Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game News

[p]With today's patch we have another bunch of fixes that helps us bridge the gap to campaign being done. Lots of fixes and polish all-round, but compared to how much has been done on campaign in the meantime, this seems small in comparison! We are taking several big steps with the campaign that we didn't originally intend to put in the Al Rilma update, but deem it worth adding now to avoid the confusion that comes with half-finished systems interacting. More on our progress in the coming week![/p][p]But for now, here is the chunky changelog of Patch 8:[/p][p][/p][h3]General Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed a crash in the test track sim[/p]
• [p]Fixed engines with high idle speeds being untestable on the dyno[/p]
• [p]Fixed a lua error cloning an engine in a sandbox car[/p]
• [p]Fixed lua errors when regenerating an incomplete manually created car[/p]
• [p]Fixed loading of additional cars into photo mode not working[/p]
• [p]Fixed MPV demographic choice showing as Pony Budget in Steam rich presence[/p]
• [p]Fixed incorrect spawning of turbocharger components and downpipes in certain configurations[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• [p]Added Dalluha Salt Flats top-speed test track (Note: the track sim doesn't get the correct speed / acceleration values yet, making cars under-perform, we're investigating!)[/p]
• [p]Improved simulation of CVVL, significantly improving fuel economy[/p]
• [p]Implemented forced induction weight calculations[/p]
• [p]Fixed emission optimization slider bug where the range was 0 to 9 instead of 0 to 100[/p]

[p][/p][h3]UI Improvements & Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Added leaded fuel ban year to show in regulations UI[/p]
• [p]Added keybind for "Duplicate Fixture In Place"[/p]
• [p]Made fuel availability desirability penalty display consistent with other penalties[/p]
• [p]Made small improvements to the photoscene props UI[/p]
• [p]Changed settings button to be a pause menu button in challenges[/p]
• [p]Fixed creating an engine in a car not using the car's target demographic / region as default[/p]
• [p]Fixed twincharging having its avd. boost controls hooked up the wrong way around[/p]
• [p]Fixed car and engine name fields not being prefilled[/p]
• [p]Fixed not being able to see engine graphs fitting an existing engine in a new car[/p]
• [p]Fixed comparison stats between trims not updating until a recalculation happens[/p]
• [p]Fixed morphing not updating tire width UI[/p]
• [p]Fixed previous setup's comparison lines dissapearing for front/rear wing angle sliders[/p]
• [p]Fixed tooltip for power units selection in the settings menu[/p]
• [p]Fixed emissions graph mode in car design not showing region year unlock data[/p]
• [p]Fixed "Locked Fixture" not changing its icon correctly[/p]
• [p]Fixed detailed stats title header always saying "Drivability" for all stats[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Introducing the Kompact 1996 body family - six wheelbases, forty-two variants and lots of morphs![/p][p][/p][h3]Content[/h3]

• [p]Added new grm_Kompact 1996 unlock car bodies[/p]
• [p]Fixed driveshaft clipping through chassis tunnel in various situations[/p]
• [p]Fixed issues with DCOE centrifugal supercharger configuration intake manifold[/p]
• [p]Fixed turbos not being correctly rotated in various configurations[/p]
• [p]Fixed V and boxer engines spawning twin DCOE mount when using single DCOE[/p]
• [p]Fixed cast mid single turbo issues with non-turbo exhaust connecting pipe[/p]
• [p]Fixes to clipping issues on boxer engines with compound turbos[/p]
• [p]Fixed too large downpipe on 1 of 4 turbos of a quad turbo setup[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Multiplayer[/h3]

• [p]Fixed kicking a player from the lobby not working correctly[/p]
• [p]Added steam rich presence string for being in a multiplayer lobby/game[/p]
• [p]Added ability to join a multiplayer game via the friends list[/p]
• [p]Fixed issues with UI flow when finishing a multiplayer game[/p]

[p][/p][h3]BeamNG Exporter Fixes & Improvements[/h3]

