Derail Valley News

We have a very special update for you today! It's Christmas and snow fell upon the Valley. It will only stay like that for a limited time - about a month, - so make sure to make the best of it!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

2020 was a strange year, yet also the best one for Derail Valley so far. With your support and the release of Overhauled, we've had a blast further strengthening our goals — to make Derail Valley both the best train simulator in the world, and one of the best VR games. We are continually working on amazing things, many of which are yet to come in the major update in 2021 and after it.

With today's update we wanted to give you all a massive thank you, and wrap up this dull year with something exciting. The snow doesn’t affect game mechanics as it is a purely aesthetic feature, but it does bring a whole new mood to the game. In order to keep the experience truly special, we will remove snow from the game in about a month, for at least until next Christmas. Make the best use of it in the following couple of weeks!



Apart from introducing snow, the update adds a few more new things, such as new trash bins, station office beacons, expert shovel (a new item to buy!), and various other fixes.



With this update we're closing the year, and can't wait to see what the next one will bring! Until then, from all of us here at Altfuture, Happy Holidays!

-Your DV Team

Build 90:

World:

- Made the world snowy
-- Limited time only (till late January)
-- Features new snow textures and sounds
-- Adds Christmas trees to Station Offices
-- Contains new snow-themed loading screens
-- Derailed cars make sleigh bell sounds
- Added antenna beacons to all Station Offices (easier to spot)
- Fixed CSW not having a 30 kph sign
- Loosened a tight southbound entrance curve at SW
- Fixed OWN loops not having signs
- Fixed FF LP tracks having faulty name in built game
- Fixed IME service station platform not aligning with tracks
- Fixed phone pole in MF next to coal shed having offset LOD
- Fixed terrain ballast texture having flipped normals

VR:

- Belt point positions are now being saved
- Fixed bad item orientation in hand when using Oculus VR mode
- Fixed a bug with the first job booklet able to disappear when finishing tutorial
Career & Gameplay:
- Added Expert Shovel
-- Can be bought in a shop
-- Adds less coal than default shovel (for precise firebox control)
- Remade trash bins
-- Bigger, solid design
-- Now suggests that jobs can be thrown in
-- Fixed position, no longer an item
- Removed dash from Job Booklet track ID for consistency with track signs
- Fixed Job Denied page falling through Job Validator as of #89
- Fixed being unable to unlock garages as of #89
- Fixed Caboose Career Manager not working as of #89
- Fixed being unable to pick up money while holding wallet in nonVR
- Fixed items dropping out of hands if alt-tabbing during pause
- Reduced volume of footstep sounds

GUI & Settings:

- Added sliders to the rest of the options
- Made turntable key bindings configurable
-- Can only be used inside a turntable booth
-- Default keys: [ ]

Hi everyone!

While we work on the yet unnamed big 2021 update, we also want to include a couple of small updates in the meantime. Today we're launching the first one of them, the build #89! As always you can find more information in the video below:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The update makes various small improvements for both VR and nonVR players. The highlights are:

- Oculus Quest 2 support (via Oculus Link)
- HP Reverb G2 support
- Remade VR shovel behavior
- Footstep sounds
- FOV, Always Run and Cab Highlight settings (and sliders)
- Fixed crash on quit

Oh, and don't forget to check back next week for a humble surprise!

BUILD #89:

Stability:

- Fixed the hang on quit causing the “not responding” prompt to appear
- Fixed rare case where sounds could become permanently disabled in a session

VR:

- Added support for Oculus Quest 2 (via Oculus Link)
- Added support for HP Reverb G2
- Revamped shovel interaction
-- Allows twisting and using with both hands
-- Entirely rewritten code (for dual-handed item interaction in general)
-- Fixed visually adding coal on shovel from empty tender
-- Decreased amount of shoveling needed to fill up the firebox
-- Coal fling yet todo
- Items in hand can no longer bump into train controls (levers, valves...)
-- They still collide with solid objects however
- Fixed steamer rope not adhering to the “use trigger to interact” setting
- Belt orbs now only show directional gizmos when grabbed

Movement:

- Added footstep sounds
-- Includes 40 new sounds
-- Dynamically changes based on surface underneath
-- Applies to movement, teleporting and falling
- Improved headbob

