GearCity News

Greetings everyone!

Testing Build will be updated to version 1.24.1 on Saturday March 30th. This update requires save game changes. If have no idea what Testing Build is, you are not affected. If you are subscribed to Default Build you are not affected. Currently Testing Build does not identify as Testing Build inside the game. So if you don't remember if you switched to Testing Build, you should check.

To check which version of the game you are subscribed to, or to switch builds, follow these instructions: http://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2594

And remember, you can switch between builds at any time using the instructions above if you wish to continue your old save games.

Hello Everyone!

Default and Testing build is now on v1.24 SP9.
This builds adds a number of improvements to the 64-bit engine as well as several bug fixes to game play.

Of major note, I have implemented a "Dynamic Reports Size" setting, which can be found in the Main Menu of the 64-bit engine. This will allow the web browser (reports windows) to automatically scale closer to your resolution instead of the predefined 1024x512 or 1024x1024 windows.

I have also added a "Scale GUI" setting which increases the size of the in game GUI. This should help out HiDPI (Retina Display) users. There may be a few issues with dynamic sizing and reports windows with scaled up GUI. I am currently working on that.

I will spend the next week doing any clean up fixes necessary to this build. I'll also finish up some of the external documentation while I wait for any major issues to be reported. I plan on starting v1.24.1 by Friday.

Changelog:

-Engine Scale GUI Setting. This setting allows you to increase the size of the GUI. This is particularly helpful for HiDPI monitors.
-64-Bit Engine: Dynamic Report Size setting. This causes the reports windows size to be closer your vertical resolution. However, this requires a little more performance for 2k+ resolutions.
-64-Bit Engine: Removed unsupported resolutions from the in game settings drop down.
-64-Bit Engine: Fixed incorrect resolution being displayed in the in game settings with fullscreen enabled.
-64-Bit MacOS Engine: Implemented Fullscreen mode.
-Engine: Hard frame limiter can now be adjusted via settings.xml file.
-64-Bit Windows Engine: Which Monitor the game will open on can now be set in the settings.xml file via an index number. This is only supported in Windows. (Can also set via the External Settings Editor as well, however it will not poll how many monitors you have. You'll have to enter the proper index number yourself.)
-GUI: Resize scaling to center implemented for side by side lists.
-Tutorials: Fixed some issues with the tutorial which allowed the player to return to RnD or did not popup a message when components designs were not finished.
-Tutorials: Disabled normal to nightmare modes for tutorial plays initiated from the Main Menu.
-Gameplay: Increased spec effects on racing and contract wins.
-Bugfix: Fixed the game not rewarding revenues for the last month of a contract in some cases.
-Engine Added weight and size modifiers to Car Type in the components.xml file. Both default to a normal value of 1. Currently size has no effect on anything in game. Variables have been added to the mod tools
-Gameplay Added weight values for all vehicle types in the game.
-Gameplay: Car Type's weight now effects the weight of the vehicle.
-Gameplay: Tweaks to vehicle's weight effect on fuel economy and maximum fuel economy achievable by an engine design in a vehicle.
-64-Bit Engine: Fixed javascript error popup when viewing reports.
-64-Bit Engine: Automatic reports page zooming based on GUI scaling.
-Gameplay: Ordering more outsourced units will replace the previous order.
-GUI: Contracted outsourced units are now sorted by name.
-Gameplay: Vehicle Image growth rates have been increased by about 20%.
-Bugfix: Fixed a couple issues with new trim design times.
-Bugfix: Fixed issues with competition charts.
-Bugfix: Fixed issues with Factory Expense table.
-Gameplay: Minor tweaks to credit rating score calculation
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with component amounts not being shown in stock window.
-Bugfix: Fixed contract renewals having incorrect amounts in memos.
-Gameplay: Adjustments have been made to the bulk production discount values.


Hotfix #1:
-64-Bit Engine Fully implemented reports zooming when the GUI is scaled up.
-Bugfix Fixes dragable buttons in the office reports windows.

Hotfix #2:
-Bugfix Fixed sound library causing crashing in RnD on the 64-Bit Linux build.

Hotfix #3:
-Bugfix Fixed designing vehicle body crashes in RnD on the 64-Bit Linux build.

