OpenTTD discussion

[Tom Cumming]

I've just discovered this rather cool open source clone of TTD. Is
discussion about OpenTTD welcome in this newsgroup?

Thanks.

[Boudewijn Dijkstra]

Post by Tom Cumming
I've just discovered this rather cool open source clone of TTD. Is
discussion about OpenTTD welcome in this newsgroup?

IMHO, OpenTTD is just as related to TTD as TTDPatch and TTDAlter, only on a
deeper level, because it's a complete game. And unlike Simutrans, it claims
to be a clone.

[Boudewijn Dijkstra]

Post by Boudewijn Dijkstra

Post by Tom Cumming
I've just discovered this rather cool open source clone of TTD. Is
discussion about OpenTTD welcome in this newsgroup?

IMHO, OpenTTD is just as related to TTD as TTDPatch and TTDAlter, only
on a deeper level, because it's a complete game. And unlike
Simutrans, it claims to be a clone.

Conclusion: yes.

[Tom Cumming]

Post by Boudewijn Dijkstra
Conclusion: yes.

Cool. I have a feeling that tt-forums.net will probably have more
people on it who use it, but I prefer proper NNTP to all this
web-based stuff. ;)

Here's the first question (well, 2 questions) to kick us off then:

I'm running the latest version under Mandrake Linux 10. Graphics
is a 32Mb Geforce2Go on a 1400x1050 laptop panel, using the latest
NVidia linux drivers. When i start the game up, it appears in a
window, and it will let me change the resolution to anything upto
1280x1024, but if I try to go to the full 1400x1050 then it
crashes. If I switch to full screen mode, then 1280x1024 is the
highest resolution possible. Does anyone know how to fix this? (i
know there is not a lot of difference between 1280x1024 and
1400x1050 (and both are a vast improvement on TTD's 640x480!) but
TFT screens always look better running at their "native" resolution.

Secondly - the graphics are a little on the sluggish side when
there are lots of vehicles on the screen at the same time. A bit
like TTD used to be on my old 486/66, but this laptop's got a 1Ghz
processor so it ought to be able to handle it. Is there any way I
can improve the graphics performace a bit?

Many thanks.

[Owen Rudge]

Post by Tom Cumming
I'm running the latest version under Mandrake Linux 10. Graphics
is a 32Mb Geforce2Go on a 1400x1050 laptop panel, using the latest
NVidia linux drivers. When i start the game up, it appears in a
window, and it will let me change the resolution to anything upto
1280x1024, but if I try to go to the full 1400x1050 then it
crashes. If I switch to full screen mode, then 1280x1024 is the
highest resolution possible. Does anyone know how to fix this? (i
know there is not a lot of difference between 1280x1024 and
1400x1050 (and both are a vast improvement on TTD's 640x480!) but
TFT screens always look better running at their "native" resolution.

OpenTTD uses SDL on Linux for its graphics, so you may want to ask around on
the SDL site at www.libsdl.org. It could just be that your driver doesn't
support it - can you get X into that resolution?

Post by Tom Cumming
Secondly - the graphics are a little on the sluggish side when
there are lots of vehicles on the screen at the same time. A bit
like TTD used to be on my old 486/66, but this laptop's got a 1Ghz
processor so it ought to be able to handle it. Is there any way I
can improve the graphics performace a bit?

Reducing the size of the window is really the best way at the moment. Maybe
something will be done about this in the future.

[Tom Cumming]

Post by Owen Rudge
OpenTTD uses SDL on Linux for its graphics, so you may want to ask around on
the SDL site at www.libsdl.org. It could just be that your driver doesn't
support it - can you get X into that resolution?

Yup, KDE is running at 1400x1050 straight off.

Post by Owen Rudge
Reducing the size of the window is really the best way at the moment. Maybe
something will be done about this in the future.

OK thanks.

I might download the Windows version and see how performance
compares - I'm a bit new to Linux to be honest..

[Michael Rodgers]

I might download the Windows version and see how performance compares -
I'm a bit new to Linux to be honest..

I've obviously been letting my anti-linux MSN based propaganda slip of late
;)

[Hristo Todorov]

Hi Tom,
In fact i play openttd for 3 month now.It apears Owen I'm with 0.3.3
version build from sources, Redhat 9 (in fact it's not since i customized
it a bit), kernel 2.6.7 witk ck patches. The computer is a ibm r40e
laptop, with 2.4 celeron, ati igp340, the version of X is 4.3 tree,
patched again.

As for the first problem - screensize - I prefer to set it ro 800x600 (in
fact it does not matter, then use the maximize button to maximize my
windows - the button and message bar a convinietluy positioned at the
center ot the top and bottom edge. I am not sure why it crashes for your
resulution, but try this. I suspect it is an issue with the backing
buffer allocated by the game fro prerendering the visual into sdl.