• [p]Improved automatic clutch to avoid synchro damage[/p]
• [p]Exported cars now select a maximum of 20 breakable fixtures (largest are prioritized)[/p]
• [p]Fixed cars exporting 10 to 15 % overweight[/p]
• [p]Retuned engine inertia[/p]
• [p]Improved strength of live axle rear[/p]
• [p]Retuned export damping (slow vs fast, bump vs rebound)[/p]

[p][/p][p]As always, we welcome all discussion of fixes, features, and bugs... especially new ones you find![/p][p]Cheers! [/p]

[p]As many of our Mac players noticed, the long-discussed MacOS version of Automation did not make its return with Al-Rilma Update Patch 7. Why is that? Unfortunately, a number of reasons led us to make the difficult decision to end development of the native MacOS version of Automation. This was not a decision made lightly, nor was it a decision that was entirely ours to make either. In the following we want to share with you in some detail the factors and circumstances that led to this point, as well as an alternative path forward.[/p][p][/p][h2]Why are we choosing to stop development of the MacOS version?[/h2][p][/p][p]Well, there are five main reasons why:[/p]

1. [p]Ending Support - Apple recently announced that when MacOS 28 arrives in 2027, Rosetta support will be ending. For those that don't know, Rosetta is the technology that runs behind the scenes that translates the x86 code that PC applications need to run (and is used on virtually all PCs since time immemorial, practically) on Apple's ARM-based processors. This causes a serious issue for Automation - and indeed nearly all games developed on Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) specifically - in that UE4 relies on Rosetta to run quickly and efficiently on MacOS. Without Rosetta, Automation will become unplayable as a native MacOS application.[/p]
2. [p]Rendering Pipeline - In the current version of the MacOS build that we've worked on for patch 7, we have encountered several rendering pipeline issues for Automation that are nested deep in the game engine. These are causing screen flickers and frames rendered with inverted vertices ("spazzing out") for a brief moment whenever you edit your car. Further investigation has shown that we likely wouldn't be able to fix this ourselves and that the only supported cure currently would be switching the game over to Unreal Engine 5. Releasing the MacOS version with these issues would be unacceptable.[/p]
3. [p]UE5 Unviable - Transitioning Automation to Unreal Engine 5, at this point in its development, is not a viable option. We've done several game engine changes with Automation throughout it's 14+ years in development, from switching from our own, homemade game engine to UE4 in the first place, as well as several UE4 version updates following. We can tell you that this is a time consuming and often frustrating process. There are a lot of wildcards involved that can absolutely foul up any timelines you may have for the transition, and as anyone who has been in the community for long enough will tell you: things break in the transition, mods stop functioning, and players are likely to lose most, if not all, of their existing saves in the process of an engine switch. We've already promised to the Automation community that the switch to UE4.27 that we made in 2022 would be the last engine switch, and we have found no compelling reason to break that promise.[/p]
4. [p]Mod Logistics - Even in case we were able to somehow solve the rendering bugs in UE4, there would be one issue we could not solve effectively for the MacOS version - that being, UE4's need to have Workshop mods "cooked" for each operating system. We would need to build out our Software Development Kit (SDK - the tool our modding community uses to take their raw 3D models, convert them to a usable format for UE4, and then upload them to the Steam Workshop automatically) to allow modders to create mods for MacOS Automation in addition to PC Automation. That doesn't magically happen for the 600+ mods that already exist on the Steam Workshop for Automation; they would need to be re-cooked and re-uploaded to the Workshop to work with MacOS, and that re-cooking process might very well end up breaking those same mods on the PC side. Not an ideal situation at all because this would effectively create a two-tiered mod system, and introduces the possibility that popular mods might never make it to MacOS at all, if their creator is no longer actively modding for Automation.[/p]
5. [p]Maintenance Costs - Maintaining the physical infrastructure on our end to build and test on MacOS is a not-inconsiderable ongoing expense, especially in terms of developer time that could be spent on improving the game instead. We are a very small team for the size of the project as is, and it goes without saying that we would rather focus our efforts on what gives us the most benefit in delivering Automation to you, the player, as best as we can![/p]

