These past few months the team at LuGus Studios has carefully gone over every single line of code of the physics and flight behaviour systems in Liftoff: Micro Drones. While at its core Liftoff: Micro Drones uses the same simulation technology found in other Liftoff simulators, many systems have been redesigned with the micro drone class in mind. A few small errors in the system have been fixed and some parameters have been tweaked. We are now ready for testing them on a temporary Experimental Branch.
What and why?
While Liftoff: Micro Drones is still in Early Access, we want each public version to offer an enjoyable and stable experience. This puts a lot of pressure on our development team whenever we are pushing for crucial updates that can have a big impact on the game. The Experimental Branch allows us to release experimental features (such as physics updates) much faster for testing, without having to worry too much about polish yet. It also allows us to break the game to a certain extent if needed, and try out features that we are not sure should make it to the final game yet. For the development team it means we have more freedom, for the player it means they can have an even bigger impact on the development and progress of the game.
By testing the Liftoff Experimental Branch and giving us feedback, you help us, and weigh in on the decisions we make for the future of Liftoff: Micro Drones.
Experimental Branch: what you need to know
The Experimental Branch (EB) should be used for testing purposes only.
At any time you can switch back to the main version of the game. We recommend doing this after testing.
Versions on the game on the EB can be expected to be unpolished, buggy and unbalanced.
It is to be expected that not all game features work on the EB.
Features and updates available on the EB are not guaranteed to make it to the main branch of the game.
The dev team cannot give dedicated support for experimental game versions available on the EB.
How to get access to the Experimental Branch
Right click on “Liftoff: Micro Drones” in your Steam Library
Click “Properties”
In the “Properties” menu, click the “BETAS” tab
Select “Experimental Branch” in the dropdown menu
Restart Steam to trigger the download. Happy testing!
In order to switch back to the normal version of Liftoff: Micro Drones, follow the same instructions, but instead of selecting “Experimental Branch” in the last step, select “NONE - Opt out of all beta programs”.
What feedback do we need?
Very simple, our primary question is: does this feel better? Yes/No?
Answering that question will allow us to learn if our fixes and tweaks have worked. If the answer is a clear YES, we can push these improvements to the public version of the game. Any additional feedback is more than welcome! We'd love to know in more detail how you feel about the flight behaviour, where exactly you think things feel strange, at what scale things feel different etc.
If you encounter any bugs, weird behaviour, or if you have more general remarks about Liftoff Experimental Branch, please contact us through:
Thank you very much for your help, and happy testing!
Update 0.5.6 released!
We're excited to introduce the Fractal 75, one of the most durable yet sharp and lightweight 75mm ducted FPV frames, to Liftoff: Micro Drones!
Changelist
Added: Fractal 75 frame.
Added: Transparent propeller skins.
Updated: Splashscreen has a new coat of paint.
Fixed: The password reset form now works again.
Fractal 75
We're excited to introduce big brother Fractal 75, one of the most durable yet sharp and lightweight 75mm ducted FPV frames! Don't believe us? Check out the review video from Infinity Loops. A big thank you to Heads McFlyawhoop for testing and approving our virtual recreation! :)
Steady progress!
Looking back at the first eight months of the project, we are really happy with how things are moving with Liftoff: Micro Drones. While this graphic doesn't show the complete picture and leaves out 90% of the work that has been done, it does provide a top-down overview of the progress made so far. Though still in Early Access, Liftoff: Micro Drones is already a more solid package to enjoy, and we are excited how the project will further change with the next steps.
Talking about the next steps
We have one more Fractal Engineering related update right around the corner. Next up, we are going to focus on taking the next leap in flight physics development. We might have an experimental version of an improved flight simulation available for testing very soon. We'll be looking for talented pilots willing to give it a spin and provide feedback directly to the team.
In terms of content, after crushing it with the development of Sealand and Sawdust Inc, the art team is now focusing their attention on more frames and parts (as seen in this update) and the development of a new level for classic Liftoff. Once that's done, we'll jump back to Liftoff: Micro Drones levels.
Summer Brawl 2022
Play Liftoff: Micro Drones this summer and have a chance to win a up to $1000 worth of FPV store vouchers.
Participating is easy
Required: have a Liftoff Pro Account (free).
Play races in multiplayer.
