KotCity 0.49.3 (last updated 4/13/2018): an open source city simulator

[LivingInThePast 364]

3 hours ago, kotcity said:

Yes it does. Let me know if it doesn't work... I tried to ensure anything > 1300x700 would be fine.

I know I need some kind of education model but haven't totally settled on an approach. If you can provide your notes, please do.

I thought about it some more and I think that it should go with the whole NIMBY/YIMBY model (schools are YIMBY)--but only if they're in the right zone. Additionally, kots will settle in nice areas before schools are built in many cases. It's all explained under the vastly expanded section on the City Life classes. (a lot of this is copied from my old document that I found). What the document needs next time is better integration but at least it has an index this time... https://www.pdf-archive.com/2018/04/02/city-dreams-2-0/

 

58 minutes ago, Ganaram Inukshuk said:

I see myself leaning towards talking about the transportation aspect and some modelling, so in celebration of March 32th, I have this:

Part 1 of the Custom Road Builder: building the roads. Let me know if there's anything missing that I also need to account for.

The road presets should be self-explanatory, but they include every basic road (IE, no parking zones, no bike lanes, no special shoulders, no widened sidewalks, etc...) possible within the given road base widths. Each road base has 2m sidewalks along each side (by default), all lanes are 3 meters wide (except in special cases where they are 4m wide instead; I would like some help figuring out what to do to with those), and medians are also 4m wide. Tiny shoulder areas may be absent on some roads, present on others.

Road bases start at 4m wide and go up from there by multiples of 4, possibly up to 64m. For the sake of demonstration, I only went up to 32m. Also, the visual representations for the presets look so good, I'm tempted to suggest having these as the icons for each preset.

As of the road components, here they are. Note that the nonzero widths are default widths; the widths can be adjusted.

• Curb
  • No curb (asphalt fades into dirt; 0m)
  • Curb but no sidewalk (0m)
  • Curb and sidewalk (2m)
• Shoulder and parking
  • None (0m)
  • Mini shoulder (1m)
  • Parallel parking (2m)
  • Angled parking (4m)
  • Perp. parking (5m)
• Medians
  • Raised (4m)
  • Barrier (4m)
  • Decorated (4m)
  • Turn lane (4m)
• Lanes
  • Standard (3m)
  • Bidirectional or reversible (3m)
  • Bike (2m)
  • Bus (3m)
  • Tram (3m)
• The lane separators should be self-explanatory. (Double yellow lines should also be included, but those aren't represented properly in the illustration.)

Implementing CuRB to its fullest extent is still far off, but it wouldn't hurt to share this. Also, this is what I mean by "some lanes will be slightly wider in weird cases". I haven't been able to work on the icons as of late due to spring break ending.

Very nice! I haven't broken down what needs to be there and doesn't need to be there (the fourth "painted median" should be wider). From what I've seen (almost always in Texas), if there's a physical median (which can be concrete or occasionally filled with dirt and trees), it doesn't have yellow stripes, and it often "thins out" near intersections to create a left hand turn lane. Example can be seen here, and it's similar for double-wide medians. The double-wide medians can be used to make double turn lanes.

 

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Oh jeez, I forgot to explain: those buffer spaces (I made them their own categories now) are also variable width; they're just shown at their smallest size.

I made a few changes to the CuRB proposal by rearranging the marking types a little bit.

As of the yellow lines alongside the physical median, some places have the line, some places don't even bother; SoCal seems to do both; I'd rather have it there, but I took it out to make the median sizes clearer and sometimes the line's hard to spot.

I want to explain this more in-depth with the next part of the CuRB proposal, but here's an example of customisation. Medians are 4m by default, but they're also variable size, so things like this can happen with the appropriate transition nodes and presets:

Here's a prime example of a mini-median and a mini-buffer on opposing sides of the same intersection; the upper two examples represent those median setups.

The bottom two examples represent a jumbo-sized median narrowing down to make way for two turn lanes, but the bottom-most example represents a mini-median and a mini-buffer close to each other.

