The exporter is simple to use: design your car and engine in Automation, tune them to your liking, hit the export button, start up BeamNG.drive and your new car is right there in the vehicle list, ready for you to drive.
Automation and BeamNG.drive complement each other extremely well, and many have told us that combining these two games would create the ultimate car game. With help from the BeamNG devs themselves, who are just as thrilled about the exporter as we are, we have built a first release version of the exporter. It will be a little wobbly in places, and far from being as detailed, robust, and precise as it will become with future versions - but the exporter’s core is in place and a blast to tinker with!
The Automation Car Design Competition winner's car in BeamNG.drive! (by mjdecker)
This will be a joint update release for both Automation and BeamNG. To make things even better, both teams are working together to add the Automation Test Track as a big new level for you to explore in BeamNG.drive. That will allow you to find out first hand if cheaping out on brakes was such a wise move.
On July 13th, you will be able to mess things up yourself, build great cars, build stupid cars, and complain about all kinds of inadequacies of this first public version of the exporter. Have a look at the Exporter FAQ for some more info.
An Automation car in Caswal’s Carousel on the Automation Test Track.
Collaboration Cross-Promotion Discount As part of starting this collaboration between Automation and BeamNG, existing players owning either of the two titles will receive a 20% discount coupon on Steam for the respective other game on release of the exporter.
Boxers, Inline 5s, and V16 Engines The good news doesn’t end here though. With this update we’re also adding the remaining promised engines to the game: Boxer 4, Boxer 6, and Inline 5 engines. Also, after almost a year of V16 exclusivity for our pre-Steam early premium supporters, the “support the devs” V16 upgrade of Automation will be made available for purchase with the release of the exporter.
Check out the V16 FAQ for all the info and background story.
Campaign Status During all this secret development we have not stopped working on the campaign. Obviously, the “little” exporter surprise update has slowed down the process a bit, but the campaign update is not too far off. All the fundamentals are now in place, cars are selling and facelifts can be created. There’s “just” a whole lot of polishing left to do… a LOT. As per usual we’ll make sure to keep you updated with Little Dev Update videos.
Cheers!
Little Dev Update: 23. May 2018
At this stage we've covered most of the implementation of the campaign fundamentals: you can build a car with several trims, engineer it, set up your factory in a country of choice and start selling the car once engineering is completed. So far so good, but there is a lot more work to be done on hooking up the UI and polishing it up.
Far more complete than that are boxer engines, which also will be part of the next big update. Inline 5 engines are now quite likely to make it in as well, although we still cannot guarantee that, as so far we only have the intake sounds.
Overall things are going smoothly and we have not hit any major bumps in the road. In the next LDU we will probably be able to show the first rough campaign footage, but for now, have a look at boxer 4 & 6 engines:
https://youtu.be/x0fqlhOCEMM
In case you missed the last Little Dev Update which was talking about some of the campaign UI drafts, take a look here:
https://youtu.be/7PkvzgopMR4
Cheers!
Car Designer Revamp Patch 4 (B180419)
It seems like we only partially covered the “cannot build anything” issues with the last patch, some were saying it’s fixed, others still had the same issue. Thanks to those who sent us their log and database files! Here comes the fix that should resolve the remaining issues.
If it doesn’t for you, please head over to this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/293760/discussions/0/3288067088103147157/
B180419 Fixes
Fixed issue with having “no options”, not being able to build cars
All material (grilles) and body fixes from last patch that somehow didn’t make it in!
B180420 Fixes
Fixed engine not calculating when replacing engine in car in sandbox mode
Fixed issue with going to the engine or car manager and returning without action
In other news, here is the latest not so little Little Dev Update which is going through some of the work in progress UI drafts for the Lite Campaign V3, which is progressing nicely!
https://youtu.be/E1g5IXsnLvg
Cheers!
Car Designer Revamp Patch 3 (B180417)
With today’s patch there comes an important fix that has been keeping some of you from being able to play the game properly. This was caused by a background error linked to engineering calculations which now have a few extra safeguards in place for missing data. We’re very sorry this happened in the first place. Have a go and see if those of you who were affected once again can build cars and engines normally.
