SNCF : French Trainset
Posted: 18 Feb 2023 00:52
Hello
As probably any french player of Transport Tycoon I was waiting for many years... (almost 30 ) to play at last with a french set and build the trains I use to see around.
After some nice promises, I was a bit frustrated to wait for more that 10 years (15 ) about the "Standard Gauge French Set" and seeing almost nothing moving on.
We all got the nice surprise to see the superb Snail's "Narrow Gauge French Set"
But I have to say it's pretty frustrating to plays as the narrow gauge collapse after 60s and give place to standard gauge trains. After a few decades there is really a lack of powerfull trains to transport loads of goods.
And finding another set to play with is complicated as most of them propose better standard gauge trains before the first one is available in the french narrow gauge set, making the set useless...
On the basis of all this, I concluded that it was time to stop waiting, but time to act .
I'm not a graphist (at all, I can't even draw a circle on a paper or write my name without making a scratch, I won't draw trains pixel by pixel...)
I'm not a train specialist. I know trains as usual passenger. I like trains, I got some HO models when I was young, then I discovered Transport Tycoon and that's all.
But I'm a programmer and after some hours I was able to write some NML code without copy/pasting tutorial anymore (almost).
Then I decided to "clone" or "fork" the available materials from the French Trains Set - freight rolling stock needs drawing topic.
I'm not the author of those materials, and I really gratefully thanks everybody who shared this work on this topic.
I asked to some of the authors and all of them who replied allowed me to use their graphics.
I still wait for some answer, especially Snail's one as he was the "second father" of this project and because I use the Excel sheet he created to set characteristics of the trains.
I don't aim to "steal" the project. If Snail or some other original author want to finally release the original set, I'll remove mine, or propose merging as I may have already added some stuffs not present in the Snail's sheet.
The project source code can be found at this repository : https://github.com/SylvainDevidal/SNCF
Feel free to fork it and propose additions or fixes.
You can also report any issue or idea in this topic.
I'm currently focusing on several goals :
- Be compatible with the Snail's narrow gauge set : prices and introduction dates keeps adapted to make game a real challenge to play with both tracks types.
- France uses mostly 2 current types : 1,5 kV DC and 25 kV AC 50 Hz, but it's open to neighborhood so engines often can use also 3 kV DC or 15 kV AC 17,3 Hz (some engines like the CC40100 can even use fourth!). So I naturally want to support track sets providing those different currents. But the set remains compatible with simple "ELEC" rail type for people who prefer the straight way.
- I prefer providing as most as possible engines rather than advanced features such as the weight control Snail introduced in his narrow gauge set. I try anyway to respect limitations such as consists structure or number of coupled EMUs when it's not too time consuming.
The project is still in development, and mostly need :
- cost and capacities balance
- graphics!
I still need more graphics.
Any new french train statistics since 2011 is also welcome as the original set's forum thread didn't contained any most recent.
If you are interested in participating to the effort, you can find all the required stuffs here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... share_link
frset_0208.xlsx => Original Snail's document with the French Trainset project vehicles
Green ids are implemented in the current set.
French set wagons.xlsx => Original Snail's document with the minimum required wagons.
Graphics folder contains graphics I found on the original thread and still not implemented.
Current graphics and code can be found on GitHub there : https://github.com/SylvainDevidal/SNCF
Update 24/02/2023 : new vehicle list and GRF preview
Update 03/04/2023 : new GRF preview. Still many sprites offset to fix and some trains to add.
Update 04/04/2023 : first version available on BaNaNaS! Feel free to test it and give feedback here or in the GitHub repository!
Update 29/04/2023 : new version on BaNaNaS! I had to remove many graphics due to copyrights restrictions. I also added wagons and parameters to allow graphic-less vehicles and enable selectively each engine power type (steam, diesel, electric and wagons).
Update 26/05/2023 : new version on BaNaNaS! Now the set can use OpenGFX sprites for most engines and some wagons until their is no specific sprite in the set.
