1. Derail Valley
  2. News

Derail Valley News

Build #91 - Boombox & More!

Hi everyone!

It’s been a couple of long months, but we’re back with a new update! This time, the snow has melted, and lovely music took its place! As always, Ivan accompanied this update with an awesome video:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Boombox comes with a variety of music cassettes that you can buy in shops, as well as the ability to play radio. It can be customized to play your favorite online streaming radio stations, as well as playlists of your local music files! We strongly recommend you to read the new readme.pdf file before playing with it, located in the game installation's root folder.

With the boombox came the need to precisely place items in nonVR, which is another addition in this build. Placing items is done using the key 'R' and the mouse wheel.



Having watched your videos and streams, we also acknowledged that rerailing should be made free at the early phase of the game, so we’ve made that change. Additionally, we’ve improved item belt orb slots in VR, booklet saving, fixed trains spawning in each other, and a lot more small things.

Finally, we’ve removed the snow as promised and it won’t be available at least until another Christmas. We know many of you would like us to keep it as an option, but technically that’s not possible right now. Maybe some other year in the future.



If you’ve been wondering about the status of the 2021 major update - it’s heavily in progress, but there’s still a LOT of work remaining to do before we can share anything. Until we have more information, we’ll have small updates coming out, such as today’s one.

We’re looking forward to hearing what you think about the new boombox and the rest of the changes! Have fun driving with your new companion!

P.S. While finishing up this update, we learned that the inventor of the cassette tape, Lou Ottens, had died yesterday at age 94. May this update be in his memory.

-DV Team

Build #91:

Stability & Internal:

- Attempted fix for trains that occasionally spawn inside other trains, causing unfair fees
- Drastically improved automation of terrain build preparation process
-- This speeds up internal workflow for build making and testing
- Preferences optimization
-- Increased preferences reading speed
-- Added functionality to auto-upgrade preferences
-- Made anisotropic filtering auto-upgrade to Ultra, if was on High in previous build
-- Added versioning to preferences file
- Updated Post Processing

Items:

- Added Boombox
-- Can be bought in CitySW
-- Features two modes, Radio and Cassette player
-- Radio can play real life online radio stations (included https://simulatorradio.com/)
-- Players can add or create radio stations (see readme.pdf for details)
-- Radio features audible signal loss effect when going through tunnels
-- Cassette player can play cassettes that can be bought in shops
-- Some cassettes contain music, whereas others point to players’ local playlist folders
-- Players can add their own music to those playlists (see readme.pdf for details)
- Added item placing feature in nonVR
-- Hold R while holding an item and aim at a surface to see item gizmo
-- The gizmo will show warning color if aimed location clashes with another surface or item
-- Use mouse scroll to rotate the gizmo
-- Release R to place the item in place of the gizmo, at the aimed location
- Booklets now save the page they were on
- Fixed issues with Loco Remote
-- Fixed nonVR mouse interaction not working with joysticks when ungrabbed
-- Improved couple knob to react better to mousewheel
-- Fixed item preview being offset in VR inventory
- Fixed issues with Pocket Watch
-- Fixed occasional scrolling jam in nonVR
-- Fixed wind knob chaotically colliding with the environment when held
-- Fixed falling too slow
- Fixed the inability to pick up the items remaining on the turntable control panel in nonVR
- Item highlighting is now disabled by default in nonVR
- Optimized shovel texture size

VR:

- Made improvements to belt orbs
-- Their position is now saved
-- Items stored in them are now saved too
-- Orb rotation now snaps to 90 degree angles when in close proximity
-- Rotation gizmo now appears when hovering over the orb
- Improved controller anchors for Cosmos users (thanks Niko!)
- Fixed draft lever (and DE6 windows) not working on some headsets
- Fixed shovel in VR getting dropped when holding it a certain way and teleporting

Career:

- Rerailing is now free until buying licenses CCUR1 or LONG1
- Improved randomness of destination input tracks in job generation
- License printouts now list license dependencies
- Removed the ability to click trash bin to delete job (throw it in instead)

Tutorial:

- Fixed taking money via wallet-click in tutorial breaking the tutorial
- Tutorial now introduces the player to mouse-scroll train controls in nonVR
- Fixed various rare bugs with reloading the game while in tutorial part 2 or skipping tutorial

Misc:

- Removed snow, at least until next Christmas
- Improved interactable control aim precision in nonVR
- Limited junction speed limit to 60 (was 70 before), to prevent unexpected derailments
- Money left in cash registers, career managers, etc. is now returned to wallet on game quit
- Fixed receipt not being able to flip pages
- Fixed missing crosshair tooltip in nonVR if starting the game with Cab Highlight option off
- Fixed nonVR inventory bugging out when retrieving items via pause menu
- Improved tender water hatch to be easily grabbable in nonVR
- Tweaked shape of controller tooltip background in VR
- Added readme.pdf to game root folder

Build #90 - Snow, Snow, Snow & More!

