Rolling Line News

Today's update is a busy one, with new features, bug fixes, quickMod features, and even some new props!

First of all, articulation has finally been added!
"Articulation" is when a locomotive has multiple blocks of wheels that move & rotate independently from the main body, and It's always been missing from Rolling Line.

Most obviously seen on the Big Boy, which has quite a unique style of articulation, where the whole front of the train pivots separately from the boiler.



The V8 also has this same effect, which makes the wheels curve around turns much nicer!



The other steam engines (the Berkshire and Flyer) have also been updated to include these new smoothed wheels!

You can also make full use of this feature in QuickMods!
Be warned though: it gets pretty complicated, so this is more a feature for advanced modders.

I've updated the official steam guide to include new information on how to use articulation (and custom pivot behavior) and you can find that guide here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1789707835

[h2]"Twisting trains" bug fix! [/h2]

Arguably the main highlight of this update is that I've finally fixed a major bug that has plagued Rolling Line for over a year!
This is the "twisting trains" you may have noticed when running trains for a long time.



This bug was actually caused by the wheel sets of wagons straying apart over time, which resulted in the wagon "twisting" to compensate for the difference.
The reason the wheels seemed to still be in position is because the wheel position was being automatically smoothed, so the trains seemed to be twisting off the tracks instead.

But this bug has been 100% fixed! along with a ton of background programming improvements to how trains move along track. Twisting wagons are now a thing of the past.

Another bug (with similar roots) which has also been fixed thanks to this is how trains would sometimes slow down when passing over flexytrack, or even completely derail. This has been 100% fixed too, and flexytrack behaves exactly the same as any other track.

[h2]New props! [/h2]

A bunch of miscellaneous new props have been added (mostly ones ive made for the Brazil map that are hard to fit into categories) and these are:

• dumpsters with lids
  
  
  
  
• barrels
  
  
  
  
• concrete retaining walls
  
  
  
  
• rows of bushes
  
  
  
  
• engine shed with empty interior
  
  
  
  
• a new metal barrier
  
  
  
  
• station props
  
  
  
  
• Brazil style pedestrian overhead bridge
  
  

[h2]QuickMod features [/h2]

As well as articulation, quickMods have also gotten a few new features:

• a "6_6" wheel preset (two sets of 6)
  
• the V8 horn
  
• the option to flip the front pantograph (as well as the second pantograph, if used)
  
• fixed bugs relating to paint colors not being applied correctly when cloning quickMods
  

Check the official steam guide (mentioned previously) to see all the up-to-date quickMod features.

[h2]Miscellaneous features & fixes[/h2]

• the PC tutorial has been fixed to show the correct "add left/right" button controls
  
• the V8 now has working doors on the front of the cab! you can open/close the doors by clicking the door handle
  
  
  
  
• addons (plows and pantographs) now disable rendering at a distance
  
• small mesh fix on the door of the v8 and a minor detail on the cab
  
• the red V8's pantographs have been flipped to match the real-world design
  
• wagon wheel LOD is now tied to the "object view distance" setting, so increasing this setting will make the low-detail wheels show up further away.
  

And that's everything!
This update was suppose to be about v8 liveries but bug fixes and articulation ended up taking the spotlight, so V8 liveries will instead be coming in the next update.

Though im sure that finally fixing the infamous "twisting" bug is well worth it!

Enjoy!

[h2]The V8[/h2]
It's finally here, Rolling Line's first ever official electric locomotive!
This new loco is called the V8, and its quite a unique one that is rather famous in Brazil. It's incredibly similar to the "Little Joe" in America too!


(Photo by Alexandre Gabriely)

It comes in three different official liveries, and custom liveries will be coming in a future update.



[h2]Pantographs[/h2]
This update also adds the ability to add pantographs on to all the trains in the game! (the things trains use to get electricity from overhead wires).

Pantographs work in the same way as snow plows (added in the Christmas update), you can "paint" them on to trains using the new painters in the electric trains drawer.

Remember you can set the color of pantographs by painting the "painters" in the drawer with colors, just like how you can with snow plows:



You can add pantographs on to any train you want, all the official trains support them!



Pantographs even have a little spark effect every now and then, just for fun:
(you can turn this off in the "graphics" menu if you choose)



Each individual pantograph has a small button you can press to raise/lower it, but you can also raise/lower all pantographs by using the button in the cab.
If you are playing on PC you can also press "p" while controlling a train to toggle pantographs.



[h2]QuickMods[/h2]
As well as all the official trains, you can also add pantographs to quickMods!
QuickMods now also have the option to include addons (plows and pantographs) by default, which means you can set your quickMod to always spawn with a specific type of pantograph. You can also include custom textures for it.



There are several new properties you can edit which are explained in detail in the official steam guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1789707835

[h2]Train placement fix[/h2]
Something else that this update includes is a much needed bug fix to a very old problem!

