#openttdcoop

Hurraaaay…
we finally released the #openttdcoop – NewGRF package v5.
There are a lot of changes since v4:

• added Serbian standard rail set
• added Thgergo’s bridges
• added new bridges
• updated av8
• added some the Tram Sets
• added Canadian Stations

For more details you might also want to check the Package History

Downloads:

• Zip: Download (10 MB)
• Rar: Download (8.6 MB)
• 7-Zip: Download (7.8 MB)
• tar: Download (10 MB)

You can find more Information on our Wiki-Page and enjoy gaming with the newest release of the #penttdcoop NewGRF Package.

After more than a week of abstinence caused by the reparation of my PC I want to give you some details about the Grand Southern Station of the Public Server Game #44. The Station handles 343 trains*, because all primary tier and secondary tier trains go through one big station area and use it to unload. The unloading consists of 34 platforms separated into 3 major areas (2x 12 platforms; 1x 5+5 platforms), because we have 3-track mainline. To ensure a high flexibility all incoming tracks can access all areas (orange: 1, 2 & 3). We used the Shift Mainlines Concept in this network and therefor I gave some penalties to some intersections of major areas, otherwise they would’ve been jammed very fast. In fact, I had to balance the SML-like traffic.
After the unloading platforms, I had to split primary and secondary tier trains. Primary trains just go back to their stations, but i.e. empty goods trains should load directly goods afterwards and transport them to the northern station (the secondary tier trains are never empty idea).
Finally I mixed all trains again and joined them again to a 3-track-mainline. The final joiner is a very compact 9>3 joiner. It misses some flexibility, but the practise showed it works very well and fluid. XeryusTC added some priority lines which smoothes the train traffic.
It took me almost the whole game to build, balance and optimise this station.
So here is my little warning:

Don’t try this at home 🙂

* the number of trains is quite relative depending on the type of map and size
in this case ~65 trains entered the station per month

We have prepared a testing version (5beta), mostly with trams. For those, who don’t like to download to much, there is also a update pack with about 2 Megs. Enjoy the new grfs…

As you may have noticed, we have had some trouble with spambots on the wiki. To prevent further abuse, a reCAPTCHA will have to be filled out when registering or when adding an external link. The latter may change later (as it’s kinda double).

Yes, the reCAPTCHA in the register screen looks kinda fooked, but hey, it works 😉

reCAPTCHA example:

(yes, ugly white background. {{sofixit}})

stillunknown created an awesome patch which reduces the CPU usage quite a bit. The idea is to reduce the train collision checks with a sort of cache instead of a an on-going loop (details @ tt-forums).
Tonight we did some tests how this patch affects the game and it is quite impressing. I don’t want to say this is was a real performance test, but we checked the CPU load with a patched and an unpatched version of OpenTTD (r10048). My local machine was used as the server (PPC G5 2GHz) and as references we used Public Server Game #09 and Game #34.

The Results (vary with network layout, amount of trains and so on):
cpu usage in percent
Game#34: w/o patch: ~45%; patched: ~40% (~700 trains)
Game#09: w/o patch: ~67%; patched: ~50% (~1300 trains)

Especially games with a big mainline loop profit from this great patch.