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Messages - isidoro

1
General Resources and Tools / Re: Simutrans Logos
In fact the constellation rotates around its tail once every day (aprox.) and once every year (if you take a picture from whatever location from where it can be seen every day at 23:00 o'clock, it will do a whole rotation in one year).
2
General Resources and Tools / Re: Simutrans Logos
It looks like Ursa minor (small bear).  The star at the tail is Polaris.  It nowadays indicates the location of the North Pole and thus can be used to know where the north is in the northern hemisphere.
4
Extension Requests / Re: skipping stops
In the place where I live now, the default behavior for buses is not to stop if there is nobody waiting at the bus stop.  One has to push a button or tell the driver that he wants to stop.  Even if there are people waiting for the bus, the rear doors (the ones used to get off the bus) are not opened unless someone has asked the bus to stop.
6
Extension Requests / Re: Disable X crossing
Maybe another possibility is to have several max. speeds for the same cl**** of road: 200kmh for horizontal straight, 100kmh for T crossing, 60kmh for X crossing, 80kmh for curve,...
7
Considered Patches / Re: [patch] Replacing (aka the long, long crossing of the desert)
Quote from: Gryphonite – on
I couldn't get the most recent version to do anything in Tortoise SVN (didn't get the small window),
[...]

Patches record changes in the source code of the program.  They include the new lines/changes as well as the context (surrounding lines) where those changes are to be applied.

If the code has been changed a lot since the patch was generated, the patch program will not automatically find the suitable context and hence the errors.

Another possibility you have is to apply the patch to the revision from which it was generated (r2456).  But note that the game will not have the improvements made since then, savegames may not be compatible (opened) by an up-to-date version, etc.

Quote from: Gryphonite – on
...any chance of it making it into a nightly of standard?

That's not an easy task.  Code may have changed a lot in current version.  Not incorporated patches are very difficult to maintain.
8
Extension Requests / Re: Route Setting
In fact, I did something similar to this in one of my patches:
http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=1648.0

The patch provides a button to set the maximum load at a station besides the minimum load.  If you set the maximum load at a station to zero, you get the effect you are looking for.

Note that:
  • The patch is dated
  • The patch does other things in connection with QoS and overcrowding I was experimenting with at that time
11
Randomness Lounge / Re: Search engines?
For people interested in critics against Google, there's a book I've read:
"Die Google Falle", from Gerald Reischl.  I don't know if there is an English translation.

My opinion is that the problem is not Microsoft or Google.  The big problem is monopolies.
14
Randomness Lounge / Re: A toy for people interested in space games and astronomy
Quote from: Hajo – on
My last math lesson happened 10 years ago or so ... I definitely won't try to develop such formula on my own ;) But it's good that this project refreshes some of the math and physics basics. Thanks for help and advice :)

In fact, it easily forwards from:
1) Gauss' law for gravity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss%27s_law_for_gravitational_fields
2) Spherical symmetry ****umption


Quote from: Hajo – on
Edit 2: Radiation power of a star is proportional to "star surface times surface temperature"? Surface temperature of a planet is roughly proportional to "sun radiation_power times distance from sun, squared"? Is that correct?

Atmospheric modifiers and albedo can be calculated after this co**** temperature guess, I think.

A first approximation may be to consider stars as black bodies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body).
Then, apply Stefan-Boltzmann law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan-Boltzmann_law
There are some examples in the latter page for the sun and other stars.

Surface temperature of a planet is more difficult, I guess.  Greenhouse effect plays an important
role in planets with atmospheres.  Light from the star p**** through the atmosphere and
the black body radiation from the planet is kept.  Consider Venus, for instance.
15
Randomness Lounge / Re: A toy for people interested in space games and astronomy
Quote from: Hajo – on
Does someone know how to calculate surface gravity for a planet from m**** and radius?

