What do you guys think about these changes? I know this was a shorter video than usual but I have a lot of content ready for the next video about the DLC. I hope to see you guys there! To try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/AngeTheGreat. The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription.

"This UI that you see was made with a new library THAT I MADE FROM SCRATCH" Ange is really the end boss of programing

500+ hours in the game and doesn't have all achievements 💀

I like how Blender solves the mouse screen boundaries by making the mouse show up on the other side of the screen. This way you could drag the mouse as far as you want in any direction while it remains visible and doesn't collide with the screen edges

I like the new steam particles. More choo choo’s in each chuga

A great example of good knob design is in Fab Filter vst plugins. If the knob is adjusted from the center, it uses vertical movement to change the parameter. And if the knob is adjusted from the edge, it uses radial motion.

Big kudos on taking a "simple" idea, executing it with excellence, documenting and presenting it, receiving the feedback, and transforming it into a viable product. Seriously impressive how you've responded to all of the crazy internet feedback and maintained your vision while also expanding it to meet user needs. Extremely professional, and a perfect example of how to start a successful business in any field.

Hover over element + Scroll wheel for radial controls with ctrl+scroll for fine adjustments. This is used for most VST plugins with DAWs

I think I have an idea for valve control: the mouse scroll wheel. In DCS, how they handle continuous knob controls is you mouse over the knob and scroll up or down to twist clockwise or counterclockwise. It's simple and it's precise. Might be worth looking into.

i would love for a double acting steam engine, maybe with stevensons or like a steam locomotive with walschaerts gear. so that you can also reverse it and stuff that would also make the engine have less "empty" turning time with no steam pressure applied.

I would love to see modding/workshop support for steam engine sim, it would be so cool to be able to create your own simulation minigames or play other people's ones.

In my software and its UI the reason I went with hiding the cursor during slider interaction is because I realized that using the pixel position and motion deltas of the cursor as the input to sliders means that the granularity of value adjustment is limited by the pixel dimensions of the slider itself. If I want the user to be able to adjust a value from zero inches to ten inches, but my slider is only 100 pixels long, then they only have 0.1" increments they can adjust the value at, when they'll want 100x more precision to be able to select anywhere within zero-to-ten inches at 0.001" increments, which would require a slider that's 10k pixels long!!! Also, single-pixel positioning of a slider is really annoying to get at a specific value, so really I'd need a slider that's more like 30k pixels long so there's a little wiggle room between value increments. By capturing the mouse input I can allow for per-slider scaling of the input depending on the precision needed and the pixel length of its track, and I can also allow for modifier keys like CTRL for the user to hold to further increase precision of value input if needed. When the exact value is not super important and your slider basically only offers a few dozen possible values (i.e. small range and/or large increments) you can get away with just using the pixel position/motion of the cursor but when you need both a large range for the user to choose values within AND precise value selection, it's more important that the user have a way to do that and capturing the mouse was the only way I saw fit to accomplish that with a slider input.

8:20 Take a look at the control scheme that Darktable uses. It matches up with your requirements, and was designed for rapid fine (and coarse) adjustments of scalar values.

As a side option to the radial controls, you could use a system where when you click on a valve of variable control, a graph appears above the engine where you move a slider vertically and next to the slider a circle or "magnifier" would be where you can fine adjust the setting to .01 accuracy, and the total value would be displayed above with the name of the valve you are adjusting

Being able to map the controls to a MIDI device or similar would be pretty cool. Lots of knobs on that sort of equipment.

Brilliant video as always. Very excited for all that is to come in the future!

The smooth animations in the video itself is incredible... good work ange

what I find the most entertaining is having this open while playing another game, i try to keep the engine running while playing the game and am anticipating the DLC to juice up the process. what I would love to see is some form of audio cue when something is running low or if something is starting to run dry.

I would suggest taking a look at KSP and how the manuever node controls work. It works with hover + mouse wheel. But it also work by pulling a few handles around. Jow far your cursor is frlm the initial position determines how fast the number goes up. I really like it.

What would be really neat to see implemented in my opinion would be functional Steam Locomotive technology like Stephenson valve gear or Walschaerts valve gear or even the option to have a functional model of different steam locomotive wheel arrangments involving these valve gear types, along with different tone whistles also. this game is amazing regardless!!!

Amazing work, I'm looking forward to how these changes translate into Engine Sim optimizations. Love the work you are doing, and it's great the project is getting the visibility it needs. I actually love the radial control mechanism, for the same reason you implemented it in the first place, the mouse moving away from the control system or hitting the window border. The modular mini-game system is something that I personally really enjoy. When EA released Spore, they also released 'mini-games' which were the engine elements that controlled various portions of the main game, and those were just as entertaining to play in as the game itself. I think you've got something there. Keep it up, man.

Your works are always so professional. Keep up the good work. Hope you keep getting sponsors.

