Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Readme
Readme
Table of contents
-----------------
1.0) About
2.0) Contacting
* 2.1) Reporting bugs
* 2.2) Reporting desyncs
3.0) Supported platforms
4.0) Installing and running OpenTTD
* 4.1) (Required) 3rd party files
* 4.2) OpenTTD directories
* 4.3) Portable installations (portable media)
* 4.4) Files in tar (archives)
5.0) OpenTTD features
* 5.1) Logging of potentially dangerous actions
6.0) Configuration file
7.0) Compiling
* 7.1) Required/optional libraries
* 7.2) Supported compilers
* 7.3) Compilation of base sets
8.0) Translating
* 8.1) Translation
* 8.2) Previewing
9.0) Troubleshooting
10.0) Licensing
X.X) Credits
1.0) About
---- -----
OpenTTD is a transport simulation game based upon the popular game Transport
Tycoon Deluxe, written by Chris Sawyer. It attempts to mimic the original
game as closely as possible while extending it with new features.
OpenTTD is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2.0,
but includes some 3rd party software under different licenses. See the
section "Licensing" below for details.
2.0) Contacting
---- ----------
The easiest way to contact the OpenTTD team is by submitting bug reports or
posting comments in our forums. You can also chat with us on IRC (#openttd
on irc.oftc.net).
After you have done all that you can report the bug. Please include the
following information in your bug report:
* OpenTTD version (PLEASE test the latest SVN/nightly build)
* Bug details, including instructions how to reproduce it
* Platform (Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, ...) and compiler (including version) if
you compiled OpenTTD yourself.
* The processor architecture of your OS (32 bits Windows, 64 bits Windows,
Linux on an ARM, Mac OS X on a PowerPC, ...)
* Attach a saved game *and* a screenshot if possible
* If this bug only occurred recently please note the last version without
the bug and the first version including the bug. That way we can fix it
quicker by looking at the changes made.
* Attach crash.dmp, crash.log and crash.sav. These files are usually created
next to your openttd.cfg. The crash handler will tell you the location.
To enable the desync debugging you need to set the debug level for 'desync'
to at least 1. You do this by starting OpenTTD with '-d desync=<level>' as
parameter or by typing 'debug_level desync=<level>' in OpenTTD's internal
console.
The desync debug levels are:
0: nothing.
1: dumping of commands to 'commands-out.log'.
2: same as 1 plus checking vehicle caches and dumping that too.
3: same as 2 plus monthly saves in autosave.
4 and higher: same as 3
When a desync has occurred with the desync debugging turned on you should file
a bug report with the following files attached:
- commands-out.log as it contains all the commands that were done
- the last saved savegame (search for the last line beginning with
'save: dmp_cmds_' in commands-out.log). We use this savegame to check
whether we can quickly reproduce the desync. Otherwise we will need...
- the first saved savegame (search for the first line beginning with 'save'
where the first part, up to the last underscore '_', is the same). We need
this savegame to be able to reproduce the bug when the last savegame is not
old enough. If you loaded a scenario or savegame you need to attach that.
- optionally you can attach the savegames from around 50%, 75%, 85%, 90% and
95% of the game's progression. We can use these savegames to speed up the
reproduction of the desync, but we should be able to reproduce these
savegames based on the first savegame and commands-out.log.
- in case you use any NewGRFs you should attach the ones you used unless
we can easily find them ourselves via bananas or when they are in the
#openttdcoop pack.
Do NOT remove the dmp_cmds savegames of a desync you have reported until the
desync has been fixed; if you, by accident, send us the wrong savegames we
will not be able to reproduce the desync and thus will be unable to fix it.
OpenTTD looks in multiple locations to find the required data files (described
in section 4.2). Installing any 3rd party files into a 'shared' location has
the advantage that you only need to do this step once, rather than copying the
data files into all OpenTTD versions you have.
Savegames, screenshots, etc are saved relative to the config file (openttd.cfg)
currently being used. This means that if you use a config file in one of the
shared directories, savegames will reside in the save/ directory next to the
openttd.cfg file there.
