Metric Racer is taking part again this year in the Indie Racers Festival that is running Sept 1st to 4th! Hope on over to the Indie Racers Discord to check out all the games and streams!

Theres some big additions this year with Metric being available on a new platform on itch.io! To coincide with the new platform launch, weve migrated the custom tracks from Steamworks to a cross platform backend which allows everyone to share their tracks using which ever platform theyd like!

TRACK EDITOR JAM
In honour of the new cross platform backend well be hosting a track editor jam over the indie racers festival! Enter for a chance of your track being featured on the new site!



SEE YOU OUT THERE
Keep a close eye as a new release is just around the bend!

This is a passion project, and Im grateful for everyone who has played Metric over the years and given feedback! Its still evolving and growing but is getting closer and closer to my vision every day.

Keep in the loop with everything going on or chat with me over on Discord! Until then, Ill see you all on the track.

Version 0.9.2 of Metric Racer is out now with an overhauled cross platform track sharing backend!

Cross Platform Track Sharing
With 0.9.2 players will now be able to share their tracks between any platform that Metric runs on. This means if you create a track on Steam you can share it with your friends playing on Itchio.



Head over to the updated website and check out the currently posted tracks! I've migrated the custom tracks that are currently in Steam workshop over. Additional features such as rating and direct downloading will become available in the future,



[h2]Steam Workshop Support[/h2]
This does mean that I'll be sunsetting the Steam Workshop support. This is so that players aren't segmented or walled off from playing and sharing with players on other platforms!

Indie Racers Fest '23
Metric Racer is taking part again this year in the Indie Racers Festival that is running Sept 1st to 4th!

In honour of the new cross platform backend well be hosting a track editor jam over the indie racers festival! Enter for a chance of your track being featured on the new site!



See You Out There
This is a passion project, and I'm grateful for everyone who has played Metric over the last year and given feedback! It's still evolving and growing but is getting closer and closer to my vision every day.

Keep in the loop with everything going on or chat with me over on Discord! Until then, I'll see you all on the track.

This weekend, Aug 26th-29th, the Indie Racers Festival is in full swing! Try out different fast paced indie games and check out some of the recent changes in Metric Racer!

Streams
Join the Virtex Discord or follow on Twitter to keep in the loop when some racing and dev sessions will be streamed this weekend through Steam and Twitch!

Performance
I re-wrote a large portion of the rendering engine and shader code along with a big addition of graphics settings to help with performance. After a lot of testing on un-plugged laptops running integrated gpus, I can now say Metric runs a lot faster on lower end machines. If you have any questions or are still hitting issues, please reach out through Discord!



UI/UX Refresh
The UI/UX was initially done for mouse and keyboard support, but with the release of the Steam Deck I've started porting systems over to work smoother with a controller. The first big change was the main UI, which you can see in the gif below. What do you think? Are there other suggestions or improvents you'd like to see in the UI/UX department? Let me know!




See You Out There
As always, thank you for taking the time to play Metric! This is a passion project, and I'm grateful for everyone who has played Metric over the last year and given feedback!

Keep in the loop with everything going on or chat with me over on Discord! Until then, I'll see you all on the track.

Metric Racer is in the Steam Racing Fest and with it I'm releasing version 0.9.1! New Region, Big Visual Improvements and the first of many brand New Tracks!


Steam Racing Fest
To celebrate all the great racing games out on Steam, the Steam Racing Fest is going on now! Metric Racer is participating and is currently at 70% off! I'll be streaming through parts of this week as part of it!



New Region, New Tracks
A New Region is taking shape in the Outer Colonies. The first track released is Juno City, the first settlement into the Frontier of the Sol system. This track combines portals, city racing and terrain navigation into a dynamic and engaging race. The new enviromental flying cars, volumetric fog and improvements to glass and skybox shaders all add a new layer of detail and life to the tracks. Check out the first look here:
[previewyoutube=5BflwRgOOdE;full][/previewyoutube]

Instead of dumping a number of tracks all at once I'm going to be releasing them 1 at a time to take the communities feedback on them. The Track Editor has had a number of improvements since the initial launch and I want to make that feedback loop a lot tighter! Follow me over on twitter to give your feedback!

