Alpha: TTDPatch 2.0.1 alpha 38

Hi patch fans,

After a long wait (due to both the release of Chris Sawyer's Locomotion as 
well as being busy with other things in my life), I've finally had the time 
to work on TTDPatch again.  The result is alpha 38, which you can (as 
usual) find at http://www.ttdpatch.net/src/

There are a bunch of changes in this alpha, quite aside from the usual 
bugfixes and improvements for new graphics authors (see below for details).

One change is how bit switches are handled in the ttdpatch.cfg 
configuration file.  You can now specify them in the form "switch.bit 
on/off", e.g. "miscmods.gradualloadbywagon off".  This makes it a lot 
easier to pick which bits you want enabled and which you don't.  To convert 
your existing ttdpatch.cfg into this format, simply run "ttdpatch(w) -W 
ttdpatch.cfg" from a command line.

Another change is that I've written a new "sprite sorter".  This sorter is 
the part of the graphics engines that makes sure things are drawn in the 
right order, that objects that are in front of other objects actually get 
drawn that way.  The new sorter is much more stable and does a better job 
in particular when objects are very close (so that their 3D bounding boxes 
intersect).  In TTD, that would cause the sprites to be drawn in a random 
order, which you would notice for example when ships occupy the same 
space.  The new sorter stops the flickering and always draws the same ship 
in front.  This is particularly needed for some of the new graphics sets 
with short wagons, where this was also a problem.  There is one particular 
problem with this new sorter that I know of, and that is with trains going 
on electrified tracks under bridges.  It may be that fixing this will 
require new electrified track graphics, so I'm holding off with fixing it 
until I'm sure what will be needed.

Csaba has again written a bunch of bugfixes, as well as some improvements 
to the mouse wheel routines.  Now the wheel also cycles the display options 
in the map window, and he has written support for older ("legacy") mouse 
wheel drivers.  Enable that if your mouse wheel didn't work before, 
otherwise leave it as it is.

I've also changed the station construction window again, now it shows the 
new station selection simply as drop-down boxes, which allows for much 
faster access when you have many new station sets installed.  Also, the 
buttons for larger stations and the new station graphics buttons are added 
independently, so you can use new station graphics without having the 
buttons for longer/more platforms.

Finally, I've changed the "Cht: FindLostWagons" sign cheat to not only look 
for lost wagons, but for lost engines (multi-heads) as well.  The name 
stays the same, but if you previously had some depots you could not remove, 
yet the sign cheat found no lost wagons, try again and it should work this 
time.  I believe I've also fixed the bug which caused wagons to be lost, if 
you still find wagons going missing please file a bug report and let me know.

Thanks for waiting for the next alpha, and I hope there are still people 
playing TTD+Patch and that not everybody has converted to Locomotion :)

Have fun,
Josef


All changes in 2.0.1 alpha 38:
- added Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 37 VCS:
   * additions and fixes in newgrf.txt
   * allowing "ancient" and "protected" building types (more info
     in newgrf.txt)
   * variable 45 to check if a random town is being generated
   * fixed new house types having their timers screwed up if their
     subtitute type was type 4 or 5
   * (devel) newhouses now uses the features of grfload.asm
     instead of its own functions. (saves some space in
     executable)
- added improved sprite sorter to fix flickering especially of short
   train vehicles; enabled by default, disable with
   "miscmods.nonewspritesorter on"
- added Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 37 VCS 2:
   * some clarifications about buildings in newgrf.txt.
   * sloped multi-tile buildings no longer have extra foundation
     edges between their groundtiles (needs trkfundw.grf to work
     correctly)
   * mouse wheel now cycles through map modes in mini-map
   * support for legacy mouse wheel drivers (needed under Win95
     and under Win98 for some drivers/mice). Can be enabled by
     adding 4 to the value of the mousewheel switch. If you have
     Win2000/WinXP or your mouse wheel already works correctly,
     you can safely disable it. This feature wasn't tested
     thoroughly since I can't test it myself. Please contact me if
     your mouse wheel doesn't work even with legacy support
     enabled.
   * newtownnames now work correctly with more than 16 random bits
     per name part, and checks for invalid startbit/bitcount
     settings.
   * building flag 1 (build only on flat land) now works correctly
     for 1x2 and 2x1 buildings as well.
- revamped the bit switch handling, now you can set them using the
   form of "miscmods.nodefaultoldtracktype on"; use -W to write a new
   configuration file in that format. The old way of "miscmods 1024"
   remains valid, of course.
- new callback 19 to append text after cargo type, shown in
   refitting window and in vehicle display of capacity; use action 4
   text ID D0xx to set text.
- new station selection is now done via drop-down lists for faster
   access
- fixed bug with feederservice income for aircraft getting added to
   ship income and vice versa
- fixed bug with station +7 button sometimes not getting deactivated
   for stations which do not support it
- fixed bug with train capacity callback using wrong capacities
- fixed station selection not resetting itself when old station type
   expires
- fixed crash when attempt to buy new rail vehicle failed
- added Csaba's changes from 2.0.1 alpha 37 VCS 3:
   * added some color mapping information to newgrf.txt
   * the state of the newhouses switch can be checked from grfs
     (bit 59)
   * bug: random house graphics were always re-randomized after
     loading a game
   * bug: New house types displayed incorrectly if graphics
     weren't available.
- allow grf to force-activate itself (useful for title screen), use
   action E on its own GRFID to activate itself
- new action 7/9 variable 92 (BYTE) is 0 in title screen, 1 in game
   and 2 in editor
- "Cht: FindLostWagons" now also finds lost dual head engines
- reorganized action 3 handling, generic callbacks are now chainable
- fixed "Default" button in grfstat window to correctly handle !
   parameter
- added missing factory to "fund industry" window in tropical
   climate
- fixed bug with fast-wagon sell on dual-headed train causing
   additional engines to get "lost"
- fixed crash when copying/sharing orders in multiplayer games
- fixed bug with copying orders copying current order index as well
- it's now possible to un-share orders by Ctrl-clicking on the Reset
   button (this keeps the orders and just makes them unshared)
- newstations buttons and larger station buttons are now added
   independently from the enhancegui switch
- fixed enhancegui .cfg description in the translations
- fixed bug with newbridges sprite tables not being reset when grf
   is turned off
- fixed bug with ctrl-buying single head of dualheaded train costing
   right amount but setting value twice as high
-- 
Josef Drexler (josef.drexler-/[email protected])
http://publish.uwo.ca/~jdrexler/

--
TTDPatch announcements mailing list.  To unsubscribe from the list, send an
email to ttdpatch-announce-request-nTJi30vSKZLk1uMJSBkQmQ@public.gmane.org with the body of
the email (not the subject) containing only the word "unsubscribe".  For
more info please see http://www.ttdpatch.net/maillist.html