Today at 6pm PT, I'll be streaming Distance on PS5 and talking about the PlayStation development process, as well as the recently released Kinetic Update (v1.5). I hope to see you there!

• https://twitch.tv/refractstudios

- Jordan

[ 2024-07-19 14:42:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Today I have a special announcement for those curious about Distance on PlayStation. Distance: Console Edition has a release date for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5! You can get it July 19th on the PlayStation Store. Watch the exciting trailer with brand new music here: [previewyoutube=P1-xXN7ILns;full][/previewyoutube] If youve been following Distance for a while youre probably aware that the PlayStation version has had a fairly long and tumultuous development. It was our first time developing anything for a console, and its been an incredible learning experience throughout. For more info about this release as well as some behind-the-scenes development details, please check out the blog post below:

• https://refract.com/post/755720762167558144/distance-launches-on-ps4-ps5-july-19th

- Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2024-07-11 16:07:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=0z9-ycV3djw;full][/previewyoutube] Hey everyone! Today we're releasing The Kinetic Update (v1.5) which features 15 incredible new levels from community creators, several improvements to the Steam Deck experience, an update to 64-bit on Windows and Linux, and more! See the trailer above for an overview. v1.5 Changelog (Build 7049):

• General Improvements:
  • Updated Windows and Linux to 64-bit
  • Updated the Steam backend to utilize Steamworks' latest version
  • Improved Workshop level updating to be more informative during enumeration
  • You can now skip Workshop updating while files are enumerating
• New Community Levels:
  • Absorption
  • Aeris
  • Earth
  • Floral
  • Glide in the Hole
  • Homestead
  • Macro
  • Orthodox
  • Pacebreaker
  • Sakura Skyway
  • Salmon
  • Storm 2: Neon Thunder
  • Table
  • Too Many Dots
  • Toy Time
• Level Updates:
  • Updated Cosmic Glitch and Sugar Rush with new versions from Pinapl (Michael Ammel)
  • Updated Event Horizon with a new version from Plasmawario
  • Updated Credits level to update copyright dates and include Susan Lusty (PR) in the special thanks
• Steam Deck Improvements
  • Added Steam Deck button icons when using the Deck natively or with Proton
  • Added on-screen keyboard support for Steam Deck
  • Added haptics support for Steam Deck
  • Improved default graphics settings for Steam Deck
  • Fixed issues with the default Steam Deck controller config
• Bugs Fixed
  • Fixed bug where highlighting a locked level in the advanced level select could prevent the leaderboards from being accessed in grid view
  • Fixed bug where Zenith wouldn't appear in the advanced level select

Once again, congrats to the creators who were selected for inclusion! We're excited to share each of your incredible creations with everyone. Last year actually marked the 10th anniversary of Distance Advent Calendar and the talent on display was insane. Even after all these years the Distance level creator community shines brighter than ever. Also a huge thanks to those who gave feedback on our latest experimental build in preparation for this update. Let us know what you think of v1.5 on Discord! - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2024-06-27 13:07:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! If you're wondering what Refract has been up to lately here's a quick update. I talk about the current state of Refract projects, Distance on PS4, and more:

• https://refract.com/post/728127724861931520/september-2023-update

Looking for Community Levels

Its been a while since our last update but the incredible community-made levels just keep coming (almost 5,000 of them)! Im looking into doing another small Community Level update to feature some in game, and I could use your help in deciding what should be included. Ive created a Google survey where you can nominate your favorite levels released over the last couple years. Please check it out here:

• Nominate: https://forms.gle/GtPYBu2AGM8BEBUU9

Steam Cloud Bug Fixed

In other Steam-specific news, I was made aware of an issue with Steam Cloud. Upon reaching Steam's file limit you would see "k_eResultFileNotFound" errors in-game after finishing a map, or when you try to upload or update a workshop map. To remedy this I'm no longer syncing the "LocalLeaderboards/WorkshopLevels" folder which means Workshop local leaderboards will not be synced with the Cloud (since there could be endless files). I'm also not syncing your Graphics Settings across devices since that could result in resolution mismatches and other issues. I hope you all are doing well and thanks for reading! - Jordan

[ 2023-09-12 01:49:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, this is a quick update to say that Steam Cloud is now enabled for Distance! Your personal leaderboards, medal progress, editor levels, etc. will now be backed up after closing the game. Since it's a change in Steam's backend there is no new build to download, and it works cross-platform with Windows, Mac, and Linux. Thanks for your patience while sorting this one out!

DAC 2020 Submissions

With December right around the corner that means Distance Advent Calendar (DAC) is starting up soon! If you're into level making it's an excellent opportunity to get your own creations in front of players. To quote Californ1a from our mod team on Discord: [quote=Californ1a]It's that time of year again, DAC 2020 is open for submissions! Hit that follow button and turn on notifications for this channel to be notified when DAC maps start releasing in December! If you're new around here, DAC is the Distance Advent Calendar. Every year a whole bunch of map authors get together to release (at least) one new map each day of December leading up to the 25th. Occasionally we also have additional submissions alongside the maps like videos, wallpapers, and more. Anyone is free to join in and make a map regardless of your editor skills - There are plenty of people around to help out if you want to try your hand at learning the editor! Let us know if there is a map you want to release during December so we can get you added to the calendar.[/quote] Join our Discord community to get in on the action: http://discord.gg/distance

Other Refract Stuff

For those out of the loop with Refract this year I posted a devlog a little while back:

• The Next Chapter of Refract

It's obviously been a very strange year but plenty is happening behind the scenes. We're not quite ready to discuss what's coming next from Refract but we hope to have news soon. Until then I hope you and your families are staying safe and doing well this year! - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2020-11-20 11:05:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

The sixth annual Distance Advent Calendar (DAC) has started! For those new to Distance this year, DAC is a community-run event where each day in December leading up to the 25th level creators coordinate to release Workshop levels! Follow DAC level releases by joining the Distance Discord and checking out the #dac channel. Discuss each day's level with other players, and see early previews of upcoming levels!

Distance on macOS Catalina

Today we're also releasing a 64-bit version of Distance on macOS to support Catalina. It's basically the exact build as before except it's now 64-bit instead of 32-bit. Right now we only plan to support 64-bit on macOS but if that changes I'll post about it here.

DAC Dev Stream

We'll be doing another dev stream this week to play and discuss the latest additions to Distance. We hope to see you live on Twitch tomorrow at 1pm PT!

• Where: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios
• When: Thursday December 19th, 1pm PT

As some have noticed I did clearly fail to post a devlog or do a dev stream since my last Steam announcement. Between normal Refract distractions and some personal health issues my hands have been painfully full over the past few months. Sorry for the delay, and hopefully the dev stream will tide you over until I have a chance to finish up the devlog. Hope you're having a great holiday season! - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2019-12-19 04:19:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all! This is a bit different from my usual posts but I want to share a fun bonus thing with you: STATIC MIX // Fall 2019: https://soundcloud.com/torcht/sets/static-mix While working on Distance I frequently listen to instrumental music via mixes and live sets, so I thought it would be fun to give back by creating one of my own. It's filled with artists who have inspired me over the past few years, so I figured fans of Distance's soundtrack would enjoy it. Also, many of the tracks work well with Boombox mode IMO (tracklist is in the description). Hope you enjoy!

Other Stuff Coming Soon

While I'm at it, thought I could give a brief update on other stuff in the works. Unfortunately I've been a bit under the weather since my last post but I'm still working on that longer devlog talking about Refract's future in general. Hope to have that up soon. We're also planning to do another dev stream in October so stay tuned for the day/time. We'll be playing a ton of community levels so if you have a level you want to see us play let us know via Twitter or in the comments below. Bonus points if it's extra spooky. Hope to see you there! - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2019-09-28 18:08:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all! Today the official soundtrack is getting a long overdue update to include remastered music from the Nexus update! If you already own the Soundtrack & Art Book DLC it'll update automatically via Steam. The OST now includes these extended / remastered tracks:

• Observatory
• Mobilization
• Resonance
• Deterrence
• Terminus
• Collapse

Now Streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and More!

Due to popular demand we've also made the soundtrack available for streaming!

• Spotify
• Apple Music / iTunes
• Google Play
• Amazon
• Deezer
• Bandcamp
• SoundCloud

Over the next few weeks the soundtrack will also be available via Pandora, Tidal, Napster, iHeartRadio, ClaroMusica, Saavn, Anghami, KKBox, MediaNet, Instagram/Facebook, and TikTok. Be sure to follow Jordan Hemenway and The Quiggles on your favorite platforms (e.g. Spotify, SoundCloud, etc.) to keep up to date with future releases! Thank you for all of the incredibly kind words about the soundtrack since the v1.0 launch. We hope you enjoy these new tracks! - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2019-09-13 16:00:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=u9M5m4pchCQ;full][/previewyoutube] Has it really been a year since v1.0 launched? Seems like a good time for an update! The Horizon Update (v1.4) features new levels from Refract and community creators, a new Quick Join multiplayer feature, performance improvements, new editor tools, and more!

v1.4 Changelog (Build 6895):

General Improvements

• Added new Refract levels:
  • Liminal (Sprint)
  • Serenity (Sprint)
  • Zenith (Sprint)
• Added new Community levels:
  • Affect (Sprint)
  • Beta Echoes (Sprint)
  • Biotec 4 (Challenge)
  • Canopy (Reverse Tag, Main Menu)
  • Fiber (Sprint)
  • Fleeting Images (Reverse Tag, Stunt)
  • Gravity (Sprint)
  • Hardline (Sprint)
  • Mentality (Sprint)
  • Noir (Sprint)
  • Overdrive (Sprint)
  • Sender (Sprint)
  • Shallow (Sprint)
  • Shrine (Sprint)
  • Sugar Rush (Sprint)
  • Tetreal (Sprint)
  • Turbines (Sprint)
  • Wired (Sprint)
• Online menu improvements:
  • Clicking "Online" now gives you the option to Quick Join, Browse, or Host
  • Quick Join feature automatically joins an open game, and if none are available it creates a new lobby
  • Improved how the loading UI handles various situations (connecting to server, refreshing server list, etc.)
  • Changed all instances of "Server" to "Game" or "Lobby" depending on the context
  • Max Players is now adjustable without having to type in a number
  • When unclicking Private on "Host a Game" the password field is now cleared
  • Removed "... has loaded!" chat message for all platforms
  • It now says "... has joined the lobby" or "... has joined the game" depending on the context
  • Host a Game: Pressing Enter while selecting the password input field now starts the server
  • Host a Game: All numbers 1 to 12 are options again (instead of multiples of 2)
  • Replaced "Back to Lobby" button in pause menu for online hosts with "Main Menu" (with added help text to clarify we're returning to the lobby)
  • Server Connection, Lobby Refresh, and Quick Join timeouts shortened to 15 seconds instead of 30 seconds
  • Changed default server name to just the name of current player so it's consistent across all platforms
  • Minor clean up to game lobby visuals
  • Now going back to the main menu as a non-host takes you back to the Online menu options
• Main menu improvements:
  • Removed Workshop highlight section (since the Workshop area in Steam already does a fine job of this)
  • Removed Reddit button and gave more prominence to Discord button
  • The Garage button is now re-highlighted when returning from the garage in the main menu
• White Lightning Returns: Improved building placement and decorations with minor track alterations in the second half
• Improved graphics performance in many levels (especially in Lost to Echoes)
• Re-ordered Sprint and Challenge sets to more closely match difficulty progression
• Replay_Music_Playback_Speed RTPC is now reset after unloading each level

Level Editor

• Added new foliage particles (textures 106 - 111)
• Improved music track selection window (used in Level Settings, MusicZone, MusicTrigger, CutsceneManager, and AudioEventTrigger)
• Improved Particles "Seed" tooltip text
• Groups are no longer dissolved if "Ignore Culling" is on them
• CinematicCamera: Setting "Trigger Time" to -1 now enables this component to not ever return to the chase camera
• Added new level editor objects: HalcyonTri, HalcyonTriSingle, HalcyonTriCollision, and HalcyonTriSingleCollision

Here's a helpful reference sheet showing what's available with the new particle textures:
As for changes to music selection in the editor I made this handy chart for converting from old IDs to the new names: MusicCueID Conversions

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed bug where going from the level grid to the level set buttons could result in nothing being selected (e.g. after returning from Adventure)
• Fixed bug where the diamond flare would appear with the "finished" medal image in the split-screen pause menu
• Fixed bug where menu camera rotation/zoom could be affected while hovering over an input field
• Fixed bug where the Visit Workshop button was visible on non-host game lobbies
• Fixed bug where "No Servers Found" wouldn't appear if using server browser checkboxes
• Restored missing texture links for HalcyonCoilgunInternal material
• When in Steam offline mode it no longer tries to auto-search for replays upon level load
• Fixed bug where entering a seed into Trackmogrify and pressing Enter wouldn't close the menu in the lobby
• Fixed bug where you could access locked levels using the advanced level select menu (both Solo and Online)
• Fixed bug where animation timing in Instantiation was off by a few seconds and the power poster wasn't counting down
• Fixed bugs with button selection in the lobby after returning from Customize Car, Trackmogrify input, or level selection
• Fixed bug where Legacy levels were locked even if you had the Gold Collector achievement
• Fixed bug where replays using cinematic cameras (e.g. Variant Blue) wouldn't work with level triggers due to culling issues
• Fixed bug where two cars were visible during the Collapse (Nexus campaign) cutscene
• Fixed bug where deleting a profile wouldn't reload the main menu (and progress bars would be incorrect)
• Fixed bug where having a checkpoint in a group could result in the entire group changing color

Congrats to the creators whose levels were selected for inclusion in the Horizon Update! Once again we're impressed by your ambition and creativity and we're excited to share your creations with players. We're looking into hosting another dev stream fairly soon to play through v1.4 so stay tuned for news about that! I'm also working on a much longer write up that discusses the PS4 build, thoughts on Distance's development, and a peek into Refract's future. Until then we hope you enjoy this update! Let us know what you think of v1.4 below! - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2019-09-05 17:00:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today we're releasing v1.31 which is a minor update to fix a few bugs! Thanks for all of the positive comments on v1.3 so far! In case you missed it you can check out the official v1.3 trailer here.

v1.31 Changelog (Build 6842):

Level Changes

• Improved skip route for Vibe
• Patched minor skip issue in Sector 0

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed bug with Discord Rich Presence where it could break upon going online
• Fixed lighting issue with normal maps for two of the new simples textures

v1.3 DEV STREAM: TUESDAY AT 6PM PT

Once again we'll be doing a special dev stream to play through and discuss the latest additions to Distance. We hope to see you live on Twitch later today!

• Where: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios
• When: Tuesday June 18th, 6pm PT

- Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2019-06-18 07:05:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today's Deal: Save 50% on Distance!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Saturday at 10AM Pacific Time

[ 2019-06-13 17:05:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVZ2lE3xasI Hey everyone, today we've got another free content update for you! v1.3 features six new playable levels, a new speedrun timer, level editor improvements, and more! To celebrate, Distance and the soundtrack DLC are 50% off for one week starting at 10am PT! As usual look below for the full changelog and some fancy screenshots.

v1.3 Changelog (Build 6838):

General Improvements

• 6 new levels!
  • Luminescence (Sprint level)
  • Vibe (Sprint level)
  • White Lightning Returns (Sprint level)
  • Micro (Sprint level)
  • Sector 0 (Sprint level)
  • Electric (Challenge level)
• New Main Menu level: Ambient
• New music from The Quiggles: 2HOT2PANTS (used in White Lightning Returns)
• Remastered versions of Nexus music (Resonance, Deterrance, and Terminus)
• General Options: Added "Show Speedrun Timer" (for level set speedruns)
  • Starts upon playing the first level in a time-based mode (e.g. Adventure, Sprint, etc.)
  • Timer turns red (marked as an invalid run) if level is skipped or you return to the main menu early
• General Options: Added "Enable Speedrun Output Log" (for synchronizing with external timer programs)
  • Exports events to speedrun_timer.txt in Distance install directory
• Controls Options: Added "Flight Stabilization" option
• Controls Options: Added "Invert Boost Toggle" option (accesiblity option)
• Holding the reset button in-game for 1.5 seconds will now restart the level
• Reworked Garage color preset selection so that it uses a scroll bar and supports way more entries (up to 100)
  • Added visual color preview to each item in the color preset list
• Modified Profile Stats so that entire time in level is counted towards playtime (instead of just race time)

Level Editor

• Added 17 new textures to Simples textures
• CarScreenTextTrigger now works in Arcade modes (added "Ignore in Arcade" checkbox)
• CinematicCameras now persist through death and are not affected by the "death cam"
• New additions to SetAbilitiesTrigger
  • "One Shot" (Whether not this trigger can be triggered more than once)
  • "Restore Abilities On Exit" (Restore abilities to previous settings after exiting the trigger volume)
  • "Restore Abilities On Death" (Restore abilities to previous settings after car explodes)
  • "Delay Before Restore" (Delay duration before restoring abilities from exiting trigger or car explosion)
• Added Rain SFX for use with AmbientAudioObject (both 2D and 3D)
  • RainLoop01_2D, RainLoop02_2D, ..., RainLoop11_2D
  • RainLoop01_3D, RainLoop02_3D, ..., RainLoop11_3D
• CinematicCameras now support EventListeners
  • Upon EventTrigger the CinematicCamera will take over for a custom duration
  • You can also set transition times to/from this camera
• "Ignore Culling" addable component now also affects logic culling (e.g. Pulse component)

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed issue where SectorFunctionPoster would always override custom text (now only overrides in Adventure mode)
• Garage color presets no longer display over car name text

WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHT

The Workshop Highlight has certainly been overdue for an update, so here are 10 excellent new levels for you to try out! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1545830054 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1494945133 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1718602453 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1581656993 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1441380632 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1513504414 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1425812313 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1749813432 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1559158081 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1557852871 For those curious about the PS4 port or the Nexus soundtrack update I also posted a little bit about both on refract.com. Let us know what you think of v1.3 below and we hope you enjoy! - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2019-06-07 12:28:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXi3g7d8RHo

Distance v1.23 Changelog (Build 6801):

General Improvements

• Added the Preservational Booster Sloth (Toggle in Options > Cheats)
• Upgraded the main menu

[ 2019-04-01 09:32:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Today we're launching Distance v1.2: The Other Side! This update features the return of custom music, two new levels (Divide and Syncopation), an added shortcut to the Nexus track Terminus, several bug fixes, and a couple secrets. We also revamped our music visualizer tech so that Boombox mode looks better than ever. Check out the trailer for an overview! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiTAfwDqDKc

v1.2 Changelog (Build 6787):

General Improvements

• New levels
  • Syncopation (Stunt, Reverse Tag, Main Menu)
  • Divide (Challenge)
• Custom music is now available on Windows again!
  • Now supports MP3, WAV, and AIFF files
  • Improved how folders are scanned for music files
  • Updated Audio options menu
  • Added customizable hotkeys for Pause/Play, Previous, Next (i.e. F5, F6, F7)
• New Audio options
  • Announcer: Toggle which announcer phrases you want to hear (Tricks, Death, Checkpoints, Mode)
  • Custom Music: Search Subdirectories
• Simplified menu breadcrumb (orange dot) functionality
  • Dots now clear immediately after clicking a level set containing an "unseen" level (or car)
  • No longer saved between sessions
• Improved music visualizer algorithm used for in-game visuals and Boombox mode
• Updated Observatory music track
• Enable Menu Animations in General settings now affects level select progress bar animations
• "Boom Box" has been renamed to "Boombox" to match the traditional spelling
• Optimized the advanced level select a bit
• Improved font size for Trackmogrify input menu
• Added overflow ellipsis to level select description
• Improved server name text in Game Lobby
• Improved default mode and level selection in the Game Lobby

Level Changes

• Terminus: Added new secret shortcut
• Compression: Fixed issue with angled holograms at start
• Cataclysm: Small update to fix gaps

Level Editor

• Added "ResetZone" which, if car is inside, resets all Animators and TurnLightOnNearCars within its bounds upon death
• Added Decorations/TempleButton
• Added Decorations/TempleButton_Empty
• Added Decorations/TempleButton_Top

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed fish not showing up in replays and made Stompers actually stomp in Observatory
• Fixed various issues with level set progress bar numbers being incorrect
• The car screen music visualizer no longer can get covered by the overheat warning
• Fixed bug where going into the Audio options, leaving, then returning could result in a broken menu if you had "General > Enable Menu Animations" disabled
• Fixed several bugs with Nexus tracks not being counted towards overall completion
• Fixed bug where the author "Refract" was shown for Nexus levels
• Fixed bug with holding Skip before the cutscene has fully loaded
• Fixed several issues with the "new!" orange dots not working properly
• Fixed bug where selecting your existing main menu level in the Garage would break the menu
• Fixed bug where WaterAudioZone would play splash SFX when spawning underwater
• Fixed bug with checkpoints and WaterAudioZone
• Fixed bug with upper category tabs in Garage
• Fixed issues where last selected level in menus wasn't being preserved between races
• Fixed a few situations where it would say "Earn 0 medals to unlock this level"
• Fixed bug where returning from Next Level in the Pause menu could close the host's server
• Fixed bugs with Trick menu in pause menu
• Fixed bug where EmpirePipeEntrance was missing its visual mesh
• Fixed visual bug with speedometer and circle car screen visualizer

Regarding custom music being Windows-exclusive: I'd love to see this come to macOS and Linux/SteamOS but my current API doesn't support it. Perhaps one day I can work around that but for the foreseeable future it will be only available on Windows.

DEV STREAM THIS SATURDAY 3PM PT

Tomorrow (Saturday) we'll be doing another special dev stream to play the new content in v1.2, plus finally playing the DAC levels we didn't play in our previous stream. Hope to see you there!

• What: Distance v1.2 Dev Steam + DAC Part 2
• When: Saturday Mar. 16th, 3pm PT
• Where: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios

Also... something strange seems to be happening...

Systems have detected several crustacean energy signatures transmitting messages within Nitronic Citys walls. While the intent of these entities have gone largely unknown, it has recently been determined that their outgoing messages stretch beyond the stars Signals end at RA 5h 34m 32s | Dec +22 0 52 The Crab Nebula. - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2019-03-15 23:47:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today we're releasing v1.11 which is a minor update to remove holiday features, improve a couple community levels, and fix some bugs. Right off the bat I'll mention that this does not include the custom music feature as I'm still working on it. I've made some progress but as I'm also juggling the PS4 build and Kickstarter wrap up it's been quite a hectic month.

v1.11 Changelog (Build 6714):

General Improvements

• Reverted Christmas features
• When starting Distance for the first time the Arcade, Multiplayer, Level Editor, etc. buttons are no longer greyed out
• Added version number in main menu
• Changed "Build" to "Version" in server browser
• Extended server names length to 35 characters

Level Changes

• Sea: Update from Dominique Grieshofer
• 44 Second Theory: Improved dropper drone lights and lens flares
• Paradise Lost: Re-added glitch and audio effects when teleporting
• Iris: Added level description

Level Editor

• Added ability to add event string to CutsceneManager that triggers on level start (since the car's physics are disabled in cutscenes)
• Added new object folders to Level Editor
  • Buildings/Nexus
  • Decorations/Nexus
  • Obstacles/Nexus
  • Roads/Nexus
  • Decorations/Foliage
  • Decorations/Halcyon

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed issue where medal image shown in multiplayer might not match actual earned medal
• Fixed issue where clicking Previous or Next Level in multiplayer could close the server
• Fixed bug in Mobilization where sparks weren't showing
• Fixed bug where certain levels were missing the Sprint advanced level select menu
• Fixed bug in Collapse where the sky beam wouldn't fade out
• Fixed bug where objects using FadeOut component might not fully fade out

JANUARY WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHT

Once again I've updated the main menu to highlight some of the latest and greatest community levels released over the past few months! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1545830054 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1547343617 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1606920669 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1549969325 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1559158081 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1545599679 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1552281484 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1623379945 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1550962645 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1532423172 - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2019-01-20 00:31:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all! Today we've got a special holiday treat for you. As our contribution to Distance Advent Calendar (DAC) we're going all out and releasing Distance v1.1: The Nexus Update! This is one of our biggest content releases yet with 12 new levels featuring 6 new music tracks and a new mini-campaign. To celebrate, Distance is 35% off for one week! Check out the changelog for more details and see below for some fancy screenshots.

v1.1 Changelog (Build 6669):

General Improvements

• Added holiday features (Options > General > Christmas Features)
  • Reindeer car decorations, snow on car screen, winter-themed main menu
• Added "Nexus" mini-campaign (Campaign > Nexus)
  • Includes five levels with all new music
  • Unlocked after completing Lost to Echoes
• Added new levels to Sprint
  • Station
  • Iris
  • Observatory (featuring new music from The Quiggles)
  • Precept
  • Projection
  • Eclipse
• Added unique new level to Challenge
  • Variant Blue
• Minor updates to community level "Past"

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed bug with incorrect position/rotation of Archive audio visualizer
• Fixed bug where Encryptor was always unlocked
• Fixed bug with not being able to reset in Eye of the Storm
• Fixed bug where levels' unlock statuses weren't being updated on game launch
• Fixed bug where CarScreenImageTrigger would use a random delay before showing on car screen

DEV STREAM THIS SATURDAY 2PM PST

The fifth annual Distance Advent Calendar (DAC) is about halfway through, and we've already seen some absolutely incredible creations so far. Check out our video on social media for a recap of the first week: Twitter / Facebook. This Saturday we'll be doing a special dev stream to play through the first two weeks of levels and (most likely) talk about the v1.1 update.

