Rolling Line News

Its finally here! official in-game prop modding!

With this new system you can create your own props from 3D models and textures and share them on the Steam Workshop! All of this is done in-game (aside from making the actual 3D model assets) which means you dont need to do any file management or editing values in text files.

Simply put all your 3D models and textures into the new "custom assets" folder and then you can access them inside the modding menus.

You can make props paintable, and customize all sorts of data for the mod (including a new tag system).

Please note: this is not "prop grouping" as some people have misunderstood. These mods are made from 3D models, not from making shapes out of in-game props. You need to make 3D models in external software.
Please make sure you understand how the modding system works before uploading to the workshop! There are already many empty mods showing up.



You can even see a real-time copy of your mod while you are editing it!
This "preview model" works exactly the same as any normal prop in the game, so you can clone it, paint it, place it etc... all while still creating your mod.



My main focus of development for a while now has been towards building this new modding system, and bringing mods to the steam workshop.
This has been a major goal of mine, and the first step of this new modding system (props) is finally ready for release!

This same system will eventually be used to make train mods (replacing the old "QuickMods") but that will still be a while away as there is tons of work still to do.

[h2]Steam Workshop [/h2]

The best part about this new modding system is that it is completely handled through the Steam workshop. Which means you can upload/share and download mods all entirely through Steam.

I can't wait to see the kind of stuff people can make with these new tools
(and many people have already started!)



You can find heaps of new categories and tags on the Steam Workshop to accommodate for the new mods:



Prop mods are divided up in to categories (e.g. Terrain, Vehicles, Trackside) to help organize them.
They are also divided into regions of the world (e.g. North America, Europe).

On top of this you can also define your own custom tags when creating a mod.
These can be whatever you want, but you can include more specific countries (e.g. New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Iraq) or just more specific categories for your mod (e.g. Boat, Car, Plane, Rock, Tree).

Please tag your items correctly!
If you leave your mod with default tags it will be much less likely to be seen by people.

[h2]Downloading mods[/h2]

Downloading props to use is incredibly simple, just subscribe to them on the Steam Workshop (just like you would with any livery/layout) and then you will be able to access them in-game.

There is now a new drawer category for mods:



And inside this drawer category you can find a drawer which displays all of your downloaded (and created) mods.

Simply click on the mod you want and it will spawn in just like any other prop!
You can also store these props in custom drawers if you want to organize them more.



[h2]Creating mods[/h2]

Creating mods in Rolling Line is much simpler than in most games, but you will still need to have experience with creating 3D models in external software like Blender (or Maya, 3DsMax, etc). But once you have your assets ready then setting them up in-game is easy!

Unlike the vast majority of games with modding, in Rolling Line you can now set up and edit your mods entirely in-game.
Simply go to the modding menu "Pause menu -> modding" to get started:



This list will show all of the mods your have created yourself as well as any mods you have downloaded from the workshop.



Keep in mind that you cannot edit mods you have downloaded! But you can make a copy of them which can then be edited.
Be careful though with editing other peoples mods as you should ask the original creator of the mod if they are ok with you doing so. In general you should not upload anything you didn't personally create to the Steam Workshop without permission from the owner.

To learn about the full process of making mods, have a read of this amazing guide made by Coconut_pie here on Steam:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2139292988

[h2]Future improvements[/h2]

This isn't the fully-featured version of prop modding yet and i still have many more features to add. There are likely going to be several more updates in the future that add more functionality to prop modding including things like snapping, animations, audio, and all sorts of little improvements along the way.

Once prop modding is complete, train modding is the next major step!
The old "QuickMod" system is going to be replaced by this new in-game modding UI and will be very similar to how prop modding works.

And of course train mods will be coming to the workshop as well!
[h2]
Other features[/h2]

Alongside prop modding, this update also includes a bunch of other fixes and features:

• There is now a reminder when uploading a workshop item about the rules on copying and re-uploading other peoples content. This is becoming quite a problem at the moment (people just straight-up re-uploading other peoples work) So hopefully this reminds people if they didn't know otherwise.
  
• Moved the quickMod and quickTerrain drawers into the new "modding" category alongside propMods.
  
• Split the "track" category into two separate ones, "track" and "track tools". you can now find things like track detail painters and signals in the "track tools" drawer category.
  