Very interesting stuff, can't wait to see what the DLC has to bring!

I love these video updates. Short, concise, and to the point! I dont play it yet but enjoy watching!

I think the most interesting thing about this project is that it's a great example of how to tightly control the scope of a game idea to fit the available workforce of the solo dev. Sure, the concept seems pretty simplistic, and yet this man has been busy for months, which should tell you what it takes to make even a "simple" game.

Ange I i just wanna say i fucking love you man. Your work is inspirational to say the least. You must be under a lot of pressure from all this (unexpected) success. I commend you stepping up and actually delivering. Cheers

Thank you so much for continuing developing this simulator

this is awesome! I'm so happy you're updating the game and taking it seriously.

I absolutely love what you're doing here, actually watching this at 1am gave me the idea to try and recreate a chainsaw, including the 2 stroke engine just for show in a roblox game, so thanks for the video to watch and inspiration, Goodluck with the development ❤❤❤

youve made some good progress on the Engine Simulator Cinematic Universe

This thing is really coming together, Ange! I'm a fan of the new controls, and the DLC looks like it'll be fun. I'm looking forward to the release! Do you plan on expanding the types of engines/boilers for SES eventually? I'd love to see multi-expansion engines and larger boilers. Perhaps even steam generators like what the old Doble steam cars had. Either way, great video. Thanks for the updates and all of the work you've been putting in. The future seems very bright.

hell yeah was literally playing yesterday while waiting for something to download. Loved hearing your thoughts on cursor stuff.

For value adjusting controls, blender loops the mouse, kinda pacman style. You hold click on a number, drag till it hits the bottom of the screen and when it does it teleports to the top of the screen and you can keep dragging down. It took me a second to get used to but its a nice system that quickly became intuitive. Alternatively maybe consier somethings with the mouse wheel

For controls that it makes sense for (valves and other circular elements), I really like the "hover over with mouse and adjust with scroll wheel" approach. Just a suggestion ;)

Peak, steam engine simulator stands alone as the goated one.

Huh. Was just thinking about you yesterday morning. Good to see you :)

Idk if you’ve done it for more complex steam engine set ups, you should put in temp/pressure/level transmitters you can put in that then can be used as input values for a simulated PID controller for other valves. Would be an excellent way to introduce how engine ECUs work

Very nice work on this! Loving every update! The radial controls look awesome, and I don't think Ive seen that used anywhere, looking forward to trying it out. Will there be any support in the future for analog controls/gamepads as another option? It has probably been asked about already but it would be cool to implement pedals or other analog controls to directly interface the simulator.

I love the new particles! Looks amazing!

Add a right click function to the rotation style knobs so that you can input values or basic functions to simulate gradual changes or precise control.

Awesome! Cant wait for engine sim. Thanks!

You are giving us so much we never ask for and I'm here for it!

Absolutely amazing game. Had four of these running side by side on a LAN party, was great fun!

For those controls, what about using the cursor to scroll through a list of values (with scroll wheel or by dragging the list up or down), or it could simply be a wheel with the edge facing you that you can turn, with the value shown next to it. Give it a large spin to quickly change the value, then pick and drag for fine tuning? The way it is done now you have to physically keep moving, whilst otherwise you can quickly spin through it.

I'd love to have more customization of the engine itself, like being able to add double-acting cylinders, adjustable cutoff, different boiler sizes/shapes, fuel types, and perhaps even connecting multiple together (like the dual-cylinder system on a locomotive, for example)

If you're wanting some inspiration for a more story focused gameplay loop for Steam Engine Simulator, I think it would make sense to have the player to be a mechanic sent in to tune and optimise certain engines for specific use cases. For example, one mission could be at a factory running their production machinery. Another would be a steam train. Perhaps an early model steam automobile. It's a good excuse to show off some historical context for these machines, and still revilves around the core gameplay of experimenting with a steam engine.

I like the blender way of repositioning the mouse at the bottom/top/side of the window when it its the top/bottom or side of the screen so you can just drag forever

Love these keep up the great work

A possible fix for the cursor parameter adjusting range issue: Make the speed at which the cursor is moved up or down increase the amount of change it gives to the parameter. When you know you need a big nummer you just move the mouse faster to get bigger increments. I noticed that apple uses this when dragging files with the touch pad. Often you can’t reach the folder you want your file dragged to, then you just move back and move the cursor faster.

As someone who has used several DAWs over the years, I'm used to dragging knobs up and down. Never seen one that requires a circular motion, so I'm biased against it. I'd probably go with up/down drag with the cursor wrapping around, as I dislike bumping into screen edges. Another option would be the endless ribbon. Vertical movement changes subdivision, while horizontal changes the value, but that might be overly complicated

Awesome work!

