Hello Pilots,

In this release you will find a new map to explore! Silicon Valley brings you an epic soccer stadium, with lively surroundings, gaps, and dives galore. With this map comes the Race in the Cloud track, as well as 4 alternate tracks of different difficulties.

We've also brought to the playing field an update to Pro Pilot mode (Pro Mode + Damage), a crash/shake animation upon impact and crash/impact audio. Also, the ability to adjust the drone trail width while spectating and watching replays. You will now have a Damage symbol in Multiplayer races on the race order panel when another player sustains damage. The crash systems sensitivity has been updated to provide a better experience upon impact.

Tournaments now allow you to go back to previous tournaments and see the entire bracket, check results and replays!

Additional improvements/updates, including:
- 2 new Draganfly drone skins and 4 new Draganfly motors to customize your drone
- 2022-23 Virtual Season tracks
- Opponent bot auto-refresh
- Adjustable intro music via the Settings menu (music volume option)
- Ability to Favorite track on post-race screen
- Added an Exit button to the game footer
- XP has now been added to the Achievements completion
- New Replay markers (checkpoints, crashes, and mid-lap)
- Chat improvements
- Track Editor improvements
- Map improvements (lighting and performance)

Most notable bug fixes:
- Tournament registration issue
- Uncapped Racer4 exploit
- Damage on Racer4 custom physics
- Nano Class Leaderboards
- And many other fixes and improvements

We love hearing all feedback and suggestions, so please let us know what you think of this release!

Hello Pilots,

We're really excited to share our latest updates with you! The development team has been grinding to bring you a new Onboarding mode, a new Search & Destroy game play mode, a DRL Pilot flight mode, upgraded Replay system, and an irresistible new Mega City map with three (3) brand new tracks!


The new Mega City map features a futuristic metropolis where users can navigate the city from above the skyline, around and inside of massive high rise buildings and architectural landmarks, through city streets and urban parks, down through underground highways, through a monorail station and even into a multi-level underground subway station. While this map is addictive to fly in Freestyle mode, we've included expert-designed Basic, Medium, and Hard tracks to accompany this new map; Let's see who can stay atop the Leaderboards on these fresh tracks!


The new Search & Destroy game mode provides a fun and satisfying gameplay experience of destroying target balloons by flying into them. Target balloons of various shapes and sizes are strategically and creatively placed throughout the DRL Sim signature Campground map, along with "danger" balloons that must be avoided, empowering newer pilots with a fun way to level up their skills to begin competing on the more challenging race courses.

For experienced pilots, Search & Destroy provides a fresh game experience for fine tuning their stick coordination for precision drone control, while also introducing new leaderboards to grind by attempting to "pop" all target balloons in the shortest amount of time.


The new Onboarding game flow guides newer pilots through a series of progressive training missions and instruction. Pilots will start Onboarding training in an assisted flight Beginner mode completing nine (9) Onboarding missions culminating in a race before progressing to Intermediate, a partially assisted Onboarding flight mode, consisting of 10 missions culminating in another race. Finally, in Onboarding Pro Mode, pilots will fly unassisted (training wheels completely off) for three (3) races that must be won in sequence to complete Onboarding flight training!


The DRL Racer4 is now upgraded to include a throttle cap and battery resistance, with an optional damage setting, to match the setup used by professional DRL pilots during Virtual Season Levels. This allows users to truly train like the pros!


This release also unleashes an updated Replay system that uses less RAM while supporting longer Replay recordings. All users will benefit from the faster pre and post race load times, especially when racing with opponent bots.

Additionally, we've expanded Map Editor capability to support creation of the new Search & Destroy tracks and added a new Geometric Layout tool that enables exponentially faster placement and sizing of large groupings of specific assets in random or pattern configurations.

We love hearing all feedback and suggestions, so please let us know what you think of this release!

*** Note that with the addition of DRL Pilot mode updates to the stock Racer4, we must reset our Leaderboards with this release and the Replay v2 upgrade is not backwards compatible. For users that update to the v4.0 version, this just means that there will be fresh Leaderboards to top! However, make sure all your friends also update to v4.0, as users that haven't updated from v3.12 will lose the ability to set leaderboard entries, view the replays, and fly against bots ***

Notable Bug Fixes:
- Resolved Leaderboard search issues
- Fixed Tournament system Sudden Death and Golden Heat issues
- Improved overall Tournament system stability
- Enabled Drone crash recordings in Replays
- Resolved Replay system performance issues
- Rendering improvements on low quality settings to make maps look more consistent
- Exposure calibration on low quality settings to fix either too dark or high exposure maps rendering
- Continued improving console rendering performance for most maps

Hello Pilots,

Today we are bringing you our latest update. We start this update with some new features courtesy of Allianz. These include a brand new race track called "Allianz Eagle." This track was named for the Allianz Eagle gate, which is our first animated gate in the sim. You can also now use this gate to build your own tracks with it. Allianz also brings us 2 new drone skins and 3 branded motors that you can use on drones you build in the workbench.

