Rolling Line News

Today's update includes a bunch of useful tools and features for layout building, bug fixes and quality of life improvements.

Most of all, turnout lever styles!

But this update also includes:

• Tunnel regions (areas you can set where a special lighting effect is used)
  
• Rain exclude regions (areas where rain & snow is disabled, like underground and inside buildings)
  
• Changes and fixes to the wire tool
  
• Optimizations and lag fixes for skyboxes
  
• Various bug fixes
  

Plus i'll explain a bit about what i'm working on at the moment and what's coming to Rolling Line in the future!

[h2]Turnout lever styles[/h2]

You can now change the style of the control lever on turnouts.
There are a whole bunch of options, and you can find them in the new tools drawer in the "track tools" category:



There are six different variations:



You can also the the 'X' painter to remove the turnout lever entirely.
This is useful for if you want to make the turnout only controllable from switchboards.

You can also swap the side of the lever (left - right) using the arrow painter.

[h2]Tunnel regions[/h2]

One of the strange features that you can only find on the old "Top of the south" layout is something called a "Tunnel region".
Tunnel regions are areas where a special visual effect will happen if the player is inside them.
The sun will go darker, and fog will block the distant view.



This effect is used inside tunnels to make things look a bit nicer, but you can also use this same effect to make underground areas darker (or more if you want to be creative with it).

You can now make use of this effect yourself on your own layouts!
Simply use the new tunnel region options panel to set where this effect is used.
(you can find this panel in the "advanced editing options" panel on the wall)



From here you can spawn in "bounds boxes" (just like with audio regions, skybox regions, etc).
If you place these bounds boxes inside tunnels then you will get the tunnel visual effect!



[h2]Rain exclude regions[/h2]

Just like with tunnel regions, this system lets you choose areas on your map which (in this case) exclude rain & snow.
When the player is inside one of these regions the rain & snow effects will stop.
This is perfect for any indoor or under-cover areas.



[h2]Various fixes and features[/h2]

- The wire tool now has transparent selection points to help make accurate placement easier:



- There is also a bug with the wire tool selection that has been fixed.
(changing to the "erase" mode with a selection active could cause the tool to break)

- The level crossing on the Miami Shelf layout now uses the new dynamic trigger system.

- Fixed an issue where leaving the thumbnail capture mode would sometimes spawn you outside the map.

- Fixed issue where region bounds boxes would still have active snap points even when hidden.

- Fixed material issue with the audio panel icon.

- Fixed major optimization issue with skyboxes. You may have noticed lag spikes when running maps with skyboxes (spikes every second, constantly). This has been fixed.

[h2]What's next?[/h2]

Something fun!
After a long time of very "technical" updates (designed for map makers) with things like ambient audio, level crossings, wires, switchboards, etc... I'm now working on something a bit more creative!

It's the "Santa Fe remaster"
Much like how the Miami Shelf map got an extended skybox and updated wires/switchboards etc, the Santa Fe map also needs this.
But this time I am going to be expanding the map a bit, including adding new locations and even some stuff surrounding the Mojave desert and Route 66!



The Santa Fe layout was made a long time ago, and almost every aspect of it (signals, track, skybox, etc) needs to be updated to the new tools that have been added to Rolling Line.

So keep an eye out for that!
I personally absolutely love the Santa Fe layout, and I've always wanted to expand it and make the most out of it's beautiful setting and theme.

Enjoy!

Something that's always forgotten about in Rolling Line... audio!

I've been meaning to put some time towards the audio system in the game for ages, and that time has finally come! This includes:

• Customize the overall ambient audio for your layout
  
• Create "Audio regions" where different ambient audio plays (e.g. different locations in your layout, like cities and deserts)
  
• Create "Audio sources" which play sounds from a specific point in your layout in 3D space
  
• Import your own audio clips to use for both ambiance and audio sources
  
• Share your modded audio on the workshop and package it in your layouts
  

No longer are you bound to the default ambient birds (that have become synonymous with Rolling Line) you can now have ambiance like city streets, industrial factories, windy grasslands, seaside towns, etc...

