OpenTTD
Encyclopedia
OpenTTD is an open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...

 and expansion of the 1995 Chris Sawyer
Chris Sawyer
Chris Sawyer is a Scottish computer game developer who is best known for designing and programming Transport Tycoon and the RollerCoaster Tycoon series.-Career:...

 video game Transport Tycoon Deluxe
Transport Tycoon
Transport Tycoon and Transport Tycoon Deluxe are computer games developed by Chris Sawyer and published by MicroProse in 1994 , and 1995...

. It is an "urban planning and simulation game" in which the player aims to earn money through transportation of passengers and freight by land, water and air.

OpenTTD duplicates most of Transport Tycoon Deluxes features but also has many additions, including a range of map sizes, support for many languages, custom (user-made) AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...

, downloadable customizations, ports for several widely used operating systems, and a more user friendly interface. OpenTTD also supports LAN
Län
Län and lääni refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010....

 and Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 multiplayer, both co-operative and competitive, for up to 255 players.

OpenTTD is under ongoing development and is a popular open source game. According to a study of the 61,154 open source projects on SourceForge
SourceForge
SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...

 in the period between 1999–2005, OpenTTD ranked 8th most active open source project to receive patches and contributions (after 2005 development moved to their own server). OpenTTD has been chosen as the favourite (free) game in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010 by users of the Hungarian Unix Portal.

History

The development of OpenTTD was driven by the desire to extend the capabilities of Transport Tycoon Deluxe to support user made additions to the graphics and gameplay. Furthermore users wanted to play the game on more modern operating systems and alternative computer architectures which Transport Tycoon Deluxe, which was released in 1994, programmed in assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...

 and designed for MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...

, did not support.

Previous modifications to Transport Tycoon Deluxe

There was a previous attempt to modify Transport Tycoon Deluxe to run on more modern operating systems. OpenTTD was preceded by a commercial conversion of Transport Tycoon Deluxe to run on Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...

 which was created in 1996, by the FISH technology group, but only released in 1999 as part of a compilation of older "Tycoon" games. Unfortunately this release was still greatly restricted in terms of operating systems and computer architectures it could run on. Similarly there was an earlier success aiming to open Transport Tycoon Deluxe up to modification by users. TTDPatch, initially created by Josef Drexler in 1996-7 and still being developed in 2010, changes the behaviour of Transport Tycoon Deluxe as it is running to introduce many new features to the game such as new graphics, vehicles, industries, etc. TTDPatch is, however, restricted by the same operating system and computer architecture limitations as Transport Tycoon Deluxe and has limited control over what features of the game can be altered.

Development of OpenTTD

In 2003 Ludvig Strigeus
Ludvig Strigeus
Ludvig Strigeus is a Swedish programmer best known for developing software such as the BitTorrent client µTorrent, OpenTTD, and ScummVM...

 announced he was intending to reverse engineer Transport Tycoon Deluxe and convert the game to C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....

. In 2004 this re-engineered Transport Tycoon Deluxe was released and christened "OpenTTD". This release was popular and OpenTTD, as of 2011, is still under active development.

The early development of OpenTTD focused on restructuring of the code to improve its readability and extensibility. This allowed restoration of features like sound and music, improvement of the user interface and introduction of new languages for the GUI. Many new gameplay features and possibilities for user modification were also added around this time, aiming to replicate the abilities of TTDPatch.
One major improvement was the reprogramming of multiplayer (network games) to use the internet protocol
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...

 allowing multiplayer gaming both online and over modern local networks.

By the late 2000s OpenTTD was a stable and popular game and development moved towards more substantial changes. 2007 saw the development of support for custom, user-made, AI
Ai
AI, A.I., Ai, or ai may refer to:- Computers :* Artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science* Ad impression, in online advertising* .ai, the ISO Internet 2-letter country code for Anguilla...

s, which can provide players with more of a challenge than the original AI. Other more major changes include introduction of support for IPv6
IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...

, integration of an integrated download system for user-made customisations and support for alternative base graphics, sound and music sets in 2009. Since 2007 OpenTTD has been gradually evolving into a game written in C++.

OpenTTD 1.0.0

Up until 2010 OpenTTD was reliant on the graphics, sound and music files from Transport Tycoon Deluxe. While OpenTTD itself was free software it required copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

 components of a commercial game in order to be played. Starting at the end of 2007 a large community effort worked to generate replacements for the 7000 2D
2D
2D or II-D may refer to:* 2-d, two-dimensional space* 2D geometric model* Bi-dimensional space* 2D computer graphics* 2D , a member of the virtual band Gorillaz* Oflag II-D* Stalag II-D* Transcription factor II D...

 sprites
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...

 which make up the graphics of the game. Similar community efforts to create free sound effects and music soon followed. When the graphics and sound effect replacement projects (OpenGFX and OpenSFX respectively) reached completion at the end of 2009 it was possible, for the first time, to play OpenTTD completely independently of Transport Tycoon Deluxe.
A music replacement set OpenMSX is also available. This was celebrated in early 2010 with the release of OpenTTD 1.0.0, named to reflect its new status as a fully stand-alone game.

