Roboron did it again! After receiving some feedback from MacOS users (and developers), I solved the remaining problems that prevented the MacOS version of the game from running (on Steam or not). Now, MacOS players can play Simutrans... again!

I want you to know that this was not a very easy thing to do, and unfortunately, it is also not a perfect solution. Since Simutrans' developers resources are limited, we can only target newer versions of MacOS. I let you with the details:

• Simutrans has been compiled and tested on MacOS Big Sur (11.0) - and this is the only version that will be supported, initially.
  
• MacOS Catalina may be also compatible! If it is not, please let us now, we can also provide a Catalina compatible version without much effort, and we should support Catalina for now.
  
• Other MacOS versions (Mojave and older) will not be supported. However, if someone on those versions wants to provide a compatible build for Steam players, please read the pinned post on the development forums.
  
• MacOS Simutrans version is not currently a stable version. This means that you won't be able to play online with Steam users (but you will be able to... play!)
  
• Initial tests show that Simutrans crashes if music is enabled (although it can be just my VM). Just in case, I have forced the "-nomidi" option for everyone, but you can enable music from in-game settings. We will solve this later.

That's all. Changes are now live. Since I have only tested the release on my development enviroment, I am not sure if everything will "just work" for everyone. I will be listening to your feedback here or on the Steam forums.

With this we reached the #1 milestone of Steam Roadmap.Welcome back, MacOs users!

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/379653803848237059/765358199481958420/Screenshot_20201013_013549.png
New Steam Library Banner, courtesy of danivenk (Simutrans Discord User)

WARNING: This post contains suggestions that could come to Steam depending on the feedback from the Simutrans Community. In no way those changes are confirmed, but can come to Steam at some point in the future.

Simutrans is now updated to the last stable version. But my work as a new manintainer doesn't end here: there's a lot of things I can do to improve the way we ship Simutrans on Steam. It's time to look at the status of Simutrans on Steam, and to make plans for the future. I have a lot of ideas to improve Simutrans on the Steam platform, and I want to be transparent about it, discuss changes with the community, and gather feedback from you.

This will be a pretty big thread, so I am making a index right there. If you are new to Simutrans, you probably won't understand some of the things being discussed, but that's ok, I'm expecting feedback from experienced users mainly.
____________________________________________________

1. The Mac version
2. The Steam Preloader
3. The Steam Launch Options
4. The Steam Paksets
5. The Steam Store Page
6. Improving Standard defaults
7. Bringing non-Standard Simutrans to Steam
8. Summary of suggested changes
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Numbers show, that even with the Mac version currently broken, players are still trying to play. Number of Mac players are only slighty under the number of Linux players (which can actually play). We can say, that the Mac problem is currently a high priority problem, at least regarding the Steam version (we are getting some negative reviews because of this). Unfortunately, I don't own a Mac nor I have the knowledge to fix the Mac version. If someone wants to help Mac players, I have moved all the Mac bug reports to the Bug/Crashes Steam subforum https://steamcommunity.com/app/434520/discussions/search/?q=Mac&gidforum=357288572135186516&include_deleted=1

On top of the Mac usual problems, Steam informed me that Apple now request all applications to be "reviewed" by Apple itself, and I currently don't know how to do that process (and I really would want to focus on other priorities). Oh, and one more thing: the Simutrans preloader doesn't have support for Mac! Steam funcionalities on Mac are non-existent! Let's talk more about this and why we can't currently ship a Mac preloader.
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The preloader as it currently is.

The Steam preloader is a museum piece. Source code has been lost, and I can't make modifications to it. We can only admire it, and respect that legacy of the past. Or we can get rid of it.

Currently, the Steam preloader works as intended (except localization, at least for me the preloader doesn't load es-ES language files), so it's not a priority high on the list. But it's a matter of time, that we have to act to do something about it. The problem with the preloader is that:
A) It contains all the code related to Steam. So now it's the only way to get Steam funcionalities working AND since it can't be modified, we can't add new funcionalities (Achievements?).
B) It adds yet one more step for launching the game (like if we don't have enough with current steps...). Let's take a look at what benefits brings the preloader:

1. Fullscreen -> Very useful, but you can do that already from your system (at least on linux), from the simuconf.tab (not very user friendly tho), and it could be better implemented as an in-game option.
2. Sound & Music -> Not necessary. Both can be muted from inside the game.
3. Sandbox Mode -> Probably the only thing that justifies the existence of the preloader as a start menu right now.
4. Debug -> Not really valuable for Steam players.

