Software / Installation

On these pages I assume that one has a working installation of TTDPatch or OpenTTD at hand, I also assume that certain switches and settings are set and activated, because without them various features do not work. In order to get to that point, you can follow the short installation guide below.

Installation

TTDPatch

1. Installing Transport Tycoon Deluxe

   On any Windows newer than Windows 98, only the Windows version of the game will work, but of only when being used with TTDPatch.

   To install the game, you only need to run setup.exe, tell the installer where to install the game to and that's it. However, you cannot run the game straight away, it will complain an "Error reading registry!"

2. Patch the registry
   

   This step is optional, TTDPatch will circumvent any registry problems automatically. However, the game might start with wrong settings for graphics and sound then.

   To patch the registry you need to download the TTD Registry Editor. The content of the archive needs to be unzipped into the folder where you installed the game in the previous step. Now you start the registry editor, set up graphics and sound to your liking and save the settings. That solves the registry error, but now you get another message complaining about impossible access to the game CD (which is complete nonsense...).

3. Install TTDPatch

   The newest version of TTDPatch can be found at the directory for nightly releases. You will be interested in the windows version, which is named something like TTDPatch-nightly-rXXXX-win32.zip, with a version number instead of the XXXX. Download this file and unzip the contents of the archive into the folder where the game is installed.

4. Download base graphics

   TTDPatch uses additional graphics for certain features. These so-called base graphics can be downloaded from the homepage of TTDPatch. Now you have to create a folder inside the game folder, name this new folder "newgrf" (without the quotation marks). Extract the contents of the base graphics archive into this new folder and you are ready.

   The game has to be started by running ttdpatchw.exe!

OpenTTD

1. Transport Tycoon Deluxe

   OpenTTD needs some graphics and sound files from the original game (Windows version), so you need to have a copy at hand. You do not need to install it, the OpenTTD installer just needs to find the files somewhere on your computer.

2. Download OpenTTD

   Choose the correct version for your system on the Download page of OpenTTD.org. The easiest way would probably be an installer as executable file.

3. Install OpenTTD

   To install OpenTTD you just execute the installer program and follow the directions given in the following menus. If you have installed Transport Tycoon Deluxe on your computer, the installer will find it automatically, otherwise you will have to point it to the location of the needes files. And that's all, you can now start playing.

Configuration

In these guides I assume that the default settings are used, so only settings that really have to be changed in order to follow these guides are given here. You should really take the time to read about the meaning of every setting and tweak the game to your likings.

TTDPatch

All settings are done inside a configuration file. This is named ttdpatch.cfg and will be created in the game directory when you first run the Patch. The file is a simple text file, you can open and edit it with the Windows text editor.

For each setting there is a short description, more detailed explanations can be found on the homepage of TTDPatch. You can find descriptions of each and every setting there.

If changing around a text file is too complicated or cumbersome, you might want to try the configuration program TTDPC. Using this utility, all settings can be changed via a graphical user interface.

You should change the following settings in order to follow these guides:

• advzfunctions on

  This is needed to enable diagonal rails under bridges.

• mountains 3333

  Realistic acceleration for railways and road vehicles at mountains should be enabled.

• curves 3333

  A more realistic calculation for curve speeds is strongly suggested.

• experimentalfeatures.signalgui on

  The graphical interface for signals is necessary for several other additions.

• signal1waittime 255
  signal2waittime 255

  At signals showing "Stop!", one-way or two-way, trains should wait forever instead of turning around and looking for alternative ways. This usually does not work, and in a well-constructed network a signal will switch to "Go!" eventually.

• presignals off

  Automatic changing of signals into presignal has become obsolete since the arrival of path-based signalling. At the places where presignals are still useful, I prefer to set them myself.

OpenTTD

Just about every setting in OpenTTD can be accessed via menus in the game. These settings are described in the OpenTTD-Wiki in all detail.

Some advanced options can be set by editing the necessary lines in the configuration file "openttd.cfg". This is a simple text file which can be opened and edited using the Windows text editor.

I changed the following settings in this file:

• wait_oneway_signal = 255
  wait_twoway_signal = 255
  wait_for_pbs_path = 255

  At signals showing "Stop!", one-way or two-way, trains should wait forever instead of turning around and looking for alternative ways. This usually does not work, and in a well-constructed network a signal will switch to "Go!" eventually.

Graphics

There is a countless number of "mods" for the game. These can be new vehicles, additional industries, changed graphics for signals, stations and houses and so on. These sets come in the form of grf-files (a TTDX-specific format).

The most important page to look for such additions is the homepage of grfcrawler. Most sets can be found here, complete with descriptions and links for further information. Discussions about sets and their development usually take place in the graphics forum at tt-forums.

Even though it might be tempting to just add as many additional graphics sets to the game as possible, this should not be done: Most sets are not compatible with each other. In the best case, they just deactivate themselves, in the worst case they influence each other, so that for example the costs for vehicles shoot through the roof and normal gameplay becomes impossible!

TTDPatch

All new graphics sets are usually copied into a folder named newgrf inside the game directory. In order to use these sets in the game, the set has to be added to another configuration file. This file is called newgrfw.cfg and resides in the game directory. If it does not yet exist, you can simply create it with the text editor.

In this file, all graphics sets are listed. Every graphics set should come with a readme file giving installation directions, and telling you about the line that needs to be added to the configuration file. Many sets also check that various settings of TTDPatch are set in certain ways and will complain otherwise. If that is the case, you will have to change your configuration (see above).

Typically, several graphics sets will be used, so the file newgrfw.cfg might look like this:

newgrf/jsignals.grf      // graphics for new signals
newgrf/dbsetxlw.grf 6    // DBSetXL
newgrf/indstatrw.grf     // new industrial stations
newgrf/newstatsw.grf     // new stations
newgrf/dutchcatw.grf     // dutch catenary
newgrf/BKTunw.grf        // new tunnels
newgrf/total_bridges.grf // total bridge replacement set
newgrf/treesw.grf        // new tree graphics
newgrf/newshipsw.grf     // new ships
newgrf/PlaneSetw.grf     // plane set
newgrf/newwaterw.grf     // new water
newgrf/germanrvw.grf     // GermanRV set

This is a part of my own configuration, for you this will probably look a bit different. None of these sets is required to understand the guides on these pages (jsignals.grf and newstatsw.grf are quite useful nonetheless).

OpenTTD

Graphics sets are added to the game by copying the grf-file into the data-directory inside the OpenTTD folder. Then you can manage the sets in a specific menu from within the game.

Even though it is possible to change around the sets used in the game during gameplay, you should never do that. It will fail almost always, because vehicle properties might get changed or industries suddenly accept other cargos, or whatever else you would not have thought of.

A second option in OpenTTD is the possiblity to download online content. There is an extra menu for that, which can be accessed from the main menu. Contents you have downloaded can be activated just like any other set afterwards.