Hi everyone!

Over the past several weeks, we've released 8 hotfixes that resolved the last remaining major bugs and more than doubled FPS in certain situations. With today's hefty hotfix just out, we're wrapping up and giving them all a collective title, - B99.5. For more detailed information on what's new, please see:

B99.5 Changelog

We'll release one final small hotfix next week, to ensure a smooth experience, and with that we're ending the B99 development. Currently, we don't foresee more updates in the near future. If, however, any notable issues arise beyond the domain of ultra-rare anomalies, we will address them ASAP.

Today's release marks a significant milestone, so to celebrate it we've timed it with a Daily Deal special offer from Steam, followed by a -25% discount for the next two weeks! This is our first, special occasion discount, so make the best use of it, - as we do not plan on doing more sales in the foreseeable future.

We are now fully shifting our focus to the next update, B100. While we're not ready to announce it yet, B100 will be a major update, diving deep into our "Foundation Part 4" phase plans, as outlined in our roadmap. It is a massive challenge overall, both technically and in terms of design.

In B100 we'll develop a more engaging gameplay loop, carry out necessary technical groundworks for the DLC content, add the remaining industries, cargo types and cars, make some overdue technical upgrades intended to make the game more future proof, and more - to be announced!

Why do all these things in a single update? In short, because they can be done in parallel while the longest one, the technical upgrades, is being carried out, - as illustrated below. In the coming weeks we'll update the roadmap too, with a more up-to-date ETA of the plans ahead.

B100 is no joke, - it will take a long time to complete, likely up to the end of 2026, or even later.

We've had long pauses before with other major updates, - Overhauled, Simulator and B99. They all couldn't have been split into multiple parts, and took a very long time to do, - however, each ended up highly successful and a literal game-changer. We are confident that this time will be no different.

Sharing the progress of B100 is going to be tricky. Over the years we've found that external pressure only affects the product quality negatively, and the less we say, the less there is premature hype, impatience and overblown expectations getting in the way.

We only better understand what something should be when it's already well into development, so it might be a long time before we are ready to reveal any concrete new information. We truly want this next release to be perfect, and the community patience along the way would be highly appreciated.

With B99.4 we were pressured to release it quickly, and as a result, the quality initially suffered - requiring extra months and stress post-launch to bring it up to our standards. Sometimes doing those finishing touches behind closed doors is in everyone's interest, and with B100, - we're sure of it!

Thank you for your continual support! We will now proceed to reinforce Derail Valley as the best train simulator game in the world, and in the meantime, we wish you a wonderful rest of the year!

-Slobodan

Hello everyone!

We've just released a new update, bringing some new content, features and numerous other improvements to the game. Here are some of the highlights:




We've added item containers, which let you better store, organize and carry your items. Item containers provide extra inventory space, each with their own pros and cons when it comes to capacity and cumbersomeness.




Proximity Sensor and Reader gadgets make shunting long trains easier. Attach sensors to couplers at the ends of your train, put a reader in your cab, and know how far you are from trains in your way, both ways. Note however, that the sensor may pick up trains in adjacent tracks too, depending on the set range. Defect Detector will let you know if any car on your train is derailed, or has its brakes overheated.




Universal Control Stand makes it easier to operate MU-capable locomotives from alternative positions, such as the back-facing ends of cabs. Make sure to keep the device indoors though, as it won’t work in the rain. Alongside it we introduce the Mount Stand, a tall mount that lets you install gadgets directly on the floor.




The new types of headlight and taillight gadgets allow you to give your locomotives a completely new look, other than improved visibility.




This update also adds custom-text Nameplates, Shovel Mounts and Brake Checklists. The refreshed versions of Battery Charger and Signal Remote Booster have been turned into gadgets, too, no longer being the default parts of the caboose.




We've added the highly-requested Label Maker, now letting you put custom text labels under your controllers, or just about anywhere. Pro tip - You can also label item containers, making their name show in the inventory interface when hovered over.




Work trains, including the Microshunter, Utility Rail Vehicle, Caboose and Slug, can now all be painted to both DVRT and Demonstrator themes. The Utility Short Flatcar can be painted too, but only to DVRT.




Derail Valley now features a robust in-game control binding interface, accessible at Settings/Controls/Control Bindings. Besides the keyboard and mouse remapping, you can now also map all kinds of joysticks and controllers. A calibration tool is included, too!