So, I ask myself if the Sandbox Mode is enough justification to maintain a launcher... But since we can't simply get rid of it without losing Steam funcionalities, we have two options:
1. Rewrite it from scratch when time comes, ideally with more useful options than before to justify their existence.
2. Add Steam related code to Simutrans (probably forking the sourcecode), and remove the preloader.

I prefer option 2, but I opened this thread to gather feedback, so it's your time to comment. And now that we are talking about what happens when launching the game...
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Steam Launch Options

Here we have, yet another startup step. I want to get rid of this screen, and I will explain why no one of this options makes sense to me (except, only a little, Steam Workshop Uploader).

1. Launch Simutrans (this should be the only default).
2. Launch as server -> Users can already load a savegame as a server from inside the game. Also, Steam DOES allow for command-line parameters to be specified at launch, and experienced users (like those who wants to set up a server) should be aware of that.
3. Safe Mode -> The only reason to select this option is to start Simutrans without the preloader, and thus, without Steam funcionality. If you want to play Simutrans without Steam funcionality... you cand do so with the non-Steam version. This option doesn't make sense to me, from a Steam player perspective.
4. Steam Workshop Uploader -> Now this is the interesting part. I have never seen a game implementing the "Workshop uploader" (currently named as SDK) as a launch option. This is not bad at all, but this usually comes shipped as a separate "Tool" or just implemented inside the game (I don't like this approach for Simutrans) - so I would prefer to ship the Workshop Uploader utility separately from the game. And maybe rename it to Simutrans SDK, just for consistency. I have yet to see how to do this.

One important thing is that the Workshop Uploader is currently Windows-only. This a big problem, like the preloader, because source code is also not available, so we lack support for Linux & Mac. But it also means that I can get rid of those innecesary launch options on Linux, and so I did. Preloader is now what you get when you click Play. But let's talk about more interesting topics now.
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https://i.imgur.com/1AcoXXI.png
Description says: "A range of miscellaneous Paksets.". Can you guess what it contains?

Decisions were made in the past, to bundle some paksets together in the same DLC. I don't agree with those decisions, and I think paksets developers also disagree. This is confusing for new players, is extra work for me when updating paksets, and, in the end, paksets don't get treated like they deserve. If no one is against it, I'll de-bundle the paksets and make a DLC for every pakset, as it should be.

Now let's take a broad look at the Simutrans paksets, and their status, on Steam:

* pak32.comic - Bundled in "Comic Paksets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/434632/Comic_Paksets/
* pak48.excentrique - Bundled in "Miscellaneous paksets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/435963/Simutrans__Miscellaneous_Paksets/
* pak64 - Available standalone https://store.steampowered.com/app/434520/Simutrans/
* pak64.classic - Not available
* pak64.contrast - Bundled in "Miscellaneous paksets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/435963/Simutrans__Miscellaneous_Paksets/
* pak64.german - Not available
* pak64.ho-scale - Bundled in "Miscellaneous paksets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/435963/Simutrans__Miscellaneous_Paksets/
* pak64.japan - Bundled in "Japan based Packsets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/435960/Simutrans__Japan_based_Packsets/
* pak64.nippon - Bundled in "Japan based Packsets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/435960/Simutrans__Japan_based_Packsets/
* pak64.scifi - Bundled in "Miscellaneous paksets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/435963/Simutrans__Miscellaneous_Paksets/
* pak96.comic - Bundled in "Comic Paksets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/434632/Comic_Paksets/
* pak96.HD - Bundled in "Comic Paksets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/434632/Comic_Paksets/
* pak128 - Default pakset
* pak128.britain - Available standalone https://store.steampowered.com/app/434631/Simutrans__Pak128Britain/?snr=1_5_9__405
* pak128.cs - Not available
* pak128.german - Available standalone https://store.steampowered.com/app/434633/Simutrans__German_Paksets/
* pak128.japan - Bundled in "Japan based Packsets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/435960/Simutrans__Japan_based_Packsets/
* pak192.comic - Bundled in "Comic Paksets" https://store.steampowered.com/app/434632/Comic_Paksets/

Curiously, there was a store page for Pak64.HO-Scale, but it is not published. Everything is here, but instead, Pak64.HO-Scale is bundled in "Miscellaneous paksets".

