Quite a bit delayed, but finally the Lite Campaign V4.0 is here, releasing into openbeta. A new, more stable game engine version, much more fleshed out factories, tons of polish, UI improvements, and lots of fixes await you in this big update. Have a look at the summarized change log below.


The LTS Mercury, designed by Ezdmn.

After a pretty long openbeta phase and 17 patches to that branch, this version has now been merged with the "stable" or "default" version of the game and everyone has it. If you have been part of the openbeta you can choose to opt out now (which won't change anything about the game in that case) by right-clicking the game in your library - select properties - betas - then choose to opt out.

Due to the major game engine update to UE4.24, mods will have to be updated by their creators to be compatible with the new game engine version. Updated modding tools are already available.

• Update to a new game engine version, UE4.24
  
• Added finances page in campaign hub, and pie charts. Yum!
  
• Fleshed out factories, add-ons & functionality
  
• Implemented factory building and tooling degradation
  
• Car and engine build quality, recalls event system with multiple choice
  
• QA, worker wages and experience affecting build quality
  
• Lots of UI and quality of life improvements

• Improved load times by up to 5x (!)
  
• Improved campaign hub calendar UI and functionality
  
• Improved FPS in car / engine designers and project UI
  
• Improved car and engine preview thumbnails, option in settings menu
  
• Improved UI animations and prettier, more consistent looks
  
• Added pause menu to sandbox and campaign (ESC)
  
• Added launcher option to select / deselect all mods
  
• Added various car bodies
  
• Overhauled factory tooling costs depending on chassis type, material, and panels
  
• Fixed a lot of campaign functionality and made it more reliable
  
• Fixed various issues with photoscenes, their controls and settings
  
• Fixed issue with fixture undo / redo stacks
  
• Fixed various issues with morphing and fixture placement
  
• Fixed issue with some small engines stalling in BeamNG.drive
  
• Tons of little fixes and polish

Cheers!

We just released a new patch that should be the final one for LCV3.7. We're now switching over to the new game engine version in our dev build and finish implementing the remaining features for the LCV4.0. This build is now on the default public branch! :) Here is the full changelog of the recent patches:

• Made engine friction progression for exports non-linear to fix many engine lock-up issues
  
• Fixed sandbox top bar year-change prompts to only open once

• Made car section of photo manager collapsable when no car is selected
  
• Added button to replicate hitting Tab when no vehicle is selected in photoscene
  
• Improved engine fit widgets to better work with new engine bay size calculations
  
• Improved engine bay clearance warnings to be more specific
  
• Fixed empty white warehouse not loading in photo mode
  
• Fixed screenshots not saving and 4k screenshot taking crashing the game
  
• Fixed engine headers not glowing with high power output

• Improved engine bay size and fitting calculations
  
• Improved state tooltips on trim and variants in campaign project managers
  
• Improved engine friciton and inertia for BeamNG exports
  
• Added ability to disable blur & transparency for improved performance on potatoes
  
• Added option to ignore / enable design warning flasher items
  
• Added demographic description to markets demographic tooltips
  
• Added ability to open .car export folder when exporting .car files, file selected
  
• Added mechanic of checking how close an engine is to the engine bay walls
  
• Added display of hand-made / limited production flags in text form for item lists
  
• Removed mid transverse AWD as it doesn't make sense
  
• Limited lastest campaign starting year to 2019 instead of 2020
  
• Fixed gearboxes and drivetrain items not exporting to beam
  
• Fixed engine bay size widget being visible when collapsed through UI
  
• Fixed intake tooltip's service cost being coloured backwards
  
• Fixed engine project manager's markets button for opening markets screen
  
• Fixed engine description widget not correctly loading data in some locations
  
• Fixed light truck monocoques being able to have mid and rear engines
  
• Fixed the bypass valve option also bypassing catalytic converters
  
• Fixed turbos not glowing on one side of V engines
  
• Fixed turbos overheating for BeamNG exports
  
• Fixed FWD transmission mesh actually being the AWD mesh
  
• Fixed some material slots on Taillight_10 not being editable

Happy new decade! :) We just released a new patch for Lite Campaign V3.7 that addresses an assortment of bugs and adds a few pieces of content. You can find the patch log below. At this point we're on track for the first LCV4.0 release coming into open beta in early February.

Note for AMD GPU users: The recent driver incompatibility issues with versions 19.12.2, 19.12.3, and 20.1.1 have been resolved with version 20.1.2, update to the latest optional drivers and any startup issues linked to that should disappear.

A little bubble car brought to you by nacho.

In a recent video we show our development outlook for 2020 and beyond. You can check it out here:

The summary of our timeline is as follows:

LC V4.0 Factory Improvements (Coming in February)
LC V4.1 New Sales Model
LC V4.2 Turbo Revamp

LC V5.0 Superchargers & Engineers
LC V5.1 Improved Competitors
LC V5.2 Prototyping & Limited Production

GC V1.0 Multiplayer & Big Map

Our FAQ covers most of the common questions regarding what will be in those updates and in Automation 1.0 in general, have a look!

• Added factory screen dedicated to selection of what to produce in it
  
• Added factory side and addon requirements to engine bottom end item tooltips
  
• Improved factory size and addon requirement tooltips for item lists
  
• Made sales decrease linearly with lower than 100 competitiveness instead of quadratically
  
• Improved synergies / familiarity between safety packages (requires new save)
  
• Improved synergies / familiarity between engine configs (requires new save)
  
• Body mophing fixtures are now mirrored by default
  
• Four new car bodies have been added
  
• Game launcher now detects if required Media Feature Pack is installed
  
• Fixed demographics scores being weird when switching cars in sandbox
  
• Fixed Inline 5, Boxer 4 & 6 engines giving magic octane requirement reductions
  
• Fixed engine bay issues with generated cars
  
• Fixed blank vehicle name text box in the BeamNG exporter screen
  
• Fixed 5V valvetrain being selectable or listed before it should be available
  
• Fixed tooltip for comparison to top competitors being worded wrong
  
• Fixed tooltip for rear suspension type having compactness go the wrong way
  
• Fixed 71 melting body to not do that anymore
  
• Fixed issue where changing engine year would unexpectedly jump to 2012
  
• Fixed changing year in sandbox not always being saved properly

Exciting times lie ahead for Automation players! Thank you for your continued support.
Cheers!