Players with the RailDriver® Desktop Train Cab Controller can now use it in Derail Valley. The game comes with premade bindings for this controller, making it functional out of the box after you enable it in the control bindings page. You can find the legend slip print template here. The controller does work in combination with VR too, to the extent of train operation.


This build is packed with optimizations and bug fixes. It should help resolve many crashes and low memory warnings introduced in B99, and generally improve performance and platform-specific experience.




We’ve entirely revamped the game manual, now with improved texts, more pages, contextual links, and a better viewer in-game. It is additionally now accessible as a wiki online, at https://wiki.derailvalley.com/. It is currently being translated by our valued closed beta members, and it may take some time for the translations to be included in the game. If you'd like to help translate, please check back here in a month or two: https://www.altfuture.gg/jobs/other



For more information about these additions, and many more that weren't highlighted in this post, please see the full changelog here: https://www.derailvalley.com/changelog




Besides the work on B99.4, we’ve also expanded our team by two new team members recently. With the build out of the way, we are soon going to focus on filling the third position, too.


We’re already hard at work on our next major update, B100. We’ve been working on it in parallel with the regular updates, for quite some time. We don’t know when it will be ready for announcing yet, but the aim is by the end of this year. We’ll have you informed as soon as we have solid information.

Until then, we’ll be on a lookout for any critical issues in B99.4 and patch accordingly if needed. We hope you guys will enjoy this update!

-Your DV Team

We're excited to announce that, starting today, our team is expanding with three new positions!



We're hiring in order to further improve our interaction with the community, and reduce developer workload with these new positions:

• Community XP Coordinator – Helping the community and processing feedback
  
• Marketing Video Editor – Shipping informative and fun short videos on our social media
  
• Business Operator – Taking care of the (mostly Serbian) administrative duties

If you see yourself as a good candidate please apply, otherwise – spread the word!



While outlining the new positions we've also remade our company site, now with a cleaner look and a bit more information. You can check it out at https://www.altfuture.gg/.


In the meantime, the next update "B99.4" is heavily in the works and slated to come out sometime in March, most probably. It's going to be a pretty decent update, adding new content and performance improvements. B100, also in the works, will be announced a few months later.

Thanks for your time!

-Altfuture

Hello everyone,

We just released a small patch to fix a critical saving bug introduced a few days ago.

For players who had items placed in hangers or sticky tapes mounted somewhere outside of trains, the game wasn't able to save progress. The number of affected users should be small, but the issue still warranted the hotfix.



The patch also includes a couple more bug fixes we made in the past two days. You can see the changelog here: https://www.derailvalley.com/changelog


Thanks,
-Your DV Team

Hi everyone!

We have another small update today. It's bug fixes mainly, but also a little bit of fun stuff. We added a new cargo type, Forestry Trailers – which go from the machine factory and harbor to forests and the sawmill. The update also adds a new model for the S282 restoration train parts.




You can see more about what's new here: http://derailvalley.com/changelog


We're now working on the next patch, which, unless an urgent fix gets in the way, will take a bit longer to do but also be a bit bigger. Thanks for reading and see you soon!

-Your DV Team

Hi everyone!

Two patches made it to the game since the last week's release - one last Friday and another just now. Various bug fixes are included in them, now listed together under the title B99.1:

https://www.derailvalley.com/changelog


Next week we'll release another patch with more fixes. We'll likely have a few more in the next months, each with greater complexity, some also adding new industries, cars and cargo types, before we fully move on to the B100 release sometime in 2025.


The B99 release was awesome! Not only the announcement had more reactions than any other post in DV history, but a few days after it went live we had the record number of simultaneous players on Steam, with 12% more than when Simulator launched! Next year we are committed to break not only that record, but that of all games in the train simulation genre too, which we already got pretty close to.

Our rating is also the highest it's ever been, now only being 0.04% short of 96% on Steam! Thank you for that, and for all your feedback - we're going through it and are adjusting our plans accordingly.


With that, the Steam Awards have just conveniently started, so we'd be thankful if you'd consider voting Derail Valley as your Labor of Love favorite.

See you next week with another patch!

-Your DV Team

Hi everyone,

Our latest update is now available! It's a large one, so we made a dedicated video to showcase all the main points:



The update adds 4 new locations, 16 new cargo types, numerous new items, gadgets and their installation process, restoration of abandoned museum locomotives, new shop and shed looks, finished steam powertrain and train brake simulation, and many more improvements to graphics, performance and UX. For more information please see the video above.



