It might not be very glamorous or exciting, but optimization is a REALLY important part of game development and it's great to spend some time making improvements every now and then.

This update is entirely focused on optimization, specifically around RAM (memory) usage and speeding up the map loading process!

These changes especially improve loading large maps with a lot of track, and when testing some famously large maps (like Beaumont, Nevada Arizona & Utah, Continental United Sates V2, Thunder Mountain Line) the improvements have been amazing:

Nevada Arizona & Utah:

RAM usage: 3.4gb -> 1.6gb of (52% reduction)
Load time: 15 seconds -> 10 seconds (33% reduction)

Beaumont:

RAM usage: 7.3gb -> 3.4gb (53% reduction)
Load time: 57 seconds -> 41 seconds (28% reduction)

Continental United Sates V2:

RAM usage: 4.2gb -> 2.5gb (40% reduction)
Load time: 41 seconds -> 20 seconds (51% reduction)

Thunder Mountain Line:

RAM usage: 5.3gb -> 3.4gb (35% reduction)
Load time: 45 seconds -> 31 seconds (31% reduction)

These optimizations come from two main places:

• Changes to how track is loaded. Only the bare minimum track data is loaded when opening a map (just waypoint position data for the trains to use) and no visual meshes or textures are loaded. Instead the visuals for track are dynamically loaded as you move around the map in the same way props are. Basically track can now exist in either a "partially loaded" or "fully loaded" state.

• Changes to how mesh data is stored and managed. I've done a huge deep-dive on where mesh data is being duplicated and improperly handled, and I found several great optimizations where mesh data could be reduced. This kind of "unnecessary mesh duplication" bloat builds up in the background and can be hard to spot, so tracking this down and improving it makes a big difference on large maps.

Aside from these two main points, I've also made a ton of smaller improvements here-and-there which affect how the game loads meshes, textures and handles RAM.

Here is a full list of all the changes in this update:

• Improved RAM management for loading screen custom images

• Loading screen images can now have any aspect ratio and will correctly scale to fit any sized screen

• Fixed flickering/flashing when loading in distant chunks while moving around the map

• Improved map startup loading in several ways

• Fixed bug where people using the old inventory selection system would experience issues when saving the game from the menu

• The item held in your hand is now correctly re-equipped when exiting a 2D menu

• Added new loading screen step for "reading save data file" when loading very large save text files

Over on the Patreon I've also made a devlog video going into detail about how all of these optimization features work under-the-hood, and talking about how Rolling Line loads maps:

You can join the Patreon and view the video here! [www.patreon.com]

GaugeGang: SmokeStream

Rolling Line enjoyers: Helga Nordgren

Model railroaders: Lutz, Jayton Hawkins, TheAmazingRyry, CAMOGUY54321, Jonathan Ginsburg

Railfans: TrainTiny, Thomas Merolla, Don Willis, Leto Gloas, Outertoaster, Nathan Perez, TrainMann, Railraider, Garst, Richard Prior, Joblogh, Detroit_, Ben Burch, Gustavo Sanchez, Michelle chan, Jack Fruh, Lynk_Wyland, KathalLasagna

You can join the Patreon to help support me to keep making free updates![patreon.com]

This update makes a really nice quality-of-life change that I've been meaning to add for ages.
The game now has screenshots for loading screens (instead of just the grey background) and of course you can add your own too!

Each of the main official maps has their own set of loading screen images, and you can even set your own custom images for your own maps, and include them when uploading to the Steam workshop.

To use a custom set of loading screen images for a single save file, all you need to do is make a folder called "custom load screens" and put your custom images in there!

You can add your own general custom loading screen images to the folder:
...Rolling line / modding / custom load screens

You can put any .jpg or .png images you want in there!

There's also several settings to customize how loading screens are displayed:

• Load screen refresh - change how frequently images are changed.

• Show mod count warning - enable/disable a warning message which shows when you have a large number of mods installed.

• Allow infinite view map preload - this setting is off by default, which means that if you have your view distance set to "infinite" the game will not load the entire map in one go (since this is likely to crash or freeze the game on very large maps). It will only load the area around you and then load the rest once the loading screen ends.

• Loading screen images - change whether the built-in official loading screens are included in the shuffle list. You can choose to instead use images in the "custom load screens" folder only.

And a few other smaller features & fixes:

• The quicksave screen now has a different visual style, it just blurs the game instead of using a full-screen loading screen.