• What: DAC + v1.1 Dev Steam
• Where: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios
• When: Saturday Dec. 15th, 2pm PST

Let us know what you think of v1.1 below and we hope to see you this weekend! - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2018-12-13 17:03:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

The fifth annual Distance Advent Calendar (DAC) has begun! DAC is a community-run event where each day in December leading up to the 25th level creators coordinate to release a new Workshop level! In previous years DAC has resulted in some absolutely mind-blowing levels being released, so we can't wait to see what's coming. There also might be a very special DAC contribution from Refract this month, so definitely stay tuned.

KEEP UP WITH DISTANCE ADVENT CALENDAR

Follow DAC level releases by joining our official Distance Discord and checking out the #dac channel. Discuss each day's level with other players, and see early previews of upcoming levels. If you would like to join in by releasing a level yourself, get in touch with the organizers by messaging Skirmisher#0172 or Backgrounds'#7604.
You can also check out the DAC 2018 Special Event via our Workshop home page. We also hope to do at least one DAC live stream this month, so more information to come soon regarding that. Happy December everyone! - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2018-12-03 21:26:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Halloween! For the next 24 hours we're releasing a special Halloween build of Distance! The Encryptor (skeleton vehicle) will be available to everyone during this time, and we've dialed its spookiness up to 11. I've also re-added Boombox Mode and car visualizers on Windows OSes (restoring the previous functionality). Custom MP3 support and other OSes are still in the works. Check out the changelog below for the full details:

v1.02 Changelog (Build 6669):

General Improvements

• Added various Halloween features!
  • The Manor has temporarily replaced the default main menu
  • Made the Encryptor even spookier
  • Encryptor is temporarily unlocked for all by default
  • Smashable pumpkins are back (disable in General options)
  • Added spooky laughter when landing tricks (disable in General options)
  • Spectrum car screen is infested with cobwebs (disable in General options)
• Re-added Boombox Mode in General options
• Made medal times on Approach more reasonable

Level Editor

• Added Decorations/EmpireNozzle
• Added Decorations/EmpirePuck
• Added Decorations/EmpireTechDish

WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHT

Also be sure to check out these excellent scary/spooky/eerie Workshop levels today! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=540614230 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=539551440 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=540666861 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=540547153 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=539530475 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1359671388 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1550962645 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=835699285 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=952788874 - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-10-31 07:19:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Distance soundtrack is finally here! It features over 2.5 hours of original music from myself and The Quiggles, including extended tracks and a few bonus tracks, all remastered exclusively for this release! If you already backed Distance at the soundtrack tier or higher you can access your soundtrack and art book via your Humble Bundle library. Otherwise you can pick up the full soundtrack below. All 54 tracks are available in both MP3 and FLAC formats!

• Bandcamp: https://refract.bandcamp.com/
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/torcht/sets/distance
• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/947820/
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/Usk_5_-0faE

If you have a favorite track on the OST I'd love to hear which one it is. Let me know on Twitter!

NEW DISTANCE PATCH (v1.01)

Today we're also releasing a small patch to address some issues in v1.0 as well as include The Manor as a main menu option and include some of the new music from the soundtrack. Yes, that includes Machine 17 and its fancy remix. Check out the changelog below!

v1.01 Changelog:

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

• The Manor is now available as a Main Menu
• Added Machine 17 and Machine 17 (The Quiggles remix) to music list
• Updated various music tracks to match the improved soundtrack versions
• Updates to Entanglement, Research, Embers, Enemy, Forgotten Utopia, and It Was Supposed to be Perfect to fix minor issues
• Updated default CameraShakeZone values

BUG FIXES

• Fixed issues with several achievement descriptions
• Fixed bug where unclicking Primary on a WarpAnchor would remove the option entirely
• Fixed bug with FOV adjusting in the main menu
• Removed version text from upper right in level editor

UP NEXT...

I was originally intending to release the OST alongside v1.0, but I clearly underestimated how long it would take to finish up extended tracks and clean up various issues in older tracks. Thanks for being patient while I recovered from the v1.0 launch and took time to wrap this up. Now that we've all had some time to process the v1.0 launch we're hard at work on some cool new stuff for future updates. Stay tuned for more to come! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-10-19 13:00:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's finally here. 12 team members, 6.5 years of development, 4,174 Kickstarter backers, many many Steam Early Access players, dozens of patches, 2,500 workshop levels, 12 conventions, and probably around 10,000 cups of coffee have resulted in Distance v1.0! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7dp5mwhcl8 Plenty of mixed emotions at Refract today as we say goodbye to Distance Beta and hello to v1.0. Something definitely feels strange about not seeing that beta watermark in the upper right corner. Distance was our first project outside the safety net of academia and I think it's safe to say that for most of us at Refract it was an incredible (and intense) learning experience. While we did our best to stay true to what we outlined in our Kickstarter, this project has continually evolved due to our skills improving, our tastes expanding, and our players' continually fantastic feedback. We have the most patient and supportive backers, and the coolest player community on Earth. Thank you for believing in us to create something new and interesting in the racing genre! Your continued energy, excitement, support, and thoughtful feedback have kept this project going strong. Speaking of which, remember that community press release we mentioned? It's going out to reviewers and content creators today! Thank you to anyone who took time to contribute. Out of the hundreds of responses here are a few of the quotes we included in the release:

What Players Had to Say about the Distance Experience

• “Distance is practically the only game to tell a mysterious story with a very deep plot through racing, adrenaline-filled survival racing that can actually induce emotions totally outside the genre.” -Mad Max
• “No other game captures to feeling of high speed driving quite the way Distance does. Turning a game about driving into, essentially, a puzzle game is maddeningly brilliant” -Jacob Odom
• “The atmosphere makes this game more than just about racing. Some of the environments can bring out a range of emotions from sadness to joyfulness.” -Deumfides

What Players Had to Say about Distance’s Gameplay

• “Burnout-boosting down a glass and neon highway that flips upside down while you ceiling-ride past hell's own road works equipment through an impossible cyberpunk nightmare city to a pounding electronic soundtrack.” -Jonas Emmett
• “It's a game where your car can jump onto walls after getting cut in half by a laser, but actually keep going. Like yeah find me another game that has that and I'll eat my jorts.” -Chris
• “The racing game where the map itself is trying to kill you with saws and lasers.” -Aida

What Players Had to Say about Distance’s Community

• “If the vision of the creators of Distance is the heart of this game, the community certainly is its blood.” -João Felipe Brandão Jatobá
• “It's not just a game anymore, it's something personal. The community is genuine, and all very active. It's got this kind of vibrancy and life to it, that never quite goes away. It's been going on long before the game ever officially reached Alpha, with the creation of the gem Nitronic Rush. Even then people knew there was something going on. It's not just the sum of its' mechanics, but something more. This game is alive.” -Nicholas
• “The game is packed with kinetic excitement that makes it an exhilarating game to watch or play, with hours of replayability due to one of the most in-depth mapmakers I've ever seen and oodles of fan-made racetracks at your fingertips.” -Lukas P-Stylianides

We are looking to v1.1 and beyond, but for now I think we're going to take a bit of a break. For those awaiting the soundtrack, today will be a long day of rolling things out (i.e the Steam builds, DRM-free builds, art book, soundtrack, etc). It's mostly down to me getting that stuff finalized so please be patient while I work through it all. Also, on a personal note I have to mention that Boombox Mode and custom MP3 support are indeed temporarily unavailable in v1.0. This is due to a tech limitation when upgrading our audio backend before launch. I do plan to re-integrate these features as soon as I can, so thanks for your patience while I figure it out. Anyways, thanks again to our Kickstarter backers and Early Access players for being a crucial part of this development. Also thanks to my amazing teammates for inspiring me daily and pushing me to be my best. We all can't wait to see what you think of v1.0! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-09-18 12:08:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, Just a super quick heads up that we're planning to wipe our Steam leaderboards in conjunction with the v1.0 release. This is done to clear out any unachievable times, remove broken times due to bugs or other issues, and make way for our newly optimized replay files which are considerably smaller in v1.0. Your old local replays will still work, we just figured that it would be nice to start fresh with the v1.0 release. If you happen to have a favorite replay uploaded to Steam, today's your last chance to capture it via video. Anyways, that's all. See you tomorrow for the v1.0 release! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-09-17 10:56:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today marks the epic conclusion to Survive the Editor 2: Month of Madness! At 12pm PST we'll be hosting Round 4 of STE2, a Reverse Tag tournament using three levels entered into last week's editor competition. It's also your last chance to win one of our participation raffles. As a competitor or a viewer we hope to see you there!

• Watch: https://twitch.tv/refractstudios
• Learn More: http://survivethedistance.com/survivetheeditor

Tournament Format

There will be three rounds: the qualifiers, the semifinals, and the finals. The first round (the qualifiers) will be seeded such that players that have performed well in past tournaments will be given higher seeds. This will keep each group fair, and make sure that all players have a reasonable shot at reaching the finals. The win timer for all matches except the finals will be 3 minutes. The finals will have a win timer of 5 minutes. [olist]

Qualifier: Canopy will be played for the qualifiers. Based on the number of sign-ups, the qualifiers will be split into four or more groups, and each group will have as close to five players as possible. If we have fewer than 23 players, there will be four groups, and the top two players from each group will move on. Additionally, the third place player from each of the four groups will play in a special group, and the top two players from that group will move on. If we have 23 or more players, there will be five groups and the top two players from each group will move on.

Semifinal: Built Among the Clouds will be played for the semifinals. The 10 players that advanced from the qualifier will be split into two groups, and for each group of five, the top two players will move on. Additionally, the third and fourth place players from each group will play in a special group, and the winner of that match will move on.

Final: Impact will be played for the finals. The five players that advanced from the semifinals will play a single match with an extended win timer of five minutes, and prizes will be awarded based on placement in this match. [/olist]

Additional Rules

• Modifying your game client is disallowed for this tournament, including but not limited to Spectrum and its plugins. Specifically, anything that allows you to gain an advantage over players using unmodified game clients (for example, the heat plugin), will be considered cheating and must be disabled for the duration of the tournament.
• Entrants must also be prepared to join the appropriate server at any moment from 12pm to 2pm PT. Server info will be sent to you via Discord. If you don't immediately join the server after being requested to join you will be disqualified and we will move on without you.

- Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-09-15 07:13:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have another big announcement to share leading up to v1.0! The Adventure campaign isn't the only campaign coming to Distance v1.0...

LOST TO ECHOES: RETURN TO NITRONIC CITY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEkBfMXA1Ek Distance v1.0 will also feature the Lost to Echoes mini-campaign! Return to Nitronic City following the events of Nitronic Rush (our spiritual predecessor). Quite a bit has changed since destroying the CORE back in 2011. Check out the teaser above!
Lost to Echoes is unlocked after completing the Adventure campaign. It's a huge step up in challenge, so don't worry if Adventure mode isn't brutal enough for you. We've got you covered.
We're also excited to announce that M.J. "The Quiggles" Quigley has joined Refract to help create the soundtrack for this campaign! You might remember him from the original soundtrack for Nitronic Rush as well as projects like Mekazoo and Four Sided Fantasy.
I can barely believe we succeeded in keeping this a secret for so long. Can't wait to see what you think after playing it next week! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-09-12 20:19:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We're going all out over here preparing for the launch of v1.0. In just one week you'll be able to access all of the secret new content and features we've been developing this year!

BACK TO BASICS (BUILD 1760)

For fun we've decided to re-release the very first alpha build we uploaded to Steam on August 31st, 2013 (build 1760). You can play it by simply switching over to the new ancient Steam branch.

• In your Steam library, right click on Distance and click on "Properties"
• Click on the BETAS tab
• Change the drop down to "ancient"

In this build you can see our earliest editor tools, early car physics, old level designs, and more. Back then only a select few had access to the level editor via the Founding Modders branch (Kickstarter tier), but now I'm enabling it for everyone. One important note is that you'll probably want to make a back up of your personal Distance files before switching. To backup your personal progress:

• Windows: "C:/Users//Documents/My Games/Distance"
• OS X: "~/Library/Application Support/Refract/Distance"
• Linux: "~/.config/refract/Distance"

We hope you enjoy this small nostalgia trip. Stay tuned for a couple more exciting announcements this week leading up to the launch! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-09-11 10:01:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

On Saturday we held our final editor competition for Survive the Editor 2! This week level creators were challenged to create Reverse Tag levels using the theme of "dreams." As usual some incredible levels bubbled to the top, and our top five were awarded live on stream! Congrats to this week's Grand Prize Winner Sperzieb00n for their level Canopy!

Grand Prize: Canopy (by Sperzieb00n)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1505665392

Second Place: Plateau (by Backgrounds')

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1500041165

Third Place: distant dreams (by fzeroman)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1498529570

Fourth Place: Uncertainty (by pinesolofchaos)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1499573180

Fifth Place: Built Among the Clouds (by Qubic (SolarisJT))

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1506291821 Like every week, each finalist will receive a poster and pin, with the top three also receiving a Distance t-shirt, and Grand Prize winner also earning our custom trophy! Watch the full stream recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHr-P-REEJg

ROUND 4: REVERSE TAG TOURNAMENT

This Saturday at 12pm PST we'll be hosting the epic conclusion to the month of madness, a Reverse Tag tournament using three levels submitted in the editor competition! These levels are:

• Impact
• Canopy
• Built Among the Clouds

We were previously planning to keep these levels a secret until right before the tournament, but we eventually decided it's more fair to allow practice on these maps all week. This is your last chance to win a physical award before v1.0 releases! To sign up simply join our Discord and let us know you'd like to enter via the #tournament_signup channel. See you this Saturday!

• Sign Up: https://discord.gg/distance
• Watch: https://twitch.tv/refractstudios
• Learn More: http://survivethedistance.com/survivetheeditor

- Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-09-09 20:40:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Friday! Can you believe Distance v1.0 launches in less than 11 days? Seems like an excellent time to release a bunch of new wallpapers and profile overlays!

PROFILE OVERLAYS

Spice up your Steam, Discord, Twitter, Facebook, whatever profile image by adding a profile overlay! Simply download the pack below and add the layer on top of your existing profile image.

• Distance Profile Overlay Pack (4 images)

WALLPAPERS

• Distance v1.0 Wallpapers (12 images)

STE2 ROUND 3 REMINDER

Tonight at 11:59pm PST is the deadline for submitting your Reverse Tag level for Survive the Editor 2. Tomorrow we'll be playing through the entries and scoring them based on visuals, gameplay, and how well they match the theme. Don't miss out! Learn more: http://survivethedistance.com/survivetheeditor Watch live: https://www.twitch.tv/refractstudios - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-09-07 21:24:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

This past Saturday we had our first tournament for Survive the Editor 2! Using levels submitted for the level editor competition in Round 1, several of the best Distance players in the world raced for the grand prize. Congrats to Seekr our Grand Prize Winner! Amazing skills on display by all of our competitors. It was incredibly close between all five of our finalists.

Grand Prize:

Seekr

Second Place:

KnightBane (Noah)

Third Place:

OMANEYE

Fourth Place:

Ferreus

Fifth Place:

pigpenguin Like every week, each finalist will receive a poster and pin, with the top three also receiving a Distance t-shirt, and Grand Prize winner also earning our custom trophy! Watch the full stream recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12WvypaZeVg

ROUND 3: LEVEL EDITOR COMPETITION

With two weeks left before the v1.0 launch there are two rounds remaining in Survive the Editor 2. This weekend we'll be playing submissions for our second level editor competition, and the following week we'll be hosting another tournament. If you're interested in submitting a level there's still time! Create a Reverse Tag level using the theme "Dreams" and submit it by 11:59pm PT to enter! We hope to see you and your level during the stream on Saturday! Learn more: http://survivethedistance.com/survivetheeditor - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-09-03 23:32:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

SURVIVE THE EDITOR 2: SPRINT TOURNAMENT

Today at 12pm PT we'll be using levels from the previous round of Survive the Editor in a Sprint tournament! Just like every week you have the chance to win physical rewards, either as a competitor or as a viewer on Twitch!

• WATCH: https://twitch.tv/refractstudios

Tournament Format

Each listed map will be run a given number of times, and for each player only their fastest time on the map between all their runs will be used. The slower times will be dropped. Each round will eliminate all but the (20/10/5) fastest players. [olist]

Qualifier: The top 20 qualifiying times will advance to the Quarterfinal round. Jay2a's map Sanctum will be played once by each player in one of the open tournament multiplayer servers.

Quarterfinal: The top 10 qualifiying times will advance to the Semifinal round. Pinapl's map Sugar Rush will be played three times by each player in one of the open tournament multiplayer servers. Only your fastest time between the three runs will be considered.

Semifinal: The top 5 qualifiying times will advance to the Final round. pinesolofchaos's map Untethered will be run three times, and then Siddey10's map Celebrations will be run six times. The fastest time for the first map and the fastest time for the second map among all runs will be summed and compared.

Final: The finals will be 4 individual rounds, and a different map will be run for each round. The player with the slowest time will be eliminated each round. Each map will be played twice, and only the fastest time between the two runs will be considered. [/olist] The order of maps to be run for the finals is as follows:

• Sanctum
• Untethered
• Celebrations
• Sugar Rush

Additional Rules

• Modifying your game client is disallowed for this tournament, including but not limited to Spectrum and its plugins. Specifically, anything that allows you to gain an advantage over players using unmodified game clients (for example, the heat plugin), will be considered cheating and must be disabled for the duration of the tournament.
• Entrants must also be prepared to join the appropriate server at any moment from 12pm to 2pm PT. Server info will be sent to you via Discord. If you don't immediately join the server after being requested to join you will be disqualified and we will move on without you.

After all these years I know that some insane skills will be on display. Can't wait to see how this one shakes out. See you on Twitch today! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-09-01 09:40:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Congrats to our first round of winners for Survive the Editor 2! We gave community creators two weeks to create a Sprint level using the theme celebration, and after much deliberation we awarded five winners live on Twitch!

Grand Prize:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1490487850

Second Place:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1490693698

Third Place:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1491963072

Fourth Place:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1489566735

Fifth Place:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1488389902 Each winner will receive a poster and pin, with the top three also receiving a Distance t-shirt, and Grand Prize winner also earning our custom trophy! Also congrats to spaceburger0 and echance01, our two participation raffle winners who will receive a poster, pin, and copy of Distance. You can watch the full stream recording here, and check out all of this week's submissions on Workshop.

ROUND 2: SPRINT TOURNAMENT THIS SATURDAY

This Saturday at 12pm PT we'll be using some of the levels submitted in Round 1 in a Sprint tournament! To keep things interesting we won't be announcing exactly which levels will be used until the day of the tournament. Just like with the level editor competition we'll be awarding tons of physical rewards to the top slots, so there are plenty of chances to win something cool. To sign up simply join our Discord and let us know you'd like to enter via the #tournament_signup channel:

• SIGN UP HERE: https://discord.gg/distance

ROUND 3: LEVEL EDITOR COMPETITION DETAILS!

Finally, today we're announcing the details for our next and final level editor competition leading up to the launch on Sept. 18th. You have two weeks to create a new level for Reverse Tag using the theme dreams!

• Mode: Reverse Tag
• Theme: Dreams
• Deadline: Submit by Sept. 7th, 11:59pm PST
• Learn more: http://survivethedistance.com/survivetheeditor

All of the other details for the editor competition can be found on the official website. We can't wait to see what you create! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-08-26 23:18:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

For those curious about our various backer rewards (e.g. shirts, posters, arcade cabinets) here's a quick update I posted to Kickstarter: Read: https://kickstarter.com/projects/refract/distance-a-next-generation-arcade-racer/posts/2271601

Survive the Editor 2: Saturday at 12pm PT

As a quick reminder, tomorrow at 12pm PT we'll be awarding the first round winners of Survive the Editor 2! You still have until 11:59pm PT tonight to submit your level. Can't wait to finally play these levels. Hope to see you there! Watch: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios Learn more: http://survivethedistance.com/survivetheeditor

[ 2018-08-24 21:32:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

As you may have noticed we’re incredibly excited about the upcoming v1.0 launch! One of the best things to come from this experience has been seeing how players have made Distance their own. From user-created levels, to community-run tournaments, to charity streams, it’s been amazing for us to see such great support! Since the community is such a driving force for us, we wanted to give you an opportunity to be part of the release. Our PR team is going to put out an announcement for us when the game launches, and we’d love to use some of your thoughts to tell the world about Distance. Please help us out by answering these questions: FILL OUT: Distance Community Press Release Thanks for being a part of this amazing journey with us! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-08-21 19:43:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Survive The Editor 2 is a multi-stage Distance competition leading up to the launch of Distance v1.0 on September 18th! STE2 fuses two level editor competitions with two tournaments over 5 weeks. We’ll be taking the top submissions from each level editor competition and utilizing them in each tournament! Every Saturday from 12pm to 2pm PT we’ll be running a special live stream on Twitch for each stage of the competition! Watch STE2 live: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios

• August 18th: Devs play Distance
• August 25th: Level submission judging #1
• September 1st: Tournament #1
• September 8th: Level submission judging #2
• September 15th: Tournament #2

We’ll be giving away an incredible, one-of-kind, 3D-printed trophy to each week’s grand prize winners (seen above), as well as t-shirts, posters, and glow-in-the-dark pins to the runners-up! Whether you like to create levels, race with others, or just watch on Twitch there’s something for you. We hope to see you join! Learn more: http://survivethedistance.com/survivetheeditor/ - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-08-13 10:24:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Distance v1.0 is coming to PC on September 18th! This massive update features tons of new content including Adventure v1.0, our mysterious narrative experience. Check out the new trailer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z4G47P5vd8

Month of Madness (Distance v1.0 edition)

Distance v1.0 comes with much more than just Adventure v1.0. Take a look at our previous blog post for an overview of what’s coming on Sept. 18th. Over the next month leading up to the launch we’ll be unveiling more content and hosting several events. Watch out for the upcoming rules for an elaborate level editor competition x tournament fusion!
Speaking of events, we’ll be starting up a weekly stream this weekend! Join us this Saturday August 11th at 12pm PT to watch the team play Distance and answer questions about v1.0!