The full changelog is available here: https://derailvalley.com/changelog

Thank you all and we hope you'll enjoy this update!

-Your DV Team

Hello everyone!

This is a quick post to let you know that the next Derail Valley update that we've been working on since the start of the year, B99, will be released on November 21, 2024!



The update will be rather large, introducing a couple of new stations, some train customization features, a new rail vehicle and many more improvements. We'll dive into showcasing the essentials in a long-form video that will be posted on the release date, alongside the screenshot above — unblurred.

Rather than stick to an arbitrary date, we took the time to properly finish this update after we understood better what it really should be. Unfortunately that meant we were somewhat quiet and vague with information in the meantime, – but we're almost there, – now with a definitive date and <10 days to go!

Thanks for your patience and support, and we'll see you soon with the release news!

-Slobodan

Hi everyone! We've just released build 98, our latest update bringing you a new vehicle, new features, numerous improvements and bug fixes!


The tiny, quirky new battery-electric shunter takes the spotlight! There's two practical functions to it: it's the first vehicle to utilize the all new electric powertrain simulation, and, once unlocked, it can be requested anywhere with comms radio for a small fee!

Microshunter isn't powerful enough to replace a regular locomotive, but it can still pull some load. That, combined with its size and ability to be requested, give it a unique advantage in many situations. Mind how you treat it though, as you'll need to service it, and even charge its battery occasionally.




With this update we've also revamped (or rather finished) the diesel-electric powertrain simulation, now vastly more accurate when it comes to governors, generators, currents, voltages, circuitry, transitions, as well as failures from the all new traction motor overspeeding. DE locomotives have received a complete overhaul in terms of behavior and characteristics, with the highlights being:

DE2 – Increased load rating, improved cooling, heavier engine feel, rebalanced wear and tear
DE6 – Completely new sounds, more accurate notch distribution, rebalanced wear and tear
DE6 Slug - Now can be utilized from both ends and behaves differently




If you're curious what all those changes mean to the vehicles' performance, their various characteristics and even spawn locations are now listed in the new Vehicle Catalog handbook. The listing also features a series of scores designed to make easy practical comparisons. Generally, the catalog is intended to help players, whether new or experienced, decide what vehicle is best suited for a role they have in mind, with concise info.





Some work trains, such as Microshunter and Slug, are now able to receive damage. The only way to repair them is manually and, being player-owned, they're not covered by insurance. Handcar and caboose are intentionally kept invincible, however, so you don't need to worry about those.

A neat new feature on the career manager allows you to see health status of the work trains you own. The machine also shows coordinates for all vehicles in the world. Additionally, handcar is now a free vehicle, available to request at all times, which is especially helpful when needing to move around in Realistic difficulty.


You can now seamlessly adjust your height both in nonVR and VR. In nonVR you can do this with X+Mousewheel (adjusting your sitting position), and in VR by holding Triggers on both hands and lifting yourself up or down. Another novelty is the ability to save your favorite "cab" and "follow" camera positions.


^ Open in a new tab, there's a train hiding there


We've put a lot of work into numerous CPU and GPU optimizations for this build. While the improvement may not be drastic for everyone, we've seen FPS rise up to 30% in certain conditions and hardware. Optimizations apply to both PC and VR players, and there's some more coming soon.


We've completely reworked the Vive controls, also fixing the weird calibration angle introduced in B97. The new controls no longer block you from walking while holding an item in the left hand and are generally more consistent with all the other controller types. The exact mapping is listed in the changelog below.




Vast improvements have been made to the career tutorial, locomotive tutorials and the manual. Whether you're a new player or a veteran, we strongly recommend you to complete the career tutorial again (in a temporary new session, if needed) – as it teaches of a lot of features and best practices that have been recently added to the game.


Apart from all this, numerous other improvements and bug fixes were made in this build. Manuals and various texts have also been updated too – and we'd like to say a big thank you to our dear beta testing and translation friends for being tremendously helpful with everything they do!

The work is ongoing on future updates too, such as on the new industries and cargo types coming in B99, but also further beyond.