The latest version of LC V3.7 is now out on the public default branch. All previous hotfix patch notes are still down below!

Note for AMD users: The current recent graphics drivers 19.12.2 and 19.12.3 are incompatible with Automation. If you run on those you need to update to driver version 20.1.2 or later to be able to start the game.

Automation and the Lite Campaign V3 (LCV3) just got its next big update released with LCV3 Patch 7. If you were part of the openbeta you can now opt out again if you so wish and have the same version as everyone else.


The Climber Cup500 by nacho.

The massive change log is included down below and only contains the most relevant and visible changes. After almost a month of additional polishing in open beta, this version is now ready for you all to play and hopefully enjoy. The Patch 7 milestone marks the final LCV3 update before we take on the development of the LCV4 and the first part of the Forced Induction Revamp (the turbo revamp).


The Rigore Vulnair 530 by titleguy1, showing some solid Photoshop skills, too!

This update includes a lot of UI changes that will make the game more pretty, intuitive, and user friendly… everything is relative of course, we got a ways to go on that. Most of the LCV3 UI now has been implemented to the point where missing items are due to missing features that will come with the LCV4 milestone and beyond.

We think the lite campaign is now in a much better state to also be played by non-veterans of the game. Of course the campaign is not easy because of how complex Automation is and how incomplete and unfinished other parts of the campaign are in some aspects. You can definitely give it a go and see, let us know what you think, we’re looking for general and specific feedback regarding the UI, its flow, and usability. What descriptions are unclear or missing?

Please post your feedback and any bug reports in this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/293760/discussions/2/1660068911654529460/


Optimizations

• Optimized performance of calculations throughout the game
  
• Changed garbage collection settings and fixed leak in lua sqlite wrapper
  
• Various optimizations to UI loading, tooltips, and other UI aspects
  
• Optimized car body mesh and normal calculations, reduced mesh data duplication
  
• Improved ray-casting for fixtures to better cope with (literal) edge-cases
  
• Added resolution selection to graphics options

UI Changes & Additions (Visuals)

• New transparent UI look and new main menu structure
  
• Engine designer and all engine project related items are now themed blue
  
• Added graph fill area feature and graph dashed lines
  
• Improved line drawing code for graphs
  
• Made various UI items more obviously clickable, like demographics and paints
  
• Improved the research and development UI aesthetics
  
• Made numbers in font monospaced for improved readability

UI Changes & Additions (Gameplay)

• Updated designer UI flow in campaign to make it more like sandbox
  
• Added tons of tooltips, info texts, and descriptions to UI
  
• Dynamic locking of designers in campaign depending on project state
  
• Reworked the campaign setup screen(s) with more options and info
  
• Unified and tidied up the sign off screens for cars and engines
  
• Added competitiveness & affordability history graph to the calendar
  
• Added various sales, revenue, affordability, and desirability heat maps
  
• Added production related graphs to gauge factory performance
  
• Implemented context menu for saving, save as function, and save confirmation
  
• Made markets panel update with month ticks to be able to see how things change
  
• Made engineering time numbers floor correctly to first decimal

Gameplay Additions / Changes

• Added loan calculations and project-specific loans
  
• New main hub calendar automatic stock controller
  
• Better AI car generation for campaign and improved competitor cars
  
• Campaign score is now calculated in a more in-depth way
  
• Added engineering familiarity to the last items that are missing them
  
• Reworked how dealerships affect awareness levels
  
• Demographic competitiveness now affects awareness levels
  
• Added effect of company reputation and company prestige
  
• Rebalanced the stats of different seating layouts
  
• Family designer is no longer locked when there is more than one variant
  
• Engineering pressure slider now negatively affects reliability
  
• Added ability to view finished campaigns without progressing time
  
• Added ability to in-/exclude various project costs in the sales margin of a car
  
• When regions unlock, they automatically activate for all car projects
  
• Rebalanced recommended tire widths to be more reasonable in early years
  
• Added a new project warnings and more hub news items
  
• Allow engine fit widget dimensions to show numbers above 100%
  
• Added ability to see average Top 3 competitor car stats in demographics

Art & Content

• Added / remade many car bodies, with 60+ new / reworked body variants in total
  
• Made plenty of fixes to existing car bodies and their stats
  
• Reworked and improved the turbo piping system
  
• Lighting fixes for various photo scenes
  
• Fixed car smearing on trailing edge of motion blur in photo scenes
  
• Improved car placement on the design room stand
  
• Hooked intercooler slider up to change its mesh
  
• Fixed Twin DCOE on inline 5 showing as 3 DCOE
  
• Added 1 DCOE to boxer 4, added 1/2 DCOE to boxer 6
  
• Enabled 1brl eco carbs on boxer 4s & boxer 6s

Some Notable Fixes

• Fixed a major, long standing bug in demographics calculations. This caused almost all special demographic desires to always score the maximum points, implying that "everything is a pony car" because that 0.6L engine scored as highly as the 8L V12 in terms of capacity. This means demographics distinctions are now working as intended.
  
• Fixed shifts for inventory making the factory work harder than max shifts
  
• Fixed familiarity not being saved correctly for entertainment, safety, and others
  
• Fixed scenario year being changeable
  
• Fixed side stats to color fuel economy changes correctly for mpg and km/L
  
• Fixed lots of instances where integer year data was used instead of float year data
  
• Fixed tire width being converted for US conversion on tooltip, now stays as [mm]
  
• Fixed traction control not working correctly in campaign, having no effect on stats
  
• Fixed mouse buttons 3 & 4 not making designers go forward/backward consistently
  
• Fixed how the game handles custom Windows DPI settings
  
• Fixed issues with fixtures being placed along the car's centerline
  
• Reworked and fixed aspects of the forecaster functionality
  
• Fixed 60 degree V8s availability to when V6s become available
  
• Fixed exhausts not connecting properly when using several exhausts for BeamNG exports
  