As probably any french player of Transport Tycoon I was waiting for many years... (almost 30 ) to play at last with a french set and build the trains I use to see around.
After some nice promises, I was a bit frustrated to wait for more that 10 years (15 ) about the "Standard Gauge French Set" and seeing almost nothing moving on.
We all got the nice surprise to see the superb Snail's "Narrow Gauge French Set"
But I have to say it's pretty frustrating to plays as the narrow gauge collapse after 60s and give place to standard gauge trains. After a few decades there is really a lack of powerfull trains to transport loads of goods.
And finding another set to play with is complicated as most of them propose better standard gauge trains before the first one is available in the french narrow gauge set, making the set useless...
On the basis of all this, I concluded that it was time to stop waiting, but time to act .
I'm not a graphist (at all, I can't even draw a circle on a paper or write my name without making a scratch, I won't draw trains pixel by pixel...)
I'm not a train specialist. I know trains as usual passenger. I like trains, I got some HO models when I was young, then I discovered Transport Tycoon and that's all.
But I'm a programmer and after some hours I was able to write some NML code without copy/pasting tutorial anymore (almost).
Then I decided to "clone" or "fork" the available materials from the French Trains Set - freight rolling stock needs drawing topic.
I'm not the author of those materials, and I really gratefully thanks everybody who shared this work on this topic.
I asked to some of the authors and all of them who replied allowed me to use their graphics.
I still wait for some answer, especially Snail's one as he was the "second father" of this project and because I use the Excel sheet he created to set characteristics of the trains.
I don't aim to "steal" the project. If Snail or some other original author want to finally release the original set, I'll remove mine, or propose merging as I may have already added some stuffs not present in the Snail's sheet.
The project source code can be found at this repository : https://github.com/SylvainDevidal/SNCF
Feel free to fork it and propose additions or fixes.
You can also report any issue or idea in this topic.
I'm currently focusing on several goals :
- Be compatible with the Snail's narrow gauge set : prices and introduction dates keeps adapted to make game a real challenge to play with both tracks types.
- France uses mostly 2 current types : 1,5 kV DC and 25 kV AC 50 Hz, but it's open to neighborhood so engines often can use also 3 kV DC or 15 kV AC 17,3 Hz (some engines like the CC40100 can even use fourth!). So I naturally want to support track sets providing those different currents. But the set remains compatible with simple "ELEC" rail type for people who prefer the straight way.
- I prefer providing as most as possible engines rather than advanced features such as the weight control Snail introduced in his narrow gauge set. I try anyway to respect limitations such as consists structure or number of coupled EMUs when it's not too time consuming.
The project is still in development, and mostly need :
- cost and capacities balance
- graphics!
I still need more graphics.
Any new french train statistics since 2011 is also welcome as the original set's forum thread didn't contained any most recent.
If you are interested in participating to the effort, you can find all the required stuffs here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... share_link
frset_0208.xlsx => Original Snail's document with the French Trainset project vehicles
Green ids are implemented in the current set.
French set wagons.xlsx => Original Snail's document with the minimum required wagons.
Graphics folder contains graphics I found on the original thread and still not implemented.
Current graphics and code can be found on GitHub there : https://github.com/SylvainDevidal/SNCF
Update 24/02/2023 : new vehicle list and GRF preview
Update 03/04/2023 : new GRF preview. Still many sprites offset to fix and some trains to add.
Update 04/04/2023 : first version available on BaNaNaS! Feel free to test it and give feedback here or in the GitHub repository!
Update 29/04/2023 : new version on BaNaNaS! I had to remove many graphics due to copyrights restrictions. I also added wagons and parameters to allow graphic-less vehicles and enable selectively each engine power type (steam, diesel, electric and wagons).
Update 26/05/2023 : new version on BaNaNaS! Now the set can use OpenGFX sprites for most engines and some wagons until their is no specific sprite in the set.