Topic: Simutrans Regular Graphics Contest - October

[sdog]

I would like to invite everyone to participate in the second SRGC graphics contest!

It is a competition for the finest in-game graphics for simutrans. The theme for the second competition is now a moving object: A modern passenger ferry.

Passenger Ferry
Subject of this contest is a small passenger ferry as seen in many metropolitan areas bordering streams or the sea. The type transporting a few dozen to a few hundred people short distances. Modern vessels built past 1970 (soft limit) are requested (in other words no paddle steamers.) Not requested are large long range ferries, eg. like those seen connecting Athens with Greek islands, connecting ports at the baltic sea and so on. Here are some pictures to illustrate this.


Ferry in the Bristol Harbourside by James F Clay, on Flickr


Elbfähre ELBMEILE Hamburg Elbe by Reinhard_Schuldt, on Flickr


Ferry across the Mersey by jimmedia, on Flickr

execution
Dat files and alignement of boats can be quite a bit tricky, but don't worry. This is a graphics contest, while the graphic should be your own work, for the dat file and the technical aspects you can rely on the community, just post a request in this thread.

Submit your submission in this thread before midnight (UTC) 31 October. Feel free to post your work in progress in this thread too. It would also be nice if you post about your intention to participate.

Providing the sources and putting it under a free and open source license is a required for this contest, the purpose of this contest is to encourage people to produce content required to improve simutrans. The graphic has to be compatible to the setting, style and technical aspects of one of the paksets maintained in this forum.

Price & Evaluation
Price: The respect of the community. (And almost certain speedy inclusion in a pakset)
The winner will be decided through the combination of a jury headed by zeno and a public vote. The main reason for the jury is to offset the influence of different paksets.

please don't hestitate to post, if something is not clear, your idea does not completely fit the rules (we are flexible!) or if you have general questions.

[ӔO]

What sort of dimensions are we looking at? under 60m?
I know for sure 150m and over would classify as large.

[sdog]

The longest of the boats posted above the royal dafodil is 44m long, the Hamburg Ferry only 30m (250 pax). The largest i had in mind were Istanbul ferryboats, i measured them in google maps at 60 m.


Bosporus Ferry by Collin Key (back 'n busy), on Flickr

[The Hood]

I'd like to participate.  I'll take up the Mersey ferries suggestion (although the design is 1950s, I'm assuming that is OK as they are still operating and the design is a "modern" small ferry).  I might even have to work up some Liverpool buildings as well for a screenshot...

[VS]

If there's not enough inspiration... Halifax, Scotland, Brno.

I'll attempt to take part, too. No promises

[sdog]

The Mersey ferry posted above seems to have a hull from the 1960s, but all the tech inside is from 1999. That's quite appropriate i think. The post 1970 really is related to the time of the ferry's use. The Bosporos ferry displayed above has been hardly change in it's structure from a mid 19 century scottish boat.

Thanks for the links VS. I didn't even know the Svratka was large enough for a ferry. Is it only operating when the level in the reservoir is high?

ps.: just a little question, is ferryboat used in british english, or only in american?

[VS]

Oh! Some off-topic info then - Svratka is really too small for anything except a wading tractor dragging inflatable rafts, maybe These boats are used on reservoir, and the really cool part is that the older models have been built by local tram depot, so engine=battery They're nearing end of life though...

[Zeno]

C'mon ladies, it's time to make art!!

Let me encourage all you to participate in the contest. Remember you can use any pak-size and style, but don't forget to fit your ship into the selected pakset measures. Remember also that your creations will be punctuated in different aspects, some of them artistic but also technical ones.

PS: I won't participate as it wouldn't be fair (I'm part of the jury), but I have been some weeks without painting anything so... I was tempted!

[vilvoh]

One doubt, could we considerd an amphibious bus as a valid candidate for this edition?

[sdog]

i'm surprised an amphibious vehicle is possible in simutrans! would you mind to provide a bit more details? The project indeed sounds interesting.

