Empty Airport V0.1 (released 26 oktober 2016)

[Quast65]

Empty Airport V0.1

Empty_Airport_Preview_Small.png (808.51 KiB) Viewed 4005 times

As you may or may not know, a while ago I have made an object-set with fake airport tiles:
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=73075

In my personal games I had altered the "normal" airport graphics in such a way that they match those object graphics.
For that I had used several GRF's, but I managed to bundle them into one single GRF.

For now, I will release it only here and not yet on Bananas, as I would like to get some feedback on it and maybe some suggestions.
If there arent any major issues other than the ones mentioned a bit further on, I will also release it on Bananas.

Here is the GRF:

emptyairport_v0_1.grf

(18.51 KiB) Downloaded 228 times

Sources (NFO & PNG):

EmptyAirport_v0_1_sources.rar

(7.94 KiB) Downloaded 114 times

Known issues:
- Transmitter
- Refinery Building
- Hangar
- Glitches/overlaps
- Not compatible with OpenGFX+Airports (rotated airports)
In the next post(s) I will discuss these issues (as in some cases they need some pictures and I cant add any more attachments in this post ).

Enjoy!!

[Quast65]

Issues:

- Transmitter
All transmitters will be replaced with an empty concrete tile

- Refinery Building
This building in the red circle will be replaced by an empty concrete tile, as this building is used as well in airports as in refineries:

Empty_Airport_Refinery_Issue.png (26.71 KiB) Viewed 4000 times

- Hangar
The aim of this GRF is to have airports without any buildings. So also without hangars.
I have replaced those with a yellow "parkingspot", so that they can still easily be found.
This does mean that planes going in or out of a hangar will suddenly dissappear.
Suggestions for a better solution are very welcome!!

- Glitches/overlaps
As you can see, some runways stick out a bit. This is caused by an overlapping tile.
In some cases (mainly the intercontinental airport) the airports dont have a runway that ends at the end of the airport (some have a concrete tile or a radar there).
I needed to overlap those and did this by changing this tile with an overlapping tile:

Empty_Airport_Overlap_Issue.png (75.89 KiB) Viewed 4000 times

However that tile is also used in other places, that is why it sticks out at some places
The overlap may also glitch, use matching object tiles to minimize the glitching.

- Not compatible with OpenGFX+Airports (rotated airports)
The OpenGFX+Airports GRF mostly has its own graphics (correct me if I am wrong). Those will not be replaced by my GRF.
I do hope however that my graphics will eventually be picked up by airport developers (maybe as a parameter).

[SimYouLater]

- Not compatible with OpenGFX+Airports (rotated airports)
The OpenGFX+Airports GRF mostly has its own graphics (correct me if I am wrong). Those will not be replaced by my GRF.
I do hope however that my graphics will eventually be picked up by airport developers (maybe as a parameter).

I just checked, and both OpenGFX+ Airports and your Empty Airport NewGRF are GPLv2. You legally have unfettered access to the source code of OpenGFX+ Airports and can integrate its code without having to get permission from anyone, nor do you have to worry about license incompatibility.

Provided I'm not incorrect, I would go ahead and make a modified version of OpenGFX+ Airports that uses your graphics and their code (and make sure to include access to the source code as per the GPLv2 license terms) instead of waiting for others to do the work for you. Airports seem to be notoriously hard to make modified versions of throughout OpenTTD's history (and, if I'm correct, TTDPatch before it).

Nice work regardless. I'll keep an eye on this.

[Alberth]

@SimYouLater:

You're fully correct, this one however is the blocker:

Airports seem to be notoriously hard to make modified versions of throughout OpenTTD's history (and, if I'm correct, TTDPatch before it).

Airports are hard-coded in the OpenTTD source. Some of it has been losened a bit (positions of interesting points at airports, and graphics, I think), but the number of airports as well as the actual state mechine are still fully hard-coded. You cannot add more airports currently, nor can you avoid getting planes to land on your (then not so empty) airport.

[Quast65]

Well, to be honest, I was already a bit reluctant with releasing this GRF.
I think this already has too many issues that users need to know about before using it, as it not only changes airport-only graphics but also other graphics (like the transmitters and the little building in the refinery).
Also the overlap solution to fix the issues with elongating runways is not something I am very happy with.
Its just not neat and tidy

This GRF (in my opinion) is just a crappy solution to overcome the time before airport development reached a more modular setup.
At the time I was working on the airport-object set some very interesting ideas and developments were going on, like these:
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=73976 [patch] Terminus Airports v1.44 (r27460)
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=74633 Aircraft, Airports & Pathfinders Reimagined
And I was hoping that these could be worked out to be stable enough for them to be implimented either in popular patchpacks or even into trunk.
And if they did, I would have jumped on the opportunity to suggest using my graphics for those (or include them as a parameter).
But sadly these discussions are kinda dead at the moment....
I hope they will be revived though, as I think these are some very interesting developments, maybe mentioning them in this post will help people taking a look at these discussions again...

But for the moment another crappy GRF to overcome the time may be needed, one that also suits the rotated airports. I will look into that, but it may take some time. At the moment I am very busy with reallife and I also have some other projects that are a bit higher on my priority list at the moment....

[Quast65]

I have edited OpenGFX+Airports v0.5.0 to make all the concrete ones (so also the rotaded ones) also look like an empty airport.
You will still need to load Empty Airport GRF too, to get rid of the darker tile under the helipads.
Enjoy!
All credits to the developers of OpenGFX+Airports v0.5.0

GRF:

ogfx-airports_Q65.grf

(1.34 MiB) Downloaded 90 times

SOURCES:

ogfx-airports_Q65_SOURCES.rar

(629.4 KiB) Downloaded 65 times