First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of maintenance on this game in the past few months. I had personal problems and couldn't get the right amount of time and energy to do much productive work. I hope it's all settled now and I can resume my usual activity.I have received lots of bug reports lately but didn't respond to any. Again, I'm sorry for this.
I said on the last update that some compatibilities may break, and they indeed broke. From what I could gather, the game isn't working anymore on older generations of Intel HD Graphics processors. Even though HD4000 and below are not oficially supported, as per the minimum requirements page, the game did run on those previously and stopped with the last update. I'd like to restore that, if possible.
However, it isn't possible. At least not in the current state of the game.
Slipstream was programmed in Java, and that has always been kind of a liability for the game. When I started the project, it was intended to be a mobile game (where using java makes more sense), and as it transformed into a PC game I never had a chance or really needed to rewrite it. LibGDX performs very well on PC, is cross-platform and had everything I needed to complete the project.
However, after release, the weaknesses of the Java dependency became more apparent. It is very portable across PC platforms, but it's PC-only (that's why Slipstream was never released on consoles), it requires a huge runtime package to be shipped with the game and has an gigantic dependency chain: my code uses libgdx, libgdx uses lwjgl, lwjgl uses glfw and a bunch of other C/C++ libs. If any of those parts breaks compatibility, all the others break too.
For all those reasons, I've decided to port Slipstream to a new software platform. This will give me more control over the code, hopefully less problems and more stability. I haven't made a definitive choice yet, but the more likely candidate is FNA. It's been used in lots of succesful games, proven its quality and stability, and is similar enough to the current Slipstream code to make the job of porting not too hard.
That will hopefully fix the current issues and maybe other bugs along the way. But it will also take a while, a couple of months at least. If the game doesn't run on your PC after the last update, there isn't much I can do in the short-term, but I will work on a definitive long term solution.
Finally, if you have issues with the game on officially supported hardware (Intel HD 5000 and above, any Nvidia/AMD GPU with OpenGL 3.3+ support), please send me an email detailing the problem. If you sent me an email in the last 3 or 4 months and I didn't reply, please send another.
TL; DR:
Active maintenance on Slipstream is now resumed, sorry for the downtime.
The game will be ported to a new software back-end to avoid the java runtime dependency. It's gonna take a while but I hope it's worth it.
If you have issues, contact me. I will respond now.
Thanks, see you soon.
PS: I'm sorry for not being very active on the forums. I have a slight anxiety problem and reading too much stuff about this game makes me very nervous. I'm always available to talk on twitter or e-mail.
v1.1.11, back-end update, compatibilities may break
Hello everyone.
After a silent update from 1.1.9 to 1.1.10, which was just a bugfix release, here comes another one.
The only change made to the game itself was:
bug fix on time trial mode that failed to register your best lap if it was not the last lap (how did I miss this one for so long? I'm sorry!)
Other than that, I updated pretty much all the back-end software runtimes used by the game, so I expect that some people might have compatibility issues. If you have any problems, please send me an email: me at ansdor dot com
Another important notice is that I raised the minimum linux compatibility version from ubuntu 16.04 to ubuntu 18.04. I tried my best to keep the compatibility with older versions but some libraries used by the game (specifically Jamepad, the input library) do not support any linux version with glibc lower than 2.27.
If you are running ubuntu 16.04 or older, the only option is to run the game on SteamPlay, which I heard works well enough.
v1.1.9, improved controls + other small changes
Hello everyone, I hope you're doing fine.
Slipstream's 1 year release anniversary is coming soon and I wanted to update a few things before then. Here's version 1.1.9.
The biggest change is the addition of a new control option: Automatic Drifting. It's similar to the 'simplified controls' that were already available on the multiplayer mode, but now it's a lot more intuitive and responsive. It's also available on all modes, single and multiplayer. That's probably the biggest quality of life update this game has ever had, and I hope it improves the experience for people who didn't like the drifting controls. For those who did like them, manual drifting is still the default option and works the same way it has always been.
