We've continued to hunt down various bigger issues that were plaguing the opt-in alpha and have been able to fix over 30% of remaining crashes with this patch. Due to larger rewrites that were necessary, 4.2.9 has seen a little bit of a delay, but that comes with other content being added in too!


Tuners now will have to do without magic twin-scroll powers... by Mikonp7 & Smons

• Implemented a completely new undo / redo stack system which has much better performance
  
• Implemented an Active Mods overview in the main menu of the game
  
• Added front and rear wheelbase offsets to move axles via advanced trim settings
  
• Improved fixture UI speed & switching fixture speed on high-fixture count cars
  
• Improved performance of fixture saving to lua, especially on high-fixture cars
  
• Improved loading logic for bodies / fixtures to not get stuck when Steam doesn't report back
  
• Changed AWD power split default settings to be more usable out of the box
  
• Rebalanced engine family head vs. top end tab option costs ET, PU, M$
  
• Fixed top end tab quality being for free when VVT None was selected
  
• Fixed seat body filters allowing over-scroll with mouse wheel
  
• Fixed an occasional crash coming from turbos producing NaN data
  
• Fixed a hard crash related to market calcs when dragging family capacity sliders for a bit
  
• Fixed reverting a held car after changing the body resulting in a scrunched car body
  
• Fixed mirrored text fixtures not exporting to BeamNG

• Fixed turbo failure states not working correctly
  
• Fixed twin-scroll turbo performance typo giving it magic powers
  
• Fixed issue in calculations handling massively mismatched flow vs. turbo flow
  
• Fixed smart boost functionality producing weird, non-optimal results in early spool
  
• Added fuel system (pressure) and headers (temperature and pressure) curves to graphs
  
• Minor adjustments to turbo tooltip texts

• New 1993 unlock car bodies
  
• New 1988 unlock car bodies
  
• Many, many new rims, former JohnDoe1974 mod
  
• Touch-up/remake of the Mako car bodies
  
• Deleted name labels from most recent headlight and indicator additions
  
• Added intercooler and intercooler pipe connector fixtures
  
• Fixed issues with Boxer configuration intakes
  
• Fixed non muffled V and Boxer engines not connect their exhaust pipes in single exhaust config
  
• Fixed some adapters not getting painted if they are not part of engine head
  
• Fixed fixture stamping issues on 65_XMB_Hatch

• Fixed generating car thumbnails generates red rims
  
• Fixed not being able to create rim preview files

Another big changelog for this update, and yet so much more to work on. We're continuing to to fix things up and add the remaining features until the 4.2 version arrives at a beta stage. Campaign is back up and running in our internal builds, so quite a bit of progress is being made behind the scenes too!

Please keep posting your helpful reports of various issues you encounter. :)
Cheers!

We think we got to the bottom of the big remaining issue of fixture merging and fixture nuking! In this patch that should be sorted, along with a few other nice additions and fixes.

• Cleaned up, remade, improved, or otherwise fixed, all custom paints
  
• Implemented header and fuel system flow dependencies into the turbo calculations
  
• Implemented separated turbo and header temperature resistances
  
• Added header melting failure state
  
• Added calculation (turbos) for how fuel evaporation cools of the intake charge
  
• Tweaked VGT turbo range to be shifted a bit towards higher flows
  
• Improved graph data loading performance

• Fixed cross-car fixture merging
  
• Fixed rapidly saving .car files causing fixture nuking
  
• Fixed fuel selections not updating engine results when changed
  
• Fixed AKI fuel view showing tuned fuel octane to be -5 by default
  
• Fixed catalytic converters being able to run with leaded fuel
  
• Fixed held engine not showing previous engine config in power & torque graphs
  
• Fixed fender morphs on all 08_us_ body style variants
  
• Fixed 70sCoupe02Convertible being hidden inside it's model and multiple issues with it

We've started working on bringing back the campaign for the advent of the open beta version, but there still are many other little and big things to get done as well.

We'll continue a steady flow of patches until that no longer is the case. :)
Cheers!

A small patch with fixes, including the materials issue, and some goodies, including the race tubular header art for turbos.

