National Park! v5.2

Rolling Line's latest official map is here!
It is set in Tongariro National Park in New Zealand, part of the North Island Main Trunk Line. This map includes locations like the volcanoes of Mt Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro, the Chateau Tongariro hotel, the "Volcanic highway", the town of National Park, the Makatote Viaduct and even the famous Raurimu Spiral!

This is a fully modern map that makes use of all the game's latest features, which means full dynamic roads, cars, skyboxes, images, electrical wires, etc.
The map also features full support for AI train driving!

It's been well over a year since I've been able to make a proper official map (since the "Slice of Wellington" one was just a chunk of city scenery, no track or nature) so this has been a ton of fun to make, and I'm really happy with how its turned out.

You can access this map from the main menu:
Select "New Game -> Main Maps -> National Park"

This map is also now the largest official map by a big margin! (even bigger than the "Top of the South"). Here is the full official map poster:

[h2]Drivable vehicles[/h2]

Since this map makes use of the new fully dynamic roads and vehicles, you can view the map from the perspective of a car as well as a train. This is the first map I've worked on that actually has the driver's perspective incorporated, and you can complete a full loop of the maps' scenery entirely from within a car:

[h2]AI trains[/h2]

This is also the first official map I've built with AI driving in mind!
All the sidings feature full AI-friendly signalling and trains can pass each other. Trains even stop and wait at National Park station!
When you first load up the map there will already be a couple of random AI-driven trains already moving.

[h2]Screenshots[/h2]

Here are some HD screenshots of the map, feel free to use these as you wish!
You can view the full album here: https://imgur.com/gallery/npnic1i

[h2]Easter Eggs[/h2]

Just like all the other official maps, National Park also contains a bunch of secrets and Easter Eggs! I won't give you any clues here... but there's definitely a bunch of cool things to find!

Other features in this update

I've been working on this map for almost two months, so this update also contains all the various features, fixes and additions I've made in that time. And there's quite a lot!

[h2]Smooth train rotation [/h2]

Firstly, I've added a feature to fix something that has bugged me for a long time. Trains have a bit of a "jittery" look when going around curves, and this features smooths out the movement of trains when you are driving in the cab, which results in beautifully smooth curves:

[h2]Automatic height adjustment when teleporting [/h2]

When in large scale you now match the height of anything you teleport on to if it is higher than your vision, so you no longer end up inside the terrain:

[h2]New road decal props[/h2]

You can find these in the "Terrain -> decals" drawer:

There are also flipped versions of these rust decal props:

[h2]New shapes props[/h2]

These were used to make the roof design of the Chateau Tongariro Hotel, you can find them in the "Shapes -> Shapes 2" drawer:

[h2]Airplane options for maps[/h2]

You can now adjust the flying height (and whether they are visible at all) for planes on a map-by-map basis. These values are set for the map you are currently editing.

These buttons are on the wall next to the other room options (like wall style and colors):

[h2]Road embankments[/h2]

There is now a new road style option for embankments. This will add extra terrain to the sides of roads to help blend the road with the the ground:

[h2]Optimizations[/h2]

Thanks to the previous update which involved a huge re-haul to the train system (cleaning up code behind the scenes) I've been able to make some optimizations to how trains are handled.

Trains now have a "Sleep mode" when they are not moving. They will save some performance while in this state, and they are "woken up" when interacted with or affected by any other moving trains.
Collision detection for trains has been optimized a lot. For example, wagons which are already connected as part of a train do not need to check for impact collisions, since it is only possible for the front of another moving train to impact with them.
Lots of LOD adjustments and changes to the way trains are handled in the distance.

[h2]New asynchronous loading stages[/h2]

The game now loads maps with a few new asynchronous loading steps. What this means is that the loading screen will stay responsive and show a progress number instead of just freezing during the loading stage.

Track is now loaded asynchronously, as well as preloading props. You can now see a display of the total number of props and track during these loading stages:

[h2]Trains loaded into drawers asynchronously[/h2]

Drawers now load trains in one-by-one, instead of freezing the game to load them all on the same frame.

[h2]AI features[/h2]
There is now a new AI trigger sign which can be used to enable and disable custom models (for mods which make use of the custom models feature).

