Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Discuss the free TT-like game Simutrans.
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

There was a bug in the city list. Mouse clicks on the later entries in the list selected the wrong cities or none at all. I've released an update with a fix for this problem:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... ate-r025a/
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

I've changed the depot window layout. It's wider now, and less high. It always open at the top border of the window, but below the toolbar. Maybe I'll try to make it open over the toolbar, but the current window code forbids that.

The idea is, that after opening the depot window, often the next step is to enter a schedule and one wants to see as much of the map for that as possible.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... est-r025b/

Please try it and let me know how it works. This is just a test, and it most likely doesn't work well with pak sizes of 128 and larger. If the layout works well, I'll make it usable also with larger paks.
Attachments
depot_wide.png
depot_wide.png (13.02 KiB) Viewed 19991 times
depot_wide_full.png
depot_wide_full.png (56.31 KiB) Viewed 19991 times
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

I've polished the new depot window some more and uploaded a new version with the latest changes to Sourceforge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... Bite/r026/

I hope the new depot window works reasonably well, at least for the bundled pak sets.
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

There was a bug in the character buffer class (bug introduced by myself in r025), which lead to crashes, sooner or later in the game.

I've uploaded a fixed version:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... 6a-bugfix/
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

After another report of problems I found two more bugs in the character buffer code.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... 6b-bugfix/

I hope this version will work better than the last two.
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

Incredible how many mistake one can make in a small part of the code. I found another one in the character buffer code, which could lead to a program crash. A fixed version is now available from Sourceforge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... 6c-bugfix/

It also contains a small bugfix for the depot dialog, which opened not tall enough with pak48.Execntrique.
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

Simutrans Iron Bite r027 features a freshened help window, and the option to move dialogs all to the top of the window/screen, even over the toolbar. This allows e.g. the new depot dialog to be opened even higher and leave more of the map visible for entering vehicle schedules, which should be very handy.

Download:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... Bite/r027/

... and if you use a big window size, so that the main toolbar width is less than the window size, you can see some more of the map right of it ;)
Attachments
help_frame.png
help_frame.png (29.39 KiB) Viewed 19279 times
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

There have been bugs in the processing of umlauts, and the German help files caused the program to go into an endless loop (freeze up, but use a lot of CPU).

I found a number of places in the code which were not 8 bit safe, and fixed them. There might be more, but the German help files seem to work now.

Download, r027a:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... Bite/r027/

Edit: I've also changed the link color, and bullet type for the index.
Attachments
help_frame_de.png
help_frame_de.png (34.56 KiB) Viewed 19146 times
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

I found a number of bugs in the various lists (Station list, factory list ...) which have been fixed, and the station list got a new feature - if one clicks left of the station name in the list, the map is centered on the station. If one clicks the station name itself, the info dialog of the station will be opened (this was the old behavior, the jump to the station is new).

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... Bite/r028/

Also, the lists open now all to the left, to obstruct as little as possible of the map display.
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

I found out how to make fonts for Simutrans, and started to make a new one right away. That surely was the quickest font that I made so far, in less than two hours :D It needs some more detail work (if I am going to use it at all for official releases), but it seemed to be good enough for a preview:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... t-preview/
Attachments
font_1.png
font_1.png (162.22 KiB) Viewed 18793 times
font_2.png
font_2.png (22.12 KiB) Viewed 18793 times
font_3.png
font_3.png (12.05 KiB) Viewed 18793 times
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

I've attached a slightly improved version of the font. The unpacked file needs to be moved into the "font" directory of the Simutrans installation. I needed to open a new posting, 3 files were the limit for the former message.
Attachments
Prop-Latin1-11.zip
(2.97 KiB) Downloaded 325 times
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

I could improve the new font some more, and also found a number of smaller U quirks which was able to iron out. This release has a big number of small changes, but nothing strikingly new:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... Bite/r029/

pak64 now uses the old font, pak64.Crisp and pak48.Excentrique use the new font. I still feel uncertain if the new font is good for a game like Simutrans so I left both in the bundle to let players compare and choose on their own.

One of the more notable changes is that the vehicle list got "goto" buttons now which center the map view on the vehicle, and in some of the info windows value labels and fields now got different colors to set them better apart.

Edit:

Fixed a bigger bug that could cause an almost endless loop, and a smaller one, if the depot window was moved horizontally, parts of the depot text didn't move with it.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsi ... fix-r029a/
Attachments
info_1.png
info_1.png (9.88 KiB) Viewed 18674 times
info_2.png
info_2.png (11.71 KiB) Viewed 18674 times
vehicle_list.png
vehicle_list.png (9.47 KiB) Viewed 18674 times
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

A new version made it to Sourceforge!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... Bite/r030/

- Fixed vehicle list, also in the line manager
- Fixed station details dialog (I had broken both of them in r029 with my changes ...)
- A new new font
(The old font is still bundled, but it needs to be renamed if it is to be used. Default is now "varka-medium-latin-1-11.bdf")
- Some fine tuning for some object info dialogs
- Some minor changes for the city info dialog

