[p]As many of our Mac players noticed, the long-discussed MacOS version of Automation did not make its return with Al-Rilma Update Patch 7. Why is that? Unfortunately, a number of reasons led us to make the difficult decision to end development of the native MacOS version of Automation. This was not a decision made lightly, nor was it a decision that was entirely ours to make either. In the following we want to share with you in some detail the factors and circumstances that led to this point, as well as an alternative path forward.[/p][p][/p]
Why are we choosing to stop development of the MacOS version?
[p][/p][p]Well, there are five main reasons why:[/p]
[p]Ending Support - Apple recently announced that when MacOS 28 arrives in 2027, Rosetta support will be ending. For those that don't know, Rosetta is the technology that runs behind the scenes that translates the x86 code that PC applications need to run (and is used on virtually all PCs since time immemorial, practically) on Apple's ARM-based processors. This causes a serious issue for Automation - and indeed nearly all games developed on Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) specifically - in that UE4 relies on Rosetta to run quickly and efficiently on MacOS. Without Rosetta, Automation will become unplayable as a native MacOS application.[/p]
[p]Rendering Pipeline - In the current version of the MacOS build that we've worked on for patch 7, we have encountered several rendering pipeline issues for Automation that are nested deep in the game engine. These are causing screen flickers and frames rendered with inverted vertices ("spazzing out") for a brief moment whenever you edit your car. Further investigation has shown that we likely wouldn't be able to fix this ourselves and that the only supported cure currently would be switching the game over to Unreal Engine 5. Releasing the MacOS version with these issues would be unacceptable.[/p]
[p]UE5 Unviable - Transitioning Automation to Unreal Engine 5, at this point in its development, is not a viable option. We've done several game engine changes with Automation throughout it's 14+ years in development, from switching from our own, homemade game engine to UE4 in the first place, as well as several UE4 version updates following. We can tell you that this is a time consuming and often frustrating process. There are a lot of wildcards involved that can absolutely foul up any timelines you may have for the transition, and as anyone who has been in the community for long enough will tell you: things break in the transition, mods stop functioning, and players are likely to lose most, if not all, of their existing saves in the process of an engine switch. We've already promised to the Automation community that the switch to UE4.27 that we made in 2022 would be the last engine switch, and we have found no compelling reason to break that promise.[/p]
[p]Mod Logistics - Even in case we were able to somehow solve the rendering bugs in UE4, there would be one issue we could not solve effectively for the MacOS version - that being, UE4's need to have Workshop mods "cooked" for each operating system. We would need to build out our Software Development Kit (SDK - the tool our modding community uses to take their raw 3D models, convert them to a usable format for UE4, and then upload them to the Steam Workshop automatically) to allow modders to create mods for MacOS Automation in addition to PC Automation. That doesn't magically happen for the 600+ mods that already exist on the Steam Workshop for Automation; they would need to be re-cooked and re-uploaded to the Workshop to work with MacOS, and that re-cooking process might very well end up breaking those same mods on the PC side. Not an ideal situation at all because this would effectively create a two-tiered mod system, and introduces the possibility that popular mods might never make it to MacOS at all, if their creator is no longer actively modding for Automation.[/p]
[p]Maintenance Costs - Maintaining the physical infrastructure on our end to build and test on MacOS is a not-inconsiderable ongoing expense, especially in terms of developer time that could be spent on improving the game instead. We are a very small team for the size of the project as is, and it goes without saying that we would rather focus our efforts on what gives us the most benefit in delivering Automation to you, the player, as best as we can![/p]
[p]None of these issues, except for #1, are unsolvable admittedly, but to put it simply, it's just not a good use of our time to finish development of the native MacOS version, only for it to just stop working (probably for good) in less than two years.[/p][p][/p]
So, what now for Automation on Mac?
