Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game News

This patch is a mixed bag of fixes for all aspects of the game and covers many of the things you've run into with the latest update.

[h3]General Fixes[/h3]

• Imported .car files are now moved to CarSaveImport/Imported instead of being deleted
  
• Improved cam / VVL related engine sound changes
  
• Added unit conversion for temperature
  
• Fixed car exporting being broken due to Y2k22 bugs
  
• Fixed UI issues with trying to select / edit lower paint slot
  
• Fixed paint materials not updating the other material editing mode
  
• Fixed heavy duty conrods missing their art
  
• Fixed soft-top material scaling issues in exported cars
  
• Fixed issue with big performance drops for shadows higher than low setting for some players
  
• Fixed performance issues with modern design room
  
• Fixed issue with car importing to avoid weird designer states
  
• Fixed up missing turbo sounds that were not hooked up
  
• Fixed issue with turbos running off the compressor map towards zero efficiency
  
• Fixed issues caused by the right-most clone button in the car manager
  
• Fixed bug where importing cars can result in cars with no engine and broken engines
  
• Fixed clone family button being disabled when variants are selected in engine manager
  
• Fixed displayed seat rows being confusingly formatted in body choice UI
  
• Fixed the uv scale being incorrectly being calculated for the exporter
  
• Fixed disabling photo scrolling breaking image randomization
  
• Fixed paint tooltip not allowing clicking buttons when over timeline
  
• Fixed quality sliders causing issues when slid too fast
  
• Fixed window tint not exporting to BeamNG
  
• Fixed translation mappings for american spellings of colour
  
• Fixed some text fixtures not exporting their alpha channel

[h3]Modding Changes[/h3]

• An Exporter SDK is now available!
• SDK updated to include the numberplate textures

We're continuing to chip away at the big list of broken and missing things tomorrow and next week, plenty more to do! :)

Cheers

The first few days back in the office after the break have been productive and we got a pretty chunky update ready for you to try out. Most of the crashes should be sorted out and a lot of improvements have been made to the turbo calculations and mechanics.

With how things are going at the moment it looks like we're going to be able to shift focus towards implementing the remaining LCV4.2 features starting next week, as this version becomes more and more playable.

Damage to the turbo is now granular and not just on/off.

[h3]Turbo Fixes & Improvements[/h3]

• Revised turbo spooling characteristics, giving more realistic spool curves
  
• Implemented granular surge and mechanical stress models to turbos instead of being on/off
  
• Added cumulative surge and mechanical stress info into compressor map
  
• Turbo headers now affect temperature resistance and wastegate flow before boost creep
  
• Turbo quality now affects temperature resistance of turbos
  
• Fixed numeric stability issues in the turbo calculations
  
• Fixed a calculation issue with having an intercooler that is too small for the required flow
  
• Fixed calculation bug with having no intercooler

[h3]General Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed the biggest sources of reported crashes with several fixes
  
• Fixed crash caused by texture fixtures
  
• Fixed game crashing when changing trims too quickly
  
• Potentially fixed instance of "fixture nuking" in connection with changing photoscenes
  
• Fixed cloning a trim not making a trim slot in some instances, causing cars to be broken
  
• Fixed inconsistency with landing position in model selection when reentering the page
  
• Fixed instance of infinite loading icon in the car designer
  
• Fixed changes to settings not applying and resetting to default values
  
• Fixed graphs flickering their data while scrubbing with the mouse
  
• Huge performance improvements to car & engine managers & car body selection UI
  
• Added missing material cost dependency for all quality sliders
  
• Fixed issues with family quality not affecting ET, PU, and M$
  
• Fixed car parts that need a factory addon pointing to engine factory magnesium works
  
• Fixed mid transverse unlocking in 1920 instead of 1962
  
• Fixed ignition timing not updating calculations
  
• Fixed issue with VVL unlocking based on family year instead of variant year
  
• Fixed tire profile calculation inconsistencies
  
• Fixed engine fill factor not showing

[h3]Art & Design Changes[/h3]

• Added brake caliper rotation to advanced trim aesthetics
  
• Added wheel size matching buttons to wheel sections of advanced trim aesthetics
  
• Added mirror / locked icons to spawned fixture UI & improved fixture UI layout
  
• Added option for 1- or 2-wide spawned-fixture list, with optional fixture indexing
  
• Added lock fixture hotkey
  
• Fixed poor performance of 10s design room
  
• Fixed DCOE race heads inconsistently spawning with airbox pieces
  
• Fixed v60 MPFI/DI race throttle per cylinder missing trumpets
  
• Fixed some incorrect airboxes loading when changing from turbo back to non turbo configs
  
• Fixed paintable engine meshes to correctly support anisotropic materials
  
• Fixed fixture glass materials appearing faceted when put on rounded surfaces
  
• Fixed fixture glass materials not working nicely with ray-tracing
  
• Fixed z-fighting and overlapping geometry on Rim 100U
  
• Fixed dirt/wear values for car materials defaulting too high
  
• Fixed exhaust lod material issues that caused header plates to flash between colors
  
• Fixed double intakes spawning on 60 degree blocks with turbos and TpC
  
• Fixed roof not being paintable on Stylish_SUV_09_ELWB_V5 body
  
• Fixed fixture thumbnails sometimes having other fixtures in reflections

[h3]Modding Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed rim mods not appearing in game
  
• Fixed SDK fixture thumbnail generator throwing warnings while simulating
  
• Moved mod tools files that shouldn't be directly editable into a sub-folder
  
• Added fixture preview file naming convention settings to the SDK thumbnail generator
  
• Added an option to skip duplicate GUID checking in the modding SDK

Thank you all for reporting the issues you're finding! In case you wonder how to do that, either use our Steam Forum thread here, or our discord server.