You can also use the new "Audio sources" to place specific sounds around your layout.
For example, a river that makes rushing water sounds, or a power station with an electrical hum.

And of course you can use the modding system to import your own Mp3 files for all of these features!


Plus I've also made a bunch of improvements to some of the official layouts, like skyboxes, powerlines and full custom audio!
(More info on that later in the news post)



[h2]Ambient audio [/h2]

On the wall next to all the other map customization options there is now an "audio options" panel you can open:



On this panel you can easily choose which ambient audio you want from a list of pre-packaged options. Simply choose the one you want and it will replace the default ambiance, and will be included in your save file.

Modded (either created yourself or downloaded from the Steam Workshop) will show up in this list, but more info on that later in the news post.





The main chosen ambiance will play everywhere, regardless of where you are on the layout. But you can also create "Ambient regions" which will play specific ambiance when in specific locations.

[h2]Ambient regions[/h2]

From this menu you can choose to spawn in a new ambient region.
Clicking this will give you a little speaker prop which you can then place on the ground.





Once placed on the ground, use the "Edit Options" popup to set it up:



From here you can set up all the options for the audio region.
Firstly you can choose which audio clip it will play, and you can set whether it is "high priority" or not. High priority regions will be chosen over others if they overlap.

Next you can use the "add bounds box" button to start setting up the area where this audio will be used. Just like with the skyboxes regions, you use cubes as "bounds boxes" to define the area.

Whenever the player is inside one of these "bounds boxes" the ambient audio will be replaced with the one chosen for this region.



[h2]Ambient sources[/h2]

You can also create simple "audio sources" which will emit a looping sound from a specific point.

You can spawn these from the audio menu on the wall, just like the audio regions.
Place the speaker prop on the ground and edit the options using the popup options menu.

You can change things like the audio clip, volume, and range (how far away you will be able to hear this audio source in 3D space).



These little speaker icons are only visible when you have the audio options menu open. Simply click the "Apply and hide audio icons" button on the wall menu to stop editing them.



You can simply open the wall menu again to make them visible again.

[h2]Importing your own audio files [/h2]

You can add your own audio clips using mods!
Just like with prop mods, open the modding manager (from the pause menu) and change the category to "Audio clip".



From here you can create a new Audio Clip mod, which only contains a single audio file (Mp3).
Just like with all mods, you need to place the assets you want to use (in this case an Mp3 file) in the "Rolling Line -> modding -> custom assets" folder.

Then after you have saved the new mod, the audio clip will show up as an option in any audio choices list (ambient and sources).

If you download an audio clip mod off the workshop, it will also appear in the audio choices list.

[h2]Audio mods on the workshop[/h2]

There is now a new main category on the Steam Workshop for "Audio clips"



As a little example, I've made a quick Far Cry 2 diorama!
This layout uses modded audio to add ambiance and music from the game.

You can find this example layout here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2484509554

The modded audio clips are already packaged inside the map, but you can also find the individual audio mods here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2484506598
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2484507196

[h2]New skyboxes and audio in official maps! [/h2]

As part of this update I've "remastered" a few of the official layouts to include new features.

Most of all the Miami shelf layout now has a full skybox, plus custom audio and also makes use of the new powerlines:



The Hanmer Springs map also now has a full skybox and custom audio too:



And lastly, the Hallowed Cove layout also has an extended skybox and custom spooky audio.
The "Halloween sky" is also now stored inside save files! so this means that if you set the sky to use the special Halloween sky, it will be saved in the save file.
When you load the Hallowed Cove map, it will now automatically enable the Halloween sky!



[h2]Other features [/h2]

Lastly, this update also includes a few other things.