[p]Well, something we have found over the last little while is that Automation runs more or less perfectly on Parallels! We found it was just as stable as the PC version and that it ran largely the same when comparing performance on comparable PC and Mac hardware. Additionally, you get the added benefit of running the PC version of Automation, which allows full, unfettered access to the Steam Workshop and all of the mods on it, and also not having to worry about any of the issues we've just discussed with Rosetta support ending.[/p][p][/p][p]We understand this is very disappointing news for some of you, and we hope that you can understand the difficulty of making this decision. We look forward to welcoming our Mac players on Parallels now, and far into the future![/p]
Al Rilma Open Alpha Patch 7
[p]It has been a while since we've had an update for the Al Rilma Open Alpha! Most of our efforts in the past ten weeks since the last patch were focused on getting the improved Lite Campaign Mode ready for its debut, which would see the Al Rilma Update switch from alpha to beta status. Unfortunately, we found many more bugs than we anticipated during closed testing, and also that several fundamental aspects of the campaign calculations needed to be changed in order to reshape and future-proof them. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to delay Campaign Mode a little more. We understand that many of you were excited for this and have been waiting patiently, but we did not want to give you a campaign that was too buggy to be enjoyable.[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/8118030/8a8b6328ba81dadf21c733a53bfbd843bdc55c5c.png"]Muscle with a retro-modern flair, courtesy of ellie.[/p][p][/p][p]Instead, what we've done is we have put together a big update for you that has a vast array of fixes, improvements, and new features. It includes nearly everything else we have been working on in the meantime, including a substantial rework of suspension geometry in cars exported to BeamNG, to make cars handle more predictably and realistically across a wide range of applications.[/p][p][/p][p]In case you missed the discussion on this patch in the last Little Dev Update, you can catch up here:[/p][p]With such a long wait and a massive "non-campaign" changelist on hold, we didn't want you to have to wait any longer. That is why we have decided to release this patch today and continue polishing up the campaign mode some more in the coming weeks![/p][p][/p]
General Fixes
[p]Overhaul of how exhaust piping, addressing lot of issues with it and allowing multiple exits[/p]
[p]Updated and improved AI generation car look-up table[/p]
[p]Improved AI model body selection to now check for engine fitment[/p]
[p]Improved stress warnings progression and colors[/p]
[p]Fixed AI attempting to generate engines with block configurations that have not unlocked[/p]
[p]Fixed issue with acceleration graph spiking with very tall gearing for automatics[/p]
[p]Fixed crash that could occur AI generating a car for particular demographics and years[/p]
[p]Fixed fixtures disappearing when morphing with sliders[/p]
[p]Fixed sandbox car import-as-new not correctly changing to newly imported engine[/p]
[p]Fixed memory leak that could result in out of memory crashes[/p]
[p]Fixed negative scale moving fixture upon rotation[/p]
[p]Fixed lua error using superchargers in scenarios[/p]
[p]Fixed lua error importing .car and overwriting existing car[/p]
[p][/p]
UI Improvements & Fixes
[p]Greatly improved UI smoothness and performance when switching between parts of the game[/p]
[p]Added data field and tooltip to quality slider to show maximum setting of other trims / variants[/p]
[p]Significantly altered Passenger Fleet and Pony demographics[/p]
[p]Rebalanced delivery demographics towards more differences in car size[/p]
[p]Tweaked balance of timing slider effect on reliability[/p]
[p]Tweaked various demographics and the body preference penalty matrix[/p]
[p]Changed block and piston power density progression to be more intuitive[/p]
[p]Added PS as an option for engine power unit of measure[/p]
[p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/8118030/0a110d9a43dcf096a6af817facebafa8328dfd39.png"]A selection of new variants from the all-new Rosso_86 body family. Many thanks to Kyorg for his hard work on this new family of bodies![/p][p][/p]
[p]Added new grm_kompetitor car bodies, replacing 00sSedan02, 1990 unlock[/p]
[p]Added 30 new headlight families with several variants each added to game[/p]
[p]Added new eco carb model[/p]
[p]Many visual improvements for various header configurations[/p]
[p]Fixed minor cosmetic issues with itl_rosso bodies[/p]
[p]Fixed issue with z-fighting between chassis and carpet materials[/p]