To sum up, we have three paksets not available yet, and only three paksets unbundled. Previously to being maintainer I didn't even know pak64.scifi was being bundled with "Miscellaneous paksets", since it is also available on the Worskhop. This is a mess I need to solve, and also bring unavailable paksets to Steam. But doing a store page for every pakset is a lot of work, so I have had an idea...
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https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/765354844411527199/765355467547344916/Screenshot_20201013_003012.png
Previous Library Header. You can see the new one at the top of this post

While the Steam Store page for the main game is good enough, it can be improved, specially with screenshots. Screenshots are a bit dated, there's only a few of them, and can be a bit overwhelming for new players (too many info displayed on the screen). Screenshots are also showing only the default pakset, when I think they should show a range of diverse paksets, so the player inmediatly knows that Simutrans have different graphics sets available.

A good way to improve the page would be also to translate it to other languages - specially german and japanese since they are the main players (see statistics). If someone want to help with translation of the pages, please contact me.

But the worst of all are pakset pages. They lack a proper description (What is this pakset? What does include the DLC? Who are the creators?), and usually only show screenshots of on of the paksets if they come bundled. The Miscellaneous Paksets Store Page is specially bad. Like, the worst you can get presenting a game...

What's the plan? If we split the bundles, we will have yet more pages to fill with screenshots. So, this a situation that makes a good excuse to celebrate a new Screenshot Showcase. Winners of the Screenshot Showcase would be displayed in Steam Store Pages. What do you think abuout it?
____________________________________________________

A troll review

Users on Steam are constantly complaining about Simutrans (note: we still have 3x more positive reviews than negative reviews). They mainly complain about:

1. Simutrans being difficult. This is one of the most recurrent complains. Players find too difficult to play the game, or find a lack of resources where they can learn how to play the game. Shipping a tutorial with the game is a high priority right now.
2. UI being ugly / not adapted to current display standards. Some of those problems have been already addressed by the Simutrans team recently (font, theme size, etc...), but there's still some complains about the UI. Today a user complained about the new modern theme, and I expect more complains about the UI in the future. Those little details are what make the difference for a lot of players.

While I like the new look, light colored lines in charts are hard to see. Perhaps returning the background color of those charts t grey might help

3. Graphics being dated. We can't do much there. We could ship a better-looking pakset with Simutrans by default to give a better first-impression, like pak128.german or pak192.comic (Ideally we would have a much modern pakset like pak256, but we don't). But that would deteriorate problem #1... Maybe pak192.comic developers or others would like to provide a dumbed-down version of their pakset?
____________________________________________________

The "beta branches" funcionality of Steam we could use to ship non-Standard Simutrans versions

A thing I really would like to do is to provide Simutrans versions that are not the Standard ones, to make them more accesible for players. For example, one of the downsides of Simutrans Extended, is that you need to update it everyday. This could be easily achieved deploying Simutrans Extended in a beta branch, so Steam will take care of the update for you, and you could also play your already available paksets of Simutrans on Steam with it.

However, including Extended into Steam also adds more complexity for players. Extended needs its own set of paksets to make use of extended funcionality. A way to simplify then would be to replace the pak128.britan with pak128.britan-ex when you are in the Extended beta branch. This is very easy to do. But, what happens with other paksets not available on Steam now? pak256 would need its own store page - or be packaged within Extended, but I don't like this approach because switching beta branches would bring hundreds of MB to download for the user. For the first option, adding a DLC that Standard players can't play does not seem like a good idea, it can lead to confusion.

Another way to bring Simutrans Extended to Steam would be to ship it alongside Standard, then using Steam Launch options to select between Standard or Extended when you click play. This has the advantage of eliminating the need for beta branches and switching between them, but it also means we can't get rid of the Steam Launch options (although this time it would have a much better justification to exist). It would also expose more the non-Standard version of Simutrans to new players, so it can be a good option to consider.