That's it! Multiplayer race results are automatically saved to the leaderboard. The Liftoff team will check who has the most #1 leaderboard times at the end of the month to crown a winner. In case of a tie, we will look at the overall placement of these top players.
Our message to top contestants: it's not just about having the fastest time on a track, its also about competing on as many tracks as possible. Make sure to check the monthly leaderboard to find your ranking.
When
Winners will be crowned twice this summer, based on the monthly leaderboards of July and August. We will award a $500 Rotor Riot store voucher at the end of July and another $500 voucher at the end of August. Winners will be contacted using the Liftoff Pro Account email.
Update 0.5.5 released!
We hope you're enjoying Sawdust Inc as much as we do! As promised, here's the next update with a cool new addition: the Bubito. Tested and approved by BubbyFPV :)
Changelist
Added Bubito frame
Added BetaFPV 1s 300mAH battery
Added Redot Pico camera
Added Bushmaster 802 Motors
Added first Sawdust Inc races A.I. data sets.
Fixed collision bookshelf Sawdust Inc
Bubito
BubbyFPV designed this micro-class BNF drone as one of the smallest drones on the market, using the best quality components. The Bubito is the ultimate indoor ripper, perfect for practicing freestyle in tight indoor spaces. Check out the real deal in the video below!
What micro drones would you like to see added in the future? Let us know in the comments!
Update 0.5.4 released
The changelist might be short but the content is big. Today we release, in our opinion, the best Liftoff: Micro Drone environment yet! Welcome to Sawdust Inc.
Changelist:
Updated AI dataset
Added Environment: Sawdust Inc.
Sawdust Inc.
We are excited to invite you all to Sawdust Inc., your favorite furniture store, with exciting showrooms, office spaces, a trendy wood workshop and a warehouse. *Insert cheesy quote, in 3...2...1: "A picture is worth a thousand words, but a community video is even better"
What's next?
Liftoff: Micro Drones has grown a lot these past few months are we are not done yet. From a content point of view, we plan on including a lot more micro drones for you to pick from. We are excited to reveal our next collaboration!
Designed by Bubby FPV, the Bubito is the ultimate indoor ripper, perfect for practicing freestyle in tight spaces and soon also an amazing addition to Liftoff Micro Drones! Expect this new micro drone in one of the next Liftoff: Micro Drones updates.
Quickfix update 0.5.3 released
Quickfixes
Removed: an internal drone configuration blueprint that was meant as a test setup.
Fixed: several broken skins were exposed on all propellers. These have been removed.
Fixed: sharing drones on the Steam Workshop are now properly working.
Fixed: the propeller damage display doesn't throw any more errors.
Fixed: toggling the game options for race guides and race triggers now reflect in real-time.
Update 0.5.2 released!
Liftoff: Micro Drones update 0.5.2 is here and builds upon the foundations laid by the Milestone update. Today we expand the singleplayer racing experience, by introducing race bots and race guides. Enjoy!
Changelist
Added: bots for all race tracks. These can be found in the Race, Infinite Race and Hoverdrone Race game modes.
Added: race guides. This option can be toggled in the game options.
Updated: several UI text elements now look more crisp.
Updated: the Nano frame Grunge skin and Nano battery Smudge skins now has the proper amount of color channels. We will include more skins for parts and frames in future updates.
Fixed: name of the Hoverdrone race in Sealand now has a proper name.
Fixed: the Liftoff Pro registration would show an error, even though it succeeded.
Fixed: Nano frame skin and Nano battery had invalid properties that would make the game crash during loading.
Bots: learning from the best
You'll never feel alone in Liftoff: Micro Drones, the simulator now features bots in singleplayer race modes. The secret to our bots is that they are completely player-driven. They learn to fly using real player data and adapt to your flying skills, to offer you an interesting challenge each time. Do you feel the bots are too easy or too hard to beat, just finish a few races and they'll quickly learn and adapt.
Be social
Please say hello on our community channels, we are excited to meet you! The Liftoff dev team is very active on the multiple Liftoff community channels, always happy to answer your questions, share some development insights and tease what's next.
The release of our Milestone update performed above expectations, it's been very stable. Nonetheless, update 0.5.1 aims to further polish the newly introduced features and content.
Changelist:
Updated the race score screen in multiplayer to show the global leaderboard instead of the monthly.
Updated the multiplayer menu to show the sign in as a split panel instead of a single large panel.