• Refract Twitch Stream:
• Aug. 11th @ 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 7pm GMT
• http://twitch.tv/refractstudios

Distance v1.0 is increasing to $24.99

To accompany the final increase in content, we’ve decided to set the final price of Distance to $24.99. This change will begin in one week on August 15th, 2018, so if you’d like to pick up Distance at it’s current price of $19.99 you have one week to do so.

So yeah, this is really happening

Cutting together this new trailer was incredibly enjoyable for me – not just because I love mysterious cinematic stuff, but more because it was an excuse to show off the amazing work of my teammates. And trust me when I say the coolest stuff in Distance v1.0 is not in that trailer. There are still plenty of secrets yet to uncover, and today is just the beginning. Let us know what you think of the news on Discord and in the comments below! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-08-08 19:53:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! At long last we have another meaty devlog for you to check out. It covers what to expect from the impending v1.0 release as well as some personal notes on the development process so far.

• DEVLOG: Your First Look at Distance v1.0

Thank you once again for your continual patience and encouragement while we push toward this massive milestone! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-06-29 09:26:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Today we're releasing a small patch to remove the Winter theme from Distance and fix a few bugs. I know this patch isn't exactly breathtaking, but that's because almost all of our time right now is being spent finishing Adventure mode and all other content to be released at 1.0. The ninety-ninety rule seems to be in full effect, but overall it's going well and we're still making good progress every day. Thanks as usual to everyone who reported these bugs and shared output logs with us! Check out the full changelog below:

MINOR UPDATE: Build 6009

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Reverted Christmas/Winter features back to their previous state

LEVEL EDITOR

• Added "double pivot distance" to Animator, to help longer objects travel more smoothly along tracks
• Improved error message when you're blocked from adding an EventListener to an object

BUG FIXES

• Fixed bug where restarting in some levels could result in returning to a broken main menu (like this)
• Fixed bug with Dev marker in leaderboards resulting in dev marker on incorrect results, broken Spectate functionality, duplicate names, etc.
• Fixed bug where returning to the main menu from an online game or after switching profiles would result in broken submenus
• Fixed bug where Shuffle affected Adventure mode
• Fixed bug where DetailedLight would sometimes not save out

- Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2018-01-24 04:08:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy holidays! Today we've got a minor update that adds a bit of holiday flare while sneaking in a few improvements. Check out the full changelog below!
In checking out the new build I recommend playing through the incredible Distance Advent Calendar releases from this year:

• Distance Advent Calendar 2017 (over 30 levels)

If you missed last week's live stream you can also check that out where a few of the devs play through 21 of the levels in a mini marathon:

• https://twitch.tv/videos/211537322

THE CHRISTMAS UPDATE: Build 5930

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Updated loading screens and main menu with a winter holiday theme
• Improved load times and memory use
• Added snow on the car screen (toggle in General settings)
• Improved default replay download behavior for Near My Ranking so if you've never played the map before it grabs a wide variety of replays
• Restored trick text in Adventure mode and simplified it further
• Level authors and devs are now tagged in leaderboard listings
• Upgraded splash/idle screen functionality in the main menu
• Improved error checking and handling of edge cases where connection to Steam Workshop is poor
• Warning messages in the Graphics options now pulse to grab your attention
• Changed level select behavior so that it auto selects the last played level instead of the last selected
• Press Back to Reset is now hidden if All Abilities in Adventure Mode is enabled
• Improved level preview texture settings so it looks better in VR
• "Regenerating" text now matches color of checkpoint
• Loading the main menu is now asynchronous

LEVEL EDITOR

• Objects in frozen layers are now hidden in the Level Objects Tab
• Added default cubemaps for levels which don't use LevelCubeMapRenderers
• Added delay on EventListeners
• Changed object preview for Biodome and LevelCubeMapRenderer

BUG FIXES

• Fixed issues with rendering of background layers on HTV Vive
• Fixed bug with replays going through teleporters and seeing a weird camera angle
• Fixed issue where if All Abilities in Adventure Mode is enabled text near the car wouldn't appear in Arcade
• Fixed bug where when using Trigger Distance on TurnLightOnNearCar and exploding within that distance the lights are not turned off
• Fixed bug where components like PulseAll would be culled in the background layers
• Fixed bug where loading bar was indicated incorrectly sometimes
• Fixed bug where popup blocker would sometimes not popup when it should
• Fixed bug with lens flare multiple always disabling lens brightness
• Fixed bug with Detailed Lights option in Graphics menu not linking properly with other buttons
• Fixed bug where popup-blockers are stuck below the road after restarting the level
• Fixed bug where menus were broken when viewing a replay on a Trackmogrify Level
• Fixed bug where objects would sometimes use the wrong cubemap
• Fixed issues with news box in main menu when offline

- Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2017-12-25 09:16:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Distance Advent Calendar (DAC) is going strong for its fourth year and I want to give it a shout out. DAC is a yearly event where the community bands together to release new levels every day in December! Some of our most popular Workshop levels were released during previous DACs. The creativity and craftsmanship demonstrated is always inspiring.

HOW TO FOLLOW DISTANCE ADVENT CALENDAR

To keep up to date with DAC levels, I recommend checking out the Special Event I've been updating (accessible via our Workshop home page). You can also check out the #d4c channel on our (now official!) Distance Discord. While you're at it come discuss each day's level with other players, and see early previews of upcoming community levels.
Finally, we'll be retweeting the organizers of DAC who announce each day's level, so check out @refractstudios on Twitter if you're into that sort of thing.

DEV STREAM: DECEMBER 21ST (12PM PT)

On Thursday, December 21st at 12pm PT / 8pm GMT we'll be hosting a Twitch stream where we play through released DAC levels! We'll also likely talk about some of the new tools released in the skybox update, answer questions, and talk about development in general. Hope to see you there!

• What: Refract Dev Stream
• When: December 21st at 12pm PT / 8pm GMT (time converter)
• Where: twitch.tv/refractstudios

- Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2017-12-11 18:54:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! While we continue to crank away at the final pieces of content we intend to ship at 1.0 (Adventure mode and a few other surprises) we want to share some of the latest tools being used to create that content. The biggest feature we've added is a completely revamped skybox system! Now you have an incredible amount of power when creating your own universe, either in tweaking the default planet look or in creating something new. While the update is heavily focused on exposing new editor tools, there are general improvements across the board. Check out the full changelog below!

THE SKYBOX UPDATE: Build 5821

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Updated skybox in all levels to use new dynamic skybox system
• Optimized CPU performance and memory usage throughout the game
• Trick text and "Regenerating" text are now disabled in Adventure mode
• Removed 3, 2, 1 countdown on car screen at start of Adventure levels
• Car is now frozen at the start until "GO!", also preventing teleports and other triggers
• Improved car explosion visual effect
• Arcade level select is now organized by Collections
• Updated Sprint level set unlocking requirements
• Added a main menu notification prompt when levels are unlocked
• Added on-screen visuals when gaining/losing boost, jump, and jets
• Added Rich Presence support for Discord on Windows (OS X and Linux in the works)
• Added Ground Zero to Sprint and updated medal times
• Improved several situations where objects would pop in and out (related to static batching)
• Improved handling of bad collisions in several rare scenarios
• The Manor has been removed from split-screen play due to tricky level design

LEVEL EDITOR

• Completely revamped skybox system (via Level Settings and Biodomes)
  • Background layers can now be assigned
  • Any object within a background layer will be rendered from (0,0,0) directly in the skybox
  • The Sun, Stars, Storm, and Background Layer can all be toggled on/off individually
  • By default the UltraPlanet (highly customizable earth) exists in the background layer
  • Any levels created previous to this update will be auto-upgraded to the new system
  • Added star tweakables such as colors, variation, brightness, and glow
  • Added Background Scroll value which allows the background to move slightly based on player position
• [Animator] Added ability to have separate delay and duration when playing an Animator in reverse
• [Animator] Added option for following a track by percent rather than distance
• [Animator] Added "Wrap Around" option when following a track. Disable this to prevent popping at start or end of the track.
• Added Roads/InvisibleStartZone which allows you to spawn into a Sprint level from anywhere
• Added several new Golden Simples presets such as Sand, Ice, Snow, Water, Glass, etc.
• Added level description field in the Level Settings
• Added ability to collapse all components in the Properties window (hold Ctrl when clicking a collapse triangle)
• Added a "Silent" toggle on Checkpoints which mutes sounds and hides text printing
• Added feature in TurnLightOnNearCar where you can turn off the light on trigger exit (works with both Trigger Distance and the EventListener)
• "Generate Unique Event Name" on Event Trigger now affects selected Event Listeners which have matching Event Names
• Library Tab search now supports searching with multiple words and includes matching folders (e.g. "spli HD" finds "SplinesHD" folder)
• Reduced minimum value of Fog Near to -1000
• The first letter of each component property is now capitalized
• Removed DisableAnnouncer checkbox in the editor Level Settings
• Cleaned up the golden simples presets (deleted and renamed a few)
• Swapped several of the presets used on default Golden Simples objects
• Changed TurnLightOnNearCar so that it only affects itself and children
• TurnLightOnNearCar doesn't affect any child objects with their own TurnLightOnNearCar

BUG FIXES

• Fixed bug where the mysterious orb's rotation in Ground Zero was erratic at high framerates
• Fixed bug where "B for Back" wasn't shown in the split-screen player selection menu
• Fixed bug where some halloween features were enabled by default
• Fixed potential memory leak caused by resetting your car
• Fixed bug where TurnLightOnNearCar would still have a collider when an eventListener was being utilized
• Fixed issues with Wrong Way in Corruption
• Fixed EmpireCube not rendering properly
• Fixed bug where strange announcer phrases could be heard on non-Windows platforms
• Fixed several specific stability issues
• Fixed bug where wheel visuals could flicker black
• Fixed bug when using TurnLightOnNearCar in conjunction with GoldenSimples

EDIT (12/1): The build has been updated to 5824 with additional bug fixes.

• Fixed bug where TurnLightOnNearCar would never trigger
• Fixed bug where Spectating was broken
• Fixed bug with wheel decals being visible when close on network cars
• Fixed bug where certain text printouts weren't playing clicking sounds
• Fixed bug where the announcer would randomly cut off in Adventure mode
• Objects existing in the same place and having the same name will no longer be auto-deleted
• Version info in upper right corner now says macOS instead of OS X

- Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2017-11-30 14:56:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Halloween! Today we're taking a short break from Adventure mode development to give Distance a Halloween-themed makeover! Alongside various visual tweaks, this patch also features a brand new (super spooky) Sprint level called The Manor.

Build 5464 - Halloween Update

• Added new Sprint level: The Manor (with new music)
• Added toggle in General settings for Halloween Features
• Random smashable pumpkins are back
• Updated the main menu to something a bit creepier
• Added spider web on the car's screen, jack-o-latern image on rims, and flickery headlights
• Added heavier film grain and vignetting effect
• Landing tricks triggers a mysterious laugh

Development Update

As you might have guessed by the short changelog, this build does not contain all of the new stuff we've been developing internally. We still plan to release the final Adventure mode at v1.0, and while things are going well we're not currently in the best spot to branch back into the public build. Since our June update we've added quite a bit of new tech to make certain cool things happen in the new Adventure mode, but unfortunately it causes some issues with the old Adventure mode. Since it would be sad to miss our tradition of releasing a Halloween patch, our solution was simply to patch the latest stable branch. It might be a bit unorthodox, but we figured it was better than no patch at all.
(an upgraded level from the revamped Adventure, can you guess which one?) As I mentioned above, content for the v1.0 release (i.e. final Adventure mode and some other secret stuff) is coming together nicely. Adventure mode itself is finally nearing completion, so one of our current big tasks is to ensure performance and memory usage are acceceptable thoughout the campaign. Many of the final Adventure levels have 2x as many objects than their current early access counterparts. To ensure the new levels run as smooth as possible it requires some clever optimizations on our end. We're using the PS4 build as a performance benchmark and have been making good progress this month towards our target, though we clearly have some work to do.
(framerate data for secret new level running on the PS4) I still can't yet announce everything that will be released at v1.0, but some very cool stuff is making the cut. We're making slow but steady progress every day over here, doing our best to stay within scope while still living up to the promises we made. Until we can say more I hope you get a kick out of this week's patch and have a fun Halloween! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2017-10-30 17:30:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We've got something really cool going on this weekend. We'll be hosting our first ever Sprint tournament this Saturday, August 12th! Sign up to race on Discord, and watch the fierce competition in action on Twitch!

• Where: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios
• When: 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm BST (time zone converter)
• Sign Up: https://discord.gg/0SlqqvzfIbgXSBub

One big reason why we haven't yet hosted a Sprint tournament is that we wanted to ensure it would be as fair as possible for all players. In that effort we've invited three talented level creators from our community to each create a brand new level. The levels will be officially unveiled on Saturday during each round of the tournament. In the meantime, here’s a teaser:
Learn more about prizes, event rules, and more on Discord. See you on Saturday!

DISTANCE AT GAMESCOM

In other exciting news, we'll be returning to Germany in less than two weeks to show Distance at gamescom! We're really excited to show off some of the latest levels in Adventure mode to our European friends, host a few tournaments at the booth, and some other fun stuff. Thanks to our friends at Indie Arena for having us again! You can find us in Hall 10.1 Booth A-020. If you’re attending, be sure to watch @refractstudios on Twitter for the latest info during the show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSpAqfuxqZY

LOOKING FOR GAMESCOM VOLUNTEERS

Since there are just a couple of us making the trek to Germany we're once again looking for volunteers to help at the booth (especially with events like tournaments). In exchange for volunteering at the booth we can get you special access to the expo and likely some other rewards. If this interests you please email ellie@refract.com with the subject line "Gamescom volunteer" and we'd love to discuss the details with you.

QUICK DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

The past couple months have largely been focused on wrapping up major content for the 1.0 release, including Adventure mode as well as some miscellaneous content for Arcade. Wrapping up a project of this scope has certainly been an immense challenge, but I can’t describe how exciting it is to see the pieces all come together. On the PS4 side of things, our next major step is to take any content that’s locked in and do our best to make any required optimizations. Not only do our latest Adventure levels push the CPU to its limit, we are noticing that memory has finally become a concern. We’ve been holding off on these final optimizations until we knew how far the PS4 would be stretched. On the upside the visual quality of our environments has never been higher. We just have to ensure that the PS4 (and lower spec machines in general) are able to fully enjoy them. Following gamescom we’re essentially moving into the final polish and optimization stage of development. We don’t have a perfect plan for what will be publicly released on PC before the 1.0 launch because our focus is 100% on finishing content for 1.0. There is (of course) an endless list of things we’d like to improve in the public build, but we must stay the course and get this 1.0 content locked in before moving on. Anyway, our plan is to keep pressing forward and do our best to bring this project to a proper 1.0. We hope to see many of you at gamescom later this month, and in the meantime we can’t wait to witness the tournament madness this weekend. - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2017-08-09 09:32:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Today we uploaded a small patch to address issues found in The Radical Update. The biggest issue addressed in this patch was that several SteamVR devices (e.g. HTC Vive, Oculus DK2, etc.) would either not work at all or cause Distance to crash. This should now be fixed. This was an oversight on my part and I apologize for the inconvenience to VR players since the release. I've also added an Announcer Settings section to the Audio options. This allows you to enable/disable the Announcer in certain modes based on preference. By default "Stunt Only" is chosen, though if you like it in Sprint or Adventure you can choose "Arcade Only" or "All Modes" respectively. Thanks to those who reported these bugs and supported output logs on the forums and Uservoice! Check out the full changelog below:

MINOR UPDATE: Build 5462

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Added "Announcer Settings" drop down which allows you to enable the announcer in All Modes, Arcade Only, Stunt Only, or fully Disabled. By default Stunt Only is chosen
• eV in the level select leaderboards is now formatted properly with commas
• By default Replays are now set to "Global Near"
• By default VSync is now disabled in the Graphics settings

LEVEL EDITOR

• Added Red Heat and Disassembly Line to the viewable levels in the Level Editor
• The Announcer can now be heard in the level editor
• Added "Disable Announcer" option in the level editor's Level Settings which disables the announcer for that specific track
• "Press ... to Reset" text has been disabled in the level editor
• Golden SplinesHD are now included in track generation by default
• Improved default values for golden animator
• Moved some objects into the Zones folder

BUG FIXES

• Fixed crashes and various bugs due to loading the game with the HTC Vive or another SteamVR device attached
• Fixed bug where the "Checkpoint" phrase would play in Challenge, Stunt, and Reverse Tag
• Fixed bug where clicking Next in the Pause menu would do nothing
• Fixed bug where after completing a playlist, clicking Next would do nothing
• Fixed issue where an orange dot would confusingly appear next to Adventure in the main

- Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2017-06-24 23:57:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Today's the day. The Radical Update is now live on Steam! We've decided to release our latest batch of experiments on the default branch for everyone to check out! In short, The Radical Update (build 5450) includes:

• Fully implemented v1 of the trick announcer (like in Nitronic Rush)
• Completely reworked Stunt mode
• One new Stunt level (Neon Park)
• Two new Challenge levels (Red Heat, Disassembly Line)
• 22 Steam Achievements
• New editor features like an animator component, force zones, etc.
• Workshop level data is now cached (no more long update on startup)
• Main menu improvements
• And tons more...

I'm working on a proper (much more detailed) changelog that I aim to post by the end of today. For those wanting to just jump in and mess around now I wanted to post the highlights. Be back soon with more details! - Jordan (@torcht)

[ 2017-06-22 17:11:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! This Saturday during Speedy Saturday (11am PT / 2pm ET / 8pm CEST) we're doing a special Twitch stream to celebrate Distance's Workshop hitting 2,000 published levels! We'll play/discuss some of the Workshop's oldest levels, then take on some of the most recent uploads. See you on Saturday!

Special Twitch Stream: 2,000 Workshop Levels!

• Time: Sat. June 10th, 2017 (11am PT / 2pm ET / 8pm CEST)
• Place: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD 5389

Our collective focus over the past couple months has been on Adventure mode (and some other secret stuff). We had to take a break from experimental updates for a bit, but now that MomoCon is over we're getting back into the "Arcade" groove. Today we're releasing experimental build 5389 which features several a wide array of improvements. Check out the changelog on the forums for more details.

Build 5389 changelog:

• http://steamcommunity.com/app/233610/discussions/4/1354868867713034626/

MomoCon, Adventure Mode Development

As Adventure mode development has accelerated forward it's been challenging to publicly discuss what we've been cooking up. We've been continually refining the visual cohesiveness of Adventure mode, how new mechanics are taught, and the overarching pacing story-wise.
A couple weeks ago we travelled to Atlanta, Georgia to take part in MomoCon which was an adventure of its own. Refract was given booth space since we were finalists in MomoCon's indie awards, and we figured why not give it a shot. We demoed a completely new demo, and the response to the new content was resoundingly positive.
On top of that we were even selected as one of the 5 winners in the MomoCon Indie Awards ceremony! Check out Mike Fahey (Kotaku) talking about the game and collecting the award here: https://twitch.tv/videos/147697061?t=20m25s
While MomoCon was a solid "marketing" event for us, I think the playtesting side of it was actually the most productive part. We still could a do a bit better in terms of teaching new players mechanics (which is half of the point of Adventure mode), but I'd say that our latest experiments certainly demonstrated an improvement. Somewhat ironically as we add more detail and intention to the environments, we're distracting the player from the task at hand. Finding that balance between gameplay and story is probably the trickiest part of creating Adventure mode. Testing with fresh players really is the best way to ensure we're riding the line as best as possible.
Thanks to all of the Distance and Nitronic Rush players that came over to say hi and chat! We had a lot of fun. Now it's back to the lab to evaluate the latest round of feedback.

June Workshop Highlight

You might have noticed that before MomoCon I updated the Workshop Highlight feature a specific creator, fzeroman. Moving forward I'd like to continue this trend with a wide variety of creators who have put out several great levels. For today I've switched back to a more traditional highlight, but if you have a specific creator you think should be highlighted in the future please let me know in the comments below! Here are this week's highlighted levels: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=923919455 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=920953638 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=916735824 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=916892244 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=879200797 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=911414258 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=863026353 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=858229129 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=895652750 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=873422480 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=875612049 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=875722215 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=923374136 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632713480 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=938169628 Anyways, let us know what you think of the latest changes on the experimental branch. Hope to see this Saturday during the stream! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2017-06-08 22:31:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

In light of recent feedback from the community, we've decided to take Adventure mode in a radically new direction. We're calling it The Travels of Distance, and it's a completely fresh and original way to experience survival racing. With your sword and shield equipped, explore the world in any way you see fit. You can climb anything, go anywhere, and smash all the pots you like!

Today we're enabling you to preview The Travels of Distance in our latest experimental release (build 5250). Check out these GIFs for a closer look, and let us know what you think of experimental build 5250 after reading the changelog on the Steam forums!

[ 2017-04-01 18:00:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! It's been a wild month balancing Adventure mode, Arcade mode, PAX East, and everything in between. Today I can finally unveil what we've been creating in the Arcade mode branch of development via Experimental Build 5221!

STUNT MODE REVAMP

Stunt mode has needed some serious love since the initial release on early access. We figured that we either needed to improve the mode dramatically, or cut it entirely. This experimental build features a wide variety of changes to the mode and trick detection in general. Instead of describing the changes we made in great detail, we figured it was better to see how much of it comes through if we don't explain anything. If you're not picking up on the changes then one way or another we probably need to make things more clear or intuitive. Kristian and Brent (a.k.a. Krispy and Ashamael) took a short break from Adventure mode work to design and decorate an entirely new level for Stunt called Neon Park! I highly recommend checking it out for the best experience when playing the new mode.
I've also thrown in an early version of the Distance stunt announcer. To be honest I'm not entirely satisfied with the direction thus far, though I figured it was better to have some version in rather than nothing for this first experimental build. I'm very curious what others think of this version and I do hope to continue iterating on the feel and implementation of the new voice.

THE ANIMATOR COMPONENT

The other major feature we're including in this update is the Animator component! Just how Golden Simples and Particles dramatically changed how level creators decorate their levels, the Animator is another level of power, enabling motion in your levels. It allows most objects in the game to moved, rotated, or scaled through a variety of animation settings.
On top of that we've connected the Animator to a new trigger system to allow for things like doors or whatever you can imagine. Check out ExampleLevels/animator examples.bytes in the level editor to see a few examples.
For the full changelog and to share feedback, check out the latest experimental branch Steam forum thread:

• http://steamcommunity.com/app/233610/discussions/4/135512931347292871/

MARCH DEVLOG, PAX EAST RECAP

As I mentioned previously, development this month has really been all over the place. For the most part I've been working with the newly formed "Adventure Crew" (Kristian, Brent, and Galen) to ensure they have what they need to iterate on Adventure mode. That includes quite a few bug fixes and revamps to existing editor tools and objects. Aside from tools, my focus has been largely on production planning and providing creative direction for the story. It's been quite refreshing to take a step back from level design, be continually presented with new level content, and focus on how the pieces all fit together. Kyle has been largely focused on Stunt mode, figuring out how to simultaneously make the mode more engaging for new players and complex for experienced ones. He started by taking some old Stunt gameplay experiments of mine and heavily refined them until he ended up with the system we have today. It's the classic challenge of creating a mode that's both intuitive and complex. We're very excited to read what others think of the progress so far. While Jason had been bouncing between various projects over the past couple months, he ended up zeroing in on the Animator component after Kristian provided a concrete outline of would be expected in that feature. In an impressively short amount of time he's added a lot of complexity to the component, and I feel like we've barely scratched the surface in using it ourselves. Not only can you create just about any obstacle using golden simples, Jason revamped our trigger system to allow for all sorts of interesting behavior. As with any new editor feature I can't wait to see how creators push it to the extreme. As a sort of middle-of-the-month milestone Ellie and I travelled to Boston for PAX East. Once again we were a bit ambitious with the booth design, mostly in that we had to get so many wires and LEDs to the venue and somehow assemble them. Andrew as usual did an amazing job setting everything up, and then it was down to me and Ellie to figure out how to actually put it all together. In the end it an intense amount of work to pull everything together, but I was really happy the final product.
(mockup of the booth made in Distance's level editor)
(the actual booth at PAX East) For this expo we did something different and attempted to show the new Stunt changes, partially just for playtesting, but also to show press the latest changes to the game. Kyle did an amazing job pulling together everything tech-wise we needed for the demo build that week, and Kristian and Brent did a great job finishing a version of Neon Park to show off. We met with a truly surprisingly number of existing Distance players, introduced the game to plenty of new players, chatted with the press, and even organized a few tournaments. It was a fun weekend overall. Finally, a super special thanks to Trace Evans who was incredibly generous and helped out at the booth during a huge chunk of the weekend. Our success at PAX certainly wouldn't have been the same without his help!