B180417 Fixes & Improvements
Added new White Mirror photo scene
Added 3 new car bodies / variants
Added reliability check for suspension bottoming out due to downforce
Fixed issue where the database would become confused with cloned engines
Fixed issue where car bodies would not show up making a new car
Fixed bug where same car would score differently in sandbox vs. lite campaign
Fixed fixture clone dragging for situation where cloning cannot complete
Fixed bug with rolling resistance calculations in connection with downforce
Fixed some body mesh and morph issues
Fixed grille materials looking wack at certain angles or scales
Fixed some visual rim issues
Development on the Lite Campaign V3 continues to go really well, we’re now implementing the factories and fortunately much of the old code is still usable to some degree. In the coming days a Little Dev Update will take a look at the UI drafts for all these new / upgrades features.
Cheers!
Car Designer Revamp Patch 2 (B180409)
With today’s patch scenarios should be working again! Also, some of you have an issue where no cars or engines want to calculate in game. If that was the case that is now fixed. It was because of a corrupted database file and we found that the existing code to cope with that situation was not being used.
We see that the big crash when exiting the designer indeed is fixed after Patch 1, and fixtures stop disappearing from cars, too. Overall the game has become a lot more stable since Patch 1.
B180409 Fixes & Improvements
Fixed issue of corrupted database files not automatically being replaced
Fixed scenarios not working
Fixed odd car weight of specific 80s car body
Fixed issue with brake cost calculation
Fixed various fixture materials (wings!)
Implemented locking of body variants incompatible to selected body variant
Improved paint color previews to look closer to being on the car
Improved handling of project management UI
Unless something big pops up that needs fixing, we’re now branching and focusing fully on the Lite Campaign implementation into the UE4 version of Automation, it is coming along nicely so far!
Cheers!
Car Designer Revamp Patch 1 (B180405)
Since the big update release we have mostly been working on getting the Lite Campaign V3 up and running. So far engineering is more or less functional again and we have a working prototype of a 3D world map which made it into this patch. Next up are factories and distribution.
We also prepared a patch for you that should address the biggest issues: crashes when exiting the car or engine designers, as well as all fixtures of a car disappearing upon switching back from the photo scene.
https://youtu.be/-osxdNvu8Po
There are many more fixes and balance changes and small additions coming along with this update, check out the changelog below.
B180405 Additions & Improvements
Added draft of world map and added two additional regions: Hetvesia & Dalluha
Added four car bodies
Made a tick box for the photoscene to turn off the auroras
Revamp demographics selection tool looks
Added demographic pinning in project manager mode
Rebalanced bottoming out and load capacity calculations as function of ride height
Rebalance budgets of low-budget demographics
Tweaked gearing factor in Utility detailed stats
Added gearing factor to tow weight
Added gearing factor to Utility base stat towing capacity
B180405 General Fixes
Fixed (potentially) crash on exiting designers
Fixed loading car from top bar not loading its fixtures
Fixed issue where car disappeared when changing levels
Fixed trim & variant cloning in project manager not adding cars/engines to sandbox
Fixed designers not generating thumbnails correctly
Fixed project top bar game settings button not working
Fixed issue with green fixture highlighting when dragging fixture
Fixed aesthetics of variant overview in engine family project manager
Fixed trim side stats to show top 3 in projects instead of 2-4
Fixed moving car with arrows not re-aligning it with ground in photo scene
Fixed various car body specific car weight issues
Fixed various car body morphs
Fixed inconsistency of valve float warning
Fixed 4x4 keeping power distribution from previous AWD choice
Fixed test track spamming logs when audio couldn’t be stopped
See if the fixes actually help the crashing, we have never observed those issues on any of our machines in the office, so it is hard for us to tell if this actually is fixed or not.
Cheers!
Big Update: Car Designer Revamp, Public Release
After a long open beta phase with a total of eight big updates since early January, we’ve now reached the point where the Car Designer Revamp is ready to be signed off as done. Thanks to all of you who provided feedback and bug reports during this period!
The Car Designer Revamp means a complete overhaul of many of the core game mechanics, determining the car stats. The biggest changes were made to the previously pretty shallow secondary stats like Practicality, Utility, and Offroad, which received a complete rewrite and a lot more detail. In many aspects the game has been made more realistic by adding more dependencies that require you to make hard choices when it comes to your car designs.
One of the main examples of this is the all new suspension tuning which now majorly impacts the main stats, and not only when it is spine-crushing. The UI and user feedback has been improved across the board. Via the new warning and suggestion system we now give you more info on what potential areas for improvement could be. The various demographics have become a bit more picky, too! No longer will you be able to successfully sell one trick ponies to people and get away with it.
