Rolling Line News

The track system in Rolling Line is undergoing big changes!

The old system I made had huge limitations, and required me to manually build 3D meshes for every single piece of track, which meant that adding new track curves was a very long and tedious process.
But with this new system track can be automatically generated based on custom values like radius and length! Which means you can now easily build track with any angle you please.

This new system also means that it is MUCH easier to add different kinds of track and style adjustments to the game! For now this means that you can paint on details like bridges onto any track (instead of being restricted to specific "bridge" pieces of track). This update comes with a few new track styles and detail addons, but many many more will be coming in the future thanks to these new changes!

This big track upgrade is going to be released in three parts (since its a very big job).
- This is the first part, which only affects curves and straight pieces of track.
- The next part will affect flexytrack and make changes to how gradients work.
- The third and final part will convert turnouts to the new system, at which point ALL track in the game will be using the new system!

What this means is that right now (after this update) only straights and curves will be affected by these new features, you cannot use the new style painters on old track, flexytrack and turnouts.
Once all three updates are complete, all track will be using the same system and you will be able to use these new features on everything!

You can now generate curves with a custom radius and angle, as well as straight track segments (with a custom length) using the new curve generator:



The distance between each step in the radius is exactly equal to the standard distance between track already established in the game, so it's easy to make multi-track curved yards!



There are also plenty of pre-made track pieces you can use (just like before) so you don't have to use this track generator at all, its more for people wanting to make specific curves for advanced track layouts.



Along with the new track generator, there is also a bunch of new track style painters:



There are three new styles of track:
- wonky rails (no sleepers)
- wonky rails with derelict sleepers
- derelict sleepers without any rails



There are also two new style of ballast:
- wide ballast
- embankments (for elevated track)

as well as one new track color style, rusty track:



You can also now paint bridges directly on to track!



I've been working on this new track system in the background for weeks now, and it's great to finally start bringing it into the game officially! This new system completely changes how track is handeled programming-wise and paves the way for all sorts of new features which would have been incredibly difficult to implement on the old system.

I'm also working on the previously mentioned Sao Paulo content alongside these new track features, so there will be some new props (and even a new train!) coming in the near future!

Enjoy!

(P.S. Thanks Steam for deleting half the news post when I published it and making me re-write it. I've had a lot of problems with this new system already so far)

Something simple that Rolling Line has desperately needed, a dark mode theme! No longer do you need to be blinded by the solid white loading screens (especially in VR).

There are now several new options in the "Graphics -> Theme" menu which you can change to customize a few new things.

You can change the backdrops to be solid black (instead of the blue sky) which affects the official maps (main layout, Santa Fe) and the custom track room walls, but this won't affect the user-placed wall props.



You can also choose to have night-time menus! this replaces the random menus around the main layout with a bunch of night ones (using the Hanmer Springs map).



And lastly, you can of course change the loading screens to use a dark theme.



Alongside this small update I've been spending a lot of time working on upgrading the custom track system! This new system allows for choosing any angle you want for pieces of track, as well as new track style additions (like 3rd rails, overhead wires, more types of tunnels etc). This track update is still in development and will be coming soon!

In the meantime, enjoy this nice little quality-of-life improvement!

Custom liveries are now available for the British Sprinter locomotive!
You can find them under the "Commuter Sprinter" tag in the Steam workshop and access them in-game in the usual manor.



You can find the new template files in the "Rolling Line\Modding\templates" folder.
Or simply use this copy of the template here:



I've been working on lots of back-end structure changes and testing out lots of new things in preparation for some big features on the way! Some updates to look forward to in the near future (while i'm working on the Sao Paulo expansion) are things like new track, roads and overhead wires!
This last part of the year is going to be very busy, and there's going to be lots of big things happening for Rolling Line!

Enjoy!

Its time for another Issue of Model Rolling Line! It's been over 8 months since the last issue, and im so glad to finally be releasing a new one!
This issue goes over the Color-comp we had, and also goes into detail about the new Sao Paulo expansion coming to Rolling Line!

