Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game News

Progress has continued to be good since the last patch, with a significant part of our efforts going towards straightening out the campaign, which is being tested and fixed up internally at the moment.
For now we have a decently sized patch for you with all sorts of fixes and improvements.

A beautifully detailed WIP project by Sean Black.

Pieces of the various campaign fixes and additions are making it into the sandbox too, with the new market screen taking shape and now having correct calculations for car sales (yes, in sandbox).
We expect the campaign to be part of one of the next larger patches!

The WIP version of the new turbo tuning graph overview, making switching graphs unnecessary.

But now to the important things... here is the changelog!

[h3]LCV4.2.12 General Fixes & Additions[/h3]

• Added a turbo graph mode to engine aspiration panel showing all turbo graphs at once
  
• Tweaks and fixes to turbo presets, now taking into account twin-scroll / VGT selection
  
• Added individual wheel height offset controls to photo scene
  
• Fixed sandbox market screen not showing the cars' performance in different demographics
  
• Fixed not being able to change car pricing in sandbox market screen
  
• Fixed UI issue with photoscene level widget making photoscenes hard to select
  
• Fixed rear steering not being saved in photoscene presets
  
• Fixed engine manager's "Remove All Unused" function leaving ghost engines in list mode
  
• Fixed a crash happening when loading Desert Gas Station photoscene
  
• Fixed turbo presets not applying turbo quality settings
  
• Fixed cloning text fixtures not copying text
  
• Fixed 'fixture highlighting' toggle in fixture menu not persisting when selecting fixtures on a car

[h3]LCV4.2.12 Art Fixes[/h3]

• Recombined patch-fixtures by setting them to the same family again
  
• Fixed various interior fixtures having missing materials, particularly dashboards
  
• Fixed materials rendering incorrectly on low shader detail
  
• Fixed number plates not displaying properly in fixture list
  
• Fixed BodyEditor_10sSedanSmall_Wagon cutting both sides of the body with unmirrored fixtures
  
• Fixed 10sSupercar02 having very low tire width limits
  
• Fixed broken thumbnail on one wheel arch fixture

[h3]LCV4.2.12 BeamNG Exporter Changes[/h3]

• Fixed engine sound missing from BeamNG exports (previously fixed)
  
• Fixed most cases of vehicle instability caused by the new aero model
  
• Added wheel hub swaps for vanilla BeamNG wheels
  
• Added individual gear tuning to the BeamNG tuning menu
  
• Moved "calculateOptimalLoadShiftPoints" from the engine to the transmission
  
• Added wheel offset slider to the BeamNG tuning menu

We'll keeping you updated with where we are with the various features in the pipeline.
Cheers!

Things continue to progress nicely, as this big patch is showing. Also we've made big steps towards bringing back campaign mode, which should be in one of the next updates.. still plenty of fixes required before then.

In this update we have a big mixed bag of everything for you, gameplay additions, loads of fixes, and many improvements to the BeamNG Exporter.

The Athena R by slashdotretro3.

Here is the chunky LCV4.2.11 changelog!

[h3]Gameplay Changes[/h3]

• Added turbo presets (needs a finished engine before they can be applied)
  
• Taught the AI (in car generation) how to build turbo engines
  
• Added valve float dependence on boost for FI engines
  
• Tweaked cam & springs sliders' effects on valvetrain friction
  
• Extended effective range for springs slider, allowing for lower and higher values
  
• Implemented springs and cam profile sliders effect on loudness
  
• Implemented springs and cam profile slider effect on reliability
  
• Implemented springs effect on operational smoothness
  
• Limited availability of twin-scroll turbos to certain configurations
  
• Fixed sportiness calcs using old body drag values instead of the new dynamic ones

[h3]Art Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed MFI on V engines is missing meshes
  
