JavaScript could but it would take a lot longer

[Mainline421]

it shouldn't take much coding

LOL

I have been busy for 3 months, and I can just draw a surface, rotate it, and have a window with 2 buttons (which are currently non-clickable). I have done nothing w.r.t. to the real game, just busy building supporting infra structure (mouse handling, display, windows, widget trees). I still miss lots of very basic stuff, eg save a file, dates in a year, messages to the user, etc etc.

So far, I am mostly at familiar ground; a tile engine is not so hard (this is the 3rd one, I think), and the gui system, well, I have done a similar design in OpenTTD already
Slowly, I will leave the familiar stuff, and do new things, like animation, and 'mood' of visitors. Getting coasters to move will also be a new one for me.

Coding will slow down heavily, I expect.
(Assuming I don't grow tired of it, do something wrong, or get stuck.)

I am not even thinking when it will be finished, ask again in a year or so

When it come to coding entire games it shouldn't take much coding means and about 2 Years LOL I should have explained that more clearly even I know that and I never coded that much looking at Chris Sawyer games and that's about long as it should take

[ChillCore]

I think you are greatly underestimating the time it will take ...

However I disagree with Illegal_Alien about JavaScript not taking you far.
When I started messing with OpenTTD I only had hands-on experience with BASIC, JavaScript and HTML/DHTML ... and then still, only the basics.
I have read a lot of books on different programming languages and, apart from syntax and a few functionalities here and there, they all look the same.
Anyway what I wanted to say is once you are familiar with one or the other programming language it becomes easier to learn a new one.

The biggest differences (yes there are a lot more) between JavaScript and C++ is that C++ has to be compiled and you can not get away with not declaring variables . (read: Declaring variables before usage will not be taken care of internally like with JavaScript; nor will the memory these variables need be adjusted "on the fly".)

I have learned a lot of new things over the past few years and the most important is that one just has to get cracking and make mistakes to make progress.

[maquinista]

I can help with some graphics, but if no one of us can adapt the code of OpenTTD.... that's the problem.

Some months ago, I have tried this experiment:

It's only a experiment, without vehicles, without players, without.... only It has a road builder and a landscape editor, and It wasn't easy for me.

[Alberth]

Well, there is only one solution for that; just start.

The problem is that you (and others too here, it seems) see the final product as the goal. It is not. The journey to it is the goal.

If you enjoy learning this sort of stuff, lack of knowledge is no issue and time is no issue either.



Now, please write me a nice lomo clone with free graphics, so I finally play the game
(Just kidding)

[Hyronymus]

Am I the only person who wonders why anyone would clone Locomotion and put a lot of effort in that rather than joining the OpenTTD effort? OpenTTD already has far more features than Locomotion, why reinvent the wheel?

[Illegal_Alien]

Yes you are as Locomotion players are proud of the game. and would otherwise play OpenTTD. (Mostly the looks of Locomotion; OpenTTD is still blocky cornering, even though there is that 32bit project; Best thing would be OpenTTD with the looks of Locomotion and you will have a win-win situation.

[IANF]

i think open TTD is too complicated compared to locomotion

[maquinista]

Am I the only person who wonders why anyone would clone Locomotion and put a lot of effort in that rather than joining the OpenTTD effort? OpenTTD already has far more features than Locomotion, why reinvent the wheel?

It is not a another wheel, It is a different wheel.

I like Locomotion because I like its railways, trains aren't limited to 12.5m, they have a realistic braking and You can have realistic tracks. Also, Locomotion has some disadvantages, like Spaghetti tracks or "too step" hills. Also, Locomotion doesn't allow a big variety of elements.

I like the two games.

[planetmaker]

Am I the only person who wonders why anyone would clone Locomotion and put a lot of effort in that rather than joining the OpenTTD effort? OpenTTD already has far more features than Locomotion, why reinvent the wheel?

It is not a another wheel, It is a different wheel.

I like Locomotion because I like its railways, trains aren't limited to 12.5m, they have a realistic braking and You can have realistic tracks. Also, Locomotion has some disadvantages, like Spaghetti tracks or "too step" hills. Also, Locomotion doesn't allow a big variety of elements.

I like the two games.