The second problem - speed.
In fact i have the reverseproblem. No matter what is my cpu speed (it can
go down to 300mhz) the game runs fast. With ot witout vehicles on screen
one game year is slightly more than 5 minutes. I usually play a little
more than 11 years for an hour.

Even with timidity to play the music there is no difference (timidity
actually consumer less than 2% cpu time for software synthesiser - great)

Some hours ago I subscribed to the developemnt list at sourceforge - it
happens that Owen is the admin of that list.

I am about to post there a bunch of suggestion of possible ways to enhance
the gameplay ot openttd.

Post by Tom Cumming

Post by Boudewijn Dijkstra
Conclusion: yes.

Cool. I have a feeling that tt-forums.net will probably have more
people on it who use it, but I prefer proper NNTP to all this
web-based stuff. ;)
I'm running the latest version under Mandrake Linux 10. Graphics
is a 32Mb Geforce2Go on a 1400x1050 laptop panel, using the latest
NVidia linux drivers. When i start the game up, it appears in a
window, and it will let me change the resolution to anything upto
1280x1024, but if I try to go to the full 1400x1050 then it
crashes. If I switch to full screen mode, then 1280x1024 is the
highest resolution possible. Does anyone know how to fix this? (i
know there is not a lot of difference between 1280x1024 and
1400x1050 (and both are a vast improvement on TTD's 640x480!) but
TFT screens always look better running at their "native" resolution.
Secondly - the graphics are a little on the sluggish side when
there are lots of vehicles on the screen at the same time. A bit
like TTD used to be on my old 486/66, but this laptop's got a 1Ghz
processor so it ought to be able to handle it. Is there any way I
can improve the graphics performace a bit?
Many thanks.

[Owen Rudge]

Post by Hristo Todorov
In fact i have the reverseproblem. No matter what is my cpu speed (it can
go down to 300mhz) the game runs fast. With ot witout vehicles on screen
one game year is slightly more than 5 minutes. I usually play a little
more than 11 years for an hour.

If you download the latest nightly build, from
http://openttd.rulez.org/download/nightlybuilds/, the graphics speed should
be a bit faster now - a patch was recently applied to help speed it up.

Post by Hristo Todorov
Some hours ago I subscribed to the developemnt list at sourceforge - it
happens that Owen is the admin of that list.

Unfortunately the list isn't all that well-used. The forums and the IRC room
(irc.freenode.net #openttd) are the best ways of contacting the developers.

[Hristo Todorov]

Hi Owen
I'm not telling it is slow - i'm tellig the oposite - it is quite
fast, a low faster than the original. I don't have the time to spend
all my money even with silly building. I've double checked, it's not
in fast forward.
I said 300mhz just to assues the rest that the speed should be enough
to run the game fine.

Then where should i post my suggestions about it?

Post by Owen Rudge

Post by Hristo Todorov
In fact i have the reverseproblem. No matter what is my cpu speed (it can
go down to 300mhz) the game runs fast. With ot witout vehicles on screen
one game year is slightly more than 5 minutes. I usually play a little
more than 11 years for an hour.

If you download the latest nightly build, from
http://openttd.rulez.org/download/nightlybuilds/, the graphics speed should
be a bit faster now - a patch was recently applied to help speed it up.

Post by Hristo Todorov
Some hours ago I subscribed to the developemnt list at sourceforge - it
happens that Owen is the admin of that list.

Unfortunately the list isn't all that well-used. The forums and the IRC room
(irc.freenode.net #openttd) are the best ways of contacting the developers.

[Owen Rudge]

Post by Hristo Todorov
I'm not telling it is slow - i'm tellig the oposite - it is quite
fast, a low faster than the original. I don't have the time to spend
all my money even with silly building. I've double checked, it's not
in fast forward.

Oh, OK - that's good news then!

[Benji147461027]

Owen,

That's not good news. Read the message!

~Ben>> I'm not telling it is slow - i'm tellig the oposite - it is quite

Post by Owen Rudge

Post by Hristo Todorov
fast, a low faster than the original. I don't have the time to spend
all my money even with silly building. I've double checked, it's not
in fast forward.

Oh, OK - that's good news then!

~Ben

[Ol' Duffer]

Post by Tom Cumming
I've just discovered this rather cool open source clone of TTD.
Is discussion about OpenTTD welcome in this newsgroup?

How about posting a link for the rest of us?

[Tom Cumming]

Post by Ol' Duffer
How about posting a link for the rest of us?

Good idea. The main homepage http://www.openttd.com/ is not
working at the moment, but you can get hold of the game via the
Sourceforge project page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/openttd .

[Owen Rudge]

Post by Tom Cumming
Good idea. The main homepage http://www.openttd.com/ is not
working at the moment, but you can get hold of the game via the
Sourceforge project page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/openttd .

There's also plenty of information and help at the OpenTTD section of
www.tt-forums.net.