Racer and Visual Improvements
I've reworked and done another pass at a number of different systems in the game.

[h2]Racer Tuning[/h2]
Initially the racers were glued to the tracks and it gave a very rigid feel to the racers. I've gone back and added a full physics spring-mass calcluation on top of the physics body calculations. This gives a far better anti-grav feel.



[h2]What Time is it?[/h2]
Crossing the finish line you'll see your +/- with other racers on the field. You'll know how much of a lead you have or how much you'll need to make up on that next lap!



[h2]Level Enviroments[/h2]
I've begun adding more enviromental items in the editor to give more life to the levels. The first addition is flying cars as you can see here along with better volumetric fog. Expect to see more choices for items which help levels feel alive along with better visual enhancements.



[h2]Mind The Gap[/h2]
I've added a number of bug fixes to the track editor, but one major addition is the ability to close gaps. By selecting two end track nodes and then pressing [Ctrl + B] you'll close the gab between two track pieces. This ads a lot more flexibility to the tracks themselves. One note though is you'll still need to re-work the AI nodes as you'd like.



[h2]Level Refreshes[/h2]
There's no point adding improved editor features if I don't apply them to existing levels already! Currently New New York, Hong Kong and the Dragons Tail have all a substantial refresh helping them feel more alive. I'll be giving Malaysia and the Mars levels the same treatment soon so keep an eye out for that!



See You Out There
This is a passion project, and I'm grateful for everyone who has played Metric over the last year and given feedback! It's still evolving and growing but is getting closer and closer to my vision every day.

Keep in the loop with everything going on or chat with me over on Discord! Until then, I'll see you all on the track.

To celebrate the first anniversary release of Metric Racer into Early Access, were closing the chapter on version 0.8 and releasing version 0.9.0! So what is new, and what is there to look forward to!

NETWORK MULTIPLAYER
Network multiplayer is out now! Race with or against your friends either through multiple Dedicated Servers or locally across LAN. There are 4 sets of dedicated servers:

• Europe
  
• Asia
  
• North America East
  
• North America West
  

• Improved and re-worked Tracks
  
• Improved Building Glow
  
• Particle Effects
  
• Track Themes
  

This year has been big for Metric Racer! There's been a number of improvements in the experimental stream with improved editor gizmos, improved visuals and new track items in the Sandbox! These improvements were so good that I decided to throw them into the main stream as the last update of 2021!

In the mean time, I'm working away at getting Networked Multiplayer working, so stay tuned for more about that!

Thanks again for playing and providing feedback for Metric! It means the world to me!

Happy Holidays and a have a very Happy New Year!

Version 0.8.5 is out now with a new Game Mode, a new Region, a new Platform and more!

New Region - The Rocks

Welcome to The Rocks. The latest region in Metric Racer is the edge of the inner planets. Race through Icey canyons and between floating asteriods. Jump across through the new portal mechanics and race by new Sandbox Entities! Jump in and check it out today!

New Mode - Tournaments

Race across the system in the new Tournaments mode. Earn medals and out run the competition in new tournaments across each system. As this is the a new addition to the game I'd love some feedback of what you would like to see added in to tournaments, to make them more gripping and engaging!

New Platform - Mac OSX

With v0.8.5, Metric Racer is now available on Mac OSX! You can now race across the stars on any of the main platforms supported by Steam, be it Windows, Mac or Linux! All of your settings, saves, sandbox files will sync over through Steam Cloud allowing you to customise and race and then pick back up on any platform!

Achievements and Tighter Steam Integration

Show you are the top racer with Steam Achievements in Metric Racer. This challenges you to make it to first place in every mode to truly prove you are the best. Not only be the fastest on the track, show you are the fastest. Along with Steam Achievements is Steam Rich Presense which will let your friends see where you're racing in Metric! This is in preperation for Networked Multiplayer coming to v0.8.6!

Further Fixes and Improvements
Along with the highlighted items above, there are a number of other fixes and improvements as well:

• Improved Shield Visuals
  
• Unorived Track Bloom
  
• Added New Sandbox Selection Options (Select All by Type etc...)
  
