Synth Riders News

[h3]Welcome to Synthtober, a month-long festival full of attractions including an Oculus Quest 2 giveaway, challenges with fun-favorite VR YouTubers, and an $800 prize pool![/h3]

It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly 12 months since Synth Riders left Early Access on Steam and launched on Oculus Quest. We want to celebrate with our community all month long, with a bunch of activities and events - and giveaways!

[h2]HAPPENING NOW[/h2]

• Play a Halloween Challenge created by SteveKnows, available now until November 3rd!
  
• Join Gleam giveaway to win the Oculus Quest 2 headset!
  

[h2]CHALLENGE YOUR FAVORITE YOUTUBERS[/h2]

• We’ve asked some of your favorite VR YouTubers (EricForPresident, SteveKnows, Naysy & HeyFalcon) to each set a Featured Challenge for you this month!
  
• Challenges from YouTubers will debut every Wednesday. YouTubers will play their Challenges and invite you to beat their scores.
  
• For more details, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
  
• The Halloween Challenge created by SteveKnows is now live!
  

[h2]PLAY CHALLENGES IN OCTOBER TO WIN PRIZES[/h2]

• There’s an $800 prize pool in cash for those who join Challenges in October.
  
• You can win $25, $50, or $75 for placing top scores in the Challenges created by YouTubers.
  
• You can also win 4 x $50 for taking part in at least one Featured Challenge every week in October
  
• Find out more here: LINK

[h2]FREE LOOT DROP[/h2]

• Be ready for the drop on October 8th when we unlock a brand new track in the Cyberpunk Pack, a special Synth Riders exclusive remix of “Cyberpunk” by Extra Terra!
  

[h2]PERFECT HIT VR BUNDLE[/h2]

• On October 20th, we will release a “Perfect Hit VR Bundle” on Steam.
  
• The bundle will include Synth Riders, Eleven: Table Tennis, and The Thrill of The Fight.
  
• It’s a great opportunity to pick up some amazingly energetic games at a generous discount!
  
• The bundle’s price will be flexible so you can grab it even cheaper if you save 40% on Synth Riders now.
  

[h2]THE FINAL SHOW[/h2]

• Join us on Halloween night to celebrate the anniversary together
  
• It’s a “Play with the Devs” event in the multiplayer mode of the game
  
• The party begins on October 31st at 6 PM PST ADD TO CALENDAR!

[h2]SEE YOU AT THE PARTY![/h2]

Extra Custom Camera Options
You can now lock Pan, Roll, Yaw, Width, Height and Depth, which lets you position and lock the custom camera in one place or control the degree of movement you'd prefer.

Bug Fixes

• Rail scores correctly reflect accuracy of the initial note hit (thanks @MiMiXis & @Silzoid), in addition the score flyoffs should now match the score accrued for special rails.
  
• Exiting the game and canceling while loading custom songs will continue to load custom songs correctly (thanks @Nova_Max)
  

Score Rebalancing
After lots of discussion with players, we’re adjusting the values of notes, rails and specials to give a better overall score experience.

The new values for notes hit as Perfect are:

• Standard Notes - 1000 points
  
• One-Handed Special (Green) - 1500 points
  
• Two-Handed Special (Gold) - 2000 points
  

Rails are then calculated at double those values per second of time on the rail:

• Standard Rail - 2000 points per second
  
• One-Handed Special Rail (Green) - 3000 points per second
  
• Two-Handed Special Rail (Gold) - 4000 points per second
  

Hit Detection Changes
We’ve made some changes to our hit detection system, and now the shape of the hit detection surfaces better matches what you see in game (yes, they’re spherical!) This should be more intuitive for players, is properly unidirectional - but will mean you’ll need to make a bit more effort to get to the centres of the notes!

Small / Large Notes
Previously these modifiers have been cosmetic only, but not anymore! To spice things up, we’re really making small notes harder to hit (you’ll really have to earn that modifier bonus!). At the same time, we’re making large notes easier for you to hit if you’re someone who needs a bit of help to pass those more difficult maps.

Extra Options for Graphics
In the Visuals menu, there are new options to control graphics. You can now choose a level for the neon glow effect, and there is a new Advanced button which gives you a menu of new graphics adjustments to help you tune game performance. You can adjust the quality of textures, lower antialiasing and anisotropic levels and toggle alpha blending on particles.

Confirmation Prompt for Game Exit button
When you exit the game using the exit button located on the main stage platform, you will be asked to confirm that you wish to exit the game. This will prevent accidentally exiting the game, particularly during Multiplayer games while using Push to Talk!

Configurable Game Pause Delay
You can now specify how long you wish the pause button to be held down before the game will pause during a song. This is helpful for players who hold controllers in such a way that accidentally pausing the game is a problem.

