Phyter

Cyrus, the demo and full game use the same engine so you can expect similar performance. NL2 is a demanding piece of software that may overwhelm older desktop or mobile graphics hardware. But play with the settings and make sure that you are running that latest drivers for your video card before throwing in the towel.

Yes. So one of the big problems in the past was that many of the free 3D modeling programs do not support smoothing groups; or support only their own internal version of that feature. In the case of Blender, for example, .3DS files would appear faceted (or worse). We now have a feature to force shading on objects exported from Blender and other apps that do not store smoothing groups so that you can now use these modeling programs without worrying about compatibility. As for materials. NL2 features a material editor that will allow you to create .NL2MAT files and assign them to scenery objects. .NL2MAT files can contain color information, multiple textures with shaders and blending profiles, special effect shaders, and special properties such as occlusion (useful for optimizing scene performance) among other features. When it comes to material properties in NL2 there is very little you cannot do.

One more video to get out of the way before release.

Good going guys. You got the job done in a little under an hour!

Who wants to see a new video? We will post the video the instant we get to 1000 LIKES on FaceBook. https://www.facebook.com/nolimits.coaster Currently 928

Please note there is no official release schedule for the native Mac version. We'll keep you guys informed when work on it begins. It's a good question. We'll keep it on hand. Unfortunately we're not going to have that information until we're closer to release of the Mac version. In the mean time be sure to follow our facebook page and twitter feed for exclusive updates! Oh look, there's some already. http://www.facebook.com/nolimitscoaster

There already LODs on those steps. That comes automatically when you do the auto-supports.

Not right off the bat. Scripting is by far the most sophisticated feature any design space can ever have. Code level design is as low as you can go without modifying the application itself. So we don't expect most people to learn how to script and we generally aren't going to be the ones to teach you. That being said, for those who do want to learn, we recommend any C# or JAVA beginners guide. Google gives a number of good jumping off points. The "For Dummies" books are GREAT! don't discount them. We would also recommend you download Visual Studio Express for Windows and begin practicing with console apps. Knowledge of C#/Java syntax and the fundamentals of object oriented programming are what you will need to script in NoLimits 2.

It's not possible to replace the train models, but it is possible to add to them using scripting (see: ). These attachments don't have to be static, they can be dynamic. Something like a KUKA Robot Arm attachment is absolutely possible and we kind of get the feeling talking to programmers in the community that there is going to be a race to see who can do it first. So many train styles so little time. Our focus will continue to be on the most popular train styles. The B&M Wing coaster is up next on our todo list. One of the most common things we hear back from NoLimits 1 fans is how good of a value it has been. They paid $29.95 for a game that lasted them 4, 5, 6 years or more. NoLimits 2 will cost $45.99, but we want to make sure that it is just as good of a value as its predecessor. We hereby bequeath this challenge to the programmers in the community... Script a ride-able S&S Free Fly catamaran attachment for one of the existing trains. It would have to be custom scripted but, yes, exotic behaviors like this are definitely possible. Coaster sims and VR are a natural fit. I mean let's face it, they were made for one another. Unfortunately I am currently the only member of the NoLimits Dev Team that owns an Oculus dev kit. And as you probably know the Rift i's something that needs to be experienced first hand to understand what all the hype is about. So getting the other guys on board with the idea has been a challenge. That said, we have come to a consensus that VR support is good idea, but will prefer to wait until the Rift consumer kit is available and selling. So don't expect native support immediately but it is probably an inevitable feature. In the mean time let's hope one of the injection driver developers picks up on the need for VR in NL2.

You say that... (but) ... for the truly daring designers that want to go all out, NoLimits 2 features just about every frame rate saving feature you could ask for. For instance you can add LODs that you've created to scenery object files so that the further away you are the simpler their geometry gets. You can set the clipping distance for individual objects so that they won't be rendered until you're within a specific range. You can even create occlusion areas/zones of any shape and size; this is useful for preventing exterior objects from being rendered when you enter a building, or for block rendering of large exterior scenes where distant objects are mostly occluded by closely spaced buildings. So it is possible to create massive sprawling high fidelity parks and not tank your frame rate. Of course it is up the to the designer to employ these techniques. We're working on tutorials for these advanced features to help the community build bigger and bigger parks.

Actually the build area has increased dramatically for NoLimits 2. You will now have nearly 1 square mile at your disposal. To put that in perspective, that's large enough to frame up Cedar Point from corner to corner with room to spare. To put it another way, the whole of Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure and Knott's Berry Farm would fit comfortably a single NL2 park file. So go nuts!

As a reminder (or informer if you didn't already know) one of the cool things you can do with the scripting engine is enable a scenery object to follow a track spline. With some clever coding dark ride vehicles would spring to life on the coaster track. Additionally you could make the track invisible if you preferred the cars to appear to be moving on a different surface. This is just one of the things we're looking forward to the programmers in the community picking up on and hopefully developing ride systems that anyone can use.

Work Area: 1536 x 1536 x 500 meters 5039 x 5039 x 1640 feet Launch: 252 kph 156 mph I'm rounding.

