Found a few issues, not quite ready yet I'm afraid.
V0.1256 - Hotfix
Fixed an inconsistency driving in reverse.
Clamped the maximum gear thickness, allowing file edited engines to not create transmissions that would collapse into a blackhole.
V0.1255 - Powertrain changes back to stable
Hi all,
Moving the experimental branch changes to the stable branch with this one.
An outline of everything moved to the stable branch:
Configurable brakes
Engine limiters
Speed limit displays
Fixes for all inconsistencies with track wheel, sprocket and belt segment size
A more realistic powertrain simulation
Better stopping on slopes + hill starts
A few tweaks with this patch:
Changes
Raised throttle responsiveness slightly.
Loading a design from a different era than the current will now create an acknowlegement prompt, instead of a message log.
The last saved design will no longer load automatically when entering the designer if the last saved version is above the current version. (This will only work from this version onwards)
Fixes
Fixed an issue with turret constraints with certain setups.
Fixed an issue causing higher torque in reverse than in drive.
Fixed odd gravity behavour when tracks are off of the ground.
Blueprint values are now clamped again when loaded, it's counter-intuitive, but this was making it impossible to file edit values beyond the limits (which the change aimed to make easier).
- Hamish
V0.1254 - Powertrain Tweaks (Experimental)
Further powertrain tweaks for feedback from yesterday's patch.
Additions
Added tooltips to all advanced engine design sliders.
Changes
RPM limiter now shown in the engine RPM graph.
Decreased throttle responsiveness, resulting in less sudden acceleration and deceleration. Stopping you shooting past the rev limiter as easily (though I'm sure the crews appreciate it too).
Cruise control changed from steps to a continuous throttle.
Tweaked movement info layout.
Fixes
Improved handling of clutch braking with engine RPM limiters.
RPM limiter now forced to be 10% above the upshift RPM. To compensate for the torque dropoff required for the limiter to function smoothly. This was causing the difficulties upshifting.
Fixed cruise control steering not matching the current throttle level, speeding up on turns.
- Hamish
V0.1253 - Further Powertrain Tweaks (Experimental)
Hi all,
I think I've finally got the movement right with this one. Happy to leave this here (depending on your feedback) and move on to geometric internals.
Changes
Reimplemented engine RPM limiter with a more realistic approach. RPM is now limited by cutting off fuel to the engine, so it's no longer hard capped. This fixes the vehicle going faster than predicted by the new speed limit displays. This also fixes the absurdly high pivot-rotating/neutral-steering speeds.
Added engine braking. The driver does this for you when driving down hills. Needed since the engine limiter could no longer stop the engine redlining.
Powertrain and track speeds are now much more in sync, making steering more snappy and tank-like.
Increased torque at very low RPM.
The throttle is now subtly smoothed, before it was all or nothing. Makes stop and start less sudden.
Engine presets now support Undo/Redo.
Hill starts will now rev higher on smaller inclines.
AI will now automatically attack on all custom battles maps, instead of defending on one side.
Engine upshift and downshift can no longer be equal.
Fixes
Fixed vehicles spawned from blueprints having more engine torque than the designer vehicle.
Fixed some limit clamping issues introduced last patch. Click & drag editing of tracks and cannons now obeys limits again. Values are clamped when changing eras in sandbox again.
Dragging roadwheels forward until the roadwheel under the cursor has disappeared will no longer switch to the rollers and move them.
Fixed initial rotation and constraints for turrets that aren't forward aligned. (info)
Reverted wheel collision position change in V0.1252, as it was causing steer drift on uneven terrain.
- Hamish
V0.1252 - Hill starts (Experimental)
Hi all,
Here's a few more refinements to the powertrain updates on the experimental branch. Did a big stabilization pass in this one too.
Additions
The driver will now attempt a hill start on inclinations greater than 5 degrees. This should let you get going again after braking to a halt on a slope. The RPM the driver will go to before entering 1st gear will increase up to the upshift RPM as the inclination increases.
Added undo-redo support for the engine and transmission designers. This also works when loading individual engine/transmission blueprints.
Undo/redo now logs which action was undone/redone.
Changes
Increased engine torque at lower RPMs.