Fade Music (Ducking) for Multiplayer Voice Chat
In Multiplayer, a new option allows you to have the game automatically duck the music when other players speak. You can configure this to happen either just in the Lobby, where it will fade out the preview music and menu background, or always.

Bug Fixes / Improvements

• In Multiplayer, the announcer will now wait a while before telling you your position.
  
• Song Request queue is working again for Twitch Integration.
  
• More work behind the scenes on LIV SDK 1.5, fix for Mixed Reality players will be coming soon first in LIV public_beta, so if you want to be ready you can swap to that in advance if you wish!
  

NEW MERCH ALERT
You ask - we deliver! We’ve just added three new T-shirts to our store on RedBubble. You can now proudly wear the official logo of the game, or go. New t-shirts (with a link: https://www.redbubble.com/people/synthriders/shop)

And If you enjoy Synth Riders, please leave your review on the Steam/Oculus Store. It's one of the most powerful ways to support the game!

[h2]Synth Party? Challenge accepted![/h2]

[h3]We are super excited to announce Challenges, a new social experience now available to use with Synth Riders on all platforms![/h3]

Challenges are weekly mini-tournaments that allow you and your friends to play against each other in heart-pounding matches, even when you’re not in VR at the same time.

Every Wednesday, we dare you to accept one of the official Featured Challenges created by our development team. The Challenges are cross-platform so you can join in on a challenge with the entire Synth Riders family!

Join the community to make sure you never miss a new Challenge:

On Discord On Twitter On Facebook

If you can, please write a review of Synth Riders. It's one of the most powerful ways to support the game!



Still want more? This update is packed with great content updates and quality of life features to help every player get the most out of their experience playing Synth Riders!

[h2]Game News & Updates - Inside & Out![/h2]

Now you can keep up with all the latest Synth Riders news via our in-game news panel visible in the main game screen! But you want to keep up with the Synth Riders news outside of VR too?

Well, there’s a completely revamped Synth Riders website at https://synthridersvr.com where you can find all the latest news and updates no matter where you are!



[h2]Immerse Yourself in Updated Stages[/h2]

You may recall that we recently sent out a survey asking for your feedback on all our stages! Based on your feedback, we have revamped all the stages except for “Dystopia” (the most recent addition for the Cyberpunk DLC). You’ll find improved environments with a new feeling of space and scale, performance improvements and enhanced lighting - while adding visibility corridors to improve the play experience! Why not try a new stage, or use the random feature to try them all?

[h2]New Song List Sort & Filter[/h2]

On the Song Select panel, you’ll find a new Sort & Filter icon in the top toolbar. Select this to open the Sort & Filter panel where you can sort your music packs & custom songs by name, BPM, plays and date added (use the reverse button to flip the sort), in addition you can also filter here by song difficulty!



[h2]Multiplayer Audio & Moderation Options[/h2]
Each person can now adjust what they hear from other players in Multiplayer. You’ll see a new gear icon next to each player’s name in the lobby, which you can use to turn down or mute the player! In addition, the player with the crown may also ban a player from the room.

[h2]Carry On Playing a New Master Difficulty![/h2]
Now you too can try out the new Master level for “Carry On” by F.O.O.L. which was used as a sight reading challenge for our finalists in the VAL Tournament! (Congratulations Moinn, RAPTOR & Jade!)


[h2]LIV SDK 1.5[/h2]
More improvements to LIV support under the LIV 1.5 SDK, which will require you to use the public_beta branch of LIV until advised otherwise! Please keep an eye on the Synth Riders & LIV discords for more news as SDK 1.5 rolls out. We are excited to be early adopters of the new technology, and grateful to our content creators using LIV for their patience as we make this transition.

[h2]Bug Fixes / Improvements[/h2]
Rail length compliance bug has been fixed (thanks Jade!)



[h3]As always we welcome your feedback and bug reports on our Official Discord server. Please use #bugs-report to make sure that we see your feedback.[/h3]

[h2]Fans of burning calories in VR can't miss it! This weekend is the last chance to save 20% on "VR Fitness Bundle" before the bundle concludes next Tuesday. [/h2]

https://youtu.be/poL7lLj31sI

"VR Fitness Bundle" is a collection of games that combine fast-paced action, intense movement, and electrifying soundtracks, aiming to bring back the fun of exercise and make burning calories more exciting than ever before!

Thanks to the bundle, you can grab all three games with a 20% discount. The bundle is flexible, so if you own one or two of the games included, you can still complete your collection saving 20% on the missing games.

The bundle is only available until this Tuesday, so don't think twice!

We cannot recommend BOXVR and Until You Fall enough and we are super proud we had a chance to bundle our games together.



https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/14893/