• The RAM usage message on the loading screen now changes colors (yellow, orange, red) to show when you are running out of RAM.

• The "Batching props" stage of the loading screen has now been split into segments, showing progress of each chunk loaded.

• VSync is now force disabled when launching in VR (since this can cause problems when enabled).

It's amazing how much of a difference it makes to have pretty screenshots to look at during a loading screen makes, I should have added this ages ago!
This is just another step closer to the game being more polished and approachable to people, which is my goal at the moment (just like the previous tutorial update). And there's lots more to come.

Have fun! And I'm keen to see what kind of bizarre custom loading screens people are going to use!

GaugeGang: SmokeStream

Rolling Line enjoyers: Helga Nordgren

Model railroaders: Lutz, Jayton Hawkins, TheAmazingRyry, CAMOGUY54321, Jonathan Ginsburg

Railfans: Thomas Merolla, Don Willis, Leto Gloas, Outertoaster, Nathan Perez, TrainMann, Railraider, Garst, Richard Prior, Joblogh, Detroit_, Ben Burch, Gustavo Sanchez, Michelle chan, Jack Fruh, Lynk_Wyland, KathalLasagna

You can join the Patreon to help support me to keep making free updates!

https://patreon.com/RollingLine?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

Now that the huge Sierra Logging project is complete I can shift my focus on to new things!
And one of Rolling Line's biggest weak points is the new player experience. This game has quite a complicated learning curve since the controls and mechanics are a bit different to what people would expect. I'm planing to dedicate some proper time to improving the new player experience and making the controls easier to understand.

And the best way to kick that off is to finally add some new tutorials!

Previously the in-game tutorials were quite lacking, leaving out lots of important basic game mechanics. So these new ones help fix that by adding step-by-step instructions for things like trackwork, scenery and even some of the more niche mechanics like pantographs and snow plows.

You can play these tutorials from the main menu, or from the pause menu:

For more complex mechanics, like skyboxes, automation and modding, I've already made tons of guides here on Steam:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/id/jach5270/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides&appid=754150

In other news, the release of the Sierra Logging map has been amazing! I'm so glad that people are enjoying the map so much. I love seeing everyone's screenshots and comments, especially people finding easter eggs and admiring the little details around the map. The Sierra Logging map took a staggering amount of effort and time, and I'm really happy with how it all worked out. It's definitely the map I'm the most proud of from all the official map releases.

I recently posted a proper trailer video for the map:

https://youtu.be/psPrJpev9ZE?si=gUOvBJs2JuaDtCdl

And a developer commentary where I explore the map and talk about the design inspirations and building methods that went into making it:

https://youtu.be/LHaOXCyhI3s?si=7N6MKlaRYo_t35qb

The above commentary was released early for everyone subscribed to the Patreon, and I'm going to be making more videos like this in the future!

I'll share them early on Patreon, but they will eventually make their way to Youtube at a later date, since I don't want to lock anything behind a paywall.

If you would like to support the game and help me keep making free updates forever, then please consider joining the Patreon, even $5 is awesome and really helps!

https://patreon.com/RollingLine?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

This update also includes some other fixes & features:

• Fixed bug where portable drawers were not spawning correctly in VR

• Various settings have been moved into the "pause menu -> editing" menu, all settings relating to prop placement and snapping can be found here

• There is now a new drawer dedicated to all snow themed props and trains

• The drawer style edit menu now disappears correctly when the drawer is removed

• The "default up/down context action for prop placing" now affects both VR and PC. This means on PC you can now change the default behavior of whether the scroll wheel changes scale or height offset when placing props

• You can now use the 'expand list' button on the various save file list on the main menu

• Gap-fill track now no longer requires track snapping to be enabled to work

• The 'tutorial complete' message now shows up in VR too

• The 'color hexcode copied to clipboard' message is now hidden in VR

• VR now has 'fast scaling' enabled by default

• Fixed bug where player held items were visible during the load screen

• Added labels to the tables & walls drawers to separate the large & small tables

And that's everything!

I've got big plans coming up, mainly revolving around making the game more polished and easier to understand overall. Along with other gameplay themed features like continuing work on expanding the loading & unloading features!

Lots of cool things on the way, so keep and eye out.