• Added art for turbo race tubular manifolds [WIP]
  
• Added options to custom paints for relative and global texture scaling
  
• Remade the V60 MPFI / DI manifolds
  
• DRLs now have a toggle button and brightness slider in light controls UI
  
• Fixed issues with material / paint selection menus
  
• Fixed highlights on top of shiny objects in photoscenes with the overcast time of day
  
• Fixed photo scene having excessive bloom by default
  
• Fixed balance shaft setting being sticky on changing of engine configurations
  
• Fixed the model year not updating the stored engine year which resulted in weird engine years
  
• Fixed scaling fixtures along the car axis resulting in a snap to center
  
• Fixed car light sliders defaulting to 0, they initialize with a value of 50

We are still hunting for the car fixture merging bug, that is currently highest on our list of priorities.
We're aiming for another patch towards the end of the week!

Cheers

Lots of important fixes, tweaks, and some new features are coming at you in this latest update to the opt-in alpha of the game.

If you want to check it out and have not opted in yet, you can do so by right-clicking the game in your Steam Library, choosing Properties, Betas, and select the openbeta - 4.2 alpha testing branch.


Making the underlying NA torque curve visible is surprisingly useful. Also... twin-scroll!

• Game engine got updated to its second patch version, UE4.27.2
  
• Decreased game launcher height so it fits on smaller resolution screens
  
• Fixed possible way to fixture nuke two cars simultaneously with undo and cause "jello cars"
  
• Turned off the export cars button from the pause menu as it is a suspected source of car nukings
  
• Fixed fixture state that can result in destroying fixture positions on body morphs
  
• Fixed fixture conforming to the car while it is being dragged around costing lots of performance
  
• Fixed fixture text not respecting the 3D mode non-conforming
  
• Fixtures no longer cut out seams that they are placed over
  
• Fixed cases of extreme bloom when using minimal bloom settings
  
• Fixed not being able to turn off motion blur in settings
  
• Fixed engine family quality slider not updating engine stats if the engine is in a car
  
• Fixed every engine supposedly needing Magnesium Works
  
• Optimized competitor lookup performance
  
• Added some logging to help debug a start up crash
  
• Big performance increase for high-fixture-count cars

• Fully fleshed out stats for the various intake options
  
• Tweaked intake flow limits and made compact intake more viable
  
• Tweaked cam progression tfor more usable range, cam 0 is now = 15, 100 still is = 120
  
• Reduced quality effects on baseline NA torque to make more realistic Nm/L figures
  
• Fixed entertainment weights being way too high
  
• Tweaked all fuel system prices
  
• Added a dashed "base NA equivalent" line to the power torque graph for turbocharged engines
  
• Tweaked flow reductions of all muffler types and catalytic converters
  
• Fixed loudness inconsistency in intake options

• Added twin-scroll turbos
  
• Added race tubular turbo headers option (graphics not in yet, but next patch!)
  
• Added much more cam dependence into turbo spool point
  
• Revised intake & header resonance effects to be more realistic
  
• Revised spool behavior based on turbo size
  
• Tweaked compressor map progression to not require as much quality for modern turbos
  
• Tweaked turbo AR ratio progression with Tune slider

• Added a ruler fixture for all your measuring needs
  
• Fixed engine bay sizes on 11_Eu_Super families which were too small
  
• Fixed body material issues with 10scoupe02large and 10scoup02_large_convH
  
• Fixed 10sCoupe02 Series and 00s_Van_Lowroof that got corrupted for 4.2.4
  
• Fixed custom paints having incorrect sizes when applied to scaled fixtures
  
• Fixed very poor performance of Desert Gas Station photoscene
  
• Fixed extreme light strength in reflections in Modern Studio by default
  
• Fixed a bunch of weird / inconsistent seat row limitations for various car bodies
  
• Fixed cloth paint material scaling incorrectly with different objects

• Updated SteamWrosk SDK to 1.52 and addressed a startup crash
  
• Fixed numberplate material missing from SDK tools
  
• Added Steam workshop / exporter categories for rocker covers, props, and custom paints

Loads of issues and features to work on still before a beta, but things are coming together nicely and the alpha is becoming more playable... and hopefully enjoyable... with every patch.