There are now a bunch of mountain peak props:
(You can find them in the terrain drawer)



There are also now a bunch of painters which you can use to switch props over to different skybox layers manually. e.g. if you want to move a prop into the "miniature only" layer without re-placing it. Keep in mind you need to save and re-load your layout for these changes to take effect!



The sky also no longer dims while the weather is set to stormy or heavy cloud in large scale. Previously the room would go a bit darker to reflect the weather, but this feature has been removed. So the room will stay at full brightness regardless of weather.

And thats everything!

Lots of stuff in this update, and I really hope you have a look at the newly updated maps (Miami Shelf, Hanmer Springs and the Hallowed Cove) because the new skyboxes and audio make a world of difference.

Enjoy!

This may very well be the strangest update Rolling Line has ever had...
So first I'll explain the context!

The last week has been a very busy one, since the New Zealand Games Festival has been happening here in Wellington! I've been attending a bunch of events, including a 48hr game jam called the "PB&Jam"



The goal of the game jam was to make a game in 48 hours from scratch, and to do it in person at the event (so this means I took my laptop over to the venue and made the game there).
It's been over 4 years since I've worked on a brand new game project (Rolling Line is a full-time job), so this was a really fun opportunity to make something small and quick from scratch!

I chose to take part in the game jam solo, and I ended up making a colorful little physics platformer called Glowbells!


https://gaugepunkgames.itch.io/glowbells

Now I was thinking... why leave Glowbells as just a standalone game?
Rolling Line is moddable & customizable enough that I could definitely import the assets (and more) from Glowbells into the game.
Well guess what, I ended up importing the entire game!

On PC (not in VR) you can literally play Glowbells inside Rolling Line:



Along with the game itself, you can also make use of a bunch of props from the game:



And best of all, you can let actual Glowbells loose in your map!
These can be placed like normal props, but if you simply drop them they will bounce around just like in the game.



You can even collect them into pens, and make your own Glowbell farms ːsteamhappyː



The NZ Games Festival also included a bunch of meet & greet events, as well as two full days of conferences (called "Play by Play"). So it has been a pretty busy week!



Game developer conferences are always fun, and so inspiring.
This is actually the first ever one held in Australia/New Zealand since the pandemic.



[h2]In other news...[/h2]

After this busy week of game development events, and two weekends in a row spent indoors, I'm going to be embarking on a 4-day tramping trip! (aka: hiking/camping).

I'm going to be walking into the Tararua Ranges and I'll be completely out of cellphone/internet reception for likely the whole time. So please bare with me when it comes to bug reports/questions, since I wont be able to respond until i get home.

For anyone who knows the area, or is interested, my tramping route involves:
Leaving Waikanae -> Staying in Renata Hut -> Climbing up to Mt Aston and turning around, then staying in Elder Hut -> Staying in Kapakapanui Hut -> Walking back out to Waikanae



And that's all for now!

Updates will get more back to normal once I get back, and in the meantime I hope everyone has fun with this rather unconventional update!

This update has a ton of stuff in it, including some very highly requested features!
There's a lot to get through, so I'll go through them one-by-one:

[h2]Room scaling (in all directions)[/h2]

You can now extend the custom room's walls in all directions! Which is perfect if you've ever run in to a situation where you wanted to extend your layout in a direction that is blocked off by the menu corner.

Previously you could only change the width/length/height of the room, but now you can adjust these to negative values to extend the walls in the opposite direction:





[h2]Placeable custom menus [/h2]

You can also now place your own portable menus anywhere in the room!
You're no longer limited to just the single menu in the corner of the room, simply place a new pause menu wherever you like in your layout and you can use it just like the default one.





You can also place compact little time/weather menus as well:



You can also set menus as a "teleport point"
(simply use the "Q" hover option to toggle on/off)

When you press the pause button you will automatically be teleported to the closest menu which has the "teleport to" option enabled! This means you can have multiple menus around your layout that you can teleport to, instead of just the default one in the corner.



