Implement Object Loading Functions [#1739, #1746, #1747, #1749, #1752, #1753, #1758, #1759]
The main focus of this month has been implementing the object loading functions. When the game loads an object from file it has a header which specifies many of the properties of the object but there are a number of fields within the header that are left empty. It is the object loading function that fills in those empty spaces. In general it is for dynamically sized data such as strings, images and animation maps. Locomotion has been designed cleverly so that these dynamic elements are in one memory allocation. A singular memory allocation improves the loading time and may also marginally improve the game speed. Almost all of the object loading functions have now been implemented but a few of the more tricky ones remain for next month.
Config Enum Flags [#1760]
Special thanks to @leslieyip02 for this pull request (and his future one[s] that will be into next months release). This was start of rolling out the Enum Flags that were added last month.
Improve the OpenLoco First-Run Experience [#1764]
In order for OpenLoco to run, the original Locomotion game asset files are needed. In many cases, the game is able to automatically detect its location. However, if that wasn’t the case, a prompt would be displayed asking to locate the Locomotion folder manually. The phrasing for this prompt was quite spartan, however, which led to some confusion. We have rephrased the prompt messages, so the first-run experience should be markedly improved as of v23.01.