PAX East Press Recap

• Distance PAX East 2017 Hands-On Preview [wccftech]
• Distance – Pax East 2017 [IAmThink]
• The Cyberpunk Arcade Racer Makes a Strong Showing with Distance [Arcade Sushi]
• Interview with Distance at PAXEast 2017 [Split Infinity Radio]
• Distance Interview - PAX East 2017 [1 Rule Be Cool]
• PAX East 2017 – Day 2 Wrap-up Show [Gamers in Beta]
• Going the Distance in a light car, man [SideQuesting]
• EA at PAX East 2017: Day 1 [Everything Action]
• PAX East 2017 #2: Transformers, Distance, Battlesloths 2025, Tumbleseed [The Young Folks]
• The Best of PAX East – Day 2 [Dork Shelf]
• PAX East Highlights – Dipped in Neon and Bleeding Synth [The Lifecast]

All month long the Adventure Crew have been developing massive improvements to Adventure mode, both in story and gameplay. As usual I can't yet reveal exactly what they've been adding and changing, but I can say that they're doing an excellent job of making the publicly available Adventure mode feel like an ancient relic.
(thanks to all of the DigiPen testers that played and gave great feedback!) This past weekend we were offered the ability to playtest at DigiPen during their Spring LAN party so we used that milestone to clean up the campaign as best as we could. We crunched like crazy to pull all of the new pieces together, and it was fantastic seeing how the package is coming together. We learned quite a bit about what weaknesses exist in the campaign. Moving forward we need to cut a bit deeper to hit our story goals, but fortunately it seems that new players are finding plenty to enjoy in the current experience. The rest of the team have been hard at work with secret projects, so there's plenty of cool stuff in the pipeline to be announced. We can't wait to see what everyone thinks of the latest stuff on the experimental branch. If you check out today's build let us know what you think via the Steam forum thread! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2017-03-29 06:54:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

DISTANCE AT PAX EAST

Ellie and I will be heading out to Boston for PAX East next week! We’ll be showcasing a preview of our upcoming beta update at Booth #23131. This update features big changes/additions to Arcade gameplay including improvements to Stunt mode, a first version of the announcer, Steam achievements, and a few other surprises! Of course it wouldn’t be a Refract booth without some ridiculous over-the-top booth lighting. See above for a mockup of the booth I created using Distance’s level editor. I’ll also be posting previews of the lighting tech on Twitter leading up to PAX. It’ll just be me and Ellie at this year’s expo, so if possible we’re looking for volunteers to help run the booth. If you’re passionate about Distance and are interested in volunteering some time in exchange for expo access, please contact us at ellie@refract.com.

NEW TEAM MEMBERS

Today I’m excited to announce that Refract has added three new developers to our team! Please join me in welcoming Brent Potter, Galen Heninger, and Kristian Larsen to Distance’s development! If you’ve been keeping up to date with the Distance community you might know them better as Ashamael, snowstate, and Krispy. They’ve contributed greatly to Distance’s community over the years (on top of creating some incredible level content). We’re excited to now bring them behind the curtain to help complete Distance’s Adventure mode.
(check out Forsaken Shrine for a collaboration between all three creators) While I can’t yet show the content they’ve been creating for Adventure mode, I recommend checking out their previous works on Steam Workshop. Trust me when I say that the new stuff they’re creating for Adventure mode will be worth the wait.

• Ashamael’s Workshop
• snowstate’s Workshop
• Krispy’s Workshop

EULA UPDATE

Finally, on a slightly less exciting note, we’ve updated our EULA and added a dedicated Privacy Policy. You can review it on our website:

• View Updated EULA (March 3rd, 2017)

If you’ll be at PAX East we hope to see you at Booth #23131! Watch out on Steam for news about upcoming experimental builds. Otherwise stay tuned for more info about our upcoming major update! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2017-03-04 19:59:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! Want to put your Distance skills to the ultimate test? Tomorrow (Saturday Feb. 18th) the community is holding another tag tournament! Starts 11am PT during the normal Speedy Saturday timeslot.

• WHERE: twitch.tv/splaysh
• WHEN: Saturday Feb. 18th, 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm GMT

Check out a preview of Ashamael's new tag level created specifically for this event: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=865749611

HOW DO I SIGN UP?

Use the community Discord to sign up. Simply enter the #tournament_sign-up channel and voice your interest. More thoughts from the organizers below.

• SIGN UP: https://discord.gg/aGXYCBB

[quote=Splaysh]Tournament starts at the usual SS time on Saturday, February 18th. We're hoping for at least 16 participants. Stream is here: https://www.twitch.tv/splaysh - Only sign up if you're sure you can make it - Please only use this channel to sign up - Be clear when you sign up (no "maybe", "might make it", etc. ) - We'll close registrations a few hours before the tournament, or earlier if we get too many. Organizational and technical difficulties are to be expected. We hope you'll have fun and GL to all the players.[/quote]

WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHT

I also updated Distance's main menu to highlight 12 new Workshop levels! Some new releases, some older tracks that you might have missed. Check them out!

• Back into the void
• Segments
• Redline:Volcanic Rush
• beyond the horizons
• Perfect Storm
• ARLTR Four
• Vista park
• Precognition
• Netrento
• Impulse
• Sector 13 - The Flaw
• Crash Cove

- Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2017-02-17 22:04:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! At long last I've completed and posted the massive devlog I mentioned previously. If you weren't notified by email, you can still read the entire thing on our website.

• READ: Booting Up 2017 (Devlog)

  
  

This month's devlog includes answers to all of our frequently asked questions (e.g. the launch window, PS4 release) as well as thoughts on Adventure mode, new music, and more. Hope you enjoy! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2017-02-14 01:18:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Merry Christmas to all celebrating today! I couldn't let this year pass without putting together another holiday-themed patch. Nothing too wild, just a main menu update, reindeer antlers and a red nose decoration for the car, plus a couple requested additions. Check out the changelog below. We hope you're having a enjoyable and fun filled holiday season! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates) ___________________________________________________________________________

THE CHRISTMAS UPDATE: BUILD 5073

Christmas Features

• Added a couple small Christmas decorations on the car (reindeer antlers, red nose, and snow on the screen)
• Loading screens once again have been reskinned in a Christmas theme
• The default main menu has been changed to the Christmas main menu
• Added General settings option to enable/disable Christmas decorations

General Improvements

• Added "Shuffle Levels" option in the General options
  • Shuffles both playlists and regular level selection
  • Playlist shuffle picks random levels from a set as expected, regular level selection loads the selected level first and subsequent levels will be randomized
  • Checkbox is in a temporary location, will likely be moved to level select menu
• Added Main Menu level tag in the Level Editor and modified Garage level selection to only show main menu levels
• Slightly improved the visuals of "Main Menu (Christmas)" and "Main Menu (Horror)"
• Added "Main Menu (Traditional)" in case you want to move back to the old main menu

[ 2016-12-25 12:26:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

(a small taste of fzeroman's Radical Highway) As 2016 draws to a close, the Distance community is celebrating the completion of another successful Distance Advent Calendar! The third iteration of this annual Distance tradition is inarguably the most impressive one yet, and I think all the participants will agree it's been a blast. We hope you've enjoyed the festivities as much as we have!

BY THE NUMBERS

This year's event has featured, to date:

• 26 specially-contributed levels
• 1 super-awesome tag tournament
• 2 sweet teasers
• 1 festive mashup
• 1 bad meme

You should definitely check out any of those you've missed over the past month! Except maybe the meme. You aren't missing anything there.

FINAL ROUNDUP

To recap the 3 releases since the last post, we've gathered up 3 DAC contributors to write some words about them, hot off the presses!

#22: Radical Highway - fzeroman

Skirmisher: Traditionally, fzeroman has been very good at building levels that evoke a sort of PSX/Dreamcast vibe, graphically speaking. Here, he's tried his hand at a Sonic Adventure 2 level straight out of that era, and it fits Distance like a glove, while retaining its Dreamcast nostalgia. If his rendition of Scrap Brain Zone was the Distance equivalent of a Sonic Generations remake, Radical Highway is almost a straight-up port as far as the looks go!

#23: The Night Before - Qubic

Siddey10: This level sees players put behind the wheel of a mouse-sized Refractor. Race along the narrow toy roads, through a vent and into the attic. Watch out though, as normally small insignificant objects become a very real threat at this size!

#24: Automobile Annihilator - fzeroman

Plasmawario: Automobile Annihilator is a track that differs from fzeroman's usual designs. Much like Car Crusher, it is purely a destructive and merciless track that is certainly not for the faint-hearted! While it is almost absent in aesthetics, its abundant use of obstacles and advanced transfer/maneuver techniques makes it quite unsuitable for beginners, but it should offer a nice exercise for the more veteran/experienced players out there. If you’re looking to test your skills and/or just want to torture yourself for a bit for whatever reason, then this track will suit you nicely.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

To mix things up a bit on this, the 24th of December, we thought we'd gather up a few folks who took part in the 2016 Distance Advent Calendar and see what thoughts they had on the whole thing.

Phimeek (Natural Gift, White Land GX)

I participated in the DAC last year with Pathogen. Looking back, I would put my best effort on the new simples if the Creativity update came out earlier. But all good things requires more time. I decided to challenge myself by making 2 levels this year but I got too lazy that I finished the two levels just before it was due. I did put my best efforts on it and it paid off with Natural Gift as it was well received in the community. I may be too burnt out to continue work on levels for a while, but when the annual DAC event comes around every year, I would love to contribute again. It’s a good event and you should participate in it every year to show that you love this game.

Plasmawario (The Factory)

Being able to participate in DAC, for the first time, this year was indeed an honor. Watching as all these truly outstanding tracks being uploaded by amazing/talented people daily, and even forging a track myself, was an exciting yet semi-stressful experience. Being able to witness some of my top-favorite track creators upload masterpieces sort of intimidated me a little. Nonetheless what came up certainly baffled me across multiple levels. On top of that, I'd also like to take the time to compliment the Tag Tournament. As it was the first one I was around for, the fight for victory was, needless to say, adrenaline-pumping and truly a battle-of-the-ages. The tag arena itself was grand and clearly showed that it had heart and soul poured into it. To wrap it all up I am blessed for being apart of this outstanding community. I look forward to next year's DAC and Tag Tournament as well as any future events that may take place.

Siddey10 (The Day After Tomorrow)

Being a part of DAC this year was a blast. It was certainly fun work on a level for you guys to enjoy, and battle for that top time. I’d certainly suggest going and playing PPPaul’s level Particular Journey though if you haven’t already done so. That track has inspired me to work more on learning the particle system for future creations. I’d also like once again to thank those who worked on the tag arena (Tournament 2016 Neo) for the tournament. It was an amazing arena to battle on, and I certainly can’t wait to see what they have planned for the future.

KnightBane (Noah) (Disorientation)

This was the first DAC I’ve been around for, and it was a pretty awesome first one to be around for! The tag tournament was loads of fun, and extremely well put together. There were so many amazing tracks created by the community, and I made my first track ever to try to help out. It was a lot of fun! Though making a track can also be pretty stressful. But I think all my hard work was worth it in the end for the masterpiece, if I do say so myself, Lamp Realm! (timawesomeness approved.) In all seriousness though, thank you all for making my first DAC a great one! I hope there will be many more just as great as this one. (p.s. Lamp Realm wasn’t actually my DAC track)

MCrekna1 (Widening Transfers)

I started playing Distance shortly before last DAC, and lacked the level editor experience to actually participate. I’m glad that this year I was actually able to be a part of it and put something out. Although I didn’t contribute much in terms of levels, Widening Transfers being the only thing, I have always managed to help others by testing their levels. I am glad I was able to contribute to DAC this way and make it all the more memorable by helping to improve others' maps.

Krispy (Tournament 2016)

Working on the calendar this year has been extra special for me. My Christmas this year has involved vacation planning and being all over the place. And that's why. Because even in my absence and lack of publishable levels, the calendar has pretty much run itself. Through the very passionate community. This event has become tradition. And as someone who has stuck around for a while. And as the founder of DAC. That's all I could ever hope for from the Distance community. Stay awesome people! Stay awesome Distance.

Skirmisher (oops, I didn't release anything this year...yet)

This year has been a wild ride for me in general, but the Distance community has been a constant throughout it, and DAC was a great reminder of the community's continued presence. I had to take care of DigiPen final projects and exams during the event, but I squeezed in a good amount of time for Distance stuff, and I had a blast writing cool things about DAC levels in my post a couple weeks back. Speaking of which, there were so many cool levels this year!!! I continue to be blown away by all the creative minds at work uploading things to the Workshop. Last but not least, shoutouts to Refract for saving the day with the emergency tag tournament build, and for completing what seemed like an impossible task by publishing the Ghost Update :D I'm very happy that this December has gone so well for Distance!

'TIL NEXT TIME...?

That's pretty much all of Distance Advent Calendar for this year! I say pretty much, because I believe there will be a couple presents waiting come Christmas morning... As far as future plans, the tag tournament will definitely become a more frequent thing (again...). I can't make any promises yet (the resident tournament planners Krispy and Splaysh are busy with holiday things), but the best case is that we get another one in a couple months! We'll see. To keep in touch with the community, join the Discord server! Every Saturday at 11 AM PST, we have a little thing called Speedy Saturday that's basically a free-for-all 2-hour multiplayer session. Drop by sometime! That's all of the community correspondence you'll get on here this year. Keep an eye out for the Distance devlog that Jordan's been working on at Refract; it should drop any day now! Be the first to know about it by signing up for email updates at survivethedistance.com. However you're spending it, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the year! -Will (Skirmisher)

[ 2016-12-24 21:15:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

(check out Backgrounds' 'making of' timelapse video for the level Join) Hi all! I hope everyone has been enjoying The Ghost Update. If you're joining us after a bit of a hiatus, welcome back! Obviously the update was a long time coming (and a bit overly ambitious), but seeing the positive reaction to all of the new stuff has been exciting. After shipping the update, getting the word out, and putting out a couple tiny fires I had to take a couple days to catch my breath. My next project has been to wrap up (and trim down) the stupidly long devlog/newsletter I've been writing. It discusses our thoughts on Distance's release timeline, Adventure mode experimentation, PS4 development, and more. It'll be out as soon as it's ready, but I'm trying to get it out ASAP.

Newsletter sign-up: http://survivethedistance.com/

DISTANCE ADVENT CALENDAR - WEEK 3

Of course the update is not the only fun thing happening this month. Distance Advent Calendar (DAC) is entering its final few days! Thanks to Krispy, Skirmisher, and Ashamael for writing the last three DAC posts. Now it's my turn to give some thoughts on the latest DAC releases. Don't know what Distance Advent Calendar is? Check out the announcement post!

#15: Join - Backgrounds'

Another classic Backgrounds level, employing an incredibly imaginative use of in-game assets to create a hostile, alien environment. A bit brutal gameplay-wise which forces you to slow down quite a bit, but as a side effect it's easier to take in the detailed visuals. I'll be excited to examine of the various sculptures up close in the editor at some point.

#16: White Land GX - Phimeek

A really cool concept and great execution from Phimeek. Instead of remaking a level from F-Zero GX, this level is an attempt to create a snowy environment as the GX designers might have created. Great high-speed gameplay with an intense sense of speed, solid consistent visuals, and the snowy feel is icing on the cake.

#17: STABLE UPDATE GLORY

To focus on the Ghost Update launch, no level was released on day #17. Quite a magical day for me seeing 7 months of work finally released an official package. Thanks again to everyone that has been cheering us along all year as we took on the ridiculously most ambitious projects in this project yet. It was great to finally celebrate a proper release with everyone.

#18: Challenge Pack #2!

• Impossibility by Jay2a -
• Super Super by Backgrounds' -

Impossibility was an escalating nail-biter. Far from the hardest Challenge level I've played, but I did start to sweat as the difficulty continually ratcheted up. Quite a bit more tame in Sprint mode, but once you've got it down optimizing a ~1 min run in Challenge is quite fun. Super Super overall contained an intriguing idea: fusing high speed flying with a key/unlock puzzle level. The downside of course is that our level editor by doesn't really support puzzle logic, so Backgrounds was forced to be creative. Admittedly I struggled to solve the puzzle myself, but thanks to the reply system I could find a solution. In any case the visuals were mysterious and impressive once again.

#19: Frostbyte - Arch Fluctuation

Tons of great experimentation to be found here. I loved how the visuals kept changing, keeping you on your toes throughout. I struggled a bit with the narrow/sideless road sections, as well as a few tight, obstacle areas, but the ending made up for any struggle I endured.

#20: Euphoria - JTrevail, Arch Fluctuation, Phimeek, MCrekna1, Siddey10

Minimalist yet really fast and intense. Great level to race ghosts over and over again to get the perfect time. Hard to beat the sunset feel in a level that constantly flips you around. Gives a great sense of up and down perspective.

#21: Suburbs - Krisha

I was really caught off guard by the great dynamic city feel in this level. Simple yet extremely effective environmental effects. Also loved the "casual drive" gameplay. Plenty of speed, yet it feels like a Sunday drive at the end of the day. Another great one for a player like me to play again and again versus ghosts. Keep up with the latest DAC releases on the Workshop! At least one new level daily! I can't wait to see what few levels get released this week. I challenge you to take on my ghost for each of these levels and see how bad you can crush my times. See you (hopefully) soon with this month's devlog! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-12-21 22:36:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

At long last, we're excited to bring The Ghost Update to the default branch! For a quick summary check out the trailer below (and sure to watch all the way through for a surprise!). It features ghost racing, a replay viewer, official HTC Vive support, an increased online player limit, a new stats system, and tons of other improvements! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFv2rA-y4DA It's been quite an adventure reaching this build. The Ghost Update is easily our most ambitious update so far. Only took 17 experimental builds and 579 revisions to reach it! Thanks to those who braved the experimental branch and gave feedback over the past few months.
(race against your friends' ghosts, times near you, or the global best)
(the replay viewer allows for HUD-less viewing of any leaderboard time) I'm keeping this post short but sweet for today, but soon I'll be emailing out a much longer devlog discussing The Ghost Update, Adventure mode, and future plans. If you'd like make sure you're not missing out, sign up on our website near the top left:

Newsletter sign-up: http://survivethedistance.com/

Although this is a major release, we don't expect everything to work perfectly and we still hope to hear your thoughts! Scroll down for the full changelog. We hope you enjoy all of the latest additions and changes! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates) ____________________________________________________________________________

THE GHOST UPDATE: BUILD 5070

New Replay/Ghost System

• Added ghost racing
  • Added option to race against Local, Friends, Global, or Near Me ghosts by default when playing a level in Arcade mode
  • When using the "Near Me" option, ghosts are now re-downloaded if a new leaderboard place is obtained
  • Ghosts now fade in after the race start to hide outline during intro
  • When racing against selected ghosts, your current playthrough won't be added on restart
• Added replay viewer
  • After completing a map in a solo mode, click View Replay to view your run
  • Switch to any camera view including a free camera (use +, -, 0 to adjust FOV)
  • Adjust replay speed from 1/16x to 16x
  • Toggle HUD to show / hide / hide and hide names
  • Pause, seek forward, or seek backward a few seconds
  • Click on speed slider to change speed of replays
  • Click or scrub along the time slider to jump to a point in the replay
  • Added blink effect when skipping time
  • SFX and music are affected by replay speed
  • Time and replay progress meter correspond to the replay in focus
• Added a system to be able to upload and download replays for Steam global leaderboards
• Added ability to view multiple replays or race against multiple ghosts from the leaderboard menu within level select
• Changed wording in the level select menu to indicate where Ghosts and Replays can be found, as well as indicate that only your top 20 results are now stored locally
• Added listing for ghosts in match results screen (so you can see how you directly compare)
• Names of close cars now fade out in spectate and replays, to prevent name overlapping, especially at the start of a replay with multiple cars
• Added "Replay" options menus which allows for choosing which ghosts are auto-downloaded, name visibility, whether or not playback speed impacts music, etc.

