Derail Valley News

Today's build concludes our work on the terrain revamp. Parts 1 and 2 improved stability and performance, and part 3 is here to introduce the all new terrain graphics. Your scenic screenshots will no longer be ruined by a blurry background, as you can see yourself in the video and screenshots below!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As always the update also introduces a lot more improvements, such as:

• Better lighting
  
• Simplified fee payment process
  
• Official support for HTC Vive Cosmos
  
• World & track updates
  
• Many more small fixes
  

We recommend opening the images above in a new tab for full resolution.

[h3]Please note - This build will reset jobs/trains/switches, due to changes made to tracks. If you find yourself stranded you can fast-travel to the nearest station and pick another train/job there.[/h3]

For the full list of changes in the update, as always we've prepared the full changelog below:

[h2]Full Changelog:[/h2]

Graphics:

- Revamped graphics rendering of terrains
-- Greatly improved rendering quality of distant terrain textures
-- Remade some terrain textures
- Improved overall lighting
- Improved post processing
-- No longer increases overall game brightness
-- Creates a better looking HDR effect
-- Better illuminates dark spaces
- Fixed tileable asphalt texture appearing blurry

VR:

- Added support for HTC Vive Cosmos headsets and controllers
- Fixed a bug where grab key would move to trigger when operating brake hoses
- Fixed falling off a locomotive when leaning out the window in VR
- Fixed inventory tooltip text jittering when on a moving train

Career & Jobs:

- Revamped the fee tracking system
-- Paying fees for jobs no longer requires discarding or completing them
-- Reaching copay now always clears all the fees
-- Having fees under $5k will no longer prevent the player from taking new jobs
-- The player can’t take new jobs if having 8+ fees (or if hoarding money as before)
-- Updated fee booklet design (simplified texts, layout)
- Increased job deletion distance in all stations (can go further without jobs being reset)
- Added a Career Manager machine to Military Base
- Fixed a rare bug that could result in jobs requiring more space than there is
- Fixed a bug where cargo damage in a shunting job could display a faulty, negative value
- Fixed an ultra rare edge case where fee payment could be higher than copay

Trains:

- Temporarily fixed DE6 often derailing the first car behind
- Forced a DE6 to always spawn at HB roundhouse
- Forced a SH282 to always spawn at IMW turntable

World & Tracks:

- Added green crops
- Straightened many tight turns and sections
- Moved depot in CSW to loosen track curve on approach
- Fixed track kinks at IMW and IME
- Fixed the tight turn between B and C yards in SW
- Improved the tight turn in CM loading track, less jerky
- Fixed residential buildings having no smoothness texture (reflectivity)
- Fixed beige cars in stations being invisible
- Potentially fixed passenger platform being too close to tracks in HB
- Potentially fixed trains clipping depot doorway in OWN
- Potentially fixed GF and CSW storage tracks not being used due to lower clearance tolerance
- Removed some trees from the tracks in stations (HB, MF, CSW…)
- Updated TC2 so that quarry paints rock texture
- Fixed CSW crane being messed up

Misc:

- Fixed aiming at junction signs being imprecise
- Removed loading alerts (can be enabled via debug.LoadingAlertsToggle console command)
- In nonVR tutorial a prompt will teach player how to sit (X key)
- If player leaves the tutorial area with brakes on, a popup will warn them
- Added continual checking of free system memory in the background
-- When amount of free memory is under 1.5 GB and dropping:
-- Writes to log and pops up a “low memory!” alert on screen
- Made locomotive map blips yellow
- Made a few minor schematic map tweaks
- Moved SM service station closer to depot entrance

That's all for this week! See you soon with another update.

-DV Team

Hi everyone!

We’re pleased to announce the winning entries of the Steam Locomotive Skinning contest! The community voting ended yesterday, with the following results:

[h3]Best Art:[/h3]



[h3]Best Idea:[/h3]



[h3]Best Meme:[/h3]



Due to the rule of a contestant being able to win with only one entry, we didn’t have a third-place winner in the meme category. That said, there are more great entries that deserve to be seen. Here are some honorable mentions of the entries that didn’t win:



At the end, we at Altfuture have also chosen our favorite. The winner of the Best Overall category, even though they didn't win any of the community vote rewards, has clearly put a lot of creativity, effort, skill and detail into their entry, as well as its presentation. It is our favorite:

[h3]Best Overall:[/h3]



This skin will be used as inspiration for the new steamer skin that we'll officially create for the game in the future. This will likely come in the Steam Locomotive Improvements update, and will, of course, include creative modifications.