Adjusted wheel collisions to be closer to the centre of all wheels on an axle, instead of at the suspension connection point.
Renamed engine design RPM property from 'Max RPM' to 'Safe limit'.
Reimplemented engine RPM limiter design, should be less janky now.
Made the Unity logo splash screen background fully black.
Fixes
Fixed turrets being considered [Not Connected] when placed on the central seam of a compartment split down the middle (like a pike-nose).
Ensured no designer processes are running outside of the designer. Was resulting in the ability to move track wheels in photomode.
The track belt now disappears correctly when there are no roadwheels in the track.
You can no longer exit the designer without any roadwheels.
Power preview in the engine designer now takes the torque curve into account.
Cruise control now resets when returning to the designer.
Fixed custom battle team setup save & load GUI not automatically disappearing when leaving the custom battle screen.
Roadwheel spacing slider no longer displayed with interleaved wheels, as it didn't do anything.
Fixed cannon balancing tip being partially cutoff.
File-editing notes: Numbers are no longer clamped when loaded from a blueprint. This makes things simpler on my end and lets you see file-edited figures in-game.
- Hamish
V0.1251 - Hotfix (Experimental)
Hi all,
Here's some tweaks based on your feedback to yesterday's patch.
Changes
The parking brake is now engaged when there's no engine demand and you're below a certain speed. This stops you rolling down hills, though you'll still slide.
Raised default engine idle RPM from 400 to 800.
Increased resistance for neutral steering. To combat silly traverse speeds.
Fixes
Improved accuracy of speed limit calculation.
Fixed issue with automatic rpm limiter placing the rpm limit below the upshift rpm, causing the driver to never upshift.
Transmission mass now scales with individual gear ratios, instead of only the first (Was intended but I made a mistake).
Psst... I removed a limit on laying drive acceleration and speed when elevation torque is file-edited to 10,000Nm or more.
- Hamish
V0.125 - Brake & Engine Reworks (Experimental)
Hi all,
Quite a large movement change in this one. Design will take a little more skill to get vehicles moving well, but it's far more rewarding when you do.
This is up on the experimental branch, you'll have to opt-in to test it early:
Additions
Maximum brake force for tracks can now be set in the track designer config tab. Too low and your vehicle will have trouble stopping. Too high and your vehicle will do a front flip, or be too responsive with clutch braking.
Added an engine torque graph in vehicle movement info screen.
Added RPM limiters to engines. Lets vehicles with few high ratio reverse gears not burst into flames. This will be automatically placed at the max safe RPM, but you can override it.
Speed limit estimates are now displayed on the engine, transmission and track designers. These calculate the theoretical top speed achievable, taking max engine RPM, sprocket radius and gears into account.
Added axle offset sliders for all wheels except the sprocket. Allows you to shift all wheels on the axle out from the mount, to align them with the guide horns.
Changes
Engines now have a torque curve, instead of constant torque. You'll need to increase those early gears (up to more realistic levels) to get the lost torque back. The curve is constant for all engines for now. This gives the idle RPM option significant effect, as you can start higher on the curve. Pivot rotating, usually being a low RPM task, is slower and more realistic than before. Getting back to previous pivot rates will require you to be more careful with your width to length ratios or do huge 1st gears.
Changed brake force application approach. It stops leaning into the turn when using clutch braking.
Twin transmission steering gear shifting will slow down the closer it gets to 1st gear. This gives the powertrain time to adjust to the increased speed differences.
Renamed engine target min and max properties to upshift and downshift.
Current tab of engine design (basic or advanced) is now saved between game sessions.
Significantly increased engine acceleration when disconnected from the tracks.
Strengthened torsion forces used to keep tracks moving at the same speed as their powertrain output. Results in more accurate twin transmission turning.
Vehicle movement info screen graphs now utilize the entire vertical axis.
RPM graph now shows max engine RPM and the idle.
Gear graph now shows drive, reverse and neutral, instead of an absolute gear.
Transmission size now scales with engine torque. Tankettes will be easier to make while tanks with ship engines will need to be closer to ship size. This is necessary for geometric internals.
Expanding engine power preview dropdown will set the preview rpm to the current upshift rpm.