• Made numerous CPU and GPU optimizations, increasing FPS up to 30% in some cases
  
  • This affects both VR and PC users
    
  • It depends on user hardware and game situation
• Fixed a few game-breaking bugs involving tutorials
  
• Fixed hovering over save slots causing jarring hiccups in VR
  
• Fixed rare case where items or vehicles could fall through ground near tunnel entrances
  
• Fixed save files sometimes able to appear in wrong sessions

• Added BE2-260 Microshunter work train
  
  • Microshunter is a tiny locomotive with a special purpose
    
  • It’s an emergency tow vehicle, for when no proper locomotives are at hand
    
  • It needs to be unlocked before it can be used
    
  • The key costs $30k, and it’s found in Bob’s Garage (handcar is no longer there)
    
  • Once unlocked, Microshunter can be summoned via comms radio for $2500
    
  • It features the all new battery-electric powertrain, with an electric charger socket
    
  • Beware of Microshunter not being a great choice to do orders with
    
  • See vehicle catalog for more details
• Revamped DE powertrain simulation
  
  • DE2 and DE6 now behave significantly closer to real-life counterparts
    
  • The change shows in notch operation, heat management, sound dynamics
    
  • TMs can now break apart if overspeeding
    
  • Simulating series and parallel circuitry, proper transitions
    
  • Improved governor simulation
    
  • TM wear now occurs from running at high temperature in addition to raw mileage
    
  • Rheostatic dynamic brake power now peaks at around 35 km/h
    
  • Slug can now share power from two locomotives, one at each end
    
  • Slug now has less of an impact on top speed
• Modified DE6
  
  • All new engine sound
    
  • Reduced powertrain wear
    
  • Updated gauges to fit the new simulation
    
  • Swapped large DE6 breaker switch for electrics with a smaller one for TM
• Modified DE2
  
  • Boosted DE2’s power to its former 400t glory
    
  • Reduced powertrain wear
    
  • Updated gauges to fit the new simulation
• Modified DM3
  
  • Fixed DM3 getting frozen if money shifted
    
  • Added gear shifting pattern plaque next to the gear levers
• Modified DH4
  
  • Dynamic brake no longer functions when the engine is off (no pump)
• Added a variety of air compressor sounds
  
• Fixed S282 loco and tender sometimes colliding at spawn, causing damage
  
• Fixed wipers squeaking when there’s light rain, but windows are still wet

• Added Vehicle Catalog handbook item
  • This item is always available and can be retrieved to inventory
    
  • It condensely lists stats of all motorized and work vehicles in the game, including:
    
  • Name, unit count, production years, license info, vehicle type and role(s)
    
  • Spawn locations and chance, ability to summon and cost
    
  • Load rating on flat, dry uphill and wet uphill track (conservative)
    
  • Dimensions, mass full and empty, pricing, wheel and coupler configuration
    
  • Vehicle power supply, transmission, brake and other features
    
  • Detailed system of scores and effects of vehicles
• Turned handcar into a free vehicle
  
  • In career mode you can now spawn it for free right from the start
    
  • This helps reduce running/teleporting around in the Realistic difficulty preset
• Began implementation of player-owned vehicles feature set
  
  • Work trains are now player-owned
    
  • This means insurance doesn’t cover their servicing - careful!
    
  • You can see owned vehicles listed under the “Owned Vehicles” career manager category
    
  • You can print them for cost specifics, just like with vehicle fees
    
  • Microshunter and Slug can get damaged and need servicing to stay functional
    
  • Handcar and Caboose are intentionally made to not acquire damage or need servicing
    
  • Player-owned vehicles can only be serviced manually, not adding up to copay
• Added electric chargers
  • Located in towns’ and SM service points, for Microshunter charging
• Fast travel now elapses game time, depending on distance traveled
  • Increased the UI window to show arrival time
• Improved sleeping
  • Extended maximum sleeping duration option from 8 to to 10 hours
    
  • Modified the sleeping cooldown logic, now being less restrictive
    
  • Added Sleep Cooldown difficulty setting
    
  • In the Realistic preset the cooldown is 8h, in Standard 6h and in Comfort none
• Added loose world map coordinates next to vehicle ID on career manager
  
• Increased fire damage to vehicles x3
  
• Removed work trains being available in sandbox if they're not unlocked in career
  
• Added more day duration difficulty settings (3, 4, 6, 8 and 12 hours)

• Added sitting height adjustment in nonVR
  • Hold X and use mousewheel to adjust
• Added ability to save favorite position in a vehicle
  
  • This is a position you’ll be placed into when dashing to a vehicle’s cab
    
  • First get into a comfortable position in a vehicle. Then:
    