That's simple.  With Newton's formula:

   g=G.M/(R.R)

G is the gravitational constant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_constant
M is the m**** of the platet
R is its radius

9.8 m/(s.s) is the value for Earth, if you want to compare with it.
16
Simutrans Gaming Discussion / Re: Steeper/Mountainous maps
Thanks. My plan in the (guess far) future is to open the program once the main specifications and goals are settled, upload it to sourceforge or the like, and publish the specifications/manuals on a web site.
17
Simutrans Gaming Discussion / Re: Steeper/Mountainous maps
@Timothy: Thanks.  It will be a matter of years, I guess.  If forum administrators don't mind, you, my friends of Simutrans, will be the first to know when I release something or main progress is made.  Now, I'm fighting with resources and factories.  The simulation is intended to be deeper than ST for residences (they are all like little industries that need to be supplied with food and water or population will die).

@Sojo & Isaac:  one never knows...  Impossible is nothing. :)
18
Simutrans Gaming Discussion / Re: Steeper/Mountainous maps
It's in a very preliminary state.  If everything goes well, it will be a city-building transportation game.  My plan is to build a first simple version and documentation before releasing it.  Now, I have:
  • A name
  • Some specifications
  • Something already programmed: the above terrain specification, rivers, forests, residences, 3d rendering with possibility of moving, rotating, and zooming
Attached is an image of terrain rendering as of r16.
19
Simutrans Gaming Discussion / Re: Steeper/Mountainous maps
A similar approach is the one I'm following for my game.  The map is a mesh of four heights: snow, water, land, and rock, each one on top of the following one.  There will be no restrictions for the difference of height of two adjacent points.  The resulting map is rendered 3D with triangles and it looks tile-based (see the attached images).
21
Incorporated Patches and Solved Bug Reports / Re: [fix] simu.log encoding problem
When downloading the patch, instead of a file of 0.84 kb, a file of 12k appears.  It consists of the patch and a spam-like header before (about Russian casinos and the like).

Does this happen to anybody else (problem of my computer, my connection, the server, or z9999's file)?
24
Randomness Lounge / Farewell (almost)
I guess that if this is the place of the forum to say hello, it is the place to say goodbye.  If not, please excuse me.

Some time ago, I started my own project about building a transport city-building simulation game, maybe inspired by the well-known document by Hajo (I couldn't say for sure, learning Chinese is getting a good part of my memory) and my experience playing with OTTD and other similar games.  In the meantime, I was happily "kidnapped" by this game of ours.  Now, I think it is time to focus on my project again.  I'll be lurking around here but my intention is to be less active and only participate in threads talking about me or my patches.

I would like to thank all of you, specially Prissi, for your dedication.  You're a great community.

For people interested in these matters, let this be my statement that all the code and patches developed by me hitherto and posted in this or the old forums are given "as is" to the Simutrans community (whatever this may mean) and the community is entitled to use, reuse or even abuse them as it sees fit.

Best regards,
Isidoro.
25
Patches & Projects / Re: Overcrowding. Deadlocks. Max loading...
I think you had an excellent idea, ij!  Allow sending goods to the station if we're sure that there's a full load at destination back.  It will certainly not alleviate all cases (cycles of higher orders), but I guess that most in real situations.

I can't agree with your dislike about max. loading.  In past time, I didn't find it useful too, though long time demanded.  But, in combination with your mechanism, it can solve 100% cases.  Besides, players can use it to regulate flux of goods and make circular lines profitable, even with the new payment system.
26
Simutrans-Extended development / Re: Simutrans Experimental
Yeah, it should be refined.  Something like recording the time the packet has been waiting on a station.  If long enough, we can suppose that they have moved to the right platform and will only wait the loading time.   That time would depend on the size of the station to force players not to build unrealistic giant stations.

In my QoS patch, average waiting time are already recorded for each packet.  So that would not be difficult.
27
Simutrans Gaming Discussion / Re: New Growth Method
I like the idea of integrating mail in the chain.  I've also thought about that before.  Perhaps in advaned mode with too little quantity of mail as another ingredient for the factory (like hopfen in pak.german to make beer).