GUI & Settings:

- Added sliders to menu GUI (yet to be added to all settings)
- Added “FOV” setting (vertical angle)
- Added “Always Run” setting
- Added “Cab Highlight” setting
- Mousewheel can now scroll through nonVR inventory slots while holding Tab
- Fixed “Press F to enter” appearing while looking at an item (e.g. map)
- Split VR and Graphics settings windows into two rows in VR menu
- Tidied up menu layout misalignments

Items:

- Loco remote charge speed no longer depends on sun direction
- Schematic map now sounds like a heavy book upon impact

Misc:

- Made minor schematic map corrections (IMW, IME)
- Slight physics collisions optimization
- Fixed ISO tank container using wrong LOD texture
- Updated Career Manager default screen text to “Please select:”
- Fixed bad character in a tutorial text message
- Derail log now also prints vehicle’s ID and job ID

-Your DV Team

Hi everyone,

We wanted to give you a quick rundown on how things are going, and where we’re headed. Usually we don’t reveal a lot about what we’re working on, so that our priority shifting would remain agile. This time, however, it will take us longer than usual to show significant results, and we want to keep you informed.

We’re steering our focus toward more long-term development goals. For the next many months, our team will be working on these features, some of which are already in progress:

• Day and night cycle
  
• Dynamic weather
  
• Improved simulation for diesel-electric and steam locos
  
• Support for more locomotive types (for future use)
  
• Basis for train mod support (for future use)
  
• Save & user manager
  
• Main Menu
  
• Sandbox game mode
  
• Language localization
  

We know you’re excited to have these things out as soon as possible, but there's still a long way to go. We’re already doing major changes to locomotive simulation, seeing how other future locomotive types and mod support will tie into it. We’re also deep into testing solutions for day and night cycles and weather changes. Regarding the save manager, main menu and sandbox mode, there’s quite a bit of work to be done too.



All those things will take a while to finish, around the same time actually. We’re slowly starting to see them all grow into a single, major update, coming sometime in 2021. There are no specifics on the date at this point, and there likely won’t be any until the update is almost done and ready to reveal. With this update we’ll probably also roll out the previously announced price increase for new buyers - but more on that later.

Until then, we’ll definitely have several smaller updates, but they won’t include any of the things listed above. We’ll also use this time to squeeze in a few days by the end of this year to release the long-awaited update of our former game, Switchcars.

Our team now counts five developers, three of which are dedicated programmers. We definitely want to speed up development, which is why we’re still hiring. Turns out, finding the right people for the job during the virus outbreak is hardly any fun.

With this news we wanted to set the right expectations for the next couple of updates. It will take us some time to release the stuff that really adds significant value. That said, rest assured that even though it’s not currently visible, our top effort is being put into Derail Valley on a daily basis. The game consistently gets better. Like with Overhauled, the wait will be worth it, and probably also shorter.

That's all for today, and we'll see you in a couple of weeks with another small game update!

-Slobodan

Thanks to your reports we've tracked down a bug that affected a small amount of players, where their items and/or money disappeared with the most recent build. This occurred to players who had a derailed caboose when their game updated. There's more to it, but in short, the derailed caboose would cause an error that would propagate to the rest of the saving process.

[h2]If you're affected (a few players)[/h2]
(your items and/or money are missing since updating to #88, and you own the caboose)

Unfortunately you'll need to roll back to the save before #88, if you wish to retrieve the lost items/money. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Update Derail Valley (restart Steam to make sure the hotfix is downloaded and applied)
   
2. In Steam Library right click Derail Valley > Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files...
3. In the new window go to folders DerailValley_Data > SaveGameData
4. Rename the file "savegame" to something else (e.g. "savegame-88-broken")
   
5. Make a copy of the file "savegame_old_version5"
   
6. Rename that copy to just "savegame"
   

This way you'll have replaced your current save with the latest working backup. Now you should be able to start the game, and it will continue where you left off in #87 without issues. Side note: in the future Derail Valley will feature a proper in-game save manager.

[h2]If you're not affected (most players)[/h2]
(you have all your items/money, don't own the caboose, or you didn't update to #88 yet)

You can continue playing normally. This update won't affect you.

---

Despite thorough testing, both internally and with beta testers before releasing updates, this one slipped through. We're sorry for the inconvenience!

