You can obtain built binaries of OpenTTD for the 4 supported platforms - Win32, Linux,-x86, BeOS 5 and MacOS-X from the projects Sourceforge page, at http://sourceforge.net/projects/openttd . For the non-Win32 builds you will need libSDL.so, libpng.so and zlib.so compiled for your platform. Some builds will include these. 

If you use another platform, such as FreeBSD, which has POSIX file i/o and an SDL port, you should be able to build OpenTTD from its source. This is available in the proejcts Subversion repository at svn://svn.openttd.com . The module name is "trunk". 

On Windows, insert your "Transport Tycoon Deluxe for Windows 95" disk. You can use a DOS version, but your graphics will be purple. NB: Even if your version of Transport Tycoon Deluxe ran on Windows 95, it may still be the DOS version. Then run the OpenTTD installer. 

On UNIX platforms; decompress your OpenTTD archive, or otherwise run the installer. You should be left with an OpenTTD directory on your system. In this directory, make a subdirectory called 'data', and into this place the sample.cat file and all the .grf files from the install CD of 'Transport Tycoon Deluxe for Windows 95". 

OpenTTD's launch menu contains three configuration menus - Difficulty Settings, Configure Patches and Game Settings. Most of these menus can be configured from within a running game as well. 

In OpenTTD, you can build rail stations up to seven squares long and with up to seven platforms. You can also have stations spreading across far larger distances, allowing a large rail station to be connected to a large airport, for instance. 

Checkpoint stations (the small blue item in the rail construction window) are small 1x1 stations. They must be built on top of pre-existing track. They do not accept or produce carge of any kind. They exist solely for use as route points. They become useful when dealing with large networks  where trains may attempt to route themselves along undesirable or impossible routes. As an alternative to checkpoint stations, you can also direct trains to visit depots along the way. This has the advantage of also servicing the train and hence the train will rarely to never need to depart from its route to be serviced. 

OpenTTD allows you to constuct bridges up to 127 squares - half the size of the current map. This means that the crossing of large estuaries, such at the Bristol Channel in the original "West Country 90210" scenario can be acheived with one bridge instead of many bridges with staging points. 

2.11 Network Play 

This button, at the end of the water construction window, lets you build canals and shiplifts across the landscape. These act just like normal water.

The game adds some items by itself when it runs, like a save folder and a setting file

    Written for revision $Rev: 710 $

14th March 2004

-0941694	Clipping problems stations/vehicles on slopes

Send your ideas for this document to my email address.  I also maintain an accunt with tt-forums.net.  It's RaggieSoft.

Ships:

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Set the YAPF (Yet Another Path Finder) type in the "Configure Pathes/Vehicles/YAPF for ships":

 - 0 - No YAPF (NPF or old PF)

 - 1 - YAPF type 1 (Node = Tile/Trackdir, 90 deg. turns allowed)

 - 2 - YAPF type 2 (Node = Tile/ExitDir , 90 deg. turns allowed)

 - 3 - YAPF type 3 (Node = Tile/Trackdir, no 90 deg.)

 - 4 - YAPF type 4 (Node = Tile/ExitDir , no 90 deg.)

Set the "npf_max_search_nodes" value in your openttd.cfg to tune the pathfinder behavior.

This value tells, how many nodes (Tile/Trackdir or Tile/ExitDir) combinations the pathfinder

should visit before it ends. The lower number would mean quicker, but less accurate results.

The "npf_max_search_nodes" value is shared between NPF and YAPF and has the same meaning.

The pathfinder without such limit would be unusable on large maps, where number of visited

nodes can exceed 10 milions. NPF on my machine (dual code AMD 4400+) with 1 milion of nodes

visited took 2 minutes to finish, but with this limit set to 10000 it takes 20 miliseconds.

The new YAPF had similar results (18 seconds vs. 4 miliseconds).

Road Vehicles:

==============

Set the YAPF (Yet Another Path Finder) type in the "Configure Pathes/Vehicles/YAPF for road vehs":

 - 0 - No YAPF (NPF or old PF)

 - 1 - YAPF type 1 (Node = Tile/Trackdir, 90 deg. turns allowed)

 - 2 - YAPF type 2 (Node = Tile/ExitDir , 90 deg. turns allowed)

Trains:

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Same types as for ships:

 - 0 - No YAPF (NPF or old PF)

 - 1 - YAPF type 1 (Node = Tile/Trackdir, 90 deg. turns allowed)

 - 2 - YAPF type 2 (Node = Tile/ExitDir , 90 deg. turns allowed)

 - 3 - YAPF type 3 (Node = Tile/Trackdir, no 90 deg.)

 - 4 - YAPF type 4 (Node = Tile/ExitDir , no 90 deg.)