DR!FT Blog
Major game update for DR!FT
The development at STURMKIND continues at full speed. The startup from Speyer am Rhein is not only concerned with new products such as the Classics Series, but above all with the further development of the mobile game that makes the DR!FT racers what they are - a racing simulation that is extended into the real world. The fans have been waiting a long time for the announced next big app update. Now it's time and it was worth the wait! Besides the already announced innovations, like an ice setup including (simulated) studded tires, a lot more has happened. Let's start with the undergrounds. Here, besides the announced ice like on a frozen lake, there is also a gravel track for rally fans and even the driving behaviour when you get off the track and land in a gravel bed can now be simulated. Since it needs also suitable shoes for different surfaces, you can now choose between different tires. The second big surprise is the new Rally-Cross mode. When you start this mode, you can use the ground codes used for the Gymkhana mode (these are removable ground stickers which the racers can scan when they drive over them) to assign different ground codes to individual sections of the track. The simulation then immediately changes the racer's handling characteristics according to the surface. The code that triggers the donut task "360° angle drift" at Gymkhana triggers driving into the virtual gravel bed in Rally-Cross mode. The racer immediately decelerates strongly and loud pebble rattling sounds can be heard from the simulated wheel houses. Only with difficulty do the vehicles then manage to free themselves from the gravel bed. Back on the road, or after a given time, they can accelerate again and continue the race. Tip: You are free to choose which codes you want to use. For a normal race, for example, you can still choose the Rally-Cross mode. In this case, however, only the gravel bed codes and maybe the "Wet-Track" code are used next to the start/finish line to define rain on a track section. All in all, there are now five surfaces and three different tires to choose from. By combining these with the previous choices, there are now up to 90 different setups with sometimes very different driving characteristics. Each of the available vehicle types then behaves differently. A further highlight are the strongly revised sounds. The tire squeal has been improved and you can now clearly hear the pickup sounds on different surfaces. Furthermore there are now brake sounds. Even the whistling of the brake pads when the foot brake is slightly applied is simulated. Furthermore you will find many small improvements, like a much shorter loading time on Android, an acoustic feedback every time you cross the finish line and a symbol in the cockpit view that shows the current road surface. We also thought of the participants of the DR!FT Online Games. For example, the font color for the results display has been changed from red to white, which significantly improves readability when the display is filmed. If you're wondering what this is all about, you'll find all the information about the DOGs in the Sturmkind Forum: https://community.sturmkind.com/ You'll also find more about the online games, which are now held regularly, in the next issue. The new functions are available for all vehicles. Only the tire selection is not for free in the Sport Edition. However, these vehicles can be upgraded to the full Gymkhana version at any time. Last but not least, the team around Martin Müller has complied with the wishes of those who prefer to drive their racers in a race setup. This has been completely readjusted so that the vehicles in "racing trim" now tend to drift much less. In fact, you have to be more careful not to get into understeer when braking into a curve and promptly end up in the virtual gravel bed.
In this video Martin presents all new features!
https://youtu.be/RQp78UdFl1U