• Added New Sandbox Entities (Ice Shards, Asteriods etc...)
  
• New Track Themes added.
  
• Imprved camera views when racing/taking corners.
  
• A Number of other bug and stability fixes.
  

Metric Racer has been out for a number of months now and has been getting great feedback on where and how it can improve.

The game is developed by a single person in their spare time and so feedback on both design and quality is hugely appreciated in making this game as fun as possible.

There are a number of updates planned for the upcoming months and so I wanted to share what that roadmap looks like.


v0.8.5 - Portals, Tournaments and Achievements
This update is almost ready and can be tried out now in the experiemental branch through Steam! Version 0.8.5 brings big gameplay improvements with Tournaments and Achievements, letting you race different playlists comprised of different gamemodes.

[h2]Portals[/h2]

A new mechanic as well, Portals, will be part of 0.8.5 freeing racers to not just be contained in a loop. This has recieved a lot of positive love so far but there are still some performance issues that need to be solved.

Check out this link here of the portals in action.



Look for 0.8.5 coming out in mid Novemeber.

0.8.6 - Online Multiplayer

One of the features Metric shipped with was split screen multiplayer, but the requests for online multiplayer are growing louder and louder. In parrallel to the current release, I've been working at getting networked multiplayer working in Metric. There will be a number of jam sessions where I'll be hosting some online races for people to test out the feature and to give feedback on how well they think it might work.

I'm aiming for these sessions to take place closer to the end of the year 2021, I'll be announcing when those sessions will be happening through Twitter and the Virtex Discord, so join and follow there to find out how you can join.


0.8.7 - Mod Support
When of the key features I planned for Metric was mod support. I want to hold off on fully releasing this aspect though until the full 'feature list' is complete. The game has been architected from the ground up with mods in mind though, so soon after Online Multiplayer is released, you can expect Mod Support to be close on its heals.

Mod support will range from adding in custom racers, all the way to being able to write code and modules that fully extend the game.

A good example of how this was done on another Virtex game was with The Chaotic Workshops Mod SDK which is already available on GitHub. The Metric one will be very similar.

0.9 - Polish and Additional Content

The 0.8.X series of updates is centering around features. Once those features have been implemented and proved out I'll be moving on to the 0.9.X versions. These will include further polish and refinement along with additional content, tracks, racers etc. I am aiming for a Feb/March 2022 date for this.

Final Thoughts

This is a passion project, and I'm grateful for everyone who has played Metric and given feedback! It's still evolving and growing but is getting closer and closer to my vision every day. These updates will be big ones and so they're taking a little longer, and your paitence is greatly appreciated.

Keep in the loop with everything going on or chat with me over on Discord! Until then, I'll see you all on the track.

With Multiplayer and Mod Support on the way, Tournaments and Achievements just around the corner and new updates coming in the experiemental stream, now is the perfect time to pick up Metric Racer and challenege the best in the system!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/938200/Metric_Racer/

This patch comes with a number of updates and bug fixes for the Track Editor:
Context menu added. You can access this through LCtrl + Right Mouse Click
Added Box Select to Track Editor. L Ctrl + Left Click and drag to select entities in bulk.
Added Track Node refresh button. This will re-connect any disconnected track nodes from editing.
Fixes a bug where old physics meshes could be duplicated when track nodes are modified, causing racers to randomly fly off.
Fixes null error when some nodes are deleted.

This patch has a number of bug fixes and stability improvements for the Track Editor

• Added a 'Play' tab to the Editor. This tab will have more settings and options when 0.8.5 comes out later this month such as 'Play Reversed' and 'Test Single Race / Time Trial/ Survival' etc...
  
• Fixed a crash where nodes could become null during multiple undo-redo's.
  
• Fixed a crash where Editor Entities could become null during a Track Editor session.
  
• Fixed a crash where Water size doesn't deserialize properly. Default sizes added as a fallback.
  

Join the developer of Metric Racer during the Track Editor Jam! Hang out on Discord, join a Stream or Stream your self Showing what you can make and give your feedback that can be brought back into the game for the track editor!



