NoLimits Coaster News!

[Gnome]

It would be quite cool if they designed dark ride ride systems for people to play with considering how much more people can do with the new engine.

[Moose]

Several dark rides use coaster style track. If you are creative there is nothing stopping you from doing it with what is already in the game.

[ride_op]

Merry Christmas from the NoLimits Development Team to you and yours!

 

Enjoy our gift to you...More astonishingly awesome NoLimits 2 footage!

 

 

-Ride_Op

Edited December 25, 2013 by A.J.

[Mr Stratosphere]

Merry Christmas! Just saw the video, it looks absolutely amazing!

[coasterkyle]

That video gave me chills at how detailed each and every ride is. It is well worth the wait so far.

[FLIPDUDE]

^^Fantastic! Great video! everything looks so high wuality!

 

...Just one thing though... Is it just me or does the suspended coaster's swinging feel very.... restrained?

[Phyter]

Several dark rides use coaster style track. If you are creative there is nothing stopping you from doing it with what is already in the game.

 

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.

[FLIPDUDE]

Actually what excited me most about the possibility of a deisgnated dark ride system is the fact that you could make the car spin to face whichever way you want, something you can't do with the existing coaster kinds, as far as I know.

[ride_op]

Regarding the swinging: it's fairly calm there because I put a lot of time into keeping the swing under control with smooth curves and good banking. Earlier revisions featured crazy swinging that was not very realistic. Other parts of that ride have more swinging action.

 

Enjoy the video guys! More new features and trains are on display for your enjoyment and pleasure. We will have more info coming soon!

 

Merry Christmas!

 

-Ride_Op

[FLIPDUDE]

^Oh I wasn't reffering to the swinging during the turns and curves, I'm well aware that a well banked coaster wouldn't swing there. I was reffering to the swinging when the train hit the brake run at the end, cars fell from the side and then just had one small after-swing before they stopped. From what I remember about SFMM's Ninja, every time the coaster hit a striaght part it acted like a big ol' swingset.

 

EDIT: Just watched some POVs... apparantly the parts I remembered as straight were actually given slight S curves.

Edited December 25, 2013 by FLIPDUDE

[ride_op]

I was going for that, but it's harder to trigger than I thought! You have to under bank a very tight turn. Swinging physics are quite challenging to control and lots of fun to experiment with!

 

-Ride_Op

[FLIPDUDE]

Here, found a video that shows what I mean pretty well. the swinging here is obvioulsy dampened and restrained, too, but it stilll gets a few good swings in before stopping. granted it goes faster and higher than the train in the NL2 preview, I'm just wondering if the same track, whien recreated in NL2, would give the same big swinging response.

 

[ride_op]

Yes it will. Check out how much the cars react on the small radius turn after the main brakes before being slowed for the station approach.

 

-Ride_Op

[Gnome]

I really hope those tracks in the preview come with the game! That Tatsu recreation looks soo good! Excited to see the finished product in the near future!

[FLIPDUDE]

Question: is the game engine programmed in such a way that allows you to, if at a later date you decide to do so, make the building area bigger in an update?

Because while the building area is certainly big enough for most coasters, I wonder about people making big ol' parks with several coasters in them

[Koasterking48]

My reaction to the video

[Jon Sabo]

Loved the video. Thanks for posting!

[Phyter]

Question: is the game engine programmed in such a way that allows you to, if at a later date you decide to do so, make the building area bigger in an update?

Because while the building area is certainly big enough for most coasters, I wonder about people making big ol' parks with several coasters in them

 

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!

[FLIPDUDE]

^Whee! That's wonderful!

[Koasterking48]

Question: is the game engine programmed in such a way that allows you to, if at a later date you decide to do so, make the building area bigger in an update?

Because while the building area is certainly big enough for most coasters, I wonder about people making big ol' parks with several coasters in them

 

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!

My computer would hate me if I tried to recreate the entire Disneyland resort, hehe

[Phyter]

My computer would hate me if I tried to recreate the entire Disneyland resort, hehe

 

 

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.

[Kooky]

Can´t wait to see what parks the Community will create (hoping for a luna park on the moon )

 

But i have some questions, too. Will it be possible to change the train modells and maybe even do scripting on them

I asked because i hope for scripted cars/trains like for example the KUKA-Robot-darkride trains from the Harry Potter ride (which i hope someone will recreate) or maybe a real KUKA(robot)-Coaster that could be build with it. Watching the 4-dimension coaster in your video started me thinking about this.

