April 28th is Rolling Line's birthday, and this one happens to be 5 years since its release!
I usually don't post anything for these, but 5 years is pretty special, and also I have a big new official map to announce.

To start things off, you probably want to know what I've been working on for the last month!
I've been making a new free official map for the game (which is almost ready for release!) based on Tongariro National Park in New Zealand. This map includes locations like the volcanoes of Mt Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro, the Chateau Tongariro hotel, the "Volcanic highway", the town of National Park, the Makatote Viaduct and even the famous Raurimu Spiral!

This is a fully modern map that makes use of all the game's latest features, which means full dynamic roads, skyboxes, particles, etc.
It's been well over a year since I've been able to make a proper official map (since the "Slice of Wellington" one was just a chunk of city scenery, no track or nature) so this has been a ton of fun to make, and I'm really happy with how its turned out.

And this map is also now the largest official map by a big margin! (much bigger than the "Top of the South").



This map still needs a couple more weeks worth of work to make it fully ready for release, for things like all the little fine details (and Easter Eggs of course!).
For Rolling Line's next update I will be releasing this map, completely for free, as a new addition to the game's official maps.

So keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks!


But in the meantime, here are some of the highlights:

Historic viaduct on the North Island Main Trunk Line.




A famous feat of engineering here in NZ, where tracks loop over themselves to climb up on to the Central Plateau.




NZ's volcanic epicentre. Multiple volcanoes cones, craters and lakes.




An active volcano, and the tallest peak in New Zealand's North Island.



The tourist town (and railway station) right on the doorstep of Tongariro National Park.



A very famous building here in NZ, the historic Chateau Tongariro, build on the lower slopes of Ruapehu.



State highway 47, known as the "Volcanic Loop Highway" which runs straight though the park, and yes you can of course run cars on this using the new roads system for a scenic drive!




For those who don't know, I'm actually just one solo developer. I handle the programming, art, online support, etc, and have been doing this as a full-time job for the whole last 5 years. So I have quite a personal connection to this game, as it is entirely intertwined with my own life.
Especially when it comes to programming, this game's code-base feels like a bizarre beast of my own design, and has over half a million lines of code.
The game also contains a bunch of models (props and trains) & even some map work done by members of the community in recent years, and the Steam Workshop comprises a massive portion of the game's value. There's no way this game would have grown to the size it is without user-made content!

5 years is a long time, yet it went by surprisingly fast... the game has changed SO MUCH since its release.
On day one it was hardly even a level editor, all you could do was place down some basic track on small flat tables and place a few props (you couldn't even change the color of trees!).
The game had one single map (the "Top of the South", which was then just called the "Main Layout") and that map was entirely hard-coded, meaning that it was made from pre-built 3D models, and it was entirely impossible to make something like that using the in-game tools.

Then in July 2021 the game reached a massive milestone where the old Top of the South could finally be fully converted to an editable map made using in-game tools (excluding roads, which only made it into the game in October 2022!).
This moment is so impactful since it finally meant that the game had fully lived up to its original vision, where players could make maps with the same level of quality and complexity as what I envisioned back when i built the Top of the South.

And to tie it all up, this new map "National Park" marks a point where a map can fully surpass the complexity & scale of the Top of the South using entirely in-game tools.
Though one last loose end would be terrain.. which I still make in external 3D software (though players can do this too with prop mods or QuickTerrain modding). That's still a job to tackle in the future.

For those curious, over the last 5 years there have been 156 total updates, and here is the FULL list of those updates:



And some graphs that may interest people, here is the number of likes & comments each update news announcement post has gotten, along with trend lines.
The second graph shows the average and peak number of concurrent players.



Some things to learn from this:

• Rolling Line has its best player stats and engagement of its lifetime right now, though it has remained very stable for the last couple of years.
  
• The game grew most during the Covid pandemic, which was a trend for a lot of games at the time. More people indoors = more people playing video games, so no surprises there. This was also the time when I released the Paranapiacaba update, which involved a ton of minor updates (almost weekly!) in the build-up, which was great for getting people excited.
  
• Larger updates with longer development times generally get much better responses. The time between updates has increased a lot over the years, as updates have gotten bigger and much more complex (e.g. back in 2018 I could release something as simple as gradient track for a single update, meanwhile now im working on much bigger things like large programming overhauls).
  
• The largest spike in players the game ever got was on a weekend where the Roblox servers temporarily shut down... which is pretty hilarious and confirms the player overlap between these games.

And as a bonus, here are the top 5 most liked updates in the game's history:

• #1 - Train AI
  
• #2 - City buildings
  
• #3 - Startup optimization
  
• #4 - Roads
  
• #5 - Turntables

All of which were released in the last 2 years!

Anyway, that's enough stats. You can probably tell I quite enjoy making spreadsheets and tracking this kind of information. It really puts things into perspective, and over a large timeframe like 5 years it can be pretty useful.

This game is so closely intertwined with my life, and it goes without saying that I have zero intentions of stopping development any time soon. There's still an insane amount of features and content that I hope to create for the game, and that could easily fill another 5 years.
Maybe in 5 years time I'll actually be able to add multiplayer... just kidding. Or am I?


The year of 2023 has had a bit of a slow start, since I've been mostly focused on programming optimization and restructuring old code for the game, which doesn't really result in very flashy and exciting updates.
But working on these things is incredibly important for the longevity of the game. This is a game I want to withstand the test of time, and the last thing I want is for it to be a messy tangle of bad code. So piece by piece I'm cleaning things up, designing things better, and strengthening the foundations of the game.

But that can all get pretty exhausting, so hence why I decided to make a map for a change of scenery!
(plus the fact that I just visited Tongariro National Park in real life of course)



This map will be released within the coming few weeks!

Other than that, I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has stuck with this game to see it grow, from those who remember all the way back to release day, or those who just bought it this year. Thank you to everyone who makes maps, mods, screenshots, videos, and shares them with everyone. Community is what makes this game feel so alive, because that's far too much for just one developer to manage. Rolling Line's Steam Workshop is incredible, and the sheer number of maps and mods is mind-blowing, even just the very best top-quality maps number in the 1000s.

Thank you everyone, and here's to another 5 years!

The optimization continues, this time with a focus on trains!

The previous update was all about optimizing mods and mod asset loading, and this one continues where that left off and includes a ton of background system improvements and changes to how the game handles trains.
Previously all the official trains in the game were actually stored as pre-made objects (and they have been like that since day 1) but now that the game has a full modding system and the ability to generate trains on the fly using raw data, it's finally time to convert all the old built-in trains from the old "object" system to the new dynamic "data" system.