Thank you to everyone helping out by reporting issues!
Cheers

This patch is a mixed bag of fixes for all aspects of the game and covers many of the things you've run into with the latest update.

• Imported .car files are now moved to CarSaveImport/Imported instead of being deleted
  
• Improved cam / VVL related engine sound changes
  
• Added unit conversion for temperature
  
• Fixed car exporting being broken due to Y2k22 bugs
  
• Fixed UI issues with trying to select / edit lower paint slot
  
• Fixed paint materials not updating the other material editing mode
  
• Fixed heavy duty conrods missing their art
  
• Fixed soft-top material scaling issues in exported cars
  
• Fixed issue with big performance drops for shadows higher than low setting for some players
  
• Fixed performance issues with modern design room
  
• Fixed issue with car importing to avoid weird designer states
  
• Fixed up missing turbo sounds that were not hooked up
  
• Fixed issue with turbos running off the compressor map towards zero efficiency
  
• Fixed issues caused by the right-most clone button in the car manager
  
• Fixed bug where importing cars can result in cars with no engine and broken engines
  
• Fixed clone family button being disabled when variants are selected in engine manager
  
• Fixed displayed seat rows being confusingly formatted in body choice UI
  
• Fixed the uv scale being incorrectly being calculated for the exporter
  
• Fixed disabling photo scrolling breaking image randomization
  
• Fixed paint tooltip not allowing clicking buttons when over timeline
  
• Fixed quality sliders causing issues when slid too fast
  
• Fixed window tint not exporting to BeamNG
  
• Fixed translation mappings for american spellings of colour
  
• Fixed some text fixtures not exporting their alpha channel

• An Exporter SDK is now available!
  
• SDK updated to include the numberplate textures

We're continuing to chip away at the big list of broken and missing things tomorrow and next week, plenty more to do! :)

Cheers

The first few days back in the office after the break have been productive and we got a pretty chunky update ready for you to try out. Most of the crashes should be sorted out and a lot of improvements have been made to the turbo calculations and mechanics.

With how things are going at the moment it looks like we're going to be able to shift focus towards implementing the remaining LCV4.2 features starting next week, as this version becomes more and more playable.


Damage to the turbo is now granular and not just on/off.

• Revised turbo spooling characteristics, giving more realistic spool curves
  
• Implemented granular surge and mechanical stress models to turbos instead of being on/off
  
• Added cumulative surge and mechanical stress info into compressor map
  
• Turbo headers now affect temperature resistance and wastegate flow before boost creep
  
• Turbo quality now affects temperature resistance of turbos
  
• Fixed numeric stability issues in the turbo calculations
  
• Fixed a calculation issue with having an intercooler that is too small for the required flow
  
• Fixed calculation bug with having no intercooler

• Fixed the biggest sources of reported crashes with several fixes
  
• Fixed crash caused by texture fixtures
  
• Fixed game crashing when changing trims too quickly
  
• Potentially fixed instance of "fixture nuking" in connection with changing photoscenes
  
• Fixed cloning a trim not making a trim slot in some instances, causing cars to be broken
  
• Fixed inconsistency with landing position in model selection when reentering the page
  
• Fixed instance of infinite loading icon in the car designer
  
• Fixed changes to settings not applying and resetting to default values
  
• Fixed graphs flickering their data while scrubbing with the mouse
  
• Huge performance improvements to car & engine managers & car body selection UI
  
• Added missing material cost dependency for all quality sliders
  
• Fixed issues with family quality not affecting ET, PU, and M$
  
• Fixed car parts that need a factory addon pointing to engine factory magnesium works
  
• Fixed mid transverse unlocking in 1920 instead of 1962
  
• Fixed ignition timing not updating calculations
  
• Fixed issue with VVL unlocking based on family year instead of variant year
  
• Fixed tire profile calculation inconsistencies
  
• Fixed engine fill factor not showing

• Added brake caliper rotation to advanced trim aesthetics
  
• Added wheel size matching buttons to wheel sections of advanced trim aesthetics
  