• Fixed rod sticking out of turbo internals, and wobbly compressor wheel
  
• Fixed rear wheel solid disks missing rotors
  
• Fixed timing belts and chains
  
• Fixed default steel wheels looking wack in 80's photo scene
  
• Fixed some grill materials that warped badly
  
• Fixed RTX Ambient Occlusion not handling indented fixtures correctly with some settings
  
• Fixed twinscrolls not glowing as bright as the rest of the exhaust assembly
  
• Removed 60sSedan03 because it sucked and there are plenty of other period options
  
• Fixed turbo race headers missing on Inline 5 engines

[h3]UI & Tech[/h3]

• Fixed fixture favourites not rendering correctly in fixture UI
  
• Improved fixture paint UI performance
  
• Added fixture material name system. More fixtures will be named later.
  
• Fixed 3D transform widget showing only 0 for rotation / position in photo scene on props or cars
  
• Fixed fixture material previews being borked
  
• Photo manager now changes tabs when switching between cars / props with tab or mouse
  
• Fixed updating of engine thumbnail images
  
• Fixed 'fixture highlighting' toggle in fixture menu not persisting selecting fixtures on a car
  
• Fixed fixtures not selecting if they only contain a skeletal mesh
  
• Fixed mirrored fixtures not hiding when chosen to be hidden in photoscenes and the designers
  
• Engine manager now remembers sorting to fix ordering
  
• Fixed memory issues with Active Mod viewer causing crashes
  
• Fixed drag is not being shown correctly / calculated for car body stats
  
• Fixed fixtures always ticking, even if you're in the main menu
  
• Fixed turbo graphs not being removed from graph switcher when an NA engine is selected
  
• Fixed fixture paints becoming disconnected to the slot they're tied to

[h3]BeamNG Exporter Improvements[/h3]

• Introduced new fully-revamped aerodynamics model [WIP]
  
• Added various new tuning menu sliders:
  - Front and rear brake power multipliers
  - Ride height offset
  - Camber (double wishbone, multilink, pushrod suspension only)
  - Afterfire modifier
  - Particulates modifier
  - Front and rear suspension offsets
  - Front and rear wing angle
  - Max steering angle multiplier
  
• Cars with Launch Control now export with a Two-Step controller
  
• Added basic suspension spring compression sound
  
• Engine sound now comes from the exhaust
  
• Transmissions now get generated names
  
• Fixed wheel hubs breaking too easily
  
• Renamed wheel hub nodes to match the BeamNG convention
  
• Fixed chrome and potentially other materials exporting with max dirtiness/scratching

[h3]Modding[/h3]

• Added the ability to add custom paint materials to fixture material lists
  
• Added duplicate-UID check to rim preview generation

No change of plans, development is going in the right way to a more fleshed-out and playable 4.2 version that soon will see the campaign mode be re-added. Plenty more things to do... let us know of any issues you encounter.

Cheers!

A quick hotfix for some issues that popped up in 4.2.9, as well as a bigger update to the BeamNG Exporter.

[h3]General Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed various issues with undo / redo system
  
• Fixed fixture UI not clearing when displaying rim category
  
• Fixed issues with switching between fixtures with < and >
  
• Fixed a few fixture materials being identical
  
• Fixed fixture reflectors being turned on by default
  
• Fixed invisible headers on V6 transverse engines
  
• Fixed taillight fixtures having names
  
• Optimized car saving times

[h3]BeamNG Exporter Changes[/h3]

• Added ability to export all fixtures as unbreakable (will break wings until the new model is added)
  
• Added "Additional Modification" slot for better mod support
  
• Changed wheel / suspension hierarchy
  
• Changed fuel tanks to spawn full
  
• Fixed ESC options not exporting
  
• Fixed 4x4 toggle not working
  
• Fixed some metal materials missing their export parameters

Let us know of any issues you encounter.
Cheers!

We've continued to hunt down various bigger issues that were plaguing the opt-in alpha and have been able to fix over 30% of remaining crashes with this patch. Due to larger rewrites that were necessary, 4.2.9 has seen a little bit of a delay, but that comes with other content being added in too!