I'll explain more when I can draw up the graphic, but here's something to consider. Hint: this is the 32m road base.

[Propfam 2,315]

Sorry to my vacuum on ST and the repo. How I contribute correctly to the repo? I've contributed to the repo, but my recent (not now, but few weeks ago) changes was denied by @sabieber because it's too drastic (and even removes a crazy FAQ point). Also, how do I contribute significant like @sabieber did?

Replies are useful. Thanks.

[kotcity 110]

17 hours ago, chfzdn said:

Also, how do I contribute significant like @sabieber did?

What do you mean?

[Propfam 2,315]

24 minutes ago, kotcity said:

What do you mean?

I mean you should give steps to contribute significant changes (revamped UI, police station, fire station etc) like @sabieber.

Thanks.

[kotcity 110]

1 minute ago, chfzdn said:

I mean you should give steps to contribute significant changes (revamped UI, police station, fire station etc) like @sabieber.

Thanks.

Sure thing, join the chat channel and people will be glad to answer your questions. Glad to have excited contributors!

[LivingInThePast 364]

I'm preparing a small document on how intersections and road rules work. I'll try to scan that soon. Due to some difficulties with my tablet, I'll have to scan it...

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Apologies for putting off the icons for too long (spring break came and went and then classes started up), but I figured I have enough icons worth sharing.

I also have the .SVG file for the icons as well.

I've still yet to explain how roads in general are laid down; since I have in mind a grid-dependent implementation (and chunk-loading), I would also have to include UML class diagrams to explain what I'm talking about (if anyone knows what that is, it's something you learn if you ever become a software engineer).

kotcity_icons.svg

[Propfam 2,315]

38 minutes ago, Ganaram Inukshuk said:

Apologies for putting off the icons for too long (spring break came and went and then classes started up), but I figured I have enough icons worth sharing.

I also have the .SVG file for the icons as well.

I've still yet to explain how roads in general are laid down; since I have in mind a grid-dependent implementation (and chunk-loading), I would also have to include UML class diagrams to explain what I'm talking about (if anyone knows what that is, it's something you learn if you ever become a software engineer).

kotcity_icons.svg

OK, your icon is good. But, please make the strokes consistent in size because inconsistent in size strokes make some part of strokes difficult to see. You can see the inspiration at https://material.io/guidelines/style/icons.html#icons-system-icons.

Thanks.

[kotcity 110]

1 hour ago, Ganaram Inukshuk said:

Apologies for putting off the icons for too long (spring break came and went and then classes started up), but I figured I have enough icons worth sharing.

I also have the .SVG file for the icons as well.

I've still yet to explain how roads in general are laid down; since I have in mind a grid-dependent implementation (and chunk-loading), I would also have to include UML class diagrams to explain what I'm talking about (if anyone knows what that is, it's something you learn if you ever become a software engineer).

kotcity_icons.svg

I've just added SVG support to the engine Release coming today.

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

13 minutes ago, kotcity said:

I've just added SVG support to the engine Release coming today.

I've been wondering how SVG support worked; does that include cutting up a .SVG image like a sprite sheet, and if so, do I have to fix the icons in place and in a certain order?

53 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

OK, your icon is good. But, please make the strokes consistent in size because inconsistent in size strokes make some part of strokes difficult to see. You can see the inspiration at https://material.io/guidelines/style/icons.html#icons-system-icons.

Thanks.

Sigh... That's gonna be hard to do if I have to scrap everything and start over...

[kotcity 110]

2 minutes ago, Ganaram Inukshuk said:

I've been wondering how SVG support worked; does that include cutting up a .SVG image like a sprite sheet, and if so, do I have to fix the icons in place and in a certain order?