You can find the new magazine issue in-game or you can also read it on the Gaugepunk Games website

After my trip to Sao Paulo (Brazil) I've returned with big plans for Rolling Line's first ever official expansion! The magazine goes in to more detail, but ill certainly say that its going to feature an official layout comparable in size to the games current New Zealand main layout! along with around 7 new locomotives (diesel, electric and steam) rolling stock, passenger wagons and TONS of unique props!

This is expansion is going to take me around 3-4 months to build, and will involve many smaller feature updates along the way to make this new map possible (things like roads and overhead wires!). While this is going to be a paid DLC, all new gameplay features (and many of the props/wagons/trains that aren't unique to Brazil) will be released as normal free updates, which means updates will continue as normal while this expansion is being worked on!

This will also involve a full translation into the Portuguese language, which also lays the foundations for other translations to other languages in the future!

This information is all covered inside the magazine, but here is the essential info about which locations and trains are planned for this expansion:









Along with the new magazine issue, there are a couple of small fixes included in this update:

• Fixed issue where colored lights would not be updated when using the multi-Paint UI
  
• Fixed some mesh errors on the ferry and classic car props
  

There's going to be lots of interesting updates coming in the future in preparation for the Sao Paulo expansion, things like roads, more track pieces and even overhead wires!
The development of this expansion marks a big milestone in Rolling Line's development, and its going to be a HUGE job.
This is going to be the largest sum of content ive ever worked on to date!

Enjoy!

Oh and i almost forgot! The Rolling Line Discord server just got a big clean-up and is an excellent place to keep up to date with everything going on in the community. There are even weekly and monthly competitions with screenshots, layouts, liveries and mods! Also I'm personally quite active on the Discord server, so it's the main place for Q&A with the community.

You can join here (we are already 450+ members strong!)
https://discord.gg/6ENDPPw

Today's update adds a range of smaller fixes and features, as well as a nice new map based on the Hanmer Springs hot pools in New Zealand! (much like the update that added the Puzzling World map).

You can play the new map from the main menu by starting a new game (and choosing the "Hanmer Springs" map).

The reason i chose this map is because it shows off the main new feature of this update, colored lights! (...and i also visited this place in real life last weekend). There is now a new lamp added to the game which can be painted with any normal painter to set its color.



This update also features many changes to how lights work.
There are now new optimizations surrounding lights in maps, and new settings to change how lights behave (you can find them in the "Custom track -> lighting" menu).

By default, lights now turn off automatically during the day and turn on at night! you can still manually turn lights on/off and they will stay this way. You can re-set lights to be automatic from the previously mentioned lighting menu.



The new map shows off how these colored lights can be used!

As part of the new map, this update also adds a few new props, like a larger umbrella, hand rails and hexagonal shapes:



The last part of this update is the addition of basic Valve Index controls.
Sadly since Rolling Line still has quite an old version of SteamVR, I can't make full use of the Index controllers, and the current control scheme is far from perfect.



Trigger - use buttons & clone trains/props
A - pick up items & grip locomotion
B - menu

joystick up - teleport in large scale
joystick down - teleport in miniature scale

joystick up/down/left/right - user hover options on items (e.g. clone, delete, etc)
joystick left/right - rotate player (if enabled in the locomotion menu)

There will certainly be an update in the future that adds proper Index controller support, with finger tracking and support for the SteamVR input binding system.

As it is now, the tutorial does not show the index controls (only Oculus and Vive). Both the Index and Oculus touch controllers now have a better pointing angle too, something that ive been meaning to add for ages.

A few other changes to note:

• Fixed bugs with the new speed acceleration system introduced in the previous update.
  
• Added a setting to change whether the speed acceleration is used in miniature, always, or disabled completely.
  
• Fixed large bugs with materials.
  
• Lights now have a "turn on/off" option when hovering over them (Q on PC).
  

This update is quite a mixed bag, since im tying up lots of loose ends before moving on to much bigger updates!

There's lots of exciting stuff still to come!