Graphics
- Alpha blending support for world surfaces. Previously, the renderer just did a per-pixel alpha test on them, rendering pixels as either fully opaque or fully transparent - no partial opacity was possible, leading to jagged edges and shimmering against which anti-aliasing is ineffective. Fences, barriers, bushes, and many other world surfaces will look much better! This is the rendering approach used in the very earliest versions of SL1, changed in later Invictus patches. This approach does have its own flaws, but we believe the benefits far outweigh them :)
- Transparent water in Valo, as seen is earliest SL1 versions.
- Brighter, more SL1-like water "reflection" effect.
- World surface reflection effects as seen on water and glass can now be rendered at less than full brightness; Full brightness at SUNNY weather, slight reduction for COLD MORNING, and strong reduction for night.
- Transparent air traffic control tower windows at Test Track, also as seen in earliest SL1 versions.
- Transparent glass at shops #3 and #4.
- Darker bush texture (seen everywhere in the South) from older SL1 versions. This texture is more suitable for the alpha blended surfaces. Invictus changed to the newer, lighter texture in the same patch they changed the renderer.
- Reduced all shadow opacity, now matching SL1's.
- Proper fix for shadows of cars on higher floors getting projected all the way to lower floors at Car Lot.
- Simple flat traffic light flares, as seen in original SL1.
- Fixed traffic light flares sometimes not appearing.
- Objects very close to camera are cut from view in all garages except 3rd. You will no longer get a sudden poster to the face by swinging the camera around in first garage, for example.
- Balconies in the North are no longer unnecessarily rendered as transparent. This fixes some layering issues and slightly improves performance.
- Reduced smoke and sand particle density so that the densities seen at the HIGH particle graphics setting matches the densities seen in SL1. The extra density previously enabled by HIGH could max out even modern GPUs, while contributing very little visual improvement.
- Vertex fog with range test (like SL1), rather than pixel fog (SL2). This gives fog much more natural sense of depth! It will naturally encircle your view, rather than appearing as a flat sheet hovering at distance. Ever noticed how fog retreats when you turn the camera and look into distance at the edge of the screen, rather than center? Or how fog appears to get closer as your view rotates while taking a street turn? This will no longer happen :)
- Eerie vibes! Vertex fog is not without its issues! Just like the baked vertex shadows seen in SL2, this type of fog can 'leak' on very large surface triangles, like large flat grass patches at Test Track and Valo. Grass will appear lighter in places, even fully fog-colored if you go far enough off-road! This sounds like a major bug in urgent need of fixing, and fixable, it is! However, it is also adds a very unique eerie feeling to off-road adventures. It is something special seen in original SL1 that REVision was so far missing, so this little 'regression' is being left as-is :)
- Slightly reduced fog density for COLD MORNING weather.
Valo City
- Fixed a rare bug where the game could lose track of which traffic car is which (police wouldn't chase you, markers could even end up attached to the wrong car).
- Fixed racers sometimes failing to spawn because there's already too much traffic at the spawn location. When this happened, a racer marker still appeared on Nav, but it was stuck in West Side.
- Traffic cars are a tiny bit more keen to resume driving after collision.
- SL1 traffic patterns! Traffic will no longer do the SL2 thing of prioritizing least-busy lanes when choosing where to turn at intersections. You will see much longer lines of cars waiting at intersections, and few traffic cars won't be as keen to neatly organize themselves into blocking the entire width of the road either. You (and your opponent :)) will have more choices for how to navigate the busy streets! The classic SL1 sight of a huge wave of cars flooding the road as a light turns green is also as common as it should've been in SL1R all along :)
- SL1 traffic light timings.
- As high densities are now easier to navigate, LOW/NORMAL/HIGH traffic densities now match LOW/MID/HIGH seen in the final SL1 patch, rather than older SL1 versions, as previously seen in SL1R. What was RUSH HOUR is now HIGH. RUSH HOUR is now 50% denser than before. Your CPU will cry :D
- Traffic cars and racers will play engine idle SFX while participating in traffic, as they did in SL1.
- Racers in traffic can play unique engine sounds, not just the standard SL1 'V8' sound. (relevant for mods :))
- Increased how many audio sources the game engine is willing to sort through for potential playback - this means police siren SFX won't get cut off by dense traffic (emitting many engine sounds), and hordes of traffic cars will emit all the overwhelming noise you expect. (Hopefully this also helps against other audio issues like loss of own engine sound, but more testing is needed to confirm).
- Added option to only use the 6 traffic car types featured in the very earliest versions of SL1. This means no BlueCat busses (we know some of you hate those :D).
- Further increased deformation of lightweight traffic car variants.
- Fixed weird ambulance shadow.
- Fixed oversized collision for a common West Side building type. Racing on sidewalks there is a little less dangerous now.
Racer AI
- Fixed racers driving according to SL2 Valo road widths (3.5->4.0m per lane).
- More braking before turn-in, less mid-turn.
- Sharper reflexes, more aggressive use of throttle, faster change from throttle to brake. They may powerslide powerful RWD cars like Stallion. Don't worry, they still hit traffic cars all the time :D
- Slight game performance optimization for racing longer routes.