[vilvoh]

Well, it's not possible indeed, but as ferries is the topic, I was wondering if this amphi coach could be included in that category.

A sample

[sdog]

in other words you want to make a simutrans boat that looks like this amphi boat? Perhaps also another one you run on land only.

I think the criterium would be, can passenger board the vehicle from a simutrans dock? or does the bus have to go on dry land to have pax board?

On the other hand, i don't want to be supress creativity, and this amphibious bus is certainly some thinking out of the box, so i'd like others oppinion on this too.

[ӔO]

The amphibious bus idea sprang into my head too, but I've decided to do a more conventional catamaran ferry.
The other idea I had was a hovercraft.

[Zeno]

I also like creativity, but I can see an inconvenient here which is size: we're talking about passenger ferries, mostly 30 to 50 m. ships (small ships), and an amphibious bus could be about... 10 m? 15? If it was well scaled into any pak, I'm afraid you'd see nothing but a couple of dark pixels in the middle :S
But apart from that matter I'd see no problem with it.

[mEGa]

Hi community,

I surely will participate to this contest with an adaptation of french little ferry wich  serves the Island of Yeu (Atlantic coast of France)

[gwalch]

I will try to participate with a russian hydrofoil called "meteor"... but i have to learn use of blender...

[VS]

Just found another nice site http://www.bcferries.com/onboard-experiences/fleet/

[Zeno]

Wow, that's a cool site!! Lots of material to get inspired!

[ӔO]

you can get a lot of inspiration materials by just typing in various hull designs or power methods with "ferry"
example: ferry + monohull, catamran, trimaran, hydrofoil, water jet, solar sail, etc.

Although, mind you, you can't really see anything underneath the waterline. The only thing that really matters is the type of hull used, which will determine the shape above.

[sdog]

Just a reminder, the deadline is getting closer, but there's still almost a month to finish your projects.

[mEGa]

Hi,

I need your help to fill the dat file to finish my project.
What can I write about power, gear and weight parameters ?
There are parameters of the real inspired ferry :
motor engine = diesel
height  :    29.90 meters
width :    7.60 meters
draught :    1.50 meters
Global capacity  :    318 passengers
Speed :    20 knots

And there is my first configuration :
obj=vehicle
name=Ferry_yeu
copyright=mEGa
waytype=water
engine_type=diesel
freight=Passagiere
payload=300
speed=37
power=5420
gear=120
weight=70000
cost=200000
runningcost=2615
intro_year=2000
intro_month=5
constraint[next][0]=none
constraint[prev][0]=none
smoke=Diesel
sound=ship-horn_b.wav

Any idea ?
Thank a lot per advance

Look the first trip on the game :-)

[sdog]

The ferry is in pak128 style, isn't it?

ps: is there in the foreground Mont Saint-Michel?

[Zeno]

I need your help to fill the dat file to finish my project.
What can I write about power, gear and weight parameters ?

Power: Most common is using real power in kW.
Weight: Use real weight, in tons (70).
Gear: 100 unless you have a reason to modify it (e.g., if real power makes vehicle accelerate too slow, then use higher gear; if acceleration is too quick, use a lower value; try and error method!).

Btw, if it's pak128, you might use cost=464000 and runningcost=314. Those values would fit better the pak's economy.

[Václav]

It seems to me like if also this round of SRGC will have winner less poll - if somebody don't keep own work secret until last minute.

[sdog]

Václav, there is no need to keep work secret. Or do you think everybody else will just give up when they see mEGa's ferry?

I would rather encourage to post work in progress here, the input of the community is quite good, an example are your comments to reytm2's work in the pak96 threads.

@mEGa
i would roughly estimate the volume of the ship below water to be 1/3 of the cube of length, draught and width. 114 m^3
the weight might be around 100 t

[Václav]

It is just my feeling based on watching this topic.

I gave up challenging in this and also in previous round:
1. I am not so fast creator - for some reasons
2. I don't create in exact style (I mix them)
3. for vehicles are not something where I am good in. I tried to prepare trains once - and it ended forgotten in bin of history.

