preview the vehicles

[Yona-TYT]

happens that when I go to transporting goods, passengers, etc. I have to build a garage to see the vehicle that go to use.
my question is: there a list for all vehicles (with the features) that are available and of this manner know which one to use ...?

[prissi]

Even though it is often requested and almost trival to program (compared to other stuff), no one bothered to make a patch.

[Yona-TYT]

me think that is much needed

[Ters]

I've been working on an external tool that can show all parameters for all items in a pak set. Unfortunately, I'm having licensing concerns regarding some of the code libraries I've used that prevent me from providing runable binaries. It can export a PDF report with key information about all vehicles, factories, goods and attractions. The problem there is figuring which parameters make up the key values, and that distributing PDFs for pak sets won't take each players potential add-ons and simuconf.tab hack into account.

[Yona-TYT]

thank you very much for your answers...

[greenling]

good moring ters
i have be read that you work on a program that can be read and uplist the dataparameter form pakfiles.
I think that you programm be very usefull it to keep a overview of existing pakfiles and there combinationen.
And it help to find missing part of paksets.
I self have a problem to keep a overview of my Pakfile liberty. I must by each pakfile open the writeprogram that than
the names from the objects they are in the pakfiles exist can to read.

[Ters]

I've uploaded an updated example of a pak set report for pak64 at http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/pak64.pdf

[Vonjo]

I've uploaded an updated example of a pak set report for pak64 at http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/pak64.pdf

Wow really nice! It even have the images. It will be nicer if it can be made into CSV format too.

[Yona-TYT]

very good the pdf...
make this a patch would be the next step

[Ters]

very good the pdf...
make this a patch would be the next step

This can't be made into a patch. It's made by a standalone program made using different technology.

Wow really nice! It even have the images. It will be nicer if it can be made into CSV format too.

CSV can't have images, and it's a bit messy for the complete report, but here is what the program can already do.

[Fabio]

A pdf could be generated for each official release of a pakset and be bundled with it as a sort of manual. This way distribution of the tool wouldn't even be needed.

[IgorEliezer]

A pdf could be generated for each official release of a pakset and be bundled with it as a sort of manual.

Perhaps a website?

A "script" collects data from the paksets and generates a page, on query or every update. Plus, PDF/CSV files available for download would be handy for pakset maintainers.

[Ters]

For vehicles, there is something like my report on the Simutrans translator website. It should be enough for those that want a CSV to do various analyzes.

The code I've written to generate my reports can easily be used to drive a web site, but it can't run on the typical web servers that can be rented. It needs something more advanced, and more costly.

[greenling]

The Program must work without internet.

[Yona-TYT]

A pdf could be generated for each official release of a pakset and be bundled with it as a sort of manual. This way distribution of the tool wouldn't even be needed.

works also but I still think it would be view more practical this list in the game himself

[Vonjo]

CSV can't have images, and it's a bit messy for the complete report, but here is what the program can already do.

Thank you for the CSV. It is quite messy however. Hard to parse. But it is a good start.

[MagnusA]

About a year ago I made some CSV files for pak64 from the .dat files. http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=7033.0. Maybe time to blow the dust off that script?

[IgorEliezer]

Maybe time to blow the dust off that script?

Why not? I believe it's worth a try.

[Yona-TYT]

a pdf would be a good start. maybe in the future can be integrated to the executable

[Ters]

That could easily make PDF generation the biggest part of the game.

[eipi]

I recently used PHP to batch process csv files into vocabulary cards.
One could take MagnusA's script to produce csv files, then run the php script to make latex files from them and in the end run pdflatex on the latex files to produce the pdf.
Shouldn't be too difficult, I guess

[Ters]

But why do that, when a single program, that is already written, can make a PDF directly from pak files? And what advantage does a PDF version of a CSV have over the CSV itself? Though I have difficulties distributing a binary version of my program due to licensing issues, anyone who can jump through all those hoops should be able to build my program from source, in which case the license issues don't apply.

[el_slapper]

(.../...) And what advantage does a PDF version of a CSV have over the CSV itself? (.../...)

Readability, especially for non-geeks, or for people missing csv reader programs on their machine(i.e. excel). PDF is a highly readable standard.

[Ters]

It's readable, but not sortable as far as I know. HTML might be better if support for people without spreadsheet programs are important.

Still, it's not exactly ideal to use CSV as an intermediate file format. First of all, you lose the graphics. In addition, as pak data is tree shaped, some data won't fit nicely into the row based CSV format.