Many have asked us why we needed to do the Car Designer Revamp instead of focusing on the implementation of campaign. The answer to that is the need for significant structural changes to how cars are handled in game to even make possible a properly functioning campaign with facelifts, the reusing of engines, and particularly a competent AI opponent!
The now implemented car building AI allows us to quickly generate new competitors that automatically adapt to balance changes and within minutes builds a whole set with 2000 competitor cars over the game years. Contrast that with many weeks of work by our testers to hand craft a single set of competitors that with the next balance change becomes more or less obsolete. Without car building AI, there would be no possibility for a dynamic campaign. With this update we now have a solid foundation to implement the campaign.
https://youtu.be/iOEMUebUriQ
The first vestiges of the upcoming Lite Campaign V3 can be seen in the new Project Manager feature we recently added. It shows the basic structure of how cars and engines are managed in the campaign and allows for the creation of facelifts and reusing of engines in completely separate car models and facelifts. Yes, you will be able to build 2015 versions of your favorite 1974 design and put it into your latest line up… or just use the original from 74, not recommended though.
Please note that due to the massive changes to the car calculations and car data structures, unfortunately, your old cars from the previous public “default” branch release version will not be compatible with this new version! Your cars you built during the open beta will work fine though.
We hope you will enjoy this big update, we sure look forward to seeing all the fancy creations you will be able to make and set in scene in the massively upgraded photo mode. Don’t forget to share your pretties!
Next up is 100% focus on the campaign. Engineering is up first, factories and production, sales and distribution thereafter. On the engine side Boxer 4 and Boxer 6 engines will most likely make it into the campaign update, which many are looking forward to as well. If necessary, of course we’re going to fix any significant problems popping up with hotfixes the coming days.
Cheers!
Car Designer Revamp Open Beta (RC 1)
This is the first release candidate for the Car Designer Revamp. If no bigger issues pop up we will push this version to become the new default branch version which everyone gets. Please have a go at it and see if there are any issues you see and report them in the bug posting thread here on our Steam forums or our Automation discourse forums.
As you see below, there are plenty of fixes and some more nice additions to this version, well worth checking out!
B180314 Features / Improvements
Implemented car leveling function for uneven terrain in photo scene
Added fog option to the photo scene
Added game options button to photo manager
Added mouse wheel support to photo scene UI
Implemented 1k / 4k photo mode options
Rebalanced cross ply tires vs. radials
Added back in turbo race intake option
Rebalanced direct injection service costs
Improved fixture highlighting, differentiating between hover-over and selected
Added data to previously empty data fields in the engine project manager
Linked top field in sidebar demographics field to trim target demographic
Updated launcher layout
B180314 General Fixes
Fixed engine dyno mistakenly graph scaling for drivetrain power losses
Fixed wheels and pistons blinking at certain viewing angles
Fixed body morphing not affecting car stats unless the car is reloaded
Fixed model and family year controls to not go below facelift year
Fixed new car having a previously loaded car's warnings
Fixed Top End quality slider not affecting engineering or production units
Fixed issue with disappearing chrome texture and taillight glass materials
Fixed issue with rim morphs for super wide and narrow tires
Fixed "Estimated Top Speed" always being set to 100 during design
Fixed not being able to rename variant/trims from project manager
Fixed changing fixture layers resetting cardinal lock state
Fixed timeline not cleaning up unlocked panels from previous cars / engines
Fixed strange behavior of variant capacity slider when incrementing
Fixed inconsistency with car name designing a new car after loading existing trim
Fixed not being able to get rid of comparison car after clicking sidebar demographic
Fixed various chassis related texts not showing up correctly
Fixed various small graphical issues with the project manager UI
Fixed MFI throttle per cylinder spawning double intakes
Fixed plenty of car morph and body issues
Fixed buttons not locking correctly when locking fixtures
Fixed fixture layer numbering
Fixed delete facelift button not updating UI
Fixed tire text suddenly becoming unreadable when moving too far away
We’ll be closely monitoring crash logs and the forums bug threads to see if this version is as ready as it gets or needs some more hotfixes in the coming days before it is ready.
Cheers!
