It's been a while, hasn't it? We've never had such a long time between updates, but two months of waiting will be well worth it. As we are getting closer to a V1 release, this update will play a huge role in further solidifying the core feature and content set for Liftoff. You'll love what we have in store for 0.14.0: a new frame, new parts, a new environment, cool features, performance updates, better looking visuals, quality-of-life improvements and so much more. Enjoy!

Changelist

• Added Hall 26 environment.
• Added official track and race for Hall 26.
• Added Ummagawd's Remix frame.
• Added Botgrinder's Hypetrain Grinders motor
• Added Dronogate track elements to the Track Builder.
• LPL: Added option to play in previous tournaments (practice only).
• LPL: Added a tournament setup timeout timer, so you can't get stuck in the process.
• LPL: Improved tournament timer with live update of remaining time.
• LPL: Added option to rewatch tournament submissions of other players (up to 4 ghosts).
• LPL: Added option to load in tournament ghost data in your practice rounds (up to 4 ghosts).
• LPL: Tournament banner loading has been optimised (loads faster).
• LPL: improved some backend systems.
• Graphics: Reworked internal camera system to improve performance.
• Graphics: Improved motion blur effect.
• Graphics: Added depth of field effect.
• Graphics: Added Anti-Aliasing option.
• Added some visual additions to the Workbench scene.
• Improved menu navigation: more "back" buttons.
• Fixed weight of Vincbee frame.
• Fixed ghost ranking issue after reset.
• Updated the Terms Of Service. Approval required prior to signing in to your account.
• Minor bugfixes

Hall 26

When we updated the Hannover environment to have a more realistic representation of Hall 26, we didn't tell you we were also working on the interior of the hall. Hall 26 is an exact replica of the real hall at Hannover, and we are excited to have it available in Liftoff.  We are releasing this as a complete separate environment, since adding the interior to the existing Hannover environment would create a performance issues for some players. Furthermore, the style and variation this new indoor environment offers deserve its own place in the spotlight. Since its an indoor environment, it's not as big as some of the latest environments we've released, but being among the biggest halls in the world, there's enough space for both racing and freestyle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZDfVohlftE

Performance and visual improvements.

Improving performance while updating the visuals?  That’s the idea! It’s the best of both worlds. In this version we are changing the way things are rendered in the game. Before, we used three virtual cameras to render everything in layers. In this update we have brought that down to two, decreasing the amount of rendering work needed to create the image on your screen.  This change is expected to bring some performance improvements, but also allows us to add more visual effects to the game. The motion blur effect has been improved: it now looks better and gives an even better sense of speed than before. We also introduce depth of field effects, basically blurring objects that are really close to the camera.   This mostly affects the ground and foliage in front of the FPV camera and creates an authentic feel of what’s being shown on the screen. Depth of Field, similar to past visual effects will be completely optional and can be turned off in the graphics options.

Remix and Hypetrain Grinders

For those who follow us on social media, it's no secret that we've teamed up with Rotor Riot to bring you the best possible content for Liftoff. This milestone update introduces the much requested Remix frame, created by the talented Ummagawd. Since we know you want the best of the best, we did not only visually recreate the frame in all its minute details, but we've also involved Ummagawd to test and tune the virtual frame at the studio. We are proud to say that our first implementation already did a fantastic job and Ummagawd was happy to put his stamp of approval on it. Being huge fans of Botgrinder, we are also excited to share we are working with him to add all kinds of cool Botgrinder content in Liftoff. We'll start with this update by adding the Hypetrain Grinders, a fantastic looking variation on the classic Hypetrains. Stay tuned for more!

Liftoff Pro League 2.0

Last but not least, we're excited to tell you about the biggest addition in this update: a huge upgrade to the tournament system. We are now saving your tournament try-out runs, so everyone can look at your run and even load them into their practice sessions. This means you can watch and learn from the other participants, making the Pro League tournaments more involved, more social and more competitive than ever. You can spectate or race against four ghost runs from other tournament participants. While watching you can pause, rewind or fast forward each run using our Ghost Player tools.  That's not all! We'll soon be introducing similar replay features to the other parts of the game.

[ 2018-06-14 15:49:25 CET ] [ Original post ]