Liftoff News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euCd8GAVxZQ

We can all agree that 2020 was challenging, and though nothing can fix what was broken this year, we do hope that Liftoff made it just a little bit better for you all. The Liftoff team stays committed to making Liftoff bigger and better each year and by that we mean not just the software, but also the community that surrounds it.  



The Liftoff community has grown by over 60 000 virtual pilots this year. On several occasions in 2020, we set a new record number of players, something we are extremely grateful for. Not only have we enjoyed flying among you on the race track, we have been impressed by the massive amount of super creative track creations, community stories and videos. The sweet celebration video linked above, made by BlueCheese, is a fantastic example of that. For the Liftoff team, the community highlight of the year is definitely the weekly official Liftoff stream A Song of Pitch & Throttle, by our extremely talented and dedicated host Abdul! We love the content, the chats and the community interaction it brings! 



What can we say? 5 years in and yet 2020 has proven to be one of our biggest years so far! Not only did we release a Liftoff game on PlayStation4 and Xbox One (a massive milestone for the team), but we've also continued to make Liftoff on PC the absolute best FPV simulator it can be.  Here's an updated development timeline. 


Highlights of the year are surely the release of the Russian Woodpecker​, getting Zoroe's art in the game, the updated The Green, but most of all our massive 1.3.0 milestone update that brought a significant engine upgrade, improved performance, fewer loading screens, our much beloved Liftoff Physics 4.0 and much more. We've managed to evolve Liftoff to the next level, ready for the coming decade. After 5 years and over 130 updates, you'd think we are done, but it feels like we've only just started! 




If you have followed us for a while, you know we don't set year long development goals. We prefer a flexible approach that allows us to work with community feedback and suggestions, and focus on what's important "now" rather than what we planned upfront. That being said, we have never been more committed to Liftoff as we are now and some of our near term goals includes new game modes, further revamps of existing environments (Hangar C03 is next), new content and so much more.  Additionally, 2021 will see the release of a new spinoff sim called Liftoff: Micro Drones, of which we will reveal more in the weeks to come.


We are excited for Liftoff in 2021 and we hope you are too!  Happy New Year! :D

What if we told you we made one of the best Liftoff environments even better?

The Green got a bit of an update, adding a landmark watertower and an extensive event area, adding new layers to an already exciting environment. We can't wait to see you explore our mini-level within a level :)  On top 1.3.7 brings a bunch of improvements, additions and bug fixes.

• Updated The Green: it now contains a watertower, event area and a few other details.  (also updated in the Night Fever DLC!) 
  
• Updated: All tracks and races have been given a proper and unique name.
  
• Added: 5 new Cyber-themed frame skins and 70 new propeller skins can be unlocked through Gift Boxes in the Workbench.
  
• Fixed: RC Rates and RC Expo are now uncoupled between pitch and roll.
  
• Fixed: Paris Drone Festival street collision issue.
  
• Fixed: Throttle Mid would produce wrong results when setting it to a value of 100.
  
• Fixed: The G# music block note now has the correct soundbyte.
  
• Updated: The Ummagawd Remix frame has been assigned the Ummagawd Corp. brand.
  
• Updated: Dropdowns with values that can't fit in the text box will now slowly scroll the name horizontally.
  
• Added: A full-screen dropdown option has been added in the graphics menu. Players on the Windows platform can now select more options to select what best fits their needs.
  

17th December is a date to remember!

IUDRO - The University Drone Racing Company has been preparing for pure awesomeness! Check out the amazing IUDRO eSport Series stream announcement trailer below 😲

The Liftoff team is extremely excited about these upcoming competitions and we look forward to sharing this adventure with you all. We can't wait!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT0Nmy-ROms

Joshua Bardwell asked the Liftoff team if we could fix his fence. We were not entirely sure what he meant by that, so we potentially fixed it by breaking it. ;) 

Hopefully that can't be said of the other aspects included in this update, as we continue to work on improvements and fixes for the game. Here's what's included: 

• Updated: The replay selection now shows the freestyle score instead of the time value when looking for freestyle recordings.
  
• Updated: Score values per stunt are now also saved in the recording.
  
• Updated: When watching a recording in which stunts were performed, the score per stunt is now shown as well.
  
• Updated: When watching a recording, the drone LED and trail color are now set to the color as it was on the drone rather than a predefined color.
  
• Updated: Fence in Bardwell's Yard lost a rail as shown in this video.
  
• Updated: The manual controller calibration panel has been updated visually to be more consistent in style.
  
• Updated: The manual controller calibration panel now shows the current axis value, so you don't have to guess it's values anymore.
  
• Updated: The personal ghosts opponents during race now show their name along with their race time, so you know which is which.
  
• Fixed: Drone selection in multiplayer is now visible again after having a level being loaded.
  
• Fixed: The LIFTOFF! message now correctly disappears in multiplayer infinite race when spectating a player when the countdown wasn't finished yet.
  
• Fixed: The drone didn't spawn properly in the Getting Started menu when calibrating your controller.
  
• Fixed: An input binding popup was visible by default when entering the input binding phase in the Getting Started menu.
  
• Fixed (potentially): Black screen issue after leaving a level. Looking for confirmation! 
  

Additionally, Liftoff: Drone Racing has just released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, check out our launch trailer below!

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/2g91uxK6p6k[/previewyoutube]

Our yearly Halloween tradition has started, 10 pumpkins can be found in each Liftoff environment!
This year we are awarding 10 in-game gift boxes to 3 fans who make the most creative Halloween screenshot in Liftoff. Want to participate? Create one or more fun Liftoff screenshots, share them on Facebook and tag Liftoff in your post, alternatively upload your Halloween screenshot on the Steam Community Hub and add the tag #HalloweenHunt as a comment.

You have until the 6th of November to submit your screenshot. A free Liftoff Pro Account is required to win the in-game gifts. Have fun!


On top of that, we are releasing a small quickfix update for the game. For those worried about big downloads, its only 15mb in size ;)

[h2]Changelist[/h2]

• Fixed: The Liftoff dude not being visible.
  
• Fixed: Sharing your drone didn't properly save the Steam ID to the file after leaving the Workbench. This prevented selecting the 'Fixed drone setup' game modifier in multiplayer rooms.
  
• Fixed: In multiplayer free flight, when sending a chat message would send you to walking mode with the default keybindings.
  
• Fixed: some missing French translations for added messages since the 1.3.0 update.