Here is an example of a mod which uses these "Custom models" for freight loads:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916250594

You can find these new AI signs in the "track addons -> AI triggers 2" drawer:

Here is an example of how this AI signs can be used to mimic freight loading (by enabling a custom model when passing a certain point of track)

Some AI signs (lights and custom model triggers) now also work for wagons as well as locomotives.

[h2]AI enable lights by control type[/h2]

The AI signs for enabling/disabling lights can now be set to control only a specific layer of light control (e.g. headlights, cab lights, custom mod lights, etc).

There are also now 9 full slots for custom light control layers.

[h2]Linked save files for packaged mods[/h2]

I've finally added a much requested feature where save files can "link" to another save file to copy its packaged mods.
What this means is that if you make a local copy of a workshop save, or official map (like National Park) which uses packaged mods, your own copy will still load those same packaged mods.

This does NOT make a copy of the files, and the link will only be maintained if you have the original map.
e.g. you could download the Beer Line, make a new save game of it, then that new copy will still contain all the same mods as the workshop original.
BUT if you unsubscribe from the original, then those mod files will be removed and your local copy can no longer access them.
Also if you tried to upload your copy to the workshop, other people would also need to be subscribed to the original Beer Line to access the mods.
(the mod files are not copied in to your own copy of the save, it just "links" back to the original maps folder).

Think of it like a save file has a "link" to the previous save file it came from.

For example, a saved copy of the beer line will first go "check the folder of the original Beer Line for any packaged mods first before loading this map".

[h2]Other fixes and features[/h2]

The car engine audio presets & horns (like buses, trucks, etc) are now included as mod audio options. The ghost engine and horns/whistles are also included.
There is also now a dedicated audio setting for vehicles. You can change this in the audio menu. By default, it is a little bit quieter than trains.
Fixed bug where signals would show orange instead of red if a train was passing through its orange range while there was still a train inside its red range.
Audio sources now copy their data when cloned (e.g. the same audio clip remains selected).
If a car/train is being AI driven and you click the in-cab speed buttons it will automatically switch from AI control to manual control.
Cars and trains now show "AI" on the in-cab driving speed display if they are currently AI driven (instead of the default "---" text).
There is now a popup warning message when first opening the skybox editing menu. This is to help prevent people from accidentally messing with the skybox layers when they dont intend to (which happens surprisingly often).
There is now a button in the "Room -> advanced" drawer which you can use to move all props back to the main layer. This is useful for if you have accidentally been using a different skybox layer and you need to fix it.
Wagon LOD (low detail models) are now automatically updated when the player teleports, which removes pop-in when returning from the menu.
Photo mode is now blocked when capturing a thumbnail.
When opening photo mode the time of day and season are automatically set to the current maps values.
The scroll wheel is now locked when you press Insert to free the cursor from the game window.
You can also now free the cursor inside photo mode as well.
Added feature to help prevent lag spikes messing with your movement. Input made on lag spiked frames is now ignored, like moving the mouse in photo mode and moving around the map.
Adjusted how some props are treated in terms of what is visible in low-detail scenery.
Photo mode can no longer be opened during loading screens.
Fixed bug where teleporting to the menu was still possible during some parts of the loading screen.
Fixed bug where the bridge style would still be added to track generated in the dynamic track generator if the type was switched away from turntable when multiple tracks were also selected.
Fixed bug in the road generator where the dash-line style was applied to both sides of the road, causing it to overlap in the middle.
Fixed bug where collision on wagons was not flipped when the wagon was reversed.
Fixed bug in the modding system where the bell preset override texture did not work.
Fixed bug in the modding system where custom bell audio would not load correctly.
Fixed bug in the modding system where the low-detail LOD version of the train would be shown after exiting the LOD model editing menu.
Fixed the bell model for the AC4400CW, it was not visible since the last update.
Fixed the AC4400CW livery template to include a reference to the bell texture.
Fixed UV's on the low-detail LOD model for the custom livery baggage coach.
Fixed missing pantograph spawn point for the NR.

And that's everything!
I hope you enjoy the new map, I absolutely loved making it. New Zealand is hardly ever featured in video games, so Rolling Line is picking up the slack.

As the previous news post mentioned, Rolling Line has just turned 5 years old, so what better way to celebrate than to go back to the games roots, back in beautiful old NZ.

Have fun!