Rolling Line News

Today's update adds a bunch of helpful (but a little complex) features as well as something that's going to make precise map making 100x easier!
You can now enter a "Transform edit" mode by pressing 'F' when hovering over any placed prop.

In this new mode you can manually edit the rotation, position and scale of the prop using classic transform handles with the mouse (this new mode is only for PC and is not available for VR unfortunately).



Getting the position and rotation of props perfect was always a real pain in Rolling Line in the past, but with these new controls its so much easier!

Of course this is a completely optional extra level of control and you can still build maps using the normal control style without any extra complexity.


Simply press F when hovering over a placed prop to enter Transform mode, then you can:

- use the left mouse to move the various position/rotation/scale handles
- use the right mouse to orbit the camera
- middle mouse/space to pan the camera
- scroll wheel to zoom in/out
- Ctrl-Z to undo a movement
- Ctrl-X to redo a movement
- Ctrl-C to copy rotation
- Ctrl-V to paste rotation
- Tab to switch between local and world space
- Hold Ctrl for more precise movement.

And then press F to exit transform mode and return to normal gameplay


In addition to the new transform mode, you can also now use a bunch of helpful shortcut keys while editing maps:

- F1 to toggle angle snap
- F2 to toggle prop & track snapping
- F3 to toggle fast prop scaling
- F4 to switch between surface snapping modes
- F5 to quickSave
- F6 to set time to day/night

Make sure you have "advanced controls" enabled! otherwise you wont have access to these shortcut keys.
You can find this option in the menu "Misc -> Advanced controls"


Something very useful for creating complex custom track is that you can now 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.

You can copy track data by pressing "Enter" while hovering over a piece of dynamic track.
Please note that you need to have "context help" and "Dynamic track info" enabled to do this. You can turn this on in the menu "Misc -> Show contextual help" and "Misc -> Show dynamic track info"

You can then paste track data by pressing the paste button on the custom track generator:



There are also a few useful quirks to this system:

• If you copy a curved piece of track, the paste it onto a turnout, only the curve part of the turnout will be updated.
  
• If you copy a straight piece of track, the 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.
  

This update also fixes some issues with the backup system and adds a "backup_log.txt" file which will list all of the backup additions & removals.
You can find these backups in the "Rolling Line -> Saves_backups" folder.

Remember, backups are automatically made every time you save over/delete a map!
You can load them in-game under the menu "manage saves -> backups"



There were also a few other features added:

• A few new help messages that show up when you first play the game, open the custom camera and open the transform mode. Simply press H to hide these messages and they will stop appearing.
  
• Added the ghost train horns and whistles to quickMods. You can find these new values in the quickmod guide here on Steam.
  
• Added "remove all backups" button in the backups menu
  
• Pressing Ctrl to slow you movement now also makes the camera height changes using the scroll wheel smaller.
  

And that's all!
This has been quite a "technical" update, with lots of little features to make complex map building a bit easier.

If you would like a more in-depth explanation of how any of the new features work, feel free to ask in the comments and I can explain in more detail.

Enjoy!

Time for the Halloween update!

There's lots of fun stuff in this one, from new decoration props to ghost trains!
The best part though is a loot pumpkin which you can open to get special train variations (and tons of candy).
I've been playing a ton of Borderlands 3 recently and felt inspired to make a "loot explosion" feature of some kind, which took form as these loot pumpkins! You can duplicate these pumpkins and keep opening them as much as you want, they are just for fun!



As well as these 'loot pumpkins' there is also a whole new drawer of Halloween themed props:



These new props include gothic-style fences & gates, various decorations, autumn leaves, light-up pumpkins, gravestones, colored lights, hanging lights and even a bubbling cauldron:



Another part of this update is the new ghost trains!
You can get them as rare rewards from opening the loot pumpkins, and there are a bunch of different wagons and locos:



As well as ghost trains, you can also find golden variations of a bunch of trains & wagons in the game! Some of you might even recognize some of these "golden trains" from an Easter egg... ;)



During Halloween there is a special main menu scene as well as the Halloween skybox seen in last year's Halloween & Christmas updates. You can turn off the Halloween skybox by going into the "weather & time menu -> advanced" and turning off "Halloween mode"

You can find the main menu map on the Steam Workshop here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1901286392

I hope you enjoy these new features and props!
And of course, Happy Halloween!