• Added mirror / locked icons to spawned fixture UI & improved fixture UI layout
  
• Added option for 1- or 2-wide spawned-fixture list, with optional fixture indexing
  
• Added lock fixture hotkey
  
• Fixed poor performance of 10s design room
  
• Fixed DCOE race heads inconsistently spawning with airbox pieces
  
• Fixed v60 MPFI/DI race throttle per cylinder missing trumpets
  
• Fixed some incorrect airboxes loading when changing from turbo back to non turbo configs
  
• Fixed paintable engine meshes to correctly support anisotropic materials
  
• Fixed fixture glass materials appearing faceted when put on rounded surfaces
  
• Fixed fixture glass materials not working nicely with ray-tracing
  
• Fixed z-fighting and overlapping geometry on Rim 100U
  
• Fixed dirt/wear values for car materials defaulting too high
  
• Fixed exhaust lod material issues that caused header plates to flash between colors
  
• Fixed double intakes spawning on 60 degree blocks with turbos and TpC
  
• Fixed roof not being paintable on Stylish_SUV_09_ELWB_V5 body
  
• Fixed fixture thumbnails sometimes having other fixtures in reflections

• Fixed rim mods not appearing in game
  
• Fixed SDK fixture thumbnail generator throwing warnings while simulating
  
• Moved mod tools files that shouldn't be directly editable into a sub-folder
  
• Added fixture preview file naming convention settings to the SDK thumbnail generator
  
• Added an option to skip duplicate GUID checking in the modding SDK

Thank you all for reporting the issues you're finding! In case you wonder how to do that, either use our Steam Forum thread here, or our discord server.

Cheers!

Things seem to be reasonably stable for now and mostly working. That is not to say there aren't heaps of little and large issues! Those will have to be addressed in January when development and patching will continue at a rapid pace.

We have compiled a smaller final patch to send you off into the holidays with a new LCV4.2 version.

• Fixed default tire sizes not being correctly applied when selecting a trim body
  
• Fixed some missing turbo audio and rebalanced volumes
  
• Fixed engine sound not changing when the engine switches to its VVL cam
  
• Fixed boost / vacuum gauge not behaving as expected on dyno tests
  
• Regenerated body tables for the AI (for when it tries to generate cars)
  
• Fixed wheels not defaulting to linked / matched sizes
  
• Fixed issue with layering when using a car paint on a fixture
  
• Fixed changing between psi and Bar not changing boost values on graphs
  
• Fixed logic in how safety packages fall back when changing years
  
• Fixed twin turbo crossover pipes coming out of the engine bay
  
• Fixed default rim size selection not working correctly
  
• Fixed global paints not saving
  
• Several fixes to the modding SDK

And now, unless everything explodes, we're signing off for the year... it sure was an exciting one in good and bad!

We wish you all the best for the next one,
Cheers!

Two days into the release of the alpha, and we have our second big batch of fixes ready for you!
Again, a lot of important ones in here, please check them out.