Take a look at the src on GitHub... all the icons are loaded from folders, all separate files. For instance, the assets folder has a great deal of them. The game ALSO supports PNG if we need to use it (it's currently used for the UI buttons.. I've converted all buildings to be SVG)

[kotcity 110]

KotCity 0.49.2

https://github.com/kotcity/kotcity/releases/tag/0.49.2

New in this version

* Districts by @sabieber, initial version, more features to come!
* performance improvements by @sabieber
* Improved UI (added some nice labels)
* Vector Graphic (SVG) assets are now supported!
* Some fixes to railway (still buggy, but getting better!)
* railways by @moonpatroller

Known bugs

* Railway navigation might be a little fluky, we are working on it.
* All the other bugs

More to come!!!

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

1 minute ago, kotcity said:

Take a look at the src on GitHub... all the icons are loaded from folders, all separate files. For instance, the assets folder has a great deal of them. The game ALSO supports PNG if we need to use it (it's currently used for the UI buttons.. I've converted all buildings to be SVG)

Hmm, the hard part now is cutting up one .SVG file into individual .SVGs; there's an online tool that supposedly does that, but I've yet to try it.

[kotcity 110]

Just now, Ganaram Inukshuk said:

Hmm, the hard part now is cutting up one .SVG file into individual .SVGs; there's an online tool that supposedly does that, but I've yet to try it.

I THINK inkscape can automate that. (That's what I use for my graphics)

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Just now, kotcity said:

I THINK inkscape can automate that. (That's what I use for my graphics)

Wait, what?! I'd like to know this process.

[kotcity 110]

3 minutes ago, Ganaram Inukshuk said:

Wait, what?! I'd like to know this process.

https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/51592/save-multiple-objects-from-vector-file-to-separate-files-using-inkscape-os-freew

[velrox 39]

is road x railways crossing supported or not

[kotcity 110]

16 hours ago, velrox said:

is road x railways crossing supported or not

Yes but its drawn clumsily now.

[Propfam 2,315]

How about using rolling release as the game's development model? By Wikipedia definition, rolling is the concept of delivering updates frequently to the app. Unlike standard or point release, it doesn't use software version but major version maybe added for convenience. For instance, Solus 3 linux distro only provide the GNOME Settings app in that era, but if you update it using the package manager, the Settings app updated to the new version as possible which the app view is splited into 2 parts, settings and its content (like Settings on Android tablet). Wikipedia said it can be used in the development of any pieces or collections of software (assets, codes, OS' apps etc). We may try to this model to see this model is working for applications like games.

Also, I also curious if this model is applied to apps like 7-Zip and Bitcoin Core. If succeed, this will change our view on software development. Thanks.

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Hmm...

I'm letting the screenshot do the talking for me, but keep in mind that since I don't have a 1440p or 2160p monitor, I can only show a small part of the icon set at 100% size.

[kotcity 110]

On 4/9/2018 at 5:16 AM, chfzdn said:

How about using rolling release as the game's development model? By Wikipedia definition, rolling is the concept of delivering updates frequently to the app. Unlike standard or point release, it doesn't use software version but major version maybe added for convenience. For instance, Solus 3 linux distro only provide the GNOME Settings app in that era, but if you update it using the package manager, the Settings app updated to the new version as possible which the app view is splited into 2 parts, settings and its content (like Settings on Android tablet). Wikipedia said it can be used in the development of any pieces or collections of software (assets, codes, OS' apps etc). We may try to this model to see this model is working for applications like games.

Also, I also curious if this model is applied to apps like 7-Zip and Bitcoin Core. If succeed, this will change our view on software development. Thanks.

I am currently shipping updates every few days. Does this match up to the proposed release method?

[kotcity 110]

15 hours ago, Ganaram Inukshuk said:

Hmm...

I'm letting the screenshot do the talking for me, but keep in mind that since I don't have a 1440p or 2160p monitor, I can only show a small part of the icon set at 100% size.

I'm trying to fix a few bugs after adding in some buildings. I then plan to do a release and then work on schools. I'd like to use that education icon

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Well, here's the icon set. There should be enough icons for a menu system plus a few extra icons for other things such as graphs, charts, counters for population and money, some random things, and so on. Other icons may be added as needed (such as the hamburger stack icon, which is trivial to do). (I don't expect all of the extra icons on the right to be used; some of those are just completely random things I wanted to try to make.)

