Hello everyone!
After a long time, we now have some short but very good news to report:
The features of the next major release stage have been finalised and are in beta! At the moment, ‘only’ bugs need to be fixed and the script standards required for this stage need to be finalised; at the same time, the basic functions of the new script for the GT6N will be completed so that it can now also be driven around properly in the NG. And according to rumours, various other scripts are already being created behind ‘other’ scenes...
Since the last public version, where you could only fly over the map, this stage has been labelled ‘Driving’ with all its facets:
Load rail vehicles,...
assemble them into trains and...
place them on existing Entrypoints
Almost everything about Scripts - this aspect alone would merit five bullet points... :-) But for the sake of simplicity: The only things that are still missing are the interaction possibilities with things that don't yet exist (PIS, traffic lights, timetables, stuff like that) and it is planned that, apart from Rust, another (simpler) language will also be supported.
Animations including vehicle parts and their relationship to each other
Sounds
Material control via script
Building night textures that work without script
Mesh visibility via script
Mesh animations
Script-writable or exchangeable textures
Clickable meshes that trigger script events
Keyboard control
Light sources in the vehicle and in the scenery
Interaction of the script with the driving physics
The rail driving physics itself
Using adjustable switches (also with mesh animations) and drive everywhere
There is also a sky with sun, which can be adjusted as required via the adjustable clock (and of course continues to run). This is where the light sources and night textures really come into their own!
And what's next? Well, you can find our current plans here:
https://lotus-simulator.dev/roadmap/