Gameplay Improvements

• Added Arcade level progression system
  • In Arcade, levels must now be unlocked by earning medals
  • If you improved your time/score after completing a map a special screen will appear showing how well you did
  • If you already earned the necessary medals before this update, levels will be auto-unlocked
• Added statistics system
  • We added a system behind the scenes to collect a wide number of stats about your play style
  • Added a Stats tab in the results screen so you can see the stats from that match
  • Global accumulated stats are visible in the main menu from the Garage button
• Wheels can now be sliced like the rest of the car
• Added "Grind" trick which calculates based on scraping without wheels contacting a surface
• Updated the way points are displayed on the car in stunt mode, now it is more minimalistic and just displays the number
• Updated the way points are displayed everywhere so that commas are displayed in the numbers (1,000 vs 1000) to unify the way they are displayed in the game
• When failing a Challenge level, restart is now highlighted by default
• Updated StartZone/EndZone Mesh to fix a few holes, and make the physics more closely match the visuals
• FOV is now smoothed when changing between camera views

Graphics Improvements

• Upgraded the stars in the skybox using real world data from 170,000+ stars
• Rewrote Anti-Aliasing. Now there are three options: Off, Fast, and Quality
• Anti-aliasing no longer affects stars or the car screen
• Enabled fancy noise effect on car death
• Removed distortion effect from lightning spawner, since it was causing graphical glitches

VR Improvements

• Added initial HTC Vive support
• Added a VR options menu, with ability to disable VR, and tweak many parameters for comfort versus immersion
• Tweaked third-person camera modes in VR to be more usable. World appears smaller when in 3rd person
• Added VR camera reset when the headset is put on
• Modified camera shake in VR to be less intense; it can also be disabled
• Greatly reduced camera movement on explode when in VR
• Greatly reduced brightness of windshield effects when in VR
• Camera resetting now persists between levels
• Added various VR improvements under the hood
• Disabled dirty lens effect when in VR
• Disabled realtime-reflections when in VR
• Removed Chaperone for SteamVR/Vive

Menu Improvements

• Added Garage button in the main menu
  • Move the setting of car colors from Profile options to here
  • Added the ability to view Global stats here
  • Added the ability to set a main menu level per profile
• Added Next Level button to the pause menu
• Added a Units value to General Options so players can choose between Imperial and Metric units
• Improved loading time of main menu
• Dramatically improved Level Select Menu load times by rewriting underlying systems
• Added ability to toggle Results Screen visibility
• Added scrolling to match results
• Now the standings text will update itself dynamically while it is displayed instead of it just updating when it first pops up
• Made it so when viewing leaderboards in the level select it doesn't place your entry at the top of the list unless you are #1
• Improved error text when a Steam Workshop file fails to download
• Improved scrolling through global entries in Level Select leaderboard
• Page up/down buttons are now disabled when not usable in the Level Select menu
• Added input action in Controls menu for toggling results and replay menu visibility
• Inverted black colors of Start and Select button prompt text
• Refactored level loading so that Distance can still animate when loading a level
• Updated the loading screen with a circular progress bar
• Moved options menu so the bottom option isn't so close to the bottom of the screen
• Added support for time to be displayed as days (e.g. the stats screen)

Level Editor Improvements

• Improved performance of the editor (may see better framerate when editing large levels)
• Improved the display names in drop down enum lists for the Level Editor
• Improved the algorithm for generating medal times in Level Settings of levels being created in the Level Editor
• Added the ability for WorldText to set the font that the text uses
• Object centerpoints and names are now displayed correctly in orthographic mode
• Updated centerpoints, names, and light icons to improve performance
• EmpireBuilding3 now has a correct reflection map

Online Multiplayer Improvements

• Max player count for online matches is now 12 players
• Cars now all spawn in the same location in online play
• Dramatically optimized cars so that many can be shown on screen without a performance drop
• Added fade in to network car outlines
• KillGrid now supports Net Cars for Online play

Misc. Improvements

• Improved medal times on Official Sprint and Challenge levels
• The last used spectator camera type is now saved
• Slightly optimized level loading times
• Added a new system for caching level information to improve initial startup time a bit
• Changed min FOV on spectate/replay free cam to 30°
• Spectate and track cams no longer have radial blur or chromatic aberation based on car speed
• Improved awkward camera when failing a challenge level
• Improved awkwardness when there is no player to spectate after finishing
• Car colors are now clamped for multiplayer and replays
• Added cap for global car sound effects to reduce clutter (i.e. only 6 of any car sound effect like boost, jump, jets, etc. can be heard at once)
• Reduced memory leak in Logitech code for input
• Reduced both CPU and GPU memory footprint
• Updated Steam backend API to Steamworks.NET
• Updated to Unity 5.4. This adds a possible optimization on the CPU side, so you might see better framerates

Bugs Fixes

• Fixed Gravity Toggle issues in Aftermath
• Fixed situation where car would sometimes get stuck halfway through the road
• Fixed bug where particles could disable anti-aliasing on pixels they touch
• Fixed bug where Linux wouldn't have working pulsing lights in level Negative Space
• Fixed bug where cubemap on some golden simples were incorrectly set
• Fixed bugs where splitscreen didn't work with Trackmogrify
• Fixed bug where Distance was broken in Steam offline mode
• Potentially fixed issues with Workshop level Update/Publish
• Fixed zFighting on various objects (e.g. EmpireBuildingBlock003)
• Fixed capitalization issue with Seed/Level text in Game Lobby
• Fixed being able to switch between cars in spectate
• Fixed bug where death messages were not being sent to all online players properly
• Fixed bugs with trick text fading when doing tricks
• Fixed bug where bloom was intense after leaving quarantine zone
• Fixed bug where enabling motion blur disabled anti-aliasing
• Fixed bug where Reverse Tag bubble collision wouldn't trigger when far away from the host player
• Fixed many resource leaks that potentially caused crashes
• Fixed bug with lens flares not being visible
• Improved the way in which Cubemaps were rendered, which was causing a substantial memory leak
• Fixed bug where particles preview didn't work in the level editor
• Fixed bug where selecting all/no replays in the leaderboard makes the selected entry unreadable
• Fixed bug where real-time reflections on the car looked too bright in many scenarios
• Fixed quality issues on NoiseStorm skybox
• Fixed bug when toggling the level editor with '~' in the pause menu
• Fixed bug where TurnLightOnNearCar component was being affected by scale
• Fixed bug where backing out of split-screen options could break the level select menu
• Fixed bug where the Community Highlight section of the main menu wouldn't update after subscribing to a level in game
• Fixed bug where extruding from a spline node attached to a group within the level editor would corrupt levels by not allowing that functionality
• Fixed bug where after scrolling through several levels in the level select menu the Friends leaderboard would seem to lag behind the current selection
• Fixed bug where global low pass was enabled after mode finish
• Fixed bug where you couldn't hold Esc when connecting to Steam Workshop
• Fixed bug where invisible network cars still had visible wheels
• Fixed bug where a near network car could glow really bright when going through a checkpoint
• Fixed issues with changing tabs in Garage (weird color changes were happening)
• Fixed bug where the Steam Workshop update would fail to fully update all levels after a single file had failed
• Fixed bug where deleting unsubscribed files after a Steam Workshop update would fail to properly clear all unsubscribed files
• Fixed bug where the car's overheat sound could continue playing after exiting a replay
• Fixed bug where reflections on car wheels were incorrect
• Fixed bug where car reflections broke if shadow settings were changed during gameplay
• Fixed bug where the game would cause SFX to low pass when the car screen is glitching out
• Fixed bug where various music tracks would have broken MIDI sequencing (lights flashing at wrong time or not at all)
• Fixed specific issues with MIDI lighting being incorrect on Mac and Linux for certain songs
• Fixed bug where pause menu wouldn't open sometimes after an online match
• Fixed bug where restarting a replay from the pause menu would soft lock the game
• Fixed bug where anti-aliasing didn't work when motion blur was enabled
• Fixed bug where EmpireEndZone wasn't being rendered properly in the Level Editor Library Tab

[ 2016-12-16 20:09:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

(the arena used for the tag tournament, revamped) Another seven levels have been released for the Distance Advent Calendar, which means it's time for another roundup! I've made a few maps for Distance myself, and I'm happy to share my thoughts on the latest tracks released this week. But first, the 2016 Distance Tag Tournament has recently concluded. For those of you who missed it, the vod is here: https://www.twitch.tv/splaysh/v/106611462 If you don't want to spoil the results, go watch the tournament before you keep reading! Several of the players in the tournament recorded a first-person perspective of them playing, and I've compiled those videos into a handy playlist. This year's tag tournament had upped production quality, including a new studio and intro scene that made everything flow together really well (when Krispy pressed start at the right time, at least). Thanks to Krispy, Splaysh, Skirmisher, and everyone else who helped organize and upgrade it. Also, special thanks to Refract for pushing out a special emergency build of the game, mid-tournament, to fix the spectator camera for the stream. Twenty players showed up to compete, and over a hundred watched on the Twitch stream, making the tournament a great success. And after all that competition, only one player was left standing... JaLK, your new Tag King and Tag Tournament 2016 champion! After showing off his skill throughout the first two matches, an intense and highly competitive final match left PPPaul in possession of the bubble with only two seconds left on his clock. But JaLK's epic, last-minute steal won what was probably one of the closest games of reverse tag of all time.
(full clip) Thanks to everyone who participated, and we hope to see you soon for more competitions--there's a rumor that tag tournaments might soon become more than just a yearly thing!

DISTANCE ADVENT CALENDAR - WEEK 2

Don't know what Distance Advent Calendar is? Check out the announcement post!

#8: Particular Journey - PPPaul

I don't want to give spoilers, but what PPPaul's done with this level is nothing short of magical. PPPaul's mastery of the level editor is obvious, and he's made some things in here that even the developers didn't think were possible. Particular Journey takes you through a variety of environments, including a glowing rainbow-neon forest, a lava lake, a forested hillside, and several others. Each is totally different than the last, offering new challenges and new decorations to be amazed by.

#9: Wither - Jay2a

Wither is Jay2a's second addition to DAC, and it's quite a challenging one. Killgrids-as-obstacles is an idea that hasn't been explored before this track, and while it's an interesting one, they are certainly not easy to avoid. Some trial and error may be required, since the killgrids only appear when you get fairly close to them. Wither's visuals are within the standard Distance style, but the eyecatching red-and-white aesthetic gives this level its own unique feel.

#10: scrap brain zone - fzeroman

Fzeroman has a penchant for remaking levels of other racing games in Distance, and this time he's made a tribute to Scrap Brain Zone, a level from the 1991 game Sonic the Hedgehog. Scrap Brain Zone is an industrial world, filled with unique moving obstacles, lightning towers, and many other dangers and decorations that mirror the original. But first and foremost, it's a great Distance track, with solid, challenging gameplay and a retro aesthetic.

#11: The Factory - Plasmawario

I'm not sure what this factory is making, but it's certainly hazardous for cars. Plasmawario's level is an interesting fusion of Tron and industrial themes--bright lines contrast with dark walls, covered by wires and scaffolding. Look out for a few shortcuts to get the best time here.

#12: The Arrival (remake) - Spzi

This level could have been taken straight out of adventure mode, as it perfectly recreates the visuals and style of it. Although somewhat familiar at this point, the execution is so well done that this level is more than worth your time. My one quibble is the unexciting final stretch, but the rest of the level is intense enough to make up for it.

#13: Disorientation - KnightBane

Disorientation is KnightBane's first offering, and although I might be a little biased here, since I helped him make it, I really love the map. It offers tight, transfer-focused gameplay, and a gravity-shifting mechanic borrowed from Xaiier's Directionality. Decorated with blizzards and icy roads, and all surrounded by an abstract, Tron-like mindscape, Disorientation is a treat for the eyes.

#14: Hard Light Transfer - snowstate

Snowstate's maps are always a joy, and Hard Light Transfer is no exception. Set in a starkly beautiful blue-grey world, Hard Light Transfer takes you through the decaying remnants of an advanced city. The namesake hard light bridges are extremely well done, and perfectly complement the transfer-focused gameplay of the map. Hard Light Transfer may be fairly challenging, especially to newer plays, but it's pure quality. Keep up with the latest DAC releases on the Workshop! At least one new level daily!

BONUS GOODIES: TOURNAMENT LEVEL UPDATED

I updated and upgraded the map that was used for the tag tournament! It features sick new particles, an entirely custom skybox with stars, nebulae, and the moon, an ocean surrounding the arena, a redone color scheme, and a bunch of other minor changes to the visuals of the level. The gameplay remains almost entirely unchanged however, as what Krispy made was pretty much perfect. Check it out here, and enjoy! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=817970966 Grab some friends and chase them around, hop online and join a server there, and coordinate with other members of the community on our Discord! -Ashamael DEV NOTE: Thanks to Ashamael for putting together this great update. I highly recommend watching the whole tournament if you can. It's a real heart-pounder and was a blast to watch live. -Jordan

[ 2016-12-15 18:04:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

(some over-the-top action from last year's DAC tag tournament) The sun has set on the seventh day of December, and a whopping nine levels have been released as part of this year's Distance Advent Calendar! Lots of talented community members have contributed to the event, and as a longtime player myself, I'd like to recap this week's releases, for those who may have missed them. You'll be hearing from a couple others in the next two weeks writing similar posts. But, before we get to that:

DISTANCE TAG TOURNAMENT: THE FOURTH ONE

It's been a while. After a lengthy hiatus, the community-driven Tag Tournament is back for another few rounds of competition! Players will be pitted against each other in an original level to be revealed at the event, eliminating each other until one is crowned Tag (King|Queen|Emperor). The whole thing will be streamed live on Saturday, December 10, beginning at 11 AM PST! Krispy and Splaysh are sure to crank out some extra-juicy production for this one. WATCH HERE: https://www.twitch.tv/splaysh SIGN UP TO COMPETE HERE: Inquire on the Distance Discord server. Hope to see you there, one way or the other! Did you know? Normally at this time on Saturdays, the community hosts a multiplayer event where everyone can join and play! It's called Speedy Saturday, and you can find out about it and link up with other players on the Distance Discord above.

DISTANCE ADVENT CALENDAR - WEEK 1

Don't know what Distance Advent Calendar is? Check out the announcement post!

#1: Distance Galaxy - Platoonsgt1

The opener of this year's DAC is of a scale nothing short of stellar. Distance Galaxy is a massive level, spanning five unique environments across individual "planets". While the level is incredibly long (an average run is 20 to 40 minutes depending on skill level), it's very well-paced and definitely worth your time in my opinion. The interplanetary cannons are a bit fiddly, though.

#2: Today - Backgrounds'

As per usual with Backgrounds' levels, Today is quite thematic, with a backstory to match. It puts its gimmick to good use, combining it with an overall elegant track design and a detailed environment (including some sweet weather effects). It's a smooth ride, though it's possible to miss the checkpoints, so keep an eye out for them.

#3: Tomorrow - Jay2a

Though it hews closer to a traditional Distance track, Tomorrow retains its own aesthetic flavor. The wide, sweeping curves complement the buildings set against the cloudy sky, and the obstacles and occasional road transfers keep you busy...or, dare I say, engaged.

#4: The Day After Tomorrow - Siddey10

The Day After Tomorrow is centered around escaping a superstorm, and as such, it's chock-full of those gorgeous weather effects. The track neatly introduces the car's abilities and has you weaving around barriers, even throwing a couple oddball road transfers in there. Fortunately, this is the final track with the joke naming scheme devised on a whim in the ol' DAC planning chat.

#5: Natural Gift - Phimeek

Natural Gift is very much a nice present from Phimeek, letting you barrel through beautiful forests and caves at what feels like an alarming rate of speed. The track flows exceedingly well; there are several road transfers that feel amazing when you nail 'em just right. Plus it's got more rain and water. It's so pretty, I love it.

#6: Challenge Pack #1!

This year, DAC includes a couple of Challenge Packs, where multiple creators push out Challenge levels on the same day to breathe new life into the neglected game mode. Here's our first set:

• Widening Transfers by MCrekna1 - A simple track executed elegantly. You're presented with many wall-to-wall road transfers, but the tracks keep getting farther apart! Use of the grip ability in midair is advised.
• Cyberspace by Mafn - A very tight track focused on numerous transfers in quick succession. There are many paths, but all of them require being very dextrous with the car. Not for the faint of heart.
• Trapped Under Ice by fzeroman - A lengthy endurance level, in the classic fzeroman style. The titular ice-trapping comes across well through the environment design. Consists of many, many pop-up blockers, sometimes unfair ones; you'll crash several times attempting this one.

#7: Leviathan - StarHorder

StarHorder's debut Distance creation, Leviathan is the result of months of work, and it shows. The green-and-yellow color scheme permeates the design, defining the track and plentiful background scenery. And boy, does this level go wild on transfers. Be prepared; you'll make good use of the car's wings saving yourself from unexpeced falls. Keep up with the latest DAC releases on the Workshop! At least one new level daily!

BONUS GOODIES: TRAILER MASHUP RELEASED

Since you've read down this far, I'll treat you to a little somethin'. Remember those trailers we used to announce this whole thing? Well, I'm pleased to say that an extended version of the pumping Distance/Nitronic synergy backing those trailers is out now! I don't want to toot my own horn here (I made this, by the way!), so I'll just leave you with the link. Hope you all enjoyed this rundown of Exciting Content™ we've gotten/are getting this month! Catch you at the tag tournament or in the Discord :) -Will (Skirmisher) DEV NOTE: Thanks to Skirmisher for helping out by writing this update while we finish the major release! Also thanks to Krispy, Splaysh, and all of the community members helping to run the tag tournament. Can't wait to see who reigns victorious this weekend! -Jordan

[ 2016-12-08 18:14:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt3_Une0z-U

What is this madness?

The Distance Advent Calendar (DAC) is a community driven event that started 3 years ago, back when the game wasn't yet publicly available on Steam. For the event, the Distance community has come together to make lots of awesome user created levels, which will be released during the 24 days before Christmas! [img=http://i.imgur.com/dolEeye.png][/img] The Factory By Plasmawario, Neo Seoul 2144 By Ashamael, Radical Highway By Fzeroman In addition to all the levels, the calendar also brings the annual tag tournament, where all the carkour masters will be able to duke it out for the title of Tag King, live on Twitch!

How can I keep up with all these DAC levels, and how do I sign up for the totally rad tag tournament?

You can keep in the loop about all the awesome stuff we're doing for DAC, as well as sign up for the tournament, by joining the highly passionate Distance community on our Discord server! Besides making it easy to keep up with DAC, the Discord server is also great for meeting other players, asking questions and setting up multiplayer games! The DAC levels will also appear in a special section on the Distance Steam Workshop page! [img=http://i.imgur.com/oMNlbRt.png][/img] Tomorrow and Wither by Jay2a, ????? by Krispy & Ashamael Feel free to ask me anything regarding the event here on Steam or on Twitter. (@KrispyVG) We look forward to see you all on Discord and in-game, and happy holidays from everyone behind this years DAC! - Krispy (not a developer)

[ 2016-12-01 03:38:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

(ridiculously epic replay showing the top times on Inferno) Hi everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating! Today we released build 5007 on the experimental branch. It's essentially a release candidate for the major release (minus a few minor tweaks). Throughout November we powered through some exceptionally tricky bugs that forced us to rewrite a few areas of the game, but we're feeling optimistic about the stability finally being acceptable for a major release. After this weekend we'll look at the experimental build feedback and determine if any last minute things need to be addressed. If you'd like to try this build early simply check out this thread for more info. See the changelog down below for everything that changed since our last Steam Announcement.

COMMUNITY QUESTION: LEVEL VERSIONING

(top replays for official level 'Dodge' with HUD toggled off) The replay system is probably the most new complicated system we've added since entering early access. It touches most of the other systems in the game, and we have to ensure it's as complete as possible before launch so that we don't get into a scenario where some detail needs to change and we have to invalidate existing replays. Obviously this still could happen, but we doing our absolute best to avoid that scenario. Along those lines, we've wanted to support level creators if they want to manually "clear" their leaderboards and invalidate replays for that track. Steam doesn't give us the power to delete or clear leaderboards from within the game, so we have to come up with something different. We're currently debating between two options, and before we commit to one or the other we'd love to hear what the community thinks. Please read both and see if you feel strongly either way: Option #1: Leave everything it as is. If creators want to "clear" their leaderboards they'll need to upload a new version of their level. Upside is that no leaderboard entries and replays are lost (i.e. players won't be confused when they check the global leaderboards and see that their incredible sub-2:00.00 run was invalidated). Downside is that creators will have a harder time getting old subscribers to check out the latest version of their level (which is apparently quite a bit different). Option #2: Add the ability on the creator's end to invalidate all previous leaderboard entries and replays. Upside is that creators will maintain subscribers if they change their level dramatically. The downside is that players will lose access to both the old level and any old replays associated with that track. We'd also need to add something in the leaderboard menus that makes it clear when your scores are no longer available (to reduce confusion). It's also quite a bit of work on our part, so technically that's a downside as well. If you have an opinion either way, let us know what you think in the comments!

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD 5007

General Improvements

• Added listing for ghosts in match results screen (so you can see how you directly compare)
• Made it so when viewing leaderboards in the level select it doesn't place your entry at the top of the list unless you are number 1
• Reduced memory leak in input code when a controller is connected
• Improved error text when a Steam Workshop file fails to download
• Added a new system for caching level information to improve initial startup time of Distance a bit
• Levels will now be unlocked if you have achieved a local Bronze medal or better on them
• Updated loading animation so second half of loading bar represents rendering of cubemaps
• Disabled realtime-reflections when in VR
• Improved awkward camera when failing a challenge level
• Improved awkwardness when there is no player to spectate after finishing
• Death camera fades to static slower now
• When failing a Challenge level, restart is now highlighted by default
• Made it so time display in the stats page supports days
• Removed all Halloween features added to the previous build
• Creator Version was removed from the Level Settings (it wasn't doing anything helpful at the moment)
• Car colors are now clamped for multiplayer and replays

Replay System

• Improved accuracy of replay playback
• SFX and music are now affected by replay speed when viewing replays
• Added "Playback Speed Affects Music" toggle in Replay options
• Dropper drones are now supported in replays (Applies only to replays recorded after this update)
• Can click on speed slider to change speed in replays now
• Replay menu now shows the time within the replay
• Opening/closing the pause menu now doesn't override replay speed when viewing replays
• Ghosts are now re-downloaded if a new leaderboard place is obtained
• Clicking the "Change Camera" button now changes the camera
• Changed "Toggle Menu" to "Toggle HUD" when viewing replays
• Fixed bug where replays would finish a little early
• Flames and wing trails on ghosts are now affected by the ghost brightness option
• Added Seek Forward/Backward buttons in the replay menu
• Heat is now reduced any time you seek within a replay (fixes bugs with the overheat sound playing and too much camera shake)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where the Steam Workshop update would fail to fully update all levels after a single file had failed
• Fixed bug where deleting unsubscribed files after a Steam Workshop update would fail to properly clear all unsubscribed files
• Fixed bug where the car's overheat sound could continue playing after exiting a replay
• Fixed bug where reflections on car wheels were incorrect
• Fixed bug when toggling the level editor with '~' in the pause menu
• Fixed bug where TurnLightOnNearCar component was being affected by scale
• Fixed bug where backing out of split-screen options could break the level select menu
• Fixed bug where Restart and Next Level were available to non-host players in online matches
• Fixed bug where replay count in General settings wasn't working
• Fixed bug where the Community Highlight section of the main menu wouldn't update after subscribing to a level in game
• Fixed bug where extruding from a spline node attached to a group within the level editor would corrupt levels by not allowing that functionality
• Fixed bug where after scrolling through several levels in the level select menu the Friends leaderboard would seem to lag behind the current selection
• Fixed bug where global low pass was enabled after mode finish
• Fixed bug where you couldn't hold Esc when connecting to Steam Workshop
• Fixed bug where invisible network cars still had visible wheels
• Fixed bug where a near network car could glow really bright when going through a checkpoint
• Fixed issues with changing tabs in Garage (weird color changes were happening)

- Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-11-24 15:43:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today we released another build on the experimental branch as we inch closer to our major release. While the meat of the update is focused on bug fixes, we couldn't help but keep up the tradition of including some special Halloween features!
On top of the fixes, this build includes randomly spawned smashable pumpkins, an updated main menu, some small tweaks to the car's visuals, and a new experiment with the car's visuals. When driving into an area where your car's wings are disabled, your car's skin burns away to reveal a spooky secret... a skeleton lives within.
I also updated the main menu with some of our favorite dark, spooky, and/or creepy community-created levels. Check them out!
Check out the changelog below for more details. Hope you have a fun and safe holiday weekend!

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD 4920

Halloween Special Features

• When the car enters a wing corruption zone, a skeleton emerges from within
• Changed default main menu level to showcase Spooky Town (arena level)
• Randomly generated pumpkins are dynamically placed on the tracks (can be disabled in General Options)
• Replays and Leaderboards are not updated when pumpkins are in the levels
• Added ghostly laughter sound effects when doing tricks
• Added animated spider web to car's top screen
• Changed car wheel rim image to feature a jack-o-lantern face
• Car headlights now use spider flashlight "cookies"

General Modifications

• The online match waiting screen now supports 12 players
• The game can now be paused during the results screen or before an online match has started
• Improved player/chat colors for 12 online players
• Updated level unlock requirements to only require Bronze medal of the previous level
• Toggling UI while viewing a replay is now done with "Back" on a 360 controller or "T" on keyboard
• Improved multiplayer chat box position/depth in the menus
• Multiplayer chat is now hidden when the game is paused
• "1ST PLACE" text in results screen is now hidden when only one player is playing
• Disabled non-working post-process effects when in VR (DoF, Motion Blur, Radial Blur)
• Started work to improve support for 5.1/7.1 surround sound
• Trimmed high end frequencies of boost sound effect

Level Editor

• Disabled Ambient Change Trigger, use Biodomes instead
• Removed brightness limits on lights in the Level Editor

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where an error in the Steam download could cancel the rest of queued Steam downloads
• Fixed bug where restarting a Trackmogrify level would return to the main menu
• Fixed bug where tag bubble would sometimes not follow the player with the bubble
• Fixed bug in the Level Editor where restarting from the pause menu would not work
• Fixed bug where the Main Menu level couldn't be set in several cases
• Fixed bug where outlines didn't display correctly in VR
• Fixed bug where objects pop in was more noticeable in levels with lots of fog (e.g. Friction)
• Fixed bugs with cubemaps not working in the level editor, and after losing window focus
• Fixed bug where "GhostLaughEmitter" wouldn't stop playing between levels
• Fixed bug in level select menu where viewing an empty menu (e.g. My Levels) would cause an internal error

- Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-10-29 12:54:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all! While I've been doing my best to post stuff on Twitter, I've been pushing off this devlog since I figured our next stable release was around the corner. I was off by a bit... but it's because this update is shaping up to be our most ambitious yet. We've released eight experimental builds since my last devlog, and we're now tracking down the final bugs. When the stable release does eventually happen, I hope to dive deeper into some behind-the-scenes stuff. For now, here's a quick overview for anyone curious.