Tuners now will have to do without magic twin-scroll powers... by Mikonp7 & Smons

[h3]General Fixes & Improvements[/h3]

• Implemented a completely new undo / redo stack system which has much better performance
  
• Implemented an Active Mods overview in the main menu of the game
  
• Added front and rear wheelbase offsets to move axles via advanced trim settings
  
• Improved fixture UI speed & switching fixture speed on high-fixture count cars
  
• Improved performance of fixture saving to lua, especially on high-fixture cars
  
• Improved loading logic for bodies / fixtures to not get stuck when Steam doesn't report back
  
• Changed AWD power split default settings to be more usable out of the box
  
• Rebalanced engine family head vs. top end tab option costs ET, PU, M$
  
• Fixed top end tab quality being for free when VVT None was selected
  
• Fixed seat body filters allowing over-scroll with mouse wheel
  
• Fixed an occasional crash coming from turbos producing NaN data
  
• Fixed a hard crash related to market calcs when dragging family capacity sliders for a bit
  
• Fixed reverting a held car after changing the body resulting in a scrunched car body
  
• Fixed mirrored text fixtures not exporting to BeamNG

[h3]Turbo Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed turbo failure states not working correctly
  
• Fixed twin-scroll turbo performance typo giving it magic powers
  
• Fixed issue in calculations handling massively mismatched flow vs. turbo flow
  
• Fixed smart boost functionality producing weird, non-optimal results in early spool
  
• Added fuel system (pressure) and headers (temperature and pressure) curves to graphs
  
• Minor adjustments to turbo tooltip texts

[h3]Content & Art[/h3]

• New 1993 unlock car bodies
  
• New 1988 unlock car bodies
  
• Many, many new rims, former JohnDoe1974 mod
  
• Touch-up/remake of the Mako car bodies
  
• Deleted name labels from most recent headlight and indicator additions
  
• Added intercooler and intercooler pipe connector fixtures
  
• Fixed issues with Boxer configuration intakes
  
• Fixed non muffled V and Boxer engines not connect their exhaust pipes in single exhaust config
  
• Fixed some adapters not getting painted if they are not part of engine head
  
• Fixed fixture stamping issues on 65_XMB_Hatch

[h3]Modding[/h3]

• Fixed generating car thumbnails generates red rims
  
• Fixed not being able to create rim preview files

Another big changelog for this update, and yet so much more to work on. We're continuing to to fix things up and add the remaining features until the 4.2 version arrives at a beta stage. Campaign is back up and running in our internal builds, so quite a bit of progress is being made behind the scenes too!

Please keep posting your helpful reports of various issues you encounter. :)
Cheers!

We think we got to the bottom of the big remaining issue of fixture merging and fixture nuking! In this patch that should be sorted, along with a few other nice additions and fixes.

[h3]Improvements & Additions[/h3]

• Cleaned up, remade, improved, or otherwise fixed, all custom paints
  
• Implemented header and fuel system flow dependencies into the turbo calculations
  
• Implemented separated turbo and header temperature resistances
  
• Added header melting failure state
  
• Added calculation (turbos) for how fuel evaporation cools of the intake charge
  
• Tweaked VGT turbo range to be shifted a bit towards higher flows
  
• Improved graph data loading performance

[h3]General Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed cross-car fixture merging
  
• Fixed rapidly saving .car files causing fixture nuking
  
• Fixed fuel selections not updating engine results when changed
  
• Fixed AKI fuel view showing tuned fuel octane to be -5 by default
  
• Fixed catalytic converters being able to run with leaded fuel
  
• Fixed held engine not showing previous engine config in power & torque graphs
  
• Fixed fender morphs on all 08_us_ body style variants
  
• Fixed 70sCoupe02Convertible being hidden inside it's model and multiple issues with it

We've started working on bringing back the campaign for the advent of the open beta version, but there still are many other little and big things to get done as well.

We'll continue a steady flow of patches until that no longer is the case. :)
Cheers!