• Fixed BeamNG car exporter not working from campaign

• Fixed stats side panel not showing correctly in variant design
  
• Fixed engine tests not showing how the engine revs on the graph
  
• Fixed engine renaming not accepting input once enter is hit
  
• Fixed factories not shing names of engine variants to produce
  
• Fixed ordering in calendar to have latest model on top
  
• Fixed process slider in engineering always reseting to 50 when facelifting
  
• Fixed growth data in markets tab always being 0 when starting in later years
  
• Fixed issue with .car file export filename
  
• Fixed scenario ride height being broken
  
• Fixed scenario items not auto-disabling
  
• Fixed the wrong engine graphs showing in scenarios
  
• Fixed graphs not updating when collapsing/opening scored stats in scenario
  
• Made scenario demographics always show score

• Added loading spinner to car forecaster
  
• Added a 'previous value' difference data field to the engineering values
  
• Improved logic behind renaming. Should fix instances where names could be reset
  
• Fixed engine, gearbox, and drive train not being invisible when engine doesn't fit
  
• Fixed wheels poking out of the car before reselecting the trim body/morphing
  
• Fixed issues with held stats related to competitors
  
• Fixed factory deletion from factory manager screen
  
• Fixed factory deletion when exiting un-confirmed factory built through factory manager
  
• Fixed engine scenario showing the wrong graphs
  
• Fixed changing model body not changing engine bay until something else is changed
  
• Fixed engine size checks not running when a car calculates, issues with graphs & fitting
  
• Fixed rims not showing when they are selected
  
• Fixed campaign photo mode showing sandbox cars when selecting another car to spawn
  
• Fixed double-clicking car and engine project sign off causiong blurred screen
  
• Fixed braking graph to show Time on X axis instead of speed
  
• Fixed crash of 'Deleting Trim Slots' from the campaign manager
  
• Fixed issue with game resolution selection process
  
• Fixed minor issues with units on graphs

• Changed automatic gearbox aggressiveness parameters
  
• Increase durability of pistons, cylinder walls, etc. to withstand higher boost
  
• Added backfiring to cammy cars that run rick AFRs
  
• New torsion type beam to make swaybars translate better to BeamNG
  
• Reduced friction on metal to the same coefficient used by normal BeamNG metal
  
• Various material tweaks for BeamNG's latest changes
  
• Ability to tweak toe angles in tuning menu

Thanks to RapidKebab for identifying and helping with some of these issues.

• Fixed family selection mode of car bodies being one line, instead of a full screen of bodies
  
• Fixed the position of the car editing camera in the 2010s scene
  
• Fixed the failing of closing a database causing issues with opening a new database
  
• Fixed engine projects getting locked out when they're set to be ready to be signed off
  
• Fixed main menu being broken after a series of specific actions
  
• Fixed variants not automatically being added to factories when cloned from the car designer
  
• Fixed 10sFull_Cor_cabrio being the wrong model year, was 2005, now 2007

• Added prompt for deleting a trim slot before destroying the trim
  
• Added prompt for unticking a trim, telling you it is going to wipe it
  
• Added ability to open any trim in designer from car projects manager
  
• Created WIP company museum for opening old trims (just for that functionality)
  
• Ticking on an engine appends "Replacement" instead of clone
  
• All trims now auto-tick when making a facelift
  
• Variant and Family names now autofill in sandbox new engine prompt in car designer
  
• Decreased loading time when selecting a model body (loading the bodies still takes ages)
  
• Cleaned out 2GB of unused assets from the current install
  
• Fixed campaign breaking bug when loading another campaign in same play session
  
• Fixed major bug where paint UI would stop working when entering photo mode
  
• Fixed sandbox top-bar engine prompts not opening over manager UI
  
• Fixed selecting a model body would cause a recalculation never completed
  
• Fixed issue with .car export with special characters like \
  
• Fixed target demographic selection UI not showing the current date
  
• Fixed custom refresh rates always resetting back to 120hz
  
• Fixed the country unlock years in the new campaign advanced mode screen not updating
  
• Fixed alignment & added Tick button to close R&D screen
  
• Fixed scrollbar not working for trims overview in project

• Improved lighting in 2010s design room
  
• Fixed major issues with 0000's design room
  
• Fixed bug where exhaust end nodes would export near/under ground level to BeamNG
  
• Fixed ordering of campaign car / engine projects and factories, newest first where possible
  
• Fixed sandbox car and engine managers now defaulting to ordered by newest first
  
• Fixed engines-in-project list to not blink / show wrong tooltip when all is fine
  
• Fixed hub calendar to not lose trim production info when minimizing models
  
• Fixed not being able to delete the most recent save from campaign that was just quit
  
• Fixed undo changes button in advanced paint UI not working
  
• Fixed fuel types on engine project screen being backwards (leaded vs. unleaded)
  
• Fixed issue with engine engineering not updating after changing the engine in a car

• Rebalanced tire width and engine bay width for most bodies
  
• Added new "0000s" design room, for best performance on low end PCs
  
• Added new 4th engine selection control to replace instead of just cloning a variant slot
  
• Added hotkeys for camera control in designer, WASD
  
• Added prompt to tell you that you have unapplied graphics settings when closing options UI
  
• Added default autofill for engine selection UI with existing engine names or automatic name
  
• Added more spacing to text in textboxes to make them more readable. (i.e top bar)
  
• Added list mode to sandbox engine selection UI
  
• Improved paint pallette and slider fidelity
  
• Increased contrast of datafield slider gray in item comparison tooltips
  
• Fixed engine family stroke changing values despite being locked in
  
• Fixed issue with sales calculations giving access to much larger than possible markets
  
• Fixed company prestige and reputation skyrocketing to extreme numbers
  
• Fixed issue where just-unlocked demographics supposedly had massive potential revenues
  
• Fixed issue with adding too many trims / variants to a factory, giving zero efficiency
  
• Fixed current factory shifts being in the wrong column for factories
  
• Fixed campaign starting cash vs. difficulty score multiplier inconsistency for 50 million
  
• Fixed new campaign easy setup mode not scaling with screen size
  
• Fixed old variants / trims not being cleared out of factories properly, causing issues
  
