With the second hotfix we tracked down what was causing the launching issues some of you experienced and fixed them. The game would not fall back to DX11 as required by your GPU.

Also, if you have run into the issue of way too many customers preordering your cars, creating years of wait time, yeah... that is now fixed and working as intended: low-prestige cars will not generate long wait lists, while high-prestige cars certainly can.

• Fixed game not using correct fallback to DX11 when required
  
• Fixed some DLSS settings from not saving correctly
  
• Fixed lua error occurring with very narrow tyres
  
• Fixed minimum seat row body filter not working
  
• Fixed delivery delays not affecting car desirability, giving "infinite" preorders
  
• Fixed crash on markets screen, when selecting desirability on a new campaign start
  
• Disabling UI Blur setting now drastically improves main menu performance

We're keeping an eye on all your reports of issues, of course! More fixes coming this and next week before we wrap up for the year.

Cheers!

In this first quick hotfix we're addressing some of the most common crashes that were sent through the error reporting tool.

• Fixed crash that could happen fetching best company score
  
• Fixed crash in specific market calculations
  
• Fixed lua error on importing some 4.1 cars

Of course there is a lot more to come in terms of fixes as important issues will be addressed asap.
Cheers!

The winner of the Face of the Update Challenge, courtesy of Xepy.
After nearly 18 months in development, we are thrilled to share the LCV4.2 Update for Automation! It's been a challenging development process for this new milestone version, but the result is pretty special!

What's changed? A more accurate question would be, "what hasn't changed?", because this is the most comprehensive update we've ever made to Automation; nothing went untouched! Let's start at the top, shall we?

---

Many turbochargers gives many horsepowers.

The entire Engine Designer has been redesigned, and a lot of the stuff going on under the hood is completely new. A totally new engine simulation model, that accurately models temperatures and airflows within the engine has been constructed, allowing for dramatically improved simulation accuracy, and a much broader window of performance for your engines. This is especially true for turbocharged engines, as we have completely re-worked how the turbos themselves work, making them much more accurate in all aspects, but low-end performance especially. For the first time, we now do a full simulation of the engine at all throttle settings; this is all made possible by moving most of the calculations to C++ from LUA, which has had a dramatic performance improvement.


Naturally-aspirated engine quad-view graphs.


Turbocharged tri-view graphs.

New graphs greatly aid in engine tuning, which is far more important now that you have control over the size of your fuel system (for carbureted engines), intake manifolds and exhaust headers. This permits an unprecedented level of tuning to engine outputs, and allows players to target the application of their engines much more easily and accurately. Using the fuel and ignition timing maps can help you tune for the best possible power for high-performance builds, or getting the engine's efficiency exactly right with your gearing for optimal efficiency. More information on how to tune your engines can be found in these two tutorial videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twe1Vo1C17k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8brk07BixA

As you saw above, we've added a bunch of new turbocharger configurations in LCV4.2, including single and twin-turbos for nearly all engine configurations, as well as quad turbos for V12 and V16 engines. Many new fuel types have been added and accurately modelled as well, including ethanol blends, methanol, compressed gas fuels and nitromethane, among others.

---

The bold new world map for Campaign mode, new in LCV4.2.

The big new feature in this update is Version 4.2 of the Campaign Mode. In prior iterations of Campaign Mode, players would be "flying blind" when they were building their entries into various markets; there was no easy way to predict how successful your new car is going to be. With LCV4.2, that changes, as we have added extensive forecasting tools now, to help players make informed decisions about markets and pricing, and have taken a lot of the guesswork out of the process.


Factory staffing page.

We've also had a complete re-think of how factories work in Campaign Mode; each country has a finite pool of workers available at a given wage, so don't build a huge factory in Dalluha in 1946 with the expectation of running three fully-staffed shifts immediately! Careful planning will be needed to make sure you have the right number of employees in your factories at the right time.

---

A fun example of what's now possible with the Advanced Trim Settings tool in LCV4.2 - these also export to BeamNG.drive!