• Fixed issue with missing props in custom drawers causing errors.
  
• Fixed a bug with custom colors where adding new colors would not set the correct drawer page.
  

And that's all for now!

This update has been in the works for a while now and its so great to finally release it.
Prop modding is going to absolutely revolutionize layout building, and add more content into the game than i could ever hope to make myself one-by-one.

It's incredible to see just how much enthusiasm and creativity is already on the workshop.
Even though this update has only just been released, i highly recommend going and having a look on the workshop at all the stuff people have already started uploading.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/754150/workshop/



The possibilities of a passionate community and good modding tools are endless!

Enjoy!

Prop modding is still very much a work-in-progress, so in the meantime here's a bunch of great community-made vehicles!

Since prop modding is already in the testing phase, some community members have already started making their own mods with it, and they are looking excellent! Many of the modders have already gotten really good at emulating the games art-style, so props like these fit into the game really well.

You can find all these new vehicles in the vehicle drawer category:



[h2]Trucks[/h2]
To start off, Rolling Line finally has a truck prop! Specifically two of them, as well as a trailer. These are multi-paintable of course.
These truck models were made by Anyone999991!



[h2]Bikes[/h2]
Another thing I've thought about adding for a while (but the community beat me to it!) is bikes. There are now three variations of bikes (tandem, road bike, and classic city bike).
These bike models were made by coconut_pie!



In addition to the community made vehicles, this update also adds the lifeboats (from the ferry prop) as their own individual props:



And for a non-prop related feature:
You can now manually change which room the pause menu spawns in. The reason for this is that a recent glitch caused some peoples save files to break in such a way that the menu started showing up in the wrong room, so now you can manually fix this if it happened to you!

Keep in mind that the legacy rooms are no longer fully supported, and I recommend sticking to the "custom table" room instead.




Aside from that, this update also includes a bunch of smaller features and fixes:

• Pantograph state (raised/lowered) is now saved in the layout save file. so these no longer reset after reloading.
  
• Fixed bug that prevented the "custom track" tutorial from being completed. The step where you need to paint a prop to continue was bugged. this has been fixed now.
  
• Fixed a bug where table style was not correctly saved (e.g. solid black vs wooden)
  
• In-game music will now no longer automatically stop when going near a moving train in large scale (only in miniature scale) previously going near loud noises in large scale would cause the music to fade out.
  
• The autumn leaves props now have randomized color hue and size, this was just a simple oversight.
  

Also in other news, i made a quick little scenery diorama inspired by "the Lunatic Line" through Kenya. Specifically the scenery of urban decay and slums. I had never seen this style of scenery made in Rolling Line before so i wanted to try it out!

You can find it here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2172822471




And that's all for now!
Prop modding is still very much in the works and will eventually be ready for release, hopefully within the next few weeks.

But in the meantime, i hope you enjoy these new community made vehicles!

Today's update is actually more of a background game-tech upgrade, so it doesn't have that many exciting new features to try out, but it makes a huge difference in the long run!

Rolling Line has grown tons since it was first released (over 2 years ago!) and the programming behind it has gone through more changes, feature additions and upgrades than I ever planned for. This means that many parts of the background code holding this game together are in dire need of improvement.

Much like with the "dynamic track" updates last year (which completely re-worked the track system) today's update focuses on cleaning up the code behind the color painting system in Rolling Line.

Color painting has gone through SO MANY changes over the years, starting with no color painting at all, to single color painting on props, to multi-painting, to custom colors, and then now, to this new system today which hopefully wraps up all of mistakes of the past systems and will be 100x easier to make changes to in the future.

I wont go into too much detail about how the new color system works, but it involves something I'm calling "KeaColorCodes" ("Kea" being the name i use for the level-editor as a whole).
These "Color Codes" store all the necessary information about a color (like material type, transparency, random hue range, etc) and can be easily saved and transferred in lots of different ways.

Thanks to these new color codes lots of new features (like paintable modded props, and paintable room walls, color cloning, etc) are now possible!

From the players perspective, this update adds:
[h2]
Paintable room walls, floor and roof[/h2]

You can now use any painter to set the colors of the interior of the custom table room!
Simply pickup a painter and paint the menu items in the wall (just like you would paint a prop)



Set the wall type to "Custom" and the walls will use the colors you set!