This was a massive job, and essentially involved re-making all the official trains using the new modding system, but the trade-off is that now every single train in the game (whether its a mod, a livery, an old legacy QuickMod, or an official model) all share the exact same data structure.
This means making changes to how trains work, and adding new features, has just become infinitely easier and more efficient!
It also means that trains can finally receive some much-needed optimization.

You might have noticed in the past that Rolling Line already has some LOD (level of detail) effects for the trains, in the form of low-detail wheel models which show up at a distance. Well this update takes that a step further and fully re-works the LOD system for trains so that they now have full low-detail models and other optimizations in the distance.

Personally I really love the style of these low-detail models, so I've actually included a setting (in "pause menu -> graphics -> super low detail trains") which you can use to force the game to use the models at all times, not just in the distance.



Even custom livery versions of the trains have low-detail models now too!



Some of the official trains don't have finished low-detail models yet, though I will be including these in the next update. The trains that still dont have models are:
- most freight and passenger wagons
- most liveries

You can also now include your own low-detail models to optimize your mods!
If you are a mod maker I highly, highly recommend doing this since adding these low-detail models will make your mod run with significantly better performance on peoples maps.

There are two different models you can include:

• Body mesh - This model will replace the body of the train mod when the train is at a distance
  
• Wheel mesh - This model will replace all of the couplers and wheel blocks at a closer distance than the body

You can also adjust how far away the train needs to be for the low-detail wheel model to be used, since some trains with more complex wheel arrangements (like steam engines) should use the low-detail wheel model at a larger distance since the switch between models is more visible.

You can find these new mod options in the "general options -> low detail models" menu:



While you have this menu open if you refresh the mod preview it will automatically show the model in its low-detail form:



You can find an example mod here on the Steam Workshop which makes use of the new low-detail model features:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2946255743

One of the main reasons why I needed to convert all the old trains to the new data ssystem was so that I could finally re-work the addon system. This system has been poorly optimzied and a pain to deal with for a long time, but now it's vastly improved and is way more flexible for future updates.
Addons are loaded in a much more efficient way, and the game can now support the addition of new types of addons in the future (like hopefully custom plows/pantographs in modding one day!).

One nice little side-effect of this new system is that the spinning rotary plow can now be added on to any train, and is included as a new plow option:





During testing, by far the most major performance hit for the game is trying to use mods with excessively large textures. Some modders have chosen to scale up their textures to way beyond the expected range, and this causes an exponential amount of RAM usage and load time.

For example, a typical 2k texture (2048 x 2048) which is all a train model should really need, uses up about 30 MB worth of RAM when loaded into memory.

But compare that to a 6k texture (6000 x 6000) which some modders have been using, uses up a whopping 274 MB of RAM when loaded into memory!

As you can guess, it only takes a few of these large textures to soak up multiple gigabytes of RAM and eventually crash your game.
I don't want to put hard limits on what kind of assets modders can use, but I can at least make it so that the game automatically resizes these textures if they go over the 2k standard.
You can choose to turn this setting off if you want, but by default any textures that are over 2048 x 2048 will be re-sized when the mod is loaded (this only applies to mods downloaded off the workshop, it will not affect any textures you have created yourself!).

You can find this setting in the new menu "Pause menu -> Loading -> compress large mod textures"



When a texture is automatically converted, the file will be overwritten so that the conversion process doesn't need to happen every time.
A copy of the original file will be made just in case called "(Original) ... filename"

A similar thing has been going with some modders manually increasing the resolution of their thumbnails by replacing the in-game captured thumbnails with their own 1080p ones.

For comparison, the normal resolution for thumbnails uses up only about 1.2 MB of RAM, meanwhile a resized 1080p thumbnail uses up about 15 MB of RAM.

These resized thumbnails were actually responsible for a lot of crashes when people were scrolling through their mod lists, since the large thumbnails were soaking up so much RAM it was crashing the game!

So the game now automatically resizes any thumbnails that go beyond the default size.
Since thumbnails are only shown on a tiny icon, the change is resolution is not noticeable at all, but saves a massive amount of RAM usage.

There is also now a much smarter system for unloading thumbnails from memory when they are no longer needed.

Thumbnails also now load asynchronously!
So instead of freezing the game until the whole drawer of thumbnails is loaded, they will load in one-by-one:



Another common performance issue for mods is when the supplied model is split into lots of sub-meshes which results in way more objects being loaded into the game than needed.

For example, some rare mods would load in 50+ individual models for each "piece" of the train. This is simply due to the formatting used when exporting the model (using lots of individual objects instead of one single mesh).

The game now automatically combines any meshes loaded for mods into a single mesh, which avoids this issue entirely.

Though on a similar note, many people are noticing an annoying bug where textures on modded meshes are not appearing correctly like this:



This is caused by a frustrating issue inside the model importer that the game uses for mods, it occurs when a model has all of its UV data identical (all UV map points are applied to the exact same point on the texture). When a mesh has identical UV data like this, the model importer wrongly treats it as having no UV data at all, which is what causes the glitch.

The way to solve this (as a modder) is to shift at least one part of the UV map slightly, just enough that everything isn't all mapped to the same identical point. This will solve the issue:



In the future though I hope to upgrade this model importer, which will potentially fix the issue, but for now sadly the only solution is to modify the UV map to avoid this situation.

These optimization updates always end up resulting in a massive list of changes, since it's a good opportunity to fix bugs and make changes which are on the to-do list.
So this update also includes:

• Files in the custom images folder are no longer case-sensitive (e.g. .png and .PNG are treated as the same and will both load correctly).
  
• Fixed bug where the " character could be added into livery names using the copy-paste feature, which would cause issues with save data further down the line.
  
• Fixed issues with creating legacy liveries out of QuickMods.
  
• Fixed issue where some props were not being batched when they should have (which included lots of the new roadside props). Performance should improve for maps that used a lot of these props, like the "Slice of Wellington" map.
  
• There is now an in-game warning if the player moves too far from the 3D world center of the map, since this will eventually cause graphical and visual glitches. These visual glitches are unavoidable for 3D games and it is a common issue, since floating point numbers eventually start to break at very large distances.
  
• A similar warning is shown when the room bounds are extended too far. The room bounds now have a cap on how far the objects will scale, but you can increase the number higher anyway if you really want to, you just wont have any walls/floor beyond a certain distance.
  
• Fixed strange shading on the V8 locomotive model.
  