• Fixed graphics menu not resetting when closed
  
• Fixed engine sorting in sandbox not working
  
• Fixed blur not going away when closing settings menu opened through photo scene UI
  
• Fixed turbo glow being a bit borked
  
• Fixed issue with demographic tooltip for a demographic that just unlocked
  
• Fixed issue with campaign setup UI in advanced mode for engine tech being too tall
  
• Fixed some turbo placement issues on boxer engines
  
• Fixed right-click not working on body filter settings anymore to deselect all the others
  
• Fixed accessibility controls UI panel for camera controls
  
• Fixed slider centers from turning red/blue sometimes

• Improved handling of loading old cars that have updated bodies
  
• Improved stability of loading mod bodies
  
• Fixed engines not updating stats in sandbox and behaving strangely
  
• Fixed facelifts not working properly in campaign, made system more solid
  
• Fixed engines not showing up when selecting existing engines from engine manager
  
• Fixed engines not showing when 'creating new variant in existing family'
  
• Fixed issue with rim size changes not updating car calculations
  
• Fixed factories not being possible to rename, changing back to their default name
  
• Fixed turbo engines without an intercooler not providing any boost
  
• Fixed turbos spawning in weird places the first time you build a turbo boxer
  
• (Potentially) Fixed exhausts scraping the ground in BeamNG or being ripped off instantly
  
• Relit all the 'Mirror' photo scenes to fix some issues. They are super pretty now!
  
• Top bar now flashes pause/play button when paused in campaign
  
• Campaign top bar now hides time controls when not relevant
  
• Tweaked margin increase per month to be more aggressive at sales start
  
• Removed the blue ball from the Isle of Skye... no sheep were harmed

• Fixed car mods not working anymore
  
• Fixes various issues with engines in sandbox not working correctly
  
• Fixed framerate issues in photo scenes and design rooms
  
• Fixed the larger of the two new not-Falcon body morphs
  
• Planar reflections now adjust with quality settings, full quality when taking photos
  
• Added day-night cycle to Isle of Skye photo scene

We've been hard at work to polish up this version and it is really coming together nicely. So nicely in fact that we're planning to get this final LCV3 version ready for you to try out in the opt-in openbeta branch early next week.


The 1984 Lafayette Mark IV Executive Sedan by Mat.

To see part of what is coming, feel free to check out the two latest Little Dev Update videos:




Another thing worth checking out is a recent Q&A with Killrob, giving some in-depth answers to a few interesting questions.



We'll notify you next week once the new patch goes live on the openbeta branch.
Cheers!

In the past few weeks we've been working on improving the campaign flow and usability. Also a lot of effort has gone into the underlying backend structure of handling of car and engine projects, making them more solid and in turn less crashy... or that is the end goal! :)


A quality Archanan design by Yangx2.

The UI still needs work of course, but in this Little Dev Update video we are showing off some of the new UI features coming to the LCV3.



We expect the open beta for Patch 7 to start in the next few weeks. Most new features for Patch 7 are implemented and now we're polishing things up.

Cheers!

• Updated trim & engine side-stats aesthetics and logic to better fit new UI style
  
• Trim side-stats now can compare to average of the top 3 competitors
  
• Added post processes to animatics
  
• Added tooltip to animatics button to show a car must be selected
  
• Added unit & unit conversion to wheelbase on car body tooltip
  
• Added pause/stop keyboard shortcuts to animatics. (ESC and SPACE)
  
• Fixed being able to select & move cars while an animatic is running
  
• Fixed being able to move photo scene camera while an animatic is playing
  
• Fixed Animatics not rendering for certain screen resolutions

• Fixed 2010s design room not being able to make a new campaign
  
• Fixed issue with mp4 animatic saving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DczrJODQEzA
The next big patch for the Lite Campaign V3 version of the game is now available on the public default branch. Note that you can opt in or out of the openbeta branch by right-clicking the game in your Steam Library, Properties, Betas, select the openbeta branch and let the game update.


What game is this, looks awesome?! Presented by nacho.

In this big patch we have many important fixes and quite a few cool new features too! It certainly does feel quite a bit different with the updated UI look. If you were part of the openbeta, you find the latest changes below listed under Hotfix 5.


MGR_99's version of the Merano Titus in full motion in the updated photo scenes.

For those of you who have not been part of the openbeta, here is a quick summary with the biggest changes:

• New simplified and performance optimized UI look (still WIP)
  
• New car and engine design rooms selectable from the car manager
  
• Added ability to place several cars in a photoscene
  
• Fixed various memory eating crashes in Engine Designer
  
• Option for intake models on engine to show in the car, export to BeamNG
  
• Added photoscene animatics, can be rendered out as .mp4
  
• Plenty of campaign UI improvements
  
• Lots of general optimization and bugfixes
  
• New car bodies, fixtures, and plenty of fixes

From here we're going to continue to improve the campaign to make it more playable for people who don't know it inside out already. This current patch goes some way towards that already by making it more solid - so you don't have the feeling you need to walk on egg shells. Although there sure is a lot more work to do on that.

Please note any bugs you encounter in the LCV3 bug posting thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/293760/discussions/2/1842440600597495047/

Of course we'll also continue to add new planned features to the campaign, inching it closer and closer to having a grand campaign mode.

Thanks to all who reported issues during the openbeta of this milestone update!

Let us know what you think. :)
Cheers!



PS: For the complete list of other changes, check out all that stuff below!

• Animatics now can be saved out as .mp4
  
• Fixed engine holding causing UI to lock to first panel
  
• Fixed a campaign crash related to safety regulation
  
• Fixed 70sBL20-35-2dr cargo size (still needs new thumbnail)
  
• Fixed issues with 10sSedanLarge_Ute, 60sSedan04Med_Ute coloring
  
• Fixed truck bed becoming invisible for 10sSUVHuge02_Ute
  
• Fixed rare crash occurring in the photoscene
  
• Fixed Scored Stats not appearing in car scenarios at the start
  
• Fixed engine not fitting warning in scenarios when you don't have an engine yet
  
• Added the faster "Most Gear" animatic back, slower version now "Low Gear"

• New photoscene feature: animatics frame by frame rendering to .avi
  
• Added auto-focus to photoscenes
  
• Improved appearance of engine bore/stroke widget
  
• Design room choice now save between sessions.
  