If you want savegames and screenshots in the directory where the OpenTTD binary
resides, simply have your config file in that location. But if you remove this
config file, savegames will still be in this directory (see notes in
section 4.2 'OpenTTD directories')
OpenTTD comes without AIs, so if you want to play with AIs you have to download
them. The easiest way is via the 'Check Online Content' button in the main menu.
You can select some AIs that you think are compatible with your playing style.
Another way is manually downloading the AIs from the forum although then you
need to make sure that you install all the required AI libraries too; they get
automatically selected (and downloaded) if you get the AIs via the 'Check
Online Content'. If you do not have an AI but have configured OpenTTD to start
an AI a message will be shown that the 'dummy' AI has been started.
For OpenTTD you need to acquire some third party data files. For this you have
the choice of using the original Transport Tycoon Deluxe data files or a set
of free data files.
Do NOT copy files included with OpenTTD into 'shared' directories (explained in
the following sections) as sooner or later you will run into graphical glitches
when using other versions of the game.
4.1.4) AIs
------ ---
If you want AIs use the in-game content downloader. If for some reason that is
not possible or you want to use an AI that has not been uploaded to the content
download system download the tar file and place it in the ai/ directory. If the
AI needs libraries you will have to download those too and put them in the
ai/library/ directory. All AIs and AI Libraries that have been uploaded to
the content download system can be found at http://noai.openttd.org/downloads/
The AIs and libraries can be found their in the form of .tar.gz packages.
OpenTTD can read inside tar files but it does not extract .tar.gz files by
itself.
To figure out which libraries you need for an AI you have to start the AI and
wait for an error message to pop up. The error message will tell you
'could not find library "lib-name"'. Download that library and try again.
Notes:
- Linux in the previous list means .deb, but most paths should be similar for
others.
- The previous search order is also used for NewGRFs and openttd.cfg.
- If openttd.cfg is not found, then it will be created using the 2, 4, 1, 3,
5 order. When built with XDG base directory support, openttd.cfg will be
created in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/openttd which is usually ~/.config/openttd.
- Savegames will be relative to the config file only if there is no save/
directory in paths with higher priority than the config file path, but
autosaves and screenshots will always be relative to the config file.
Unless the configuration file is in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/openttd, then all
other files will be saved under $XDG_DATA_HOME/openttd.
OpenTTD sees each tar archive as the 'root' of its search path. This means that
having a file with the same path in two different tar files means that one
cannot be opened, after all only one file will be found first. As such it is
advisable to put an uniquely named folder in the root of the tar and put all the
content in that folder. For example, all downloaded content has a path that
concatenates the name of the content and the version, which makes the path
unique. For custom tar files it is advised to do this as well.
The normal files are also referred to by their relative path from the search
directory, this means that also normal files could hide files in a tar as
long as the relative path from the search path of the normal file is the
same as the path in the tar file. Again it is advised to have an unique path
to the normal file so they do not collide with the files from other tar
files.
* Ctrl modifies many commands and makes them more powerful. For example Ctrl
clicking on signals with the build signal tool changes their behaviour, holding
Ctrl while the track build tool is activated changes it to the track removal
tool, and so on. See http://wiki.openttd.org/Hidden_features for a non-
comprehensive list or look at the tooltips.
* Ingame console. More information at
http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/Console
* Hovering over a GUI element shows tooltips. This can be changed to right click
via the advanced settings.
You can show the game log by typing 'gamelog' in the console or by running
OpenTTD in debug mode.
7.0) Compiling
---- ---------
Windows:
You need Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Open the project file
and it should build automatically. In case you want to build with SDL support
you need to add WITH_SDL to the project settings.
PNG (WITH_PNG) and ZLIB (WITH_ZLIB) support is enabled by default. For these
to work you need their development files. For best results, download the
openttd-useful.zip file from http://www.openttd.org/download-openttd-useful
Put the header files into your compiler's include/ directory and the
library (.lib) files into the lib/ directory.
For more help with VS see docs/Readme_Windows_MSVC.txt.
You can also build it using the Makefile with MSYS/MinGW or Cygwin/MinGW.
Please read the Makefile for more information.
Linux/Unix:
OpenTTD can be built with GNU 'make'. On non-GNU systems it is called 'gmake'.