Take your Automation designs to the next level with the Advanced Trim Settings tool in the Car Designer. Alter engine sounds to your liking, and the visual appearance of your designs by changing tire sizes and appearance, ride height, wheel parameters and many more. These changes also export to BeamNG.drive as well!

Note: These changes are visual only and will not have any effect on the performance of your Automation car, or on your exported car in BeamNG.drive.

---

Shinyodd's Super Silhouette build, looking fine in one of the new HDRi photospheres.

We've added a cool new tool in the Photo Mode; the ability to use HDRi photospheres to place your car into an entirely new world of photo locations. What's more, the new photospheres have a pretty major performance increase over the conventional photoscenes, so those with less powerful computers will be able to produce some fantastic results regardless!

---

As fun as the 80s Engine Test Room was to have in the main menu background, it really slowed things down...
As mentioned earlier, we've taken much of the old LUA game code and translated it into C++, which has granted a huge performance increase in the speed of calculations, both in the Engine Designer and especially in Campaign Mode. In many cases, we've seen an improvement of a factor of a hundred or more, which will be welcome for those very complex, late-game Campaign Mode playthroughs!

A lot of attention has been paid to loading times as well in LCV4.2; we've completely changed how Workshop mods are loaded into Automation, so we have now done away with the game launcher as the default option when starting the game.

---

Because LCV4.2 is basically all-new under the hood, all of your cars and campaign saves from 4.1 and earlier will not be accessible. The file structure has completely changed, and we've moved the save directories to %localappdata%\AutomationGame\Saved - this was done to eliminate the issues we've had with antivirus programs and protected folders affecting Automation.

When you upgrade to 4.2, your 4.1 saves are still all there, but they won't show up in latest version.
There is a way you can bring your 4.1 cars into the 4.2 version of Automation, but you need to be on 4.1 and export your cars to make that happen.

1. Start Automation and go into the Car Designer, then export all of the cars you wish to keep as .car files. These will be found in Documents\My Games\Automation\CarSaveExport. You will need to do this for each trim you want to carry over.
   
2. Update Automation to the new version, and subscribe to any mods you want that are compatible with the new version. To find compatible mods for the new version of Automation, go to the Steam Workshop page, and in the bottom right corner, select "UE4_27" from the dropdown menu labelled "Game Engine".
   
3. Once Automation has completed updating, copy the .car files you created in Step 1, and paste them to %localappdata%\AutomationGame\Saved, then run the game.

Do note that none of the engineering (engines and drivetrain) will import, and any bodies and fixtures that have not been updated with the new version will also not import either.

What are branches? Branches of the game allow you to access different game versions through your Steam Library. You can pick which branch to run on by right-clicking Automation in your Steam Library, selecting Properties, then going to the Betas tab, and selecting a branch. Once that is done you need to let Steam update the game.

We will be keeping the existing LCV4.1 version available as a rollback. Additionally, we have opened up a branch of an older LCV4.2 with only the updated turbochargers but not the rest of engine designer revamp, listed as 42_pre_ed_revamp. There are also other legacy versions of the game available to you.

---

That's about it - we hope you all have fun with the new version! We'd love to hear from you too; get in touch here or on our official Discord server, on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, or on Reddit or the official forums. Have fun and enjoy, all!

Some quick fixes to issues uncovered in yesterday's big patch. This should address most of the game breaking ones!

• Switched over to using the new troubleshooting-focused launcher
  
• Fixed crash entering factory on new campaign save
  
• Fixed lua error selecting Dalluha in campaign setup
  
• Fixed lua error when changing turbo count
  
• Fixed suspension weight being 0 or too large
  
• Fixed up a few wrong starting familiarity stats
  
• Fixed front and rear wing angles not being saved
  
• Fixed MCost multiplier not being shown in quality slider tooltip
  
• Made old campaign savegames incompatible to prepare for public launch
  
• Balance changes to muffler selection in engine generation AI

• Fixed info files displaying peak torque at 0 RPM
  
• Fixed rear progressive springs taking compressed stiffness from front springs
  
• Fixed dampers causing the suspension to bug out

This is another release candidate build. Tonight we'll see if this is solid enough or if we need another hotfix.

Cheers!

This is the last big polishing patch before the big merge of 4.2 with the public default branch! We're aiming to get it all wrapped up this week. Pour yourself a drink, get some snacks, and have a read of one of the longer changelogs in recent times:

• Fixed failed car generation not deleting the engine it made for itself
  
• Fixed trimslots that were not in the latest facelift not being able to be unpaused
  
• Fixed factory shifts going higher than supported by engine production
  
• Fixed factories that took 1 month to retool not get their hitpoints back
  
• Fixed forecaster oddites with required vs estimated shifts
  
• Fixed issue where you would not gain 36 months engineering bonus in first project
  
• Fixed cars with missing mod rims not complaining when imported
  
• Fixed a hardcrash from attempting to export a car with a name that is too long
  
• Fixed there being an explosion icon on healthy engines
  
• Fixed factory staff sometimes getting stuck and not increasing
  
• Fixed forecaster to be able to cope with non default margin modes
  
• Fixed specific lua error that could occur on month tick
  
• Fixed issues with steering options with imported cars from pre 4.2
  
• Fixed stopping trim preorders barring deliveries with existing stock
  
• Fixed hardcrash when exporting animatics at any super resolution
  
• Fixed procedural meshes receiving decals
  
• Fixed issue with transverse FWD unlocking

• Full revamp and fix-up of country-themed competitor companies and their lineups
  
• Implemented country-based company starting familiarity ratings
  
• Implemented engine bay filling calculations for turbos
  
• Implemented tech cost multipliers for R&D and in difficulty score calculation
  
• Implemented weight optimization slider into AI car generation
  
• Implemented costs, manhours, and engineering times for turbo setups
  
• Implemented MCost / PU / ET for springs & lifters slider
  
• Car generator AI now uses springs & lifters correctly
  
• Increased turbo oil costs in servicing by 2.5x
  
• Tweaked country tax rates, worker skill, and wage levels
  
• Tweaked how campaign setup works for awareness and dealership levels
  
• Tweaked familiarity gain speed and fixed various familiarity issues
  
• Tweaked pressure slider's effect on familiarity gain in engineering projects
  
• Tweaked prestige bonus for having the latest entertainment packages
  
• Tweaked difficulty starting defaults for campaign
  
• Tweaked how worker hiring speeds & XP gain depend on wages and worker quality
  
• Rebalanced brake cooling costs (ET / PU)
  
• Rebalanced market volatility
  
• Fixed Footprint+ / Footprint- marketing not being hooked up
  
• Fixed creating a facelift removing some company value
  
• Fixed production units not being added to car total from brake cooling slider
  
• Fixed steering quality not affecting comfort correctly
  
• Fixed turbos not experiencing mechanical stress correctly

• Added description for Factory Shifts graph in car project
  
• Added tooltip display of each marketing category's costs
  
• Added missing PU/ET numbers to quality sliders
  
• Added various new icons replacing placeholders
  
• Added a calculate button to the forecaster screen
  
• Added 2 buttons in photo manager to reset camera settings to default or last loaded setting
  
• Added list of dis-/advantages to springs & lifters slider plus its description
  
• Added display of price perception desirability penalty for target demographic in hub
  
• Added sales chart to trim sales tooltip
  
• Added a copy-to-all countries button for marketing choices on marketing screen
  
• Updated campaign welcome texts
  
• Updated various descriptions / tooltips and eliminated missing ones
  
• Polished up start menu news and socials links, fixing some UI scaling issues
  
• Smaller gearbox gear counts are now unlocked until the list would overflow
  
• Fixed and tweaked map zoom and detail levels
  
• Fixed negative stock levels showing as zero and sales graphs disappearing in hub
  
• Fixed factory production tooltips not updating correctly in hub calendar
  
• Fixed campaign setup top bar not updating correctly
  
• Fixed oddities in factory warnings and sales for paused factories in hub
  
• Fixed car and engine side stats formatting for non-English languages
  
• Fixed full lineup mode button getting stuck
  
• Fixed tooltip description of blue sales bars on markets screen of car designer
  
• Fixed factory list in hub not being sorted in meaningful way
  
• Fixed forecaster screen items not updating when entering forecaster first time
  
• Fixed hub calendar not showing model car profit correctly
  
• Fixed quality tooltip jumping up and down as you drag slider
  
• Fixed marketing tab not working with high minimum awareness settings
  
• Fixed setting up a factory throwing you back to the engineering tab
  
• Fixed drivability stat not shown correctly in car manager after generating a car
  
• Fixed issue with sorting of trims in the main campaign hub
  
• Fixed financial report not coloring income green
  
• Fixed issue where you'd only be able to increase deposit %
  
• Fixed issue display of competing trims in side stats demographics
  
• Fixed inconsistency with factory refresh underfunded alert pop up
  
• Fixed side stats demographics sorting being weird when mixing pin and target
  
• Fixed reset all camera settings not resetting all settings
  
• Fixed the desirability tooltip on hub calendar being incorrect
  
• Fixed UI interaction issues with hub stock manager
  
• Fixed the engine ET shown in car engineering not being the current value
  
• Fixed no engine production warning getting confused with multiple facelifts
  
• Fixed factory production / shifts not correctly being limited by staff availability
  
• Fixed top bar not updating engine model name after switching engine
  
• Fixed pausing production not switch icon to confirm it has done that
  
• Fixed downforce aero graph having switched colors for front / rear

• Implemented progressive springs
  
• Added ability to export several trims as configurations of one car (configurations must be exported unpacked with the same mod and car name)
  
• Added electric powertrain swaps
  
• Added ability to export cars preconfigured as EVs (add !ev! to the car's description)
  
• Added manual gearbox whine now depending on trim year, quality and tech pool
  
• Added new main jbeam part
  
• Added more data to configuration files
  
• Added off-road mode to active sway bars
  
• Added that parts of cars now can ignite from collisions
  
• Added fire simulation adjustment sliders
  
• Added BeamNG physics aerodynamics and buoyancy modifier slider
  
• Reworked engine friction
  
• Split fuel tanks and transmissions into separate jbeams
  
• Twin-tube dampers now lose effectiveness under fast movements due to aeration
  
• Active springs now export with adaptive sway bars
  
• Increased damper stiffness
  
• Tweaked steering wheel lock
  
• Increased race final drive tuning range
  
• Fixed leaking parameters in suspension jbeams
  
• Fixed cars getting more flammable with higher safety
  
• Fixed leaking parameters in body and fixture jbeams
  
• Fixed leaking parameters in coilovers

If no big issues pop up, this might very well be the release candidate build that becomes the new normal for everyone. :) Let us know how it plays and if you run into any game-breaking issues.

Cheers!

We're continuing to polish up this version, getting it ready for the big merge with stable, and have lots of good tweaks and fixes for you today. Plenty of campaign testing was done too, fixing all kinds of issues and adding QoL little bits and pieces.

• Implemented turbo surge stress and mechanical stress effects on reliability
  
• Improved display of expenses / revenue in main campaign hub
  
• Improved layering of autohold lines
  
• Improved competitors and competitor companies with more competing cars
  
• Changed advanced trim settings engine sound sliders to go from -1 to 1 instead of 0 to 1
  
• Changed markets tab monthly sales matrix to use orders instead of deliveries
  
• Added links to our socials in the main menu
  
• Tweaked primary & secondary stat progression in regards to car desirability scoring
  
• Tweaked undertray costs to not make None have free engineering
  
• Tweaked drivability to not have a gear number penalty in base stat for manual gearboxes
  
• Tweaked gearbox stats and progressions
  
• Fixed issues with AI car generation
  
• Fixed issues with display of stock months
  
• Fixed props not spawning on the first attempt of loading a photo mode preset
  
• Fixed Lua error sliding quality slider in drivetrain tab while using techpool
  
• Fixed 10th gear line not showing on the gearing graph
  
• Fixed massive reliability hit for using 10 gears
  
• Fixed abrupt image changes on loading screen when loading default images
  
• Fixed lua error when sliding engine capacity after forgetting to select a block material
  
• Fixed project map navigation not remembering which tab they were on
  
• Fixed autohold not being active for power / torque graph in 4-way split view
  
• Fixed setting up factories increasing company valuation
  
• Fixed using engine "AI Tune" in campaign creating a full new car and engine
  
• Fixed errors when making new factories
  
• Fixed clicking a level preset in the photo manager taking you to the level tab
  
• Fixed issues with the pricing pie in factory setup when you pick specific trims

As always, there are more issues unaddressed still in our bug tracker and we'll continue to work on those next week. We're looking to wrap this all up as soon as possible for a nice proper 4.2 release. On the other hand, we've said that for the past few weeks already, so let's just state the obvious for now: it's done when it's done. ;)

Cheers!

With this update we've focused on fixing up issues in the campaign and general gameplay, as well as the AI competition present in both campaign and sandbox. This has significantly improved the engine and car generation algos too, making it a more useful tool especially for beginners.


The 1955 Zephorus Espion (II) by Riley

In general, we're in the middle of fixing and polishing up the game for the big merger of the openbeta with the stable branch, even though it is pretty safe to say that it already is way better and more stable than 4.1 ever was. Have a look below to see what's been changed and addressed - plenty of big ticket items in there!

• Implemented better progression for big negative % multipliers, harder to hit zero in main stats
  
• Implemented balance options in engine building AI
  
• Implemented fuel map and octane margin settings into AI generation
  
• Implemented that competitors now correctly select fuel for their company home region
  
• Re-implemented renaming factories in factory manager UI
  
• Added warning for pre-powersteering cars, suggesting Recirculating Ball if car is too heavy
  
• Tweaked stats balance of gearbox choices
  
• Tweaked many car and engine AI lookups and overall significantly improved AI competitors
  
• Tweaked power steering warning levels
  
• Changed car and engine production cost fields to show labor cost + material cost in factory UI
  
• Fixed crash when clicking Affordability tab when on "select target demographic for car" screen
  
• Fixed FWD unlock behaviors with techpool
  
• Fixed bug in brand bubbles strength calculation
  
• Fixed issue with campaign hub calendar trims tooltip sales numbers
  
• Fixed bug in the calculation of body and trim age penalties
  
• Fixed sorting order of trims in post-signoff forecaster
  
• Fixed issue with missing out on 36 month engineering bonus after deleting first car / engine project
  
• Fixed score multiplier not updating correctly in advanced campaign setup
  
• Fixed car project UI incorrectly showing engine engineering time reduction
  
• Fixed hub calendar mouse click offset in early years
  
• Fixed a specific crash in campaign happening on month tick
  
• Fixed & improved AI tuning of steering behavior in car generation
  
• Fixed AI using legacy car bodies for car generation
  
• Fixed specific memory leak issue in car project calculations
  
• Fixed issue making the sandbox market screen show zero sales while they clearly were not zero
  
• Fixed body tooltips showing a calculated CD for 2016 not the current body techpool year
  
• Fixed lua error when adjusting engine project
  
• Fixed animatics not rendering out properly
  
• Fixed flow bench getting stuck when mouse leaves graph
  
• Fixed single row bodies selecting 2 seat rows by default
  
• Fixed tooltip for out of production stock showing wrong title
  
• Fixed mod / vanilla car body filters
  
• Fixed photoscene DoF not working on tyres
  
• Fixed missing-mods prompt being layered wrong
  
• Fixed no-loan standalone factory builds being almost free

Part of the team has started work on 4.3 features in the meantime, while we're continuing to tie up loose ends here, especially in the campaign.

Cheers!

With this patch we're addressing a whole bunch of stability issues that seem to have cropped up with 4.2.31, and also just in general add lots of extra polish and tweaks.

We're approaching the public, main branch release of LCV4.2, and this patch should clear out a fair few hurdles to get there.

• Improved the campaign hub engine production warnings to be variant specific
  
• Added rear chassis morph slider in advance trim settings
  
• Added mod name to mod body tooltip
  
• Added field to show percentage of preorders lost from adjusting the price in hub forecaster
  
• Added mod animatics
  
• Added Advanced Trim Widgets to allow custom widgets for manipulating fixtures & other data
  
• Tweaked compression progression vs octane requirements for high compression ratios
  
• Tweaked effects of AFR related exhaust gas temperature cooling
  
• Tweaked behavior of morph slider UI
  
• Fixed "Clone models and corresponding trims" button causing issues when deleting cloned cars
  
• Fixed inconsistent desirability based on save reload
  
• Fixed Lua error after deleting a trim in campaign and opening another trim
  
• Fixed Lua errors when changing model body on car with multiple trims
  
• Fixed forecaster button not being disabled for incomplete trims
  
• Fixed model body selection breaking calculations until another setting was changed
  
• Fixed closing the Create a New Car Project popup taking you to a blank screen
  
• Fixed issue with recall tooltip reference being mixed up
  
• Fixed filters for Markets being possible to set to no country
  
• Fixed engine testing not updating the flow bench
  
• Fixed FR cars sometimes showing red engine arrows when selecting an engine
  
• Fixed decimal places being shown for sales numbers
  
• Fixed UI not correctly displaying valve float error in some situations
  
• Fixed potential car sales not being summed but averaged for multiple selected regions
  
• Fixed situation with production forecaster breaking and giving NaNs
  
• Fixed MP_CustomPaint_MaterialExample not having material export settings

We'll continue work on this version with release candidates as we go forward. Your feedback and reports are much appreciated.

Cheers!

A small patch that is focused on the saving, exporting, and importing of cars. Now it is also possible to directly export your cars from your campaign playthrough to the sandbox, making your in-context lore creations easier to preserve.

• Added export to sandbox button in campaign museum section
  
• Fixed in-production forecaster breaking and giving NaNs
  
• Fixed engines not showing the first time a trim was loaded
  
• Fixed new sandbox variants always defaulting to 2012
  
• Fixed a few lua errors resulting from deleting or opening imported .cars before a game restart
  
• Fixed UI closing when importing .cars and clicking to subscribe to a single car's mods
  
• Fixed photoscene resolution not loading correctly
  
• Fixed animatics not exporting & renamed output mp4 files to include car name
  
• Fixed tire speed letter using gearing top speed instead of calculated top speed in tooltip
  
• Fixed cooling flaps not actually calling their calculations

More fixes and general polish is on its way before we wrap up LCV4.2.
Cheers!

We're continuing to polish up this big update getting closer to release. Here we've added one of the last missing dependencies to the new engine designer calculations which now takes into account the effects of fuel cooling various surfaces inside the combustion chamber and with that a lower chance to pre-ignite the air-fuel mixture. From our ongoing testing of reference engines (comparing IRL engines to them recreated in the game) it does look like we're now really close!

• Implemented AFR dependent combustion chamber cooling effects on octane use / knock
  
• Tweaked carb flows and manifold / header resonance curves
  
• Fixed bug in engine friction calculations
  
• Fixed several issues with cloning a trim or variant in sandbox causing the techpool to reset or break
  
• Fixed hard-crash when clicking delete key before a fixture is placed
  
• Fixed lua error when exporting cars from campaign
  
• Fixed some duplicate piping on MFI Inline Throttle Per Cylinder
  
• Fixed scaled-up text fixtures from appearing low-resolution at times
  
• Improved native resolution animatic export times by an order of magnitude
  
• Added random name generation for engine families
  
• Removed some clattering sounds from V6 exhaust sound
  
• Fixed duplicate nuts on air filters

From here we plan to continue our bug fixing and general polishing until it is ready to put this out on the default branch. It has been a loooong time coming.

Cheers!