  • In nonVR - in mouse mode (Alt) click the new “Save Camera Position” button
    
  • In VR - in inventory top-right corner, click the new “Save Camera Position” button
    
  • Favorite positions are saved per particular vehicle type, on the user level
    
  • Click the "Reset Camera Position" button to reset to default position
• Improvements to mouse mode UI and external camera
  • Made mouse mode UI accessible by temp-holding Alt, instead of only toggle
    
  • Each camera type now has a separate button in mouse mode UI
    
  • Photo mode button now features outline when active
    
  • Same as for 1p view, you can now save/reset camera offset for the follow camera
    
  • Fixed being unable to shovel coal on S282 via driving UI, since B97
    
  • Fixed driving UI not showing amount of coal and water in tender properly
    
  • Fixed driving UI text being cut off
    
  • Increased size of non-alphabetic fonts in Driving UI, for improved clarity
• Made improvements to manual and its UI
  • Added new articles and updated existing ones
    
  • Manual headlines now break into multiple lines when they don’t fit
    
  • Manual now displays text in tooltip area on mouseover, helps when truncated
    
  • Removed text justification for languages with long words (French, Dutch…)
• Improvements to item interaction in nonVR
  • Prevented being able to grab items through walls and objects
    
  • Made held items adjust their position proportional to camera FOV
• Improvements to nonVR input
  • Fixed mouse scroll not working on career manager in mouse mode with held item
    
  • Added a couple settings for inverting scrolling in Settings/Controls
    
  • Fixed “use” action being hardcoded to LMB (mouse0)
    
  • Inverted mouse-wheel interaction with loco remote coupler selector knob
• Made turntable booths have a dash anchor, like locomotive cabs do

• Added seamless height adjustment in VR
  • Hold both Triggers and move hands vertically to lift/lower yourself
• Revamped Vive wand controls and feel
  • Fixed controller calibration angle, bad since B97
    
  • It is now possible to walk while holding an item in left hand
    
  • Use Item is now done with Trigger, like on all other controllers
    
  • Item scrolling is now Trigger+Touchpad Left/Right, like on all other controllers
    
  • To drop an item press Trigger+Grip
• Drastically improved hand shakiness and aiming smoothness feel
  
• Fixed missing haptic feedback when interacting with levers in OculusVR mode
  
• Added haptic feedback when aiming at a switch with comms radio
  
• Fixed objects in peripheral vision popping on Oculus headsets
  
• Fixed being unable to tele-interact with item-nested controls
  
• Fixed a bug where item scrolling in VR could get stuck in a certain circumstance
  
• Fixed being able to drop an item in VR with the hand still attached to it
  
• Fixed bad interaction with some vehicle buttons/switches in VR
  
• Improved interaction with fuel hose plug in VR
  
• Cut number of notches on handcar hand crank to make VR haptic feedback less spammy
  
• Shortened inventory long-press wait threshold

• Fixed sun sometimes shining through mountains when behind player at sundown
  
• Fixed items in player’s home having bad lighting
  
• Fixed glitched lighting on passenger car windows
  
• Fixed rain droplets missing on High graphics setting (merged with Very High)
  
• Fixed shadows being glitchy on the lowest quality setting
  
• Fixed a rare visual glitch with pumpjacks being drawn behind background terrain
  
• Fixed SteamVR loading screen being low-resolution, since B96

• Fixed being able to “man vehicle” oneself into a locked military base
  
• Fixed some short sounds not being affected by the doppler effect (e.g. horn pulse)
  
• Fixed tunnel entrance structures not having collision with player and trains
  
• Fixed CCUR1 license not saying that it removes rerail discount
  
• Reduced career manager text size to fit long words in non-English languages
  
• Fixed VR-intended inventory icons showing up in nonVR inventory, since B97
  
• Fixed inventory hotbar being offset on ultrawide monitors
  
• Middle mouse button is now bindable (as mouse2)
  
• Increased size of weathercast posters
  
• Added coal service marker to CM on world map
  
• Fixed missing collision with harbor military base fence
  
• Made boombox radio signal no longer getting audibly lossy in station offices already
  
• Fixed pocketwatch ticking sound not being 3D when held in hand
  
• Made pocketwatch alarm needle movement increment 12 min to align with minute marks
  
• Numerous improvements to texts and translations
  
• Many other small improvements

• Reworked locomotive tutorials to be singular runs again, but with only a short drive
  
• Integrated vehicle catalog, height adjustment, VR remote driving and handcar to career tutorial
  
• No longer showing post-tutorial steps if session was started with tutorial disabled
  
• Added all tutorial prompts to the Localization Test scene
  
• Numerous tutorial improvements, cleanups and bug fixes

Thank you for reading, and we hope you'll enjoy this update!

