Hello everyone,
today I want to show a little more of Naumburg and also address something openly before posting more screenshots:
The visual side of LineManager is still undergoing a major overhaul.
The screenshots I am showing are taken from the actual development build. They are not promotional mock-ups, but they also do not represent the final visual quality of the game.
Many parts of the environment are still temporary or unfinished. Roads, terrain, vegetation, building materials, street furniture and smaller infrastructure details will continue to change significantly during development.
My current approach is to get the underlying systems working first and then improve the presentation step by step.
Naumburg is currently the main area where this becomes visible.
The area around the main station is slowly starting to feel more like an actual place instead of just a collection of tracks and buildings.
I have been adding and improving things such as:
tram infrastructure
overhead wires
stop equipment
street furniture
trees and smaller environmental objects
station surroundings
road layouts and markings
directional road signs
Some of these systems are still very experimental.
For example, the road sign editor now allows signs to be placed and configured directly in the map. The current implementation is functional, but both the editor and the visual appearance will still receive more work.
The same applies to many environmental objects.
A shelter, information column or bench may already exist in the game, but that does not mean its current model or placement system is final.
[Image: Naumburg Hauptbahnhof]
The area around Naumburg Hauptbahnhof has become one of my main visual test areas.
It combines several different systems in a relatively small space:
railway infrastructure
tram tracks
overhead wires
stops
buildings
pedestrian areas
street furniture
vegetation
This makes it useful for testing both the simulation and the visual side of the game.
It also exposes problems very quickly.
Something that looks acceptable on an empty test map can suddenly look completely wrong once it sits next to a station building, trees, tracks and overhead wires.
That is exactly why I am using areas like this as development test cases.
While the visual work continues, I am also trying not to lose focus on the simulation itself.
A city can look good, but it still needs to behave correctly.
One small example is how road traffic reacts to trams.
Cars should not simply ignore an approaching tram or permanently block its path. In the current build, road vehicles can already react and yield in certain situations.
It is a small detail, but these small interactions are important if the city is supposed to feel alive rather than scripted.
This system is still being developed and will need more testing, especially once traffic density increases and more complicated junctions are involved.
I could wait until every building, road and tree looks finished before showing more screenshots.
But that would not really reflect how LineManager is being developed.
The game is a solo project, and many systems are being built and revised at the same time.
Sometimes that means a new simulation feature appears before the visuals around it are finished. Sometimes an environment looks noticeably better one week later because a completely new rendering or placement system has replaced the old one.
So for now, screenshots should be viewed as snapshots of the current development state.
Some parts will change a little.
Others will probably change completely.
For the visual side of Naumburg, the next priorities are mainly:
improving roads and junctions
making urban areas feel less empty
adding more vegetation and street furniture
improving building appearance
refining the area around the main station
improving overhead wire placement
cleaning up temporary assets and materials
At the same time, work on traffic behaviour, tram operations and stability continues.
My goal is not to turn LineManager into a graphics showcase.
But I do want the cities to become places that feel believable and pleasant to operate in.
There is still a lot of work ahead, but compared with the first versions of Naumburg, the city is already starting to feel much more like an actual environment rather than just a technical test map.
More soon.
Yves