However, for the first build one has to do a './configure' first.
MacOS X:
Use 'make' or Xcode (which will then call make for you)
This will give you a binary for your CPU type (PPC/Intel)
However, for the first build one has to do a './configure' first.
To make a universal binary type './configure --enabled-universal'
instead of './configure'.
BeOS:
Use 'make', but do a './configure' before the first build.
MorphOS:
Use 'make'. However, for the first build one has to do a './configure' first.
Note that you need the MorphOS SDK, latest libnix updates (else C++ parts of
OpenTTD will not build) and the powersdl.library SDK. Optionally libz,
libpng and freetype2 developer files.
OS/2:
A comprehensive GNU build environment is required to build the OS/2 version.
See the docs/Readme_OS2.txt file for more information.
DOS:
A build environment with DJGPP is needed as well as libraries such as
Allegro, zlib and libpng, which all can be downloaded from the DJGPP
website. Compilation is straight forward: use make, but do a './configure'
before the first build. The build binary will need cwsdpmi.exe to be in
the same directory as the openttd executable. cwsdpmi.exe can be found in
the os/dos/cwsdpmi subdirectory. If you compile with stripping turned on a
binary will be generated that does not need cwsdpmi.exe by adding the
cswdstub.exe to the created OpenTTD binary.
OpenTTD does not require any of the libraries to be present, but without
liblzma you cannot open most recent savegames and without zlib you cannot
open most older savegames or use the content downloading system.
Without libSDL/liballegro on non-Windows and non-MacOS X machines you have
no graphical user interface; you would be building a dedicated server.
If any of these compilers can compile OpenTTD again, please let us know.
Patches to support more compilers are welcome.
8.0) Translating
---- -----------
See http://www.openttd.org/development for up-to-date information.
If for some reason the website is down for a longer period of time, the
information below might be of help.
8.1) Translation
---- -----------
So, now that you have notified the development team about your intention to
translate (You did, right? Of course you did.) you can pick up english.txt
(found in the SVN repository under /src/lang) and translate.
You must change the first two lines of the file appropriately:
##name English-Name-Of-Language
##ownname Native-Name-Of-Language
8.2) Previewing
---- ----------
In order to view the translation in the game, you need to compile your language
file with the strgen utility. As this utility is tailored to a specific OpenTTD
version, you need to compile it yourself. Just take the normal OpenTTD sources
and build that. During the build process the strgen utility will be made.
strgen lang/german.txt
This results in compiling german.txt and produces another file named german.lng.
Any missing strings are replaced with the English strings. Note that it looks
for english.txt in the lang subdirectory, which is where your language file
should also be.
That is all! You should now be able to select the language in the game options.
9.0) Troubleshooting
---- ---------------
To see all startup options available to you, start OpenTTD with the
'./openttd -h' option. This might help you tweak some of the settings.
If the game is acting strange and you feel adventurous you can try the
'-d [[<name>=]<level>]' flag, where the higher levels will give you more
debugging output. The 'name' variable can help you to display only some type of
debugging messages. This is mostly undocumented so best is to look in the
source code file debug.c for the various debugging types. For more information
look at http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/Command_line.
The most frequent problem is missing data files. Please install OpenGFX and
possibly OpenSFX and OpenMSX. See section 4.1.1 for more information.
With the added support for font-based text selecting a non-latin language can
result in lots of question marks ('?') being shown on screen. Please open your
configuration file (openttd.cfg - see Section 4.2 for where to find it)
and add a suitable font for the small, medium and / or large font, e.g.:
small_font = "Tahoma"
medium_font = "Tahoma"
large_font = "Tahoma"
You should use a font name like 'Tahoma' or a path to the desired font.
Any NewGRF file used in a game is stored inside the savegame and will refuse
to load if you do not have that NewGRF file available. A list of missing files
can be viewed in the NewGRF window accessible from the file load dialogue window.
You can try to obtain the missing files from that NewGRF dialogue or - if they
are not available online - you can search manually through our forum's graphics
development section (http://www.tt-forums.net/viewforum.php?f=66) or GrfCrawler
(http://grfcrawler.tt-forums.net/). Put the NewGRF files in OpenTTD's newgrf folder
(see section 4.2 'OpenTTD directories') and rescan the list of available NewGRFs.
