| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Matt |
Posted - 02/17/2008 : 5:05:50 PM
http://www.nolimitscoaster.de/
Starting with this news I am going to release some new information every month about my current project. This project is definitely the largest project I have ever been working on and as you might already have guessed, I am talking about NoLimits 2. It is hard to say how far I am with it because a lot of development was spend so far on basic features like the graphical user interface and main engine and at this point there is nothing cool to show that is has anything to do with a coaster simulation. That means that it is still impossible for me to give you a clear release date. Two years ago, I would have estimated the year 2008 but now it more and more solidifies that I cannot finish it this year. I know that this is a damn long time for a new update. I would like to use these monthly posts for giving you more insight about the project and why it is so huge and why it is not just a new update and why it is not out yet.
A long time ago I decided to start from scratch for NL2 because a lot of things that went into the original NoLimits were not that perfect from today's point of view which give me more and more trouble now. I still think that starting from scratch was a good decision, though if NL2 would have shared more with NL1, it would be way closer to a release. But what about NL3 and so on? The more and more I will continue relying on a bad design, the more and more problems I would face with every new update. To start from scratch means, that I will get a second chance to do it right from the beginning which means that every new update will be so much easier. NoLimits is a project that evolves, it is not a simple game that is ever finished. The whole amusement industry evolves. New coaster designs are coming out every year and new techniques improve the ride experiences more and more. I am just trying to keep up with the industry.
The classic example for what I think that needed to be redesigned is the separated editor application which results in a lot of doubled code. The original idea was to have a simulator application with a highly optimized rendering path for best framerates and a lightweight editor with a simplified wireframe based display. When I was in the process of developing NL1, I had no idea how many people would actually buy the program. And then again, my guess was that most customers would most likely play with shipped tracks inside the simulator and only a minority of customers would really care about the editor at all. I was so damn wrong. Now it is for sure that the editor is a very important aspect of the application. On the same hand today's graphics hardware and CPU power is much higher which is not requiring too complicated optimization paths. For NL2 you can expect that the editor is built right into the simulator sharing the same display. The big advantage is that you do not have to switch between two applications if you want to try out your ideas. WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") becomes possible. One big downside of higher performance computers is that also the demands from the customers are much higher today. A lot of the overall development time is spend for keeping up with today's graphics features like GPU shaders.
I still plan to continue maintaining the NL1.x project while NL2 is still too far away. That's it for now, more information about NL2 and its features is coming in march... |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Coasterkidmwm |
Posted - 05/06/2013 : 06:18:24 AM
You guys should request even more things and then wonder why it takes longer. |
| PhyterNL |
Posted - 05/06/2013 : 01:04:36 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Cali Coaster
Ahem...
Cant we just script new trains in?
If you're good enough with the math then you can write a script to make an object follow the track, accelerate due to gravity, do the wheel rotation and linkage kinematics... all of that. Unfortunately, until the API is more fleshed out, custom trains will be functionally inferior to built-in ones because they won't be able to respond to track types and settings (ie. brakes, transfers, transports, station handler and e-stop commands, etc). The good news is that Ole is constantly expanding the library of methods available in the API. And so as programmers become more sophisticated with their scripts, developing the need for more functionality, he'll be able to add it.
quote:
Originally posted by Knexrule11
Ah yes, that was probably it. Although it probably is the same issue with Wingriders
The B&M Wing train is going to get done eventually, but not for launch. It can take several months for us to put together an entirely new train style from scratch and we just simply don't have the time. We actually put a halt on new train styles long ago, doing only a few contracts for our industry partners since then. We're happy to say at least those contracts will make it into the sim. The official count now is 37 styles... so yeah... Sufficed to say have a few surprises left in store.  |
| Cali Coaster |
Posted - 05/04/2013 : 02:19:24 AM
quote:
Originally posted by jayman
quote:
Originally posted by Freddie
quote:
Originally posted by PhyterNL
We'd like to hold off showing the wooden coasters until we've finished rebuilding the PTC and GCI trains. Currently only the Morgan is done. The PTC trains will go quickly. The Millennium Flyer will take a bit longer.
How about some proper classic trains like NAD Century Flyer or P&C, any chance? Or at least different restraint configurations on the PTCs?
THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
same |
| jayman |
Posted - 05/03/2013 : 4:45:25 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Freddie
quote:
Originally posted by PhyterNL
We'd like to hold off showing the wooden coasters until we've finished rebuilding the PTC and GCI trains. Currently only the Morgan is done. The PTC trains will go quickly. The Millennium Flyer will take a bit longer.
How about some proper classic trains like NAD Century Flyer or P&C, any chance? Or at least different restraint configurations on the PTCs?
THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
| Jonny Richey |
Posted - 05/03/2013 : 4:41:00 PM
umm, X-Flight? Don't those cars look pretty "normal"? Gatekeeper used the same design, minus the bird on the front car... |
| Knexrule11 |
Posted - 05/03/2013 : 1:50:55 PM
quote:
Originally posted by yoshifreak
quote:
Originally posted by Knexrule11
I do believe they said they will not add those as there have been no "normal" cars for it, they are all themed per ride. Therefor they can't. Unless that was for a different kind of coaster, but I believe they said that about the wingrider, possibly Pyther could confirm this.
I remember them saying that for RMC, but not wing coasters.
Ah yes, that was probably it. Although it probably is the same issue with Wingriders |
| SkyArrow |
Posted - 05/03/2013 : 1:32:17 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Cali Coaster
Ahem...