Hello Potential Customers,

The price of GearCity will be increasing to $19.99 USD (~17.6% increase) in March. The current Lunar New Year sale and an upcoming week long deal will be your last chance to lock in GearCity at current prices for the foreseeable future.

Thank you for your time.

Released a hotfix to patch heap corruption crashing for competition charts on the Windows 64-Bit build. The fix has slightly messed up the x-axis for these charts, but it's better than crashing the game. The x-axis issue will be fixed in the next update.

Enjoy!

Hello everyone!

Over the last month and a half, I have made upgrades to our engine. The updates include 64-bit support, a more modern web browser (for reports), Cocoa API on OSX, and DirectX9Ex for Windows 7 and newer. In addition to this, there is around 8 years of bug and performance fixes to third party code.

Feedback from testing seems positive, and it seems fairly stable compared to the old build.

The SP7 release was supposed to be the last release for the v1.24 line. However, there were several major issues with the build. As such, I have decided to fix these issues and release the engine upgrades in one supplemental patch. There will probably be an additional supplemental patch in the coming weeks to finish up the missing features of the new engine.

If you are on a 64-bit OS. The new engine is used default. However, if you have problems with it, or wish to use the old engine, you can still use it by selecting "32-Bit Build" in your Steam Beta's tabs. For directions, see here: http://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2594


Windows XP64 and Vista 64-Bit users should use the 32-Bit Build, as the minimum requirements for the 64-Bit engine is unfortunately Windows 7 and newer.

We recommend Windows users to use the updated DirectX9 renderer unless you know what you're doing. We will have a warning popup message for the next couple of months for people who don't read the announcements.

With the depreciation of OpenGL in Mojave and beyond, I can't fully guarantee stability on newer versions of OSX. The 64-bit engine fixes many issues folks have had with the old engine, but there may still be issues with the game on Mojave with AMD gpus. (It all works fine on my Mac Mini...) Feedback from OSX users on the new engine is greatly appreciated. Please let me know if it works or doesn't for you!



It just works. If not, you can probably figure out how to fix it. And if you can't, feel free to post a thread, email me, whatever. :)




-Bugfix: Fixed top speeds of finished vehicles not matching top speed in ratings windows.
-Bugfix: Fixed possible negative weight modifiers if weight to hp ratio was rounded to 15 or 38 kg per hp.
-Bugfix: Fixed global demand randomization values not being tied to administration skills. Now missed demand for global shipping should be the same as shipping range demand estimations.
-Bugfix: Changed ambiguous wording in "contracts can't be bid on" memos.
-Bugfix: FIxed several issues with awards and race championships in the Showroom vehicle report.
-Bugfix: Fixed marketing funds not being cleared when spinning off or selling a marque and including branches.
-Gameplay: Now generating first turn contracts.
-Bugfix: Fixed issues with Auto-production restriction lists which was causing the lists not to refresh.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue causing discontinued parts which were being licensed to AI companies not to clear out their licensing revenues during the end turn phase. This fixed an issue with the licensing revenues report having more income than listed in other reports.
-Gameplay: Increased image growth rates dynamically if the target skill is much higher than the current skill.
-Gameplay: Linked marque's researching skills with parent companies'.
-Bugfix: Fixed possible negative loan situations.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with branch wear reports not having the correct wear amounts for every branch.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with Chassis RnD View name sort.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with holdings list not showing after taking your own company private.
-Bugfix: Fixed late game possibility to go bankrupt if playing on infinite cash mode.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with year interpolation system that caused nation and flag changes not to register if starting in a later game year.
-Engine: Merged GearCity Beardgine 1 and Beardgine 2 code bases together.
-Bugfix: Fixed contract crashes in respect to not having a component selected in the contracting lists whilst bidding or canceling a submission.
-Bugfix Fixed sliders loading crash in 64-bit build due to VS2013 code optimization system.
-Bugfix: Fixed crash related to hitting + or - while RnD is loading or doesn't have keyboard focus.
-Bugfix: Fixed crash in tutorials on Linux 32-bit build, 64-bit build, and possibly other systems.
-X64 Engine Implemented a popup warning for OpenGL players on 64-Bit windows build, letting them know that the DirectX9 system is probably better now.
-X64 Engine Implemented non-character keys for web browser Linux and Mac 64-bit builds.
-Bugfix: Fixed HR help button not having proper text.
-Bugfix: Fixed WW1 and WW2 achievements triggering a year too late.