The magic of SRNW (Self-Regulating Networks)

As you might have seen a guide about self-regulating SBahn was recently added to our Wiki. As #openttdcoop thinks large, we took it a step further and created a complete Self-Regulating Network (SRNW) in our current PublicServerGame (#121). You should definitely check the guide first, to get a better idea of what this article is about.
Though the key points stay the same and I’ll explain them to give you an overview how the network works.
Self-Regulating Network Teaser

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Timelapse Patch on a PSG

In the public server game PSG #117 (r14508) I tested the timelapse patch by Roujin. It allows you to create screenshots automatically at a given interval. The screenshots can be converted to a movie with a program like mencoder.
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YAPP in Trunk

Exactly 42 commits were necessary to merge the ‘Yet Another Path Based Signaling Patch’ a.k.a. [YAPP] to the trunk (information from developer). We reported about this interesting patch in february ’08 first and played a PBS game on our Public Server.
I am really looking forward how popular YAPP will get and how it’ll be used in the upcoming games. PBS makes a lot of things much easier, but we should also check how it affects system resources: i.e. cpu usage.
All in all its great to see a patch (of this size) after almost half a year in trunk.

Well done 🙂

#openttdcoop vs. AI

Yesterday evening we had mostly spontaneous hit at testing some of the new AIs which are around for the NoAI branch which is currently very actively developed for OpenTTD. Using r13726-noai loaded with 2x convoy (written by GeekToo) and 1x AdmiralAI (written by Yexo), the team of Ammler, Mucht, Osai, dihedral and myself set out to have a measure on the playing strength of the current AIs. Later Tim joined in on us. Yexo, the creator AdmiralAI, of one of the best AI around (see tournament chart), supervised the AIs and took care of the general setup.
Terminal 2 - one of our starting terminals

Terminal2 and the adjacent town – one end of our initial rail line. We haven’t been alone there since the very beginning.

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Yet Another PBS Patch

Yet Another PBS Patch or in short YAPP is a new engine of pathfinding, which enables trains to share track blocks.
YAPP train leaving station

In this article we wrote about this new engine before and now we are testing it on our Public Server Game 101. Right after our jubilee game a new step in the development of Open TTD. YAPP requires new building techniques as in different signalling and different station entry/ exit layouts. Join us in playing and testing this feature on the public server now!