[p]Fixed issues with fixture UV problems, specifically regarding wrapping around corners[/p]
[p]Fixed UV issue for mirrored fixtures on 1966 Sedan body[/p]
[p]Fixed many car bodies missing accurate camera bounds boxes[/p]
[p]Fixed 87_us body families have bonnet bounds boxes sitting below the hood[/p]
[p][/p]
BeamNG Fixes & Improvements
[p]Weight distribution slider now works in "soft body" mode with movable mass node[/p]
[p]Fixed beam export starter motor not having enough torque in some instances[/p]
[p]Fixed tyre load sensitivity data bug causing rear grip loss, fixes most oversteer issues![/p]
[p]Rework of all suspension export Jbeams, including:[/p]
[p]More sane roll center heights and roll axis, should improve handling feel[/p]
[p]Improved camber gain with roll[/p]
[p]More stable toe gain behaviour, should make cars feel less twitchy[/p]
[p]Greatly reduced bump steer issues[/p]
[p]Stiffer and generally more consistent live axle link layout[/p]
[p]Fixed wildly different amounts of maximum steering angle between suspension types[/p]
[p]Fixed different maximum steering as wheel offset increases[/p]
[p]Fixed sometimes inconsistent ride heights front to rear[/p]
[p]Fixed inconsistent swaybar stiffness between suspension types and tyre widths[/p]
[p]Fixed overly effective swaybars on live axles (often caused terrible oversteer for live axle rears)[/p]
[p]More consistent Ackermann steering geometry between suspension types and car sizes[/p]
[p]Better bump stops (more progressive, taller for long travel suspensions)[/p]
[p]Fixed some suspensions having too much compression travel[/p]
[p]Fixed MacPherson Strut suspension having very limited droop travel[/p]
[p]Added some anti-squat and anti-dive geometry to many suspension types[/p]
[p]Increased ABS thresholds to get closer to lock and give greater braking performance[/p]
[p]Retuned TCS and ESC to be more effective but less intrusive[/p]
[p]Fixed camera positions exporting under the floor for some bodies (please report issues!)[/p]
[p]Reduced excessive tyre stiffness in wide / low profile tyres, making these tyres more forgiving[/p]
[p]Reduced excessive sliding friction values, these are no longer needed after load sensitivity fixes[/p]
[p]Fixed too weak FFB on MacPherson front suspension cars[/p]
[p]Fixed chassis nodes sometimes hanging down below front and rear bumper[/p]
[p]Improved consistency of camber and toe values vs Automation[/p]
[p]Made damper rates more accurate to Automation (stiffer fast damp, softer slow)[/p]
[p]Swaybars stiffness corrections to account for different roll center heights per suspension type[/p]
[p]Centrifugal superchargers made a bit quieter (better tweaks to this coming soon too)[/p]
[p]Improved live axle's ability to withstand the stress of locked transfer case on grippy surface[/p]
[p]Toned down the locking strength of non race clutch LSD, and tweaked decel locking[/p]
[p]Known Issue: Cars are exporting too heavy in comparison with their Automation weight (approximately 12 percent), which happens using the new soft body mode only. We are investigating this issue; it is a high priority fix for the next patch.[/p][p][/p][p]We hope there's something in this for everyone to enjoy! Campaign will be coming soon, we now have fixed all major known issues and are in the final stretches of polishing up the many little bugs. [/p][p]As always, we will be keeping an eye on any issues that come up with this patch; please let us know in the discussion forums or on our Discord so we can address them. Also, be sure to follow us YouTube and the rest of our socials for up-to-date news and community happenings![/p][p][/p][p]Cheers![/p][p][/p][p]DiscordOfficial ForumsRedditYouTubeInstagramBlueskyTikTok[/p][p][/p]
May 2025 Developer Q&A
Hello everyone!
One of the things we do is after we post a Little Dev Update video, we host a livestream Q&A session on our official Discord server, where members of the dev team answer questions from the community regarding the current state of Automation and its development. For those who weren't able to join the livestream, we've got a recording on our YouTube channel; go check it out, there's lots of great questions in there!
As always, we'd love to hear your comments and feedback, and answer any questions you might have!
Little Dev Update: Al-Rilma Campaign Mode & Engine Sim
Hello everyone!
We're hard at work getting everything ready for Patch 7 of the Al-Rilma Update, which is a big one - Campaign Mode is coming back, among many other things! Lots to talk about here, so we decided it was time once again for a Little Dev Update video; check it out on our YouTube channel:
As always, we'd love to hear your comments and feedback, and answer any questions you might have!