• Fixed car preview images being at a weird angle
  
• Fixed issues with mirrors not attaching correctly

• Fixed photo mode in campaign incorrectly loading cars
  
• Fixed rapidly clicking the Delete Campaign Save button causing multiple popups
  
• Fixed engine deletion prompts opening behind "add variant to trim" popup
  
• Fixed and made common the engine thumbnail generation camera angle in both levels
  
• Fixed conflicting body IDs, fixes some body selection bugs, may break some old cars
  
• Fixed wing mirrors in 10s scene looking much darker
  
• Fixed issue in canal photoscene displaying wheels incorrectly

• Updated game engine to 4.21.2 (previously 4.21.1)
  
• Engine mixed material reliability penalty now also considers bank length
  
• Improved the appearance of the car and engine visibility widgets
  
• Add photomode button to campaign car manager
  
• Added an "open BeamNG export folder" button to the exporter
  
• Cleaned up car manager trim buttons and functionality
  
• Readded missing 60s Mid Engine Americana bodies
  
• Changed top competitiveness averaging to be done on top 3 instead of top 10
  
• Added an 'orbit' animatic that spins around the selected car
  
• Removed weird test animatics
  
• Extended camera tilt range from (-45 to 45) to (-90 to 90) in photoscenes
  
• Slowed down all animatics by at least half
  
• Made tyres prettier (better texture tiling, nicer shading in tread)
  
• Lighting, texture and post proccesing tweaks to improve 2010s Design Room
  
• Sandbox now saves design room preference

• Disabled markets button on campaign setup screen (would crash game)
  
• Fixed campaign freezing after pausing any trim's production
  
• Fixed paint screen first showing a "Performance" button that does nothing
  
• Fixed duplicate GUIDS causing fixtures to replace each other
  
• Fixed GameVersion UI being squished in exporter
  
• Fixed fog acting weird on wheels in photoscenes
  
• Fixed wheels being super dark in the white mirror photoscene
  
• Fixed the demographics for the trims in the engineering tab sometimes showing as zero
  
• Fixed "driver detection error" warning in game launcher
  
• Fixed list of engines in engine manager selection not being scrollable
  
• Fixed issue with demographics (un-)pinning inconsistencies
  
• Fixed you being able to change rim size before choosing tyre type
  
• Fixed entering and exiting settings menu in designers locking panels
  
• Fixed the 10sTrocc_SWB_RC_Comp_BP_Thumb has a weird broken thumbnail
  
• Fixed brake callipers being mirrored on the left side of a car

• Fixed blur effect affecting car desiger
  
• Fixed all demographics penalties not showing correctly on market UI
  
• Fixed issue with production / sales margin freezing when scheduling new model
  
• Fixed issue where some photoscenes did not have all post processing effects
  
• Fixed scrolling not working on title tooltips
  
• Removed test fixture (weird low res car picture)
  
• Removed 2 DCOE option from Boxer 6s as an option
  
• Darkened target demgographic icons when they're alt-trimslot targets

• Tweaked Screen Space Reflection quality for more performance
  
• Added automatic removal of excessive reflection capture objects (low settings)
  
• Upped shadow quality on Low graphics preset
  
• Disabled fixture highlighting on 'Low' settings to help with framerates on potatoes
  
• Fixed issue where performance was terrible in all scenes due to new wrongly applied effect

• Dealership networks now grow over time as you increase their level
  
• Improved automatic factory shift and stock management
  
• Improved margin and production splits management
  
• Added factory alerts as news items
  
• Added improved news feed items for completed engineering / construction
  
• Added factories and some of their stats to the hub calendar
  
• Added warning for engines being used without any assigned production
  
• Added safety prompt to deleting a family from the projects manager grid
  
• Optimized such that tooltips no longer update while they are hidden
  
• Added tooltips & title description tooltips to new campaign UI
  
• Changed wheel offset to go in steps of 5mm instead of 10mm
  
• Improved paint material selection from paint UI
  
• Removed collision from walls and roof in new design room photoscene
  
• Added WIP animatics to the photoscene
  
• Added all post process photoscene effects to all photoscenes
  
• Changed photoscene sliders to be standared stepped sliders
  
• Added motion blur post process effect to photoscenes
  
• Improved asthetic of darkened, unavailable demographics
  
• Added double-click to open model that only has one variant
  
• Rebuilt lighting for interior_80s with more neutral lighting
  
• Added confirmation for overwriting photo scene presets
  
• Added tooltip to ride height indicating min/max caused by suspension
  
• Removed engineering time from tooltip of type compound choice
  
• Enabled visibility of crank pulley on engine inside a car
  
• The hub now shows trim performance as the Top 10 average score

• Fixed 60s mid engine coupes and 10s trucks that had gone missing
  
• Fixed inconsistencies with how projects align to their factory construction times
  
• Fixed not being able to deactivate an invalid trim slot
  
• Fixed issue with engine design years when activating for modification
  
• Fixed the part selection specific tooltips not being displayed
  
• Fixed part comparison tooltip being obsessed with "Forged"
  
• Fixed mouse-over in engine project manager not showing engine info in campaign
  
• Fixed manually inputting values into advanced paint not forcing car updates
  
• Fixed engine comparison UI showing odd text labels
  
• Fixed photo scene drop-down not updating when using presets
  
• Fixed automation and tooling sliders not correctly affecting car factory efficiency
  
• Fixed car competitiveness seemingly jumping around in forecaster
  
• Fixed quality slider jumping back a notch after upping it rapidly
  
• Fixed clicking on a non interactive UI element deselecting the car in the photoscene
  
• Fixed market awareness calculations breaking adding half-locked demographics
  
• Fixed engine quality slider settings getting ignored until the engine recalculates
  
• Fixed rear engine cars load capacity depending on rear suspension settings
  
• Fixed imperial units not being available for spring settings
  
• Fixed car model body selection not having a scroll arrow until you start scrolling
  