[p]None of these issues, except for #1, are unsolvable admittedly, but to put it simply, it's just not a good use of our time to finish development of the native MacOS version, only for it to just stop working (probably for good) in less than two years.[/p][p][/p][h2]So, what now for Automation on Mac?[/h2][p]Well, something we have found over the last little while is that Automation runs more or less perfectly on Parallels! We found it was just as stable as the PC version and that it ran largely the same when comparing performance on comparable PC and Mac hardware. Additionally, you get the added benefit of running the PC version of Automation, which allows full, unfettered access to the Steam Workshop and all of the mods on it, and also not having to worry about any of the issues we've just discussed with Rosetta support ending.[/p][p][/p][p]We understand this is very disappointing news for some of you, and we hope that you can understand the difficulty of making this decision. We look forward to welcoming our Mac players on Parallels now, and far into the future![/p]

[p]It has been a while since we've had an update for the Al Rilma Open Alpha! Most of our efforts in the past ten weeks since the last patch were focused on getting the improved Lite Campaign Mode ready for its debut, which would see the Al Rilma Update switch from alpha to beta status. Unfortunately, we found many more bugs than we anticipated during closed testing, and also that several fundamental aspects of the campaign calculations needed to be changed in order to reshape and future-proof them. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to delay Campaign Mode a little more. We understand that many of you were excited for this and have been waiting patiently, but we did not want to give you a campaign that was too buggy to be enjoyable.[/p][p][/p][p]Muscle with a retro-modern flair, courtesy of ellie.[/p][p][/p][p]Instead, what we've done is we have put together a big update for you that has a vast array of fixes, improvements, and new features. It includes nearly everything else we have been working on in the meantime, including a substantial rework of suspension geometry in cars exported to BeamNG, to make cars handle more predictably and realistically across a wide range of applications.[/p][p][/p][p]In case you missed the discussion on this patch in the last Little Dev Update, you can catch up here:[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]With such a long wait and a massive "non-campaign" changelist on hold, we didn't want you to have to wait any longer. That is why we have decided to release this patch today and continue polishing up the campaign mode some more in the coming weeks![/p][p][/p][h3]General Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Overhaul of how exhaust piping, addressing lot of issues with it and allowing multiple exits[/p]
• [p]Updated and improved AI generation car look-up table[/p]
• [p]Improved AI model body selection to now check for engine fitment[/p]
• [p]Improved stress warnings progression and colors[/p]
• [p]Fixed AI attempting to generate engines with block configurations that have not unlocked[/p]
• [p]Fixed issue with acceleration graph spiking with very tall gearing for automatics[/p]
• [p]Fixed crash that could occur AI generating a car for particular demographics and years[/p]
• [p]Fixed fixtures disappearing when morphing with sliders[/p]
• [p]Fixed sandbox car import-as-new not correctly changing to newly imported engine[/p]
• [p]Fixed memory leak that could result in out of memory crashes[/p]
• [p]Fixed negative scale moving fixture upon rotation[/p]
• [p]Fixed lua error using superchargers in scenarios[/p]
• [p]Fixed lua error importing .car and overwriting existing car[/p]