Gameplay

OpenTTDs gameplay is very similar to Transport Tycoon Deluxe on which it is based, although there are many improvements in both options within the game and ease of use. The player's aim is to build a transportation network using trucks, busses, trains, aeroplanes and boats to link together industries and towns on the map and transport the cargo they produce. Every time a vehicle makes a delivery of some cargo the player receives an income allowing them to build more infrastructure (rails, stations, etc.), vehicles, modify the terrain and interact with towns (via their local authority). The default game runs from 1950 to 2050 during which a player aims to get as high a performance rating (based on number of vehicles, income, amount of cargo delivered, etc.) as possible.

The world map is dotted with both industries and towns. Cargo for transportation is supplied by both industries (e.g. the coal mine which produces coal) and towns (which produce passengers and mail) and accepted by other industries and/or towns according to their requirements (e.g. the power station accepts coal). Placing a station near a source and a receiver of a certain cargo allows transportation between the two. The amount of cargo supplied by a town or industry depends on the quality of transportation the player is providing to transport its goods. Payment for delivering cargo depends on the quantity of cargo delivered, how quickly it was delivered and how perishable it is. Some cargoes, e.g. passengers, have to be delivered more quickly than others, e.g. coal, in order to receive a good income.

During the course of the game the player has to build and expand their transport infrastructure. The only infrastructure present on the map at the start of the game are roads within towns, all other infrastructure; ports, stations, airports, rail and depots, have to be built by the player. The tools for building a rail network are particularly powerful and the player has access to many different signal types in order to build a complex and interconnected rail network.

During the course of the game technological improvements give the player access to newer faster and more powerful vehicles. In the case of rail transport new track technology also becomes available over time, first electrified rail then monorail and maglev
Maglev
Maglev is a form of rail transport using magnetic levitation.Maglev may also refer to:* Magnetic levitation, a method by which an object is suspended using magnetic fields* MagLev , a virtual machine for the Ruby programming language...

 track. In general newer vehicles cost more money to purchase and to run, the player has to have earned enough money in the earlier stages of the game in order to be able to afford to upgrade their vehicles. The full course of the default game, from 1950 to 2050, takes around 24 hours. The player can optionally start at earlier dates and play on past 2050, although no new technology becomes available.

OpenTTD can be played as a single player, against a computer controlled AI, or multiplayer both over a LAN or the Internet.

Multiplayer

OpenTTD supports multiplayer games for up to 255 players between 15 different transport companies can be played both over a LAN or over the Internet. Each transport company is in competition with each other transport company, and each transport company can be controlled by more than one player at any time. This allows both co-operative and competitive multiplayer games. Competitive team games (e.g. two transport companies, both controlled by three players) are also possible.

Mods and online content

OpenTTD supports extensive modification
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...

 for both single player and multiplayer games. Modifications come in the form of a "NewGRF" (New Graphics Resource File) and "NewObjects". NewGRFs package both new graphics (2D sprites) and the computer code which describes how the new graphics should be used. Many aspects of the game can be altered by NewGRFs, a NewGRF can introduce a complete new set of vehicles, new industries and the cargoes they produce, new town buildings, new rail graphics and behaviour, etc. NewObjects are eye-candy that contribute new graphics, but does not include any code that alters any game play. NewGRFs and NewObjects, along with heightmaps, scenarios and custom AIs, can be downloaded and installed using the "BaNaNaS" in-game online content system.

Platforms

Due to its use of Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms' graphics, sound, and input devices....

 cross-platform graphics and sound layers OpenTTD can be compiled and run on many different operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

s. The officially supported operating systems are:

  • BSDs, especially, FreeBSD
    FreeBSD
    FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...

    , NetBSD
    NetBSD
    NetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...

    , and OpenBSD
    OpenBSD
    OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...

  • GNU/Linux
  • Microsoft Windows
    Microsoft Windows
    Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

     95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7 (32-bit, 64-bit XP and later)
  • Solaris
  • Mac OS X
    Mac OS X
    Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

     (See note below)


Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

 was officially supported up until 2009 when the official port was discontinued. Problems compiling for the new version of Snow Leopard OS X, accumulating bug reports, and the lack of an OS X developer were reported as the reasons for this decision. However, official Mac OS X builds have been provided since December 2010, for the 1.1.x branch. Unofficial builds by third parties also exist for platforms such as AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4, , is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner...

, DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...

, MorphOS
MorphOS
MorphOS is an Amiga-compatible computer operating system. It is a mixed proprietary and open source OS produced for the Pegasos PowerPC processor based computer, PowerUP accelerator equipped Amiga computers, and a series of Freescale development boards that use the Genesi firmware, including the...

, RISC OS
RISC OS
RISC OS is a computer operating system originally developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England for their range of desktop computers, based on their own ARM architecture. First released in 1987, under the name Arthur, the subsequent iteration was renamed as in 1988...

 and others.

There are also many unofficially supported devices, such as Android phones and the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...


Reception

OpenTTD has been praised for the amount of improvements it has made to the original Transport Tycoon Deluxe, such as the AI, graphics, sounds and ability to play multiplayer.

See also

  • Simutrans
    Simutrans
    Simutrans is a cross-platform simulation game in which the player strives to run a successful transport system by transporting goods, passengers, and mail between places. Along with OpenTTD, Simutrans is an open source remake of Transport Tycoon...

  • Transport Tycoon
    Transport Tycoon
    Transport Tycoon and Transport Tycoon Deluxe are computer games developed by Chris Sawyer and published by MicroProse in 1994 , and 1995...

  • TTDPatch

External links

  • OpenTTD Wiki Manual and Resources for users and developers alike.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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