Add v24.11 release dev log (#25)

* Add initial blog post

* Address comments

* Apply suggestions

* Add image

* Update time

Author: duncanspumpkin

_posts/2024-11-28-openloco-v24.11.md

@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+---
+title:      "OpenLoco version 24.11"
+tagline:    "Release blog post"
+author:     "Duncan Frost"
+date:       2024-11-28 20:20:00 +0000
+layout:     single
+classes:    wide
+categories: news
+
+gallery:
+  - url: /assets/img/24.11.NewTrains.png
+    image_path: /assets/thumbs/24.11.NewTrains.png
+    alt: "Seven new trains"
+    title: "OpenGraphics initial release"
+
+---
+
+OpenLoco v24.11 is out! In this release we've added our initial OpenGraphics objects,
+finished all of the 'paint' code, and fixed a bunch of bugs.
+
+For a complete summary of changes, please find the
+[OpenLoco changelog](https://github.com/OpenLoco/OpenLoco/releases/tag/v24.11) on GitHub.
+
+## Assorted bug fixes (#2623, #2676, #2678, #2690, #2691, #2708, #2717, #2721, #2723, #2726, #2729, #2731, #2732, #2735, #2752, #2770)
+
+It's been a real bumper month of bug fixes. Myself, @LeftOfZen, @AaronVanGeffen and new contributor
+@LeeSpork all fixed a bunch of crashes and bugs. Check the changelog for further details of all the
+fixes. Please do keep identifying bugs and crashes and reporting them on Discord or on Github. The
+main reason this month has had so many fixes is due to more reports rather than last months release
+being particularly bug prone. If there is a particular bug that you know about that hasn't been 
+fixed, please raise the issue on Discord there might be a reason it can't be addressed or perhaps we
+have just forgotten about it.
+
+## Add initial OpenGraphics objects (#2697)
+
+@SteveEmfore has created 7 vehicle objects and @LeftOfZen created 14 cargo objects for the
+OpenGraphics project. The OpenGraphics project aims to create replacements for all vanilla
+objects. All of the objects will have slightly different names and look different but the stats of
+the vehicles will be identical to vanilla. It is planned that we will incrementally improve the
+objects. @DazWizzle has also created some road vehicles for the project but they were not ready for
+this initial release.
+
+{% include gallery %}
+
+Next month I plan to add basic asset pack support. The plan is that when the OpenLoco asset pack
+is enabled any newly created scenarios will automatically switch objects to use the OpenGraphics
+equivalent objects. Opening a save will not cause any object switching it will only work on
+starting new scenarios. For now the default asset pack will be vanilla so there will be no
+automatic object switching.
+
+## Widget refactoring (#2674, #2675)
+
+Continuing from last month @ZehMatt has been trying to improve the GUI widgets so that they work in
+a more logical way. There is still a good bit to do on this but it's slowly getting there. Once this
+work is complete we should be able to simplify how creating UI windows work making it easier to add
+new features.
+
+## Misc audio refactoring (#2699, #2700)
+
+New contributor @LeeSpork has been reworking the audio system this month. He has cleaned up and
+simplified the music playlist selection. Audio in general is one area where we have fully
+reimplemented all vanilla code so it is ripe for new features and general improvements. We look
+forward to seeing what @LeeSpork has in mind.
+
+## Finish the paint functions (#2737, #2738, #2744, #2755, #2757)
+
+@ZehMatt expressed an interest in improving how the 'paint' system worked. The one issue though
+was there was still one or two functions that hadn't been implemented preventing the improvements.
+After a quick review of what was outstanding I decided to bash out the final functions. The final
+functions were road stations, tram pylons, supports and bridges. Please be on the lookout for any
+display issues with those particular areas this release.
+
+In the vanilla code the paint functions take up a huge percentage of the codebase: ~20%. It's a great
+milestone knowing that that is finally behind us. With this system finished expect a bunch of
+improvements in drawing over the coming months. For example we could: add multithreading support to greatly
+improve performance; or split the UI from the viewport to allow scaling the UI and viewport
+independently. Also with all this code implemented we know how everything is drawn in the game. If
+you are a mod creator we can tell you exactly in what situations an image is used. We could also
+add new drawing code for new mod features!
+
+## Simulate and compare on CI (#2765)
+
+To verify that we haven't accidentally changed the simulation of the game we like to run a couple
+of saves for a fixed amount of time. You can then compare the result against a reference. As the
+simulation is deterministic the two saves should always match. This has been very useful when
+implementing new game commands but as it's run locally by each developer it can often be forgotten.
+@ZehMatt decided to fix this by running this test on the CI server which builds the game. For now
+this can only be done after a change has been merged but at least we know straight away which pull
+request broke things.