Another pass on balancing roadwheel/end wheel power distribution.
Brake turning and pivot turning are now limited to 1st gear. This is possible due to the RPM limiter.
Removed transmission max ratio limits across eras. The maximum ratio is now a constant 30:1.
Made track belt mass closer to real values, with help from A1exAndro from the community. Tracks are approximately 3x heavier now.
Made all wheel model widths match the value set in the designer correctly, you might need to make some tweaks to your design.
Track segment length slider now controls the pitch (distance between pins), instead of the full length of the segment.
Updated tracks, engines and transmissions of all built-in vehicles.
Fixes
Fixed unreadable font size on vehicle movement info screen graph labels at resolutions above HD.
Fixed clutch braking gradual braking not working, it was fully braking instead.
Fixed end wheels never providing traction due to a change in V0.12419.
Fixed incorrect muzzle velocity (it was faster than said on the UI). Resulted in higher penetration values than expected.
Made sprocket wheels fit much closer to track segments.
Fixed sprocket teeth appearing through the Mark IV track segments.
Fixed missing suspension arms on legacy small torsion bar suspensions (From before scalable suspensions, only accessible on old designs).
Disabling track belt change
I've changed how track belt info is stored in blueprint files, which makes the old way of removing track belts impossible. It's fun to see until we get official wheels, so I've made setting belt width or thickness to 0 disable the track belts. File editing sprocket or idler widths to 0 will disable them now.
- Hamish
Custom Battles +
Hi all,
Happy to announce that the experimental build is stable enough to move back to the stable branch.
For those who haven't been keeping up with development these past 5 months, here's a changelog for everything added and changed:
The last saved vehicle is now loaded when entering the designer.
Track segments and spare wheels are now affected by grime level.
Persistent track trails. (Performance intensive, toggled with the 'Track trail effects' option).
Parts and turrets now have a chance to fly off the vehicle when ammo racks detonate. The turret will need a certain amount of force, so this will be more common in vehicles with more ammo stored.
Added suspension test bumps to sandbox flat.
Nvidia DLSS now possible, this can give an enormous performance boost. Limited to the most performant setting as higher quality settings were conflicting with another process.
Added minimum graphics preset, designed to be the bare minimum graphics possible.
Screen space reflections are now possible.
Added maximum graphics preset, with screen space reflections, more accurate ambient occlusion and soft shadow filtering.
Min and max cannon rotation limits now displayed as text at the end of the range of motion visualizations.
Attempting to load a blueprint from a version above the current now requires a confirmation. Only works on newly saved blueprints.
Loader now has a position in the damage model. They're located just behind the cannon they're loading.
Armour view now displays the true effective thickness of armour, taking angle into account. The previous effective thickness is displayed as line of sight thickness.
You can now recess the cannon into its compartment, to sacrifice internal space and depression for cannon balance. This is an alternative to counterweights where you sacrifice mass.
Parts can now be moved according to their rotation. The global space toggle now replaces the overlay toggle in the bottom left (this is now done via the UI toggle).
Added camera shake to ground and tree collisions.
The tracks will now become see-through when editing the hull compartment.
The compartment below your turret and tracks will become see-through when editing a turret's ammo racks.
Editing a compartment's racks will make attached turrets see-through and highlight their turret baskets in red to help you avoid them.
UI Additions
Added team member balance indicator, to show how the battle is going more clearly.
Can now sort by fields on selection panel. e.g. Sorting vehicle blueprints from highest mass to lowest.
Added search bar to selection panel.
Added a button on the designer GUI to select the faction to load designs from. It's next to the reset design button.
Can now change pages in selection panel using the arrow keys.
Added entrance animation to health icons of newly damaged vehicle modules. This grabs your attention a little better.
Damage delt to vehicle internals by the player is now logged.
More information on the player's penetrations/ricochets/non-penetrations is now logged.
Added main menu link to the, now official, Sprocket subreddit (I lurk).
Added arrows to dropdowns to cycle through options.
