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Messages - Andyh

2
Extension Requests / Re: NEW CLIMATES MODEL (was: The Equatorial Wind)
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Quote from: kierongreen – on
Any changes to the current model would require more tiles.

I don't think that this is necessarily the case.  As explained in my original post, unless I'm missing something I don't believe that a simple latitude-based climate modification of the type I describe WOULD require more tiles (because it uses the same climates and the same climate sequence as at present).

Here's what I would suggest: I've downloaded the Simutrans source code.  Would someone mind giving me a few general hints as to how to go about building a little mod?  Specifically: which files/lines contain the code which defines the climate ****ociated with a tile?  I'll then noodle around a bit myself and see whether I can come up with something.

Thanks a lot for everyone's help and advice
3
Extension Requests / Re: NEW CLIMATES MODEL (was: The Equatorial Wind)
The climate generation system shown in the link is based on the concept of moisture being blown across a relief map creating areas of relief rainfall (damp climates), and rain shadow (drier climates).  It does not take latitude into account.  This method would be very good for generating climates on a small-medium sized map; say one where the North-South dimension being modelled is no more than a few hundred kilometers.  However, by itself, it would be less good on the continental scale where climate variation is more heavily influenced by latitude.  To illustrate: differences in climate within Washington State can easily be explained by looking at moisture, wind patterns and topography (i.e. where the mountains are), but the difference in climate between Alberta and Louisiana has more to do with the fact that Alberta is a lot closer to the North Pole.

Ideally, of course we would include all these factors (i.e. latitude, elevation and wind/moisture) in a Simutrans climate model.  I'm very new to the forum, although I've been playing Simutrans for years; how can I get involved so as to move this initiative forward?  I have little to no programming skills, but I think that I could come up with some mathematical models, and perhaps provide some insights on the geographical side of things.
4
Extension Requests / Re: NEW CLIMATES MODEL (was: The Equatorial Wind)
My original post was focused specifically on the climate model as opposed to the way tiles are rendered in a broader sense.  I think the current rendering method does work fine; you can move around large maps with ease.  The current climate model also works fine on its own terms; but if one is trying to create maps on a continental scale the ability to vary climate according to latitude (as well as height) would be a huge plus.

I would be interested in what people think to my idea above of having climate affected by a simple relationship between latitude (as represented by the y coordinate of a tile) and the climate type.  In essence I'm saying: make the climate of a tile dependent on its y and z coordinates as opposed to just the z coordinate as at present.  I think I'm right in saying that doing this would not require any expansion in the current tile set.
5
Extension Requests / Re: NEW CLIMATES MODEL (was: The Equatorial Wind)
I know that this is old topic, but i wondered whether there had been any developments?  Of all the items on the perennial Simutrans wish list this (i.e. making climates dependent on factors other than just height) is closest to my heart.

I'm impressed by some of the complex and sophisticated ideas presented in this thread, but I've had an idea buzzing around my head for some time which is a lot simpler and cruder (and therefore, I think, easier to implement).

It's based on the old geographers' concept of a relationship between elevation and latitude.  In other words if the elevation increases at a given latitude the climate changes in much the same way as it does as you travel towards the poles. The relationship between elevation and climate is already represented in the game.  The relationship between latitude and climate could be represented by creating a function which would make more northerly tiles (in the northern hemisphere) behave as if they were at higher elevations for the purpose of defining their climate.

Latitude is represented in the game by the y coordinate of a tile.  I would propose a single new variable (call it 'climate_modifier' for example) which would represent the impact of latitude on climate, ON TOP OF any impact of height on climate.  climate_modifier would be calculated for each tile as something like:

climate_modifier = int(y/k)

(actually this probably needs to be modified slightly for Northern hemisphere maps because the Simutrans origin is top-left rather than bottom-left)

where k is a user defined constant that could be defined either in the simuconf.tab file or in the new map climate dialog.  A large value for k would lead to small climate variability due to latitude and a small value of k would lead to a relatively large number of climates across the map from North to South.  For example, take a largish map with a North-South dimension of 1000 tiles, a value for k of 1000 would lead to no climate variability due to latitude (but there could still be climate variability due to height), whereas a value for k of 100 would mean the climate variability due to latitude would be the equivalent of about 10 tile heights.  If each climate zone is defined as being 2-3 heights apart then there would be around 3-5 climate zones across the map from North to South even if the map were completely flat.

The climate_modifier variable would simply be added to the height of a tile for the purpose of defining its climate.  Therefore a tile at the very bottom of a map (****uming Northern hemisphere) would (typically) have a climate_modifier of zero and its climate would only be defined by its height.  As one moves up the map towards the top the climate_modifer would get larger (at a rate defined by k) and the tiles will tend to move into relatively colder climate zones, in addition to any effect that height might have.  For example, a tile at the bottom of the map with a height of 2 might have a tropical climate, whilst a tile at the top of the map with the same height and a climate_modifier value of (say) 9 might have a tundra or alpine climate, and a mountain in the middle of the map with a height of 6 and a climate_modifier of 5 would have the same tundra or alpine climate on the top.

I think the advantage of this approach is ease of computation and, most importantly, it doesn't change the sequence of climates, so i don't believe there would be any need to change the tileset.

Hope this makes sense, would be very interested in anyone's comments/questions.

I would love to try and create a little mod to do this.  Could any of you programmers out there give me some guidance/hints as to how I might get started on doing this?

6
Pak128 Solved Bug Reports / Re: Problem with Nightly 757
Thanks everyone. I'm pretty sure that you've diagnosed the issue.  I didn't download the Simutrans Nightly, just the PAK files.  My bad. I'll try again tonight with the corresponding version of the program.

BTW: I've been playing Simutrans for several years.  I really think it's an extraordinary project, especially the way the developers are constantly refreshing the game with new features.  It really puts to shame the tired old development model of commercial game designers.

Andrew
7
Pak128 Solved Bug Reports / (solved) Problem with Nightly 757
I downloaded Nightly 757 and tried to run it with Simutrans 102.2.  The program crashes on starting with an error message: "FATAL ERROR: alle_geladen 12skin_besch_t-object WindowSkin not found.  *** PLEASE INSTALL PROPER BASE FILE AND CHECK PATH ***"

Anyone know what this is and how to fix it?

Thanks a lot.

Andrew