Al Rilma Open Alpha Patch 6
After the massive patch 5, there are few things we need to address with a small patch 6 before moving on to open up some big cans of worms!
What are those big cans of worms? Campaign being brought back on one hand, and serious changes to how ignition timing works in the engine simulation, requiring testing and re-calibration of engine and fuel system performance figures. That will all be well worth it, but we might be "gone" for 2-3 weeks easily as these things get implemented.
Here below, you find the full changelog of notable fixes and additions in Al Rilma OA Patch 6.
General
Added a new headlight fixture
Fixed AI car and engine generation not working
Fixed issues with exhaust placement
Fixed issue with double-sided materials
Fixed supercharger friction data being shown for 0% instead of 100% throttle
Fixed issues with cars not starting properly on track with automatic or adv. automatic gearboxes
Fixed track data debug UI tooltip look inconsistency
Fixed test track crash when returning from photoscene / export
Fixed gizmo visibility not being possible to turn back on
Fixed paint merging upon export with multiple paints on the car
Fixed livery collapsing making textures go missing
Fixed hiding the chassis only hiding 1 layer of the chassis
Fixed softbody export option string
Cheers!
Al Rilma Open Alpha Patch 5
A whole lot has been worked on since our release of patch 4 about a month ago. Various blocking issues appeared in our way to push this fix out in a more timely fashion - but as always, the wait was worth it with over 70 fixes and features in the update!
Here below, you find the full changelog of notable fixes and additions.
General
Added 1994 Permafrost Truck and SUV bodies
Fixed -safemode launch option not finishing loading all preview assets
Car Designer
Added third dimension flip option for 3D fixtures
Added Y & Z Axis flip 90 buttons to fixtures and consolidated X flip into 1 button
Added a saved button toggle for default fixture 2D/3D vs custom 2D/3D spawning modes
Added chassis material & chassis carpet material paint slots
Added basic display for current track camber, slope, roughness
Power & Torque Graph now correctly displays in poster mode, without stress lines
Improved test track gear changes to be much smoother in RPM terms
Distance mode now moves 3D fixtures in a plane of equal distance from the camera
Camera now remembers last used camera (freeroam vs locked)
Fixed another (the final?) instance of fixtures teleporting after specific sequence of actions
Fixed car model year selection not taking techpool into account, nor updating on year change
Fixed fender morphs resetting between sessions
Fixed gearbox with 8 ratios having the same PU/ET as 5 ratios
Fixed instance where a car causes track simulation failure
Fixed engine placement changes not checking for engine fitment or rear suspension validity
Fixed mid transverse and mid longitudinal issues with wrong gearbox art
Fixed distance input for 3D placement converting numbers in strange ways
Fixed issue where mesh of a placed fixture would not load
Fixed solid axles sometimes spawning twice, or spawning wrong meshes
Fixed morph sliders acting inconsistently & not updating when reset
Fixed unchangeable material slot on headlight fixture SW_03_A
Engine Simulation
Fuel maps are now a function of manifold absolute pressure instead of throttle
Simplified fuel maps generated for engines without EFI
Removed fuel map emissions optimization for carburetted engines with cats
Added quality effect for manifold and header volumetric efficiency
Implemented Boost By RPM option for smart-boosted engines
Engine Designer
Added a new BSFC graph with normalized torque (y) vs RPM (x)
Tweaked unlock years of twinscrolls ('91) and VTGs ('03)
Tweaked unlock years of sequentials ('83) and compound turbo ('87) setups
Changed scalability settings to help keep to higher engine level of detail (LODs)
Fixed issue with emissions calculation which was making negative emissions possible
Fixed boost limit not working for advanced boost control on superchargers
Fixed intake piping bug for certain supercharged configurations on 60 deg. V6/8/12
Fixed issues with boxer sequential turbo piping
Fixed certain configuration piping not being removed on engine change
Fixed various instances of pinched spline pipes
Fixed various intake and header art issues
Fixed there being orange cylinders in the mounting of centrifugals
Fixed superchargers / turbos not updating when changing their geometry
Fixed change in engine family quality not triggering a recalculate
Fixed exhaust pipes connection being broken by engine scaling
Fixed emissions grade missing from catalytic converter tootips
Fixed changing catalytic converter type not triggering an exhaust system rebuild
Fixed inline engine centrifugal superchargers having incomplete engine art
Fixed turbos meshes not disappearing when changing to supercharger on incomplete engine
Fixed MFI emissions grade being wrong
UI Fixes
Improved forced induction stage UI interactions