The Breakdown

For most of 2016 I've been consumed by Adventure mode. I'll go deeper in the next devlog, but let's just say it's been intense. Endless learning, iterating, re-designing, etc. I've having fun though. It just eats up almost all of my time. If you're dying for a preview, here's something I posted recently. Jason is in a similar situation, except that he's been focused on Arcade mode. After revamping Distance's controls in the previous update he set out to create a fully featured ghost/replay system. It's been a monstrous endeavor. After months of work we now support uploading/downloading ghost replays from the Steam leaderboards that you can race against or just spectate.
To pull this off he needed to significantly modify several underlying systems, and while this resulted in some nice improvements across the game it's also been the source of many bugs. Balancing the system redesigns alongside the continual addition of new features is one of the reasons this stable release ended up being such a massive project.
Watch: Downloading others' replays Kyle has been bouncing around a bit. After wrapping up the stats system mentioned in the previous devlog, he helped Jason with several features (e.g. replay storage, ghost uploading to Steam leaderboards). For the past couple months I've pulled him onto Team Adventure to help create new level content. Andrew has also been moving around. His focus is typically split between VR and the PS4 port, though (as always) he's finding clever ways to optimize the game. It's been especially helpful as our new Adventure mode levels are much more detailed than the publicly available versions. On the side he's done a couple cool projects. For example, he upgraded the skybox using data from 170,000 real stars. Looks amazing in VR.
Eddie and Laura had also been largely focused on Adventure mode, though recently they've shifted onto their own secret project. One way or another they're continuing to add content either in the form of new levels or level editor assets. At this point the upcoming build is essentially feature complete, but there are some tricky issues in multiplayer that need to be addressed. We've been using the IGF submission (October 24th) as an internal deadline for our next Adventure mode candidate, so Kyle and I will be crunching like mad until then. After that it's likely we'll join in helping Jason and Andrew fix whatever issues remain in the build so we can get the stable release out the door. If you'd like to try the upcoming stable build early, a release candidate is available now on the experimental branch. Here are some of the featured additions:

Major Upcoming Features:

• Ghost/Replay System (race friends/global top times)
• Arcade level progression system
• Statistics system
• HTC Vive support
• VR options menu
• Upped online player count from 6 to 12 players
• More performance optimizations

It's been a lot to tackle both a story mode and arcade feature releases simultaneously, but I think we're making good progress on both fronts. Not sure when the stable release will be ready, but watch out for another Steam announcement coming (hopefully) soon with details on that build. Until then, back to work! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-10-21 10:23:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We just released another build on the experimental branch. It contains previews of new systems like replays, arcade mode level unlocking, the stats system, and more! Once again this is an experimental build, so make sure to backup personal progress before updating. For the uninitiated: How to access the "experimental" branch As always we're still pushing forward with Adventure mode behind the scenes, but we wanted to get some of these features out as soon as possible to see how the community feels about them. We'll be building on them based on feedback. Let us know what you think in the forums!

EXPERIMENTAL BUILD 4581 New Stuff

• Added early preview of the Replay System
  • After completing a map in a solo mode, click View Replay to view your run
  • Switch to any camera view including a free camera (use +, -, 0 to adjust FOV)
  • Adjust replay speed from 1/16x to 16x
• Added Arcade level progression system
  • In Arcade, levels must now be unlocked by earning medals
  • If you improved your time/score after completing a map a special screen will appear showing how well you did
  • If you already earned the necessary medals before this update, levels will be auto-unlocked
• Added statistics system
  • We added a system behind the scenes to collect a wide number of stats about your play style
  • Added a Stats tab in the results screen so you can see the stats from that match
  • Coming soon: Steam Achievements based on stats
  • Coming soon: Global accumulated stats visible in the main menu
• Misc
  • Added "Next Level" button to the pause menu
  • Added the ability to set a main menu level per profile (Options > Profile > Choose Main Menu Level)
  • Added "Grind" trick which calculates based on scraping without wheels contacting a surface
  • Added a Units value to General Options so players can choose between Imperial and Metric units

Improvements

• Improved HTC Vive support
  • Camera resetting now persists between levels
  • Added 3rd person Copter Cam mode which makes you feel like a giant (works best with a small VR World Scale)
  • Added various VR improvements under the hood
• Misc
  • Cars now all spawn in the same location in online play
  • Dramatically optimized cars so that many can be shown on screen without a performance drop
  • Slightly optimized level loading times
  • Updated the way points are displayed on the car in stunt mode, now it is more minimalistic and just displays the number
  • Updated the way points are displayed everywhere so that commas are displayed in the numbers (1,000 vs 1000) to unify the way they are displayed in the game
  • Now the standings text will update itself dynamically while it is displayed instead of it just updating when it first pops up
  • Changed min FOV on spectate/replay free cam to 30°
  • Spectate and track cams no longer have radial blur or chromatic aberration based on car speed
  • FOV is now smoothed when changing between camera views

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where Distance was broken in Steam offline mode
• Potentially fixed issues with random crashes due to Unity 5.4's Graphics Jobs feature
• Potentially fixed issues with Workshop level Update/Publish
• Fixed zFighting on various objects (e.g. EmpireBuildingBlock003)
• Fixed capitalization issue with Seed/Level text in Game Lobby

- Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-06-23 17:23:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

MINOR UPDATE: BUILD 4485 (now 4491)

We just put out a small patch to address some of the issues brought up by players this week. Check out the changelog below for details. EDIT: Build 4491 is now live on the stable branch. I rolled back our Wwise implementation to a previous version which appears to have fixed audio/loading bugs for many players.

• Level Editor
  • Improvements to Popup Blockers
    • Popup blockers now use their start position for checking distance to the car instead of their position below the road
    • Popup distance is now the same regardless of the blocker orientation
    • The popup and hologram distance can also now be previewed in the level editor
    • This will allow level creators to easily setup close range popups
    • Old levels may need to be adjusted for this change
    • Popup blockers now have a height multiplier so level creators can offset the amount the blockers will move
  • Improved Mouse Click selection (should be easier to select the desired object at close and far distances)
  • SelectObjectTool now correctly displays the name of selected object if it is using a custom name
• General
  • Removed VSync (2x) option since it was never helpful
• Bugs Fixed
  • Fixed bug where some levels may fail to load, then the game hangs when returning to the main menu
  • Fixed bug where golden simples had zombie material references, causing many visual artifacts
  • Improved bounds calculation so spinning objects are less likely to stop spinning when in view
  • Subdivided visual mesh on EmpireTunnel to fix issues where you could drive through it strangely

TWITCH STREAM: 9PM PT (MAY 13TH)

Tonight around 9pm PT we'll be streaming some of the latest community levels! I've already seen some impressive looking creations published since the Creativity Update release, and I've been holding off playing anything until we could stream. Well tonight's the night, and I'm excited to finally tear into them. Follow on Twitch to get notified when we go live! REFRACT ON TWITCH: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-05-13 19:50:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today we're unleashing The Creativity Update on the stable branch! For a quick summary check out the trailer below. It includes 3 new levels, a new ability, improved camera, Oculus Rift CV1 support, new editor tools, and more! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-OwcGtGkFk It's been quite an adventure reaching this build, so thanks to those who braved the experimental branch and gave feedback. Though this is a major release, we still hope to hear your thoughts on everything. Scroll down for the full changelog. Also, if you make something in the editor, send it our way! To celebrate, Distance is 33% off this week. If you'd like to download the patch simply fire up Steam and it should auto-download. We hope you enjoy! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

THE CREATIVITY UPDATE: BUILD 4474 Improvements

• New Levels
  • Added new level Friction which teaches the new Grip ability
  • Added new level Amusement which shows off the new particle system
  • Added new level Uncanny Valley which shows off the new primitive shapes
• Controls
  • Added Grip ability to the car. Gives a high downforce to help control jump timing and sticking to walls and ceilings. Hold the Left Bumper on a gamepad, or Q on the keyboard. Customizable in the Controls options
  • On gamepads the Left Stick now rotates the car while in air, or if the grip button is pressed. This allows for easier transfers, making the thrusters more accessible for less experienced players, and more convenient for all players
  • Improved default behavior for Steam Controller (it now acts like an XInput device)
  • Moved all default controls schemes to unified scheme (removed Advanced / Normal schemes)
• General
  • Updated to Oculus SDK 1.3.2 with Rift CV1 support
  • Self-righting now works when jets are disabled
  • Added small animation when a car ability fails
  • Upgraded menu font to something cleaner
  • Upgraded car trick/stats text with a new font
  • Upgraded EmpirePosterDetourRightHologram visuals
  • Upgraded ability icons with new images
  • Added ability icon system on the car screen which shows which ability has been enabled in Adventure mode
  • Updated many early levels to not have jets enabled until the jets ability is unlocked
  • Updated Wwise to v2015.1.6
  • Added a General option for "All Abilities in Adventure Mode" to turn abilities on/off in Adventure mode (temporary solution until we have a system in place to unlock all abilities after completing Adventure mode the first time)*
  • The car screensaver now randomly chooses between several presets when going into "screensaver" mode*
  • Added support for level playlist saving/loading in the level select menu*
  • Reorganized buttons in level select menu for starting a level playlist or removing a level from a list*
  • Added "+enableMIDI" launch option which enables MIDI output for Arduino (e.g. +enableMIDI "Teensy MIDI")*
• Graphics
  • Greatly reduced visual banding in the Ambient skybox and Vignetting graphics effect
  • Local cars now get priority on rendering the car screen (should make the car screen higher framerate in multiplayer)
  • Explosion colors are now tied to car glow*
• Physics
  • Changed how the air drag force on the car is calculated. non-cardinal(diagonal) directions are now higher drag. This helps with countering the wheelie super speed, and also helps ramps be a little more consistent.
  • The car is also fastest while driving on the road, and the new grip ability allows you to more easily get back to the road after jumps and transfers.
  • Simplified thruster force depletion, now depletes equally, no matter the direction of gravity.
  • Removed hard landings and new drag (both were more problematic than helpful)
  • Added small delay between wheels leaving the ground and left stick rotation enabling (helps if steering when going off a jump)
  • Slightly lowered wing fade in time, and wing drag
  • Added spline smoothing to tunnels and other shapes
  • Added smoothing to camera pitch / upside-down effect
  • Tweaked car acceleration values
  • Adjusted jet and drag values
  • Made exploding on virus ramps less common
  • Car will blow up if it gets wedged between or under objects at high speed
  • Reduced car wiggle at high speeds
• Camera
  • Changed how the 3rd person chase camera functions. It now orients slightly towards up with respect to gravity. This will hint the player which direction gravity will pull them if they leave the surface.

Level Editor

• New Features
  • Added LevelImageCamera, for setting where the level's preview image is taken
  • Added "Change Track Tool" to change spline segments to a new type (press H)
  • Added ability to remove track segments from track calculation
  • Added KillGridBox and KillGridCylinder for custom kill grid positioning
  • Added SetLevelImageToCurrentViewTool (under "Others")
  • Added visual picker for Particle Sprite
  • Added tool for moving a track node along the track
  • Added support for multi-line string inspection
  • Added Track Extrude tool
  • Added Merge Track Node tool
  • Added "Move Node Along Track" and "Extrude" tools to the move gizmo
  • When creating a road piece while selecting a road piece, it will copy the colors of the selected road piece and add it to the end of the selected road piece
  • Added tool to mirror objects across cardinal axes*
• General Improvements
  • The PulseAll component is now an addable component and it’s been tweaked to be a bit more user friendly
  • Track Manipulator Nodes are now transparent when bigger
  • MusicTrigger now uses the list of songs instead of an ID
  • Made it so the level editor now saves out the position and orientation of the cursor and camera with level files. When reloading files, users are placed right back where they left off
  • MoveCarSpawnerToStartZoneTool now adds a car spawner if it doesn't already exist
  • Inspector buttons now work with multiple object selected
  • Material color names are now a little more display friendly
  • Colors are now pickable on glass materials
  • Changed transform scale in the object inspector to use exponential step size*
• Added Simples 2.0
  • Highly adjustable primitive shapes
  • Supports material and texture customization
  • Collision can be toggled
  • Added transparency support
  • Added bump map support
  • Added world mapping support to allow easy combining of simples to make a blob simple of the same look (like rocks and cliffs for example)
  • Added presets to help get started on certain a look
  • Added Randomize" and "Randomize A Little" buttons to help achieve interesting looks
  • Added ability to copy and paste settings
  • Open up and look at the new level Uncanny Valley in the level editor to see examples of the new simples
• Added new particle system
  • Highly adjustable particle system that moves all calculations to the GPU
  • Example presets are in the Decorations->Particles folder (e.g. Snow, Rain, Sparks, DiscoDanceFloor, NeonTower, etc.)
  • Added the ability to use dynamic components TurnLightOnNearCar and PulseAll
  • Added Randomize" and "Randomize A Little" buttons to help achieve interesting looks
  • Added CustomName component so level creators can rename particle systems
  • Added particle acceleration
  • Added Solid, Alpha, and BlendAdd particles
  • Added a few more particle textures
  • Solid particles now are affected by lights
  • When attached to a spline, particles now scale when the road scales
  • Added ability to copy and paste settings
  • Open up and look at the new level Amusement in the level editor to see examples of the new Particles
• Added new placeable objects
  • Roads/EmpireRoadCap
  • Buildings/Infected/VirusBuilding007
  • Buildings/Infected/VirusSpire002
  • Decorations/EmpireGear001
  • Decorations/EmpireGas_Pipe03
  • Decorations/EmpireGas_Pipe04
  • Decorations/EmpireHexScaffold
  • Decorations/RotatingEmpireHexScaffold
  • Decorations/Infected/VirusTriPillar001
  • Decorations/Infected/VirusArch002
  • Obstacles/TunnelCrossBarrier
  • Obstacles/TunnelCrossBarrierRotating
  • Obstacles/TunnelQuarterBarrier
  • Added TrafficPlane and TrafficTube in the Decorations folder
  • Added new environment art: VirusBlockerRev02_Diag, EmpireRoadCap, VirusBuilding008, VirusBuilding009, VirusTriPillar001, VirusTriPillar002, VirusBlockerRev01
  • Added GlassSplineRoadSideless002, a glass road which can be tweaked to be fully invisible
  • Added CooldownTriggerNoVisual, which subtly cools down the car
  • Added VirusTunnel to the Roads/Infected/Tunnel folder in the level editor library
  • All new Simples in the Simples/ directory
  • All new Particles in the Particles/ directory

Bug Fixes

• General
  • Fixed bug where the car jumps further away when pausing
  • Fixed bug that was causing levels to not load properly sometimes if a track node was in a group
  • Fixed bug where the car wheel indicators on the screen could display incorrect information
  • Fixed bug where wheels could act strange on very large roads
  • Fixed bug where controls tutorial prompts wouldn't fade out properly
  • Fixed bug where controls indicator (buttons) weren't showing up during tutorial sections after the car reset
  • Fixed local leaderboards not saving/loading properly
  • Fixed bug where leaderboard times greater than an hour didn't show the hour count
  • Fixed bug where getting squished but not having a strong impact could cause the car to blow up on any impact at any time later*
• Level Editor
  • Fixed bug where the Properties tab would become invalid and unusable if it was closed and reopened
  • Fixed bug with the cancel button in the level editor (this caused issues when you tried to test a level without a carspawner)
  • Fixed bug where Move Along Track tool has issues with moving between segments
  • Fixed bug where ungrouping an attachment didn't work fixed bug where a grouped spline got incorrect spline sibling values
  • Fixed bug where multi-object inspection didn't work on objects containing multiple components of the same type
  • Fixed preview icon for "WorldText" prefab
  • Fixed bug where tracks didn't update with small rotations of the track
  • Fixed bug where splines might not connect when adding
  • Fixed bug where Biodome fogDensity would be set to zero on duplication when fog was disabled in the editor
  • Fixed issue where the level editor's farplane wasn't reset after disabling fog in editor
  • Fixed bug when duplicating a spline with particles attached
  • Fixed bug where Track Nodes wouldn't save their visible and frozen state when going in and out of the level editor*
  • Fixed bug where subdivided track node may be the wrong scale*
  • Fixed bug where level inspector or object inspector values could become garbled*
• Audio
  • Fixed bug where boost sounds would play even if the boost gadget was disabled but the boost input was pressed
  • Fixed bug where boost SFX wouldn't play after coming out of a gravity-less zone
• Multiplayer
  • Fixed bug where network car interpolation wasn't smooth
  • Fixed bug where network car positions could be off after going through a teleport
  • Fixed bug where the Halloween-themed gates could fail to open in multiplayer

EDIT: Added some accidentally forgotten items (marked with *)

[ 2016-05-09 16:57:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

(the new camera logic is kinda mesmerizing) Hey all, today we released another experimental build! It includes changes to the camera, car physics, and level editor as well as the addition of a new level and Oculus 1.3 support. For the changelog and info on how to access this build, check it out here. In today’s devlog I’d like to discuss our thoughts on gameplay as we approach the end of development, but before that I’d like to mention a cool charity event coming up.

Distathon

Distance regular / community organizer Fork is raising money for Child's Play in his second annual charity marathon Distathon. For 24 hours straight he'll be playing and streaming Distance on May 7th, starting at 8am CDT. His goal this year is to raise $1,000 and he's got some amazing rewards for donators. We'll be around to cheer him on, so join us in watching the marathon! More info: http://www.distathon.com

Looking at Rotations

A common complaint we get from controller users is that the "Normal" controls (the default scheme) are easy to learn, but difficult to use when boosting. You can use the bumpers to boost, but it's a bit awkward. Almost all of us devs use the "Advanced" controls scheme which allows rotation to be controlled via the left stick while holding the left bumper to engage "roll mode." We would enable this as the default scheme, but in testing we noticed that it was significantly harder to comprehend car rotations with this method. In the end we enabled Normal controls by default and left Advanced controls as an option if desired. We've read several complaints saying that it was dumb of us to enable the inefficient scheme by default, but in our experience that scheme was so much better at conveying rotations since it was a one-to-one interaction. Jason and I were talking a few weeks back and we realized that whenever you want to rotate, you're in the air. What if we auto-enabled jets when no wheels were touching the ground? That way you could control the jets without taking your thumb off the left stick, but you wouldn't have to worry about roll mode. It would also finally consolidate Normal and Advanced control schemes into one method. We implemented it quickly to try it out, and it felt surprisingly intuitive. There were only a couple moments where we felt like we had less control. As quickly as possible we did some testing with players in-person, and the result was undeniable. New players were picking up rotation gameplay better than ever (and we've been testing this type of gameplay since 2010). In Nitronic Rush, rotational gameplay was actually relegated to a separate mode from Story mode since it was confusing to so many players. If you did figure it out though, there's a good chance that you really enjoyed it. I know it might be hard to comprehend for many people, but the average player has always struggled with rotations. Part of that is due to a non-optimal control scheme and part of it is non-optimal level design and teaching of those mechanics. Up until the release of Nitronic Rush we had similar issues with the flying mechanic. We even had professors telling us to cut it right up until the end. I'm glad we ended up pressing through and found something workable. In Distance we've been doing our best to strike that balance between intuition and functionality, and I think this new control scheme is our best effort yet. Of course, it did bring up some interesting issues for advanced players. That's when we came up with the Grip ability.

The “Grip” Button

One of the ways I've explained rotational gameplay to new players is that your wheels are magnetic and get more magnetic when moving faster. Of course it's not true at all. Instead, a downward force is applied when you're moving, and it increases with speed. It all happens automatically with the goal of making wall and ceiling rides possible, as well as rotational transitions smoother. We had contemplated giving some control over this force to the player, and with the new default control scheme we revisited this idea since it could further help players feel a sense of satisfaction by actively "snapping" to a desired surface. We were also somewhat inspired by some of the thruster techniques created by the community. Grip mode essentially replaces the roll mode from the previous advanced controls scheme. You can either hold LB on the controller or Q on the keyboard and you'll be pushed downward. Not only does this make snapping to surfaces cleaner, it also offers some interesting new level design options available. Here are a couple examples:

The reaction from fresh players in playtesting has been incredibly positive. It helps them feel safer in clinging to walls, and they found the new gameplay ideas interesting. The grip button also solves a problem we noticed with our new control scheme. If you want to use jets while sitting on a road (e.g. tight turns or road hugging), gripping allows the same functionality.
At the same time we wanted to make it sure it couldn't be abused easily, so it's effectiveness is quickly reduced after initially holding the button. You'll be able to use it to do a quick adjustment, but you can't float infinitely with it. It's all a massive balancing act, and Jason is doing his best to balance functionality with fun factor. In today’s exp. build we included a new level called Friction. It demonstrates the new techniques as shown above. Try it out and see what you think!

Improved Camera

Following the theme of improving things for new players, Jason also took some time to make the camera much more dynamic. It now gives you a much better sense of where gravity is by factoring in the global up vector into the rotation. In other words, it gives you a better subconscious understanding of when you're doing wall or ceiling ride. It also just looks way cooler. It's a bit hard to explain, so here it is in action:

Our Thoughts on Thrusterboosting

There are a lot of changes in today’s build, but one of the biggest changes is that thrusterboosting's effectiveness has been greatly reduced. I’d like to take a minute to express our team’s thoughts on this. If you’re one of many who don’t know what I’m talking about, feel free to skip ahead. Thrusterboosting has pretty much always been (in the team's opinion) an exploit of the car physics. If you want to close a big gap in Distance, you need to do a long jump or deploy the wings. The "carve your own path" and "create your own shortcut" gameplay is exciting to us from the perspective that you're usually driving on the road. While thrusterboosting is an interesting physics manipulation, it was never in our design that a player could easily float across levels. Also interesting: after many hours of practice no one on our team can reliably perform the thrusterboosting technique (and that's after thousands of hours of playing Distance). Watching someone thrusterboost also looks glitchy and non-intuitive to us. Since it's usually the fastest technique to finish a level, most of the top leaderboard times will be filled with thrusterboosting ghost replays in our new replay system. Even if we were to somehow teach the technique, we foresee an incredible amount of frustration from new players who view those replays in confusion. We do understand that thrusterboosting brings a sense of satisfaction to some players, but we can't in good conscious support such a powerful exploit that only a few are able to possess. We know that it might be a disappointing stance to some, after months of internal discussions it is how we feel about this issue. Balancing high level gameplay has easily been one of the greatest challenges of this development, and we appreciate those who have kept a cool head throughout this ongoing discussion.

Simples 2.0

Following the success of the particle system, Andrew has been hard at work further enabling level creators. Based on community feedback we added something called "simples" last year which were simple primitive shapes that can be used to create, well basically anything.
(the old Simples 1.0 options) Going along with the "simple" mentality, they were optionless objects. Over time we would hear specific requests for more simples with collision enabled, or a different visual style. Instead of continually adding to a massive list of objects, Andrew thought up the idea to create simple shapes with highly adjustable materials. Thus, the "Golden Simples" were born.
(Simples 2.0, with tons of shapes and presets to choose from)

(and here are couple examples of the new Simples in action) They're magical. I'm starting to use them in Adventure mode and it's a bit overwhelming how many possibilities have been opened up. As usual I expect the community to put them through the ringer, and you know I can't wait to play those levels.

Quick Note on Bug Reports

I know this devlog is getting a bit long, but I also wanted to mention a couple things regarding bug reports. If you read our changelogs you'll see that we've been fixing bugs as best we can, though we've been a bit behind on marking bugs as fixed in the Uservoice system. Our thought process is that while in early access, experimentation comes first, stability comes second. We will do our best to fix game breaking issues as they arise, but our priority while in early access is to experiment with gameplay, content, and features, especially when releasing experimental builds. If you haven't received a response to your bug on Uservoice, know that we do our best to read every output log and crash report. It just might take some time to respond with a fix. I've updated our Uservoice page to reflect our intentions. Special thanks to Skirmisher for recently helping us catch up on old bugs. Once the stable build is launched we plan to update Uservoice with the latest fixes.

