In short
Brakes, sways, CarConvert.exe expansion, finishing-up engine work!
List of changes
Engines
- Fine-tuned SFX ranges for non-I4 engines.
- Smooth V10 idle SFX.
- Greatly optimized formats for all engine textures - you will no longer see the parts popping-in as you flip catalog pages! We used the source files for all these textures, rather than the ones with (very) subtle artifacting found in later SL1 versions. Most now look ever-so-slightly better than before, while others ultimately lost a tiny bit of quality due to use of the .dds format for it's mipmap support, to eliminate shimmering. Realistically, it would be difficult to notice any quality difference without a direct comparison, and the loading speed increase (as much as 8x!) is very much worth it!
- Merged many identical textures shared between engine types.
CarConvert.exe
- The tool has now been caught up with all the recent part changes.
- During the conversion process, you can now choose minimum/maximum engine size (cylinder count), and wheel sizes for both front and rear axles, per vehicle model! Regardless of what you input here, any engine/wheel will still be possible to install using the "SKELEWRENCH" cheat. (You can also feed already-compatible cars through the tool to change these attributes, to avoid the need for the cheat altogether)
- Wheel compatibility attributes are applied purely based on wheel position, so the tool will correctly handle vehicles more or fewer than four wheels in most cases.
- Improved vehicle model file detection logic.
Brakes
- All 30 of the original brakes have been ported over!
- The brakes are now sorted in sets in the Catalog, rather than first all FR, then all FL, etc...
- Added a pair of larger front/rear-compatible plain steel brakes, only for the sake of preventing the six "stock" items at the start of the Catalog category from messing up there being exactly two full sets of brakes offered per catalog page until the end of the category. These new brakes sit between the best "stock" and the weakest aftermarket brakes in both price and performance.
- Increased the max braking force of all brakes, so that even the weakest brakes have enough power to lock-up performance tyres at speed. This is both more realistic and more fun, we believe. You will still want to use high-end brakes for their durability & more-responsive feel. This change may get further tweaking, or may be undone altogether - let us know what you think about such a change!
- Optimized brake textures.
Misc
- The photo mode camera position save feature now saves the actual camera roll value, rather than the roll slider value. Due to the camera physics, these can go slightly out of sync (roll doesn't reset EXACTLY). You can see the consequences of this issue at 0:16 of the "STREET ACTION" trailer (2nd trailer on store page) :)
- Stripped out all 'general' SLRR placeholder parts (car-specific ones still remain).
- When a wheel is removed while in the garage, the corner of the car now gets slightly raised, as if lifted by a jack! The car won't hit the ground, damaging itself in the garage anymore! Let us know what you think about this change! Maybe you prefer the original, more-brutal nature of SL1 here?
- Applied SL1 attributes to batteries and N2O bottles.
- Ported over all 6 of the original swaybars.
The streets of Valo need more personalities!
Check out some interesting rewards in the crowdfunding thread! :)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1571280/discussions/0/3053988806896458547/
Check back next week! There will be more!
Stay tuned! :)