I've just made this animated graphic for a stop, to test how the moving graphics look like inside the game. It's a big steel crane over an empty loading platform. You can download it here (http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/building.SteelCraneStation.pak.7z), and beware when using it, as I used the empty platform icon, you will see two empty platform icons in the menu: just wait for the tooltip to appear and select the one with name SteelCraneStation.
Please I would like to know your opinion guys, not for this station graphic but for generic animated graphics in stations/stops (I thought mostly in goods stops). Would you find them cool? Would you find them tiring because of gfx looping? Do you have other thoughts on it?
Personally, I find them both cool but tiring after a while...
I wonder -writing as I'm thinking- what would it look like having one animated tile in all goods stations. Maybe it could be better if the animation could be configured -example run 1 cycle and sleep 5 or 10- so it's not repeating all the time.
I'm looking forward reading about your impressions on this! :)
I haven't downloaded it yet, but it already sparks an extension request: an option for "animate only while loading/unloading" - or rather, *start* an animation sequence if there's a loading/unloading event at that platform; at the end of the sequence, check to see if unloading/loading still ongoing, and loop again if so.
Hopefully, this would:
- loop animation while loading or unloading
- for convois waiting for more goods/mail/p****, only spark the animation when actual loading happens. :)
So I'll come back and download and test this in a bit, but it already sounds awesome. :D
I love this station and I love the idea! :)
It adds life to otherwise boring station platforms, a definite plus in my book. Personally I find monotonous stops without any visible activity to be more tiring than seeing the crane move back and forth, would be great with a container yard adjacent to it. ;D
I also like Issac's idea of having the animation activate when a train is stopped at the platform..
Adding an animation only when the loading state of a stop changes (although inclusing p****engers and mail) is not very difficult.
How about this possibility - I'm thinking of bus stops:
1. Empty station gets the standard graphic
2. 1/4 full, 1/2 full, 3/4 full, and 100% full (or "overcrowded") gets their own images
You could totally paint p****engers waiting for a bus... or freight waiting for pickup
That would be very interesting, and would help avoiding monotony in animations
That's a ttd feature which I always liked ;D
Maybe you could use the same system as vehicles, with empty and freight images.
Today I have tried to download it ... but no file.