• Removed the "texture quality" setting from the game, since it didn't really have any effect, and also caused a lot of visual issues when used.
  
• Fixed various minor issues with the golden trains.
  
• Removed the "legacy paints" and "weka pass misc buildings" drawers from the "misc" category, since they dont have any purpose any more (the weka pass buildings are all re-located to the normal building drawers).
  
• Fixed the keyboard headlight bindings for some trains (like the big boy and easter egg circuit loco) as they were not working correctly before.
  
• Fixed missing mesh data for one of the lamp post props.
  
• There is a strange lighting effect which happens if the sun is directly overhead (mid day sun and mid season) so the game now automatically bumps the season a small difference if the sun is directly overhead to avoid this issue.
  
• Track scaling with the transform edit tool is now turned off by default, it can be turned on in the "Pause menu -> custom track" menu. This has been disabled since track scaling is only for visual purposes and is not officially supported. Snapping and train size will not change when you scale track.
  
• The train mods drawer now refreshes its view correctly when viewing a group if you click the "refresh mods" button.
  
• Fixed the "loading liveries" map loading step, it was not working as intended before. It now correctly preloads livery textures for any liveries used in the save file.
  
• There are now addition error checking steps when saving a map, to help avoid saves failing for unexpected reasons. There is also an in-game popup which will tell you the save has failed, and an error message.
  
• There is now an in-game warning if a file is read-only when trying to overwrite it (e.g. a save file or modding asset). You will see a message pop up and then a few seconds later the folder containing the read-only file will automatically open.

And that's everything for this update!
While these optimization updates aren't as exciting or interesting as a new feature update or new content, they are really important for the long-term stability of the game, and definitiely improve the quality of life for everyone playing.

I am always thinking about the future of this game, and features like dynamic freight loads, custom road numbers, more advanced train options, custom addons, more optimization, etc, all relied on this train system upgrade, so this new system really opened up the doors for lots of exciting things to come!

This update begins "the great Rolling Line optimization" process I've been working towards for a long time! Over the course of the next few updates, I'm putting a ton of time towards improving the loading process for the game and heavily optimizing how the game loads assets and maps.

The first of these updates is focused on mods! (as well as a ton of other optimizations).
And the next update will be focused on specifically the scenery & track part of map loading.

This update completely changes how the game loads modded assets (textures, models, etc) and how it handles these files when loading maps. You'll now see much faster loading times when maps contain a lot of mods, as well as significant RAM usage reduction. The process of detecting mods on start-up and setting them up has also been sped up significantly.

The main benefit of this system is that loading mods is now entirely "synchronous" which means that it loads smoothly and doesn't freeze your computer while loading!
You can also see a real-time display of what is being loading (as shown above).

Another big part of this update is that it finally includes newly updated versions of all the software I use to make Rolling Line, which means the latest version of Unity (game engine), SteamVR (virtual reality framework) and more.
Up until now I have been essentially held hostage by very old versions of software since upgrading was causing so many problems, but i've finally dealt with those problems and this update brings the game forward on to fully up-to-date software.

There are lots of quirks of the new version changes, which will be explained more in detail later in this news post (mainly relating to VR).


The mod loading process had lots of room for imrovement, so this update makes lots of changes to speed this up and do things much more efficently.

When you start up the game the first optimizations you'll notice is the "finding mods" stage, which has been sped up significantly and also displays how many mods have been found so far. The next stage is "setting up mods" which is performing some basic setup for mods (like figuring out what kind of mod it is, and how it should be categorised for loading later on).

The "Loading downloaded saves" step has also been sped up tons, since the game now only partially loads the save data for maps, and leaves the heavy-lifting for later on when the save is directly loaded.

When loading a save file, the whole process of finding packaged mods, preloading the mods in the save file (both trains and props) is all now displayed in realtime, so you can see which mods are taking longer to load compared to others. You can also see how many mods total are being loaded.


This update makes major changes to how modded assets (e.g. textures and models) are loaded into the game how they are managed in memory. You'll notice a big drop in RAM usage when loading maps with lots of mods!
I've been using maps like the "Beer Line" and "Blue Island" as benchmarks, since they both contain over 100 packaged train mods, and tons of prop mods. Maps like these now load much faster and consume way less RAM than before.

The memory management system also handles asset un-loading much better than before, so when you leave a map any mods that were loaded exclusively for that map will be properly un-loaded. This means that even if a map increases your RAM usage a lot, leaving that map should return things back to normal.

You can now even see in-game RAM statistic when loading maps. This shows how much RAM your system has left, and the overall percentage of usage.
Please remember that pushing your game too far into high RAM usage will result in pretty awful crashes, so you can use this as a metric for whether your are going too overboard with mods!



Old legacy QuickMods also now use the new asset management system and model importer.
This likley won't have any effect on how models are displayed, aside from some minor quirks that are caused by differences between the old and new model importers. The new model importer is MUCH faster though, so the change is definitely worth it!

Another useful feature of how assets are managed and loaded now is that when you are editing a mod inside the modding manager, pressing "refresh assts folder" (which will re-load any assets the mod is using) will also update all other copies of the mod on the map, so you will no longer end up with a confusing mix of old & new copies of the mod. All mods on the map will keep their assets in-sync.


In addition to the whole new mod asset loading system, the game also manages memory for a few other built-in assets a bit differently.
Mainly the photos on the walls used in official maps (only the older ones, like Paranapiacaba and Weka Pass) which use to be pre-packaged into the game, are now instead stored as image files and are loaded manually when needed.
You can find these files in the "Core" folder, which also contains tons of other files which the game loads while running, instead of being built-in:



And yes you can edit these files if you want, for some pretty interesting results (like changing the main-menu save file!) But If you do choose to edit these files then don't be surprised if you manage to break things, so make sure to keep a backup of any files you choose to change.

This update also adds a warning which will show up if for whatever reason the "Core" folder can't be found. If you see this error then make sure your game is fully downloaded. You may need to "verify files" inside steam.


Part of the software upgrade meant changes to how the post-processing system works. If you are playing on PC then everything is still the same (with the addition of some new options!) but in VR unfortunately the old post-processing features are no longer supported.

