Hello all! Big visibility, performance improvement and game related changes coming today. Brand new text, replay improvements, back-end changes and… NEW MODELS!!!!
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• Updated all the font in the game
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○ Using a new font face for all text to better fit the setting of the game
• Huge change to the back-end of the game
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○ What this means for players is that there is now an option in the "Solo" menu that allows for changing between either a player or a spectator before a race starts
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§ This may have something to do with the work in progress multiplayer
• Performance improvements to replays
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○ Replays currently still stutter in the first few seconds of player movement but are drastically improved in game speed changes
○ They also now more accurately project audio speed (whereas before they did not)
• Replays now follow a new naming scheme
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○ Replays are now named based on track and date/time
• Rendering changes to all tracks
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○ Each track should now be more vibrant
• You can now track your car in replays! Press "T" to toggle on car tracking.
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○ The camera can now track your car in a replay! So no longer will you have to hastily follow your car around and hope you got the shot you were looking for!
• Changed the trees on Forest_Run
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○ These trees should have a better performance improvement (and there are slightly fewer of them)
○ They also have no shadows for the time being too, to help with performance
• Small terrain changes to Forest_Run
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○ These changes will have no physical impact on the driving experience and are just scenery
• Other changes that I have likely forgotten to note down
• Updated the tutorial UI at the start to better illustrate the controls
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○ The game won't start until you try to go forward, even with "enable tutorial" disabled
• Added a new menu to the settings that allows for changing of game volume
• Adding onto the above point, main menu music!
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○ Along with the new background for the main menu, this should make the main menu less… bland
• Colour change!
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○ Sure red makes you go faster, but maybe red isn't the colour you'd like for your car? Maybe something different like, say blue, or green? Or how about any colour you can think of!
○ Worried that your car colour won't show when you load a demo? Don't worry! The game doesn't forget!
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§ (It also remember what colour your car was when you quit or select a new car colour!)
• And most importantly of all…
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○ NEW CAR MODEL!!!
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§ This new car model has been created to better show how the car controls in the game. The original model had been a placeholder for a bit longer than I'd have liked, so this new model was created!
§ There is also the possibility of new car types being trialed in the future (although this is to be tested to see how they performs with the vision of the game)
So… What has been worked on other than these demo updates for Take The Wheels!?
Well, I've been at work making new time trial and circuit tracks for the early access release, as well as making improvements to both the multiplayer as well as split-screen! Next thing to test is the powerups! When they were last tested over 2 years ago at a convention they all worked absolutely fine. However, with all the changes that the game has gone through since then, some of them have broken, whether that be for player targeting powerups (mostly those ones) or other bugs, I'd like to test them to see they are all still (mostly) working as intended and then can add in more for the Early Access release! I'll also be creating more tracks for the release as well, as currently there are 13 tracks that are in the current build of the game, but a small handful need to be reworked (as they were designed with the original, more grippy movement in mind and are incredibly difficult in the new handling model!), so that number ends up being closer to 8. Still, would love to release with even more tracks than 13!
Other than that, the demo update trailer for Take The Wheels! Is out now! so have a watch to see some of the new content that has been added!
Keep setting those times! With all the movement changes to the car, it's possible to get below 2 minutes on Island_Hopping, so let's see some sub 2 minute times!