Unrailed 2: Back on Track News

[p]Heya Engineers![/p][p][/p][p]Now that Unrailed 2 has been out for a good year and with quite a few updates under its belt it is once again the time for the Steam Awards! If you think we did a good job it would mean a lot to us if you would give us a vote in the "Labor of Love" with a click in the checkbox above 🥰[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Dear Railroad Engineer[/p][p]This update brings you a huge technical overhaul of Unrailed 2! As some players were accustomed to the low hardware requirements of Unrailed 1, we want you to enjoy the game on similar hardware. Since Unrailed 2 is a game for everyone, it should also be playable everywhere. If you had trouble with the game before, now is the time to launch it again![/p][p]On minimum settings at 1080p, we bumped our Intel HD 520 from 35 FPS up to 85 FPS - more than twice as much![/p][p]Even our 2013 MacBook Air with a 1.3 GHz Intel i5 and its integrated Intel HD 5000 now runs the game at a smooth 60 FPS on low (not even very low) settings under Vulkan at 1440×900.
[/p][p]For the tech-savvy, here are the big changes: [/p]

• [p]The game now runs on multiple cores to distribute CPU load much better. We do this by simulating the game completely in a separate thread and merging changes before drawing each frame. With that, we can even continue simulating while the engine is still submitting data to the GPU.[/p]
• [p]We improved GPU workload significantly by using stencil buffers for outlines and by reworking the water shader. [/p]
• [p]We upgraded Godot 4.3.1 to the very recent Godot 4.5.1. This includes many fixes, as well as our own first PR to the engine: https://github.com/godotengine/godot/pull/106809
  [/p]

[p]Some additional tips: [/p]

• [p]On very old hardware, some drivers might not work correctly. If the game doesn’t start or if you get visual errors, we recommend starting with the “Safe Mode” launch option in Steam. From there, you can freely change settings, which will be applied when starting normally again. Most importantly, try out all graphics drivers until you find one that works well for you. [/p]
• [p]Don’t forget to try both with and without the VSync setting. Sometimes enabling it gives you that final touch of smoothness; sometimes it adds a small delay that makes the game unenjoyable.[/p]

[p][/p][p]As always, please reach out to us if you have any issues, questions, or ideas! Either here or on Discord: discord.gg/unrailed [/p][p]Last but not least: The Steam Awards voting starts today as well! You have all our love if you leave us a vote Changelog v-693-97e9aba:[/p][p]Tech/Performance[/p][p]- Improvement: Performance improvements by multithreading the whole game simulation[/p][p]- Improvement: Much more efficient outline rendering[/p][p]- Improvement: Update to Godot 4.5.1[/p][p]- Improvement: More efficient water rendering[/p][p]- Improvement: More efficient night rendering[/p][p]- Improvement: Mining rocks on island interchange should be faster on low end platforms[/p][p]Gameplay[/p][p]- New: 8 player time mode[/p][p]- New: It’s possible to set the max number of players in the game mode settings. This is almost only interesting for competitions to make sure new peers that connect are set aus spectator[/p][p]- Improvement: It’s now possible to pick up npcs with the claw[/p][p]- Bug fix: Auto stack cartridge could stack water towers on the thrower wagon[/p][p]- Bug fix: Both teams having teleporters in versus didn’t work[/p][p]- Bug fix: Cartridge vaults in sandbox were sometimes empty[/p][p]- Bug fix: Player & camera could go out of screen in time mode[/p][p]- Bug fix: Respawn in time mode didn’t find a new position for the player[/p][p]- Balance: Compactor wagons can’t get auto-drop in versus stations anymore (instead they’d get a push to box extension sampled)[/p][p]Visual[/p][p]- Improvement: Water and background anti aliasing improvements[/p][p]- Improvement: Lower splash image screen resolution for 1080p or lower resolution users[/p][p]- Improvement: Camera transition between map segments is a bit tighter (it starts later and ends earlier)[/p][p]- Improvement: Engine type now displayed in lobby browser[/p][p]- Bug fix: The game camera was zooming too much (out or in) when the UI scale was != 1. Now it behaves independent of the UI scale[/p][p]- Bug fix: Beanie and Turtle aliasing[/p][p]- Bug fix: Opengl/Angle sometimes had a black background in some modal dialogs[/p][p]- Bug fix: Night rendering fixed on OpenGL[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]\[Update][/p][p]We rollbacked to the last stable release as the update broke the steamdeck by either launching only a black screen or not recognizing any inputs. We're working on a fix as quickly as we can![/p][p]The update can be played on the "Performance-Update" branch in the meantime already. [/p][p] [/p][p]\[Update 2][/p][p]The update is online again with the following hotfix [/p][p]Changelog v-694-5595e8c[/p][p]- Regression fix: Steam rich presence and steam join game via friend list was missing[/p][p]- Regression fix: No input recognized when starting on the Steamdeck[/p][p]- Regression fix: Steamdeck might start with a black screen[/p][p]- Regression fix: Savegames had no screenshots anymore[/p][p][/p][p]\[Update 3][/p][p]Changelog v-694-0a47dc[/p][p]- Regression fix: Controllers were sometimes not recognized anymore [/p][p][/p][p]\[Update 4][/p][p]Changelog v-694-54e640c [/p][p]- Regression fix: Random crashes on startup or when loading savegames, or replays[/p][p][/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p][/p][p]We just pushed another experimental version update. If you want to be the first to see the new features that will come to Unrailed you are in the right place![/p][p][/p][p]You can access the experimental version via right click on Unrailed -> settings-> Betas.[/p][p]Note that changes are not yet complete and things might change depending on your feedback.[/p][p]You can give us feedback right here or on Discord ( https://discord.gg/unrailed ).[/p][p][/p][p]Changelog v-691-beaae2b:[/p]