-Your DV Team

Hey everyone! We've just released a massive update, bringing numerous new features and bug fixes to Derail Valley.


To start off, we've added livestock, which can be found at the Farm industry. The animals are lively, moving around, making noises, and just generally contributing to the countryside atmosphere. Some of the smaller critters may even be seen crossing the tracks, but not to worry – they are immune to trains.




Along with the animals, we've added new types of cars and cargo to the game. The stock car type, pictured above, is now used to transport animals, which are visible inside and can even be heard reacting to physics forces and their health level. Another new vehicle is the short variant of the tank car, pictured below, used for milk transport.



Boxcars have been repurposed, now carrying new cargo types such as eggs, fruits and vegetables, but also wool and cotton, which now go to the Goods Factory. Hoppers too have been given a new cargo type – the sunflower seeds.



The cats' world domination has reached Derail Valley too, so naturally, you can now find strays in every city in the game. Unfortunately, you can't pick them up and carry around, although admittedly that would be very cool.

The systems developed to include these animals are the first step towards the implementation of passengers, pedestrians and wildlife to the game in the future.


There's now a new graphics setting called Terrain Lighting. If set to High it will notably improve the terrain shadowing with better accuracy and ambient occlusion, and it's not even significantly taxing on performance. If you still need the lighting to be the same as before, however, put the setting to Low.




We've added the equivalent of nonVR's mouse mode to VR. This is an accessibility feature, allowing players to aim at train controls with their hand and operate them remotely, without needing to physically reach for them. It's a substantial new way to play the game.

There is also a new difficulty setting called VR Remote Driving, which needs to be enabled for this feature to work. By default it is enabled in Comfort and Standard presets, but not in Realistic or existing custom ones.



In the future we plan to bring external camera and remote sign reading to VR too, along with the Driving UI, but that's not ready for this build yet. However, as a temporary measure, VR players do have access to the Weather Editor already, accessible via a button at the top-right corner of the inventory window.


The update also includes support for the new Quest 3 headset, vastly improved tutorial experience, as well as major bug fixes, such as disappearing money fix, DH4 tunnel item collision fix, objects in peripheral vision no longer disappearing on VR headsets with high FOV, and many, many more, as listed in the changelog below.

For players who have lost their in-game money due to a bug – please send us your save so we can fix it, allowing you to continue your session. You can do this either by emailing us to http://mailto:support@altfuture.gg or DM-ing @Manja on our Discord. The message should include:

- Your save file attached. (select your save in-game, then click the folder icon to get to it)
- Amount of money you wish to have returned. (add up for the cost of lost items too)




Since build 96 we were also able to focus on things other than strictly Derail Valley development, many of which were long due. Some of those involved:

- Creating a new kind of project management software, which drastically optimized our workflow.
- Updating a lot of our code and management infrastructure.
- Thoroughly planning out activities for the next year (more on that below).
- Working on the Soundtrack remaster (roughly 75% done, currently).
- Many other business activities that weren't in the spotlight.
- Taking time to rest and recover.

We'd like to thank you all for your continual support and making it possible for us to take actions with Derail Valley with the long-term approach!


With today's update we've entered the new era of Derail Valley development, the so called FP4, as per our roadmap. Rather than go for a single major update in the future, we have decided to introduce new industries, cargo types and cars in small batches, over the next year or so. There are currently 6 phases planned for this and today's farm update marks completion of the first!

The upcoming period is going to get quite exciting in terms of new content getting added, however note that the focus will be on the new industries, cars and cargo, but not yet on railway network updates or the industrial ecosystem gameplay. Those will come at the end of FP4, and will be announced much later.

Many more things are being in development already. Stay tuned!



Those were the most important bits, but there are many more fixes and improvements in this build. Please see the full changelog below. Next, we will also work on improving the translations of the newly added/modified text in the game along with our translation team.

