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Roadsigns(Signals) Front- / BackImage

Started by DirrrtyDirk, November 06, 2009, 03:23:44 PM

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DirrrtyDirk

I had already proposed this in the German forum, but since it might be more of interest for people from the UK, Japan or elsewhere with left traffic, I'll also post it here:

Currently all roadsigns (incl. rail signals) are only declared as "Image" in the dat files. On roads, the images get positioned according to the status of the "drive_left" parameter in simuconf.tab - maybe even correctly changing between the necessary internal settings of Front- and BackImage (I'm not sure since I don't know if the glitches that I observed are because of this being faulty, or because of the vehicle's alignment - but it appears that it might be working correctly on roads).

But for railroad signals, there is no such auto-mechanism. So, while it is of course possible to paint signals so that they actually appear left of the track (e.g. for a Japanese setting - don't know about the UK and elsewhere), they will be internally assigned to Back- and FrontImages... unfortunately just in the wrong way (since the program treats the graphic as if it were on the right side of the track). So instead of being drawn in the foreground of a train on that track, they are in the background and vice versa.

My original idea was to make it possible to manually select Front-/BackImage in the dat file (and keeping the auto-mechanism for "Image" just as it is now, so that older dats would still behave the same. But that might bring complications or inconsistencies for the actual road signs... OTOH maybe that isn't even required... maybe just a line like "is_left_side=1" (or so) could swap the internal handling of Back-/FrontImage for railroad stuff instead... or we could add a separate set of left graphics, as prissi mentioned in the German posts...
As I have no idea of the code and the work required, I'll of course leave the exact mechanism to people who know that stuff. I'd be happy with a nice result;)

From my layman's point of view, a solution for this should not be all that difficult (depending on which method is actually used) - and maybe one of you code guys from the UK or Japan finds it interesting enough to do it some day.  :D
  
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Spike

Quote from: DirrrtyDirk on November 06, 2009, 03:23:44 PM
My original idea was to make it possible to manually select Front-/BackImage in the dat file.

This would open a few new options, like "bridge" type signals and signs. I like this idea.

Isaac Eiland-Hall

This sounds interesting to me. Perhaps another thing that could be looked at is the placement of signs on slopes and curves...

The Hood

If this was introduced, I would use it in pak128.Britain.  The current arrangement isn't realistic, but looks better than having signals on the left in game because of the lack of front/back image distinction.  However my coding ability is 0, and my graphics to-do list is most definitely non-zero :)

Ashley

This is something I've wanted before, especially when trying to make signals for the underground set. Explicit front+back images for signals/roadsigns would open up some very nice possibilities (and I don't really understand why they aren't already done this way).
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prissi

The format of the dat file was from before introduction of backimages and got never renovated.

Fabio

Quote from: Timothy on November 10, 2009, 10:34:56 AM
This is something I've wanted before, especially when trying to make signals for the underground set. Explicit front+back images for signals/roadsigns would open up some very nice possibilities (and I don't really understand why they aren't already done this way).

actually, i think every object should have a rather consistent structure of backimage/frontimage, including ways, signals, etc...
i don't know how much rework this would imply, but i believe it would open new possibilities and, SPECIALLY, make the object coding cleaner.

The Hood

*bump*

Has anything ever been done with this?  Would love backimages for AEO's pak128.Britain maglev signals (would also use them for normal rail signals too...). 

See here...
http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=4345.msg43763;topicseen#msg43763

THLeaderH

7 years have passed since the last reply was posted. Is there any progress about the front/back image of a roadsign?

THLeaderH

I implemented this topic as a patch. Please see here.