[p][/p][h3]UI Improvements & Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Greatly improved UI smoothness and performance when switching between parts of the game[/p]
• [p]Added data field and tooltip to quality slider to show maximum setting of other trims / variants[/p]
• [p]Added exhaust count & bypass valves tooltip[/p]
• [p]Improved demographics tooltip UI to show country flags for what regions are averaged[/p]
• [p]Updated stress warnings to only show the most severe warning per part[/p]
• [p]Removed test track being available as a graph (too many inconsistencies / UI headaches)[/p]
• [p]Revised the ordering of the demographics grid[/p]
• [p]Fixed photo mode car selection only showing SANDBOX company cars[/p]
• [p]Fixed Move Car & Engine button not moving engine in sandbox company manager[/p]
• [p]Fixed issue with information in demographics grid display mode[/p]
• [p]Fixed reset of test track not unlocking track location/variant selection[/p]
• [p]Fixed switching between tracks not stopping the simulation[/p]
• [p]Fixed knock warning flashing at 0% with an engine that doesn't flow enough[/p]
• [p]Fixed issue with UI flow after finishing a scenario[/p]
• [p]Fixed default cylinder head art potentially being a mod head[/p]
• [p]Fixed car model quality slider change not causing a recalculate[/p]
• [p]Fixed issue where different model wheelbases were grouped together[/p]
• [p]Fixed fixture list disappearing after visiting photo scene[/p]
• [p]Fixed sandbox project map lua error[/p]
• [p]Fixed sequential displaying RPM instead of Boost pressure when on stage 2[/p]
• [p]Fixed switching between flat- / crossplane crank resulting in different part list order[/p]
• [p]Fixed familiarity UI mode missing / not working \[Left-Alt][/p]
• [p]Fixed issue where sometimes engine part stress would not display correctly[/p]
• [p]Fixed brake size slider maximum not updating until it interacted with[/p]
• [p]Fixed errors caused by pause menu's save button[/p]
• [p]Fixed compound turbo compressor maps defaulting to wrong stage map[/p]
• [p]Fixed empty power to weight and towing capacity data fields in car performance stats[/p]
• [p]Fixed multiplayer to return players to the results screen when a game finishes[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Engine Sim[/h3]

• [p]Implemented all new ignition timing model for pre-EFI fuel systems, centrifugal & vacuum advance[/p]
• [p]Implemented CVVL as a new variable valve lift design option[/p]
• [p]Improved valve flow utilization parameter by including drop in cam curve (torque) beyond max[/p]
• [p]Implemented a fuel cut linked to MAP levels[/p]
• [p]Removed the concept of hard knock, instead it fully relies on power & reliability penalties[/p]
• [p]Added "current effective octane used" value to assist tuning[/p]
• [p]Tweaked boost progression of lambda mapping for fuel map[/p]
• [p]Improved emissions optimization lambda = 1 area vs. slider mapping[/p]
• [p]Fixed issue with flow calculation behavior of turbo's turbine[/p]
• [p]Made boost creep not be a thing for compound / seq setups[/p]
• [p]Fixed several issues with the simulation implementation giving unexpected behaviors[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• [p]Revamped throttle response calculations, specifically for forced induction setups[/p]
• [p]Added MPV (Minivan) demographic, removed Pony Budget demographic[/p]
• [p]Significantly altered Passenger Fleet and Pony demographics[/p]
• [p]Rebalanced delivery demographics towards more differences in car size[/p]
• [p]Tweaked balance of timing slider effect on reliability[/p]
• [p]Tweaked various demographics and the body preference penalty matrix[/p]
• [p]Changed block and piston power density progression to be more intuitive[/p]
• [p]Added PS as an option for engine power unit of measure[/p]

[p][/p][p]A selection of new variants from the all-new Rosso_86 body family. Many thanks to Kyorg for his hard work on this new family of bodies![/p][p][/p][h3]Content[/h3]

• [p]Added Rosso_86 car bodies, 11 families, 74 variants total, replaces 90sMR_Cor bodies[/p]
• [p]Added new grm_kompetitor car bodies, replacing 00sSedan02, 1990 unlock[/p]
• [p]Added 30 new headlight families with several variants each added to game[/p]
• [p]Added new eco carb model[/p]
• [p]Many visual improvements for various header configurations[/p]
• [p]Fixed minor cosmetic issues with itl_rosso bodies[/p]
• [p]Fixed issue with z-fighting between chassis and carpet materials[/p]
• [p]Fixed issues with fixture UV problems, specifically regarding wrapping around corners[/p]
• [p]Fixed UV issue for mirrored fixtures on 1966 Sedan body[/p]
• [p]Fixed many car bodies missing accurate camera bounds boxes[/p]
• [p]Fixed 87_us body families have bonnet bounds boxes sitting below the hood[/p]

[p][/p][h3]BeamNG Fixes & Improvements[/h3]