Cheers!

Things seem to be reasonably stable for now and mostly working. That is not to say there aren't heaps of little and large issues! Those will have to be addressed in January when development and patching will continue at a rapid pace.

We have compiled a smaller final patch to send you off into the holidays with a new LCV4.2 version.

[h2]LCV4.2.3 General Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed default tire sizes not being correctly applied when selecting a trim body
  
• Fixed some missing turbo audio and rebalanced volumes
  
• Fixed engine sound not changing when the engine switches to its VVL cam
  
• Fixed boost / vacuum gauge not behaving as expected on dyno tests
  
• Regenerated body tables for the AI (for when it tries to generate cars)
  
• Fixed wheels not defaulting to linked / matched sizes
  
• Fixed issue with layering when using a car paint on a fixture
  
• Fixed changing between psi and Bar not changing boost values on graphs
  
• Fixed logic in how safety packages fall back when changing years
  
• Fixed twin turbo crossover pipes coming out of the engine bay
  
• Fixed default rim size selection not working correctly
  
• Fixed global paints not saving
  
• Several fixes to the modding SDK
  

And now, unless everything explodes, we're signing off for the year... it sure was an exciting one in good and bad!

We wish you all the best for the next one,
Cheers!

Two days into the release of the alpha, and we have our second big batch of fixes ready for you!
Again, a lot of important ones in here, please check them out.

[h2]LCV4.2.2 General Fixes & Changes[/h2]

• The game should now automatically fall back to DX11 when DX12 isn't supported
  
• Tweaked idle speeds for all engines
  
• Implemented turbo header selection scaling wastegate flow before boost creep
  
• Fixed issue where the family quality slider would not save/load correctly
  
• Fixed sandbox car & engine managers top bars being unusable
  
• Fixed not being able to place fixtures on soft-tops
  
• Fixed keybinds not being adjustable properly
  
• Fixed V8 flatplane forged and billet cranks having almost no strength
  
• Fixed editing fixture text resetting when clicking to add more text
  
• Fixed weird "anti-spool" behaviour with some VGT setups
  
• Fixed way too small, failing turbos causing massive torque curve jaggedness
  
• Fixed set intercooler power throughput not correctly applying to turbo sim
  
• Fixed turbo graphs not clearing when making an engine naturally aspirated
  
• Fixed the basic chassis mode not updating the chassis
  
• Fixed speed limiter being in km/h even though mph were selected as a unit
  
• Fixed dual exhaust being selectable when using a single turbo setup
  
• Fixed issue with boost graph going negative sometimes while being at 0
  
• Fixed mousing over pies in the market screen changing their size
  
• Fixed twin turbo crossover pipes coming out out the engine bay in export scene
  
• Fixed twin turbo piping issues when switching block type
  
• Fixed opposite side thread on tires
  
• Fixed the light and glass material thumbnails being completely white
  
• Fixed roughness slider on leather material having weird effects
  
• Fixed unusual shading on steel wheels and other metal materials
  
• Fixed the basic car design room having a corrupted light map
  
• Fixed 10s design room lighting which was over-saturated
  
• Fixed missing intakes for single barrel eco carbs
  
• Fixed missing texture on 60 degree V MPFI systems with twin throttle, mid intake
  
• Fixed old intake meshes spawning for inline DI throttle per cylinder
  
• Fixed 90 degree V SPFI compact intake missing
  
• Fixed accidental use of underbody material on variant of 60s_Muntu body
  
• Fixed engine manager list scroll bar having the wrong color
  
• Fixed Car_Roof material missing from modding SDK

With the Christmas and New Year break coming up, we're probably going to limit changes in tomorrow's patch to mostly minor tweaks and cosmetic fixes to not break what's working.

Please let us know about any issues you find and report them in this thread.
Cheers!

Our first day of fixes, fresh out of the oven! This should address many of the more pressing problems players have observed in the first alpha build.

[h2]LCV4.2.1 General Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed high-power turbo wiggle when using too small intercooler
  
• Fixed a crash going to compressor map on turbo that exploded (pressure)
  
• Fixed issue changing between Standard / VGT turbo wouldn't update
  
• Fixed issue where a crashed engine calculation would not be recoverable
  
• Fixed an issue with visual tire width vs. diameter
  
• Fixed issues with smoke props going in/out of photo mode
  
• Fixed texture issues in the Tundra photoscene's roads
  
• Fixed prop UI not being full length when no prop is selected
  
• Fixed Australian photoscene being stupid loud
  
• Fixed grille texture scaling being tiny in BeamNG exports
  
• Fixed rear engine body list filter not working
  
• Fixed car paint titles not working correctly
  
• Fixed black artifacting of gizmos in modern and nineties studio photoscenes
  
• Fixed list of props in photoscene not updating when removing a prop
  
• Fixed shift-cloning props not updating the spawned-props list
  
• Fixed there being no starter sound when manually starting an engine
  
• Fixed 00sminicar having its bone meshes visible in game
  
• Fixed a massive seam in car body 00sHatch02
  
• Fixed a few car bodies having the wrong maximum seating arrangements
  
• Added all photoscene props that were supposed to be in the release
  
• Added -DX11 flag to the launcher's safemode
  
• Fixed launcher not checking if UserData directory exists before clearing it
  
• Fixed unit settings not saving or loading properly
  
• Fixed an error / crash when large engines break before idle
  
• Fixed the gizmo showing while taking photos
  
• Fixed fixtures not fading out when the car body does
  
• Fixed engine starter in Beam exports, now engines can be restarted

There will likely be at least one more patch before we sign off for a Christmas / New Year break.

Please report any issues you find in this thread. Also let us know what you think of the many new features / content and how we can improve it!

Cheers!