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Maybe, maybe, maybe ... pak144.Excentrique

Started by _Hajo_, November 16, 2022, 09:30:06 PM

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_Hajo_

Maybe, maybe, maybe it's worth to do pak48.Excentrique again in a higher resolution. Simutrans has evolved, as has hardware. The reasons and limitations to make a small pak set are gone.

But it's a huge endeavor, and I lost the determination and persistence that I once had.

Just making a new lightmap, half height, in 144 pixels, then re-do the power trail, and import two factories in higher resolution too 3 evenings. But lightmap and road/rails are the hardest, I think. To fix all the small pixel mistakes will need many more hours though.

So, maybe, maybe, maybe ...


_Hajo_

Thank you!

I've tried to change the melody maker into a more complex structure and added a first water texture. My shore transitions have a problem, though.

_Hajo_

The beat factory is up again!
I feel uncertain about the powerlane, looks so super fat in 144. But I must wait and check again once I have made buildings in 144 size. You can see fragments of the old buildings scattered over the city. I'm using them as placeholder till I have new ones, so I can start the pak in Simutrans.

The things done already are here, as creative commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0:
https://github.com/Varkalandar/pak144.Excentrique


_Hajo_

Thanks for the partial transparency code! Now I can make even more crazy stuff.

Yona-TYT

Quote from: _Hajo_ on November 18, 2022, 05:55:33 PMThanks for the partial transparency code! Now I can make even more crazy stuff.
Wow 8)
He seems to be having a lot of fun with this :D .

Isaac Eiland-Hall

pak144? How.... gross

(I hope that pun works!)

Joking aside, I think it looks really great so far. I can't wait to see what you end up doing with this :)

_Hajo_

Quote from: Yona-TYT on November 18, 2022, 06:24:17 PMHe seems to be having a lot of fun with this :D .

Yep. Writing all the dat files feels like work often, but it's fun to experiment with the graphics and see them in the game.

Quote from: Isaac Eiland-Hall on November 19, 2022, 03:17:48 PMJoking aside, I think it looks really great so far. I can't wait to see what you end up doing with this :)

I don't even know by myself yet ;) At the moment it's just a remake of the existing pak48.Excentrique.

And I just finished the new and improved fanfostar with even more trumpet and trombone power!

Roboron

Some of these screenshots are looking wonderfully! I like the improved looks!

Yona-TYT

Quote from: Roboron on November 20, 2022, 11:28:52 PMSome of these screenshots are looking wonderfully! I like the improved looks!
I bet you ran into this on twitter... heheheheh ;D

_Hajo_

Quote from: Roboron on November 20, 2022, 11:28:52 PMSome of these screenshots are looking wonderfully! I like the improved looks!

Thank you!

I've been trying to recreate the enerrail/magnatrack but the concept that I had used for pak48.Excentrique didn't look satisfying with the higher resolution.

Now I went for more TTD style maglev tracks. Still not happy with the result. Any ideas?
I don't want to spend time on aligning all the pieces till I'm fairly sure there won't big changes anymore. So now's the time to come up with suggestions and ideas for the magnatracks. Changes colors and brightness is easy at any time.

Also, the stations look quite huge compared to the industry (which is 2x2). Should I make the domes smaller?

wlindley

Quote from: _Hajo_ on November 21, 2022, 08:27:25 PMthe stations look quite huge compared to the industry (which is 2x2). Should I make the domes smaller?
Perhaps use the 8-rotation version of the station, so the end domes are (smaller, shorter, or partial) and the center (of 3-or-more-tile stations) domes are the current size?

_Hajo_

Quote from: wlindley on November 22, 2022, 09:57:32 AMPerhaps use the 8-rotation version of the station, so the end domes are (smaller, shorter, or partial) and the center (of 3-or-more-tile stations) domes are the current size?

I didn't know of this option yet. Thanks, I'll check how it works.

Meanwhile I've reduced the magnatrack width by 10% also the station domes. Track alignment is still to do, but I could add a few vehicles to check the size relations. At least for the moment I'm happy with the results, I think this is a foundation to build upon.

_Hajo_

I've been making city elements. Few are final, but I needed something to test sizes and proportions, buildings vs. roads and rails. I will see if I can improve the transparency effect of the crystal buildings, without using real transparency. In a few cases I had to though (two of the red industrial buildings). Display performance still looked good on my 12 year old computer, so I guess it's nothing to worry about.

Yona-TYT

Quote from: _Hajo_ on November 25, 2022, 04:00:27 PMDisplay performance still looked good on my 12 year old computer,
12 years ? I must assume that it is a processor !5 . ???

_Hajo_

Actually an i7. It was a very good purchase.