Today's update adds a small but very useful feature, an emissive material painter!

Just like the other material painter in the game (that makes props transparent) this new one gives props an unlit material effect which makes them glow in the dark, without actually being a full light source.

You can find the new painter in the second paints drawer, along with the other material painters:



This "emissive" lighting effect is perfect for making glow-in-the-dark objects and things like LED's, neon signs and even adding your own lights to things like cars and traffic lights:





Along with this new emissive painter, this update also includes a few other small things:

• Lowered the minimum prop scale size, so you can scale down props MUCH smaller now.
  
• Made props size and height scaling more precise when at a low scale (to make placing very small objects easier)
  
• Fixed the glitch where dynamic track would sometimes generate strange curves when switching the direction while placing.
  
• Improved collision on the hotel sign prop.
  

This is just a quick update which I'm releasing before Halloween, since I've got lots of stuff ready for the actual 2019 Halloween update!



The Halloween update is going to be a big one, but i hope you enjoy this nice little feature in the mean time!

Today's update is the 3rd and final part of the big track upgrade!

This update brings turnouts over to the new dynamic system and adds a bunch of new types of turnouts.
You can now generate turnouts of any angle, radius, length etc and even make wye switches!



There are several new pre-made track pieces added to the track drawers as well as four new options in the dynamic track generator:
- straight
- curved
- double curved
- wye



When placing turnouts you can now also change the direction by holding "shift" plus "Q and E" while snapped on to track!



There were also a few smaller bugs fixed in this update:

• detail paints and and track styles are kept when picking up dynamic track pieces
  
• fixed decimal rounding on dynamic track values
  
• collision on track now updates to match the ballast style used
  
• fixed unusual collision on flexytrack
  
• made changes to the dynamic track generator UI
  

Now that the track is all finally converted to the new system I can move on to some new things!
There will be a small update soon that adds the option to set different styles of turnout levers, as well as possibly some other new track detail features.

But the next major update is likely to be some fun stuff for Halloween, I've got some pretty exciting stuff planned!

Enjoy!

Today's update continues the work Ive been doing towards the new dynamic track system.
This part (part 2) brings flexytrack over to the new system, as well as adding smoothed curves to gradient track!
The next part of these track updates (part 3) will be coming up next and will bring turnouts over to the new system.

Since flexytrack is now part of the new upgraded track system, you can now use all the new painters (bridges, tunnels, all track styles, etc) on flexytrack too!
Flexytrack is also now much smoother and precise than it was before.

The new way gradients work is the highlight of this update though!
Rolling Line previously had to cheat gradients, and there was no real support for creating curves on an angle smoothly (for things like a helix) but the system has now completely changed and gradients are now perfectly smooth!

When you change the gradient angle of a piece of track (scroll wheel/VR up-down action) it will now automatically smooth the curve in-between!





This also works for curved track, which means you can easily make things like uphill winding track and a perfectly smooth helix!



These new features are bringing the game one step closer to completing this new track system, and after the next part of this update (part 3) all the track in the game will be using this new upgraded system!

There are also a few features and bug fixes in this update:

• Change the angle change step from 1 to 0.5 on the dynamic curve generator (so you can now generate angles like 22.5)
  
• Added an option (in the "Misc" menu) to have an on-screen readout of the angle and radius of dynamic track when hovering over it. this is useful for figuring out what values you need to generate similar track to what you have already placed.
  
• Fixed shading on track/bridges.
  
• Fixed bug with custom liveries being cloned (default wagons that get loaded when you dont have the livery installed).
  
• Changed how snapping curves works, curves are now actually switched between right/left curve direction when pressing Q and E, instead of just being rotated.
  

Once this track upgrade is done, im planning to add a brand new train to the game, as a change of scenery from all this track related stuff (more info on that in the next update!)

But in the mean time, i hope you enjoy these new track features!