I've ended up finding a different post-processing tool that does still work in VR, but it is unfortunately not quite as advanced as what the game was using before.
For VR users, the current post-processing is limited to:

• Color correction (contrast, exposure and vibrancy)
  
• Sharpness
  
• Vignette effect

Both the sharpness and vignette effects are available on PC too and can be used in addition to all the previous post-processing options:




After the last update added custom load-switching for mods by pressing the 1,2,3,4... etc keys when controlling trains, it became pretty obvious that needing to select each wagon one-by-one with the hand-held controller was a real pain, so now you can simply hover over a wagon/train and control it with the same keys!
Basically any controls that would normally require the controller, can now be performed by just pointing at the train you want to control.

e.g. to turn on a train's lights, simply point at it and press "L"
or to sound the horn, point at the train and press "capslock"




A neat new bonus feature that comes with this update is that you can now copy colours directly from posters! Simply point anywhere on a poster and press the "color clone" button (Enter) and the color that is directly under your cursor will be copied.



This is amazingly useful for getting colours for your maps from a photo reference!




One annoying side effect of upgrading the Unity Engine and SteamVR framework is that the system I was using to make the game launch in VR or PC mode no longer works!
So I've had to find a new way to toggle between VR and PC.

If you have a VR headset connected to your PC then you will notice that SteamVR auto-launches regardless of whether you launch the PC or VR version of the game (even though the game correctly ignores or uses the headset based on your chosen play mode).

Please note, if you don't have SteamVR installed, or a VR headset connected, then this won't affect you at all!

If you want to play on PC without SteamVR launching, then simply run the new launch option called "Disable SteamVR auto launch".
This will make some adjustments to make sure that SteamVR will no longer launch, no matter how you run the game.



If you want to play in VR again, simply run the other launch option for "Re-enable SteamVR auto launch".
After choosing either the enable/disable launch option, you can exit out of the window that appears and run the game as normal.




In addition to everything mentioned above, this update also rounds-up a ton of minor bugs and issues that I've had on my to-do list for a long time, and these are:

• All cars are now set up to support snow plows:
  
  
  
• The "Golden trains" that spawn from Christmas presents and Halloween pumpkins now include the full list of every train in the game, including cars! So you can now get golden versions of pretty much everything:
  
  
  
• A new thinner triangle "road fill" prop added, to fill in gaps between road sections:
  
  
  
• Wagons that would still make a horn sound when you press the "horn" keyboard shortcut will now no longer sound a horn.
  
• Files in the "custom assets" folder no longer have case-sensitive file types, which means a file called "image.PNG" and "image.png" will both work fine without issues.
  
• Fixed slightly different colours on one of the example road style groups.
  
• Removed one of the two rectangle table props, since it was causing so much confusion and didn't really have any good use (each rectangle table was for a different size of snapping layer, but only one was really needed).
  
• Fixed bug where the skybox would not update properly until the player moved after loading a map.
  
• The color of the default pantograph painters is now grey (instead of red).
  
• Moved the "pause menu action" setting out of the middle of the menu, since it was common for people to click it by accident when moving through the menus.
  
• The custom camera is now blocked on the main menu.
  
• Pressing "Insert" to toggle whether the cursor is locked to the game window will now also prevent camera movement. Press Insert again to re-lock the cursor and control the game again.
  
• Auto-holster controllers is now off by default for VR (this setting makes dropped controllers automatically snap back to their holder when dropped, which in VR is a pain since you often want to rest controllers on the table while doing other things).
  
• Fixed bug where the mod spawning drawer would have a unique category select option for liveries, which are supposed to be combined into the standard "train mods" category.
  
• Fixed bug where the sun would update in a snappy way when moving around the map (especially noticeable when entering tunnels, the sun would go dark too fast).
  
• Fixed the default VR controller bindings for the Oculus controllers to include the "use alternative control scheme" action when holding the trigger. This means that if you have directional movement enabled, the teleporting controls will only be usable when you hold down the trigger, to avoid overlapping controls.

And that's everything!
This update ended up being a massive undertaking, and huge parts of the games code have been cleaned up and improved. Spending time on things like this is really important, since games always get more bloated and slow over time, so eventually you've got to truly dedicate some time to cleaning things up and optimization.

While this update mainly focused on the mod loading process, the next one will be dedicated to the map loading part! which means faster scenery and track loading, and hopefully even smoother gameplay with less stuttering when loading new scenery. It's going to be great!

Happy new year!
To get things moving for the first update of the year I've decided to work on improving the train modding system and adding a whole bunch of new features.

The Rolling Line modding scene is HUGE and if you haven't already, go and check out the Steam Workshop for 1000s of player-made layouts, liveries, train mods, prop mods and more!

https://steamcommunity.com/app/754150/workshop/



This news post is going to list all of the new modding features added, but you can find a full official guide here which goes into more detail about the whole modding system. I will only be describing them briefly in this news post, so please check the info in the guide for more detail:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2664192139


Firstly, since I was short on time before Christmas here are some features from the previous update which I wasn't able to finish in time, which are now included in this update:

• Snow models for the Big Boy & tender
  
  
  
  
• Improved snow model for the V8 which includes its front & back wheel blocks
  
• Fixed the snow plow on the V8, so it correctly attaches to the front wheel block
  
• Various fixes to snow models, like for the U20C custom livery model

Firstly, this update adds a much-requested feature: custom toggleable models!
This means you can provide a custom 3D model or animation which can be enabled/disabled by the player when using the wagon.

These can be used to hide/show additional details like smoke deflectors, window bars, flags, etc.
Or for a more exciting example... custom freight loads!
You can create a custom extra model for each type of freight (e.g. coal, iron ore, scrap metal, wood, etc) and then toggle them on/off in-game to simulate loading and unloading freight.





To toggle custom models, select the train with the hand-held controller, then press "Shift + 1,2,3,...9" to toggle each mesh by index.



Keep in mind one day there will be a dedicated loading/unloading system added to the game, but in the meantime you can use these modding tools to simulate it yourself!

You can find an example freight wagon mod which uses this new system here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916250594

You can also find this example mod in the modding templates folder:
"Rolling Line/modding/templates/train mod examples/"




You can also now add bells to your mods!
This includes both custom audio files for the bell sound, as well as custom models (or animations) for the bell model itself. You can also choose from the default in-game bell models and sound effects as presets.


(example video made by Finn)

You can customize things like the location/size of the bell model, the speed and range of its swinging, or the 3D model/audio assets that it uses:




"Addons" like pantographs and snow plows can be added to trains using the painters in the train drawers. Remember you can change the color of a pantograph by "painting" the painter with your desired color:



You can now add multiple pantograph spawn points to a train mod, as well as set the location/scale etc of each pantograph. You can also set it so that the train spawns automatically with pantographs added:




Just like with pantographs, you can now also customize how train mods handle snow plows.
You can move the position of the snow plow, as well as give your mod a default snow plow that is enabled when the player spawns it into their map:




You can now mess around with a few of the speed related values for train mods!
The acceleration and deceleration can both be changed (which make the train speed up and slow down at a different rate) plus you can change its max speed.