- Fixed some bugs related to RACEMEWITH cheat.
Cars / parts
- Added pistons to V6 engine model, now matching the other SL1 engines.
- Little optimization for V6 engine model.
- Added a set of "rally" suspension for Sunset, bringing ride height 30mm higher, matching that seen in original SL1. For context, we lowered the Sunset to a more normal height by popular demand in an early SL1R update, and offered a Workshop item as a way to revert the change.
- Changed models of Sunset street suspension.
- Slightly reduced price of Sunset street suspension - it is after all a slight disadvantage in Sunset's home district.
- Both Sunset suspension types are in use by racers and cars found at dealer.
- Fixed backwards Stallion steering wheel, improved its texture alignment.
- Fixed shock absorber damping changing with framerate - they were far too weak at low FPS (like under 200).
- Fixed shock & spring wear rates changing with framerate - they lasted forever at high FPS.
- Fixed excessive tyre static friction forces at low framerates.
- Fixed various wheel damage persistence issues. Reinstalling a wheel will no longer erase bearing damage, for example.
- Fixed steering not visually changing when the car is stationary and steering wheel is turned very slowly.
- Fixed the car creeping back to standard yaw after being driven in garage and parked at an unusual angle.
- Fixed some engines imported from SL2 doing horrible audio pops at idle.
- Fixed cylinder heads of engines imported from SL2 randomly dropping to 0% condition.
- Added option for a higher, further chase camera, as seen in original SL1. It can be enabled via options! This camera does not require any per-car parameters (all SL1 cars had the same camera), and so it will also work with mod cars! May be useful for mod cars with bad default cameras :)
- Reduced car-yaw-based camera movement dynamics for the default (low) chase cameras for all cars except Naxas.
- Smoother switch from onboard cameras to chase cam - starting position takes into account car velocity and starts at more accurate height.
Interface
- New Racer Rangefinder: Rather than showing the gray 'car nearby' icon next to Nav, previous racers (either raced or declined) will remain marked, but their marker will turn gray. Such gray markers disappear once you've driven far enough from them for a pedestrian to now guide you to a different racer, rather than the same one again. If a pedestrian guides you to the same racer again, the marker will remain gray, but for new racers, it'll be colored. When using options to hide Nav while cruising, a floating marker will be shown in the corner, similarly to before.
- Fixed a marker bug when using MANIA mutator in combination with PRONAV.
- Extended timeout for the DRIVE AWAY TO FIND ANOTHER RACER hint.
- Fixed CODRIVER cheat route line remaining in place after abandoning race.
- Added option for 9K tach style as seen on the back of the SL1 box. It uses previously unused textures found in SL1 files. AUTO option only shows it when redline is 9K or below.
- More dynamic sticky note positioning in Catalog.
- Clearer interface for input filter adjustment options.
- Added mention of Mouse 1 to release steering wheel in first person to list of static controls.
- In first person mode, chassis options dialog now shows up instantly, rather than asking you to hold Mouse 2.
- In first person garage, pressing Esc now gives you a dialog with clickable buttons, rather than the confusing-to-hide fake side panel listing hotkeys.
- In Junkman Career, the PRINT DECALS (Catalog) button is now always shown, not just in Painter mode.
- Removed in-garage mentions of night mode, and F10 hotkey. It can still be accessed via Shift+Click or Shift+F2, like in earlier SL1R versions.
- Race Setup map drag now stops when map edges reach center of screen, rather than colliding with screen edges. This allows you to reveal the darkness than lurks beneath!! This does not look as nice, but the extra freedom in positioning is worth it, especially when racing near map edges (far east especially), and double-especially at wider aspect ratios.
- More-generous max Race Setup zoom out.
- Added option to always start Race Setup bet at max.
- Added option to limit all interface to a certain aspect ratio. Mainly intended for those running a triple monitor setup via NV Surround / AMD Eyefinity / similar tech. Interface will all stay on the center monitor, while 3D stuff will show up as usual on the others. May also be useful for reducing mouse movement / head turning at ultrawide, though will look ugly. Found under ADVANCED OPTIONS.
Misc
- Added hint for graphics drivers to prioritize using high-performance GPU.
- Microsecond timer for physics, that won't begin to drift during long sessions.
- Slight optimization for Car Lot floor changes.
- Fixed cars sometimes being invisible after exiting Car Lot photo mode.
- Fixed car selection changing while using the scroll wheel in Car Lot/Dealer photo mode.
- Removed Cover Art Award (challenge opponent at night) Steam achievement.
- Added a cryptic Steam achievement.
- Rumors of beggars causing time anomalies.
Demo version
- Removed a lot of unused files.
- Catalog will no longer show bookmarks for the bigger engine & wheel types, incompatible with the cars featured in the demo anyway. This is partially to better communicate the scope of the demo.
- If you had installed 20"+ wheels via cheats, you will find your car without wheels. Sorry. These wheels only shipped with the demo because the logistics of making the lineup different between the versions was too inconvenient read: we were lazy. We've improved automations, so it's no longer a problem. Overall, the demo remains very generous :D
Stay tuned! :)