16 New Parts
Bed rolls
Tarp
Pz 38t cupola
T34-76 Mantlet
Matilda II cupola
Renault FT17 cupola
Churchill VII Fender (front & middle)
Hetzer exhaust
Strv M/42 sprocket wheel
Handle bar
Square hooks
3 new crane hooks (square, triangular and a triangle with a hole).
Pz II Mantlet
Designer Changes
Turrets are now required to be connected to the vehicle (this can be disabled by the "Place Anywhere" cheat in general settings). This can show seemingly incorrectly on some outdated designs, due to a large face being present between the upper and lower hull, remove that and it should work.
Load screen now active until the designer and initial vehicle is fully loaded.
Lowered design platform on flat sandbox map.
Internal component visualizations no longer visible outside of the vehicle. Avoids confusion on whether they'll be hit or not if they're partially outside of the vehicle.
Decal designer no longer allows parts other than decals to be selected/detached.
The shell length slider now describes the propellant length of the shell, with the projectile length fixed to 3 calibers long. Old blueprints will have their propellant length values adjusted to be the same size, though the projectile length has to change size.
Generated engine presets now have target RPM values set appropriately.
Gameplay Changes
Design selection approach changed for scenario AI teams. It now selects random units from certain eras within a mass range. You might find ALLEN on dunes now.
Allied vehicles in scenarios now use the weathering settings set in the blueprint.
Made track traction more realistic. It's no longer applied as torque to the roadwheels, which pulls their suspension, which pulls the vehicle. Instead, it's applied directly to the vehicle as a force at the roadwheel's contact point with the ground. This is plays much nicer with the physics engine and is closer to the blanket of force provided by real track belts.
Moved ramps on flat sandbox map.
Third person aiming now detects vehicles. The cannon will aim at the point on the vehicle under the crosshair - instead of where the crosshair is pointing at on the ground.
Sprocket/idler traction now takes more power from the roadwheels when in contact with the ground. Increasing sprocket/idler traction.
Overhauled tree falling animations and interaction, it's less silly and more predictable now.
Trees now need certain amounts of force to run over. Heavier tanks will find it easier, though lighter tanks work too if you hurl yourself at it fast enough.
Adjusted tree density for most levels, making use of the fact that smaller trees are now fun to drive over.
Shells can now go through trees, knocking them over in the process.
Transmissions now have locations in the damage model, meaning penetrating at/between the sprockets will damage them (the location depends on the steering system).
Settings are no longer synced across devices via the Steam cloud.
Muzzle velocity, shell penetration and shell mass formulae made much more realistic with help from Page, one of the community experts. Raises the penetration of cannons significantly, while simulating the rapid loss of penetration the steeper the angle. These are also necessary changes for the shell designer.
Increased laying drive top speeds.
Lowered shell drag.
Significantly increased suspension strength. This only changes the physics, you wont see a change in the suspension design tab.
The engine's target RPM range can no longer go above the engine's safe RPM range.
Made barrel explosions less silly.
Scenario Iterations
No Tank's Land - Now with more mud.
Railway - Now with trees. Major changes to verticality around the edges of the map, no changes to the centre.
Fields - Increased verticality and larger rocks.
Ambush - Background mountains.
Silent Border - AT gun engagement polish. Removed need to get to a position. The superheavy now starts crawling towards you once combat starts.
Dunes - Full overhaul of terrain.
Taiga - Now with more snow. Overall more interesting terrain textures. Minor tweaks to verticality and cover.
UI Changes
Crosshair moved closer to the top of the screen. Results in less screen space used for the sky and more for looking at your beautiful tank. This might take some getting used to.
Crosshair no longer affected by camera smoothing or shake. This naturally makes it move position on your screen. If you don't like it then it can be locked in-place via the 'Static crosshair' gameplay setting.
Reworked armour view sample display formatting.
Expanding the '+' dropdown under cannon design now increases precision of cannon output displays.
Sliders now snap to their nearest step, instead of moving smoothly - then rounding to the nearest step.
Overhauled dropdowns to improve UX and reduce clunk. Notably changed the mouse press and release handling, allowing things like click-drag-release to expand and select an option quickly.
Removed descriptions for anti aliasing options.
Changed a twin transmission downside description from "Functions poorly with a small number of gears" to "Functions poorly with a small gear range".