The Replay System (Preview)

Finally, if you made it this far, I have a bit of a treat for you. Jason has graciously allowed me to post some early screenshots of the replay system. Once we feel satisfied with the new gameplay and camera changes he'll be finishing it up. I'm just excited as many of you are to see this come to light.
(here I am racing against ghosts from my local profile and others’)
(you’ll be able to view replays for this track from the result screen)
(when watching replays you have access to all spectator cameras, as well as the ability to fast forward, rewind, etc.)

Adventure Mode

On top of the aforementioned madness, we have been making fantastic progress with Adventure mode. The playtesting I mentioned existed for both testing of the new controls as well as story content. At this point it's 18 levels, and takes a bit under 1.5 hours to complete. The reaction to the current story is better than I guessed despite how clumsy it gets at moments. I was super jazzed to hear that the ending (finally) felt climatic, and we noticed engagement during story-centric moments was reasonably high. What's actually going on in the story is still muddled for many, so we have a ways to go there, but it feels like we're on a good path. We have some new techniques in place for gaining your attention, so now it's all about capitalizing on those moments. For those that claim to not care so much for story and just want gameplay, the story didn't seem get in the way of their enjoyment. I've been going light on marketing efforts lately, largely because I'd prefer to focus my efforts closer to launch. To kick things off I'm hoping to release a strong story mode teaser that will be everyone's first look at the new content. We still have a ways to go before I think the major story beats are locked in, but I think we're not far off. Anyways, we've been hitting things hard and it's been paying off. I'm incredibly proud of what's been accomplished by the team in these past couple months. Once we feel satisfied with the new physics changes a rather large stable build release will be on the horizon! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-04-28 13:38:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

(random particle generation, it's fun) Hi all! Just wanted to do a quick post covering our new experimental build. This build is essentially a release candidate for a major release at the end of this month (assuming that no major issues arise from feedback). Feature-wise we're still pretty focused on the level editor as we add new tools to create Adventure mode. We also added a ton of really clever tools suggested by the community.

Experimental Build 4259 - Mar. 12th

• Improvements
  • [Physics] Car will blow up if it gets wedged between or under objects at high speed
  • [Physics] Reduced car wiggle at high speeds
  • Local cars now get priority on rendering the car screen (should make the car screen higher framerate in multiplayer)
  New Assets
  • Added TrafficPlane and TrafficTube in the Decorations folder
  • Added new environment art: VirusBlockerRev02_Diag, EmpireRoadCap, VirusBuilding008, VirusBuilding009, VirusTriPillar001, VirusTriPillar002, VirusBlockerRev01
  • Added GlassSplineRoadSideless002, a glass road which can be tweaked to be fully invisible
  • Added CooldownTriggerNoVisual, which subtly cools down the car
• Level Editor
  • Added "Change Track Tool" to change spline segments to a new type (press H)
  • Added traffic track types to ChangeTrackTypeTool
  • Added ability to remove track segments from track calculation
  • Added KillGridBox and KillGridCylinder for custom kill grid positioning
  • Added SetLevelImageToCurrentViewTool (under "Others")
  • Added visual picker for Particle Sprite
  • Added tool for moving a track node along the track
  • Added support for multi-line string inspection
  • Added Track Extrude tool
  • Added Merge Track Node tool
  • Added "Move Node Along Track" and "Extrude" tools to the move gizmo
  • Added CooldownTriggerNoVisual object
  • Added LevelImageCamera, for setting where the level's preview image is taken
  • Track Manipulator Nodes are now transparent when bigger
  • MusicTrigger now uses the list of songs instead of an ID
  • Made it so the level editor now saves out the position and orientation of the cursor and camera with level files. When reloading files, users are placed right back where they left off
  • MoveCarSpawnerToStartZoneTool now adds a car spawner if it doesn't already exist
  • Improved the particle system
    • Added Randomize" and "Randomize A Little" button on particles
    • Added new particle prefabs (Cloud, DeathSpiral, Disease, Dreamwave, Dust, Leaves, RedFeathers, SimpleSpiral, VortexTunnel)
    • Added CustomName component to Particle objects in the level editor so level creators can rename custom particle systems
    • Added new particle images
    • Added particle acceleration
    • Added Solid, Alpha, and BlendAdd particles
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed bug where network car interpolation wasn't smooth
  • Fixed bug where network car positions could be off after going through a teleport
  • Fixed bug that was causing levels to not load properly sometimes if a track node was in a group
  • Fixed bug where Move Along Track tool has issues with moving between segments
  • Fixed bug where the Halloween-themed gates could fail to open in multiplayer
  • Fixed bug where ungrouping an attachment didn't work fixed bug where a grouped spline got incorrect spline sibling values
  • Fixed bug where the car wheel indicators on the screen could display incorrect information
  • Fixed bug where multi-object inspection didn't work on objects containing multiple components of the same type
  • Fixed preview icon for "WorldText" prefab
  • Fixed bug where tracks didn't update with small rotations of the track

Quick Note: Game Developer's Conference

Kyle, Andrew, Eddie, and Laura will all be attending GDC (the Game Developer's Conference) this year. If you're a dev or press and want to chat and possibly see some super secret story mode stuff, hit us up on Twitter. Have a great Speedy Saturday to everyone playing today, and keep up the great feedback! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-03-12 19:02:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Before I dive into some of my thoughts on this past month of development, I want to highlight some of the latest and greatest community levels! The main menu has been updated to feature the following amazing tracks:

• Abandoned City (by ~HarrisoN~)
• Assimilation (by Deadlock)
• BIOPUMP (by benhall8800)
• Core (by Deadlock)
• Hemoglobin (by Otze)
• I'm a box (by TenTo)
• Lava_Whatever (by Fork)
• Lion's Sandbox (by FREDDY)
• Mario Raceway (by NekreS)
• #Meme Monday Basic Version (by fzeroman)
• Panic Paroxysm (by CyclopsDragon)
• Parallax (by snowstate)
• Sector 77 (by Falcon)
• Trackmania Trials (by PPPaul)
• Zer0 bin0pse - Hapax (by Sperzieb00n)

Development Update

So much cool stuff happened this month, and I can't share a lot of it... yet. As you may have noticed we've gone a bit quiet to dive into the mysterious depths of Adventure mode. We originally planned on just using January to go 100% on Adventure mode, but things were going well so we pressed on through February. We've gotten into a pretty good groove that looks like this: [olist]

Create new level content

Realize you need a new editor feature to pull off your crazy level idea

Create new feature, stumble across an existing bug

Fix bug, remember that you should be working on level content...

GOTO 1 [/olist] The particles are great example of this. Andrew originally worked on the particle system as a solution to poor performance from Unity's particles, while simultaneously giving us new options for level designs. As his system grew, I got super inspired and created a new Adventure mode level that goes insane with particles. Based on feedback from the team and the community (many thanks btw!) he's continued to improve the system and it's dramatically expanded our design possibilities. See the GIF above for a look at some new options. We're getting darker and more mysterious with every iteration. I'd love to talk about the specifics of what we're creating, but with a short campaign it's really easy to spoil the coolest moments. I've been developing a couple levels, but my primary focus has been on crafting memorable story moments and audio design. For example, here's a short preview of new music: Forge (music preview): https://soundcloud.com/torcht/forge-preview/s-oqkxs While our options are limited in terms of developing characters, I think we're finally finding some clever ways to generate a satisfying sense of mystery through minor exposition. At the end of the day (with the path we've chosen) it would be tough to get across a deep narrative, but that's never really been our goal. Instead we're aiming to take you on a minimalist adventure that prompts some interesting questions. Kyle, Eddie, and Laura have been tackling new level content and pushing our editor to its limits. Here's a taste of the new content created this year:




We've also been a doing a great job of distracting Jason from his work on the replay system with our editor feature requests. Here's a few of his new features:
(add a preview camera marking position/rotation)
(swap road types of selected roads)
(added extrude tool to the move gizmo)
(added tool for moving a track node along the track) We're getting close to releasing a stable build with these editor features and some bug fixes. There are just a few more things we want to finalize in the particle system and track system before then. As we creep toward our launch window there's so much stuff we want to pack into the final version. It's rapidly approaching the point where we have to make some hard calls as to what makes the cut. Until GDC (mid-March) I believe our primary focus will remain on creating level content, and afterward we'll take a break to finalize arcade/multiplayer modes and features. It's always been our goal to prioritize quality over quantity, and that will remain our mentality as we approach the intense final months. Check out all of the highlighted Workshop levels and let us know what you want to see highlighted next. Stay tuned for news about another experimental build leading up to the next major stable release! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-02-29 14:25:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Today we released a new build on the experimental branch. It includes new editor features, several new decoration objects, and best of all our new dynamic particle system. Before we launch the particle system officially we wanted to give the level creation community a chance to give feedback. It's opened up some amazing possibilities for Adventure mode content, but I'm even more excited to see what some of you can do with it. Warning: For those new to Distance, experimental builds are unstable builds with the latest features for early testing. Read about accessing it here.

Experimental Build 4183 - Jan. 30th

Level Editor

• Added ParticlesGPU, a particle system which moves all calculations to the GPU
  • These particles are highly adjustable in the level editor
  • 27 example presets are in the Decorations->Particles folder (e.g. Snow, Rain, Sparks, DiscoDanceFloor, NeonTower, etc.)
  • Added the ability to use TurnLightOnNearCar and PulseAll
• Made it so when creating a road piece while selecting a road piece, it will copy the colors of the selected road piece and add it to the end of the selected road piece
• Updated PulseAll component to be a bit more user friendly and made it an addable component
• Added new "Irregular" simples category
• Added more objects in the LevelEditor/Decorations/Simples category
• Added other miscellaneous Level Editor objects
  • Roads/EmpireRoadCap
  • Buildings/Infected/VirusBuilding007
  • Buildings/Infected/VirusSpire002
  • Decorations/EmpireGear001
  • Decorations/EmpireGas_Pipe03
  • Decorations/EmpireGas_Pipe04
  • Decorations/EmpireHexScaffold
  • Decorations/RotatingEmpireHexScaffold
  • Decorations/Infected/VirusTriPillar001
  • Decorations/Infected/VirusArch002

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where the car jumps further away when pausing
• Fixed bug where the Properties tab would become invalid and unusable if it was closed and reopened
• Fixed bug where boost sounds would play even if the boost gadget was disabled but the boost input was pressed
• Fixed bug with the cancel button in the level editor (this caused issues when you tried to test a level without a carspawner)

We hope those willing to brave the bleeding edge of the experimental branch have fun messing with the new features. If you make something cool be sure to share it with us! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-01-30 15:20:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

(community level "Striker" by Phimeek) Happy 2016! As you may have noticed we've removed the Christmas decorations this week with a new patch. While this update is relatively small, we did toss in a few improvements.

Build 4139 - Jan. 7th

Modifications

• Reverted Christmas-themed loading screens back to the old ones
• Removed "Reindeer Car" option

Level Editor

• Added Tool "Subdivide Track" which adds a track node in the center of a track segment, making it two segments
• Added the TestFromCheckpoint tool to the level editor that will move the car spawner and jump into the level to test from that point
• Added Ancient Sideless Road object (Roads > Ancient > Sideless)
• Changed "LinkID" on the TeleporterEntrance to "Teleports To" to help clarify its functionality
• Pressing "Enter" in the level editor when the color picker or a popup list is open won't try to run the snap track nodes tool
• Pressing "Escape" now cancels color change when color picker is open
• Pressing "Enter" now closes color picker
• Pressing "Enter" now confirms change when using move / rotate / scale tools
• You can now type in numeric values when using move / rotate / scale tools
• Snap Track Nodes tool can now be run when nothing is selected (it prints a line explaining how to get it to work in the level editor)
• Removed extra spacing in level editor tab tray layout
• Trigger colliders are now displayed in the level editor both visually and in the properties
• Meshes are now combined when entering play mode in the level editor (should improve performance when testing levels)
• Removed the ability to set the colors of the wheels on the CarSpawner in the level editor

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue in Aftermath where the gravity toggle could get hit unintentionally while in the gravityless zone if just missing the teleporter
• Fixed bug where SnapCarSpawnerToStartZone tool wouldn't undo/redo properly
• Fixed bug where the level editor would lock up if a Directional Light was apart of a group (only affects older levels that had Directional Lights)
• Fixed bug where color picker could stay open when testing the level
• Fixed bug where properties tab would sometimes fail to update
• Fixed flicker in property tab when selecting different objects

WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHT

We've also highlighted 5 new community-made levels in the main menu. Check them out! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=546105655 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=543799874 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=592629829 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531942867 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=588625486

HELLO TO NEW PLAYERS!

If you're one of the many to pick up Distance during the Winter Sale, thanks for supporting the team! Distance has been in development alongside a passionate community since our Kickstarter in 2012. We wouldn't be where we're at without players' encouragement and constructive feedback. If you'd like to dive deeper into our community, I recommend checking out Speedy Saturday and the community-run Discord server. Speedy Saturday is a weekly community-run meetup where fellow players race the latest Workshop levels and chat on Discord. It's a friendly group, and I do my best to join in when I can. Read about it here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233610/discussions/0/528398719786414266/ As 2016 fires up we're constructing our tentative plan for the year. We're also doing our best to read through all of the feedback generated during the holidays. Keep the great feedback coming, and stay tuned for our next major update. - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2016-01-08 01:56:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Merry Christmas! We have a special surprise for you today... We decided to join in on Distance Advent Calendar and release three new levels from the dev team! You can download them in the Refract Stocking Stuffer collection! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=583632095 Le Teleputo (by Jason Nollan) http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=583570283 California Cruise (by Kyle Holdwick) http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=583529731 Cursed Mountain by (Andrew Nollan) http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=581815492 2015 has been endlessly inspiring as the community level creators continually raise the bar. We had a lot of fun tackling some ambitious ideas in these tracks, and we can't wait to hear what you think of them.

DISTANCE ADVENT CALENDAR FINALE

As a final reminder, Distance Advent Calendar ends today! Over the holidays go play through all 25 Distance Advent Calendar levels as soon as you have a chance. You won't regret it. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=581860592

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Time for us to take a break to recharge. Thanks for being a part of this wild year. Bring on 2016. - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-12-25 17:41:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Today we released the Christmas update (build 4122) which features some fun little touches, new editor tools, and several optimizations!

Build 4122 - Dec. 23rd

New Features

• Updated main menu and loading screns to match the festive Christmas spirit!
• Your car has been gifted reindeer horns and a bright red nose (can be disabled in Options > General)
• Added speed particles to cockpit view
• MIDI files can now be attached to all songs with 4x BPM requirement
• Priority of "Player Finished" trick text was adjusted to so it'll appear in front of other, less important messages
• Updated the Game Lobby to better handle author names and how "Playlist" is displayed

VR

• VR is now enabled in the default branch, and the experimental-VR branch has been removed
• Smoothed camera movement in cockpit view
• Smoothed out head rotation spring in cockpit mode
• Motion blur is disabled in VR since it doesn't work
• Reduced max turn speed in VR since fast turning was jarring

Level Editor

• Added the StormNoise skybox
• Added WorldText object to the level editor
• Added the "Box" volume type to biodomes
• Now if you hold down Shift, Control, or Alt when clicking on a Library Object to add to a level in the Level Editor it will rotate towards the cursor's rotation
• Changed the biodome's directional light rotation to be based on Longitude and Latitude properties
• Biodome volumes are now based on object scale, so they can have rotation and non-uniform scale
• Sunshafts/godrays are now emitted from the directional light's direction, not position
• Directional lights are now removed from the game. As a replacement, Level settings has properties for a global directional light
• The ability to set light types has been removed
• A Spotlight prefab has been added
• An option has been added to biodomes to make the FogTop and FogBottom values relative to the Biodome
• Added support for editing more types while multiple objects are selected.
• Addable components that can't currently be added will be colored red in the dropdown
• Added Empire Tower with new collision mesh
• Added Virus blocker revamp
• When saving a level in the level editor it will automatically go through all of the objects in the level and delete any duplicates (objects that are in the same position with the same rotation and scale)

Optimizations

• Your machine's best graphics API is now selected by default, which is now DirectX 11 for many Windows PCs (may improve performance for some)
• Disabled lighting on glass (improves performance for glass roads)
• Optimized how Phantom sound components are managed
• Lights can now be 0 for brightness, which disables them
• Added mesh combining system which attempts to combine similar meshes into one object if they are both static

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where some objects would have a flickering outline on them, caused by fog (DX9)
• Made it so the ScaleTool won't allow scaling down to 0 anymore fixing potential bugs
• Fixed bug where motion blur made bloom dimmer
• Fixed bug with directional lights shutting off on restart in older levels
• Fixed bug where the text in the Game Lobby level field would pop up and down when a long name was in the field
• Fixed bug where player outlines in multiplayer were dim
• Fixed shader so ancient Battery Building doesn't have draw order issues
• Fixed car reflection bug on restart in Linux and OS X

See more images of the Distance reindeer car in action here: http://imgur.com/a/sZSRa

REMINDER: DISTANCE ADVENT CALENDAR

This year's community-run Distance Advent calendar is quickly coming to a close! We highly recommend playing through the unbelivably amazing levels submitted so far. The final few levels will be released leading up to Christmas Day. Keep up the fantastic work creators! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=581860592

NEXT UP

We had some lofty plans for this update which didn't quite make in time, but fortunately a lot of the hard work for these systems is out of the way. I've been attempting to upgrade our Steam backend which allows us to finally implement stuff like proper Steam Controller and Steam Cloud support. I hope to ship upgraded Steam support early next year. Jason also made some great progress on the replay system but it also wasn't quite ready. We hope to finalize some of the replay interface next year and get out a version as soon as possible for feedback. We also recently streamed a bit of our updated Adventure mode running on PS4. If you'd like a taste of the new content (or just want to see the game run on PS4) I've decided to share Icebound's re-host of the stream. It only shows a few upgraded levels from the start of Adventure mode, but it should give a feel for what we've been developing. Obviously this video is a SPOILER if you're wanting to remain pure before the final version is released. POTENTIAL ADVENTURE MODE SPOILERS! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EajtGadBjE Keep being awesome and we'll see you next year! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-12-23 11:54:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

DISTANCE ADVENT CALENDAR

Hi all. Before I jump into devlog mode I want to make a couple notes. It's finally December which means it's time for Distance Advent Calendar! In this community-run event, level creators have banded together to share a new level each day during December. We can't wait to see what debuts this year. Check out the trailer by Splaysh and get the levels here. http://youtube.com/watch?v=x_znu8n7_EA On top of creating the art for each Distance Advent Calendar level (like the one above), Jam~ created some brilliant Distance-themed gift tags! Seriously, so good.

Distance-themed gift tags:

• http://imgur.com/Ruw2WYD (scroll for pdf link)

PLAYSTATION EXPERIENCE

Yeah, yeah... I know this is a Steam update, but if by chance you'll be attending PSX in San Francisco this weekend please come say hi! I'll also be posting a PS4-themed devlog soon with some fun news. Watch for it on refract.com, Twitter, and Facebook this week.
Find us at PSX: http://playstation.com/en-us/campaigns/2015/playstation-experience/

DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS

November was strangely busy. We started by looking what's still on the table before we can finish Distance, and from there each one of us asked ourselves "if you could work on literally anything this month, what would it be?" It's easy to get off track and find yourself working on something counter to your passions, so we wanted to see if an adjustment was needed. We knew that PSX was coming up so Andrew decided to focus most of his efforts on performance improvements and VR. Getting the PS4 to run at 1080p/60fps was quite a challenge since we quickly ran out of straightforward tricks, but Andrew, Jason, and Kyle made some clever improvements. Many machines will likely see a performance improvement in our next update. Andrew even got in a form of batching where large groups of similar objects are merged automagically. A few community levels that use huge groups of simples may see their framerate double.
(our good friend, the Unity3D profiler) Jason continued work on the replay system while helping with performance improvements. From what I've seen it's shaping up nicely, with a lot of cool features for spectating previous matches. As soon as I can list the final features I'll be sure to share. Kyle, Eddie, Laura, and I have been tackling Adventure mode however we can. Kyle and I have been attempting to create more dramatic and memorable moments that tie into the story, and Eddie and Laura have been designing a climactic moment near the end of the campaign. As we use the editor more and more we're finding features that we really want, so frequently we branch off to create some tech that makes our life easier. At the start of this month Kyle and Jason started work on the ability to add logic directly in the editor. This allows us to make objects way more dynamic, and hopefully it's something the community will eventually find useful for moving and rotating objects.
(more components to be added to this list) This month I've been approaching the story from more of a writer's perspective and less of a game designer. I think we're finally close to nailing down the major plot details and (more importantly) how they'll be conveyed. It's been a slow process to iterate on the story, but I think we're getting better and better every day. I seriously can't wait to unveil some of these cool moments when the game is finished.
(new Adventure mode content in development)

NEXT UP

I'm not entirely sure what will be available in the next update, but it should be quickly approaching. After PSX we'll be evaluating our task list again and see how we can wrap up the year with some cool new stuff. Stay tuned! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-12-01 17:34:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

(updated main menu, are you watching closely?) Happy Halloween! As has become an annual Distance tradition, a small Halloween-themed patch has been released. Aside from some minor improvements and bug fixes, we brought back randomly generated smashable pumpkins, decorated the car with some spooky decals, and while we're at it... added a new prototype car!

The new prototype car can be selected in the Options > Profile > Custom Car Colors menu. Instead of wings, a double jump is enabled. This combined with the lack of car screen HUD makes for quite a challenge. The name "Skeletron" is temporary, so if you have a better name suggestion we'd love to hear it!

We added randomly generated pumpkins for fun, which might be placed anywhere that there's a track. There's also a couple small additions to the car screen and wheel.
Finally, this update includes access to our new dynamic fog system! Check out the full changelog below for more details. We hope your Halloween is filled with just the right amount of spookiness. Have fun and stay safe!