And yes, you can make the max speed incredibly large ːsteamhappyː




"Articulation" refers to when a locomotive has wheel blocks that pivot independently to the main body of the locomotive (like the Big Boy steam engine).
The modding system now allows for much more customization when it comes to articulation.

For a built-in template example of articulation, you can find a version of the Big Boy steam locomotive in the modding templates folder "Rolling Line/modding/templates/train mod examples/".



You can also find this example mod on the Steam Workshop:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2911728993

You will notice that the Big Boy has an unusual pivot style to it, the front block of wheels swings quite independently from the main body:



This effect can now be achieved using new options in the modding system!
Please check the official guide mentioned at the start of the news post for more information on how articulation works.

In addition to articulation, on a similar note you can now make all details & effects attach to different wheel blocks (instead of just the main body).
This means you can make headlights/particles/etc attach to the front set of wheels like this:




You can now make use of more "control layers" for lights on train mods.
Previously you could only link lights to either the headlight (pressing "L") or the cab light (pressing "shift + L") and were limited to just the two layers.
This update adds 4 extra custom control layers, which you can toggle by pressing "L + 1,2,34" for each control layer.



This means you can use these extra layers for things like ditch lights, warning lights, or any kind of extra light source you would want to turn on/off:




This update also fixes & adds a lot of other things outside of the modding system, these changes are:

• Fixed a quite hilarious bug where you could enable 3rd person in VR by trying to move the transform edit tool when editing position values for mods:
  
  
  
• Added better collision to the transform-edit-UI that pops up when you are editing a train mod object position, so it is now much easier to select it instead of the train mod itself.
  
• Fixed the default SteamVR bindings for the Valve Index to include the trigger as a way to use teleporting controls while directional movement is enabled (hold trigger to switch between the two!) This input was previously left un-bound by accident. You can find more info about how to use the SteamVR input binding system in this guide:
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2029205314
  
• Fixed lots of LOD issues where objects (like bells and pantographs) would be visible beyond the trains render distance.
  
• Added back the "infinite" object view distance setting in the "Pause menu -> graphics" menu. Please ONLY use this for screenshots and not in normal gameplay. Putting this setting on infinite means literally everything in the map is rendered, every item in every drawer, every train and every button. Please only use it for screenshots and don't be surprised if it cripples your performance.
  
• The key to open photo mode "C" is now re-bindable in the controls menu.
  
• The main menu is no longer Christmas themed, but it still has a winter vibe to it.
  
• Updated the official maps set in New Zealand to be listed as "Aotearoa New Zealand", as to include the Maori name for the country.
  
• Fixed bug in the modding system where renaming wheels and couplers would not save.
  
• Fixed bug where track inside groups stored in custom drawers would not save correctly when at a specific rotation value.

And that's everything!
This update really ballooned into a "get heaps of things done on the todo list" kind of update, which honestly seems like the perfect way to start the year.

I hope you all had a lovely holidays and new year, and I'm looking forward to what this year will bring for Rolling Line's future!

Merry (early) Christmas!

While it may be snowy for most of the world, over here in New Zealand it's mid-summer and the Pohutukawa flowers are in bloom.
I'm going to be away from work over Christmas, so this update is a little bit early.

This year the trains are getting a snow-cover effect which automatically happens when you have the weather set to snowy!
You can also manually add/remove snow to a locomotive using a snow painter.





You can find the new snowy painter in the "trains -> steam" drawer, alongside the snow plows (which was a previous year's Christmas update!)



All of the official locomotives and wagons (and liveries!) have snow skins, but since I am heading away from work tomorrow I've had to leave out the Big Boy & tender, which I didn't have time to complete.
I will sort out a snow model for the Big Boy after I get back to work after Christmas, sorry for any confusion it causes!




As well as the official trains, you can add your own snowy model mesh for modded trains.

There are two new options in the train modding system (in the menu "Edit mod -> Effects"):
- Snow model (a 3D model which will be enabled when the train has snow cover)
- Plow offset (this is the same legacy value that QuickMods use to adjust the position offset of plow addons. This system is going to be upgraded in the future, but in the meantime the new modded system now has access to this value)






Since the other snowy weather presets were quite dark, I've added a new one which combines heavy snowfall with white fog and brighter lighting. You can still customize weather further by using the custom weather values (in the "pause menu -> weather -> custom weather values" menu), but having an easy preset is always useful!




The previous year's Christmas updates have been combined into one drawer (which you can find in the "Misc" category).





This includes a bunch of stuff like:
- Dynamic snow (which grows in snowy weather and melts in the sun, and can be plowed by trains)
- The Canadian Christmas train!
- Present props, and the random-box present which spawns a bunch of loot when you open it
- Snowglobe (from the snowglobe layout comp)
- Rotary plow train

And a new addition:
- the light-up neon decorations on the Christmas train & wagons are now usable as props



The Christmas-themed main menu is also back:




A common issue with making snowy maps is that the white cursor and placement UI blend into the white environment!
This update adds customization options for both, so you can change the color of the pointer in the center of the screen (and you can also change its size).
And you can change the color of the "placement ghost" which is the transparent ghost version of a prop/train that shows up when you are placing it on the ground.

You can find these settings in the "pause menu -> PC options":



Here is an example of using a custom dark cursor/placement UI on snow:



There is also a setting there for enabling/disabling the whole UI.
You could always do this by pressing "i" (re-bindable in the controls menu) but it made sense to have it as an actual setting.

Turning this off will hide all UI, which means the cursor, belt equip slots, help text, etc.


A commonly requested feature is to allow for custom turnout lever sizes on the switchboards, since dense track can be very hard to control. You can now find an option for this in the switchboards popup menu (in the "board size options" menu).




In addition to moving all of the Christmas stuff into one drawer, there has been a bit of other re-organizing in the drawers.
All of the other holiday events (Halloween and Easter) have been combined into their own drawers each.



The special Weka Pass buildings (like the long sheds and openable doors) have also been moved into the normal buildings drawers, instead of having their own one in the "misc" category:

• Fixed issue where track groups that contained non-connected track would be treated as "symmetrical" groups, even though they actually weren't. Fun fact: An AI helped write the programming that fixed this issue! The future is now.
  