Added a notice in the leaderboards menu that scores are only kept saved in multiplayer sessions.
Added the game option to enable/disable checkpoint visual triggers.
Fixed issue with the popup always having a small box visible behind the original popup message.
Fixed issue with leaderboard scores in the race score screen overlapping.
Fixed issue where the global leaderboards wouldn't show the player's best actual score over the course of the monthly leaderboards.
Fixed pixel border masking issue in the leaderboards menu.
Fixed multiplayer room play bar being positioned too high. It now sticks to the bottom of the screen.
Fixed the player score panel not being cleared in multiplayer after a race when no player finished.
Enlarged the player activity icon while in-game.
Updated the progression bar styling to be more consistent with the general UI style.
Milestone 0.5.0 released!
We are super excited to release the first Milestone update for Liftoff: Micro Drones, pushing the game a massive step closer to its V1 release. This is a big one: optimisations, simulation update, Sealand, leaderboards, replays and more!
Changelist
Added: Sealand day and night environments. Each environment has interactive elements, 3 new race tracks, a hover drone track and 3 balloon collection courses.
Added: The replay feature. From the main menu, in the 'Tools' section, you can now watch saved recordings of your flights.
Added: Leaderboards! Watch your best race and lap times in the leaderboards menu. Cycle through on a monthly bases, or view all-time best scores. The menu is accessible through the main menu, in the 'Tools' section.
Updated: Optimised drone stat calculations, this should result in more authentic simulation.
Updated: Made more motors selectable in workbench, allowing for more configurations.
Updated: Unity game engine. This should give an overall increase in performance.
Updated: All multiplayer menus have been merged into a single menu, saving a few loading screens.
Updated: The multiplayer score screen now shows leaderboard times as well, below to your personal best times.
Updated: The multiplayer room creation menu now shows the environment being selected.
Updated: Set your desired flight mode and assists directly from within the flight controller menu.
Updated: The current flight mode and active flight assists are now shown prior to arming the drone, allowing you to better pre-select the desired flight mode before taking off.
Updated: Larger player avatars are now downloaded, so that they look crisp.
Updated: Optimized the drone HUD to be less CPU intensive.
Updated: Optimized several content files to be more loading efficient. This reduces installation size (-3GB) and decreases loading times when flying on a track.
Fixed: The flight mode and active flight assists are now saved between drone resets. This prevents from having to reselect the right flight mode again after each drone reset.
Fixed: Many minor bug fixes.
Fixed: On macOS only - shader issue with the plant in the San Lipo Drive environments not rendering its leaves correctly.
Welcome to the Principality of Sealand
Have you ever power looped a whole nation?
With official government permission from the Principality of Sealand, we are excited to see you all discover the coolest micro nations in the North Sea!
Sealand brings a complete new experience to Liftoff simulators: not only do you have to consider that drones don't swim and seagulls don't chill, at night you also have to deal with some stormy weather. Nothing a pro pilot can't handle ;)
E Mare Libertas!
Soon: Sawdust Inc.
Last month we teased a new level called Sawdust Inc, and we are excited to reveal another section of this level. Sawdust inc is going to feature the bigger indoor Liftoff: Micro Drones environment to date, with 4 discting areas, from a wood workshop and a warehouse, to offices and a furniture showroom. Here's another screenshot of this exciting new level that will become available in Liftoff: Micro Drones in the near future.
Update 0.4.4 released
The Liftoff team has been hard at work behind the scenes. We have some great things for the project coming soon. Today we add the Cetus Pro from BetaFPV to the simulator, a really sleek and lightweight setup that many burgeoning micro drones pilots have enjoyed as a starter setup. We are also excited to reveal what's next for Liftoff: Micro Drones. Make sure to check out new level reveal "Sawdust Inc."
CHANGELIST
Added new Cetus Pro frame and blueprint
Added new BetaFPV 1102 18000KV Brushless Motor (Currently only usable on Cetus Pro)
Added new BetaFPV BT2.0 450mAh Battery
Added new 1635 Tri-blade propellers
Updated Driblet Antenna and blueprint icon
Minor bugfixes
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE BRING?
Expect the following things in the near future: - The addition of official leaderboards and a replay feature. - A rework of the simulated parts system. This is mostly an internal improvement that will allow us to add more exotic parts in the future. - A new level called Sawdust Inc. We are excited to show you the first (work in progress) screenshots of this level.