Other versions of Simutrans should be easier to deploy (OTRP and Nightly, which Misha has already requested). In the end I want you to help me decide how to do it: beta branches, or steam launch options?
____________________________________________________

1. Fix Mac version (easier said than done, I know).
2. Get rid of the preloader (eventually) and implement steam funcionality into Simutrans itself - or rewrite the preloader (duplicate options, support for Mac is lacking).
3. Get rid of Steam Launch Options (depending on #7) and ship the Wokshop Uploader as a separate, installable tool.
4. Reorganize Steam Paksets: A Store Page for every pakset, and bring unavailable paksets to Steam.
5. Improve store pages with descriptions, translations, and new screenshots (for what a Screenshot Showcase may be useful)
6. Ship Simutrans with a tutorial. Maybe reconsider default pakset.
7. Deciding between shipping non-Standard version alongside the game or as a beta branch.

Hello, it's Roboron again! It is my pleasure to announce that Simutrans 122 has been released today (just two days after 121 finally came to Steam) and right now is already available on Steam. No need to wait for months!

This new version comes with exciting changes, and one of them is that Steam version now ships a 64 bits Windows version (in addition to the 32 bits version). Let's see the list!

WARNING: Saves and config files are incompatible between versions and you may need to delete you simutrans user directory (%user/documents/simutrans on Windows or ~/simutrans on Linux) if you run into problems.

• Windows 64 bits version now available (32 bits also supported)
  
• MacOS version deployed, but untested (help still needed).
  
• Improved Touch Support
  
• Now you can drag the main bar if it doesn't fit the screen
  
• Larger buttons for windows (easier to tap on them)
  
• Map creation is now faster
  
• Map creation can now create much more realistic climate and tree distribution taking height and humidity into account.
  
• Added multi-tiled rotatable city buildings
  
• Better use of fixed monthly convoi costs
  
• New list of all existing vehicles
  
• New depot list
  
• Further improvement of the GUI
  
• New GUI themes.
  
• Rail support for scripted AI (still under optimisation).
  
• Stability improvements for servers
  
• Tons of fixes.

The following paksets were also updated (only for Simutrans 122).

• pak64 (122.0)
  
• pak128.britain (1.8)
  
• pak128.german (2.0)
  
• pak192.comic (2021 Release Candidate 1)

Lastly there is a extended list of changes, if you really are into reading changelogs.

FIX: Rotation of multi-tile buildings at street corners
ADD: different volumes for different sounds, realistic distance scaling (independent from screen size)
CHG: Fade sounds with one over square root distance, and remove the dependency from display and tile size
ADD: Depot list as dialog tool 32
FIX: city more strongly attempt to build double height bridges over navigable rivers
ADD: Vehicle list as dialog tool 33 (to see also upcoming vehicles)
ADD: goods waiting bar with now configurable: gui_waitingbar_width
ADD: button to copy the last 20 messages to the clipboard
CHG: factory smoke location now depended on factory. Four parameters smoketile[], smokeoffset[] (koord), and smokeuplift (16) and smokelifetime (2499)
FIX: several list stored wrong coordinates after map rotation
FIX: Too new pak file version check now enforced for all objects
FIX: airplane should stuck much less upon runway rebuilds
CHG: block reserver tool will also start a route search of any convoi on its tile (no matter the owner!)
ADD: timeline switches off after 2999 to prevent retiring of everything
ADD: new parameter for buildings "preservation_year" and "preservation_month" after that the building is excluded from renovation during town growth
ADD: if shift is pressed during road building then city roads or faster ways will not be overbuilt
ADD: more folders searched for fonts on non-windows systems
FIX: broken connection could kill (especially server) games on Linux
ADD: customisable loading bar colors with gui_color_loadingbar_inner and gui_color_loadingbar_progress
CHG: record messages and some status messages are now not saved, while stuck and full stations expire after a month on server chat to keep overview
ADD: new button in minimap to hide contour for higher contrast of other stuff
CHG: Option to show convoi name and line name as overlay
ADD: (inspired by Ranran) Option in city, curiosity, and factory lists to show only towns/factories already served by a player
ADD: two more theme colors: gui_color_obsolete, gui_color_empty for lines and server
ADD: (Yona-TNT) configurable offsets for player colors for gui elements
ADD: convois (in convoi list and schedule) also show their next stop with a posbutton to jump there
ADD: caseless matching in depots, lines, halt and convoi list dialogs even with umlaute
CHG: fixed vehicle costs are now booked as running costs at the begin of a month, also convoi details changed to accomodate
CHG: a server will pause without clients if '-pause' is set on the command line
ADD: freight type filter on line window
CHG: speedup of map generation by reorganising and multithreading lake code
ADD: defining overlapping climate height limits will generate maps with climate patches at these heights
FIX: (extremly old bug) after removing a house on a slope the world height grid was not restored
FIX: factory extension during city growth could no cope with more than one supplier for two goods
ADD: scripted tools (initial patch by THLeaderH)
ADD: Humidity based climates (originally from kireon green) Attention, winter snowline set temperature at sea level, so important!
ADD: (FrankP) happy signs for system fonts
ADD: (ranran) new GUI element routebar
FIX: space.w added in container not space.h for vertical distance
CHG: On consequeutive traffic lights, only the first is obeyed to allow turns on four traffic lights crossings

I need some rest now, too many updates in too little time :-P

Enjoy the game!