• Fixed issue where using the transform edit mode to move a group of track would sometimes result in track connections inside the group not being set correctly.
  
• Fixed issue where trains would have their interaction blocked when in low-detail LOD range.
  
• Added some new entries in the credits for Trackmeister (designing the double-slip turnouts) and Shini (making the Wellington bus).
  
• Fixed issue where the sky brightness was not instantly set when loading a map (it would fade from dark if the previous map was at night)
  
• The backup log text file now auto-clears itself if it gets too large.
  
• The game now automatically deletes any empty folders left inside the saves directory (since a previous bug was resulting in save files leaving empty folders behind).
  
• Fixed issue with the Rotary plow impact audio playing even at large distances.
  
• Added a few of the newer easter eggs into the possible loot spawns for the Christmas present prop.

And that's all for now!
The new snowy models for trains combined with dynamic snow, plows and weather really make for a satisfying modelling experience when making winter scenes, so I highly recommend giving it a go!
Hopefully next year I'll be able to finally make a snow-themed official map myself for Christmas... we shall see!

The latest official Rolling Line map is here!
And this one is special, since I'm currently living in Wellington!
I ride the bus past these exact buildings all the time, and it's been an absolute joy to create them in-game.

This map is called "Slice of Wellington" since it is more of a diorama than a full-on map. It takes a chunk of Wellington city (the capital of New Zealand) and recreates it to-scale.
The goal of this map is to show off the new dynamic roads system in action, and to finally make a map that features some proper modern city scenery!

Wellington is the political capital of New Zealand and features our famous "Beehive" parliament building:



The map also features the top of Lambton Quay (our main business area) and the major bus route through town:



You can explore the real location for yourself in 3D on Google Maps:
https://earth.google.com/web/@-41.27896091,174.77688965,7.92081625a,360.10171601d,35y,-71.18229337h,44.46446036t,0r



You can find the new map in the "new game" map list:




This map also features a new type of bus!
Thank you so much to Shini (a long time community member and fellow New Zealander) who made the model for this bus! It really adds to the authenticity of the scene.



You can find the drivable vehicle version of this bus in the "vehicles -> cars [drivable]" drawer, and you can find the prop version in the "vehicles -> cars [props]" drawer.


Also included in this update is audio for cars! Vehicles now make engine noise and have horns.
There is also a new ambient audio preset for "Birdsong Tui" which is used in this map.
Tui's are a native bird in New Zealand with a very distinct birdsong, and Wellington happens to be full of them!

Another audio related change is that the "random train horns" setting is now off by default. This setting enables/disables the random horns that go off while trains are driving around.
You can find it in the "pause menu -> misc" menu.


During the process of making this map a few minor new props were added, these are:
- stature base
- bus stop and live timetable sign
- unique playground slide based on the one at Wellington parliament grounds
- "center" snap piece for the roof top props




This was actually added in a patch after the previous update, but it was not mentioned in the previous news post so I'll mention it here.
There is now a drawer with some pre-made skyscrapers, you can find it in the "buildings -> city pre-made" drawer:




You can now define areas on your maps where trains & vehicles are invisible.
This is perfect for making cars disappear when they leave the table when you combine this feature with invisible track.

This method was used in the Wellington map to make cars appear and disappear when travelling off the table:





You can set up "hidden regions" using the new pop-up window on the wall "view advanced options -> view hidden regions"



From here you can place region boxes (this is the same system as both "tunnel regions" and "rain regions" added in previous updates).
Any cars/trains inside these "region boxes" will be invisible when passing through them.

From this menu you can also toggle whether this hidden effect is enabled or not, which is useful for figuring out the location of cars when they are invisible:




Here's an album of various HD screenshots of the map, feel free to use these as you wish!
https://imgur.com/gallery/EYaMN2M

Here are some examples:





And that's everything for this update!

Making this map has been an absolute joy, since every update this year has been focused on features and programming, so I haven't had any chances to work on maps.
Making maps is of course my favourite part of Rolling Line, and it always poses a great opportunity to add new props and scenery styles (like cities and roads in this example!).

And since I live in Wellington at the moment this map was extra fun to make.
In fact this might be the first time a video game has officially included Wellington city... If anyone has ever heard of any others please let me know! I would love to see it.

I hope you all enjoy this new slice of city scenery!

I'm currently working on the new upcoming official map "Slice of Wellington".
This map features a chunk of Wellington city (the capital of New Zealand, and where I live!) and working roads. The goal of this map is to finally do some modern city scenery for an official map, and to show off the new roads system in action.



This map will be coming out in the next few weeks (before Christmas) but in the meantime I've made a whole bunch of city building props that can be released in their own update!

This update includes:
- modular skyscraper props
- a few "pre made" skyscrapers
- shop front buildings
- rooftop props
- new multi-paint copy feature
- a bunch of other fixes


You can find two new drawers in the "buildings" category that add a range of different modular pieces you can use to make buildings of different sizes:





These props are "modular" which means you can snap them together to create different shapes and sizes:



And here are some of the different building types you can make with these:









You can also use the new set of shop-front props to make city streets:



And there's also a bunch of rooftop details (like ventilation shafts and fans):




You can now copy all of the multi-paint colour slots in one go!
Simply hold "Right-Shift + Return" when pointing at a multi-paintable prop. Pressing just "Return" (without holding shift) will copy just the first colour as usual.

This will create a multi-painter in your hand which you can use to paint other objects with multiple paint slots:



Of course you can also re-bind this control in the "pause menu -> controls -> props" menu:



This update also includes a few smaller things:

• Fixed bug where the "left/right/both/etc" sides option for a track style used on a turnout was broken for some new road styles.
  
• Added snapping to the road line marking props
  
• Fixed mesh positioning of the station-wagon vehicle and the passenger plane
  
• The sidewalk road styles are now the full width of a road lane, plus there is a new "fill" style which can be used to extend sidewalks further.
  
• The skybox is a bit more blue during clear weather
  
• Shadows are slightly darker
  
• Fixed bugs where the moonlight would be pitch black during storms at night and when both Halloween sky and "no clouds" presets were enabled at the same time
  
• Made the moonlight overall brighter
  
• Fixed the collision on the "road fill" props (the ones that you can use to fill up open gaps in between road sections)
  
• Fixed a bug where setting a prop mod to paintable while also leaving the color as the default one would cause issues

And that's all for this update,
It's certainly about time Rolling Line got some proper official city building props!
I hope you all enjoy these new props, and I'm sure we'll get some more city-themed maps on the Worksop now.