We have a very special update for you today! It's Christmas and snow fell upon the Valley. It will only stay like that for a limited time - about a month, - so make sure to make the best of it!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

2020 was a strange year, yet also the best one for Derail Valley so far. With your support and the release of Overhauled, we've had a blast further strengthening our goals — to make Derail Valley both the best train simulator in the world, and one of the best VR games. We are continually working on amazing things, many of which are yet to come in the major update in 2021 and after it.

With today's update we wanted to give you all a massive thank you, and wrap up this dull year with something exciting. The snow doesn’t affect game mechanics as it is a purely aesthetic feature, but it does bring a whole new mood to the game. In order to keep the experience truly special, we will remove snow from the game in about a month, for at least until next Christmas. Make the best use of it in the following couple of weeks!



Apart from introducing snow, the update adds a few more new things, such as new trash bins, station office beacons, expert shovel (a new item to buy!), and various other fixes.



With this update we're closing the year, and can't wait to see what the next one will bring! Until then, from all of us here at Altfuture, Happy Holidays!

-Your DV Team

Build 90:

World:

- Made the world snowy
-- Limited time only (till late January)
-- Features new snow textures and sounds
-- Adds Christmas trees to Station Offices
-- Contains new snow-themed loading screens
-- Derailed cars make sleigh bell sounds
- Added antenna beacons to all Station Offices (easier to spot)
- Fixed CSW not having a 30 kph sign
- Loosened a tight southbound entrance curve at SW
- Fixed OWN loops not having signs
- Fixed FF LP tracks having faulty name in built game
- Fixed IME service station platform not aligning with tracks
- Fixed phone pole in MF next to coal shed having offset LOD
- Fixed terrain ballast texture having flipped normals

VR:

- Belt point positions are now being saved
- Fixed bad item orientation in hand when using Oculus VR mode
- Fixed a bug with the first job booklet able to disappear when finishing tutorial
Career & Gameplay:
- Added Expert Shovel
-- Can be bought in a shop
-- Adds less coal than default shovel (for precise firebox control)
- Remade trash bins
-- Bigger, solid design
-- Now suggests that jobs can be thrown in
-- Fixed position, no longer an item
- Removed dash from Job Booklet track ID for consistency with track signs
- Fixed Job Denied page falling through Job Validator as of #89
- Fixed being unable to unlock garages as of #89
- Fixed Caboose Career Manager not working as of #89
- Fixed being unable to pick up money while holding wallet in nonVR
- Fixed items dropping out of hands if alt-tabbing during pause
- Reduced volume of footstep sounds

GUI & Settings:

- Added sliders to the rest of the options
- Made turntable key bindings configurable
-- Can only be used inside a turntable booth
-- Default keys: [ ]

Build #89 - Oculus Quest 2, HP Reverb G2, Shovel Rework, Footsteps & More!

Hi everyone!

While we work on the yet unnamed big 2021 update, we also want to include a couple of small updates in the meantime. Today we're launching the first one of them, the build #89! As always you can find more information in the video below:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The update makes various small improvements for both VR and nonVR players. The highlights are:

- Oculus Quest 2 support (via Oculus Link)
- HP Reverb G2 support
- Remade VR shovel behavior
- Footstep sounds
- FOV, Always Run and Cab Highlight settings (and sliders)
- Fixed crash on quit

Oh, and don't forget to check back next week for a humble surprise!

BUILD #89:

Stability:

- Fixed the hang on quit causing the “not responding” prompt to appear
- Fixed rare case where sounds could become permanently disabled in a session

VR:

- Added support for Oculus Quest 2 (via Oculus Link)
- Added support for HP Reverb G2
- Revamped shovel interaction
-- Allows twisting and using with both hands
-- Entirely rewritten code (for dual-handed item interaction in general)
-- Fixed visually adding coal on shovel from empty tender
-- Decreased amount of shoveling needed to fill up the firebox
-- Coal fling yet todo
- Items in hand can no longer bump into train controls (levers, valves...)
-- They still collide with solid objects however
- Fixed steamer rope not adhering to the “use trigger to interact” setting
- Belt orbs now only show directional gizmos when grabbed