Other changes:
difficulty has been adjusted across various modes, most notably cannonball and battle royale
the game camera is now a little closer to the ground than it used to be
the visibility in Mystic Cave was increased. I went too hard on that track, sorry.
signs indicating curves have been added to a few tracks (neon city, mystic cave)
assorted bug fixes, collision changes, all the usual stuff
The game will be on sale on its anniversary week, so if you have friends who might be interested in Slipstream, let them know.
That's all for today. Thanks for playing, I hope you enjoy the game. Any problems, send me an email at support [at] ansdor [dot] com.
v1.1.8, tutorial fixed
another minor update:
- fixed the bug in tutorial mode. due to an oversight, the car speed was being reset to zero when you restart a part of the tutorial. now that doesn't happen anymore and the tutorial can actually be completed again
- reduced the difficulty of easy mode a little. I've seen a lot of complaints from new players (including some negative reviews) that the game is too hard. being a little hard is intentional but easy mode is supposed to give a more relaxed experience. the normal/hard difficulties remain the same
that's all, thanks!
v1.1.7 update, xbox one controller bug fixed
Hello everyone, I hope you're doing well.
Slipstream was updated to version 1.1.7, with a fix to the Xbox One controller vibration bug. I was able to reproduce the bug on both of my windows machines and the changes made to this version fixed it on both of them, so hopefully this will apply to all cases. You can re-enable controller vibration if you want.
Nothing else was changed on this version. I got some other bug reports (which I'll look into now), but this was the only problem that was reported by more than one user.
So... That's all. Thanks for playing Slipstream!
about graphics settings, FPS drop issues [temporary fix]
Slipstream was featured in the humble monthly march 2019 package and that brought in a lot of new players to the game. And with the new players, new bugs are found. Some users reported huge FPS drops when using a bluetooth Xbox One controller, specifically when the game tries to make the controller vibrate, such as when you start to accelerate the car.
This issue seems to be happening exclusively on windows, with a wireless xbox one controller. Unfortunately I don't have a working xbox one controller with me at the moment, and we're in the middle of a holiday week here in Brazil. The earliest time I'll be able to send a definitive fix to this problem will be wednesday (march 6th), but thursday is a more realistic estimate.
For now, the only temporary solution I can suggest is to disable vibration on the settings menu. This seemed to fix the issue for everyone who reported it. I hope to provide a definitive fix as soon as possible.
Another issue that gets reported to me from time to time is that the graphical settings don't work, or something similar. Here's a step by step guide to the graphics options, i.e. it applies to all the options above the "apply graphics settings":
change the settings you want, such as resolution, fullscreen on/off and filters
go to 'apply graphics settings', press confirm
choose 'keep the current settings' on the next menu and press confirm again
that should make the graphics change as desired.
any other questions, please send me an email at support@ansdor.com
Thanks everyone, I hope you enjoy the game!
About Controllers & Keybindings
Some people wrote to me asking various things about controller support and keybindings, and since I never documented this feature very well, I'll try to do that now and maybe answer other potential questions.
Keybinding (hopefully) works as you might expect: you select an action, press a button and that button is mapped to that action. But there are a few quirks I'd like to explain in more detail.
v1.1.3 - minor bugfixes
as expected, a lot of unexpected bugs surfaced since the 1.1 update. I've been trying to fix them one by one, and this is the third minor update since 1.1.
some people were experiencing crashes when the game tried to re-set vsync on, so I removed the vsync confirmation step. this game is designed to run with vsync always on, it will match your monitor's refresh rate and keep the physics consistent no matter what framerate it's running.
I tested it on all my systems and the game stayed at 60fps, as it should. if you notice your GPU is making too much noise and/or the framerate looks choppy after the update, please send me an email (me [at] ansdor dot com).
Slipstream v1.1 Update Announcement
Slipstream 1.1 is finally here, and it's a huge update.
LOCAL MULTIPLAYER
The biggest change of all, Slipstream now supports local multiplayer up to 4 players. There are four game modes available for the multiplayer, the already established single race and grand prix, and...
NEW GAME MODE: CANNONBALL
A brand new game mode for both single player and multiplayer. It works like a mix of all the other modes: You can choose a fixed sequence of up to 15 tracks, and race on them back to back, with or without traffic, rivals and/or other racers. Everything is customizable in this mode. From racing all alone through 15 tracks to a chaotic race with rivals and traffic at the same time. But that's not all...