Do you think comments in topics Buildings city and tourist attraction (new addon) - and suggestions for new buildings (lately protestant church and using functionalism and its buildngs as main source of ideas)?

About weight for mEGa's ferry - I am not sure if 100 tones is not too much. I think that about 50 tones would be fine - if it would have 100 tones, it would heavier than most locomotives I know - and that ferry does not look that it would be so heavy.

[sdog]

300 pax are around 30t already. I suppose the 1.50 draught are loaded draught, perhaps the pax weight should be subtracted. This would leave 70t. Also don't forget the 1/3 is a very rough estimate.

We could perhaps get to a better estimate by using the area of ellipses:
It has pi/4=0.79 of the area of a rectangle it is inscribed in.
If we consider the cross section normal to the forward direction to be elliptical we'd get 0.62 that's about 2/3.
If we assume the boat to be of diamond shape with triangular sub-surface cross section, we'd get 1/4 of the volume of the inscribing cuboid. since the boat doesn't look too slender, i've been more on the low side of an estimate for the boat's displacement.

[Zeno]

About weight (and other stats), I usually like to keep things easy: anything between 40 and 80 t seems reasonable -just looking at other ferries of its size & capacity-, no need to apply maths or aerodynamic knowledge. After that, just tune up gear to make the weight/power ratio to give a not-too-fast/not-too-slow acceleration.
Then you can also tune a little bit its running cost: more powerful, higher RC; more weight, cheaper RC

[mEGa]

The ferry is in pak128 style, isn't it?

ps: is there in the foreground Mont Saint-Michel?

Yes and yes it is

@Vaclav,
Sorry, but I didn't want trouble community with my first snapshot... It was just to get precision of my post. For dat parameters I am refered with the first post of Sdog :

Dat files and alignement of boats can be quite a bit tricky, but don't worry. This is a graphics contest, while the graphic should be your own work, for the dat file and the technical aspects you can rely on the community, just post a request in this thread.

Because 2 reasons :

• I'm not specialist of boat : draught, weight and tonnage is completely new for me !
• First tests show a slowly acceleration with draft boat.

@ Others :
Thank very much for your replies, lot of interesting and studying for me. Just one precision :
the gross tonnage of real ferry is : 178 GT
I think I'm going to keep the middle value for weight : 60 or 70 t .

So good making and luck for this contest.

EDIT :
Finally I decide to apply this parameters (more simple than first dat because I delete the gear var)

payload=300
speed=37
power=2400 (real boat has 2 x 1200 HP diesel engines)
weight=70 (near the real value of GT  : 89 t)
cost=800000
runningcost=350

tests are better : speed and acceleration are more realistics (it's a fast boat on real life )

[reytm2]

This ferry american has an interesting style and are excellent for creating a addons for simutrans.

[ӔO]

here's my entry.

A hydrofoil catamaran ferry with retrofitted solar panels.

I haven't quite figured out the scale in simutrans and I became a bit frustrated with gimp, so I only have this screen shot at the moment.

length: 43.5m
width: 16m
height: 12m (including foils) (8m from waterline)
power: not a clue, but it should do 80km/h and is diesel powered.

the solar is more for running passenger accommodations.

most likely, around 240 to 360 capacity

[mEGa]

Fine work, I am in a hurry to see it in the pak.
The finishing details and transformations with The Gimp is very hard, I know it (my painful experiment too )

Good luck with it !

[reytm2]

Hello again:
I think it is time to submit my ferry in simutrans version (pak96.comic)...

here ...



I hope aid with the .DAT to give better balance in the item price-operation.

[sdog]

Thank you for your submission reytm2!

It's the first passenger ship in pak96.comic, isn't it?
Most likely any reasonable values will do at first. With a bit of in-game experience you can tweak the values to fit it properly into the pak.

A reminder to all who'd like to participate: The deadline is in 12 days on 31 october.

[reytm2]

It is not the first passenger ship of the pak, even the data. height, width, long and color use one of the boats pak reference.

This would be more or less than the fourth.