You can download these amazing skins, and many more, thanks to the modders who have generously made them available: https://www.nexusmods.com/derailvalley/mods/

Finally, we'd like to say big thanks to all the participants! You guys made this contest fun and so diverse! The winners will be handed their prizes shortly. We'd also like to invite everyone to join our Discord and congratulate the winners directly, in the #contest-discussion channel! There were even more entries submitted than shown here, so be sure to check them out!

That's all for today. See you soon with more news!

-DV Team

The long-awaited performance improvement is here! As previously announced, build #83 fixes stuttering as well as freezes during gameplay, usually associated with the "loading area" and "spawning trains" onscreen messages.

The stutters should now be completely eliminated or drastically reduced (100 times?), depending on your hardware. This is true even when approaching the Harbor! This improvement involved a big rework of how cars are loaded to the game, as well as a total overhaul of how terrains are loaded and displayed.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The massive terrain revamp has been an ongoing process for several weeks, aimed to solve several critical issues in one go. In the previous build it allowed us to drastically reduce RAM usage, today it fixes the stuttering and in the next build it will help us vastly improve visual quality of distant landscapes. Stay tuned for some pretty sights!

As always, this update brings you many more smaller improvements and bug fixes, all detailed in the changelog below:

[h2]Full Changelog:[/h2]

Stability:

- Further terrain rework (WIP)
-- Eliminates stuttering when “loading area”
-- Increases terrain texture resolution in distant terrains
-- Fixes end of the world being visible (terrain prolongs outside of the world borders)
-- Reduces system complexity, allows easy world terrain updating
- Reworked car loading
-- Fixes stuttering caused by trains spawning when approaching stations
- Potentially fixed the ignition switches not starting the train for some players
- Fixed fast-travel with handcar crashing the game

VR:

- Fixed a bug sometimes making it impossible to teleport while moving
- Fixed a bug with Comms Radio getting dropped when used since build #82
- Potentially fixed a bug where grip binding could move to trigger after a while
- Fixed a bug causing Vive wands sticky item holding to behave like continuous
- Fixed inventory tooltip jittering if on a moving train

Career:

- Fixed a bug with jobs not spawning properly after fast-travel
- Prevented manual service tip screen from showing on fees smaller than $1k
- Inverted sorting order of fees so the smallest ones show first
- Fixed fast-travel with handcar charging extra for loco transport
- Reworded a few Career Manager lines

Trains:

- Fixed loaded trains having faulty mass in Freight Haul and Unloading jobs
-- They were almost twice lighter than they should be
- Reworked hopper car UV map and texture to be modder friendly
- Made locomotive windows harder to break
- Loosened the ignition rotary switches on DE2 and DE6 locomotives
- Fixed unused locos being able to despawn if part of an active train

Misc:

- Increased sunlight intensity
-- It was accidentally lower than normal since the Overhauled release
- Fixed Hazmat spills/fire being temporarily disabled since #82
- Fixed tank car leak orientations being wrong and their cracks invisible
- Fixed a bug in NonVR where tab+esc would make the handheld item flimsy


That's all for today's update! See you soon with another!

-DV Team

We're doing our first contest - the skinning of the SH282 steam locomotive! The contest will take part in 4 categories (art, idea, meme and overall) and it will include prizes!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Later on we will create an official steam locomotive skin as part of the game, inspired by the winning entry of the Overall category! The winner's name will be listed in a hidden in-game hall of fame list.

The contest starts NOW and will end on Sunday, July 19th, 23:59 UTC. You'll find exact rules and information on how to take part in our Discord community news post:

[h3]> CONTEST RULES & DETAILS <
[/h3]

We're excited to see the skin mods that comes out of this! Good luck to all the contestants!

When we released Overhauled a month ago, we soon identified stability and performance issues as needing our top attention. It took some time to crack them, and now we're starting to see the results.

In today's build we've fixed the abnormal RAM usage. As a result, Derail Valley should no longer suffer from certain crashes, and should require no more than 12 GB of RAM to play. The change is yet to be tested properly, so please let us know how build #82 works for you! The game previously used up to 20 GB of memory, requiring use of virtual memory to fit it all, but with this update that was reduced to the sane ~6 GB.

