OpenTTD - Android Port

[gcVoL]

Hi ,

First of all, thanks for this great game.

Then, I think (and I hope) you will be able to help me, please; so, you may have tried the Android version of OpenTTD and some of you may have played it on phone.
The problem I have is... "how to play ?" . On the startup configuration, I choose an emulation mouse for "small display (phone)": and, when I put a finger on the screen, the focused area is zoomed into a kind of new window (the targetables buttons are thus larger and are expected to be more easily reachable), but I can't click with another finger on any button of this new area. So, how to click ......
I add that the touchpad emulation works fine (but I think it seems to be less convenient than the zoom system... for which I'm not smart enough to make it work ).

Thanks a lot,

[thphwh]

The android port is very hard to use on small phones and I've never got it to work.

[Terkhen]

The android port is not official, which means that the OpenTTD developers did not created the port and that we weren't contacted by the port creator either. Therefore we can't help you with your issues; you need to contact the developer of the port.

That said, I tried the port on my new phone a few days ago. Although I applaud the effort of porting OpenTTD to a new platform (the more the merrier ) it saddened me to see that the game is barely playable. OpenTTD is designed to work with a mouse and using a minimal resolution of 640 x 480, and that shows when you force it to run on a smaller screen while trying to select stuff with something way bigger than a mouse pointer.

In my opinion, to make OpenTTD work on android, it is not enough to solve the porting itself. To be playable on a small touchscreen, OpenTTD would also need a new interface, more suited to this kind of devices.

[Supercheese]

It works fine for me, but that's because I use a Toshiba Thrive, which has a large enough resolution to play; the Big GUI GRF helps too.

Still, I vastly prefer a desktop/laptop computer for OTTD.

[Chris]

Large enough screen size - the better the resolution is, the smaller the GUI buttons would be.

[gcVoL]

Thanks for your answers.

I just add another post to indicate that a new version has been released yesterday... with the same issue ...


Some screenshots about the zoom system, which seems to be a good idea for phones:

[Lukenwolf]

You have to see it, to believe it When TTD came out you needed a full blown PC to run it and mobile phones were the size of a laptop bag and heavier than Belgium. Now we play OTTD on them

[FooBar]

heavier than Belgium

You just made me LOL there

[Eddi]

heavier than Belgium.

is that an element?

[Alberth]

Must be an European element then

[wonkotsane]

I have tried playing the Android port on my Galaxy Tab 10.1" and it's poor.

[doktorhonig]

It could be quite usable with a bluetooth mouse. Does it display a cursor?

[YNM]

I have tried playing the Android port on my Galaxy Tab 10.1" and it's poor.

Hmm, played on Galaxy Tab 7.0+ and Note, its all running good. Even on Galaxy Ace.

Except that i can't export NewGRF from my computer (or are there actually any way to do it)

[cachila]

it works well if you got a phone with key board with arrows

[YNM]

it works well if you got a phone with key board with arrows

Nope, mine don't use any of them, you just need to get used with the arrow ofsets

[Dreedo]

I have been playing Pelya's OTTD port from Google Play. I presume that's what everyone else has been using?

Unfortunately it looks like it got removed from Google Play a few days ago, so I'm guessing it isn't being developed anymore...

It was playable, even in network mode with Windows PC's and Linux. And the latest patch made it more usable on touchscreens which was good... Shame it appears to have stopped...

As long as you stuck to 256x256 it was playable, and 128x128 was fine even in the long-run.

[planetmaker]

Unfortunately it looks like it got removed from Google Play a few days ago, so I'm guessing it isn't being developed anymore...

See http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... 8#p1048918

[pelya]

Hi ,
Then, I think (and I hope) you will be able to help me, please; so, you may have tried the Android version of OpenTTD and some of you may have played it on phone.
The problem I have is... "how to play ?" . On the startup configuration, I choose an emulation mouse for "small display (phone)": and, when I put a finger on the screen, the focused area is zoomed into a kind of new window (the targetables buttons are thus larger and are expected to be more easily reachable), but I can't click with another finger on any button of this new area. So, how to click ......
I add that the touchpad emulation works fine (but I think it seems to be less convenient than the zoom system... for which I'm not smart enough to make it work ).

All those wacky mouse emulation modes are provided by SDL, not by OpenTTD.
When you tap the screen near the mouse cursor - it will generate left mouse click. To click and drag - touch near mouse cursor, hold for a second, then drag, you can navigate around a map this way.
When you're touching the screen with another finger - it will generate a right mouse click (OpenTTD still depends on it in some dialogs, this will hopefully be fixed someday, and hopefully not by me).
When you touch anywhere away from the mouse cursor - the cursor just follows your finger, without clicking.

I guess I'll have to provide a bit of documentation about that feature. What do you think about popup text window, when the application starts for the first time? (annoying, I know)
Or maybe just create a video with me playing, and put it to the app description? (There is a video, with someone playing OpenTTD on PC, it won't show you how to use the touchscreen-emulated mouse).
Or maybe add a border around the area where you have to touch to generate a click? I can also add vibration, to show you that the click happened, and two vibrations for a click-and-drag situation, but oh well, you may wish to throw your phone into the wall if you try to play like this for an hour.

There are also two modes for tiny displays, they are even more wacky, you may try them just for fun - I did not get any opinions about them yet.

[ItsClipZz]

The android port is not official, which means that the OpenTTD developers did not created the port and that we weren't contacted by the port creator either. Therefore we can't help you with your issues; you need to contact the developer of the port.

That said, I tried the port on my new phone a few days ago. Although I applaud the effort of porting OpenTTD to a new platform (the more the merrier ) it saddened me to see that the game is barely playable. OpenTTD is designed to work with a mouse and using a minimal resolution of 640 x 480, and that shows when you force it to run on a smaller screen while trying to select stuff with something way bigger than a mouse pointer.

In my opinion, to make OpenTTD work on android, it is not enough to solve the porting itself. To be playable on a small touchscreen, OpenTTD would also need a new interface, more suited to this kind of devices.

That said, the IPad Port is just as playable as the PC , IMHO, i cant see the point of a 'Phone' Version though, thats just crazy

[Transportman]

The android port is not official, which means that the OpenTTD developers did not created the port and that we weren't contacted by the port creator either. Therefore we can't help you with your issues; you need to contact the developer of the port.

That said, I tried the port on my new phone a few days ago. Although I applaud the effort of porting OpenTTD to a new platform (the more the merrier ) it saddened me to see that the game is barely playable. OpenTTD is designed to work with a mouse and using a minimal resolution of 640 x 480, and that shows when you force it to run on a smaller screen while trying to select stuff with something way bigger than a mouse pointer.

In my opinion, to make OpenTTD work on android, it is not enough to solve the porting itself. To be playable on a small touchscreen, OpenTTD would also need a new interface, more suited to this kind of devices.

That said, the IPad Port is just as playable as the PC , IMHO, i cant see the point of a 'Phone' Version though, thats just crazy

On smaller phones it might make sense to have a different/modified interface. The iPad has something like a 10 inch screen, which is doable with the current interface. With a smaller screen the icons will be hard to touch with your fingers. So a different interface might be needed for these small screens.