Since when does OpenTTD have this cool online preview feature?

[Erik1984]

Just today I discovered one can play OpenTTD in the browser. Found this out by looking at a pull request on GitHub: https://github.com/OpenTTD/OpenTTD/pull/8480. When clicking on preview you get redirected to a preview link like https://preview.openttd.org/pr8480/ where you can play this particular version of OpenTTD just in the browser This is so awesome, and it launched super fast too. Didn't know this existed and wonder if I missed some announcement on the home page?

[jfs]

As far as I remember, it isn't something that has been loudly announced, because it isn't feature complete, and there isn't any official place to play the WebASM build of stable versions. A major reason I'd say is that it isn't feature complete. There are some outstanding issues with data management (as far as I know, no way of getting savegame files in and out, and no way of adding NewGRFs etc. of your own apart from downloading via BaNaNas), and it doesn't support multiplayer because it will need a kind of proxy that doesn't exist yet.
So right now it's only used as a proof of concept for gameplay and UI changes that require a bit wider evaluation than screenshots, textual descriptions and short videos can give.

[Erik1984]

As far as I remember, it isn't something that has been loudly announced, because it isn't feature complete, and there isn't any official place to play the WebASM build of stable versions. A major reason I'd say is that it isn't feature complete. There are some outstanding issues with data management (as far as I know, no way of getting savegame files in and out, and no way of adding NewGRFs etc. of your own apart from downloading via BaNaNas), and it doesn't support multiplayer because it will need a kind of proxy that doesn't exist yet.
So right now it's only used as a proof of concept for gameplay and UI changes that require a bit wider evaluation than screenshots, textual descriptions and short videos can give.

Thanks! Didn't play for a long time but was just happily surprised by the smooth experience. You can even save your game ( and load it again later) but yeah I understand the problem with browser storage vs local file system. Was wondering if it could be used to play stable version but you answered that. Either way this feature is a great achievement!

[arikover]

First time I heard, it was discussed and previewed in the first OpenTTD Developer Stream last January.