5:25 make sure you allow people to type in a number when you have a slider, especially with one like that which doesn't have discrete ticks. Huge QoL thing.

I was already eager for the power generation, but now I'm looking forward to it even more.

This is amazing, it kept lagging on my laptop and the sound was awful. I knew it wasn't your fault so I just played without sound... This is an incredible improvement.

I think having to turn the mouse in circles is cumbersome, but, I would suggest that bringing the mouse within a distance of the switch and holding LMB tracks the cursor's angle from the center point of the switch. This would mean dragging the mouse outside the "pickup distance" (the distance used to select the switch) and rotating around the center causes the variable to change based on how fast the angle is changing. In short, the farther out the mouse is from the center, the slower it adjusts because there is more distance for the mouse to cover around the circle. If it's not immediately clear what is happening, a transparent line could be drawn from the center of the switch to the mouse. This is just a thought and still leaves larger turns for finer adjustments subject to boundary issues but you could also just change the variable rate per angle to a different value for faster and slower speeds.

A good way to solve the controls problem could be to let the mouse “loop around”. What I mean by that is that when it reaches the top of the screen it teleports to the bottom, allowing you to keep moving the mouse up indefinitely, similar to what blender does

I wasn’t expecting an engine simulator cinematic universe when I first saw your videos

Another +1 from me for Blender style screen wrapping for mouse movement. As a Blender user I initially thought it was odd, but I _very_ quickly got used to it and I think it works well. I despise radial controls in audio mixing software.

Hey, I've enjoyed your game for a while. I also shared my joy to play it with some friends and they decided to give it a try and, as expected, they become addicted too. After some debate, we acknowledge that there is one single thing that you could add to the game that would be easy to do... A reset button for the top speed. that's it. We all try to beat your own speed record and doing so we try different approach... Sometime, we reach a higher speed because of "overbuilt" pressure which give a burst in speed at start, but the real speed is slower after a while, when everything balance again... which is a problem because we can't see is you speed is slowly raising or not... it's an easy addition. PLEASE!!! Add a reset button for the max speed, or add a decimal to the "actual speed". thank you :D Keep up the good work :)

Awesome as always!

that ui looks so smooth

I like the mousewheel for increases/decrease style of controls, especially since I can unlock the wheel on my mouse and can flick it.

The reason the mouse disappears is to see the operation better, some operations needs precision, and some mouse cursers can get in the way, this can fix that, but it would be nice to have the option to do that with each software.

For the control's: I would like a control Style where you hover your mouse over the controls and then use the mouse wheel to adjust. It would need a lock button so you don't change the settings accidentally and some kind of feedback that the setting is selected for example the value changing color when huivering over it but not when it's locked of course. Hope this gave you some Ideas/inspiration Love you videos!

Please consider adding Midi control so that users could directly adjust controls with a midi keyboard's knobs and sliders or any midi software. Control schemes could then be created, saved in a DAW. The app could then also be used a synth!

I think a good alternative to the radial controls would be to have the mouse wrap locally when clicking a control. Have it so that when the mouse gets n distance away from the control in the X or Y axis, it wraps around to the opposite side of the control by the same amount. So, for example, if you have it set to 100px away from the control then when you move to the right and hit 101px away, the cursor is offset to 100px to the left of the control instead. This solution would probably feel more intuitive to those who find the radial controls unintuitive.

Houdini has an interesting UI for fine tuning controls. It lists units of 10s like 1, 10, 100, 1000 on the Y axis. You move vertically to adjust the units, and horizontally to adjust the value. I'm not sure radial controls are a good idea. It's too easy to cross the circle and end up with completely different values. Linear controls are much easier. FL Studio's knobs use linear controls even though they work radially.

Perhaps an effective way to enhance the input method is by assigning the rotation function to the scroll wheel. This would enable users to click and hold the valve, brake, etc., and then utilize the scroll wheel to make precise adjustments. Emphasizing the scroll wheel for accurate scrolling rather than perfecting rotations could potentially improve overall accuracy. Additionally, the option to adjust speed using a key can still be maintained.

The radial controls are a really good idea imho, and personally, I would really appreciate if you can also control the valves etc. with your mouse scroll wheel.

id love to see, in the far future, some sort of an actual locomotive hooked onto the steam engine, maybe as a bigger "minigame" where you deal with grade changes as you haul goods and people around to make money, upgrading your locomotive and maybe your steam engines as you go along (id love to see BIG steam engines... and maybe their explosions?)

Love the update to the Engine Simulator Cinematic Universe

finally this game is getting close to being competitive ready cant wait for ranked mode

I feel like one alternative would be one of those drag and hold controls where it speeds up the value change further away the mouse is, I think that it could work well for some of the applications, another one would be using the scroll on the mouse to also change the values. Just some ideas!