GaugeGang: Trackmeister, SmokeStream

Rolling Line enjoyers: Helga Nordgren

Model railroaders: Lutz, Jayton Hawkins, TheAmazingRyry, CAMOGUY54321, Jonathan Ginsburg

Railfans: Don Willis, Leto Gloas, Outertoaster, Nathan Perez, TrainMann, Railraider, Garst, Richard Prior, Joblogh, Detroit_, Ben Burch, Gustavo Sanchez, Michelle chan, Jack Fruh, Lynk_Wyland, KathalLasagna

• A few new audio presets for things like a lumber mill, chainsaw, waterfall and larger river.
  
• Loaders/Unloaders now have an icon on them to show whether the control lever is in the locked or unlocked position.
  
• Fixed various minor mesh issues on the Shay model.
  
• Fixed issue with the physics logs props (the ones that go in a log pond) since the physics pushing was not working when reloading a map.
  
• Removed the compact comp template map from the new game map list.
  
• Fixed shadows on some of the roads on the "top of the south" map.
  
• Added a bunch of new default main menu scenes from the Sierra Logging map.
  
• Fixed collision issues with the player model pushing physics objects.
  
• Fixed bug where map terrain objects that are meant to be un-editable could be picked up using the "Edit All" buttons.
  
• Fixed issue where freight loads would appear offset when held in the players hand.
  
• Added Patreon names to the in-game credits!

• There is now a new "Unlocks 2" drawer which contains new Easter Egg unlocks coming in the Sierra Logging map. So far all that you can find in here is the compact comp boundary prop, which is unlocked by default. The compact comp drawer has also been removed now that the event is over.
  
• Fixed major bug with the loading/unloading system caused by automatic loading occurring when outside of view distance range.
  
• Fixed bug where automatic loaders could load over the max limit set if the speed was faster than the animation.
  
• Fixed shadow casting on various train details, like rust decals and logos.
  
• Fixed the alpha material options for flags. The menu also no longer exits when changing the physics type on flags.
  
• Fixed the collision layer for various props.
  
• Fixed small gaps on the base of the model for terrain pieces.
  
• Fixed bug where the inventory would become visible during loading screens.
  
• Blocked the search function from being usable during loading screens.

• The only limit is to fit within the bounds size. There is no height limit, you can go up/down as much as you want.
  
• Your map can have multiple layers of tables, or no table at all. Anything that fits within the bounds is fine, be creative with it!
  
• You can have a skybox that extends as far as you want. The size limit only applies to the large scale table size.
  
• Invisible/hidden track is allowed to extend beyond the size limit.
  
• You can also add decorations to the room that go beyond the table size, as long as it fits within the spirit of the comp. E.g. it should be obvious where your table ends and the "room decorations" begin.
  
• You can make as many entries as you want,
  
• You must start a new map for this comp, you can't re-use an old map.
  
• Mods, liveries, modded terrain, etc are all allowed.

• There is now some text on screen to show if you are currently editing a skybox layer (e.g. large scale only, miniature).
  
• There is now a setting to enable/disable the item hover popup UI in miniature mode.
  
• You can also adjust the scale of the item hover popup UI.
  
• Fixed shadow issues for the rust decals on wagons.
  
• You can now hold backspace to clear all text inside a text box.
  
• Fixed the "fullscreen by default" setting, which wasn't working correctly.

• A long pond unloader
  
• An alternative larger log loader
  
• A crane for both loading and unloading

• Shadow graphics improvements
  
• Ability to enable/disable shadows for individual props
  
• Physics based logs you can push around
  
• More graphics settings
  
• Levers to control whether loaders/unloaders are enabled or not
  
• Several more minor features and fixes!

• You can now extend/reduce the default shadow distance for both large and miniature independently
  
• You can change the intensity (darkness) of shadows

• Flat objects like road markings & decals no longer cast shadows
  
• The "ground" terrain pieces (used for making pathways and such) also don't cast shadows by default

• There is now a setting in the freight load display menu on wagons to control whether loaded props play animations or not. This is useful for things like loading the steam donkey on to a flatcar, since you wouldn't want the animation to play.
  
• Fixed the gear rotation angles on the steam donkey animation.
  
• Fixed the switchboard spawn location on the Shay locomotive.
  
• Fixed glitch where wagons would "snap" their rotation when the player steps on to them sometimes.
  
• The "heavy rain" weather preset now includes a strong wind as well.
  
• Fixed bug where the shay would emit a bit of smoke when first spawned.