I'm Roboron, the new maintainer of Simutrans on Steam. As you already know, the game has been outdated for some months (since the 121.0 release on February). Seeing this, I decided to step in and become a member of the Simutrans administration group.


My first action as the new maintainer has been to update Simutrans on Steam to version 121.0. This version includes some really important changes regarding accesibility, which I'm sure will be welcomed by a lot of players.

• Major overhaul of the GUI.
  
• Scalable font size.
  
• Theme size support.
  
• Updated translations.
  
• Bugfixes.
  
• pak64 updated to version 121.0
  
• pak128.german updated to version 1.3
  
• Branches sdl & gdi (for windows) have been removed. Only SDL2 builds are currently deployed to Steam.
  
• Update not available for MacOS

As a new maintainer, I'm still learning how to deploy Simutrans properly. I think I did a decent job for the first time, but there's still some issues I need help with:


Version 121.0 is not available for MacOS. This is due to Simutrans Community lacking MacOS developers. If you own a Mac, and you would like to contribute to Simutrans, we need your help! Head to the forum to test MacOS builds or learn how to build Simutrans on your Mac.


Previously, Linux builds included all the required dependencies (even the system ones!) - the linux download was about 60 MB! I've reduced this removing the debug capability and shipping only required libs for a base Ubuntu 20.04 or Debian Buster installation.

However, depending on your system configuration, more required libs may be necessary. If you run into problems because a required lib is not present (Simutrans won't start), please provide me with information about the issue.

• Simutrans 121.0 saves may be incompatible with previous versions. You may need to delete you ~/simutrans/ directory (warning: it contains your saves) if you run into problems because of this. If you want to keep playing a save on version 120.4 (or prior), change to the frozen branch in the Betas tab.
  
• Simutrans for Linux currently doesn't play music. We are aware of this and we are working on a solution.

That's all for the moment. I will reply now to posts that will benefit from this update. Of course, any feedback is appreciated!

Simutrans has been upgraded to version 120.4 on Steam for Windows and Linux - we do not currently have a 120.4 build for Mac.

For prior versions please go into the Beta settings and select the prior version you want.

One of the big changes from 120.2 is the ability to use UPnP for Server hosting.

Here is the 120.2 version of simutrans. It has many new features for scripting (including scriptable ai, so everybody can make now his own AI without compiling), as well as many extensions for artists:

• groundobj with slopes (rocky shores)
  
• transparent graphics (better shadows and smokes, antialiasing)
  
• factory animations and sounds

If you prefer to keep with the 120.1.3 build, this can be selected from the 'Beta' options.

Here is the 120.2 version of simutrans. It has many new features for scripting (including scriptable ai, so everybody can make now his own AI without compiling), as well as many extensions for artists:

• groundobj with slopes (rocky shores)
  
• transparent graphics (better shadows and smokes, antialiasing)
  
• factory animations and sounds

If you prefer to keep with the 120.1.3 build, this can be selected from the 'Beta' options.

Steam Workshop support has now been added for Windows and Linux.

An uploader DLC has been created for Windows to upload content to the Steam Workshop.

Additional functionality is intended to be added later, and hopefully Mac OS Steamworks integration should also be made available soon.

Steam Workshop support has now been added for Windows and Linux.

An uploader DLC has been created for Windows to upload content to the Steam Workshop.

Additional functionality is intended to be added later, and hopefully Mac OS Steamworks integration should also be made available soon.

The default Steam Build for Windows has been changed to use SDL2 for display rendering, that should allow the Steam Overlay and Screenshots to work with Simutrans.

For users that for any reason prefer to use either GDI or SDL for display rendering, the option to switch to these is in the Beta tab, however the Steam Overlay will not work in these versions of the application.