[h2]Here's how it works[/h2]

• Create a track (or multiple!) in the Metric Track Editor. You can get a breakdown of how to use the Editor in the Steam Guides section here. Check out some of the other articles about how to import custom models into the game.
  
• When you're happy with it, upload it to the Steam Workshop. Be sure to tag it with 'TrackJam' when you upload it! If you want to add any updates or iterate on some things you can re-upload your level at any time!
  
• Post in the Virtex Discord letting everybody know about your new creation!
  

This patch fixes a handful of issues:

• Fixes bug where racers may get stuck in a fall-loop when inverted in some levels.
  
• Fixes bug with Particle systems not spawning some particles properly.
  
• Optimization of racer ray-casting code.
  
• Optimization of game loading sequence.
  

Keeping with the 4-6 week release cadence, Version 0.8.4 is out now with some pretty large changes to some noticable and not so noticable parts of the game. The bulk of changes and work is mostly under the hood to help support future updates, but there are still a number of visual and performance improvements along with a number of bug fixes.

Racing Teams and Lore

As you may notice, there's some added visual improvemnts and flow to the Ship Editor. Most ship components are now associated with a Racing Team or Sponsor such as 'Firefly Racing' and 'Skyline Extra Solar Research Group.' These teams are represented with new Holo-Banners available in the Track Editor as well.

Along with this the Ship Hanger has had a substantial UI update and refresh to visually communicate the ship parts stats in a clearer way. There's lore available as well by right clicking on Ship Editor components.

Track Editor Jam

Virtex Edge is hosting a Track Editor Jam the weekend of July 9th-11th to see what the Metric community can create! Join us on Twitch and Discord to discuss and share what you come up with! When you're happy with it you can upload it to Steam Workshop to share it with everyone!

In lead up to the event, a HOW TO Tutorial video will be coming out on the Virtex Edge Youtube channel walking through all of the different features in the Sandbox Track Editor, so give the Virtex Channel a subscribe to stay in the loop!

Soundtrack

A collection of tracks from Metric Racer are being released as a standalone soundtrack through Steam.

As a thank you to all those who tested out Metric Racer during the beta check your inbox for a steam key for access to the soundtrack when it releases soon!

Engine Overhaul

A complete overhaul of the rendering system, an upgrade to Monogame 3.8 and a full migration of the game from .Net Framework to .Net Core has given way to a huge number of changes and reworks under the hood of Metric Racer.

These updates have resulted in loading times upwards of 3 times faster then 0.8.3, a new standalone binary in Linux (not requireing mono any longer), along with better visuals through out the game. This should also solve a number of rendering issues that some players have been encountering.

Upcoming 0.8.5 Release
I'm aiming for a late July early August release of 0.8.5 which will finally bring out Tournaments and 'The Rocks' region. You can always try out the latest and greatest in the Experimental Branch of Metric Racer. Join us on Discord or Twitter! to stay in the loop of what's the latest.

Version 0.8.3 is out now with Improved Visuals, 50% Faster Loading Times, and a number of Editor & Gameplay tweaks!

Visuals

Skyboxes now have selectable cube maps for each planet and level theme along with improved Crepuscular Rays, fog and sun rendering. This is the first pass at a larger rendering rework which will be fully rolled out in the next couple releases.

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

Loading Times

One of the main comments about Metric is it's long loading times. This update improves the loading times by upwards of 50%. This can be further improved though and v0.8.4 currently has a full rework of the content loading system and track generation which has improved loading times from 90 seconds in worst cases down to 25 seconds.

Cloud Saves

Are you playing on different machines, or cross platform on both Linux and Windows? Cloud Saves are now enabled which will sync your settings and sandbox files across all machines that you play Metric Racer through!

New Editor Items
There are some new editor items in the sandbox for you to try out! As the larger bugs in the early access version of Metric are sorted out I will be shifting my focus more to content to help spur on the creativity!

Cannon Firing
Cannon firing now only happens when the mouse or trigger button is pressed, instead of emptying the entire clip after one click.


But as always I'm always open to suggestions through Discord or Twitter!