Car Designer Revamp Open Beta (R8)
While there still are many items on our ToDo list, the majority of the ones relevant for the public release of the Car Designer Revamp have been implemented. With R7 some of you had issues of not being able to make cars in the new project manager, this is now fixed and you can give it another go!
To aid in that, this Little Dev Update shows you the ropes of what is in the Project Manager for the Lite Campaign V3 so far:
https://youtu.be/a4wGHFuXtdU
Here is the list of changes for R8:
B180310 Hotfix
Implemented limited engine family progression. The engine based on an older family will be slightly worse than an identical engine based on a newer family.
Fixed Top End quality slider not affecting valve float
B180309 Features / Improvements
Changed designer end buttons to reflect function of Project Manager
Improved fixture load times for cars with lots of fixtures
Added new cardinal lock mode that limits the direction to horizontal directions
Added focus on car button to photoscene UI
Added control for toggling fixture snapping
Added a body-morph locking button that can be toggled
Added ability to hide all photoscene UI via a hotkey for Steam screenshots
Added ability to select target demographic for trim slots in Project Manager
Removed chassis quality slider to make projects compatible to new engineering rules
B180309 Bugfixes
Fixed issue where many of you could not build cars in the new Project Manager
Fixed issue where loading in a car would change its morphs
Fixed major issue with center of gravity calculation
Fixed issues with test track engine sounds
Fixed another fixture rotation resetting issue linked to rotate-mirror-moving
Fixed fixture rotation resetting when changing fixture layer
Fixed issue with downforce calculations working more or less the wrong way around
Fixed wind noise not stopping when exiting the running test track
Fixed wing angle sliders not unlocking after placing wings / lips
Fixed MFI not unlocking in correct year
Fixed load capacity tooltip not showing correctly for low values
Fixed issue with scenarios not saving the last item selected upon instant success
Fixed instances of fixture UI being one step behind the fixture status
Fixed issue of car thumbnails being generated when fixtures have not settled
Fixed scaling of acceleration graph
Fixed issue with fixture UI not reacting correctly to mouse hover over
At the start of next week the last few fixes on our list will make it into the game before it is all LC V3 from then on - apart from maybe some hotfix or two.
Cheers!
Car Designer Revamp Open Beta (R7)
With this update we primarily focus on bugfixing and polishing before getting this version ready for the public branch release maybe later this week - unless some big issues come up. A few nice little features you’ve been asking for in here, too!
The project manager is getting there as well, we added some more of the required functionality in this patch. There are just some more bugfixes and quality of life features missing, like a button at the end of each section to take you back to the project manager, etc.
B180306 Features / Improvements
Added the ability to nudge fixtures in directions using the arrow keys
Added camera tilt to photoscene options
Reversed car body list, newest on top
Made fixture cardinal lock and mirror buttons into a toggle, new icons coming
Made fixture controls slightly transparent
B180306 Bugfixes
Fixed Hard Top Convertibles not calculating
Fixed stuck car calculation issue with new chassis choices
Fixed issue going from challenges to sandbox
Fixed issue with the progression of the "None" option in entertainment
Fixed problem with the Van flag not being detected by the market demographics
Fixed gearing graph not showing actual power at the wheels
Fixed service cost calculation issue with tire speed rating and gearing
Fixed engines loading into an existing car with blank stats
Fixed another issue with fixture rotation resetting
Fixed issue with flipping rotated fixtures
Fixed issue where fixture could not be checked off when locked
Fixed issue with choosing different fixture variant getting placed at car center
Fixed fixture gizmo reflecting in environment
Fixed various photoscene filters and settings to have better starting values
Fixed various photoscene settings to have correct slider ranges
Fixed issue with save as function in the paint options
Fixed project manager designers not loading / unloading correctly
Fixed top bar renaming of trims and variants not working in project manager
Fixed issue with name fields not being locked correctly in project manager
Fixed deleting variant slots in project manager
Fixed demographic rank not shown accurately in project manager
Fixed demographic affordability display in project manager
Fixed engine variant year not being current year when cloning existing engine
Fixed instance where tire load rating number would be zero until car is finished
Fixed challenge name in side panel
Fixed UI flickering when using mousewheel on cam profile slider
Fixed various early era cars coming with bumpers, made them fixtures instead
Fixed issue with lens dirt and lens flare options
Fixed year range for project manager
Fixed spoiler fixture behavior, now defaults to highest layer
Expect another update towards the end of the week!
Cheers