• Fixed issue of flashing demographics on the screen edges
  
• Fixed fuel availability showing red at 100% in demographics in specific cases
  
• Fixed leather material not being stampable
  
• Fixed production bar on calendar having no tooltip
  
• Fixed shakiness of spinning loading icon on game start
  
• Fixed wrong configs being available for DCOE carbs on Boxer engines
  
• Fixed build quality graph in factory having a bad choice for its x scaling
  
• Fixed flashing the world map to flash only selectable countries
  
• Fixed switching generated to non-generated scenario breaking timer
  
• Fixed warping of fixture gizmo when looking at transparent surfaces
  
• Fixed front wheel on 70sCoupeSedan being too far back
  
• Fixed the 70sMiniCar being listed as sedan instead of hatchback
  
• Fixed 10sSedan02Large_Coupe morphs
  
• Fixed 80sBoxyAmerican family from exploding if changing from one variant to another
  
• Fixed fixture mirroring holes in 10sSUVHuge02_Ute

Sorry for the long wait for an update! The team is now all back from holidays, but half of it is caught out and knocked out by a flu wave going though.


A fancy design by nacho, vastly preferable to the flu.

In the meantime we have been working on polishing up the new UI look quite a lot, as well as added quite a few good feature, gotten rid of nasty crashes, and in general added quality of life stuff like tooltips and so on. We just posted a new Little Dev Update video showing what we're working on and talking about where development is headed. The most recent one is from today, showing much of what the new UI looks like:

https://youtu.be/75clZqftsDE
In case you missed it, we also posted one about a month ago, talking about all kinds of new features that also will be coming with the next patch:

https://youtu.be/0mPCa5IbAY4
A few fixes to the campaign are needed before we can get the patch to you, but it looks like next week is a reasonable target.

Cheers!

After many weeks of fixing, optimizing, fixing, adding content, and… fixing stuff that broke again, we do have all the changes rolled into the public branch of the game to serve as a new foundation for the next leap forward in features. Below you find a summary changelog of LCV3 Patch 4 and 5. If you want to see all the changes made, just have a look at the two previous news posts!


The 1990 Vic Reffafi by Flash in the new 10s Design Room photoscene

This is a good point to opt out of the openbeta branch for those of you who chose it only because of some specific fixes and crashes. From here we’ll do some more ToDo list clean-up and add more depth to the factory management in the campaign. As always, these changes will come to the openbeta branch first, but may have their (un-)fair share of bugs.

It sure feels good to finally be able to get this massive list of important fixes over to the public branch, especially all the game stability related things, which should be a big improvement for many who had been struggling with seemingly random crashes of the game.

Here is the summary list of the most notable fixes and improvements since the previous public build from March 20th.

• New improved paint system, with simple and advanced mode
  
• Implemented familiarity mode. Visible on item tooltips. Toggle with Alt-key
  
• Added many new car bodies, body variants (including Lord Gaben requests)
  
• Added many new fixtures
  
• Added new themed number plates
  
• Added GPU driver detection to launcher, warning about outdated drivers
  
• Added 10s Design Room photoscene
  
• Added a darker 90's-ish variant on the modern studio photoscene
  
• Added paint sorting by Name or Hue
  
• Softtops & Trays can now be painted
  
• Implemented the effects of production flags (limited / no mass production)
  
• Implemented interest rate dependencies on loan conditions and financial situation
  
• Updated factory information for tooltips and comparison tooltips
  
• Updated general look of sliders
  
• Added button in photoscene to directly open screenshot folder
  
• Reimplemented and improved sandbox car cost estimation
  
• Tweaked gearbox weight scaling (don’t get heavy as fast with more torque)
  
• Rebalanced the cost of R&D, making the lower levels more attainable
  
• Added Debug Menu, open with F9
  
• Much improved photoscene car movement controls

• Fixed issue throughout the game that could cause random crashes
  
• Added code signing for better compatibility with anti-virus software
  
• Fixed a whole load of campaign related bugs (yes, bad ones)
  
• Fixes for many many car bodies and fixtures
  
• Fixed and tweaked many familiarity synergies
  
• Suspension choice no longer allows choosing incompatible designs front vs. rear
  
• Fixed suspension ride height weirdness in campaign cars, causing stat fluctuations
  
• Fixed issue where the car would "forget" its power distribution and become RWD
  
• Fixed various items not having the correct production limiting flags
  
• Fixed grid mode car manager not working for sandbox
  
• Tweaked interior weight scaling with quality
  
• Fixed display issue that could show negative months signing off projects
  
• Fixed Engine Factories not correctly finding their production flags
  
• Fixed demographics not growing depending on their demographic type

• Disabled framerate smoothing with VSync, as that was causing low FPS
  
• Fixed various small and medium sized memory leaks
  
• Optimized calculation performance for campaign play
  
• Optimized updating of UI with ongoing calculations, more responsive
  
• Optimized loading of fixture thumbnails

For anyone who has had stability issues with the public build, this one should alleviate most of your issues. Give it a go and let us know if things are working as intended. :)

Cheers!

Note for RC3: A quick Saturday patch to get rid of the weird issue the RC2 build had with headlight fixtures and the remaining tooltip inconsistencies. This hopefully is our final release candidate for this update. Give it a go and see if there are any bigger issues that need addressing asap. :) Cheers!

In today's patch we have a lot of under the hood fixes and optimizations for you, along with a new improved car paint system. Also we have optimized campaign calculations and database handling. It should play a lot smoother and make the game more stable as a whole.