• The game should now automatically fall back to DX11 when DX12 isn't supported
  
• Tweaked idle speeds for all engines
  
• Implemented turbo header selection scaling wastegate flow before boost creep
  
• Fixed issue where the family quality slider would not save/load correctly
  
• Fixed sandbox car & engine managers top bars being unusable
  
• Fixed not being able to place fixtures on soft-tops
  
• Fixed keybinds not being adjustable properly
  
• Fixed V8 flatplane forged and billet cranks having almost no strength
  
• Fixed editing fixture text resetting when clicking to add more text
  
• Fixed weird "anti-spool" behaviour with some VGT setups
  
• Fixed way too small, failing turbos causing massive torque curve jaggedness
  
• Fixed set intercooler power throughput not correctly applying to turbo sim
  
• Fixed turbo graphs not clearing when making an engine naturally aspirated
  
• Fixed the basic chassis mode not updating the chassis
  
• Fixed speed limiter being in km/h even though mph were selected as a unit
  
• Fixed dual exhaust being selectable when using a single turbo setup
  
• Fixed issue with boost graph going negative sometimes while being at 0
  
• Fixed mousing over pies in the market screen changing their size
  
• Fixed twin turbo crossover pipes coming out out the engine bay in export scene
  
• Fixed twin turbo piping issues when switching block type
  
• Fixed opposite side thread on tires
  
• Fixed the light and glass material thumbnails being completely white
  
• Fixed roughness slider on leather material having weird effects
  
• Fixed unusual shading on steel wheels and other metal materials
  
• Fixed the basic car design room having a corrupted light map
  
• Fixed 10s design room lighting which was over-saturated
  
• Fixed missing intakes for single barrel eco carbs
  
• Fixed missing texture on 60 degree V MPFI systems with twin throttle, mid intake
  
• Fixed old intake meshes spawning for inline DI throttle per cylinder
  
• Fixed 90 degree V SPFI compact intake missing
  
• Fixed accidental use of underbody material on variant of 60s_Muntu body
  
• Fixed engine manager list scroll bar having the wrong color
  
• Fixed Car_Roof material missing from modding SDK

With the Christmas and New Year break coming up, we're probably going to limit changes in tomorrow's patch to mostly minor tweaks and cosmetic fixes to not break what's working.

Please let us know about any issues you find and report them in this thread.
Cheers!

Our first day of fixes, fresh out of the oven! This should address many of the more pressing problems players have observed in the first alpha build.

• Fixed high-power turbo wiggle when using too small intercooler
  
• Fixed a crash going to compressor map on turbo that exploded (pressure)
  
• Fixed issue changing between Standard / VGT turbo wouldn't update
  
• Fixed issue where a crashed engine calculation would not be recoverable
  
• Fixed an issue with visual tire width vs. diameter
  
• Fixed issues with smoke props going in/out of photo mode
  
• Fixed texture issues in the Tundra photoscene's roads
  
• Fixed prop UI not being full length when no prop is selected
  
• Fixed Australian photoscene being stupid loud
  
• Fixed grille texture scaling being tiny in BeamNG exports
  
• Fixed rear engine body list filter not working
  
• Fixed car paint titles not working correctly
  
• Fixed black artifacting of gizmos in modern and nineties studio photoscenes
  
• Fixed list of props in photoscene not updating when removing a prop
  
• Fixed shift-cloning props not updating the spawned-props list
  
• Fixed there being no starter sound when manually starting an engine
  
• Fixed 00sminicar having its bone meshes visible in game
  
• Fixed a massive seam in car body 00sHatch02
  
• Fixed a few car bodies having the wrong maximum seating arrangements
  
• Added all photoscene props that were supposed to be in the release
  
• Added -DX11 flag to the launcher's safemode
  
• Fixed launcher not checking if UserData directory exists before clearing it
  
• Fixed unit settings not saving or loading properly
  
• Fixed an error / crash when large engines break before idle
  
• Fixed the gizmo showing while taking photos
  
• Fixed fixtures not fading out when the car body does
  
• Fixed engine starter in Beam exports, now engines can be restarted

There will likely be at least one more patch before we sign off for a Christmas / New Year break.

Please report any issues you find in this thread. Also let us know what you think of the many new features / content and how we can improve it!

Cheers!

Finally, it is here! The long-awaited LCV4.2 has overcome numerous hurdles, including delays and a dev-team restructuring, to deliver an almost fully revamped Automation experience. Well, in the form of an opt-in alpha version first in which you can try out most of the new features. Why an alpha and not a beta? Simply because there still are a few missing features that will make their way into the game starting early next year.

Due to the delays in parts of the development, we now have a new release on our hands which is massive in terms of content. Almost no gameplay stone was left unturned, and those that were, will be addressed on our way to the beta.


Massive amounts of new visual customization options have made it into the game… which conveniently also export to BeamNG!

Important to note is that this is an opt-in release. In order to play this latest version you will have to right-click the game in your Steam Library, click Properties, select Betas to the left and then choose the “openbeta - LCV4.2 Opt-In Alpha". Once you’ve done that, let the game update, no password or key required.