Roboron

#16
Quote from: Yona-TYT on November 20, 2022, 11:41:44 PMI bet you ran into this on twitter... heheheheh ;D

I did not. Indeed, I have been busy setting up my own Mastodon server to welcome people flying from Twitter after the acquisition. I am no longer Community Manager. I am Sysadmin now.

Magnatracks are looking better after the change. Overall. I am very excited seeing your progress, Hajo!

_Hajo_

Thanks! Progress will be slower now, much more detail work coming. Over the weekend I managed to make a new industry thingy, and improve the power tower.

_Hajo_

Been working on it some more. Once there is a new power plant thingy for the industrial parts of town, but likely way more important, I have a version which you can install and play. Just download the pak144.Excentrique-preview_001.zip , put it in your simutrans folder alongside the other paks and unzip it.

It's a mix of elements from the old pak48.Excentrique with all the updates I made so far. I think you can complete the transport for a music chain by magnatrack. There are vehicles, stations and depots, and all factory graphics have been updated. But don't expect too much, many things are just not done yet and you'll see horribly misplaced 48 pixel elements alongside the new 144 pixel elements.

_Hajo_

Tried to clean up the worst mistakes and started to make a new set of icons, in 48x48 pixels. In some areas this starts to look like a proper pak set now.

Installable preview #2.


Yona-TYT

Quote from: _Hajo_ on December 02, 2022, 04:37:25 PMTried to clean up the worst mistakes and started to make a new set of icons, in 48x48 pixels. In some areas this starts to look like a proper pak set now.

Installable preview #2.


Wow  8)

_Hajo_

The coil depots and the tubular stops are back! Still a lot fine tuning to do there ...

_Hajo_

So, I reworked the power trail once more. It's a bit flatter, narrower and got rounded ends now. Added two power trail gliders, one for passenger and one for mail transport. Also, replaced the old construction site and builder symbols with higher resolution ones.

Installable, even playable preview #3

Biggest problems for actually playing are the missing bridges and crossings, I think. It's bit like Tron and the light cycles ...

Roboron


_Hajo_

Good to know!

I've tried to make "music smoke" for the melody maker, but even using the new multi-tile smoke syntax, only ever the first definition seems to work, Makeobj processes them all, I have checked that. Might be a bug or omission in the Simutrans version that  I am using. But I can show a preview with one music smoking tile.

_Hajo_

Coming soon to a magnatrack near you, wormhole tunnels with advanced zip-squeeze technology!


_Hajo_

Added a first curiosity item, a new tree of sorts, and I gave the fluffy bushes a light shadow. Also there is a powertrail bridge now ... actually not really, it's just floating trails. Furthermore the grey gaps in the main menu are filled with matching graphics now (Thanks for the info how to do that Andarix!).

Playable preview #4.

prissi

The blended colors look really nice together with the whole darkish environment. And it is amazing that simutrans 16 graphics can generate such a shine.

_Hajo_

Thank you  :) The limitation of 16 bit graphics only shows on very slight color gradients. And the dark ground really helps to make bright objects stand out a lot.

But to be honest, the set also benefits hugely from the new transparency support. I try to use it scarsely, in order not to impact performance too much, but some of the objects would look much less interesting without the semi-transparent parts.

_Hajo_

Closing to finally become a real pak set. 5 more magnatrack vehicles this time, and a lot of cleanups.

- Two new magnatrack vehicles for sparks and quants (passengers and mail)
- Three new magnatrack engines
- Fixed some lightmap (landscape) gaps
- Fixed ground grid
- Crystal splinter plants have shadows now
- Added one more residential city building
- New, high res inspection tool cursor
- New, high res schedule stop marker
- New, high res raise and lower landscape cursors
- Added some missing language entries (English and German)

Playable preview #5 attached.

_Hajo_

A new, high speed magnatrack, a new power-speedlane, a new bridge, a new tree, two new residential buildings and some cleanup.

Playable preview #6 attached.


Yona-TYT

Quote from: _Hajo_ on December 30, 2022, 03:42:28 PMA new, high speed magnatrack, a new power-speedlane, a new bridge, a new tree, two new residential buildings and some cleanup.
Playable preview #6 attached.
Simply beautiful ! ... 8)

isidoro

Certainly, though it is a pity that the station labels can't be modded as well...

_Hajo_

I think it would be fairly easy to allow themes to include custom backgrounds for the labels. Much like a theme can define buttons and window backgrounds.

Question is if rather the theme or the pak set should supply the graphics. I think theme is the better place.

Andarix

Quote from: _Hajo_ on January 01, 2023, 04:17:18 PM...

Question is if rather the theme or the pak set should supply the graphics. I think theme is the better place.

Since a theme is always active, the files from the theme always apply.