Hello everyone!
As of today, it is finally available to everyone:
NG Version 0.3.0!
This version brings a whole lot of new features – first and foremost, support for buses! To make this possible, we have implemented a proper physics engine, while still implementing and refining the tire-road-curb contact separately. For those switching from or driving alongside OMSI, we have also adjusted the mouse controls in NG to make them feel much closer to OMSI again.
But of course, that's far from everything. Version 0.3.0 introduces fundamental new features and improvements in many areas.
Vehicles & Physics
In addition to bus support, new features include:
a specially implemented and refined tire-road-curb contact system
simulation of head movement caused by acceleration forces acting on the driver's body
the ability to control vehicles even when the map camera is not in flight mode
the ability to place trains in reverse orientation
mouse controls that once again feel much closer to OMSI
Graphics, Lighting & Reflections
One particularly major area of improvement is the graphical presentation:
Real-time reflections: Not only are the rear-view mirrors once again rendered “for real” – a cubemap is now also rendered in real time, allowing reflective materials to mirror the surrounding scenery.
Light volumes are supported again: This means, for example, that the passenger compartment lighting no longer illuminates the driver's cab.
Visible light sources with star effects are working.
Linear light sources are supported.
Various “old” parameters are supported again, such as the ambient light component on the “back” of spotlights.
Ambient light color gradients are available for tunnel entrances.
In addition to baked Ambient Occlusion, baked shadows are now supported again as well.
Depending on the selected option, perspective angle changes can be performed smoothly.
Maps, Rendering & Loading
There are also new features for rendering large maps.
“Landmark objects”: When a map is loaded for the first time, NG scans all tiles for particularly large objects. These are then registered separately and can subsequently be rendered across the entire map, even when they are only visible on the horizon.
There is also:
an extensive options menu with numerous settings, particularly for optimizing graphics
options for lighting, shadows and other effects
settings for loading behavior
entry points marked with either a rail or bus symbol
a loading screen
Controls, User Interface & Help
A lot has also changed in terms of controls and usability:
Keyboard shortcuts can be edited and viewed in a list.
There is an interactive keyboard: A stylized keyboard displays the commands assigned to each key. If you press Ctrl, for example, the keyboard switches and displays all keyboard commands that can be used in combination with Ctrl. And here's the neat part: “interactive” means that it always displays your currently configured key assignments!
There is offline help as well as various additional tools, such as an PIS code list, vehicle-specific operating instructions and help texts for clickable elements.
There is a flexible language system. German and English are included, but additional languages can be added just as before.
The information displayed in the top-right corner can either be hidden or moved to a separate window. When using the separate window, an interactive clock is displayed there as well.
There is a pause function.
There is a master volume setting.
Scripting & FIS
Alongside all these developments, we have created an extensive toolkit for scripting, particularly for vehicles. We are already planning a detailed introduction behind the scenes. For more information, also have a look at this post:
News about LOTUS
NG itself also includes numerous new features for scripters:
Scripts can now be permanently embedded into objects using the old ContentTool. The objects remain backwards-compatible and simply contain two scripts – one for LOTUS Classic and one for NG.
There are numerous new scripting possibilities, now including access to FIS data.
The basic PIS groups have also been expanded. They can now include:
additional strings for two-line stop displays
separate side displays
changes to line numbers and special characters while driving
Because these extensions are not possible in the old ContentTool, Basic PIS is the first content category that can also be newly created, loaded, edited, saved and packed directly in the NG version.
There is also a preview function: Once activated, vehicles using this PIS group will immediately use the changes you have made when setting their displays, and so on.
Debugging & Support
There are also several useful new features for debugging and support:
The current options can be copied to the clipboard, allowing them to be sent to a supporter quickly and without errors.
Real-time graphs can display the frame rate and various other metrics running in parallel – both for your own analysis and, of course, for debugging and support.
If the “Quickstart” option is enabled, Quickstart can still be prevented by using the
--no-quickstart
parameter.
Important Change to Key Assignments
Attention: View controls are now once again – as they used to be – assigned to F1–F4 instead of 1–4.
The debug windows previously assigned to F2–F4 can now be opened using Ctrl+F2 through Ctrl+F4.
Anything Else?
And besides all of that, further work has continued on both the map and DL.
Thanks to the integrated help system, strictly speaking, there is only one question left to answer:
How do I launch the NG version instead of classic LOTUS?
When launching LOTUS from your Steam Library, you can select “LOTUS.NG” as the launch option.
Alternatively, simply open the LOTUS installation directory, navigate to the “lotus_ng” folder and launch simulator.exe.
Information for Scripters
For those of you who have already started scripting, there are three more things worth mentioning:
For organizational reasons, docs.lotus-simulator.dev is currently not being kept up to date.
Instead, please refer to:
the integrated offline help
the automatically updated documentation pages for lotus_script: https://docs.rs/lotussim-script/latest/lotus_script/ and for lotus_extra: https://docs.rs/lotus-extra/latest/lotus_extra/
this forum
Additionally:
Deployment is now performed from “lotus-scr” instead of “lotus-sc”. Details can be found in the offline help.
The “lotus-script” dependency must be renamed to “lotussim-script”.
AND NOW, HAVE LOTS OF FUN WITH NG 0.3.0!