The standard license comes with the exact same coaster types as the Pro license. We're not going to force you into a $99 purchase just to play the game. The Pro version has additional media features and is primarily for entities and individuals that need the extended commercial use license because they plan to do advertising with media generated within NoLimits.

The standard v. pro comparison can be found here. nolimitscoaster.de/index.php?page=news&newsentry=20131216170711#news20131216170711.

It's not exactly The Voyage. I was just building from memory and the layout just ended up that way. If anything it's an homage to the Voyage. As for NURBS editing, nothing to be scared of. The B-spline for track creation doesn't just result in a smoother result over the old Bezier curves, but we think it's actually a lot easier to use. The old 'control handles' didn't make a lot of sense to new comers and resulted in frustration due to pumping. The B-spline is a whole lot more like drawing, you can just lay down points and expect a good curve. Combined with the editor tool set including the depumper and combs you can actually begin to approach FVD quality just hand building. We think you're going to like it.

^^ We're running out of 2013's fast. We're still aiming for this year, but you know what happens.. The instant we say yes or no, or hint at some sort of definite timeline, it slips. As always we gotta say, it's done when it's done. We swear we're not intentionally teasing you with that line. It's just that given our wonky schedules, the fact that two out of the three of us are working regular jobs, it's hard to know exactly how long anything takes us. We can say this much... our individual 'ToDo' lists are short. VERY short! ^ We're planning a Mac version, but launch will be Windows only. At least one of our beta testers has tested it in Windows (7 I think) on his Mac and it seems to run fine. We can't promise you the same experience though.

If any one was wondering why we haven't posted an update for the past two weeks we've been working hard to finish up still pushing for release. So we took some time out this weekend to throw together a lengthy preview video of the NoLimits 2 editor. The video flies by but if you pause and re-watch you can get a good sense of some of the powerful new features in the editor. Oh, and also... TIMBERLINERS! -Kevin

> ^So I'm guessing this means NL2 objects will be able to support a bump map? And then some. The Material Editor allows for up to eight independent render passes with four texture units per pass for up to 32 textures all blending in any way you need. There is a technical level to it but even if you stick to just the most basic features you gain a lot of flexibility. > Also, would vertical terrain faces (Like, to make a cliff, a ditch, or a pool) be possible? How will the splash-pool that the dive coaster goes through in the video be created? Unfortunately vertical faces aren't possible with the built in terrain yet. The splash pool, water and all, is a single .3DS object. This is one use of the material and scenery object editors for applying special effects to object elements. The splash effect itself was a scripted scenery object. > Didn't there use to be a way to import .obj files? NoLimits 1.x only supported .3DS. NL2 will support .3DS and .LWO. We're looking at moving toward .DAE (Collada) in the future but no definite plans yet. > I thought I saw someone say that we'll be able to make footers of variable height. If that's true, then it might be possible to build a trench using only footers. Creative! Haven't tried it but that might work. Footer height is indeed adjustable. You can also angle footers, which is important for square footers. > I also wonder if we'll be able to make a rocky cliffside/vertical walls in the terrain editor. You can define any number of textures to appear on the terrain, and you can restrict each to within certain angle or height ranges for auto-painting vastly more realistic terrain than we've had in the past.

I'm afraid there's no in-game object creator. You're still going to have to import your objects. However two new tools called the Scenery Object Editor (not to be confused with object creation) and the Material Editor are directly aimed at improving, not only the look and feel of your imported objects, but managing these assets as well. The Scenery Object Editor produces an .NL2SCO file which contains your imported object as well any light sources you attach to it, scale and rotation information, material assignments, scripts, etc. The Material Editor which produces a .NL2MAT file contains references to texture assets, allows for the application of effects, shaders, blending modes, special attributes like occlusion, etc. We also have a new scenery object overview window (basic tree view), which comes in handy. Combined these new features allow for very robust scenery handling and managing of extremely complex scenes.

Keep the feedback coming you guys! If you have any questions about the upcoming release we'll do our best to answer.

We are planning a limited time discount for the standard version at the very least. No word on the pro version or any details on amounts yet. We'll let you know as soon as we've finalized those decisions. The download size is quite reasonable. Right now around 500MB.

Hi guys. New update posted! http://www.nolimitscoaster.de Just to note: The link to the X-Car video is pointing to my personal YouTube account. Please refer to our official YouTube channel for the X-Car video and post any comments there (link below). I will be deleting the video from my personal account once the link on our website is updated and I'm afraid your comments will disappear with it. Thanks! -Kevin

There are methods to obtain car position and orientation allowing for objects to be "attached" to cars for customization. Entirely new coaster types might be a stretch, but who knows? If a clever enough programmer comes along it may happen. Exactly. Yes, unconventional behaviors like and more is possible with scripting. We are including an example park and script with a reversing section based on The Mummy to get you started.

Not by default, no. But virtually infinite number of unconventional behaviors are possible with scripting. For instance it is possible for a script to disable the internal station handler essentially making the script responsible for moving the trains in and out of the station.