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/iZukJPUhkio[/previewyoutube]

Apart from stability fixes, the update brings many small improvements too, as you can see in the video and the changelog below. Highlights:

• Fixed abnormal RAM usage (now 12 GB or less required
• Fixed (all?) crashes
  
• Interactive shunter doors
  
• Option to use trigger for all train interactions in VR
  
• Many newbie-friendly text/booklet updates
  

If you experience any new issues with this update, please let us know. Even if we can't always respond, we read all feedback. It helps us a ton to identify and prioritize issues. Thank you!

Next in line will be the performance fixes for the "loading area" and "spawning trains" stuttering. The solutions for both are almost done (massive reworks), and may come already next week!

[h3]Please note - This build will not have fire or liquid spills, due to the ongoing terrain system rework. This will be fixed in the next build.[/h3]

[h2]Full changelog:[/h2]

[h3]Stability:[/h3]

- Reworked terrain loading
-- Fixes abnormal RAM usage
-- Should no longer cause crashes on PCs with 12 GB of RAM or more
-- Somewhat reduces stuttering when loading new areas (WIP)
-- Can cause vegetation NRE if player goes out of world bounds (WIP)

[h3]VR Controls:[/h3]

- Added option that Trigger operates all train controls
-- If enabled then Grip only interacts with items
-- On by default for Index users (based on feedback)
-- Applies to all controllers except Vive wands
- Fixed left-hand item scrolling moving the player (e.g when page flipping)
- Fixed a bug where opening menu while hovering over a wrist orb could break the game
- Fixed a case where Comms Radio won’t work when taken out of the belt
- Fixed a bug where pageflipping could get stuck when not looked at, in VR
- Improved grab precision of Index controller (volume was too big)

[h3]NonVR Controls:[/h3]

- Fixed item view mode (Alt) getting bugged when alt-tabbing
- Fixed some bugs with nonVR inventory when adding items to the last slot

[h3]Trains:[/h3]

- Reworked shunter to have interactive doors
-- Maintains the same UV layout so the existing skin mods still work
- Minor optimization to diesel locomotive rendering

[h3]Career:[/h3]

- Costs from manual servicing now add up to copay too
- Added Stats screen to Career Manager
-- Shows player stats including total copay and time bonus deadline effect
- Removed "manual servicing" hint screen if the fee is bigger than remaining copay
- Reworded “you only need to pay” when having a smaller fee than copay
- Tweaked wording on “job denied” printout
-- Explains that you only need to pay the fees you can afford, not all
- Fixed steam locomotive fee payment not putting out fire (causing ongoing env. fees)
- Fixed a rare case where a locomotive despawning during fee paying could break the game
- Updated DE6 license text to say it’s capable of loads up to 1400t

[h3]Items:[/h3]

- Fixed Shop Item Scanner sometimes not spawning where it should
- Fixed loco remote not charging through DE6’s windows
- Updated inventory item representations of most booklets, to make them language-independent

[h3]Navigation:[/h3]

- Added key page to Schematic Map
- Tweaks to Schematic Map (missing switches, etc.)
- Fixed being able to fast travel to a locomotive you don't have a license for

[h3]World & Tracks:[/h3]

- Remodelled Iron Ore Mine chute area to be wider (prevents DE6 from clipping it in a corner)
-- Reworked tracks around it to fit
- Made IME service station tender-accessible when reached head first
- Replaced an empty/unused shop building with an unenterable scenery shop model
- Moved HB D yard slightly so both a shunter and a flatcar can fit into the merge track
- Fixed oil silos floating
- Fixed terrain going over tracks at a wye west of Harbor

[h3]Misc:[/h3]

- Fixed user settings not getting saved until the player reopens the menu
- Fixed being able to fast-travel twice before the first one initiates, breaking the game
- NonVR Controls booklet now has a specific icon in inventory

[h3]Tutorial:[/h3]

- Changed the "Save and Exit" button text to not say that during the tutorial
- Fixed UI option not updating when choosing some options in tutorial
- Updated DV Guide texts to better explain some things
- Tweaked nonVR “pick up the Comms Radio” prompt wording
- Tweaked steam locomotive manual (+ added “prerequisites” page)


That's all for today's update. We should have more performance improvements already next week. Stay tuned!

-DV Team