Plus the new "Slice of Wellington" map is just around the corner!
And i'm really excited to release it, as Rolling Line's first official built-in map with a modern city theme.
So keep an eye out for that update in the coming weeks!

It's finally here!
4 years and 150 total updates later, Rolling Line is getting a full dynamic road system! With tons of customization and even drivable vehicles.

The last few updates have contributed to making this possible, by adding things like track style customization, side-snapping, track grouping, and multi-lane track generation.

That's because roads are essentially just different kinds of track!
The new roads system is basically just track with a new visual look, and "cars" are actually "trains", but instead of running on "track" they run on "roads".
This means that roads and cars have all the same functionality as track and trains.
You can make cars follow AI triggers, and you can create your own modded versions of both.

Before I go into too much detail, here is a full guide which explains everything you need to know about the new roads system:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2874171297


There are a few different ways to make roads, but the easiest is to use the automatic road generator.
You can find this in the new "roads" category:



You can use this generator to make simple roads like curves, or more complex groups like intersections and lane-change segments:







You can customize the visual style, number of lanes, and shape of roads inside this road generator.


There is also a more complex "lane generator" which you can use to make individual pieces of roads to create your own advanced intersection designs!
(this process is explained in detail inside the guide mentioned earlier).






Just like with track, you can customize your roads in a whole bunch of ways!
Like road markings, cycle lanes, roadside barriers, parking spots, and more.

There are a ton of different "style painters" in the various drawers in the "roads" category:





And of course you can also manually edit styles using the popup window.
Press Q when hovering over a single lane of road to open the "style options" window.
From here you can fully customize everything like markings, bike lanes, edges, etc.



There's even a drawer with some "group painters" which you can use to easily copy a whole style onto a whole road group:






This update also includes a ton of roadside props, like road signs and functional traffic lights.

You can find a whole bunch of road signs (some new ones plus the old ones which have been converted to be multi-paintable) in the "roads -> road signs" drawer.



More types of signs will be added in future updates too!

In the meantime, there are also lots of mods on the Steam Workshop which add more kinds of road signs:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2874292686&searchtext=

There is also a drawer full of road markings ("give way" "bus lane" etc) which you can freely place anywhere on roads:



There are also pieces you can use to create pedestrian islands:




You can find traffic lights in the "roads -> traffic lights" drawer:



Each piece of the traffic light head can be snapped together to create different kinds of lights:



They can be painted to look like other styles of traffic light too:



Each traffic light head has a switch on the top which you can click to change the colour of the lights:




Along with the new road system comes drivable vehicles!

These work exactly like trains, which means that you place them down on a section of road and set their speed with a hand-held controller (or in the driver's seat).
They will follow the "track" just like a train, so the way cars behave is entirely based on the design of the road they run on.

You can find drivable versions of all the cars in the "vehicles -> cars [drivable]" drawer:





These vehicles can all be painted too:



The trucks, tractor, bus and station wagon all have proper interiors now too!




You can create both road styles and vehicles using the pre-existing mod tools!
Since "roads" are just "tracks" and "cars" are just "trains" the mod system for both can easily be used to create roads & cars, all you have to do is make a few minor adjustments.
Here is a guide which explains how to create your own vehicles and road styles using mods:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2874140634

As mentioned in the guide, there are also now some new example mods which you can find in the "Rolling Line / Modding / Templates" folder, for both road styles and vehicles.



You can find these example mods on the workshop too:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2873885648&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2874138272&searchtext=


There is also now a new cab preset included for train mods which is great for vehicles:




Vehicle and road style mods also have their own separate tags on the workshop.
They are added automatically when you upload the mod.




Please note that the official maps (e.g. Top of the South, Santa Fe, etc) which featured roads before this update do NOT support driving vehicles.
These roads were made using simple 3D models and are not made with this new system.

Future maps will feature fully functional dynamic roads though!
In fact, I am already planning a new official map which shows off this exact feature...



But more news on that will be coming in the future!
In the meantime, you can try out a preview of this map right now on the Workshop:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2874534650


This update also includes:

• When track groups are held in-hand they are rotated to be less in your way.
  
• Fixed major issue where copying a track group would break the track connections of the piece that is being cloned.
  
• The preview track which spawns for track style mods in the modding manager now shows up as a road when you are creating a road style mod.
  
• Train mods will add the "vehicle" tag automatically (instead of "locomotive") if you are making a vehicle instead of a train.
  
• Fixed visual alignment issue with the underside of all table props.
  
• Copying dynamic track data into the road generator no longer copies the "separation" value, since this breaks the alignment of multi-lane roads.

Remember, please have a look at the full guide which explains everything you need to know about the new roads system, as I couldn't describe it all in this news post:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2874171297

It looks like people are already making some amazing stuff with the new roads, so keep an eye out on the Steam workshop for new maps which make the most of these new tools!

Roads have been a long time in the making, and something I've wanted to add to the game since day one. Seeing this feature finally complete is a big milestone for me personally, and I'm so happy with how it's turned out!

Progress on roads is coming along great, but it's taking longer than I hoped.
So I've decided to make BETA access available for all the road tools that are already ready to use!

This means that people can use the new roads in their maps, upload them to the workshop, and they will work fine for anyone downloading and playing them.
If you want to use roads yourself you'll need to enable access to the BETA.


You can gain access to the new roads tools by adding a "launch tag" in Steam.
To do this, right-click on Rolling Line in your Steam library and choose "properties".
Then click on "General" and find "launch options".
In the text box type "-roadworks"
Just like this:



You can then quit out of the menu and run the game as normal.
If you have done this correctly, you will see a new "roads" category when searching the drawers:

\


More information about roads will be coming in the official release (the next update) but for now you can access a new "roads generator" which works just like the track generator but for lanes in roads:



You can use these individual lane pieces to create larger more complex road layouts, like intersections and multi-lane highways.



There are multiple drawers full of road styles and road markings you can use:



With the styles given, you can already make a range of different kinds of roads:



More info will be coming on how all the new road features work in the next update!

But firstly, here is a bunch of features this update adds which you can make use of right away:


You can now use the track generator to automatically create groups of multiple track!
This makes creating multi-track mainlines far easier, and skips the steps of needing to create your own groups. You can use the "separation" value to change the distance between tracks.





The track generator now also remembers the styles you have applied to all track in the group, so when you switch pages/change values the styles will be kept:




The side-snapping feature has been improved to allow for much more options, like snapping to the sides of all kinds of turnouts!