Once you have all missing files, you are set to go.
10.0) Licensing
----- ---------
OpenTTD is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2.0. For
the complete license text, see the file 'COPYING'. This license applies
to all files in this distribution, except as noted below.
X.X) Credits
---- -------
The OpenTTD team (in alphabetical order):
Albert Hofkamp (Alberth) - GUI expert (since 0.7)
Matthijs Kooijman (blathijs) - Pathfinder-guru, Debian port (since 0.3)
Ulf Hermann (fonsinchen) - Cargo Distribution (since 1.3)
Christoph Elsenhans (frosch) - General coding (since 0.6)
Loc Guilloux (glx) - Windows Expert (since 0.4.5)
Michael Lutz (michi_cc) - Path based signals (since 0.7)
Owen Rudge (orudge) - Forum host, OS/2 port (since 0.1)
Peter Nelson (peter1138) - Spiritual descendant from newGRF gods (since
0.4.5)
Ingo von Borstel (planetmaker) - General coding, Support (since 1.1)
Remko Bijker (Rubidium) - Lead coder and way more (since 0.4.5)
Jos Soler (Terkhen) - General coding (since 1.0)
Leif Linse (Zuu) - AI/Game Script (since 1.2)
Inactive Developers:
Jean-Franois Claeys (Belugas) - GUI, newindustries and more (0.4.5 - 1.0)
Bjarni Corfitzen (Bjarni) - MacOSX port, coder and vehicles (0.3 - 0.7)
Victor Fischer (Celestar) - Programming everywhere you need him to (0.3 -
0.6)
Jaroslav Mazanec (KUDr) - YAPG (Yet Another Pathfinder God) ;) (0.4.5 -
0.6)
Jonathan Coome (Maedhros) - High priest of the NewGRF Temple (0.5 - 0.6)
Attila Bn (MiHaMiX) - WebTranslator 1 and 2 (0.3 - 0.5)
Zdenk Sojka (SmatZ) - Bug finder and fixer (0.6 - 1.3)
Christoph Mallon (Tron) - Programmer, code correctness police (0.3 - 0.5)
Patric Stout (TrueBrain) - NoProgrammer (0.3 - 1.2), sys op (active)
Thijs Marinussen (Yexo) - AI Framework, General (0.6 - 1.3)
Retired Developers:
Tams Farag (Darkvater) - Ex-Lead coder (0.3 - 0.5)
Dominik Scherer (dominik81) - Lead programmer, GUI expert (0.3 - 0.3)
Emil Djupfeld (egladil) - MacOSX port (0.4 - 0.6)
Simon Sasburg (HackyKid) - Bug fixer (0.4 - 0.4.5)
Ludvig Strigeus (ludde) - Original author of OpenTTD, main coder (0.1 -
0.3)
Cian Duffy (MYOB) - BeOS port / manual writing (0.1 - 0.3)
Petr Baudi (pasky) - Many patches, newgrf support, etc. (0.3 - 0.3)
Benedikt Brggemeier (skidd13) - Bug fixer and code reworker (0.6 - 0.7)
Serge Paquet (vurlix) - 2nd contributor after ludde (0.1 - 0.3)
Thanks to:
Josef Drexler - For his great work on TTDPatch.
Marcin Grzegorczyk - For his TTDPatch work and documentation of
Transport Tycoon Deluxe internals and track foundations
Stefan Meiner (sign_de) - For his work on the console
Mike Ragsdale - OpenTTD installer
Christian Rosentreter (tokai) - MorphOS / AmigaOS port
Richard Kempton (RichK67) - Additional airports, initial TGP implementation
Alberto Demichelis - Squirrel scripting language
L. Peter Deutsch - MD5 implementation
Michael Blunck - For revolutionizing TTD with awesome graphics
George - Canal graphics
Andrew Parkhouse (andythenorth) - River graphics
David Dallaston (Pikka) - Tram tracks
All Translators - For their support to make OpenTTD a truly
international game
Bug Reporters - Thanks for all bug reports
Chris Sawyer - For an amazing game!