All this certainly is something where OpenTTD can be improved or have amendments to allow that, too. But those are actually rather minor things compared to writing a game from scratch. They'd not be small things to add to OpenTTD, but still they'd be patches or patch queues comparable to the introduction of, say, path signals or the NoAI framework. A person dedicated to implementing either of it, can succeed in reasonable time. One step towards it would probably to make the whole map thing more flexible, though, but there are attempts.
- Advanced Map Array
With such new map, one could much easier also tackle things like smoother curves or cliffs as some of the constructions you show would need - though the smooth tracks do not necessarily depend on it - it will be quite some work this or that way.
- Smooth curves. Maybe as state machines for vehicles.
- Diagonal roads

Wrt graphics: Personally I'd highly welcome, if an attempt would be made to make (also) LoMo style graphics compatible to OpenTTD. After all, one of the advantages of this game is, that it allows you to freely choose and combine different graphics. Of course they can be different style. And with the extra zoom not at least partially in trunk: it will be very welcome to get finally(!) a complete 32bpp base set. In normal zoom and also in 2x and maybe 4x zoom. I might say too much as it's not my patches nor work, but I currently expect to have support for specific graphics for the zoom-in levels within the next year, thus a good time to actually get a consistent set of 32bpp graphics done.
- 32 bpp graphics
- Vehicles with more rotation views (see e.g. CETS)

If the interface / the user menu is too complicated due to too many options and settings: maybe. But also that is something which can be worked on. IMHO should be worked on.
- Improve GUI, esp. make settings handling easier
- Streamline new game creation

So, in any case, from my judgement, the work to add these "missing" features to OpenTTD will be MUCH less work than writing a completely new game. But it needs someone to make them their priority - which it would need either way. Contributions will always be very welcome. There's always much to do , I highlighted a few tasks which I personally would see very useful and feasible, given your list

[Mainline421]

I think you are greatly underestimating the time it will take ...

However I disagree with Illegal_Alien about JavaScript not taking you far.
When I started messing with OpenTTD I only had hands-on experience with BASIC, JavaScript and HTML/DHTML ... and then still, only the basics.
I have read a lot of books on different programming languages and, apart from syntax and a few functionalities here and there, they all look the same.
Anyway what I wanted to say is once you are familiar with one or the other programming language it becomes easier to learn a new one.

The biggest differences (yes there are a lot more) between JavaScript and C++ is that C++ has to be compiled and you can not get away with not declaring variables . (read: Declaring variables before usage will not be taken care of internally like with JavaScript; nor will the memory these variables need be adjusted "on the fly".)

I have learned a lot of new things over the past few years and the most important is that one just has to get cracking and make mistakes to make progress.

I am glad you got the point about javascript as you said the point was all programing languages seem to be similar. The reason it will only take about 2 years is because we are making from the OpenTTD source code and maby some FreeRCT depending on how compatible with OpenTTD it is.

I can help with some graphics, but if no one of us can adapt the code of OpenTTD.... that's the problem.

Some months ago, I have tried this experiment:

It's only a experiment, without vehicles, without players, without.... only It has a road builder and a landscape editor, and It wasn't easy for me.

It would still be very helpful if you helped code the game you seem to know more about coding then anyone Else on this topic. Hopefully when Someone on this thread makes some progress towards this game other people will want to code.

Well, there is only one solution for that; just start.

The problem is that you (and others too here, it seems) see the final product as the goal. It is not. The journey to it is the goal.

If you enjoy learning this sort of stuff, lack of knowledge is no issue and time is no issue either.



Now, please write me a nice lomo clone with free graphics, so I finally play the game
(Just kidding)

I do completely agree Tomorrow I will start attempting to make some very basic changes to the OpenTTD source code.

Am I the only person who wonders why anyone would clone Locomotion and put a lot of effort in that rather than joining the OpenTTD effort? OpenTTD already has far more features than Locomotion, why reinvent the wheel?

I do not plan to remove all the extra features there are a lot of things in Locomotion that are better than OpenTTD maquinista has explained some stuff well.

i think open TTD is too complicated compared to locomotion

If this Loco clone is ever made it will not be much simpler than OpenTTD although it will be simpler I do not see the point in removing loads of OpenTTD features but if everyone else in the project want to make it simpler it will be but personally I would keep the extra features.
@maquinista If this game is ever made it will take the good stuff from Loco and OpenTTD.

If there is anything anyone could do for this project (especially coding) please can we start very soon rather than just talking about about what we are going to do I have already mentioned that Tomorrow I will start attempting to make some very basic changes to the OpenTTD source code. Also what should bedifferent from Loco due to Copyright?

[maquinista]

IMHO the best idea is to create a fork from OpenTTD, call it with a different name and modify or add features.
At the end, We will have two games: OpenLocomotion and OpenTTD.