Improved turbo slider UI performance
Improvements to Power and Traction graph showing more data
Coming back from a photoscene now drops you on the panel you were on before
Moved custom paint sliders to be next to each other
Fixed relative cost widget having wrong tooltip
Fixed icon missing on paste from clipboard button in the Car Designer Manager
Changed naming of Turbo option in visibility widget to Aspiration
Fixed comparison engine emission standard always showing N/A in side stats
Fixed coloring of WES standard change in engine side stats
Fixed issues with car trim cloning in grid mode
Fixed fuel economy change coloring the wrong way around for L/100km
Fixed markets manager and car designer missing the tick button to exit up
Fixed individual part reliabilities being displayed wrong
Fixed car stats field in car manager not populating when returning from car designer
BeamNG Exporter
Overall improvements to the new softbody export functionality
General improvements to exported car stability
Improved car crash deformations
Fixed issue with exporting soft body being stuck on finalizing export
Fixed engine starter not having enough torque in some cases
Fixed wheel rims partially exporting as white
Fixed vanilla automation script decal causing errors in BeamNG exporter
Fixed radiators being indestructible in exports
Fixed 3D-placed exhausts not getting exhaust routing to the fixture
Fixed exhaust routing sometimes going really low
Fixed it being impossible to stall cars due to constant torque below idle RPM
Fixed all engines exporting with their bounding box placed too low
Fixed turbo pipes not exporting
Fixed default camera positions in exports
Beyond that, we have been working on many more things than the ones listed. Campaign is being fixed up to make it reappear in the Al Rilma updates, as well as major engine simulation improvements regarding the handling of ignition timing for non-EFI systems. Beyond that there are many more things to address, but we'll get to that.
Cheers!
An Important Announcement for MacOS users of Automation.
Due to a game-engine level issue with Unreal Engine and its Software Development Kit, we are currently unable to build new MacOS versions of Automation. This is the reason why the Al-Rilma Update alpha builds have not been available to MacOS users, and it is also the reason why Automation is currently disabled for all MacOS users.
We had a serious bug crop up in Automation with the BeamNG exporter not being able to export sound, that necessitated an emergency patch to fix. Because we are currently unable to build a MacOS version, we took the difficult decision of disabling all MacOS builds of Automation temporarily, as the other option would have been to leave the BeamNG exporter broken for everyone.
We have made the MacOS fix a top priority and we will be working hard to rectify this situation as soon as possible!
Thank you for your understanding, we will keep you updated as the situation progresses.
Al Rilma Open Alpha Patch 4
With some of the more pressing issues out of the way since Patch 3, we were able to attack larger problems that took more time to sort out. This is what made Patch 4 quite a bit larger and take longer than we wanted, but we're sure the changelist below shows it was worth the wait!
Massive improvements to engine simulation, the BeamNG Exporter, plus tons of fixes to the designers and UI in general, plus plenty of additional content made it into this patch.
General
Added Tahara car bodies (2012)
Added Copy Cat car bodies (1992)
Added Bento car bodies (1980), replacing 80sCityCar bodies
Fixed emissions optimization slider locking to reset to zero
UI Fixes
Fixed inconsistent tooltip for engine size fitment
Fixed km to mile conversion being incorrect in reliability UI
Fixed temperatures conversion to Kelvin
Fixed switching between roots and screw resetting all supercharger tuning
Fixed power density reliability / stress calculation not updating correctly
Fixed issue with text input for compressor size of centrifugal superchargers
Fixed and changed turbo pressure graph to show relative pressure not absolute
Fixed issue with UI not updating max rear tire width correctly on morphing
Fixed front tyre width being wrong in tooltip
Fixed singleplayer car challenges having camera in engine bay
Fixed issue with stress numbers display as they approached 100%
Fixed singleplayer challenge mode ending with empty results table
Fixed issue with flow bench for compound turbos
Multiplayer
Cars and engines can now be exported from MP scenario results screen
Improvements to the multiplayer server backend and state-machine
Fixed demographic requirements & scored stats not showing their target value
Fixed readying up being possible before receiving the multiplayer scenario
BeamNG Exporter
Completely new way the softbody mesh is generated, improves deformations and hitboxes. It makes utes as well as unusually shaped cars a lot more accurate. It is activated by default but can be turned off in cases where it is not working as intended yet.