NEW GAME MODE: BATTLE ROYALE
Every video game in 2018 needs a battle royale mode and I couldn't miss the opportunity. It's a simple mode: 16 racers, 15 random tracks. At each track, the last racer is eliminated, only one can reach the end. Available on both single player and multiplayer.
NEW GAME MODE: TIME TRIAL
The last new game mode is a classic time trial with zero randomness and replay ghosts for the best times. This is a single player exclusive mode.
NEW PHYSICS, BETTER CONTROLS
The game physics were getting buggier and weirder with each version, each time I tried to fix something it just ended up breaking something else. This time I started from a clean slate and I believe I got all the most common problems fixed, but, as always, this part might receive minor updates in the near future in case new bugs show up.
SOUNDTRACK CUSTOMIZATION
Now you can choose your own songs to play in the game, along with the OST. Just drop your legally acquired MP3s in the appropriate folder* and they'll appear automatically in the game. OGG and WAV are also supported.
The folders are:
On Windows: [user home]/AppData/Roaming/ansdorGames/Slipstream/music
On MacOS: [user home]/Library/Application Support/ansdorGames/Slipstream/music
On Linux: [user home]/.config/ansdorGames/Slipstream/music
The game will look for music files in all foldes and sub-folders inside that one. Also, symbolic links work on linux, but I haven't tested in other systems. The only limitation is that only the first 256 custom tracks are loaded, the game will ignore any others beyond that number.
SIMPLIFIED CONTROL SCHEME
Some people have trouble with the drifting mechanics, so I decided to include an optional, multiplayer-exclusive simplified control scheme, in which the drifting happens automatically and you just have to guide the car around the track. This feature is intended for novice players and "party game" scenarios, in which some people may not have the time (or will be too drunk) to learn how to drift properly. I did not include it in the single player because I feel it would displace one of the game's most important mechanics and challenges.
BETTER GRAPHICAL OPTIONS
Now Slipstream has "true" 4K support (well, as true as it can be for a pixel art game). The resolution/window settings in previous versions were a little confusing, so I tried to simplify everything. Now you can choose a window size and an internal resolution, and both go all the way up to 3840x2160. Lower resolutions provide a slight improvement in performance, but not much. The "auto" setting is recommended in all cases, as it will set the resolution to match the window/screen size.
OTHER SMALL CHANGES
- controller vibration now supported
- the infamous audio glitch, where all sound stops playing after a while, is hopefully corrected
- mirrored tracks are now available on single race mode
- post-race screens completely remade
- too many small graphical changes and bug fixes to list
Sadly, this will be the last major content update for this game. I'm a solo developer, and I don't have the time and resources to keep adding content and providing active support for this game anymore. I've been working exclusively on Slipstream for the past 3 years or so, I'm VERY tired of it, and there are many other games I want to make, so it's time to move on to new projects.
I consider this to be the "gold" version of Slipstream, it has all the planned features and some more, and it's complete now. It will, however, continue receiving minor back-end updates and bugfixes as time goes on, but that will be all.
I hope you enjoy the game, and thanks for the support, you are awesome!
Important: Bugfix/Crash at startup update.
Some users have reported trouble running Slipstream, the game crashes at startup and never runs properly. It affects especially people on laptops with core i3 processors, and seems to be related to a bug in the JVM being used by the game.
Slipstream requires a java runtime environment to run, and it includes its own customized (reduced) JVM for this purpose. The version I was using previously was pretty old (JRE 8), and the problem seemed to be related to that particular version, so I updated the underlying system to the latest version, JRE 10.
The practical effects: if the game was running fine, hopefully it will continue running fine. If the game crashes at startup, hopefully it won't anymore.
However, there is a small compromise: JRE 10 doesn't seem to support 32-bit systems, so the game will only run on 64 bit systems from now on. I don't think this will be a big problem, most people are running 64-bit OSes by now, but IF there is significant demand for 32-bit compatibility, I will revert back to JRE 8. If not, I'll leave it as it is now.
If this goes well, it will fix THE #1 most reported problem with the game, and I'll be free to work on new features from now on.
If you find any problems, get in touch with me via email. Thanks.