I love that this has become your job! (commenting for engagement)

My personal favourite for mouse controller is scrollable knob. Just hold your mouse cursor over the controller and use the scroll wheel. It's very common in flight sim for example. The best ones have acceleration aswell, so the first few scroll "clicks" moves only 1 step but then it accelerates. When this is done well in flight sim you can easily change from 100ft altitude to 39 900ft altitude accurately within just a few seconds.

Waiting for your next vid! 👍

I think it'd be cool to have a pressure regulator on the whistle that you could adjust so it doesn't go bezerk when you've got the pressure real high.

Dope, getting back to it right away :)

Regarding the mouse movement, I'm very much on the same page, but I'd also like to mention here the way 3Ds Max has solved this long time ago, by simply "wrapping the screen" if the cursor was to hit the edge. Today Blender does it too (I think) and it feels quite natural. I do agree that hiding the cursor when using sliders is probably the most cursed idea ever.

Its critical that the upcoming DLC has some way to track how many players are generating power and what the current total MW + MWh of energy production are. MMO Steam Engine!

Add the scroll weel to control the radial controlls. When the mouse hovers over the control interface insted of clicking and rotating just scroll. Users are used to the motion already

for the radial control, instead of key controls to adjust how quickly you change it. you could have it so the further your mouse gets from the center of the control the quicker it increases, and vice versa

As far as the controls go, you can do something similar to what Unity does in their program, and that is whenever the cursor meets a screen boundary, the cursor is placed at the opposite screen edge to continue adjustment. I feel like this may be easier since in my experience, it can be unnecessarily complicated to revolve your cursor around an imaginary point.

Instead of infinite dragging of the mouse (till the edge of the screen is reached) what if the the control was on a gradient? IE click -> drag a small amount and value goes up in a small increment. Click - drag a medium amount and you get a medium increment. Another IE is the distance from the point of click to the current curser position determines the increment. Releasing the mouse button sets the value. Just a thought.

I think an important feature would be scaling the speed of valve actuation based on distance of the mouse to said valve(further - slower, closer, faster) almost as if your mouse is representing a lever

this game runs so smooth now! thank you! finally i can enjoy steam engine simulator at 3000fps

A steam engine is 'conceptually' simple... Physics will teach us about many before us, the ideal gas laws and the laws of thermodynamics etc. However this simulation is a portal for many people who want to play with those laws in a dynamic environment. Even if it is just a simulation, it is a great teaching tool, and just fun to play with! The fact you are striving to make it a more accurate model in a free Steam game is amazing. I can't wait to get the DLC!

This is great, also the ability to adjust the valve duration and timing in game mabe even while running would be great.

I’m liking the idea of the Engine Cinematic Universe

The new steam particle system alone looks like a huge upgrade - it looks extremely good!

I would make an option to enable a vertical gauge. Then a right click menu for the gauges that creates a popup that lets you change the minimum and maximum of the range by moving two sliders up and down. Imagine a vertical bar with two sliders, between the two sliders it is white, and above and below the two sliders it is red because that part is unused. Then in the options menu you can choose what percentage of the screen the vertical bars take up, 35% is standard, 15% is the smallest, and 100% is the max size.

for the controls maybe think about a non linear relationship between mouse and adjustment speed. i think this style of control is very intuitive and easy to use

My idea for controls is, maybe make the valves circles that can be dragged left or right with limits to their movement. Levels can simply be dragged, and they would behave as they would in real life. Maybe have the control items turn a solid color when selected. It might make the game even more simulation-like. The fire may also be able to be controlled as a valve, as if it were a gas burner.

this dude really got a headcrab to subscribe to him. loving it

The current Steam store version (as of 2/3/24) runs great in Crossover on macOS. I'm on an M1 MBP with 8GB of RAM. I can't wait for the DLC!

For some time I'm thinking about doing 2nd part: Walschaerts/Heusinger valve gear linkage of steam loco. Although I'm quite lazy and one part likely needs to be solved as optimization problem, unless I realize/learn how to solve 4 equations with trigonometric functions.

do a train simulator. Under the engine is a 2d 'line rider' terrain. In addition to the brake, you have a clutch that moves the train. The slope of the terrain applies force back to the engine. you need to get to the next station on limited water and fuel. Finalized with a level editor/sandbox.

This breaks your rule about repositioning the mouse, but some industry VFX tools and some software I worked on in that industry makes the screen have "unlimited width" by moving the cursor to the opposite edge of the screen if you hit an edge during a drag (we only did this in the x direction for sliders). The cursor is still shown as normal

That launcher instantly made me think that new "mini games" could be made by users of Engine Simulator + a Proprietary Tool and downloaded from the workshop by anyone with the base game.

8:30 just a quick suggestion as an outside observer. Could you also add a sensitivity option for the previous control scheme? This may help those that don’t want to switch over to the new control option but also don’t like their mouse bumping into the boarder of the simulation.