Rolling Line News

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!

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)