Big improvements to Ackermann steering geometry, enhancing stability and cornering feel. Currently implemented for struts and double wishbone, not fully implemented for live axle yet.
Overhauled the way swaybar stiffness is translated from Automation to Beam
Fixed suspension subframe linking to the chassis
Adjusted steering rack position on Macpherson Struts
Stiffened up the chassis
Fixed washed-out textures (really now)
Fixed missing texture for differential in BeamNG exports
Fixed cast iron material exporting as flat red
Important Note: you can switch off the new softbody generation in exporting of cars in case the new method fails. Your examples of cars with issues using the new method will help us fix and improve things! So please share your findings.
We're continuing to work on everything that isn't quite right yet and are starting to get campaign back up and running too. More improvements and fixes coming your way soon!
Cheers
Al Rilma Open Alpha Patch 3
Since being back in office after the holidays, we've worked on getting a whole lot more fixes and general polish out to you for the open alpha! The following is the change log for the third patch of the opt-in open alpha, and with a little more than a week of development behind it, it is rather chunky:
General
Added various bonnet fixtures
Added folder button for engine exports
Retrofitted new fuel selection to old engines in old databases and imports
Improved displayed data on side stats for cars and engines
Fixed various reliability effects to no longer be affected by quality directly, like stresses and knock
Fixed fixtures moving on car load, connected to hoist position
Fixed various car importing issues
Fixed soundtrack 2019 song never playing in game
Fixed test track best time to not trigger on first pass of the start line
Fixed falsely labeled grm_mercy body door count
Car Designer
Added one new car body model "Jackal" with 58 variants
Removed chassis type vs engine position restrictions
Updated ladder mid chassis tins with correct wheel morphs
Fixed engine placement change not auto-selecting alternate drivetype
Fixed suspension choices not being limited by chassis
Fixed torsion beam not locking out RWD
Fixed WES standard display in detailed stats
Engine Designer
Changed unlock year of methanol fuel to be available from the start
Changed valve float warning to appear at 10% reliability loss, not 1%
Changed turbo pressure graph to show relative pressure not absolute
Buffed thermal efficiency of early roots superchargers by 4%
Re-enabled compact manifold for roots and screw superchargers
Fixed manifold / header resonances to be based on corrected massflow
Fixed fuel evaporation not properly cooling intake charge for octane requirements
Fixed dyno throttle control to have correct step size and range
Fixed missing inline OHV dynamic logo
Fixed floating superchargers on V60 engines
Fixed a LOD issue with certain intakes
UI Fixes
Fixed undo function issues when using the gizmo circle
Fixed 2 and 3 keys inconsistently setting 2D/3D fixture state
Fixed comparison demographic being unable to be deselected on trim side stats bar
Fixed UI layering issues new engine/car creation
Multiplayer
General improvements to multiplayer stability
Fixed scenario timeline breaking in specific circumstances
Fixed issue where host could start playing the game before other players
Made scenarios use demographic nomalized desirability instead of competitiveness
BeamNG Exporter
Improved supercharger sounds
Fixed issues with fuel economy and engine thermals
Fixed issue with brand not being exported, causing issues in e.g. drag racing events
Probably fixed engines sometimes exporting as invisible
Probably fixed weird triangles coming out of some engines
From here on you can pretty much expect about a weekly cadence to the patches until we start implementing some of the bigger features missing in the alpha.
Cheers!
Automation Weekend Deal!
Automation is 25% off this weekend, from January 2nd at 10 AM Pacific Time, to January 6th at 10 AM Pacific Time!
With our unique Car and Engine Designers, you can realise the car of your dreams in ways you've never thought possible, until now. While you're at it, give us a follow on our socials and stop by our Discord, so you can stay up to date on the latest happenings in the world of Automation!