MGR99's design for the Merano Dalius

The plan for this update is to have it in openbeta for a few days and then put it onto the public branch. There are so many fixes and improvements since the last public build, we want to get it out to you as soon as possible. Have a look at the changelog below and give this version, available on the openbeta branch, a go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbqRr5589rQ

• Fixed remaining tooltip issues
  
• Fixed headlight fixtures not appearing correctly

• Fixed hold / reverting function which deleted the car choices
  
• Fixed tooltips and comparison tooltips
  
• Fixed Photoscene presets not loading the car position and settings correctly
  
• Removed faulty price column in sandbox car manager, correct car price on testing page

• Fixed issue where the car would "forget" its power distribution and become RWD
  
• Fixed suspension preset / ride height resetting wheel material / color
  
• Fixed steering angle resetting car rotation in photoscene
  
• Fixed competitor cars reading out zero reliability in competitor comparison UI
  
• Fixed car rotating after moving it in the photoscene while it has non-zero steering angle
  
• Fixed freshly designed cars reverting names back to default names in home screen
  
• Fixed all slider plus buttons having a bad hitbox

• Fixed body quality slider not working correctly
  
• Fixed (potentially) paint system where non-paint materials change on their own
  
• Fixed materials like carbon not properly being exported to BeamNG

• Fixed issue with some car parts not recoloring correctly
  
• Fixed various items not having the correct production limiting flags
  
• Fixed issue with car affordibility ratings in sandbox

• Fixed missing 60s sports coupe bodies
  
• Fixed rims being matte black by default
  
• Fixed default colors / materials not showing correctly in UI
  
• Fixed 10sSedanLarge_Wagon being 4 instead of 5 door
  
• Fixed dyno to engine driveshaft connection
  
• Fixed issue with UK style number plates
  
• Fixed passenger volume not being displayed correctly in stats

• Added paint sorting by Name or Hue
  
• Fixed global paints not live previewing on car
  
• Fixed previous tab button not disappearing from UI on body selection
  
• Fixed pinned market for car in campaign not updating correctly
  
• Fixed grid mode car manager not working for sandbox
  
• Fixed engine bay fill factor not showing correctly in engine family tab
  
• Fixed campaign issue that allows to sign off without an estimated trim price
  
• Fixed display issue that could show negative months signing off projects
  
• Fixed issue with displaying the export path for BeamNG exports
  
• Fixed Engine Factories not correctly finding their production flags
  
• Fixed mass project sign off showing negative shifts for multiple car projects
  
• Fixed issue with HRL badge not showing up
  
• Fixed problem alloy and steel material
  
• Fixed leather and cloth material exporting white to BeamNG
  
• Fixed EU CD05MR0 plate sticking out too far
  
• Fixed and updated numerous numberplate textures

• Added 10s Design Room Photoscene
  
• Fixed crashes related to fixtures in general and fixtures / body loading
  
• Fixed red bumper glitch, rear bumpers didn't recolor correctly
  
• Fixed quality slider buttons not working properly
  
• Fixed fuel economy test page in detailed stats
  
• Fixed the numbers for reputation and prestige showing the same value
  
• Fixed issue with selecting the gearbox / drivetrain
  
• Fixed weight being rounded too much on car summary page
  
• Changed low flake paint setting to have no flake, i.e. none
  
• Added double clicking a paint swatch to apply it to the current slot
  
• Added main slot controls to 2nd paint tab to allow for quicker navigation
  
• Added function to click the paint above the edit slot button on the paint UI
  
• Added GPU driver detection to launcher, warning about outdated drivers

• New improved paint system, with simple and advanced mode

• Added new themed numberplates
  
• Fixed car body bounds issues for several cars
  
• Fixed various specific car body issues
  
• Fixed pickup bodies not having paintable beds, more still to fix
  
• Updated general look of sliders
  
• Added button in photoscene to directly open screenshot folder

• Disabled framerate smoothing, as that was causing low FPS
  
• Fixed various small and medium sized memory leaks
  
• Various SQLite optimizations and data compacting for campaign
  
• Optimized month tick calculation performance for campaign play
  
• Optimized loading times of car bodies
  
• Optimized fixture placing to reduce freezing for complex fixtures
  
• Optimized updating of UI with ongoing calculations, more responsive
  
• Optimized loading of fixture thumbnails
  
• Optimized demographics to use one tooltip widget instead of 60

• Fixed deleting a planned facelift causing corruption to parent model
  
• Fixed default car materials not importing correctly in new paint system
  
• Fixed issue throughout the game that could cause random crashes
  
• Fixed issue with company reputation dropping fast in campaign
  
• "Fixed" issue with engine sounds, upped min engine idle to 600 RPM
  
• Fixed signing off factory throwing you out to wrong UI tab
  
• Fixed issue with deleting a planned facelift or trim upsetting the calendar
  
• Fixed interaction between familiarity and engineering setup sliders
  
• Fixed issue with cross-configuration familiarity gain for engines
  
• Fixed forecaster buttons not having a selected state
  
• Fixed demographics not growing depending on their demographic type
  
• Fixed Body Quality Slider causing UI to reload
  
• Fixed a situational crash on exiting the game
  
• Changed game build version numbering system
  
• Photoscene sublevel option now only appears with 1+ options
  
• Added tooltip to display reason a factory is unavailable for selection

• Fixed issue in modding tools, Example Decal mod was missing

Let us know about any issues you discover in the bug posting thread here in the forums! :)
Cheers!

In the fourth big patch for the LCV3 update we have all sorts of changes for you. The big ones for campaign play are the familiarity view mode which colors selections according to how familiar your company is at producing them. That will show how different parts are interconnected, giving you some expertise even at engineering components you never engineered before.

For the car builders / designers among you, this update features a new paint / materials system that now allows you to have pained special materials like chrome (yes, you can make golden chrome cars now, until you get punched by someone), and colored carbon fiber. Also the update brings some awesome new car bodies (including special request by Lord Gaben), and more fixtures to go along with them.

Please note that as was stated in the most recent Little Dev Update, your campaign game saves will no longer be compatible with this new version. We release it to the openbeta branch first, so that you can switch over to the default branch and finish off your campaign in the coming days before this update is merged with the default version.


The 'Di Inferi Prototipo Dieci', by Miurena.

• Reimplemented and improved sandbox car cost estimation
  
• Tweaked gearbox weight scaling (lighter at higher engine torque)
  
• Fixed issue with body quality slider causing freeze crashes
  
• Fixed photo mode only showing car first time you load it up
  
• Fixed turbo journal bearings not being selectable
  
• Fixed crash happening when closing Automation

• Added Debug Menu, open with F9
  
• Added option to debug menu to show/hide fixture names on tooltip.
  