Some suggestions:
  • Now that we're in economic crisis, perhaps there should be a way to make population go down under certain conditions
  • Population change should depend on: availabitity of work, residence, food and water (i.e. you build a supermarket and fill it with food, houses will be built around it.  If you cease to give food to it, population around should diminish.
  • Supermarket consumption should depend only on visitors (either local, they need not travel, as it is now, or remote, arriving at the station in coverage)
  • City water tanks should behave as supermarkets, but no need for people to visit them.  Underground pipes are supposed.
  • You can include delivery of electricity as a factor of grouth, if wanted.

But those ideas approach to a city-building simulation game...
28
Simutrans-Extended development / Re: Simutrans Experimental
Different loading times is a nice addition, James...  I wonder if this mod can be easily tried: ****ign to each packet the coordinate of the tile station where it is.  Make loading time depend on the distance from that tile to the tile where the vehicle being loaded really is.

The rationale is to avoid the building of huge stations in which vehicles are unloaded on a far platform and automatically loaded on a distant one of the same huge station.
29
Patches & Projects / Re: Overcrowding. Deadlocks. Max loading...
Quote from: whoami – on
...but it would be a bad design choice to require the player to set up completely separated networks for every kind of goods connection,...

As I explain above.  It is not required to build a separate network for every kind of goods.  Kind of goods has nothing to do with it.  Goods are treated as a whole.  The objective is to build a single network without goods dependence loops.

Quote from: whoami – on
Sorry, I wasn't able to understand the patch,...

Forcing a capacity limit in stations may produce deadlocks.  This patch gives the player a tool to be able to design networks free from the deadlock danger.  Surprisingly enough, allowing the player to set the max. loading value for a convoy allows the design of those kinds of networks.  In essence, it allows one-way connections.

For example, if you have two stations A and B and a steel train connecting them, in traditional Simutrans, that train will carry any steel from A to B and any steel from B to A.  It is always a bidirectional connection.

With this patch, you can set a route:
  • Wait 100% load at A
  • Max. Load 0% at B

With such a route, steel will be carried from A to B, but never from B to A.  Using such routes, you can build a network free from deadlocks.  I hope I made it clear.

Quote from: whoami – on
Example: train has one capacity (X% of the total) for freight category A, and Y% for category B. To leave when enough of category A is loaded, set loading level to a value <= X. This ****umes that nothing of category B will be eligible there.

The patch doesn't work like that: suppose it is 40% steel, 60% wood.  You set max loading at 50%.  20% of steel and 30% of wood will be loaded if you have plenty of both at the station.
30
Bug Reports / Re: P****enger routing code?
Quote from: z9999 – on
Easy way to avoid deadlock is playing with "avoid_overcrowding=0".
You wrote a code to make deadlock and wrote a code to avoid deadlock.
Too funny. They are unnecessary code.

You are not being fair, z9999.  The story is different: I wrote a code to avoid overcrowding.  An unexpected side-effect is deadlocks.  So, I'm responsible and try to give some solutions (2) the best that I can (you have the option of following it or not, I have no special interest in it and I don't care very much if I'm right or wrong, I always try to do my best and sometimes I fail, that's the good thing of being human and not a machine).

You are saying something like this: "isidoro built a spring because he was thirsty.  The spring has a problem and some water goes into houses. So, please destroy the spring and die of thirst instead of trying to fix it".  Even you have tried to fix the spring yourself, so your sentence has no logic inside for me...  That's the good thing, btw, I like feelings much more than cold logic.  I'm a southern.  So, thanks anyway.
31
Simutrans Gaming Discussion / Re: Inconsistencies with ownership
I would add some:
  • Public player cannot connect to other player's railways
  • Public player cannot delete or take ownership of other's roads, though it can convert them in city streets
  • When electrifying tracks, only the first and last tile ownership is checked.  That way, you can take ownership of another player's track.  He will not be able to delete it afterwards.