• Fixed rare bug where money, jobs and items could disappear in Realistic difficulty
  • If you were affected, please contact us - we can fix your save. Steps:
    
  • Email us at support@altfuture.gg with your save file attached
    
  • Tell us how much money you’d like added
    
  • Add up for the cost of lost items too, so you can repurchase them
    
  • We’ll bring back money to your save file and send it back to you
• Fixed bug with items in trains hitting tunnel entrances and thus sometimes getting lost
  • Mainly DH4 was affected by pure luck, the issue was deep in general code
• Fixed possibility of loading screen getting stuck if music ends before it finishes
  
• Fixed loading screen freezing if “Pause minimized” is on and the game is out of focus
  
• Fixed failing to import a save file if it has empty space in its filename
  
• Fixed continue screen offering to continue the last career session after it’s been deleted
  
• Potentially fixed AudioPluginOculusSpatializer.dll causing crash on load on old CPUs
  
• Potentially fixed sessionData.json getting corrupted, with improved safeguarding

• Added new cargo types, originating in Farm
  • Eggs, milk, local fruits, vegetables and sunflower seeds now go to Food Factory
    
  • Cotton and Wool now go to Goods Factory
• Added domestic animals
  • Various farm animals can now be found at the Farm industry
    
  • Cats can be found in every town
    
  • The animals move around and make sounds during the day
    
  • The small animals may cross the tracks sometimes and are immune to trains
• Farm animals cargo is now visible inside stock cars
  • They audibly react to physics forces and health level
    
  • They lose health when underwater
• Revised HAZMAT license tier ruleset
  • 1st tier now allows flammable, asphyxiating and oxidizing cargo
    
  • 2nd tier now allows explosive, corrosive and toxic cargo
    
  • 3rd tier allows radioactive and biohazardous cargo, as before
• Allowed different HAZMAT tiers to be combined into single orders
  
• Fixed leaking flammable cargo not pooling the flammable liquid when burning
  
• Rebalanced mass, price and damage sensitivity of many cargo types
  
• Added new wooden fence type and mud pits to Farm

• Added “mouse mode” behavior equivalent to VR
  • Allows operating aimed levers and buttons remotely by holding Grip+Trigger
    • On HTC Vive controllers hold Trigger+TouchpadUp
  • Susceptible to the new “VR Remote Driving” difficulty setting (off in Realistic)
• Added Weather Editor to VR
  • To toggle it click the cloud icon button in inventory header
    
  • Susceptible to the old “Weather Editor” difficulty setting
• Fixed peripheral objects disappearing in the right eye on high FOV headsets (SteamVR)
  
• Fixed sunshafts effect in VR sometimes showing as a vertical lines glitch
  
• Simplified item storing; short-press stores item immediately without opening inventory
  
• Fixed various issues with crouching in VR not working well
  
• Improved calibration on all controller types for aim and hand alignment consistency
  
• Fixed shakiness when aiming and holding large items (fix applies to SteamVR only)
  
• Fixed carabiner slots being turned on by default (applies to new users only)

• Added new terrain shadow rendering system
  • It’s controlled by the new Terrain Lighting graphics setting. When set to High:
    
  • Terrain is lit more realistically when sun is at a shallow angle
    
  • Terrain has shadows even at a very high distance
    
  • Water surface receives terrain shadows
    
  • Sunset and sunrise shadows are smoother, more natural looking
    
  • There’s ambient occlusion, giving more depth to the air
• Fixed reflections being glitched, as of B96
  
• Fixed train headlights not having glare in daylight

• Added stock car
  • This is an old wooden cage car, used to transport livestock
    
  • It can be found in Farm and Food Factory, and comes in three colors
• Added short tank car
  • This car is similar to the regular tanker, but shortened
    
  • It is currently used only for milk transport
    
  • It can be found in Farm and Food Factory, and has milk livery
• Improvements to diesel vehicles
  • Fixed dynamic brake being able to get stuck when doing a DE6 + Slug combo
    
  • Improved DE6 engine bay looks when player is off-vehicle and the door is open
    
  • Fixed DH4 oil gauge warning lamp turning on too late
    
  • Fixed DH4 sand level lamp not blinking and sounding an alarm when very low
    
  • Fixed DM3 window having rain tilted opposite from air drag
• Improvements to steam vehicles
  • Reduced S282’s abnormally high resistance to collision damage
    
  • Fixed misaligned valve gear with the S282A’s body
    
  • Fixed lubricator consumption getting multiplied twice by res. consumption setting
    