Cant we just script new trains in?
Pretty sure he mentioned some kind of "irony" class that would prevent that. Not sure exactly what that means. |
| yoshifreak |
Posted - 05/03/2013 : 1:31:18 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Knexrule11
I do believe they said they will not add those as there have been no "normal" cars for it, they are all themed per ride. Therefor they can't. Unless that was for a different kind of coaster, but I believe they said that about the wingrider, possibly Pyther could confirm this.
I remember them saying that for RMC, but not wing coasters. |
| Freddie |
Posted - 05/03/2013 : 12:55:35 PM
quote:
Originally posted by PhyterNL
We'd like to hold off showing the wooden coasters until we've finished rebuilding the PTC and GCI trains. Currently only the Morgan is done. The PTC trains will go quickly. The Millennium Flyer will take a bit longer.
How about some proper classic trains like NAD Century Flyer or P&C, any chance? Or at least different restraint configurations on the PTCs? |
| Cali Coaster |
Posted - 05/03/2013 : 11:59:04 AM
Ahem...
Cant we just script new trains in? |
| highthrills2 |
Posted - 05/03/2013 : 11:38:52 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Knexrule11
quote:
Originally posted by Jonny Richey
I know we already have Dive Machines added, but is there any chance for B&M Wingriders in NL2?
I do believe they said they will not add those as there have been no "normal" cars for it, they are all themed per ride. Therefor they can't. Unless that was for a different kind of coaster, but I believe they said that about the wingrider, possibly Pyther could confirm this.
i think they should just include them, they could make a generic front end that would work well for it,
i for one would love to see a wingrider in nl2 mainly because of how big the size of the templete is
|
| Knexrule11 |
Posted - 05/03/2013 : 10:30:24 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Jonny Richey
I know we already have Dive Machines added, but is there any chance for B&M Wingriders in NL2?
I do believe they said they will not add those as there have been no "normal" cars for it, they are all themed per ride. Therefor they can't. Unless that was for a different kind of coaster, but I believe they said that about the wingrider, possibly Pyther could confirm this. |
| NightwindElf |
Posted - 05/02/2013 : 11:40:08 PM
Sounds like complete theme park recreations will be possible, now. I'm now giddy from the possibilities. |
| yoshifreak |
Posted - 05/02/2013 : 10:57:27 PM
^I would guess it's likely, but if not, something we'd see soon in an NL 2.x release. |
| Jonny Richey |
Posted - 05/02/2013 : 10:53:46 PM
I know we already have Dive Machines added, but is there any chance for B&M Wingriders in NL2? |
| PhyterNL |
Posted - 05/02/2013 : 9:55:54 PM
We'd like to hold off showing the wooden coasters until we've finished rebuilding the PTC and GCI trains. Currently only the Morgan is done. The PTC trains will go quickly. The Millennium Flyer will take a bit longer.
|
| highthrills2 |
Posted - 05/02/2013 : 8:25:29 PM
can we see what the auto supports will look like and a possible wooden train..?
would love to see a 500ft wooden terrain coaster like voyage and hades had a child of the devil and made this beast
|
| SkyArrow |
Posted - 05/02/2013 : 7:51:45 PM
quote:
Originally posted by cool5
500 foot tall 1MPH lift.
ZZZ... |
| cool5 |
Posted - 05/02/2013 : 7:48:36 PM
I will nowbe able to make a 1,642 bottomless pit for my future Jamping For the Lovely Candlelights Jet Coaster or a 14,000 foot long Meisho jet coaster with a 500 foot tall 1MPH lift. |
| CKidd |
Posted - 05/02/2013 : 6:15:57 PM
all I can think of with those numbers is a super rattlers revenge/i-rat |
| SkyArrow |
Posted - 05/02/2013 : 05:49:14 AM
quote:
Originally posted by PhyterNL
Considerably more space. The NL2 workspace is greater than three times the area and nine times the volume of NL1. The active simulation space in NL2 is 1536x1536m (5039x5039ft) wide by 500m (1642ft) tall. Diagonally you could create an out-and-back roller coaster 4352m (14,278ft) long with only two turns, an airtime lover's wet dream.
I could make an accurate Voyage recreation as well as a 1642 foot tall death coaster if I wanted, with a launch speed of whatever the max speed of transport devices is in NL2 (I assume it's higher than 124.3 mph?) |
| PhyterNL |
Posted - 05/02/2013 : 12:02:59 AM
quote:
Originally posted by NightwindElf
Will the available area in the editor be approximately the same, or will we have more space to work with?
Considerably more space. The NL2 workspace is greater than three times the area and nine times the volume of NL1. The active simulation space in NL2 is 1536x1536m (5039x5039ft) wide by 500m (1642ft) tall. Diagonally you could create an out-and-back roller coaster 4352m (14,278ft) long with only two turns, an airtime lover's wet dream. |
| Ajax_Coasters |
Posted - 04/30/2013 : 11:10:53 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Dumdum
I want custom trains so we can basically design our own coaster types :)
From what I gather, you could script a custom train to follow an invisible track and make .3ds track. Complicated to get right, but possible. |
| Oscar |
Posted - 04/30/2013 : 10:26:17 PM
Invisible track is cool. Can recreate like what Dario from Scream Machines made back some years, the Star Wars racer pods. That'd be very neat. |
| Dumdum |
Posted - 04/30/2013 : 4:06:52 PM
I want custom trains so we can basically design our own coaster types :) |