Due to basically everything changing, including the underlying game engine’s version, saves will not be compatible between 4.1 and 4.2. That likely will happen for the last time during Automation’s development. The good news is that you can freely switch between the 4.1 and 4.2 version as the save locations have been changed as well, which means there are no file conflicts apart from some config files. A “Clear Cache” in the launcher would take care of that. In other good news, when you import your 4.1 .car files into 4.2, their visual design will carry over - if the car body and the fixtures exist. So the most time intensive part of your prior awesome creations will not be null and void.

Note: Mods are not compatible between 4.1 and 4.2 due to the underlying game engine change!


A beefcake of a V16 quad turbo that looks dangerously ready to deliver way too much power.

Speaking about modding, the new updated SDK is being released along with this first alpha version and we hope the many improvements to it, as well as the updated documentation on our new modding wiki will make it easy enough for creators to bring back old mods and create new ones.



Looking at this changelog, we could probably sell this as Automation 3.0 or something… but of course won’t! So many great changes in there, and so much more to do as well.

• 91 new car models with a total of 756 new body variants
  
• Replaced predefined body boxes with dynamically calculated ones for volume calculations.
  Body weight and drag now dynamically calculate instead of relying on unreliable manual inputs.
  Note: This means mods can be used without breaking game balance (as badly).
  
• Separated convertible car body types from the fundamental car body types (e.g. coupe, wagon...)
  
• Car bodies now have fractional seat row numbers, e.g. "maximum 2/+2" is now possible
  
• Revamped body type penalties so that body type choice can be more nuanced
  
• Added various convertible roof types from manual softtop to full auto hardtop
  
• Added weight distribution and weight optimization sliders. Ties into sound insulation as well.
  
• Revamped way of calculating fuel economy, eliminating various exploits and flaws
  
• Reworked brake setup to include front and rear brake force settings
  
• Implemented support for different wheel and rim diameters front / rear
  
• Revamped tire compounds, added all-terrain tire and split hard long life into hard and utility
  
• Revamp tire rolling resistance to make it dynamic with speed and more realistic overall
  
• Revamped undertray options and added new ones. Revamped drag / lift system tie-in.
  
• Reworked safety and entertainment pack selection system UI to allow selection of older systems
  
• Split up brake fade into front and rear to make for easier tuning
  
• Added car body filter options for wheelbase and seat rows number
  
• Revamped the effect of the aerodynamics quality slider on body Cd value depending on era
  
• Improved and fixed the seat selection UI

• [WIP] Full revamp of turbo calculations, simulation of compressor maps and thermodynamics.
  Note: available turbos in alpha: single-stage single, twin, and quad turbos, standard and VGT.
  
• [WIP] Added and fully revamped intake options with resonances and different flow characteristics
  
• Added family quality slider affecting reliability, weight, BE strength, head flow, costs, and cooling
  
• Added balance shafts and harmonic dampers
  
• Crankshaft harmonics tie in to balance shafts / harmonic dampers, affecting long crankshafts
  
• Tweaked cam profile progression to fit with new springs and lifters mechanic, larger range
  
• Reworked valve float calculations, including new springs & lifters slider
  
• Revised engine and future-proofed idle calculations
  
• Full revamp of mechanical engine friction, split into: piston, valvetrain, crank, and accessories
  
• VVL was moved from the engine family selections into the engine variant choices
  
• New fuel choice controls: leaded / unleaded, octane advertised, and tuned octane
  
• Implemented new fuel availability tooltip table for a quicker overview of what's available where
  
• Fixed engine torque twist not working on engine dyno
  
• Tweaked all fuel system reliability stats
  
• Revised piston and conrod weights

• Major redesign to shift player focus to car stats, getting rid of one-dimensional competitiveness
  
• Implemented direct way to compare your car to competitors in different demographics
  
• Revamped quality (and techpool) progressions, negative quality now is more viable
  
• [WIP] UI now shows running totals of cost, production units, and engineering time
  
• [WIP] Revamped markets tab for both sandbox and campaign
  
• Improved car and engine tagging system functionality

• Added "Advanced Trim Aesthetics" settings menu to fixture UI, adding loads of customization
  
