NL2 Update or April Fools?

[Oscar]

Maintenance checks are very important in the amusement park industry. They guarantee the flawless operation and safety of a roller coaster ride. In reality, the track gets walked by park employees on a regular basis. We already implemented the walk-mode, so that the advanced users will be able to walk the track. Checking every bolt and weld joint of a roller coaster track can be a dangerous job, especially for a twisted and steep layout with possible inversions. Every so often you will find yourself falling of the track. This situation was not acceptable for us. We decided to bring the virtual coaster simulation to the next level and implemented a special maintenance car. We are proud to show the first screenshots of our maintenance car, we call it the Wire-Orb-Track-Inspection-Vehicle (WOTIV).








The WOTIV can hold up to two people. It is motorized so that it can travel the track, with full control by the driver inside the orb. There are additional pitch and roll controls so that the orb can get adjusted to the slope and roll of the track. A special brake can be engaged which makes sure that the car will stay locked to the track while the maintenance worker checks the current part of track.[ol]

So, maybe this is just an April Fool's prank. There you go. Enjoy and let the rumors begin...

I head a rumor....
No, just kidding but this has to be an April Fools day thing. I lolled when they talked about inspectors falling off of loops.

[yoshifreak]

Might be real, it's exactly the same design that's in use on Wildfire @ Silver Dollar City.

[GavG]

I would like to think it is real but with the normal April's fool you never know. Or is the fact it won't be believed the April's fool ??

LOL Kumba as an invert! Oh glorious would be the day...

That's a cool addition for train types though. It doesn't really strike me as a ''prank'' kind of update (like the zombie killer one) but it is suspicious given the day, haha.

It seems like a heck of a lot of work for just a prank. I think the WOTIV itself may be real, but the whole inspection process was the joke.

"Bolts checked: 28649 (76%)" made me chuckle a bit.

http://www.kdfansite.com/blog/uploaded_images/DiY-(100)-(Large)-751087.jpg
It exists

nuff said

[Coasterkidmwm]

I enjoy the Kumba as an inverted coaster

I think Kumba is a very well executed and designed ride; especially when its debut is taken into consideration. It opened at a time when Arrow Dynamics, Morgan and CCI seemed to dominate the major coaster market. Anyway, it definitely helped put B&M on the map as a major up-and-coming coaster firm and helped solidify their place in the North American coaster market and ever since, they have been on the cutting-edge of coaster technology and many of their rides still dominate top-ten lists of many coaster enthusiasts today. Regardless of who created the idea, the WOTIV is definitely a warm welcome to the coaster sim community and helps add to the realism that we have all come to expect from the creators and programmers of NL. Thanks ol for helping all of us coaster simmers realize the real-life implications of your exemplary program(s).

If it's real, very cool. If not, why all that work for a dumb joke?

[Coasterkidmwm]

Because some of us still have an sense of fun and enjoy teh lulz

[Oscar]

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Because some of us still have an sense of fun and enjoy teh lulz

How dare you say that blasphemy called fun!

[Coasterkidmwm]

Sorry princess

[Oscar]

That's right!

[Mikey]

These inspection units do exist, primarily for rides where it is not feasible to climb. Like those built over alligator and snake infested lakes.

^Or what about those for which someone would be climbing 150+ ft. in height over solid ground? I mean to ask if snakes and alligators really are so much more dangerous than falling from any large height that they're more primary in using the safer inspection carts- either way you will be falling to your death upon apparatus malfunctioning.

WELL wait, I suppose I would put forth more attention towards ensuring that no snake or alligator may die at the expense of a human's errors... soo never mind, answered my own question.

Originally posted by Phyter on NLE

Oh man! You guys are a lot of fun! B-)

I don't have to say "April Fools" do I? It was pretty obvious... but clearly some of you weren't quite sure. The perfect prank.

We were actually kind of surprised how many people didn't know what this thing was or even that it existed. But we don't blame you if you had to look it up because the inspection ball is one of the least common features you'll find on any roller coaster. It is a B&M contraption and only a small fraction of B&M inverts have one. Because of it's rarity it's not a feature that we would normally include in the simulator. As is, the ball is not in a state that we could include even if we wanted to. The model would have to be modified and the textures redone. And there would be a fair amount of programming involved. Given our remaining workload on NL2 this would be something saved for the very last, if at all. BUT WHO KNOWS!? Ultimately I have to leave the possibility open-ended because Ole may decide to include it one day and then and I'd have to eat my words.

Posted By: JAKool

I'm not saying that I think that they should have unrealistic looking track. I'm just saying. There's something about the rust or the shadows or something that just doesn't look right. (And you can make some frikin' bad-ass crap in RCT3.)


Everyone's a critic. I think the textures look great, but then again, I created them, so I'm biased. Still, I can respect that each person has his or her own idea about what the worn out rust-covered look should look like. That said, I think you'll appreciate the textures more when you can move around with the camera in the sim, because then you get the full effect of the normal mapping, specular highlights, shading, reflections, etc. It's hard to capture that in a screen shot.

Posted By: coastermania2010

But 1 question to NL2, why there will not be a alpha demo of it, so we can test it so far, there are working on it since 2008.


Public testing is unlikely at any stage given our lack of resources. It probably isn't the best fit for NL2 anyway given the software's enormous complexity, focused testing would be more productive. When the time comes we'll undoubtedly need to recruit a variety of systems but I can give no promises or really even any indication of when that might be or whom we might poll. Please continue to use and enjoy NL1 and your patience will be rewarded.

Posted By: djd711

Additionally I have also noticed that full scene anti aliasing is not turned on for a fair few of the screens


That may be part of it. But also different screen shots may have been taken at different screen resolutions. In addition some screen shots may have been down-scaled from a high resolution to a size that would work better for the website. I cannot say which is which. Not because I'm not allowed to, but because I don't remember. :/

Posted By: Ling

Even if it is real, it's kind of sad that the last time we got a real NL2 update was Christmas, and the last time before that was last April.


It's not for lack of progress, trust me. Even though we've yet to include supports, as you can see are lacking from the screen shots, we've made a lot of progress since December. We do have some personal reasons for not wanting to reveal too much too soon, but rest assured, NL2 is happening. Please be patient.

Posted By: xmantoo00

Is that... is that an inverted version of Kumba???


Well spotted! Or should I say, too obvious? I was thinking about making a track specifically for the prank but then decided it wasn't worth it. So I just switched Kumba to an invert and called it done.

I gotta say you guys are real good sports. Your comments made the joke worth it, particularly those of you who were teetering on the possibility of it being real. The orb, alas, not real. But we had some fun at your expense. And really, isn't that what April 1st is all about?

--
Kevin "Phyter" Stone
Lead Graphic Artist
NoLimits Dev Team

EPIC DERP!

"Please continue to use and enjoy NL1 and your patience will be rewarded."

That.
I'm guilty of impatience, but it's refreshing to appreciate the fact that we are going to be getting NL2 one day... unlike the less certain SM, for instance. How fortunate we are to await a game with an active group behind the production... a group with a sense of humor at that