You may have noticed sometimes that it can be difficult to place trains on certain track, or into small gaps. sometimes placing long locos (like the big boy and NR) is almost impossible for no good reason.

Well I've finally fixed this!
Placing trains should now be much, much easier.
i'm sure anyone who's played Rolling Line for a while is going to be very happy about this fix.

There are also a couple of small changes & fixes included in this update:

• The chimney props now have collision.
  
• Addons are copied when cloning trains (both plows and pantographs)
  

And that's everything for now!
This update completes the "electrification" of Rolling Line, and now you can run electric trains to your heart's content. And im sure all the Brazilian players will be very excited about the addition of the V8!
Liveries for the V8 will likely be coming in the next update, along with a few odds & ends, bug fixes and some new props too.

Enjoy!

Today's update is a great one, Rolling line is finally getting overhead wires!
This update adds the ability to "paint" overhead wires on to track (in the same way as bridges & tunnels) and place various types of masts to hold the wires up.

The second part of this update (coming next week) is going to add a new electric train along with pantographs to actually make use of these new overhead wires.

But in the meantime you can make electrified layouts in anticipation!

Since the positioning of wires is based on track, I recommend designing your trackwork around how you want the wires organized.
Wires will always connect one end of a track segment to the other end, so using smaller segments will result in more joints, and longer segments will result in less:



A very useful new feature that's been added is the ability for certain props to snap on to track!

This means that the new wire masts, tunnel entrances and buffers all now snap on to the ends of track, which makes life much easier:



There are a ton of different variations of wire styles and attachable masts.
You can use single standalone masts, or even large gantry's that span multiple tracks. Here are a bunch of great examples of overhead wires in use:



On a side note, I also added a paintable prop version of the new shipping container model used for the double-stack freight wagons:



It's awesome to finally add electrification into Rolling Line, and it's going to be even better once you've got some electric trains to make use of them!

The next update is going to add the Brazilian V8 (very similar to a certain "little joe") along with pantograph support for QuickMods, and I'm sure there will be more electric locos coming to Rolling Line in the future.



In the meantime, enjoy using the new overhead wires!

Rolling Line is getting some new scenery!

Something I've always wanted to add is some more styles & variations of trees, and since I'm making lots of jungle scenery (for Brazil) I added some new tropical jungle plants and even some vines.

This update includes a whole bunch of new scenery props, starting with a whole lot of new trees:



A bunch of tropical plants and ferns:



Some classic trees (for all around the world) with trunks & branches:



And some more unique variations like droopy swampy trees and larger thick trees with twisting branches:



And some vines too!
These new vines are great for decorating jungle & swamp scenery.
I recommend using the recently added "transform edit mode" controls (press 'F' when hovering over a placed prop on PC) to manually position the vines on trees.

In fact, if you paint them different colors you could even use them for electrical wiring...



There are also some new tree trunks, stumps, and dead trees:





As well as trees, this update also adds a ton of new rock styles!
You can use these for boulders, or scale them up to use as terrain & cliffs:







There are also a few extra things, like some lines of grass.
These are great for filling gaps between tracks and placing alongside paths & roads!



And lastly, these new "edge of table" path pieces, which are great for making terrain smoothly line up with the table:



I hope you enjoy all these new scenery props!
With all the focus recently being on buildings, freight & industrial stuff its nice to add some more natural elements into the game.
These new props should make for some beautiful layouts, and lots of new scenery biomes!


The next couple of updates are going to be pretty exciting ones, because Rolling Line is finally getting electrification!! Overhead wires, pantographs and a new electric train will all be coming in the next few updates, so keep an eye out for that!



Enjoy!

Something Rolling Line has needed for ages is proper modular building props!
With these new props you can easily build all sorts of different styles of buildings like barns, sheds, houses, mansions, factories, etc...

You can snap together different shapes and sizes to make the basic structure of the building, then decorate it with windows, doors and chimneys.
The main building pieces snap together too, which makes things so much easier!

You can find all this new stuff in the "buildings -> modular" drawer.
Here is a full view of all the new props that have been added:



I can't wait to see all the creative things people will be able to build with all this new stuff, making custom buildings just got 10x easier!

Here's a bunch of examples of the kind of things you can make with these new props:



On a side note, these old windows are also now multi-paintable:



[h2]QuickMod features[/h2]
In addition to these new building props, this update also adds some new quickMod features!
You can now use multiple 3D models in your train mods, with multiple textures and material types.
You can use these new materials to create effects like transparency and emmision!

There is also now the option to finally change the coupler offset distance! (a much requested feature)

You can find more info about the new quickMod features in the Steam guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1789707835
There is also a new example quickMod "NZR red DX" (which uses these new quickMod features) which will be automatically downloaded with this update!
It's based on the classic New Zealand Rail "fruit salad" DX locos.



I hope you enjoy these new props, and since houses & buildings are such a major part of model railway building it made perfect sense to finally give them some attention!

have fun!