• Added sliders to change engine muffling per trim in Advanced Trim Settings, works with BeamNG
  
• Added several paint slots to cars: chassis, running gear, tyres, plastics, windows etc.
  Note: Allows exporting completely transparent cars when also using the Advanced Trim Aesthetics
  
• Added windows as a default material, meaning anything can be set to windows or transparent
  
• Windows can now be painted with non-window materials
  
• Added UI that lists currently spawned fixtures and makes them easily selectable
  
• Added option to force-load a minimalist chassis model to use with, e.g. open wheeler mods
  
• Added various car interiors thanks to the support of community modders
  
• All fixture materials are now accessible regardless of fixture material slot type
  
• To aid fixture placement, left-click-rotate has been disabled on the free-roam camera
  
• Added field-of-view controls to car, engine and freeroam cameras
  
• Dragging fixtures from the UI now spawns new ones, includes dragging fixture family
  
• Fixed chassis, suspension and drivetrain components flashing at certain angles
  
• Added button to delete all unused car paints from "On Car" paint list
  
• Improved the fixture highlight outline with additional customizable settings for radius and color
  
• Fixed and improved the car part visibility UI and its effects
  
• The color picker UI now has RGB, HSV, and sRGB hex codes with copy-paste functionality
  
• Engine sumps, various intakes and airfilters are now paintable

• A lot of photoscenes have been moved out of the base game, saving ~14GB of harddrive space.
  Note: those are now official mods on the steam workshop by "Camshaft Software Uploader Bot".
  
• New photoscenes have been added: Rural Australia, Wetlands, Suburban Highway, Neon Brut, Misty Mountains, Icy Road, Downtown Alley, Brooklyn Alley, Sky Mirror. Many older photoscenes have been improved and fixed.
  
• Photoscene props have been implemented and are open to modding
  
• Implemented individualized settings per photoscene that can be changed, stored within presets
  
• Implemented a photoscene thumbnail UI for choosing photoscenes with much improved overview
  
• Added teleport car to camera and teleport car to camera target to avoid having to drag cars
  
• Revamped photoscene UI, drop-down menus and tabs for easier navigation
  
• Camera settings vastly expanded, including colour grading, bloom, more LUTs, effects, RTX etc.

• An improved and updated modding SDK is available for this new game version
  
• Implemented support for modded photoscenes with custom photoscene UI
  
• Photoscene modding capabilities have been vastly expanded
  
• Custom paints now have modding support, with full UI editing and export functionality
  
• Added a mod / standard filter to car body filters
  
• Migrated the automation wiki and updated it on our own hosted site!

• This update makes DX12 the default DirectX version, with automatic fallback to DX11
  
• Ray-tracing has been added to the graphics settings, as well as the photoscene settings
  Note: vendor agnostic, both AMD and NVidia GPUs support ray-tracing in Automation
  
• Chunk files have been rearranged, giving improved load times switching between levels
  
• Completely reworked and improved engine blocks and heads
  
• Car tires have been revamped with depth, separate tread, and sidewall textures
  
• Added custom car paints that now have expanded settings and better looks
  
• More adjustable paint types have been added for cars and fixtures
  
• Fixture light materials have been optimized pass, and should perform between 2-10x better
  
• Tons of art fixes and tweaks!

With this being an alpha of course we expect there to be bugs. Even though hundreds of them were squashed the past week or two, you will run into issues. When that happens, we’d love to know where and how! Please post your findings and feedback in this thread.

For those of you who are looking for a little bit of guidance in terms of the very in-depth new turbo tuning and troubleshooting, we have prepared a little video for you:

Looking ahead, we still have a big list of things too numerous to mention on our 4.2 todo list. Those will be worked through and added to the game as we go towards the open beta phase. From there, it is all about bugfixing until the full merge with the default branch of the game and us moving forwards to LCV4.3 which will have superchargers and multiplayer!

One thing we are especially looking forward to seeing are what crazy builds you will come up with in this update!


Just your average vanilla-built Hot Rod, by Mikonp7.

The Automation team wishes you a Merry Christmas, happy car building, and a Happy New Year!
Cheers