There is now a feature where you can "invert" the style of a track/road by painting it again with the same painter. E.g. this will flip any left/right only styles to the other side:



You can also do this inside the track style edit UI using the new "flip left/right values" button:



Plus you can do this for an entire group using the new option on the edit tool to "invert style" which flips all of the styles & order:






You can now copy the styles of a whole track/road group!
There is a new control binding for "clone whole group" (which is right-shift by default).
So if you hold right-shift + Return it will copy the style for the whole group, not just the single track piece. You can then use this "group style painter" to paint other groups in the same way:



Painting twice will invert the group, just like the left/right swapping mentioned above.

You can also use a group style with more/less lanes, it will just ignore any extra ones:




Gap-fill track (flexytrack) now snaps to more available end points, and has had some minor improvements to make snapping better.
It will no longer snap to parallel track ends which are part of the same group.
There is also now a dedicated flexytrack just for roads:




The two drawers by the menu now save their state in the save file.
And the default drawers for a new save have changed to the "tools" and "tables" drawers:




Switchboards can now be set to only show "track" or "roads" layers (or both).
This means you can have dedicated switchboards for your road systems that dont overlap with track:




Track style mods (and train mods!) can be set to use the roads layer instead of track. Basically meaning you can start making modded track styles for roads, and make train mods which will run on the new roads system.
Meaning you can use the train modding system to effectively create operational cars!



Please keep in mind that actual official cars will be coming in a future update, but they will work in exactly the same way as a modded train (a train running on "rails" which are actually just "roads").

• The placeable drawers prop has been fixed in a few ways, like hiding the objects inside it when it is dropped, disabling the buttons when dropped, and fixed scaling issues.
  
• Fixed bug where props cloned out of custom drawers would not have the correct scale.
  
• Fixed bug where grouped track would not re-set its gradient when cloned or picked up, which would result in strange curves when cloning track already on a gradient.
  
• If you are using joypad controls the on-screen keyboard shows up (instead of requiring the actual keyboard) when editing text in-game.

Lots of stuff to unpack in this update!
Roads have ended up being a much larger and complex job than I planned, so lots of other features have needed to be made in the process.

Features like multi-track-generation and the group style painting options work for both track and roads, so it's good to release them now rather than waiting for roads to be 100% done to release it all in one go.

Plus giving people access to the roads BETA early is fun!
I hope you enjoy the new features and tools, and keep an eye out for the full roads update which is not far off!

Rolling Line is one large step closer to the glorious roads update!

"Roads" in Rolling Line are literally "tracks" just with a different model, which means that they share a lot of the same features.
Larger roads (like highways) are effectively groups of tracks, where each "lane" of the road is a piece of track, lined up next to each other to form a road.




This means that making the new road system required full support for grouping tracks together, which ended up being a painfully complicated process.
So instead of keeping this new feature restricted to roads, why not let everyone use it right away to create their own track groups!

Roads are still fully a work-in-progress, but the track grouping feature is ready to use right now!

You can now find a new drawer called "groups" in the track category, which contains a bunch of pre-made examples (double-slips!!) as well as the new group tool:



This update also adds a new amazing "side-snapping" feature which will be explained in detail further on in this post!




With the new group tool you can easily select a bunch of track pieces and then combine them into a group.
Simply highlight the "select items" option on the tool (with the scroll wheel) and then click on track to select it. You can also click on track again to deselect it.





Once you have your whole group selected, change the highlighted option to "apply group" and then click.
This will combine all of the selected tracks together into a group.
Once they are a group, you can pick them up as one single object, and place them down as well.
You can even save them in custom drawers as groups!

You can also use the "break group" option on the group tool to split apart a group into individual tracks:




You can create groups out of any track you like, but if you make a group that contains a bunch of track curves all lined up (with no extra track) then it gets some special features!
If you make a symmetrical group like this, then it will behave just like a normal curved piece of track, which means you can use it to create smooth gradients, and can even toggle the direction of it using Q and E while placing.



This feature makes creating multi-track main lines way easier!
For example, say you want a double-track main line to climb a slope:
- create a group out of the two curved pieces of track next to each other.
- duplicate that group multiple times to create the main line.



If your track group contains any track types other than curves (e.g. turnouts or flexytrack) then it will not support the "Symmetrical group" features mentioned above.
The track must all be separated too, meaning you cannot have multiple segments of track connected together:




If your group features different kinds of track types (e.g. turnouts and flexytrack) then it will be treated as a "non-symmetrical group". This kind of group does not support the gradient and direction switching features that the "symmetrical group" mentioned above does.

Instead of toggling the direction, pressing Q and E will instead cycle between each available dead-end point in the group for snapping:




A perfect example of something you can make with track groups is an operational double-slip!
This update includes a few pre-set track groups which you can find in the new "track -> groups" drawer:
(Special thank-you to Ze Trackmeister for his track designs used in this update!)



The upper-left group is a "single slip"
The upper-right is a "3-way turnout"
And the two double slips below are sized to fit two different widths of track.
These are for separation 0.7, and 1.0
(separation will be explained in the next section)




The "separation" value for a piece of track shows how far apart multiple tracks should be distanced in parallel. You can set it inside the track generator:



It's a little hard to explain, but basically the "separation" value is the difference you would need to increase/decrease the "radius" to get the next parallel track in a curve.
Here is a visual example:



You can use any separation value you like, but all the official track (in the drawers) is either 1.0 or 0.7




Side-snapping is an optional feature which you can switch on in the "pause menu -> custom track -> snapping -> track snap to sides".
You can also toggle it by pressing F7.

When side-snapping is on, track will automatically snap parallel to other track!
It will also bend to copy the curve angle.
The distance at which it snaps to is set by the "separation" value mentioned above.



Track can only side-snap on to curved and straight pieces of track, so it can't snap on to flexytrack or turnouts.
It also does not work with gradients, but if you want to make a multi-track main-line with gradients then please use the track grouping method talked about at the start of this update post.




Overall this update has been digging deep into the core structure of how track is handled by the game, so lots of background code has changed.
But there are a couple of other minor features which this update includes:

• The "Rusty DSJ shunter" easter egg unlock is now available by default in the "misc -> unlocks" drawer without needing to unlock anything.
  
• The "AI lock enabled" message now only shows up when you manually change the value for a piece of track, previously it would also show up when loading a save which contained AI-locked track. this has been fixed.

This update ended up being WAY more difficult than I had planned, but now that this is done the rest of the roads system is smooth sailing from here!

So keep an eye out for future news, because the roads update is on its way!