HTC Vive virtual reality headsets are now supported in addition to the Oculus Rift.
A recent update replaced the old vee hull system with a brand new one created from scratch using the new mesh generation system developed and used originally with the tunnel boats. The old, ugly, '80s-'90's low poly look to the vees is gone. The meshes are now much higher resolution and the paint is rendered with the new approach adopted originally for the tunnels which gives a shinier, smoother, sleeker appearance to the hulls.
Seven example vee hulls are included that are set up to be easy to drive with good to excellent turning response and very little chine walk. After you take the default vee for a spin, be sure to load the other examples as starting points to see what's possible to do. Be sure to save your own versions by saving with a new file name or the system might overwrite your file changes the next time you run DIDI Boats.
-Vee hull parameter adjustments: There are nearly twice as many adjustments that can be made now (43 in total) including some interesting new ways of shaping the deck. The center and edges of the bow deck can be flared, raised, the entire deck can be moved upwards for better visibility over the bow (or just a different look), the top of the transom can be raised to look like a scoop ahead of the engine, and lots more.
-Boat weights: Big boats are much heavier than before. The thickness of the material in the hull is now a function of the surface area (instead of a constant thickness) and has been tuned to give a reasonable weight for boats up to 50 feet in length. Boats of around 18 feet in length weigh about the same as before (maybe slightly lighter) while the big boats are much heavier. The weight adjustment is still there, so if you want to weigh things down more than this, you can.
-Windshields are optional and customizable. You can move the top and bottom position lengthwise along the deck, set the height, and adjust curvature. You can have a little stubby windshield, a giant one, flat across or curved to whatever degree you want, or no windshield at all.
-The pad can have a deadrise angle of its own, separate from the hull.
-Cockpit: The cockpit front and rear can now be moved separately with high precision lengthwise along the hull. No more "back/center/front" position choices, you now control the cockpit size and positioning much more exactly. This helps a lot with longer boats that often looked like an Olympic sized swimming pool could fit in the cockpit. No more, unless you want to!
-New steps/strakes: These no longer have to remain flat on the bottom. They can now be made to poke nearly straight down or at different angles. Tiny changes here have a huge effect on performance, so make use of the force vector view (TAB key when driving) to see what they're doing. When tuned very carefully, they can result in turning performance of 0.7-0.8g at 60-70 mph even with deadrise angles in the 17-20 degree range. That's more than double what the old vees could do before they started rolling out of the turns. Study the example vee files included with the update to see how they can be set up to give good turning performance.
-The pad can have a deadrise angle of its own, separate from the hull.
-Ballast in the bow! (Finally, right?)
-More than three engines: If your boat design's transom width is great enough , you can fit up to six outboards.
- More outboard engine choices including 90, 115, 350 and 400 horsepower options on the vees. By request, tunnels also gain 100 and 200 horsepower options to better match smaller formula style tunnels.
-New engine selection panel: Engines are selected on a new page via checkboxes instead of cycling through engines with the +/- keys. All of the engine options are visible together along with their peak power, peak power RPM, and weight (also on tunnels), so you'll know more about the engines. The data shown in the screen is pulled directly from the engine components so is always correct. No number fudging there.
-Engines gear ratio options are now available on most engines. Most have two ratios to choose from.
-Mass properties (center of mass position and inertia tensor) now change in real time while driving as engine steer, trim, and jackplate are changed. The largest effect is the jackplate, when you raise the jackplate you are raising the center of mass of the entire boat. On small boats this can be a significant amount. Each engine's inertia tensor is now included in the calculations too.
In lieu of a nice summary, I'll just say "have fun!" Please head on over to the Steam discussion area or join the Facebook group if you'd like to comment on the new update. And if you haven't done so already, please leave a positive review on Steam about Design it, Drive it : Speedboats.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/501090/discussions/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/405024603032224/
I hope you enjoy the update as much as I have! Thanks for playing. :)