Should public player be like a superuser?  Now, sometimes it is, sometimes not.
32
Bug Reports / Re: P****enger routing code?
@prissi:  good luck with it.  I hope I'm wrong.

Quote from: Dwachs – on
This requires to set the max-load to 0% ?

It's a possible solution.  To design a working network, you can draw and sketch.  Points will be stations and arrows from station 1 to 2 indicate that there may be goods in station 1 blocked because station 2 is full.  Whenever there is a loop in the drawing, there is a risk of deadlock.  Example, problem in B and C:

           /--->---\
A --->--- B         C ---<--- D
           \---<---/


This system is equivalent and will never be in a deadlock, for example:

 /--->--- B1 --->---\
A                   C ---<--- D
          B2 ---<---/


But there's a problem.  In present ST, whenever you build a route between two transfer stations two connections are automatically generated and a loop is automatically there and a risk of deadlock.  You need a means of doing "one-way connections", like the one in C --->--- B2 in the drawing.  That can be done easily with 0% load.  There would be a route like this one:
  • C
  • 0% max loading in B2

So, C is connected with B2, but B2 is not connected with C.  Hope I made my point clear.
33
Patches & Projects / Re: Overcrowding. Deadlocks. Max loading...
P****engers and goods behave the same, once they are generated.  But they behave very differently when they are generated (that's the main reason for they to be differently treated in this case, btw).  So, I can't see an exception here.  It's not like saying coal and wood will have different behaviors.  That would be an exception.

Can you give an example of the second?  I've been playing for some time and have seen none.
34
Forum / Re: Double post forum addon
Although I agree in general.  There are some very special circumstances in which double-posting is a need.  For example, issuing a new version of a patch, if you want to keep the previous one for reference.  Attachment size limitation forces double-posting.

Vilvoh, what about a more proactive behavior...  :police: :police:
One advice per person and, if not observed again, delete the double-post with a message: "this message was automatically deleted because of double-posting" and a link to the rule.

35
Bug Reports / Re: P****enger routing code?
@z9999: I've been working with deadlocks for a long time and, believe me, rerouting is not an alternative.  Your packet can go back and forth and, in between, the header stations can get flooded with new goods.  And that, considering that there is an alternative route.  It may not even exist.  Once a deadlock exists, it will never be solved by itself.  Your "complex enough" network will slowly "die" with more and more deadlocks until it eventually dies completely.

@whoami: reservations is not an alternative.  If you use reservations, the whole system has to be changed.  With reservations, a packet has to travel exactly as was designed at origin.  Delete a road, change a station and you will end with lots of stale reservations and goods rerouting for alternative ways with no reservations (new deadlocks).  You can solve that by cleaning the reservations when rerouting, but then, those reservations should be stored in packets themselves: not possible in present ST.

@ij: deadlocks may exist even with only one kind of goods.  So, it has nothing to do with it.  In the example, if you have 600 of wood in C going to D and 600 of wood in D going to C: deadlock.  So division should be done considering possible destination stations, not types of goods.  And since the capacity of a station for goods is a global quantity, we can treat goods as a whole.  No need to consider different types for this.

@whoami: even with one station per factory without max load, you can get deadlocks.  To your question about which are the "dangerous" stations, they are the ones with more than one connected station.  In the example, A, B, E, F and G are not dangerous: they are leaf-nodes.  In an example of A - B - C, with my max-loading patch, B can be made "not dangerous".  In normal ST, it always is.

In summary, to avoid the deadlock problem, you have two possibilities:
  • You guarantee there is a 0% chance of deadlocks, since a small probability will grow slowly since an established deadlock will survive forever
  • You allow deadlocks to be manually removed, like in whoami's idea, by destroying goods

An advanced mode together with max-loading is a 100% safe method if networks are well-designed (by an advanced player only, others can play with overcrowded stops), it's simple, it can solve other previous requests and it's already programmed.  Who can give more for less price?   ;D