• [p]Improvement: Replay screen is now also parallelized and should have an increased performance[/p]
• [p]Improvement: Camera transition between map segments is a bit tighter (it starts later and ends earlier)[/p]
• [p]Improvement: Night rendering has increased performance on low-end rendering setting or when the simplified background is enabled[/p]
• [p]Bug fix: Auto stack cartridge could stack water towers on the thrower wagon[/p]
• [p]Bug fix: Cartridge vaults in sandbox sometimes empty[/p]
• [p]Bug fix: Player & camera could go out of screen in time mode[/p]
• [p]Bug fix: Respawn in time mode didn’t find a new position for the player[/p]
• [p]Bug fix: Night rendering fixed on OpenGL[/p]

[p][/p][p]
[/p][p]See you on track![/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p][/p][p]We just pushed another experimental version update. If you want to be the first to see the new features that will come to Unrailed you are in the right place![/p][p][/p][p]This is the second part of the performance update. This time is more related to GPU performance, whereas the first patch was more related to using the CPU more efficiently. We tried to fix all regressions, so let us know if something is still not working.[/p][p]The performance should have improved significantly compared to the main branch. On minimum settings at 1080p, we bumped our Intel HD 520 from 35 FPS up to 85 FPS.[/p][p][/p][p]You can access the experimental version via right click on Unrailed -> settings-> Betas.[/p][p]Note that changes are not yet complete and things might change depending on your feedback.[/p][p]You can give us feedback right here or on Discord ( https://discord.gg/unrailed ).[/p][p][/p][p]Changelog v-687-90a3aa1:[/p][p]- New: It’s possible to set the max number of players in the game mode settings. This is almost only interesting for competitions to make sure new peers that connect are set as spectator[/p][p]- Improvement: More efficient water rendering[/p][p]- Improvement: Much more efficient outline rendering[/p][p]- Improvement: It’s now possible to pick up npcs with the claw[/p][p]- Improvement: Lower splash image screen resolution for 1080p or lower resolution users[/p][p]- Improvement: Engine type now displayed in lobby browser[/p][p]- Regression fix: Editor was not usable anymore[/p][p]- Regression fix: Possible fix for slower input recognition than on master[/p][p]- Regression fix: Extension bubbles not opening[/p][p]- Regression fix: Achievements not updated in Steam[/p][p]- Regression fix: Old replays diverged[/p][p]- Bug fix: Remove flickering on map fly-in animation that happened sometimes to the train or some objects[/p][p][/p][p]
[/p][p]See you on track![/p]

[p]Hey Engineers!

Today marks Unrailed 2’s 1st anniversary since launching into Early Access on Steam 🎉 [/p][p]Since launching last year, we’ve added 5 major updates and, thanks to your feedback, have been hard at work improving and fixing bugs to make your experience the best it can be. We’re still working on more things behind the tracks, but in the meantime, we’d like to say a massive THANK YOU for being part of this wonderful journey with us![/p][p][/p][p]And on another note, there's also a new wagon and cartridge coming to Unrailed 2 right now:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The Bridge Wagon allows you to craft a special kind of torpedo: one that lays out a path of bridges when it flies over water. Super useful if you need a lot of bridges and need them fast! Note that it only spawns on Island Interchange and Boiler Badlands.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The Auto Stacker Cartridge is for those engineers among you that like a tidy work environment: It will automatically create stacks of commodities from the ones scattered around you.[/p][p][/p][p]And as always, if you do have more feedback or new ideas to help improve Unrailed 2 even more we're happy hear it either here or on our Discord server.

See you on the tracks! 🚂[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Changelog v-676-5a1b3ef: [/p]

• [p]New: Bridge wagon (appears only in Island Interchange and Boiler Badlands)[/p]
• [p]New: Auto Stacker Cartridge that stacks automatically items on the ground around the player[/p]
• [p]New: Anniversary fireworks and soundtrack in the main menu (only on the 7th of Nov)[/p]
• [p]Bug fix: Camera is showing clouds when it was in the zoom modus and the user went spectating[/p]
• [p]Bug fix: Bot didnt recognize max capacity with certain wagons and got stuck because of that [/p]

[p][/p][p]\[UPDATE][/p][p]We just pushed a small hotfix as music got disabled with the update.[/p][p][/p][p]Changelog v-677-1ffaed9:[/p][p]- Bug fix (regression): No music was playing anymore[/p][p]- Bug fix: Compactor wagon with pull from box extension didn't work correctly when there were already commodities on the compactor and the box wagon had less than 5 commodities of the required type [/p]