We continue the weekly screenshots series with a couple of more
recent floorless coaster pictures. The car models are almost done. Many
parts will be reused for the other remaining train styles we want to
update for 1.6. Another new feature of the new upgrade will be the so
called target view which was used for taking the screenshot on the
left. In target view, the view will automatically rotate to the
currently selected train. An additional zoom effect makes this view one
of the most interesting views available. Also, I have some good news
for GeForce 4 TI card series owners. I managed to make the new water
effect work on these kind of cards, too. It looks slightly different on
those and is a little bit slower, but turned out quite well. I
do not plan to make the new water effect work on older cards or cards
with less features, such as the GeForce 3 or GeForce 4 MX. [ol]
Yeah I know we skipped a week. Everybody was too busy working on
the
upgrade or with other things that I forgot to update the site. None the
less we are proud to show the new Gerstlauer Eurofighter 2 car model
this week
that will be part of NL1.6. Funny thing is that the first real coaster
that uses these cars is called 'Speed - NoLimits'. We like that name
very much ;-)
The real coaster has already opened to the public at Oakwood Theme
Park, UK. Thanks go to Gerstlauer and Oakwood Theme Park for allowing
us to show the car model on the Oakwood Speed track with the proper car
texture concept design. The design that went on the real coaster
differs a little bit though, thats because our design was based on a
concept drawing and they enhanced it later on. NL 1.6 will still
contain the original Eurofighter coaster style. The new Eurofighter
will be a separated coaster style. [ol]
NoLimits track
created by Andreas Simonis for Gerstlauer
Originally I did not want to touch the water until NL2, but I
could not see the crappy NL1.x water effect anymore. Also NL2 may take
a
while to become finished, until then 1.6 will be a good opportunity
to test out some new NL2
engine features like DX9 shader effects. The new water effect in NL1.6
uses vertex and pixel shaders to simulate waves and ripples on
a fresnel reflective surface. The new water will require at
least a DX8.1 compatible
card (Radeon8500, GeForce FX). Computers with older cards will need to
stick with the old crappy water. Enjoy the pictures. [ol]
This week we show some screenshots of the Gerstlauer Spinning
Coaster which will be part of 1.6. The spinning effect is working fully
realistic and automatically. Playing with it is a lot of fun but it is
also a great challange because lots of care should be taken by the
track designer to create a smooth and enjoyable ride without making
anyone sick. Thanks go to Gerstlauer
Rides for allowing us to use this coaster style in the public
version of NoLimits. [ol]
We are right now working on the upgrade 1.6 and there are still
lots
of things to
be done until we can declare it finished. Meanwhile we will release a
couple of
brand new screenshots showing new features every week. We start the
series this week with 3 shots showing untextured versions of the
improved floorless style including new brake and wheel track hardware.
We hope you like how the new stuff is coming along. [ol]