I've not separated them into individual .SVG files just yet and the red is on a separate layer; the red (which was originally blue) is to make the icons stand out from the otherwise white background and that layer can be hidden or changed.

Think it's time for me to break out the blender...

kotcity_icons_2.svg

 

[Flat Raver 59]

13 hours ago, Ganaram Inukshuk said:

Well, here's the icon set. There should be enough icons for a menu system plus a few extra icons for other things such as graphs, charts, counters for population and money, some random things, and so on. Other icons may be added as needed (such as the hamburger stack icon, which is trivial to do). (I don't expect all of the extra icons on the right to be used; some of those are just completely random things I wanted to try to make.)

I've not separated them into individual .SVG files just yet and the red is on a separate layer; the red (which was originally blue) is to make the icons stand out from the otherwise white background and that layer can be hidden or changed.

Think it's time for me to break out the blender...

kotcity_icons_2.svg

 

How did you get the holes in the individual vector objects (e.g. headlights on the bus icon)? I wanted to edit this icon library by adding a palette icon.

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

40 minutes ago, Flat Raver said:

How did you get the holes in the individual vector objects (e.g. headlights on the bus icon)? I wanted to edit this icon library by adding a palette icon.

Simple. Create the hole as a separate object, put it on top of the object you want to put a hole in, then do Path -> Difference.

[Propfam 2,315]

On 4/10/2018 at 6:43 PM, kotcity said:

I am currently shipping updates every few days. Does this match up to the proposed release method?

According to the Wikipedia pages, it doesn't work just updating in small pieces. Here's the excerpt from the wiki (text is copyright of Wikimedia Foundation, licensed in Creative Commons 3.0 ShareAlike License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/):

Quote

In software development, a rolling release, rolling update, or continuous delivery is the concept of frequently delivering updates to applications.[1][2][3] This is in contrast to a standard or point release development model which uses software versions that must be reinstalled over the previous version.

Rolling release development models are one of many types of software release life cycles. Although a rolling release model can be used in the development of any piece or collection of software, it is often seen in use by Linux distributions, see rolling distribution.

A rolling release is typically implemented using small and frequent updates. However, simply having updates does not automatically mean that a piece of software is using a rolling release cycle; for this, the philosophy of developers must be to work with one code branch, versus discrete versions. When the rolling release is employed as the development model, software updates are typically delivered to users by a package manager on the user's personal computer, accessing through the internet a remote software repository (often via a download mirror) stored on an internet file server.

Sorry if I make mistakes. Thanks.

[kotcity 110]

KotCity 0.49.3

Howdy folks! We are keeping it going! Lots of new buildings, performance tweaks and general overall progress!

New in this version

• Fix for bad collision detection by @sabieber
• Optimizations to pathfinding
• General performance improvements (uses a lot less memory / CPU now!)
• Lots of new buildings

Download at https://github.com/kotcity/kotcity/releases/tag/0.49.3

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

3D's a long way's off, but I can't help but share this:

And on the topic of trees, forests. Would it be reasonable to have forests be procedurally generated, apart from also having the SC2K-like implementation of planting trees? (There aren't any trees in the game, aren't there?)

Also, I tried out the game for about 5 minutes and I'm already impressed by the building variety, and it's an interesting coincidence that I brought up trees because as I was typing this, this happened:

Quick note about how I textured the trees: yes, that's how they're supposed to look: featureless and flat. I'm in love with the low-poly art style, perhaps a little too much...

 

[kotcity 110]

On 4/14/2018 at 1:35 AM, Ganaram Inukshuk said:

And on the topic of trees, forests. Would it be reasonable to have forests be procedurally generated, apart from also having the SC2K-like implementation of planting trees? (There aren't any trees in the game, aren't there?)

Yes... I would like to have trees like SC2k and they will even serve as a weak pollution sink.