Ammo storage display now shows how much longer the current rack takes to load than the fastest rack in the vehicle.
Kill log now highlights the player name.
Vehicle crosshair now becomes a dot when your vehicle is destroyed.
Increased contrast of log messages.
Reload timer now disappears when your vehicle has no weapons and when your vehicle stops functioning.
Designer overlays, game version and FPS counter are all now enabled/disabled when showing/hiding the GUI.
Blueprint preview images now fade out around the edges, instead of cutting off.
Made vehicle position consistent in preview images across different vehicles, they should all sit on the bottom of the image now. (Only for newly generated previews)
Moved vehicle module health to bottom centre of screen, to allow the ammo storage display to go further to the left of the screen.
Main gun load progress is now shown on the crosshair, instead of with a timer beside the crosshair.
Graphical Changes
Made shell tracer size match their caliber better.
Reworked exhaust visual effect.
Decals now visible from further away.
Reworked most terrains using new shaders. Allows things like visible wind, height-mapping, texture repetition reduction and deformable tracks.
Adjusted weathering grime textures and rendering technique. Resolution improved and it now looks like it adds bumps on the surface.
Tweaked vehicle shader to make paint scratches have a slight dip, affecting lighting.
Adjusted paint texture mapping. It should be much less distorted on side vertical faces, though it's still far from perfect.
Reworked textures of the square engine vent and the German commander cupola.
Shell marks no longer disabled on destroyed vehicles.
Automated vehicle part icon creation. Updated all part icons.
Edges of part selection icons are now faded out.
Exhaust visual effect darkness now changes with cylinder displacement and engine technology.
Exhaust volume now scales with total engine volume divided by the number of exhausts.
Overhauled almost all explosion/flame visual effects in the game.
Muzzle flash visual effects now scale linearly with caliber, instead of having separate effects for light, medium and heavy calibers.
Audio Changes
An iteration on all GUI SFX in the game.
Audio no longer completely muted when the game is paused.
Battle music on Silent Border isn't played until the superheavy appears.
Cannon fires now have a slight random pitch variation, to reduce repetition.
Audio now supports more sound effects playing simultaneously, and is more responsive to effects playing in quick succession (e.g. slider changes).
Cannon elevation motor now also has sound when moving, instead of only when accelerating.
Camera Changes
Camera tracking smoothing now only affects the vertical axis.
Changed camera smoothing technique, removing the drag behind the vehicle.
As you move the camera closer to your tank, the camera pivot gradually moves from above the centre of the fighting compartment to above the commander cupola. The camera won't pivot to the cupola if a) The cupola is mounted on the hull and you have a turret. b) Your turret is rotated past a certain angle from the vertical.
Can now zoom to 0 distance from the camera pivot, resulting in a first person perspective.
Gameplay camera orbit is now squashed vertically, lowering the max and min height of the camera. This typically makes your tank take up more of the bottom of the screen. This can be adjusted in the camera settings.
Removed engine redlining camera shake.
Disabled camera clip prevention for trees.
Notable Fixes
Reworked camera movement to remove a cap on gameplay camera movement refresh rate. This will appear like the game is running at a much higher FPS.
Notable Optimizations
Enabled texture streaming. Allowing significant decreases in video memory usage of far away vehicles.
Removed heat distortion and sparks from far away visual effects. Should help performance when the field is littered with smouldering tanks.
Full Rewrites
Making future additions faster and more stable. These ones included preparations for mod support.
Vehicle assembly (designer to gameplay transition, as well as spawning vehicles from blueprints).
Vehicle structure (making mobility, crew, effects and health work together).
I admittedly got carried away with this experimental - keeping an eye on that next time. A few features coming in the major update intermission, before I start on Geometric internals.
Starting with configurable brakes.
- Hamish
V0.12423 - Fixes (Experimental)
Fixed visible terrain culling around the bottom of the screen on No Tank's Land.
Stopped track trails appearing on puddles, since it didn't look right.
Reduced camera clipping with the terrain with terrain deformation on in No Tank's Land.
Stability improvements for custom battle creation.
Fixed magenta hit markers caused by artillery hits.
Loading the same map twice no longer changes the lighting until the next restart.