• Fixed semi-spaceframe factory addon requirements
  
• Fixed / re-added missing photomode button to car designer
  
• Fixed tooltip for fuel availability, now 75% or below shows in red
  
• Fixed head quality not affecting octane requirements
  
• Tweaked block and head material familiarity synergy groups
  
• Fixed Boxer 6 broken familiarity synergy groups
  
• Fixed issues with some familiarity tooltips
  
• Fixed familiarity colouring for 30+% familiarity
  
• Compounded tire type and tire compound for familiarity

• Added 90sLuxurySedans
  
• Added missing Kammback version of 70sUSCoupe
  
• Added fixture button for tow hitch, re-added missing tow hitch
  
• Fixed missing RWD gearbox textures
  
• Fixed issue with UI timeline acting weirdly and blocking some UI selections
  
• Fixed some issues with familiarity not accumulating for the correct items
  
• Fixed / improved familiarity synergies
  
• Fixed color swatch ordering to be sorted by name
  
• Tweaked interior weight scaling with quality
  
• Fixed plastic material being white in BeamNG exports
  
• Removed broken, accidentially released 70sSupercar until its done
  
• Changed 00sVan to unlock in 85
  
• Fixed Van tag on 70sPanelVan
  
• Improved Fixture Stamping UVs on 80s Vans and 2010s Coupe
  
• Improved morphing behavior of wheelarches
  
• Photoscene car movement controls now suck less
  
• Fixed teleport to car functionality in photoscene
  
• Improved lighting on car thumbnails

• Added code signing for better compatibility with anti-virus software
  
• Implemented familiarity mode. Visible on item tooltips & toggle by pressing Alt-key. The colors still don't quite work in the listboxes, will be fixed tomorrow!
  
• Implemented the effects of production flags (limited / no mass production)
  
• Implemented interest rate dependencies on loan conditions and financial situation
  
• Reworked the paint system
  
• Softtops & Trays can now be painted
  
• Added fixture non & transparent window material as an option
  
• Added a darker 90's-ish variant on the modern studio photoscene
  
• Added a 00s Small Hatch body
  
• Added a range of 00s/10s sport coupes (special request by Gabe Newell)
  
• Added wings/lights/vents/grilles to suit the sport coupes
  
• Replaced some of the gearboxes with better looking ones (transverse front)

• Reworked all morph positions on 10sSedan02Large family to fix melting issues.
  
• Reduced 70sUSCoupe_Small rear chassis length by 20cm to avoid clipping
  
• Reduced 70sUSCoupe rear chassis length by 10cm to avoid clipping
  
• Reduced 70sLuxury_Cor family's rear chassis by 15cm to avoid clipping
  
• Removed side trim from 00sPonySmall
  
• Increased 90sSUV maximum wheel diameter
  
• Fixed weird paint lighting issues on the sides of cars
  
• Fixed 2.7m wheelbase McLaren-esque body weight issues
  
• Fixed 10sSedan02Med4dr having no passenger box
  
• Fixed missing second seat row in 60sSUV
  
• Fixed 1995 Coupe body has an issue with its coupe variant, front bumper
  
• Fixed 60sSedan05 family front bumper being split down the middle
  
• Fixed 60sVan from melting when selecting a different variant
  
• Fixed wonky morph on rear right wheel arch for 70sCoupe02
  
• Fixed rear morphs on 80sLMP
  
• Fixed missing bits of body at the front bumper of 00SedanCompact-Coupe
  
• Fixed pinched morph on 60sSedan02, fixed whole family bumper painting
  
• Fixed 60sSUV from exploding when you try and morph it, added second seat row
  
• Fixed 10scoupelarge from chassis clipping in the rear
  
• Fixed 90smidcoupe off-centred wheel and added nose morph
  
• Fixed 10Roadster_Large-FB fixture tearing on front of bonnet / windshield
  
• Fixed 1945 people mover body being "melty"
  
• Fixed 70sCoupeLarge02_Sedan_ being a coupe, instead of a... Sedan

• Added nicer country selection to markets tab of trim & hub
  
• Added keyboard controls: Space or P to pause, x or + for faster, z or - for slower
  
• Added tooltip to time controls to tell you about these keys
  
• Suspension choice no longer allows choosing incompatible designs front vs. rear
  
• Improved appearance of trim stats on details & test-track sub panels
  
• Redid how the paint thumbnails are generated, for better readability
  
• Improved fixture thumbnails through better lighting
  
• Sharpened up horizontal & vertical sliders for better contrast
  
• Added Max and Min awareness to dealership screen, disabled unfinished items
  
• Added better tooltips to engineering pages of car and engine projects
  
• Added tooltips to engine / car project items on 3rd tab
  
• When selecting existing engine, changed the button text to "Select Variant"
  
• Fixed wrong icon for number of engines produced by factory
  
• Improved the engine designer's default camera position

• Fixed the economy randomizing itself every time you load your save
  
• Fixed car import errors for some database versions, implemented better handling of that
  
• Fixed issue where specific materials couldn't be used on a body more than once
  
• Fixed suspension ride height weidness in campaign cars, causing stat fluctuations
  
• Fixed bonnets turning grey when hidden instead of disappearing
  
• Fixed rare loading issue with some mods that stopped other tasks from completing
  
• Fixed issue with the test tracking braking test and tires bursting due to downforce
  
• Fixed modifying a new engine family through a trim slot not updating its family
  
• Fixed sequencing issue in project managers
  
• Fixed some chassis part options still referring to "Tameness" as a stat
  
• Removed broken title tooltips from car/engine project tabs
  
• Fixed future factory size name not showing correctly in factory overview

• Fixed and tweaked many familiarity synergies
  
• Rebalanced the cost of R&D, making the lower levels more attainable
  
• Rebalanced how the brake fade calculations factor in 'disc size', now not linear

• Fixed issue with bonnets disappearing for exported cars in BeamNG
  
• Fixed carbon fibre being weirdly bright and shiny in BeamNG
  
• Fixed issue with specific cars hovering above the ground in BeamNG

Next up are the addition of the factory and tooling hitpoint systems that make your factories wear down over time. That will factor into not only retooling time and cost, but also your cars' production quality and with that your company prestige, reputation, and in future production batch recall rates. Alongside a lot of fixes and further polish, obviously.

Cheers!