[h2]Level crossings[/h2]

Here's something people have been requesting for ages!

You can now control the trigger area for level crossings
(how close a train needs to be to enable the bells and lights)
Much like with skyboxes and switchboards, you can place down "bounds boxes" to show where you want the crossing to detect trains:



Of course you can still leave them automatic (which they are by default) but this new system means you can completely control how level crossings detect trains!



There are 3 options:
- Automatic (how crossings normally worked, using the default trigger area)
- Custom trigger (choose your own trigger area)
- Linked (copy the state of another crossing)

linked crossings will activate/deactivate at the same time as the crossing you link them to. This is perfect for when you want 2-4 crossing signals to all activate at the same time!
Simply set up one of them to detect trains, then make the other ones link back to the original.

There is also an option to "Use lights offset" which will make the flashing lights alternate to the one you are linked to.



[h2]Biome brush improvements [/h2]

The erase function on the Biome Brush is now much more useful!
Biome brushes will now delete anything that matches the items inside it (they no longer need to be placed with the same brush).
This means you can load up a map, put a tree in the brush, then easily erase the trees on the map.



The lag caused by using the brush for a long time has also been improved!
As long as you "Apply edits" often you can continue to use the brush without any extra lag.

There are also now 16 slots (instead of 8)



plus a few other smaller things:

• The "moving help box" setting has been removed and the help box hovers over the selected item by default
  
• Made changes to the wall editing UI
  
• There are now two room tool drawers, instead of just one. And it's more organized
  
• Fixed some mesh issues with the pylon props
  
• Fixed issue where the wire tool would be deleted when using the down action, instead to changing the UI selection
  
• Fixed major issue with the VR keyboard (they keyboard had been broken for ages and somehow managed to not get noticed)
  
• Fixed the transform gizmo breaking after restarting the game (visiting easter egg scenes)
  
• The help text for setting the track gradient to 0 is now more clear (you need to hold ALT and release the left mouse to set the gradient)
  
• Streamliner custom liveries now use the correct default wagon when the livery is not downloaded

And that's all!
Tons of stuff in this update, lots of useful things for map makers!

It's great to finally get these features done, i'm gradually getting through the list of everything I've been meaning to add to the game for ages.

Big things are on the way!

Here's something I've been wanting to add to the game for ages!
Rolling Line has had power poles and pylons for a while, but they were always missing the actual wires.

Well this update finally adds a "wire tool" which lets you connect wires between different points!
You can easily connect power poles and pylons (all wires at once) or freely string up wires between any two points.

You can find the new wire tool in the "Room -> tools" drawer:



You can change a few options (like wire thickness and the slack):



Plus you can change the colors of the wire by painting the tool directly:



Using the tool you can connect all the wires of a power pole/pylon in one go:



Or you can change the snapping mode from "all" to "single" which lets you connect wires to each point individually:
(Press Q and E two switch between snap points)



All of the power pole and pylon props have snap-points for wires!
Plus the two pylon props now have insulators and a few more details:



Plus the power station props have wire snap-points too!



There are also a couple of new single insulator props that you can stick on to anything:



And of course you can add these new snap points to your prop mods too!



Here's an example I've made on the Steam Workshop:

You can find the files for this example mod in the game folder too:
"Rolling Line\Modding\templates\prop mod examples"

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2451075760

In addition to the new wire tool, this update also includes a few other things:

• There is now a launch tag "-nomods" which makes the game load without any mods (which is great for testing whether mods are causing issues without needing to delete them all)
  
• The room tools drawer is cleaned up and has names for each tool
  
• Legacy liveries now show up for updating in the "mods" list instead of the "layouts" list
  
• The original NZ power pole props are now paintable (and a bit taller)
  

And that's all for this update,
It's going to be great seeing actual wires showing up in everyone's layouts, it adds so much more detail and makes pylons look so much cooler!

Enjoy!