As many of you have already noticed, Metric Racer is out now for Linux! Metric was even picked up by Gaming On Linux with a nice article written about it! Check it out over here!



It has been tested on Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04, Arch and Fedora. The only prerequisite currently is that you have mono installed. There's a how to pinned post in the Discussions as well, so if you run into any issues leave a comment there or head over to Discord!

If there's other platforms you want to see Metric on as well, Let me know and I will see what I can do! The main focus is to tune the gameplay, graphics and performance for the time being, but I do also want to get it out to as many people as possible through as many platforms as possible eventually!

Version 0.8.2 is out now! Global Leaderboards, Nightly Builds and a number of bug fixes have gone into this one!

Leaderboards



Now you can show off your best time for all to see. Global Leaderboards are now available for each race type and difficulty setting! At the end of each race your best lap time is shown compared to all those who've flown before you so you can see where you stack up against the competition!

The entire list of top times are shown online as well, head on over to the revamped metricracer.com to check out the leaderboards page today!

If you don't want to have your times saved it's as easy as turning the setting off in the new Profile dialog under 'Settings > Profile' from the main menu.




Nightly Builds
Don't want to wait until v0.8.3 tp try out the next set of changes?! Nightly Builds of Metric Racer of the the latest and greatest are now available. The build pipeline will spit out and upload a fresh build with the latest changes each night and upload the changes to the website. If you like what you see or have some feedback, let me know through Discord!



You can opt in and out through Steam at any time by going to Metric Racer > Properties > Betas and select the 'Alpha' channel in the drop down. The change list is also posted on our website and tweeted out every night along with the new build so you can see whats new and available! This is my development stream though, so don't be surprised if you encounter a few more bugs.

Improvements & Bug Fixes
One of the major bugs was racers getting stuck in the rocks when racing. I've reworked how the collision is handled with those elements which should drastically improve the reliability of those collisions. Some other bug fixes include:

• Player Profile screen has been added which gives the player a view of their progress and control over their profile setting.
  
• Player stats are now saved in a separate file for better handling
  
• Fixes Workshop Levels Defaulting Back To Previously Played Levels When Exiting
  
• Fixes Bug With Description Text Not Working Properly In Menu Slider
  
• Fixes Busan Level Not Opening under certain circumstances
  
• Fine tuning of difficulty settings
  
• Tuning of AI and Player relative acceleration rates
  

• Improved Skyboxes with more content and visuals
  
• Improved Cannons
  
• Improved Item unlock sequence
  
• Tournaments fully added
  
• The Rocks Region
  

Version 0.8.1 is out now! With it comes a series of updates, changes and bug fixes!

Difficulty Settings
A major comment with Metric is that there's only been 1 difficulty up until now, That changes today with the addition of the Alpha, Beta and Gamma leagues. Alpha is substantially easier than the current difficulty and the perfect spot for new players, Beta is slightly easier than the current state of the game, and Gamma is a step above all else for those who want to be the best!

Import / Export Custom Models
The sandbox now includes the ability to import your own custom models. This lets you bring in anything you can make in Blender or Maya into Metric. Check out the new guide over here that layouts out how to get your custom creations into Metric!

Physics and Controls
Another major item of feedback has been that the ships respond too rigidly and that the physics is too tight. 0.8.1 has heavily re-worked the ship drifting and physics for each difficulty setting, along with adding in Air brakes and side slip, letting players handle their drifts and corners with better control!

Metric Racer is Out Now in Early Access! Version 0.8.0 brings along new tracks, a new game mode as well as a number of improvements and fixes from the Alpha!

Survival Mode

In Survival mode only the fastest and most maneuverable make the cut. Launch missiles at your fellow racers to take down their health or out run them before the lap completes. The last place racer on each lap is destroyed. Keep racing until only one is left!

New Tracks
To go along with the new Game Mode, there are 4 new tracks that come along with this release:

[h3]Earth - Neo Hong Kong[/h3]
A bright and winding track through the cityscapes and neon lights of a futuristic metropolis.


[h3]Earth - Island Station[/h3]
A starship docking station situated amongst paradise, between rock pillars jutting out from Turquoise waters.