 

And another question is, are you going to insert prototypic, classic(very,very old ones) or fictional coaster types (like the Kuka-Coaster or the free-Fall coaster) into NL2. I think many things (like Pandorras Box) could be build by scripting, but for normal users like me, it could be cool to get the pre-made types of coaster. Maybe as special updates or DLC, but please not as an Update on the 1st of April would be great to ride coasters that we will never get a chance to ride in real life

 

And this leads to next question: Do you provide future updates ( edit: just read in an older thread that you will do it) and will they cost extra money like for DLCs? Or will they be for free? Or both? Some little ones for free, big updates for some coins

 

 

EDIT(questions added):

looking at the switch track functionality, will it be possible to build for example a coaster which is duelling and then the trains stops and the other one switches the track to same were the first train is and then they start following each other. I remember a no-limits 1 coaster from the community were they did this with fake switch-track. But it would be cool to build a really (simulated) working one.

To get to the point... is it possible to use the switch track to build a second track (one train goes in this direction the next in the other direction) and will it be possible to let two trains run on one track in a row (even with a block system) and script them to stop (fantasy coaster style of course) and start when another train arrives or gets closer and the next second train to follow directly without stop? (hope my eyplanation is in somehow understandable)

 

Last one: I remember reading one time that one of NL-Team said "No Oculus Rift-Support", but i hope there will maybe be an update

 

One last wish... because you have mentioned that you like experementing with swinging coaster i hope that you will sometimes add the S&S FreeFly coaster type (http://www.engineeringexcitement.com/rides/coasters/free-fly). Would be cool to create a bunch of two or more FreeFlys in a duelling way. Or maybe the coaster type from Seven Dwarfs Mine... i think both a hard to simulate but are really cool types and could lead to great community tracks!

Thx for your time (answering my huge amount of questions) and for "a really looking forward to" simulator experience. I wish you and No-Limits-Team some nice Holidays and good start into an awesome NL2-Year (looking daily/hourly on your HP, cause i can´t wait a bit stupid and crazy )

Edited December 26, 2013 by Kooky

[Tanks4me05]

For those who want to really utilize the scripting capabilities and make custom flat rides and whatnot but have pretty much zero java experience (like me) will the tutorial that you are implementing be sufficient to explain what to do? My only real "coding" experience is with MATLAB. If independent study is recommended, what websites or books would you recommend me to read?

[Projektion]

My computer would hate me if I tried to recreate the entire Disneyland resort, hehe

 

 

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.

 

Does this mean you could also turn the 3D "steps" on the wooden catwalks to a 2D image (like how they were in NL1)? As I see them being the main killer of FPS in NL2. for people not wanting to upgrade PC's.

[Phyter]

Will it be possible to change the train modells and maybe even do scripting on them

I asked because i hope scripted cars, trains like for example the KUKA-Robot-darkride trains from the Harry Poter ride (which i hope someone will recreate) or maybe a real KUKA(robot)-Coaster that could be build with it. Watching the 4-dimension coaster in your video started me thinking about this.

 

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.

 

And another question is, are you going to insert prototypic, classic(very,very old ones) or fictional coaster types (like the Kuka-Coaster or the free-Fall coaster) into NL2. I think many thinks (like Pandorras Box) could be build by scripting, but for normal users like me, it could be cool to get the pre-made types of coaster. Maybe as special updates or DLC, but please not on 1st of April

 

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.

 

And this leads to next question: Do you provide future updates and will they cost extra money like for DLCs? Or will they be for free? Or both? Some little ones for free, big updates for some coins

 

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.

 

One last wish... because you have mentioned that you like experementing with swinging coaster i hope that you will sometimes add the S&S FreeFly coaster type (http://www.engineeringexcitement.com/rides/coasters/free-fly). Would be cool to create a bunch of two or more FreeFlys in a duelling way.

 

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.

 

EDIT(questions added):

looking at the switch track functionality, will it be possible to build for example a coaster which is duelling and then the trains stops and the other one switches the track to same were the first train is and then they start following each other. I remember a no-limits 1 coaster from the community were they did this with fake switch-track. But it would be cool to build a really (simulated) working one.

To get to the point... is it possible to use the switch track to build a second track (one train goes in this direction the next in the other direction) and will it be possible to let two trains run on one track in a row (even with a block system) and script them to stop (fantasy coaster style of course) and start when another train arrives or gets closer and the next second train to follow directly without stop? (hope my eyplanation is in somehow understandable)

 

It would have to be custom scripted but, yes, exotic behaviors like this are definitely possible.

 

Last one: I remember reading one time that one of NL-Team said "No Oculus Rift-Support", but i hope there will maybe be an update

 

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.