Movement:

- Added footstep sounds
-- Includes 40 new sounds
-- Dynamically changes based on surface underneath
-- Applies to movement, teleporting and falling
- Improved headbob

GUI & Settings:

- Added sliders to menu GUI (yet to be added to all settings)
- Added “FOV” setting (vertical angle)
- Added “Always Run” setting
- Added “Cab Highlight” setting
- Mousewheel can now scroll through nonVR inventory slots while holding Tab
- Fixed “Press F to enter” appearing while looking at an item (e.g. map)
- Split VR and Graphics settings windows into two rows in VR menu
- Tidied up menu layout misalignments

Items:

- Loco remote charge speed no longer depends on sun direction
- Schematic map now sounds like a heavy book upon impact

Misc:

- Made minor schematic map corrections (IMW, IME)
- Slight physics collisions optimization
- Fixed ISO tank container using wrong LOD texture
- Updated Career Manager default screen text to “Please select:”
- Fixed bad character in a tutorial text message
- Derail log now also prints vehicle’s ID and job ID

-Your DV Team

Our plans, going into 2021

Hi everyone,

We wanted to give you a quick rundown on how things are going, and where we’re headed. Usually we don’t reveal a lot about what we’re working on, so that our priority shifting would remain agile. This time, however, it will take us longer than usual to show significant results, and we want to keep you informed.

We’re steering our focus toward more long-term development goals. For the next many months, our team will be working on these features, some of which are already in progress:
  • Day and night cycle
  • Dynamic weather
  • Improved simulation for diesel-electric and steam locos
  • Support for more locomotive types (for future use)
  • Basis for train mod support (for future use)
  • Save & user manager
  • Main Menu
  • Sandbox game mode
  • Language localization

We know you’re excited to have these things out as soon as possible, but there's still a long way to go. We’re already doing major changes to locomotive simulation, seeing how other future locomotive types and mod support will tie into it. We’re also deep into testing solutions for day and night cycles and weather changes. Regarding the save manager, main menu and sandbox mode, there’s quite a bit of work to be done too.



All those things will take a while to finish, around the same time actually. We’re slowly starting to see them all grow into a single, major update, coming sometime in 2021. There are no specifics on the date at this point, and there likely won’t be any until the update is almost done and ready to reveal. With this update we’ll probably also roll out the previously announced price increase for new buyers - but more on that later.

Until then, we’ll definitely have several smaller updates, but they won’t include any of the things listed above. We’ll also use this time to squeeze in a few days by the end of this year to release the long-awaited update of our former game, Switchcars.

Our team now counts five developers, three of which are dedicated programmers. We definitely want to speed up development, which is why we’re still hiring. Turns out, finding the right people for the job during the virus outbreak is hardly any fun.

With this news we wanted to set the right expectations for the next couple of updates. It will take us some time to release the stuff that really adds significant value. That said, rest assured that even though it’s not currently visible, our top effort is being put into Derail Valley on a daily basis. The game consistently gets better. Like with Overhauled, the wait will be worth it, and probably also shorter.

That's all for today, and we'll see you in a couple of weeks with another small game update!

-Slobodan

Hotfix for the rare case of players missing items/money

Thanks to your reports we've tracked down a bug that affected a small amount of players, where their items and/or money disappeared with the most recent build. This occurred to players who had a derailed caboose when their game updated. There's more to it, but in short, the derailed caboose would cause an error that would propagate to the rest of the saving process.

[h2]If you're affected (a few players)[/h2]
(your items and/or money are missing since updating to #88, and you own the caboose)

Unfortunately you'll need to roll back to the save before #88, if you wish to retrieve the lost items/money. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Update Derail Valley (restart Steam to make sure the hotfix is downloaded and applied)
  2. In Steam Library right click Derail Valley > Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files...
  3. In the new window go to folders DerailValley_Data > SaveGameData
  4. Rename the file "savegame" to something else (e.g. "savegame-88-broken")
  5. Make a copy of the file "savegame_old_version5"
  6. Rename that copy to just "savegame"

This way you'll have replaced your current save with the latest working backup. Now you should be able to start the game, and it will continue where you left off in #87 without issues. Side note: in the future Derail Valley will feature a proper in-game save manager.

[h2]If you're not affected (most players)[/h2]
(you have all your items/money, don't own the caboose, or you didn't update to #88 yet)

You can continue playing normally. This update won't affect you.

---

Despite thorough testing, both internally and with beta testers before releasing updates, this one slipped through. We're sorry for the inconvenience!