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GeneRally 2 News

July Update Preview

The team has been hard at work on our July update. As part of launching into Early Access,
we said we'd be making one major update per month and this post is to tell you a bit
about what you can expect from July.



Please keep in mind that everything in this post is subject to change - we may find
a bug or problem that prevents us from including certain features - but this is the broad
set of things we're hoping to include.

In-Game UI

The in-game UI has been completely overhauled to provide a solid base for in-game UI updates
going forward. There is now a live-updated leaderboard, as well as laptime and car condition
information for each player in the race. Oh, and you can change between "dark mode" (default)
and "light mode" in the options menu!



We'll be making further improvements and additions to the in-game UI as we go forward.

GR1 Track Importing

You read right - GR1 track importing is coming to GeneRally 2 with the July Update. Here you
can see a couple of examples of GR1 tracks being played directly (with no modifications) in
GeneRally 2.

Thanks to Crowella and TuomoH for providing these tracks!

Obviously, importing tracks is far from perfect - and there will be some tracks that don't
import as well as others - but this should give users the basis for updating and upgrading
tracks from GR1 to GR2!

The "Object Variant" System

One of the features we're excited to introduce is the "Object Variant" system. This is,
to put it simply, a quick way for you to change the appearance of an object. We'll be adding
variants to many of the current in-game objects - and we'll start by adding some in the July
update already!

Typically, an "object variant" is a version of an object that differs mostly only visually.
In the most basic case, this could be different colour versions of an object (for example the
soft wall) - or it could be something more comprehensive, like a different building style.

Just some of the upcoming object variants.

AI Pit-Lane Improvements

It's not news to current players that the AI drivers have some gaps in their skill-set.
At the moment they are most obviously challenged by the concept of the pit area, including both
entering the pitlane and navigating around pit area without crashing into the other cars.

The July update will include some improvements to the way AI drivers route to the pitlane and
to individual pitboxes, to help with these issues.

Localisation Support

Along with the update, we'll be implementing localisation support. At launch, this will
be limited to only one or two additional languages (as translating all the game's text
to other languages takes time) - but more will be added in smaller patches over the coming
weeks and months.

We hope that this will allow more people to enjoy GeneRally 2. If you want to help us in
translating GeneRally 2 into your native language, please get in touch with us!

Other Fixes and Changes

Of course, as with any update, we'll be fixing some bugs and implementing some small new
features as we go along - expect to find out more about them when the update goes live.

What about Tracks and Cars?

At the start of Early Access, we said that our intention was to bring new tracks and cars
with each major update. Due to the huge amount of feedback we've been receiving about the
AI and car physics, we've chosen to focus on getting the current cars and AI to a stable
state before adding more into the mix. The planned cars and tracks will arrive in a future
update instead.

When is the July Update?

We're planning to get the July Update into your hands in the first couple of weeks of July.
Stay tuned for a more specific release date!

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If you want to support us and the game's ongoing development, and purchase GeneRally 2 in Early Access, you can find our Steam Store page here.

If you've already purchased and would like to help us out, please consider leaving a review for GeneRally 2 on Steam!

Update v0.2.38f4d3a

This update is aimed at fixing a few of the issues present with the previous update - as well as adding a few minor improvements to AI pitting logic.

Changes:
  • Made a small optimisation change to (hopefully) improve performance on older machines.
  • Made a change to how the AI slow down to handle pit-lane and pit-box entry.
  • FIXED: Invisible walls no longer show in races.
  • FIXED: AI will no longer try to find pit-crews themselves, if a pit AI line is present.
  • FIXED: Hedges no longer render incorrectly.

Update v0.2.daceca4

This update is primarily aimed at addressing performance issues, but also includes a variety of smaller feature updates. Please let us know if you encounter issues!

Please note: this update is not our monthly major update, that will be coming at the start of July. We'll have a blog post about what's coming in the update, soon!