[h2]Clone colors[/h2]

This feature is for PC only, you can now copy the color of any paintable prop by pointing at it and pressing [Enter]
This will give you a painter with the color of the prop you copied!
This is incredibly useful for matching the colors of previously placed props, and generally makes the workflow of building a map much easier.



[h2]Clone track data[/h2]

This feature is for PC only as well and has actually been in the game for a while already, but it was quite hidden. You can now make use of copy-pasting track data simply by pointing at any piece of dynamic track and pressing [Enter]
After copying the track, go over to the dynamic track generating drawer, and press the new "paste" button.



Doing this will copy dynamic track data from a placed piece of track, then paste it into the dynamic track generator to copy over values.

For example:
If you copy a curve with Radius 12 and Angle 30,
Then paste it into the dynamic track generator,
The corresponding values will update to 12 and 30.

This is very useful if you want to make matching sizes of track or make small changes to a previously placed piece of track.

There are also a few useful quirks to this system:

• If you copy a curved piece of track, then paste it onto a turnout, only the curve part of the turnout will be updated.
  
• If you copy a straight piece of track, then paste it onto a turnout, only the straight part of the turnout will be updated.
  
• You can copy a turnout and paste it into a curve to generate a curve that matches the turnout.
  

[h2]Other changes[/h2]

Most of what this update changes is behind-the-scenes, but here are a few miscellaneous features:

• The Biome Brush now saves all multi-paint data. previously it would only save the primary paintable part of the prop, now it saves everything.
  
• fixed bug where switching between drawer categories would not reset the page, leading to an empty page list.
  
• Fixed issues with storing custom painters in custom drawers.
  

[h2]Prop modding[/h2]

Prop modding is still heavily in development and is my main focus at the moment!
The main reason behind doing this color update was to make paintable modded props possible.
Using the old system this would have been a nightmare, but with the new ColorCodes it works perfectly.

Prop modding is still several weeks away from completion, but it's all going very smoothly and will change the game in massive ways when it's complete!



And that's all for now!

This is much more a background-tech update more so than an exciting feature update, but it's still incredibly necessary to keep this game stable for future updates.

In the meantime the new little features (like wall painting and color copy-paste) should be pretty useful.

Enjoy!

Here's something out of the blue, a brand new official map in the form of a small self layout set in the downtown industries of Miami!

I started working on this on the weekend just for fun, but i was so happy with it that i decided to make some new train liveries to go with it and include it in the game as an official layout.
It's only a small shelf layout, but the density of detail makes the most of such a small place. The layout is full of graffiti, references and little details that were a ton of fun to make.



Even though it's not from the same location, i couldn't resist the opportunity to add my favorite livery of all time: the Rock Island blue (aka "The Rock" or "Bankruptcy Blue"). This livery just fitted in really well with the urban-industry scenery theme and I'm sure people will be happy to see it!



This map is completely free (of course) and everyone can access it!

To play this map, simply find it in the "new game" options on the main menu:
(Just like with maps like Puzzling World and the Santa Fe)



Keep in mind this is just a small shelf layout, not very large at all. But the goal for this layout was to densely pack details more than any other map I've made, and I'm so happy with how it turned out!



In fact this layout is actually heavily inspired by a real-work model railway built by Lance Mindheim based on a Miami downtown spur. I remember seeing this layout in Model Railroader magazines years ago and i've always loved the sun-bleached soil and graffiti-covered industry it depicts, so it was a hell of a lot of fun finally making something like it in Rolling Line!

Here is the real-world layout I'm talking about:
A combination of Lance Mindheim's "Miami Downtown Spur" and his earlier small shelf layout with the same theme.



But that's not all!
this update also adds some rust decals which were insanely useful for detailing the rusty industrial buildings for this layout.



[h2]Modding update[/h2]

The real major update that's in the works is modding, and bringing mods to the Steam workshop!

I'm currently working on a huge overhaul of the "QuickMods" system which allows you to set up and edit mods in-game, using and in-game UI and even a preview model that updates as you make changes.
These new mods will be shared and download using the Steam workshop too, so both creating and sharing mods will be 100x easier.