Build 4019 - Oct. 31st

• Updated main menu for halloween (new logic and level content)
• Added Skeletron car, selectable in the car customization menu
• Added spiderwebs to car screen and spider image on wheelPOV
• Added info for how far you are into a playlist on the results screen
• Added support for using multiple controllers on menus simultaneously
• Improved splitscreen menu
• Adjusted steering on car to be more sensitive at very high speeds, and less sensitive at low speeds
• Added mathematically correct steer angles on front wheels (Ackermann Steering Geometry)
• Reduced sparks and impact noises when driving through tight loops
• Made skidmarks less prominent when losing traction due to insufficient downforce
• Improved traction slightly on cars missing wheels
• Car engine sounds are now 2D when close so that cockpit view / VR has stereo
• Decreased the IPD in VR mode, so the car and everything else appears bigger
• Added new Level Editor assets
  • Buildings/Infected/VirusWall001
  • Buildings/Infected/VirusWall002
  • Buildings/Infected/VirusWall003
• The following changes have been made to Level Settings editable in the Level Editor:
  • Ambient Color has been replaced with 3 colors: Sky, Equator, and Ground
  • The following have been added to Skybox settings
    • Added Ambient Skybox, which has the colors of the Ambient settings, and a sun corresponding to the scene's directional light
    • Skybox Hue - Adjusts the skybox's hue, so it isn't always tinted blue
    • Skybox Saturation - Adjusts how colorful the skybox is
    • Skybox Exposure - Adjusts how bright the skybox is
    • SkyFadeDistance - the distance from the far clip plane at which the level starts fading into the skybox. This helps reduce the appearance of clipping
    • SkyboxFogAmount - How much of an effect that fog has on the skybox
  • The following have been added to Fog settings
    • Fog Brightness - Fog can now be brighter than 1
    • Fog Density - An easy way to adjust how powerful the fog is
    • Fog Max Distance - The max distance at which fog exists
    • Fog Bottom - The lower Y height at which fog starts fading to nothing
    • Fog Bottom Penumbra - the distance past Fog Bottom where there is no fog
    • Fog Top - The upper Y height at which fog starts fading to nothing
    • Fog Top Penumbra - the distance past Fog Top where there is no fog
• Added Biodomes to /Decorations
  • These are meant to replace Ambient Change Triggers
  • When inside a biodome, the biodome's environment settings are used instead of the level's
  • When partially inside a biodome, or inside multiple, the settings are interpolated
• Removed camera shake in rumble zones when playing in VR
• Lens flares now get dimmer when further away, regardless of fog
• Cubemaps now have fog rendered in them
• Reduced chances of exploding on the EmpireRamp
• Motion blur no longer smears tutorial text
• Fixed bug where scrape sound wasn't being played
• Fixed bug in Level Editor where clicking the mouse to confirm a move/scale/rotate would also move the cursor
• Fixed odd physics on car landing
• Fixed bug where the confirmation menu to proceed to the next race would sometimes lose its selected button
• Fixed bug where trick system would make a cooloff noise after landing on a wall, even if no trick was active
• Fixed bug where the highlights levels section in the main menu would sometimes be incorrectly scrolled when returning to the main menu from a level
• Fixed bug where some spline roads may have weird collision
• Fixed issue where lens flares would be drawn at the origin in the level editor
• Fixed issue where player outlines in online VR were offset
• Fixed issue where CubeMapRenderers weren't displayed correctly in the level editor
• Fixed issue where cubemap reflections weren't displayed correctly in the level editor
• Fixed bug where skidmarks would lift off the ground if jumping while skidding

- Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-10-31 16:48:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

(PPPaul's winning level Limbus Puerorum) Hey all! This weekend we saw the epic conclusion of "Survive the Editor" with some spooky Sprint maps. The final scores were down to the wire, and in the end I think we ended up with some well deserving winners. Here are your final champions along with their creations.

Grand Prize Winner: PPPaul

Judge Vote winners:

• Week 1: Firey Flow (by Platoonsgt1)
• Week 2: Bionic Botánica (by Jam~)
• Week 3: Limbus Puerorum (by PPPaul)

Community Vote winners:

• Week 1: Furnace (by PPPaul)
• Week 2: Solitude (by Cubic)
• Week 3: Masquerade (by Arch Fluctuation)

Participation Raffle winners:

• Week 1: Dot
• Week 2: MIKE
• Week 3: Kuroki Tomoko

Watch the Week 3 stream: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios/v/22220844 See all submissions: Items tagged with "Survive the Editor" Thanks once again to Fork and Krispy for designing and driving this amazing competition. We were beyond inspired by the nearly 50 levels created in such a short amount of time. Despite the fierce competition it was cool to see so much helpfulness and genuine passion from the community.
(The grand prize trophy is being shipped off to PPPaul) Also, as of this weekend there are over 1,000 levels submitted to Steam Workshop... 1,000 levels! It's hard to overstate how amazing that is.
Finally thanks to Icebound, CyclopsDragon, JTrevail, Splaysh, Kyle, Laura, and Eddie for acting on our judging panel, and thanks to each and every one of you that came out to play and vote each Saturday. We definitely want to do something like this again in the future, so if you have suggestions for how we can improve the next contest don't hesitate to let us know!

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHT

Alongside this week's judge finalists I included each judge vote and community vote winner in the main menu highlight. Still blows my mind that each of these took less than a week to create. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=540666861 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=540601992 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=540547153 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=539530475 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=539551440 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=540614230 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=529718507 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=536442143 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532344818 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=536443676

BUILD 3967 CHANGELOG

We squeaked in a minor build release last week and I kinda forgot to give it a proper mention. It was put together quickly to release some new spooky-themed assets for Survive the Editor, but it comes with a few small tweaks.

• If you perform more than one trick, the most recent trick is highlighted
• The points of a trick fade out with the trick's timeout
• Added new art assets
  • Decorations/Corridor002
  • Decorations/SpineyArch001
  • Decorations/Infected/VirusSpire001
• Fixed bump on side of EmpireStartZone and EmpireEndZone
• Fixed bug where a trick would constantly be counted while upside down with no wheels
• Fixed bug where some spline roads may have weird collision

UP NEXT...

This week we've been a bit distracted preparing and submitting a build to the Independent Games Festival (IGF), which we finished just in time last night. Tomorrow we'll be showing Distance VR at the SEA VR conference in Seattle. If you'll be in attendance we hope to see you there! We're excited to get more feedback from the rapidly expanding Seattle VR community. It's looking like November will be heavily Adventure mode driven (so likely a bit quieter on the update front). We'll still be releasing experimental builds as often as possible, and our next one should include new features like a dynamic fog system. Check out the short video we posted on Twitter for a preview of its capabilities. Dynamic fog preview: http://twitter.com/refractstudios/status/658064093031481345 No guarantees, but there also might be an additional surprise this weekend regarding a certain spooky holiday. In any case, stay tuned and stay safe this weekend! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-10-27 22:28:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Once again we streamed the judging for Survive the Editor this weekend. The variety and quality of the nature-themed Reverse Tag maps was remarkable, and the final scores were incredibly close. Congrats to this week's winners!

Survive the Editor: Week 2 Winners:

• Judge Vote: Bionic Botánica (by Jam~)
  • Winner gets: t-shirt, 18x24" poster, glow-in-the-dark pin
• Community Vote: Solitude (by Qubic)
  • Winner gets: 18x24" poster, glow-in-the-dark pin
• Participation Raffle: MIKE
  • Winner gets: 18x24" poster, glow-in-the-dark pin

Recap: http://www.twitch.tv/refractstudios/v/21122105

Community Highlight

We also updated the main menu again with the finalists from this week's Judge vote (except Overgrown which appears to have been removed from Workshop). Definitely be sure to try all of the submissions! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=536443676 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=536442143 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=536389859 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=535159022 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=534898677

WEEK 3 MODE/THEME ANNOUNCED

For the final week of Survive the Editor, we're ending it with the classic Sprint mode and a "spooky" theme. We can't wait to play your creations!

• Week 3 Deadline: Submit by October 23rd, 11:59pm PST
• Mode: Sprint
• Theme: Spooky

Watch Oct. 24th, 10am PST: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios More info: http://survivethedistance.com/survivetheeditor

BUILD 3959 IS LIVE

We also released a minor update to the Revamped Reality update, build 3959. It includes several bug fixes and some features to help with Survive the Editor, but the coolest feature in my opinion is that driving on curved roads is much smoother. Try it out and let us know what you think! New Features

• Added VirusPilar003 to the Level Editor (Obstacles/Infected)
• Added special server commands (e.g. /startvote, /kick, etc.)
  • The host can type these into the chat window
  • /startvote starts a voting session where players can vote "+" or "-"
  • /endvote tallies the results and displays them
  • /timelimit is used to set Reverse Tag time limit in seconds (e.g. /timelimit 300)
  • /list lists all players along with their user IDs
  • /kick kicks a player from the server by username or ID (e.g. /kick 2 or /kick torcht)
  • /finishall ends a Reverse Tag match for all players

Modifications

• Reduced bumpiness when driving along curved tracks
• Adjusted crash speeds that cause death
• Added lower crash death speed for many obstacles
• Improved depth of field settings in car color customization menu
• Now the results properly display whether or not players were spectators or joined late

Bugs Fixed

• Fixed bug where the existence of a GravityTrigger would break cause the Reverse Tag arrow to not appear
• Fixed width of Customize Car button in Game Lobby to make sure it doesn't clip off
• Fixed bug where if someone entered spectate mode in Reverse Tag while being it the bubble would stay where they finished, now the bubble goes to the last place player
• Fixed bug where if the host in Reverse Tag spectated the next person who got the bubble would end the match instantly
• Fixed bugs with how the standings text when playing online multiplayer handled players spectating, before they would still be in the list now only currently playing players are displayed
• Fixed bugs with how the standings text when playing online multiplayer handled players spectating, before they would still be in the list now only currently playing players are displayed
• Fixed skidding sounds not stopping at end of race
• Fixed bug where cursor in color selection was sometimes misaligned
• Fixed “Attempting to Join Server” message depth
• Fixed bug where In level select menu, if you go left or right a certain number of times the listed Friends levels will be at the bottom of the window
• Fixed bug in game lobby where player names flicker when changing ready status
• Fixed bug where background buttons in game lobby were selectable while in level selection
• Fixed bug where menu sound would happen twice when clicking between level categories
• Fixed bug where part where the spinning sphere on the start zone would slowly move out of position

- Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-10-20 19:00:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

This weekend we streamed the judging for Survive the Editor: Week 1 during Speedy Saturday. It was a blast to play the nearly 20 industrial-themed Challenge levels submissions, and after some intense deliberation the Judge and Community Vote winners were announced!

Survive the Editor: Week 1 Winners:

• Judge Vote: Firey Flow (by Platoonsgt1)
  • Winner gets: t-shirt, 18x24" poster, glow-in-the-dark pin
• Community Vote: Furnace (by PPPaul)
  • Winner gets: 18x24" poster, glow-in-the-dark pin
• Participation Raffle: Dot
  • Winner gets: 18x24" poster, glow-in-the-dark pin

Play the submissions from Week 1: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532066081 Thanks to everyone that played and voted during Speedy Saturday, and a special thanks to Krispy, Fork, Icebound, CyclopsDragon, JTrevail, and Kyle (from Refract) for acting on our judge panel this week. If you missed the stream, you can watch the entire event here on Twitch: Recap: http://www.twitch.tv/refractstudios/v/20323295

Week 2 Mode and Theme Announced

At the end of Speedy Saturday we announced the mode and theme for Survive the Editor: Week 2 and updated the rules page. We'll stream the judging once again during Speedy Saturday. Don't forget that simply by playing and voting you're entered into the Participation Raffle!

• Week 2 Deadline: Submit by October 16th, 11:59pm PST
• Mode: Reverse Tag
• Theme: Nature

Watch Oct. 17th, 10am PST: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios More info: http://survivethedistance.com/survivetheeditor

Community Highlight

We've updated the main menu to feature the top six levels nominated by our judges during Speedy Saturday. Have fun playing through them, and be on the look out for news this week about a new experimental build! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532344818 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532586291 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=529718507 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532495313 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532592060 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532435699 - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-10-12 08:44:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

(Grand Prize winner earns this majestic trophy) Now that Revamped Reality is out, we have more news... Survive the Editor starts this week! Survive the Editor is a 3-week long Distance level creation contest. We're so excited to be working with members of the community to bring you a fun competition with amazing prizes! Running from Oct. 3rd to Oct. 24th, weekly winners will be chosen during the "Speedy Saturday" multiplayer meetup. Each week we'll announce a mode and theme, and it's up to you to create a level that impresses both our judges and the community.

Official website (with prizes):

http://survivethedistance.com/survivetheeditor/ TL;DR: [quote]

STEP #1: CREATE A LEVEL

Each week we'll announce a new track type and theme. It’s up to you to create a track of that type, in-theme, and submit it before Saturday.

STEP #2: UPLOAD TO STEAM WORKSHOP

Once you're done, click Save & Publish to Steam Workshop from the Editor tab. Feel free to update your level as much as you like up until the 11:59pm deadline. Also make sure that your level is properly tagged by placing "[STE]" at the start of your level's name!

STEP #3: JOIN SPEEDY SATURDAY

Speedy Saturday is a community-run multiplayer meetup. Players come together to hang out and play Distance multiplayer from 11am - 1pm PST each Saturday. Simply start Distance, go to Arcade > Online, and either join a server or start one with "Speedy Saturday" in the server name. We'll be streaming, so if even if you don't feel like playing you can still join in the fun! Watch 11am PST: http://twitch.tv/refractstudios Community Discord server: https://discord.gg/0SlqqvzfIbi6zhbY [/quote]

LET'S BEGIN!

This week's mode is CHALLENGE and the theme is INDUSTRIAL. We're giving away prizes in 4 different categories so there are plenty of chances to win.

Week 1: Submit by October 9th, 11:59pm PST

• Mode: Challenge
• Theme: Industrial

Week 2: Oct. 10th - 17th

• Mode: TBA
• Theme: TBA

Week 3: Oct. 17th - 24th

• Mode: TBA
• Theme: TBA

Massive thanks to Krispy and Fork for spearheading this competition! As always feel free to bother me on Twitter if you have any questions! We can't wait to play the first batch of creations on Saturday! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-10-06 14:19:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! I'll cut right to the chase... The REVAMPED REALITY update is now live on the default branch! Check out the new trailer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=c2pdVmk0B48

Revamped Reality (build 3920) features:

• Better overall performance
• Faster level loading
• VR integration ("experimental-vr" branch, info below)
• Added Cockpit view
• UI revamp (with mouse support)
• Challenge and Soccer mode improvements
• Improved car color customization
• Improved player names in multplayer
• New physics engine
• New level editor assets
• More bug fixes

In the interest of transparency I made sure to post in full detail every experimental changelog since the last major release (12 builds). Check out the process here: Unity 5 experimental thread: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233610/discussions/0/530646080845947820/ Detailed changelog: http://refract.com/post/130321399096/revamped-reality-is-live-beta-3920-changelog You've probably seen me reference this update as the "Unity 5" update in previous posts. That's because underneath the hood we made a fundamental engine upgrade from Unity 4 to Unity 5. This enables much faster level loading, overall improved performance, and a host of other behind-the-scenes changes. In order to achieve these changes Unity 5 required a complete rewrite of our wheel physics. After a few months of back-and-forth with the community, Jason has been able to rewrite the underlying physics so that it matches (and in many ways improves upon) the physics in our previous builds.
On top of the engine upgrade we've also made a core change to the UI. All menus have been upgraded to allow for mouse controls, and non-widescreen aspect ratios are now much better handled. Color customization has also been directly integrated into the main menu and is even accessible from the Game Lobby.
Finally, Oculus DK2 support with SDK 0.7 has been added alongside an official cockpit mode (available with or without VR). Currently it's available in an "experimental-vr" branch which you can access as shown below. We're looking for any feedback from Oculus users and VR fans as we continue experimenting.

How to enable experimental VR in Distance:

What's next? What are the plans for Adventure mode?

We still have quite a bit to finish before Distance is done. Getting Unity 5 integrated was fortunately one our last "big" technical hurdles before shipping Distance, so moving forward a lot of the upcoming work is content creation and mode improvements. As you may have also noted, we've been improving and adding to Adventure mode all year. To maximize the impact of playing the final story we've decided to only release this new content as a complete package near the final release. While it might be tough waiting to play through the new content, we really think it'll be worth it in the end after we've massaged out all of the rough edges.
On top of finishing Adventure mode, we still need to wrap up our announcer implementation, replay system, extra vehicles, make several improvements to our other modes, and add a few more level editor features. It's become quite a large game for our small team so as we approach release we're doing our best to make smart decisions on what's truly core to Distance being a shipped game. As always, you can watch the experimental builds for specific details on what we're testing each week.

So, when is the final release?

Of course, the natural question then is "when will Adventure mode (and the full game) be done?" We've been talking a lot about it internally, and being realistic we can't see Distance being content complete by the end of 2015. There's obviously still a lot to do, and we don't see a logical reason to ship an incomplete game earlier than we have to.
While we think it's possible to be tech complete by the end of 2015, being content complete (aka final release) is looking like Q1/Q2 2016. If you’re anxiously awaiting the release all I can say is that we’re moving as fast as we can while still retaining a certain level of quality. It would be even slower without the continual feedback from the early access community. Thanks as always for being a part of this exhilarating development.

One final teaser...

That's not all folks. I'd heavily recommend joining Speedy Saturday this weekend for another exciting announcement! I hope to see you online! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-10-02 14:32:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! I just updated the main menu to highlight a few more community levels that impressed our team. Instead of the usual 5 we decided to go all out and pick 20 levels. Massive variety as always, keep up the incredible work! And oh yeah, you might want to watch for some fun news tomorrow... http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=520723082 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=505085985 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518067263 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=515627334 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=510857956 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=504676792 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=489214389 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=470395087 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=469332554 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518641023 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=463185471 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=446322531 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=508995893 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=500375612 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=500327233 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=490388605 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=463780269 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=482165701 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=517665908 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=523114027 And for all of Refract's picks: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=422904216

[ 2015-10-01 17:22:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all! Last week was ridiculously busy setting up and showing at PAX Prime! Fortunately we survived the ordeal and came out the other end pumped to get back to work! It was a blast hanging out with new players, catching up with old ones, and getting feedback on the new Adventure mode. Of course, it was a little fun constructing our PAX MEGA RAVE MACHINE. Here's a look at the final booth layout:


For a better look at the booth lit up with sound, check out all of the Vines I posted here: http://vine.co/torcht
You can also see way more pictures and videos by checking out #DistancePAX posts on Twitter! It was an insane rush getting back from gamescom, recovering from convention flu, and then sprinting towards the PAX deadline at 1,000 mph. Everything came together right at the last minute and I'm really proud of the display we were able to create. Seriously, I spent the entire night at the convention center before the first day opened at 9am programming patterns for the LED strips. The security guards hung out with me. It was awesome.
Distance was playable in 3 configs: a custom arcade cabinet synced with the LED strips that encased the booth, a 4K TV running a special split-screen demo, and on Oculus DK2 in VR + cockpit mode. The booth was packed for most of the convention, we gave out all 1,500 pins halfway through day 2, and we did 5 tournaments in total where we gave out shirts and posters.

On the press side of things we didn't do too bad either. Some highlights include a great review from Road to VR, IGN did an interview, and we even won a shiny "Best Racing Title" award from Curse!

Long story short, it's all about connecting with the players. We enjoyed chatting with all kinds of Distance players who brought all sort of great feedback to the table. From advanced level editor requests to feedback on the UI, the new announcer, and Unity 5 physics, engaging with players in person was the ultimate reward. Thanks to those that took time at PAX to come hang out with us! You made it all worth it.

WHEN'S THE NEXT STABLE BUILD SHIPPING?

Jason has been working his absolute tail off trying to squash physics and UI bugs, and we're down to the wire in terms of fixes. If you want to play what is essentially the build we'll be shipping very very soon, go experimental. Here's what you can expect from this crazy update:

• New physics engine
• Better overall performance
• Faster level loading
• UI revamp (including mouse support in all menus)
• Challenge and Soccer mode improvements
• Hundreds of bug fixes
• DirectX 11 support (if desired)
• Cockpit view
• Oculus Rift integration
• Lots of new editor assets

He ended up completely tossing out Unity's wheel physics, so what you're playing is an entirely new physics engine from to bottom. Not only that but he fixed many issues with random explosions (i.e. getting Unity'd) and exploits like s-hold/s-tap. The next (and near final) experimental build will be released later today/tonight. Once the community thinks the physics are at least as good as the current public build (if not better) we can get this thing into everyone's hands. We might be a bit perfectionist at times, but the last thing we want to do is break the core gameplay. Hoping to have this thing out in the next week or so. Thanks for all of the patience and invaluable feedback going into this update!

Batman: "Better put 5 cents in the meter." Robin: "No policeman's going to give the Batmobile a ticket." Batman: "This money goes to building better roads. We all must do our part."

Welp, it's 8am and time for bed for me. Either later today or sometime this weekend I want to do a stream where I can take a moment to play some of the latest community levels and maybe work on some new music. If that sounds cool hit the Follow button on Twitch. Finally, several community members have been championing Discord for Speedy Saturday and other random awesome Distance happenings (like this one). Ashamael at PAX sold me on it. It's pretty sweet. I'll try to hang out in chat during Speedy Saturday from 11am - 1pm PST if you want to chat. See you online! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-09-11 15:59:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's going down... We're about to unveil our most ambitious physical creation yet. This weekend we're bringing every toy we have to PAX Prime in our home town of Seattle! The Distance PAX booth has been months in the making, and it features a massive lighting setup synced with our custom arcade cabinet. If we do our job right you won't be able to miss it! 

Where can I find Distance at PAX?

(our booth created inside a Distance level) Our primary booth will be at Indie MEGABOOTH #871 (4th floor). That's where tournaments, giveaways, the arcade cabinet, VR, and our insane concert lighting setup can be found. It's the main hub.
You can also find us The Parlor Live on Friday and Saturday as a part of "Giant Bomb: Live, In Person, and Fully Clothed!". Should be a more chill place to check out some of the Indie MEGABOOTH games and meet Giant Bomb folks. More info here. We'll also be a part of Intel's "Meet the Devs" experience at the Intel booth on the 4th floor all day Monday!

Distance VR, New Adventure Mode, Daily Tournaments!

At the booth you can choose to play new Adventure mode content on the arcade cabinet, split-screen multiplayer, or Distance VR! After seeing the ridiculous popularity of the VR at gamescom we'll be using a ticket system, so come to the booth early to claim a spot that day. We'll also be doing DAILY TOURNAMENTS where we'll be rewarding winners with a whole batch of new swag! Simply show up as early as possible (starting at 10am) to sign up for the tournament that day. We'll announce the tournament starting time every morning as well as the mode to be played.

SWAAAAAAAAAAAAG

Of course, we can't gloss over one of the most important details... What swag are we giving away?! Due to popular demand we printed up some more PAX-exclusive Distance shirts, brand new 18 x 24" posters, and glow in the dark pins! They'll be used as tournament rewards, as well as giveaway prizes to be announced on Twitter and Facebook.

Follow for giveaways this weekend!

Even if you're not at PAX we'll be doing flash giveaways and posting fun stuff from the booth on Twitter and Facebook! It's the best way to stay up to date with spontaneous happenings. Follow and use the #DistancePAX hashtag for your chance to win prizes from home and at PAX!

• #DistancePAX
• Twitter: @refractstudios
• Facebook: refractstudios

Finally... No care for PAX, what's going on with the build?

We also crunched to ship a new experimental build out last week with tons of bug fixes and random improvements to the physics. Jason really pushed hard to fix nearly every major reported issue. VR is nearly ready for an early release, but we still need to do some UI improvements to make getting into levels a bit smoother. We also improved the Adventure mode following gamescom so we'll use PAX to evaluate the build and (pending feedback on the physics) we'll roll all of the new stuff into the stable build ASAP afterwards. Anyways back to the PAX setup crunch for us. If you're attending we can’t wait to see you this weekend! - Jordan (with everyone at Refract)

[ 2015-08-27 21:31:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

(experimenting with PAX booth lighting) Hey everyone! Kyle and I just returned from gamescom a couple weeks ago, and aside from catching a rough covention flu afterwards the entire event was a blast. Thanks to everyone that dropped by to say hi, play the game, and give amazing feedback. Gamescom recap to come in another update, but today I want to discuss about our next ambitious venture: PAX PRIME.

DISTANCE AT PAX PRIME

(a mock-up of our PAX booth made with the level editor!) Next week we'll be unleashing Distance at PAX, and the booth is going to be our craziest yet. It'll feature a special build with updated VR, split-screen multiplayer, and Distance arcade cabinet v2.0 (see above). From custom hardware rigs to light show visuals enveloping the booth we're doing everything we can to create an experience you can't get at home.
(Distance VR with Oculus DK2) Distance will be at booth 871 as a part of Indie MEGABOOTH! Watch the Steam announcements and @refractstudios on Twitter for incoming info about PAX tournaments, SWAG giveaways, dance parties, and more!

Upcoming experimental build

In the next few days we also hope to ship another experimental branch update which should be one of last before moving back to the stable branch. Jason and Kyle have been working tirelessly to resolve all of the major bugs that exist in the current experimental branch, as well as improve the car physics. I need to fix a few audio bugs myself, but once the kinks are worked out we'll hit the publish button. Should come with a couple fun surprises that got rolled into the gamescom/PAX builds. Stay tuned! - Jordan (@torcht for more frequent dev updates)

[ 2015-08-21 17:20:56 CET ] [ Original post ]