Hi everyone!

Today's update is a bit of a surprise. We're working on some rather big features, and while that's cooking we decided to release what we have already, as a separate update. As always, Ivan laid out all the highlights a new video update!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

With this update we're introducing the new, improved sign generator. Apart from reducing the clutter and turbulence of the speed limit signs, it helps indicate whether the next upcoming sign will have you accelerating or slowing down, among other things, all laid out in the updated Train Basics booklet.



Also improved are the vegetation rendering (less tree popping!), the Caboose being more permanent, the map graphics, controls for players using Windows MR headsets, and a lot more! As always, the full changelog is listed below.

That would be all for this week. Enjoy the update and have a great weekend!

-DV Team

[h2]Full changelog:[/h2]

Stability:

- Fixed NRE in tutorial when approaching SM
- Fixed “skip tutorial” breaking the game since last build
- Fixed tutorial breaking if playing offset in seated/teleport mode in VR
- Guarded against a case of locomotives falling under the world and causing NaN
- Skip spawning of cars with corrupt world position in savegame
- Fixed infinite loading screen if Alt pressed during fast travel
- Fixed NRE when entering caboose while in roundhouse
- Fixed more rare benign errors related to item grabbing
- Potentially fixed a rare case where spamming inventory button in VR can freeze the menu
- Slightly decreased RAM consumption
-- Optimized textures of far buildings LOD
-- Reduced size of some booklet textures
- Fixed rare benign errors related to item grabbing
- Slightly optimized saving states during tutorial

Graphics:

- Fixed vegetation rendering
-- Fixed trees LOD fade effect being inverted and causing extra popping
-- Trees in distance no longer pop into existence, but smoothly fade in
-- Fixed distant trees flickering visibility while the player is moving, from certain angles
- Improved texture clarity of some booklets (particularly in VR)

VR:

- Added preliminary fixes for WMR joystick drift
-- Enable via Debug.WMRFix 1 and Debug.WMRFix 2
- Added sprint to WMR, activated by holding both joysticks up
- Fixed being able to open inventory during pause in VR

Trains:

- In case of reset tracks, Caboose will retain items left in it
- In case of reset tracks, Caboose will teleport with the player to the nearest station
-- Will happen if the Caboose was attached to the train you were last using
-- Will happen if the Caboose was within 1.5km of the player in the last session
-- Will happen in #87 -> #88 build transition
- Added charging sound to Caboose loco remote charger
- Fixed MU plugs not aligning properly when connected
- Fixed Handcar taking time to “refill air brakes” when just spawned
- Fixed Handcar brakes taking long to respond (sticky behavior)
- Fixed tender sometimes spawning uncoupled from the steam locomotive
- Prevented coupling to handcar (both auto-couple and via remote)

World & Tracks:

- Improved sign generator
-- Added speed ahead diff signs (shows on current sign if next limit is notably different)
-- Significantly reduced sign clutter and speed limit turbulence
-- Junction signs now display distance till actual junction (in km)
-- Changed junction sign color to white and red
-- Grade signs now display grade amount on them (in %)
-- Increased grade sign sensitivity
-- Updated Train Basics manual with new info on signs
- Fixed being unable to teleport into the Military Base tunnel
- Fixed various track kinks in stations
- Moved various trees off the tracks, in stations
- Increased LOD distance of signs text

Map:

- Updated world map
-- Remade the world texture in higher detail
-- Now features accurate track layout
-- Increased size of player blip
-- Player blip now draws on top of other blips
-- Increased brightness of map text
- Fast travelling with MU’d locos now takes all of them together
- Fixed fast travelling with multiple vehicles playing coupling sound on arrival

Misc:

- Teleporting off a vehicle while sitting in nonVR will now unsit the player
- Disabled Unity’s resolution dialog (previously started by ctrl + game start)
- Fixed inventory items not loading in tutorial extension on restart
- Fixed menu UI sounds having glitchy volume when used
- Improved clarity of scrap metal texture when looked at level
- Made Career Manager “copay paid” screen exit directly to item selection
- Stylized “boosted signal” to “sgnl boost” on loco remote for consistency
- Improved appearance and text of the “skip tutorial” prompt
- Fixed a village house having slightly offset shadows