The new font is stronger than the former version, but not as smooth. It's difficult to design a font with a width of something in between one and two pixels. I guess this "new" font also isn't final and I'll keep working on it.
Attachments
font-medium.png
font-medium.png (87.7 KiB) Viewed 18621 times
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

I still keep doing way too many mistakes even with simple C++ code. I'm trying to focus on bug fixes now, and to wait with adding new features until I have a more stable code base.

r031a got a number of bug fixes, so if you want to try Simutrans Iron Bite it might be a good idea to start with r031a:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... fix-r031a/
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

I've been working some more on the object info windows, and published a new version with some improvements:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... Bite/r032/

Roads, rails and the like can now get multi-line description texts with a headline too, and the numerical object info got some better formatting as well.

Edit: Ack, a typo in one of the examples, and a bad sentence structure in the other ... too late for this release to be fixed, but will be corrected in the next version.
Attachments
power_trail.png
power_trail.png (12.07 KiB) Viewed 18529 times
starleaf.png
starleaf.png (8.61 KiB) Viewed 18529 times
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
oberhümer
Tycoon
Tycoon
Posts: 1283
Joined: 23 Oct 2009 19:35
Location: Here and there, sometime or another

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by oberhümer »

Frankly, I don't think the new font has improved anything. The old(est) one is easier to read, if a bit thick (the new one is oddly uneven), and seems a better fit for a transport theme. Your other work looks fine, though I haven't played it yet.
--- Licenses: GNU LGPL, version 2 or newer, code and graphics. CC-By-SA, graphics, alternatively. If you're using any, I'd like to hear about it --- Call them "track types" ---
--- Mostly inactive developer for: NuTracks - Central European Train Set --- Running/compiling for: Linux (x86) - Android - Windows (32/64 bit) ---

--- Need a file packer? 7-Zip --- BOINC - use your computing power to benefit science --- Block trackers, not ads --- Unix in dispersible pellets, the formula for the future. ---
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

I'm still very uncertain about the font, too. The r032 bundle has the old (bold) font still included. I thought I had configured it for pak64, as it was all the time in Simutrans, but now that I checked, I see that I haven't ...

If you open pak48.Excentrique/text/en.tab with a text editor, you will see these lines near the top of the file:

Code: Select all

PROP_FONT_FILE
varka-medium-latin-1-11.bdf
Replace them with these, and you have the old font for pak48.Excentrique:

Code: Select all

PROP_FONT_FILE
Prop-Latin1.bdf
This works also for pak64, just the file to change is pak64/text/en.tab, and it misses the lines completely. Still, you can add them all on top, even before the header comment, and it should work.

Some day I assume there will need to be a setup tool to configure player preferences like font, colors and such more easily.

Thanks for the feedback, it helps to get opinions like these so I can better adjust my work :)

Edit:

I wanted to fix the bugs and quirks that I noticed today, even if they are small ...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... ing-r032a/

- Fixed English starleaf plant text.
- Fixed English power trail text.
- pak64 and pak64.Crisp now have the old, bold, font again.
- pak48.Excentrique uses the new font, it's crazy enough to have a crazy font, too :P

There had been occasional cases of program freezes, which I could never reproduce on purpose, but happened randomly and very rarely, like once in two hours. I have made some program changes since the r032, to work around these, but since they happened so seldom, I can't say for sure if they are gone. Please, if you run into program freezes again with r032a, let me know.
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

The latest r032b release finally seems to have that dreaded endless lop problem fixed, so I went on with a mix of bug fixes, some minor new features, more description texts and some new graphical elements for pak48.Excentrique. Finally I bundled everything and called it r033 :wink:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsim ... Bite/r033/

I've added some sea and undersea elements that I had draw some time ago when I was aimlessly bored, just to make use of them and since they seemed to fit. But I have a problem - I can't figure out a proper translation of the "pipeworm" thingies that look a bit like palm trees there near the shore.

A real photo of such as reference:

http://www.geo.de/reisen/community/bild ... renwuermer

Does someone know their English name?

Edit: Now I forgot to mention - the "music industry" chain in pak48.Ecxentrique should be better balanced now in term of productivity of the factories in the chain.
Attachments
sea_shore_deco.jpg
sea_shore_deco.jpg (111.21 KiB) Viewed 18459 times
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Alberth
OpenTTD Developer
OpenTTD Developer
Posts: 4763
Joined: 09 Sep 2007 05:03
Location: home

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Alberth »

Google gave me http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/deutsch-engl ... Crmer.html which says "feather duster worms"
which Google then gave me several pictures, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabellidae
Varkaleas
Engineer
Engineer
Posts: 86
Joined: 16 Apr 2012 08:38

Re: Working on a nicer UI for Simutrans

Post by Varkaleas »

Feather duster worms! Cool name, and thanks for the links and pointers :)
Working on a Simutrans fork with a nicer UI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ironsimu/
Post Reply

Return to “Simutrans”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests