Hi everyone,

We wanted to give you a quick rundown on how things are going, and where we’re headed. Usually we don’t reveal a lot about what we’re working on, so that our priority shifting would remain agile. This time, however, it will take us longer than usual to show significant results, and we want to keep you informed.

We’re steering our focus toward more long-term development goals. For the next many months, our team will be working on these features, some of which are already in progress:

• Day and night cycle
  
• Dynamic weather
  
• Improved simulation for diesel-electric and steam locos
  
• Support for more locomotive types (for future use)
  
• Basis for train mod support (for future use)
  
• Save & user manager
  
• Main Menu
  
• Sandbox game mode
  
• Language localization

We know you’re excited to have these things out as soon as possible, but there's still a long way to go. We’re already doing major changes to locomotive simulation, seeing how other future locomotive types and mod support will tie into it. We’re also deep into testing solutions for day and night cycles and weather changes. Regarding the save manager, main menu and sandbox mode, there’s quite a bit of work to be done too.



All those things will take a while to finish, around the same time actually. We’re slowly starting to see them all grow into a single, major update, coming sometime in 2021. There are no specifics on the date at this point, and there likely won’t be any until the update is almost done and ready to reveal. With this update we’ll probably also roll out the previously announced price increase for new buyers - but more on that later.

Until then, we’ll definitely have several smaller updates, but they won’t include any of the things listed above. We’ll also use this time to squeeze in a few days by the end of this year to release the long-awaited update of our former game, Switchcars.

Our team now counts five developers, three of which are dedicated programmers. We definitely want to speed up development, which is why we’re still hiring. Turns out, finding the right people for the job during the virus outbreak is hardly any fun.

With this news we wanted to set the right expectations for the next couple of updates. It will take us some time to release the stuff that really adds significant value. That said, rest assured that even though it’s not currently visible, our top effort is being put into Derail Valley on a daily basis. The game consistently gets better. Like with Overhauled, the wait will be worth it, and probably also shorter.

That's all for today, and we'll see you in a couple of weeks with another small game update!

-Slobodan

Thanks to your reports we've tracked down a bug that affected a small amount of players, where their items and/or money disappeared with the most recent build. This occurred to players who had a derailed caboose when their game updated. There's more to it, but in short, the derailed caboose would cause an error that would propagate to the rest of the saving process.

(your items and/or money are missing since updating to #88, and you own the caboose)

Unfortunately you'll need to roll back to the save before #88, if you wish to retrieve the lost items/money. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Update Derail Valley (restart Steam to make sure the hotfix is downloaded and applied)
   
2. In Steam Library right click Derail Valley > Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files...
   
3. In the new window go to folders DerailValley_Data > SaveGameData
   
4. Rename the file "savegame" to something else (e.g. "savegame-88-broken")
   
5. Make a copy of the file "savegame_old_version5"
   
6. Rename that copy to just "savegame"

This way you'll have replaced your current save with the latest working backup. Now you should be able to start the game, and it will continue where you left off in #87 without issues. Side note: in the future Derail Valley will feature a proper in-game save manager.

(you have all your items/money, don't own the caboose, or you didn't update to #88 yet)

You can continue playing normally. This update won't affect you.

---

Despite thorough testing, both internally and with beta testers before releasing updates, this one slipped through. We're sorry for the inconvenience!

Hi everyone!

Today's update is a bit of a surprise. We're working on some rather big features, and while that's cooking we decided to release what we have already, as a separate update. As always, Ivan laid out all the highlights a new video update!



With this update we're introducing the new, improved sign generator. Apart from reducing the clutter and turbulence of the speed limit signs, it helps indicate whether the next upcoming sign will have you accelerating or slowing down, among other things, all laid out in the updated Train Basics booklet.




Also improved are the vegetation rendering (less tree popping!), the Caboose being more permanent, the map graphics, controls for players using Windows MR headsets, and a lot more! As always, the full changelog is listed below.

That would be all for this week. Enjoy the update and have a great weekend!

-DV Team


Stability:

- Fixed NRE in tutorial when approaching SM
- Fixed “skip tutorial” breaking the game since last build
- Fixed tutorial breaking if playing offset in seated/teleport mode in VR
- Guarded against a case of locomotives falling under the world and causing NaN
- Skip spawning of cars with corrupt world position in savegame
- Fixed infinite loading screen if Alt pressed during fast travel
- Fixed NRE when entering caboose while in roundhouse
- Fixed more rare benign errors related to item grabbing
- Potentially fixed a rare case where spamming inventory button in VR can freeze the menu
- Slightly decreased RAM consumption
-- Optimized textures of far buildings LOD
-- Reduced size of some booklet textures
- Fixed rare benign errors related to item grabbing
- Slightly optimized saving states during tutorial

Graphics:

- Fixed vegetation rendering
-- Fixed trees LOD fade effect being inverted and causing extra popping
-- Trees in distance no longer pop into existence, but smoothly fade in
-- Fixed distant trees flickering visibility while the player is moving, from certain angles
- Improved texture clarity of some booklets (particularly in VR)

VR:

- Added preliminary fixes for WMR joystick drift
-- Enable via Debug.WMRFix 1 and Debug.WMRFix 2
- Added sprint to WMR, activated by holding both joysticks up
- Fixed being able to open inventory during pause in VR

Trains:

- In case of reset tracks, Caboose will retain items left in it
- In case of reset tracks, Caboose will teleport with the player to the nearest station
-- Will happen if the Caboose was attached to the train you were last using
-- Will happen if the Caboose was within 1.5km of the player in the last session
-- Will happen in #87 -> #88 build transition
- Added charging sound to Caboose loco remote charger
- Fixed MU plugs not aligning properly when connected
- Fixed Handcar taking time to “refill air brakes” when just spawned
- Fixed Handcar brakes taking long to respond (sticky behavior)
- Fixed tender sometimes spawning uncoupled from the steam locomotive
- Prevented coupling to handcar (both auto-couple and via remote)

World & Tracks:

- Improved sign generator
-- Added speed ahead diff signs (shows on current sign if next limit is notably different)
-- Significantly reduced sign clutter and speed limit turbulence
-- Junction signs now display distance till actual junction (in km)
-- Changed junction sign color to white and red
-- Grade signs now display grade amount on them (in %)
-- Increased grade sign sensitivity
-- Updated Train Basics manual with new info on signs
- Fixed being unable to teleport into the Military Base tunnel
- Fixed various track kinks in stations
- Moved various trees off the tracks, in stations
- Increased LOD distance of signs text

Map:

- Updated world map
-- Remade the world texture in higher detail
-- Now features accurate track layout
-- Increased size of player blip
-- Player blip now draws on top of other blips
-- Increased brightness of map text
- Fast travelling with MU’d locos now takes all of them together
- Fixed fast travelling with multiple vehicles playing coupling sound on arrival

Misc:

- Teleporting off a vehicle while sitting in nonVR will now unsit the player
- Disabled Unity’s resolution dialog (previously started by ctrl + game start)
- Fixed inventory items not loading in tutorial extension on restart
- Fixed menu UI sounds having glitchy volume when used
- Improved clarity of scrap metal texture when looked at level
- Made Career Manager “copay paid” screen exit directly to item selection
- Stylized “boosted signal” to “sgnl boost” on loco remote for consistency
- Improved appearance and text of the “skip tutorial” prompt
- Fixed a village house having slightly offset shadows

We're adding a long-requested feature today - Multiple-Unit Control! This powerful cable lets you connect multiple DE2 and DE6 locomotives together and operate them all from a single cab.



As always the update includes many more fixes and improvements. Namely, tutorial fixes, crispier textures (Anisotropic Filtering Ultra setting), and many more. See the changelog below for more info:




Trains:

- Added Multiple-Unit Control
-- DE2 and DE6 locos now come equipped with an MU cable
-- When connected, locomotives will share all controls
-- Compatible with Loco Remote
-- Requires a new MU license to use
- Randomized timing of engine shut-off due to overheating

Tutorial:

- Added a step in tutorial extension that teaches the player to pay the fees
- Fixed a bug on tutorial extension restart that could spawn the shunter under the hopper
- Fixed errors when loading the tutorial in certain states causing it to become unplayable
- Fixed a bug with the “first crash” message able to appear multiple times, and too soon
- Modified the turntable step resolution criteria to be clearer
- Modified tutorial end criteria (prevented potential intentional game crash)
- Removed locomotive blocker from service depot (could cause temporary item loss)
- Fixed being asked to take out a Comms Radio when already holding it
- Fixed a case where the tutorial wouldn’t detect the player entering the loco
- Fixed missing belt points on save game load during tutorial extension (VR)

VR:

- Fixed player-camera misalignment caused by circular movement when smooth turning
- Fixed switching from room-scale to centered play type not updating the player height setting

Stability:

- Fixed game crashing of you put a brake hose in the inventory
- Fixed sound NRE on game quit
- Fixed various small bugs with code-reused cars (stuck hazmat fx, stuck sounds, etc.)
- Made a minor Gondola rendering optimization
- Reworked how terrains are loaded, slight optimization
-- Fixes bug with derailed trains falling through terrain

Misc:

- Added Anisotropic Filtering Ultra setting (sharper texture rendering)
- Fixed bad position of Gondola brake cocks
- Fixed visible terrain corners at the military base tunnel entrance
- Fixed loco spawning not working properly at IME (and potentially other locations)
- Fixed being able to take items through Career Manager when interacting with mouse
- No longer showing “press ‘print’ for details” on a “you have no fees” screen
- Fixed GF and FF service stations always drawing regardless of distance
- Fixed Reginald poster always drawing regardless of distance to player
- Made the VR centered play area mode popup take Trigger to begin
-- Can be cancelled by opening the menu
- Fixed sound not having interior effect when teleported to vehicles, sometimes
- Standardized code settings regarding VR haptic feedback
- Removed “shop” sign from gas stations
- Added quotes to license names in UI (nonVR)

Today we're crossing off another one of the Community Unlocks - the Gondola car type! With it we're adding a new freight cargo too, Scrap Metal. As always, check out our weekly video for more information:



Adding the gondola was one of the first steps towards expanding the industry chain, which we'll discuss more in the future. For now, the car's goal is to transport all the scrap metal from cities and towns to the Steel Mill, making town runs more diverse, shorter, and leading to a central location.



We've also made it so that when jobs and trains are reset (whenever tracks are updated, like in this update), the game will conveniently move you to the nearest station that has a locomotive of the type you are licensed to use. It will also show a message to let you know what happened. Please let us know how that worked for you.



Finally, we've improved the fast-travel loading times. Oh, and there's a jump ramp-ish at the Coal Mine. That's all for this week! See you soon with another update!

-DV Team


Stability:

- Drastically improved fast-travel loading times

Trains:

- Added Gondola car type
- Added colliders to Caboose buffers
- Added keyboard control to Caboose independent brake
- Fixed Nuclear Flask Carrier car getting stuck sometimes

Career:

- Added Scrap Metal freight type
-- Produced by cities/towns, delivered to Steel Mill in Gondola cars
- Improved player resetting after a tracks update
-- The game now moves the player to the nearest station with a loco you’re licenced for
-- A note informs the player of what happened
-- Remaining empty job items now get automatically removed from inventory

World:

- Modified Coal Mine track layout to loosen the loading track curve
- Attempted fix at OWN service station door collision, once more
- Tweaks to some tracks kinks
- Added CSW shop icon to world and schematic maps

It's time for new content! This week we're introducing the caboose, a community unlock, as well as a few other much needed improvements. As always, you'll find more info in the video below:



The caboose includes many new features, making it an essential tool for hauling and shunting long trains. Some of them include:

• Loco Remote signal booster & fast-charger
  
• EOT map marker
  
• Instant jumping between caboose and locos in the same train
  
• Mobile servicing (career manager)
  
• Strong independent brake
  
• Item storage, cupola & more!

We've added Fee Tolerance, a feature that helps with the fees being too restrictive. This time those of you further in the game won't have to pay for every small fee before taking a new job. Now the fee tolerance will move dynamically, in the range $5-50k, depending on your overall wealth.

The update also extends the tutorial, requiring the player to deliver the starting hopper car to the Steel Mill for maintenance, letting them know they can take other locomotives, and introducing them to taking new jobs.




As always, the update includes many more small improvements, which you'll find in the changelog below:


Trains:

- Added Caboose
-- Secret garage find, unlockable by buying a key
-- Boosts Loco Remote signal by additional 2km, when in 2km range
-- Features a fast battery charger for the Loco Remote
-- Visible on map (useful as end-of-train marker)
-- Contains its own Career Manager (allowing mobile or remote area servicing)
-- Allows free teleporting between it and the locos in the same train (“jump”)
-- Can be summoned using Comms Radio for $10k
-- Has its own independent brake
-- Has stronger brakes than other cars/locos
-- Can be used to store items
-- Doesn’t take damage (until locomotive ownership is added)
- Fixed a train spawning bug (solves the sometimes missing steamer at IMW)
- Oil no longer deteriorates from mileage, but only from engine RPM
- Fixed ISO tank support beam clipping into the tank

Career:

- Added dynamic Fee Tolerance
-- Job suspension will now tolerate fees depending on the % of your overall wealth
-- Your current Fee Tolerance can be see listed in Stats
- Added “press ‘print’ for details” line to Career Manager item listings

Navigation:

- Modified size of player/loco map blips
- Decreased brightness of map text and location blips
- Added target vehicle ID to fast-travel GUI

Tutorial:

- Extended tutorial
-- At the end instructs the player to deliver the hopper to the Steel Mill depot
-- Includes various new steps and checks (WIP)
-- Can save during the extension
- Added separate messages for when derailing and crashing for the first time
- Added “Fee Tolerance” page to DV Guide
- Corrected brake arrow orientation in Shunter manual
- Added “signal booster” and “charger” notes to Loco Remote manual
- Modified the Quit button description to say that you’ll lose progress (until saving is possible)

Stability:

- Attempted fix at game hanging on quit
- Slightly decreased RAM consumption (distant vehicles texture optimization)
- Slightly optimized steam locomotive interior rendering when outside
- Fixed error spam caused by engine smoke during paused game

VR Controls:

- Fixed telegrab sometimes causing hoses to get frozen in air
- Fixed item not dropping sometimes in “click” mode

Misc:

- Added a shop to City SW
-- Features a poster (more shop posters todo)
- Made rerailing gizmo autocorrect its orientation to best match target vehicle’s world orientation
-- Should prevent accidentally rerailing vehicles the wrong way
- Updated “Crew Vehicle” Comms Radio option, to allow Caboose summoning
-- Made Crew Vehicle options hidden while locked
- Fixed lean in nonVR allowing teleporting to forbidden areas
- Fixed “flood” effect when looking at bodies of water with shallow shore from distance
- Added signal boost light to Loco Remote
- Tweaked buffer stop LOD distance
- Fixed short glitchy sound playing when entering vehicles with sliding interactables
- Fixed DE6 loco having a duplicated audio script
- Renamed “RT Water Reflections” to “Real-time Reflections”
- Corrected default value description for Detail Level setting


That's all for today's update! See you next week with another!

-DV Team

It's been a long journey.

I want to say thank you for supporting us over the years, to each and every one of you who have bought our games (especially those of you who did it multiple times)! You’ve done a wonderful thing, helping us push VR and the train simulator genre forward. There’s so much more we want to do, and this is only the beginning.



We faced countless challenges over the years, partly because we saw it necessary to remain truly independent. This allowed us, however, to make all decisions regarding design, business strategy and publishing ourselves, as developers who are in the trenches. We were able to innovate without friction, react quickly to feedback, adapt to new situations, communicate directly with our players, and lead Derail Valley in the best possible direction.

Overhauled, our recent major update, was the pinnacle of that effort. Released remotely from our homes in the midst of a worldwide lockdown, it ended up more successful than the game’s original launch! After years of struggle, we are finally where we always wanted to be: self-sufficient, tightly bonded with our players, able to grow, and still in full control over our games. This is not only a business milestone, but very much a personal one too.



We’re opening 4 new positions, to grow our team to 10 members (first time reaching the double digits!). We are looking for three highly experienced game developers / programmers, as well as an assisting developer, to join our team. Remote work is possible, depending on many factors. We’re looking for highly talented developers from Serbia primarily, but wherever you are, if you think you’d be a great fit, do get in touch — we will consider all applications. See the link above for details on the positions and how to apply.

Ever since we launched Derail Valley, we’ve kept its price low. The price was based on the rough shape the game was in at launch, to encourage early supporters. We've made massive improvements since, and as announced in the past, soon we will increase the price to represent the current quality and play-time it has to offer. The cost bump is still months away, as first we want to add a proper main menu with a save manager, a sandbox mode (ability to play without career) and many more smaller improvements. Stay tuned for a more detailed announcement about it as we get closer. The new price will only affect new buyers, of course.



Derail Valley will remain in Early Access after the price increase. There’s still so much more that we want (and need) to add! The Unlocks page is only a part of what’s planned, and we want to keep working on Derail Valley for years to come! We see this expansion of our team as essential in getting there timely. After the initial period of onboarding, I hope to see us churning out updates at a faster pace than ever, fortifying our goals of making Derail Valley the best train simulator in the world, as well as one of the best VR games.

Once again, all this wouldn’t be possible without your support, so in the name of the whole team — thank you! I hope this news makes you as excited for the future as we are! In the meantime, we’ve been cooking a new update slated to come out next week. Stay tuned!

-Slobodan

Today's build concludes our work on the terrain revamp. Parts 1 and 2 improved stability and performance, and part 3 is here to introduce the all new terrain graphics. Your scenic screenshots will no longer be ruined by a blurry background, as you can see yourself in the video and screenshots below!



As always the update also introduces a lot more improvements, such as:

• Better lighting
  
• Simplified fee payment process
  
• Official support for HTC Vive Cosmos
  
• World & track updates
  
• Many more small fixes

We recommend opening the images above in a new tab for full resolution.


For the full list of changes in the update, as always we've prepared the full changelog below:


Graphics:

- Revamped graphics rendering of terrains
-- Greatly improved rendering quality of distant terrain textures
-- Remade some terrain textures
- Improved overall lighting
- Improved post processing
-- No longer increases overall game brightness
-- Creates a better looking HDR effect
-- Better illuminates dark spaces
- Fixed tileable asphalt texture appearing blurry

VR:

- Added support for HTC Vive Cosmos headsets and controllers
- Fixed a bug where grab key would move to trigger when operating brake hoses
- Fixed falling off a locomotive when leaning out the window in VR
- Fixed inventory tooltip text jittering when on a moving train

Career & Jobs:

- Revamped the fee tracking system
-- Paying fees for jobs no longer requires discarding or completing them
-- Reaching copay now always clears all the fees
-- Having fees under $5k will no longer prevent the player from taking new jobs
-- The player can’t take new jobs if having 8+ fees (or if hoarding money as before)
-- Updated fee booklet design (simplified texts, layout)
- Increased job deletion distance in all stations (can go further without jobs being reset)
- Added a Career Manager machine to Military Base
- Fixed a rare bug that could result in jobs requiring more space than there is
- Fixed a bug where cargo damage in a shunting job could display a faulty, negative value
- Fixed an ultra rare edge case where fee payment could be higher than copay

Trains:

- Temporarily fixed DE6 often derailing the first car behind
- Forced a DE6 to always spawn at HB roundhouse
- Forced a SH282 to always spawn at IMW turntable

World & Tracks:

- Added green crops
- Straightened many tight turns and sections
- Moved depot in CSW to loosen track curve on approach
- Fixed track kinks at IMW and IME
- Fixed the tight turn between B and C yards in SW
- Improved the tight turn in CM loading track, less jerky
- Fixed residential buildings having no smoothness texture (reflectivity)
- Fixed beige cars in stations being invisible
- Potentially fixed passenger platform being too close to tracks in HB
- Potentially fixed trains clipping depot doorway in OWN
- Potentially fixed GF and CSW storage tracks not being used due to lower clearance tolerance
- Removed some trees from the tracks in stations (HB, MF, CSW…)
- Updated TC2 so that quarry paints rock texture
- Fixed CSW crane being messed up

Misc:

- Fixed aiming at junction signs being imprecise
- Removed loading alerts (can be enabled via debug.LoadingAlertsToggle console command)
- In nonVR tutorial a prompt will teach player how to sit (X key)
- If player leaves the tutorial area with brakes on, a popup will warn them
- Added continual checking of free system memory in the background
-- When amount of free memory is under 1.5 GB and dropping:
-- Writes to log and pops up a “low memory!” alert on screen
- Made locomotive map blips yellow
- Made a few minor schematic map tweaks
- Moved SM service station closer to depot entrance

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

-DV Team

Hi everyone!

We’re pleased to announce the winning entries of the Steam Locomotive Skinning contest! The community voting ended yesterday, with the following results:










Due to the rule of a contestant being able to win with only one entry, we didn’t have a third-place winner in the meme category. That said, there are more great entries that deserve to be seen. Here are some honorable mentions of the entries that didn’t win:



At the end, we at Altfuture have also chosen our favorite. The winner of the Best Overall category, even though they didn't win any of the community vote rewards, has clearly put a lot of creativity, effort, skill and detail into their entry, as well as its presentation. It is our favorite:




This skin will be used as inspiration for the new steamer skin that we'll officially create for the game in the future. This will likely come in the Steam Locomotive Improvements update, and will, of course, include creative modifications.

You can download these amazing skins, and many more, thanks to the modders who have generously made them available: https://www.nexusmods.com/derailvalley/mods/

Finally, we'd like to say big thanks to all the participants! You guys made this contest fun and so diverse! The winners will be handed their prizes shortly. We'd also like to invite everyone to join our Discord and congratulate the winners directly, in the #contest-discussion channel! There were even more entries submitted than shown here, so be sure to check them out!

That's all for today. See you soon with more news!

-DV Team

The long-awaited performance improvement is here! As previously announced, build #83 fixes stuttering as well as freezes during gameplay, usually associated with the "loading area" and "spawning trains" onscreen messages.

The stutters should now be completely eliminated or drastically reduced (100 times?), depending on your hardware. This is true even when approaching the Harbor! This improvement involved a big rework of how cars are loaded to the game, as well as a total overhaul of how terrains are loaded and displayed.



The massive terrain revamp has been an ongoing process for several weeks, aimed to solve several critical issues in one go. In the previous build it allowed us to drastically reduce RAM usage, today it fixes the stuttering and in the next build it will help us vastly improve visual quality of distant landscapes. Stay tuned for some pretty sights!

As always, this update brings you many more smaller improvements and bug fixes, all detailed in the changelog below:


Stability:

- Further terrain rework (WIP)
-- Eliminates stuttering when “loading area”
-- Increases terrain texture resolution in distant terrains
-- Fixes end of the world being visible (terrain prolongs outside of the world borders)
-- Reduces system complexity, allows easy world terrain updating
- Reworked car loading
-- Fixes stuttering caused by trains spawning when approaching stations
- Potentially fixed the ignition switches not starting the train for some players
- Fixed fast-travel with handcar crashing the game

VR:

- Fixed a bug sometimes making it impossible to teleport while moving
- Fixed a bug with Comms Radio getting dropped when used since build #82
- Potentially fixed a bug where grip binding could move to trigger after a while
- Fixed a bug causing Vive wands sticky item holding to behave like continuous
- Fixed inventory tooltip jittering if on a moving train

Career:

- Fixed a bug with jobs not spawning properly after fast-travel
- Prevented manual service tip screen from showing on fees smaller than $1k
- Inverted sorting order of fees so the smallest ones show first
- Fixed fast-travel with handcar charging extra for loco transport
- Reworded a few Career Manager lines

Trains:

- Fixed loaded trains having faulty mass in Freight Haul and Unloading jobs
-- They were almost twice lighter than they should be
- Reworked hopper car UV map and texture to be modder friendly
- Made locomotive windows harder to break
- Loosened the ignition rotary switches on DE2 and DE6 locomotives
- Fixed unused locos being able to despawn if part of an active train

Misc:

- Increased sunlight intensity
-- It was accidentally lower than normal since the Overhauled release
- Fixed Hazmat spills/fire being temporarily disabled since #82
- Fixed tank car leak orientations being wrong and their cracks invisible
- Fixed a bug in NonVR where tab+esc would make the handheld item flimsy


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

-DV Team