  • Improved VR interaction with some S060 and S282 locomotive controls
    
  • Made S282A cutoff position indicator lines white for improved visibility
• Improved item and player collision precision on all vehicles
  
• Made manually spawned vehicles have handbrake applied instead of cylinder pressure
  
• Made fire from TMs cause fire damage to vehicles
  
• Fixed wheels not turning on exploded locos
  
• Fixed cab indicator lights not being visibly damaged on exploded locos
  
• Fixed handcars having brakes be permanently applied in sandbox mode
  
• Fixed caboose brake gauge not being calibrated well
  
• Fixed the “auto-headlights” feature affecting unmanned vehicles
  
• Fixed locomotive remote inverting headlight orientation if vehicle is in reverse
  
• Fixed some headlight textures being mirrored on a few locomotives
  
• Fixed brake cylinder release handle not working on autorack car, when used in VR
  
• Increased volume of the DM3 compression brake sound
  
• Simulation groundwork improvements:
  • Rewrote resource consump. propagation code (improved loco modularity)
    
  • Improved modularity for breaker configuration on locomotives
    
  • Rewrote how emission fees are calculated for steam engines (cleaner code)

• Upped the fee tolerance to $100k at the upper limit (was $50k)
  
• Fixed tender fees unable to be paid in a certain rare situation
  
• Halved bonus time limit for shunting (was overly generous)

• Tweaked rain to be a bit less common
  
• Fixed SW turntable causing unexpected derailments if not nudged
  
• Fixed issues with zooming and unzooming while in mouse mode
  
• Weather editor settings are now getting saved
  
• Fixed weather editor sliders for cloudiness and fog having wrong initial value
  
• Fixed tutorial messages not working well in CJK languages
  
• Fixed controls behaving weirdly when mouse-held on moving vehicles
  
• Fixed being unable to walk through tunnel entrances in some situations
  
• Fixed EOT Lanterns being able to become unretrievable and permanently lost
  
• Fixed military base, player house and a few smaller props being white, as of B96
  
• Made Within Reach controls have lower vertical range than horizontal (no roof driving)
  
• Fixed external camera getting stuck on world boundaries
  
• Fixed external camera not adhering to rain quality setting change
  
• Fixed keyboard controls not working for some switches, breakers, etc. as of B96
  
• Fixed prompt “Save changes to original [asset]?” doing opposite from chosen action
  
• Fixed different users not being able to have different settings
  
• Mouseovering items in inventory now shows their names and descriptions
  
• Improved descriptions for all items, including cassettes
  
• Fixed inventory buttons not having tooltips on mouseover
  
• Fixed inventory hotbar being too large on ultrawide monitors
  
• Fixed concrete steam coal tower model not fitting the coal particles position
  
• Fixed being taken to wrong bed when going to sleep, in certain situations
  
• Career manager license screen in sandbox mode is now listed as “unavailable”
  
• Career shop items in sandbox mode are now listed as “unavailable” instead of “sold out”
  
• Fixed the moon being tilted 90 degrees
  
• Fixed the VR “Item Holding” setting missing a tooltip
  
• Fixed held item sway not adhering to changes in mouse sensitivity
  
• Fixed fog level changing in the mornings despite weather being set to a fixed value
  
• Fixed some items still being collideable with other objects while held
  
• Fixed language setting not getting saved when playing via GeForce NOW
  
• Added backup save creation in case of another money loss incident in Realistic difficulty
  
• Improved logging in case of potential new issues with saves or sessions
  
• Made license items regenerate if missing from save file
  
• Made minor cosmetic improvements to tutorial depot (ceiling light, better glass texture…)
  
• Updated translations to various languages
  
• More minor fixes

• Fixed many career tutorial issues
  • Various improvements to the flow, steps, details, text, reliability and UI
    
  • Prevented use of some leftover features before it’s their turn in tutorial
    
  • Replaced the hopper with a gondola, as the handbrake is more accessible in VR
    
  • Added teaching steps about a few more things that were missed
• Reworked locomotive tutorials
  • Locomotive tutorials are now split into 2 stages, “control showcase” and “driving”
    
  • Each stage asks you if it’s okay to begin before starting
    
  • There’s more improvements to come
• Improved tutorial note UI layout, now including action icons
  
• Fixed the manual missing the contextual “See Also:” links in UI
  
• Fixed locomotive tutorial button missing from pause menu since B96

That's all for this update – See you soon with another!

-Your DV Team