First off, im going to be releasing prop modding.
With prop modding you can import your own 3D models to add custom props to the game and use them as much as you want in your own maps!

Then after prop modding, I'll be releasing a full modding system for trains, which will have many more features to make use of (like custom headlights, smoke effects, even sounds).

This new modding system is a massive job, and It's going to take a while (and multiple updates) to complete it all, but this may very well be the most influential update in Rolling Lines history!
Once prop & train modding is released (and all handled through the steam workshop) there will be more props & trains available to use than i could ever make single-handed.

In fact many people have already started making mods in preparation, and it's looking excellent:



This modding update (well, multiple updates) are going to be in development for a while, at least throughout the next month. It's very likely though that the next Rolling Line update is going to be the first release of prop modding!
More advanced prop modding features, and train modding, will be coming afterwards.
So there's some pretty major stuff to look forward to!

Modding is currently in the testing phase, but you can try out making basic props if you choose to. I recommend that you dont get too attached to your creations as the modding format may still change in the coming weeks and props made during the testing stage may not still work on release. But none the less, you can still try out the system early if you want.
Here is an incredibly helpful guide made by Coconut_pie that describes how to access the mod testing features:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2139292988

Aside from the new layout, here are a few other features included in this update:

• Added the CSX and Rock Island liveries for the U20C model
  
• Added a new drawer "diesel 2" for all the U20C variants
  
• Added new drawer of rust decals
  
• Menu buttons no longer cast shadows (so the sun angle can no longer cause the menu to cast shadows on your layout)
  
• the drawer name list popup uses multiple pages now (previously this was only for custom drawers)
  

Also, the Steam workshop also now has categories for all of the competitions/jams done in the past, so now you can browse the entries for all the other comps:




I hope you enjoy the new layout!
And keep an eye out for future updates around modding, its going to be HUGE!

Wohooo! Congrats to everyone who took part in the Fantasy Livery Jam!
There were over 500+ entries and SO MANY beautiful designs and creative ideas!

I hope everyone had fun with it and I highly recommend trying out some of the entries to have a look at what everyone's made.

Have a look at the full list of entries here on the Steam Workshop.

Remember this was a jam, not a competition, so there's no "winners and losers" just a ton of great effort and creativity from heaps of people! Everybody who took part deserves a congratulations, but regardless here's a list of my personal favorites!

First up, here's a quick list of my absolute favorites from the whole jam:



The Bluerock Northern RR is amazing, the map is MASSIVE and a truly amazing piece of work. i love the livery scheme too, and overall it was exactly the kind of thing i was hoping to see for this jam! so huge congrats to The Pain Train!

The Minamisakura map has an incredible amount of effort put into it, and the history/backstory to all the rail lines and stations is awesome. Including all the text in the map is an excellent touch and must have taken SO MUCH time, so a very well deserving congrats to MattTheWolff!

And of course the Fury Railroad is just plain awesome. this is probably my personal favorite (even if it is based on a pre-existing idea). The map is so cool and i love the industrial setting. all the rusty train liveries are top notch! I absolutely love it Mr Pink!


And here's a whole bunch of other great layout & livery combos that you can go and try out!



Also, bonus shout-out to the Weebox for making over 50+ liveries for one big collection!



And lastly, here are a ton of great liveries that didn't have an associated layout but definitely deserve a mention! There were so many amazing ones!



Also don't worry if i didn't get a chance to mention your livery/map, there were 500+ items uploaded total (as of now) and i managed to personally try them all, so a HUGE thank you to everyone who took part and made something for the jam!

This update (as well as several small patches in the last 2 weeks) included a few small features and bug fixes. these are:

• Increased the custom room size limits to 1000x1000x1000
  
• Fixed issue with "exploding trains" when opening custom drawers
  
• Fixed bug that caused the custom room walls to not set the correct size when loading workshop maps
  
• Fixed distance spacing between props when using the biome brush. Also fixed issue with biome brushes not saving their data correctly.
  

In other news, the brand new modding system is fully underway!
The new modding system is going to completely change how modding works, and bring mods to the Steam Workshop!
I'm also adding prop modding, and this will be ready before trains will.
So keep an eye out for that!

And that's all for now,
Thank you everyone for taking part in the Fantasy Livery Jam!