BeamNG.Drive November 2014 Progress report

BeamNG.Drive  progress report on version 0.3.6.9

The BeamNG Development team posted a progress report of the 0.3.6.9 version of BeamNG.Drive. The update report shows you all the fixes, optimizations and added features since the 9th of November. BeamNG reports that they have implemented 153 committed changes to the Torque3D source code, 195 committed changes to the game SVN repository, 43 Bug fixes and 3 Feature issues.

BeamNG.drive is a vehicle simulation game which is being developed and published by the startup company BeamNG for Microsoft Windows. BeamNG.drive features a unique real time soft-body physics engine.  You can purchase the Early Access version of BeamNG.Drive at http://store.steampowered.com/app/284160

The included video is provided by Insanegaz

dashboard_mockup_environment  dashboard_mockup_vehicle_select

 

dashboard_mockup_dashboard  10830468_723293561092050_1753653647823233661_o

Official Webpage – http://www.beamng.com

 

BeamNG Progress report: (Quote)

Work enumeration since the 9th of November for version 0.3.6.9:

Features:

  • Vehicle rotation basics working: We can now spawn the vehicles with any rotation. Some minor usability problems are to be fixed in the upcoming days.
  • 64 Bit support basics added: We added support for 64 bit for Torque3D and it was quite some work to get 64 bit support working well with all the libraries and the new Lua integration.
  • Added little launcher that will launch the 32 bits (x86) or 64 bits (x64) version, depending on the operating system. The real binaries are now in separate folders as this is the only possible workaround.
  • Added internationalization basics to the user interface. Not done at all yet, still WIP (needs to use the steam language if available)
  • Lua basics integrated into Torque3D. We slowly replace the integrated scripting language with Lua.
  • FMod re-integration tests (not published, for internal testing only)
  • OpenAL sound backend integrated
  • Joystick absolute axis support for spacemouse 3d support (also input map added for that)
  • Mouse Cursor hiding: It hides itself automatically now if no activity is detected for a certain amount of time. This function is disabled for some special cases (cefdev, mainmenu)
  • Triggers now work with the new T3D Lua
  • new Thrustmaster TX F458 wheel input mapping
  • The console now defaults to T3D Lua, also improved support for the other languages in there.
  • added Fanatec Base v2 input mapping basics
  • T3D Material selector defaulting to 100 materials per page, more materials per page possible now
  • Improved Wheel debug UI App

Bugfixes:

  • Sync with latest Torque3D upstream (lots of bugfixes, some minor new features)
  • more bugfixing on the new Scene Octree
  • fixed lots of memory problems, errors and potential crashes, as well as used, uninitialized variables that were found during static code analysis.
  • fixed bug #155 where objects rotation modified its scale: 155
  • Changed default decalBias for fix DecalRoads render too high over terrain.
  • 3D roads now have collision
  • Fixed crash to desktop bug on async shader compilation
  • Fixed userpath usage: now the file is called ‘userpath.ini’ and works well with relative paths. (Also added examples to that file)
  • Fixed some bugs on the XInput manager, improved xinput cache file format, added some default known controllers
  • Lua FFB code now knows about the attached devices and can get the config
  • Fixed invalid normals on 3d mesh loading
  • Improved D3D9 fatal error messages: Now they produce a messagebox and show it to the user instead of the game failing in some undetermined way.
  • More work on Force feedback, nearly usable now
  • fixed simple gearbox app crashing the UI when no engine was installed
  • Loading screen loads first now, fixing the half-rendered loading screens
  • Fixed the new HTML part chooser
  • Fixed Bug “Beamng enters infinite loop if .swp file is present in vehicle directory”
  • Fixed Bug #108 (http://redmine.beamng.com/issues/108): Restore driveshaft disabled status after user changes shifterMode.
  • Removed cleanup.bat script. Please delete your cache folder simply if you want to clean the cache.
  • Fixed Bug with red shifting in in grid map near big pipe
  • Fixed console spam when changing focus with FFB enabled
  • Fixed Input Test feature not working
  • Printing command line args to logfile as well for better crash reporting
  • New Vehicle Reset hook for UI apps
  • slightly fixed up main menu links width
  • Drivetrain: Fix for rotators and Optimizations.

Content:

  • minor changes to the hamster wheel
  • more textures added to HR + objects
  • improved the town base on eca
  • increased caster and SAI on hatch
  • Fixes to the cannon and angletester lua
  • Fixed water detail adjust for all maps except DRI
  • HR fixes: start bridge to HR, new lighting, start positions, checkered finish line, adjusted forest, road work, created checkpoints, terrain texture work, created new roadblock object
  • Added collision to a lot of the HR buildings + lod, minor improvements
  • HR: collisions working + terrain edits, new preview image
  • updated UI Winds app
  • Fixed material case names causing errors on GM, HR stuff, etc
  • New ramp prop, useful for loading things on the flatbed
  • Semi fueltanks: fix for improperly mirrored coltris
  • New prop; Metal Box, 100kg each
  • Hatch: work on toe out/in
  • Added a bit more power to stage 1 engine tuning on gavril v8s

New team Members:

  • B25Mitch joined our team and works on a new vehicle and other things (like our new vehicle creation introduction: Introduction_to_Vehicle_Creation)
  • Ali joined our team and will work with the C++ Team on improving the T3D engine and their shaders
  • Chris joined our team as business consultant in order to keep things a bit more ordered

Some small stats:

  • 153 committed changes to our Torque3D source code git repository
  • 195 committed changes to our game SVN repository
  • 43 Bug and 3 Feature issues closed in our internal ticket system

And yes, i went through all of those by hand to write this blogpost.
Above changes are work in progress and might not be released at this point but will be released within the next updates.

New User interface concepts (WIP)

The last week we worked out a general concept on how our user interface should look and behave. The goal is to have a simple to use, yet powerful tool that helps the user along.
We will completely get rid of the main menu and replace it with the dashboard, which will offer all kinds of functions just one click away for the user. (via ESC key)