Simutrans Manual - Game options

The options dialog is used to alter lots of game settings. Most of them are grouped into subdialogfs that can be opened from the options dialog. It is also used to load, save and quit a game.

Languages - Choose the language used in Simutrans
Player Colours - Change the colour of your company
Display - View the game details
Sounds - Set your sound preferences
Players - Set the number of AI players in the game
Load - Load a previously saved game
Save - Save the game in progress
New Map - Start a new map
Quit - Quit Simutrans.

The language dialog is the way to change the display language in Simutrans. Just select your preferred language. If you select the language before creating a new map, the town names will be created according to that language. You can change the display language at any time, but the contents of open windows may not be updated immediately but only after reopening the window. Most texts are updated immediately though.

If you like to have the city names in your language select the language before creating a new game.

If you miss your favorite language, a few more translations are provided at http://www.simutrans.de/english/simu/download.html but they tend to be incomplete or not up to date.

From this menu you can choose the colour that all of your vehicles, stations etc. will be. To select a colour simply click on your desired colour. The default colour is light blue.

The Display settings are used to change the visual aspect of Simutrans:

Brightness: lightens/darkens the display.
Colour: unused currently (14-Oct-03). Do not change.

Scroll Speed: Determines how quickly Simutrans scrolls the game screen.

Scroll Inverse: This inverts the scrolling direction

Show Pedestrians: Show pedestrians leaving stations if a vehicle arrives? Use Day and Night: Change day and night?

The rest of the window is made up of system reporting information:

Frame Time: actual time of last frame, scheduled frame time
Idle: if your computer is fast enough, Simutrans won't use all CPU time. The idle time tells you how much reserves there are. If it's above 1000, Simutrans hands away CPU time to other processes.
FPS: Frames per second. Can be imprecise if sim loops are very low.
Sim loops: finished simulations loops during last second. Should be 3 or higher. If it stays constantly at 2 or lower, you reached the max. Simutrans might not be able to process all aspects of the simulation anymore, i.e. generation of passengers and products may be omitted at times.

The sound options dialog allows players to set the volume for sound and music. It also allows players to change the music currently being played.

To change the volume of either the music or sounds slide the slider left or right, sliding it left will lower the volume. To change which soundtrack is playing push either the left or right arrow at the bottom of the dialog.

Please note. Only some versions of Simutrans can play sound and music. Information on which versions can play sound and music can be found on the simutrans website http://www.simutrans.de

From this menu you are able to see how the AI competitors are doing, as well as enabling or disabling each of them.

The bank balance of each competitor is displayed to the right of their color. To enable or disable any of the competitors select the button next to their details. The default setting is to have the turqoise AI enabled.

When using the load option, a new window appears with names of saved files. Click the button with the file you want to load. The saved game will be loaded and started.

The save game dislog lists all the names of proviously saved files. If you want to replace an existing file, click the button with the file name on it - Simutrans will save your game with this name. If you want to save with a new name, click the entry field on top of the list and enter your name of choice. When clicking save a new file with the specified name will be written.

From the new world dialog you are able change the parameters that will determine the chacteristics of the map to be created for a new game. Also, in the top left corner of the screen is a dialog to select which language to use.

The first setting is the map number. It will determine the 'layout' of the map, including amount and placement of water, hills, trees, city locations and industry locations. A preview is shown for each map. The default map number is 33.

The map size will determine how big the map will be. This ranges from 128x128 to 576x576 sqaures. The default setting is 256.

The industry density determines how many industrys will be placed on the map. The lower the density the harder the game will become, as there will be less choices of industrys to transport between. The default setting is 125.

The no. of cities will determine how many cities are placed on the map. This ranges from 2 cities to 64. The default setting is 16 cities.

The traffic density will determine how many private cars will be driving around in the cities. The default setting is 8.

The water level will determine how high the level of water will be. The lowetr the level the more land will appear, and vice-versa. The default setting is 4.

The mountain height will determine the height of the highest mountain on the map. The default setting is 160. The map roughness setting determines how smooth the map will be, the lower the number the less little hills and ditches. This ranges from 1 to 3. The default setting is 2.

The 'Random map' button will select a random map number. This does not change any other settings you have set.

The 'Show pedestrians' button will determine whether pedestrains will be shown when they arrive with a train or bus. You can change this also later from the display options dialog.

The 'Use Day and Night Mode' button will enable or disable the day and night mode. You can change this also later from the display options dialog.

The 'Load' button allows you to choose from a previuosly saved game to play. The 'Start game' button will start a new game with all the parameters thats you have set. The 'Quit' button will shut down Simutrans.