Gameplay
  • Improved the visualisation of slopes and height changes - height differences should be easier to "read" now.
  • Optimised many aspects of the track loading procedure to improve load times.
  • Optimised mesh-generation in-game to improve performance.
  • Optimised how the people dodge cars, to improve performance.
  • Added more details to the Formula car's textures to bring it in line with the other cars.
  • Multiple physics tweaks to all cars to improve handling feeling.
  • Improved how cars behave when tyres lose contact with the road surface.
  • Adjusted gravity :)
  • Added a slipstreaming effect.
  • Pitcrews will now attempt to avoid vehicles!
  • Improved the AI logic relating to pitstops (in multiple ways - more improvements coming).
  • Slightly randomised the AI skill when adding a new AI driver.
  • Small updates to Beachville track to improve driveability.
  • 200% render scale no longer available, due to an underlying Unity engine issue.
  • FIXED: Ghost car no longer remains visible after a race restart.
  • FIXED: Reversing is no longer broken when coasting backwards.
  • FIXED: A crowd of people can no longer throw a car into the air.
  • FIXED: AI should no longer ignore the first AI node at the start of a race.


Audio
  • Silenced engine sounds when the game is paused.
  • Silenced engine sounds when loading/restarting a track.


User Interface
  • FIXED: Damage and tyre wear bars can no longer exceed the maximum value.
  • FIXED: Pressing "refresh" in the Workshop list, no longer resets your tag selection.


Track Editor
  • FIXED: Objects no longer float when importing a height map from file.
  • FIXED: The colour map on exported land maps no longer references "Oil".
  • FIXED: StreetCircuit type tracks can now be saved and uploaded correctly.

Update v0.2.16a819a

  • Performance optimizations for AI and physics.
  • Added landmap and heightmap import/export.
  • Added Ctrl+S shortcut for the track editor.


Note: Because the heightmap resolution in the editor is higher
than the PNG image format can support, some detail will be lost during export.
See this page in the manual

Update v0.2.29c6163

This update should address a bunch of common issues as well as add a variety of small improvements. There will be further changes and improvements to the AI, physics, UI and other areas in future updates. Please let us know if you encounter issues!

Gameplay
  • AI has been improved somewhat - they now follow the racing line more confidently and take less avoiding action.
  • AI skill level is now more representative and accurate.
  • AI should no longer get "lost" after resetting.
  • AI should no longer pit on the last lap of a race in most cases.
  • Updated the Formula and the General to be less "floaty" and more driveable.
  • Increased the top speed of the Lightning.
  • Added a penalty for holding down the throttle whilst the lights go out.
  • Made the tyre wear rate depend on grip (lower wear on low-friction surfaces like ice).
  • Adjusted the colliders for the open-wheel cars, to allow them to race better side-by-side (and not get tangled in objects).
  • Small update to the Collisium track.
  • FIXED: Reverse should no longer enable when braking and drifting.
  • FIXED: Large world-size tracks no longer clip into the background.


Audio
  • Slightly adjusted the engine audio for the Lightning and the Classic.
  • Slightly adjusted default audio levels.
  • FIXED: Sound sliders should now appropriately control engine and car noises again.
  • FIXED: Player cars should no longer change audio level (or lose audio completely) when crossing the finish line.


User Interface
  • Adjusted how the colours are displayed in the Customise menu and added tooltips.
  • Updated the AI slider to show values and allow entering specific values.
  • Inverted the damage bar to increase with damage, rather than decrease.
  • Added an option to specify a frame-rate limit, in the Options menu (does not apply to menus).
  • Framerate in menu is always limited to 60fps to reduce GPU burden.
  • Updated the track list to be categorised by difficulty.
  • FIXED: The cursor no longer disappears when returning to the main menu from the "Press Any Key" screen before a race.
  • FIXED: Some minor misplaced UI.


Track Editor
  • Improved the way the pit AI line connects to the main AI line.
  • Added random track names to the track save dialog.
  • Narrowed the default width of the AI line gates to make placement easier.
  • Made it essential to have an AI line before a track can be uploaded to Steam Workshop.
  • Adjusted the default track zoom to be closer to the track.