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!
There’s some big additions this year with Metric being available on a new platform on itch.io! To coincide with the new platform launch, we’ve migrated the custom tracks from Steamworks to a cross platform backend which allows everyone to share their tracks using which ever platform they’d like!
TRACK EDITOR JAM
In honour of the new cross platform backend we’ll 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 I’m grateful for everyone who has played Metric over the years 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.
V0.9.2 - Cross Platform Track Sharing Out Now + Indie Racers Fest '23
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,
Steam Workshop Support
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 we’ll 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.
INDIE RACERS FESTIVAL 2022!
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.
V0.9.1 - Steam Racing Fest, New Regions, Big Visual and Racing Improvements!!
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:
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.
Racer Tuning
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.
What Time is it?
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!
Level Enviroments
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.
Mind The Gap
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.
Level Refreshes
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, we’re 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
Single Race and Survival modes are supported along with all Official Metric Racer tracks. More modes and custom track support is coming in the future. List of Dedicated Servers alongside a view of the Lobby
VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS
Along with the network support, Version 0.9 comes with a number of visual improvements and re-worked tracks: Building glow, particle effects, track themes and imroved
Improved and re-worked Tracks
Improved Building Glow
Particle Effects
Track Themes
[previewyoutube="4bBdKTkG0Ms;full"]
Track Editor Improvements
There's been a number of editor improvements, new track entities and track themes to customise your own tracks with. I've also added a tool tips that guide players on the Editor Workflow as well as an option to fill in tracks now. Pressing Ctrl+B while having two end nodes selected will bridge the gap.
A New blocked out track theme has also been added in the track editor to help in creating levels and debugging tracks. This helps give more contrast with a simpler mesh to modify, speeding up track iteration time.
Moving Forward
The 0.9.X series will be taking the foundation from 0.8.X and polishing and expanding across all of it. Mod support is the next big feature to get out which will add everything from small content updates to full code additions, so stay tuned for that!
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.
[v 0.8.5.230] New Years Release! Editor upgrades, Improved Visuals & New Items!
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!
V0.8.5 - Tournaments, The Rocks Region, Mac OSX Port!
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.
Upcoming 0.8.6 Release
The next release of Metric will have the long requested feature of networked multiplayer! Stay tuned on Discord below to know how you can join the multiplayer tests! And as always, you can always try out the latest and greatest in the Experimental Branch. Join us on Discord or Twitter! to stay in the loop of what's the latest.
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.
Metric Racer - Feature Release Roadmap
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.
Portals
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.
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.