• [p]Weight distribution slider now works in "soft body" mode with movable mass node[/p]
• [p]Fixed beam export starter motor not having enough torque in some instances[/p]
• [p]Fixed tyre load sensitivity data bug causing rear grip loss, fixes most oversteer issues![/p]
• [p]Rework of all suspension export Jbeams, including:[/p]
  • [p]More sane roll center heights and roll axis, should improve handling feel[/p]
  • [p]Improved camber gain with roll[/p]
  • [p]More stable toe gain behaviour, should make cars feel less twitchy[/p]
  • [p]Greatly reduced bump steer issues[/p]
  • [p]Stiffer and generally more consistent live axle link layout[/p]
• [p]Fixed wildly different amounts of maximum steering angle between suspension types[/p]
• [p]Fixed different maximum steering as wheel offset increases[/p]
• [p]Fixed sometimes inconsistent ride heights front to rear[/p]
• [p]Fixed inconsistent swaybar stiffness between suspension types and tyre widths[/p]
• [p]Fixed overly effective swaybars on live axles (often caused terrible oversteer for live axle rears)[/p]
• [p]More consistent Ackermann steering geometry between suspension types and car sizes[/p]
• [p]Better bump stops (more progressive, taller for long travel suspensions)[/p]
• [p]Fixed some suspensions having too much compression travel[/p]
• [p]Fixed MacPherson Strut suspension having very limited droop travel[/p]
• [p]Added some anti-squat and anti-dive geometry to many suspension types[/p]
• [p]Increased ABS thresholds to get closer to lock and give greater braking performance[/p]
• [p]Retuned TCS and ESC to be more effective but less intrusive[/p]
• [p]Fixed camera positions exporting under the floor for some bodies (please report issues!)[/p]
• [p]Reduced excessive tyre stiffness in wide / low profile tyres, making these tyres more forgiving[/p]
• [p]Reduced excessive sliding friction values, these are no longer needed after load sensitivity fixes[/p]
• [p]Fixed too weak FFB on MacPherson front suspension cars[/p]
• [p]Fixed chassis nodes sometimes hanging down below front and rear bumper[/p]
• [p]Improved consistency of camber and toe values vs Automation[/p]
• [p]Made damper rates more accurate to Automation (stiffer fast damp, softer slow)[/p]
• [p]Swaybars stiffness corrections to account for different roll center heights per suspension type[/p]
• [p]Centrifugal superchargers made a bit quieter (better tweaks to this coming soon too)[/p]
• [p]Improved live axle's ability to withstand the stress of locked transfer case on grippy surface[/p]
• [p]Toned down the locking strength of non race clutch LSD, and tweaked decel locking[/p]

[p]Known Issue: Cars are exporting too heavy in comparison with their Automation weight (approximately 12 percent), which happens using the new soft body mode only. We are investigating this issue; it is a high priority fix for the next patch.[/p][p][/p][p]We hope there's something in this for everyone to enjoy! Campaign will be coming soon, we now have fixed all major known issues and are in the final stretches of polishing up the many little bugs. [/p][p]As always, we will be keeping an eye on any issues that come up with this patch; please let us know in the discussion forums or on our Discord so we can address them. Also, be sure to follow us YouTube and the rest of our socials for up-to-date news and community happenings![/p][p][/p][p]Cheers![/p][p][/p][p]DiscordOfficial ForumsRedditYouTubeInstagramBlueskyTikTok[/p][p][/p]

Hello everyone!

One of the things we do is after we post a Little Dev Update video, we host a livestream Q&A session on our official Discord server, where members of the dev team answer questions from the community regarding the current state of Automation and its development. For those who weren't able to join the livestream, we've got a recording on our YouTube channel; go check it out, there's lots of great questions in there!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As always, we'd love to hear your comments and feedback, and answer any questions you might have!

Hello everyone!

We're hard at work getting everything ready for Patch 7 of the Al-Rilma Update, which is a big one - Campaign Mode is coming back, among many other things! Lots to talk about here, so we decided it was time once again for a Little Dev Update video; check it out on our YouTube channel:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As always, we'd love to hear your comments and feedback, and answer any questions you might have!