[h3]Mars - The Outback[/h3]
A barren desert with space to open up and show what your racer is truly capable of.


[h3]Mars - The Polar Outpost[/h3]
The far northern reaches of Martian settlements and outposts. A challenging and tight course that swoops through canyons of the far north.


Sandbox Improvements
The workflow with the sandbox has been improved along with a number of bug fixes thanks to a lot of feedback form people who played the alpha! We're going to continue to refine it as well and add more features as time goes on.


Upcoming Updates
Get Metric Today for a discounted launch price and be ready when Tournament Mode and the 'The Rocks' Asteroid belt region unlocks later this spring! Other Track Editor improvements that are on the horizon include model 'Import / Export' among other improvements!

Version 0.7.5 has been released which adds a number of requested changes and bug fixes.

[h2]Track Width[/h2]
One of the big updates is the default track width has been increased to allow for better flow when racing. Each of the nodes control the local width which allows players to tighten or loosen the track as needed.



[h2]Screen Shake Glitch Effect[/h2]
The screen shake glitch effect has been pulled back substantially, a cooldown has been added and the distortion has been pulled back as well. In addition there is a graphics setting now to disable it entirely if needed.



[h2]General Level Cleanup[/h2]
Each of the currently released levels had a cleanup pass as well. The track width has been tuned and the AI pathing has been tweaked as well.

Full Change Log

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Track default width has been increased, Track Nodes can now change and modify track width
  
• Impact Screen shake effect dialed down substantially
  
• Option to disable Screen shake effect added in Graphics Settings
  
• Improved AI Node editing
  
• Luna track mesh variations updated
  
• General Level Polish
  

• Fixes bug where not all track parts would extrude properly
  
• Fixes bug where cliff physics meshes would persist in sandbox after delete
  
• Fixes bug where players would get stuck upside down in NewNewYork
  
• Fixes missing Luna starting line track mesh
  
• Improved track side collision mesh so players don't get stuck in the walls as easily.
  
• Update which should fix Windows erroneously reporting game as 'Not Responding' when loading
  

I"m going to be trying out some new updates form Community feedback such as widening of the tracks and better Sandbox workflow.

Come join us for an impromptu dev/play session of Metric Racer.

We're going to be experimenting with Track scaling and building some levels.

We have a new Site for Metric Racer! Check it out here!

https://metricracer.com/



As always as well, if you want to stay in touch join us on Discord and over on Twitter!

Check out the first Live Stream of Metric Racer! We're going to be streaming across the Game Festival t showcase racing through future cities and across the surface of alien planets to out run, out maneuver and out pace your competition!

Until then you can check out our new trailer below:

[previewyoutube=xXxGYmjDviM;full][/previewyoutube]

Version 0.7.4is out in the wild now! With it comes Splitscreen Multiplayer letting you challenge up to 4 of your quarantine-crewmates to race together!





We've also smoothed out some of the ship banking and added a number of bug fixes too!

We're running a closed Alpha test in the coming weeks and want you to join! Try out a set of tracks, weapon mechanics and Steam workshop support before anyone else!

The Alpha we're looking for feedback on the core game mechanics, visuals, weapons, tracks and anything else! This game is a labour of love and we want to make it as enjoyable for our fans as it was to create!

You can join the Alpha by signing up below!

https://virtexedgedesign.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f241d6dddadedc44a1d6e46cf&id=2d072d604b

We've been hard at work adding in some new content to the metric racer level editor. Here you can see one of the flyers zooming from track to terrain, to water and back onto the track.

One of the key features of Metric is that you aren't kept to just the track. There is full off-roading in this game, allowing you to explore the worlds created in the level editor.

[previewyoutube=yIqwLzHxuWE;full][/previewyoutube]

Keep up with the development of Metric and you can wishlist us here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/938200/Metric_Racer/

We've been hard at work updating our level editor. We've added spline node editing to each track pieces. This gives you finer control on adjusting each track piece.

Wishlist Metric Racer now to stay in the loop!

[previewyoutube=Hcjw8hN0Ocg;full][/previewyoutube]