This update also includes a number of community requested features including the ability to change the colors of checkpoints and the race line. We have added the ability to reset your leaderboard time on a track.

We also received feedback from pilots who are trying to complete the in-game achievements that it was very hard to know your exact progress on an achievement. To address this, we added a new achievements screen under the profile menu that will show you details on exactly which achievement tasks you still need to complete along with showing the ones you have completed.

Lastly, the release includes a number of bug fixes, which are detailed below.

Thank you for your ongoing support of the sim. Please let us know what you think of this release as we are always striving to improve.



Bug Fixes
-Resolved issue with multiplayer and tournament rooms being limited at a total of 15 people instead of 21
-Addressed issue with pilots getting hung up in tournaments with a pink screen
-Fixed issue with footer appearing after editing drone and also while loading into races
-Corrected problem with loading bar appearing multiple times while loading in offline mode
-Resolved several null references

Hello Pilots,

We have another exciting release for you today. We are starting off with our new circuits feature, a campaign mode type of experience. There are 6 new racing circuits for you to fly with each offering 5 race tracks where you will earn a cumulative time after completing all of the tracks in a circuit. You also have the option to race against a bot inspired by a DRL pilot at 4 different difficulty levels. You can see how you stack up with the new circuits leaderboard filter.

We also are including several community requests in this release including the ability to toggle off drone trails, making the breadcrumbs menus clickable, adding a random option to multiplayer map selection, and adding an option for resetting all of your leaderboard entries.

A release would not be complete without bug fixes. You can find a list of those fixes below.

Please let us know what you think of the release. We are always looking to improve and are open to your feedback. Thanks for your ongoing support of the sim.

Improvements & Bug Fixes

• Resolved issue with map editor not saving work intermittently
  
• Fixed issue with Goldberg not flying in freestyle when switching to it from pause menu
  
• Corrected problems with Next and Watch buttons not being available in tournaments
  
• Implemented better optimization for 3000 series graphics cards
  
• Fixed missions bug where stars were not awarded consistently across all missions screens
  
• Disabled multiplayer invites when players are in a tournament
  
• Updated Tryouts card to reflect 2021 winner
  
• Fixed bug with tournament results getting moved over a column when a player misses a heat
  
• Fixed bug with footer appearing in-game when changing drones

Hello Pilots,

We are bringing you a quality of life update today that contains mostly bug fixes and performance improvements.

It addresses problems reported with the race line, Campground map performance, and some tournament issues.

Speaking of our tournaments, we run community tournaments every Thursday at 5pm EDT (on our NA server) and every Sunday at 3pm EDT (on our EU server). We encourage you to come out and join us. These tournaments are a great way to practice at any skill/experience level.

As with all of our updates, your feedback is encouraged and we always look at it as a way for us to improve. Please reach out to us on Discord or via our help desk if we can assist you with any issues.

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Full list of changes:
-Implemented a number of performance improvements for Campground map
-Multiplayer bots will default to being 7" to get more competitive matchups when using default Racer4
-Fixed issue with players getting stuck between heats in tournaments
-Fixed issue with black screen when hitting restart button during qualifier in tournaments
-Fixed spot in Out of Service where you could fly through the ground
-Removed wifi icon in house map to fix issues with readability when using physics panel on that map
-Adjusted tournament timer so that it shows proper time when qualifier is longer than 1 hour
-Fixed issue with Campground and USAF Night Mode maps where track cards moved around the screen
-Fixed problem with Map Editor not saving work intermittently
-Fixed race line issues
-Resolved issue with MultiGP tall gates
-Corrected problem where user could fly with workbench in the background
-Fixed issue where Biosphere freestyle loads Skatepark instead of Biosphere
-Fixed issue where render scale did not do anything
-Corrected problem where custom bots could not be raced with and it would cause loading into a freestyle version of the map
-Resolved problem where ESC doesn't exit during replay
-Corrected bug where graphics would create unusual effect when landing in the canoe on the Lakehouse

Hello Pilots,
We are excited to bring you our latest update. We start off with a number of big updates courtesy of the U.S. Air Force. The first big update is the introduction of the oft-requested Night Mode, a version of the U.S. Air Force Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Base, with night lighting featuring 3 brand new race tracks. The U.S. Air Force also brings you a number of new features when you are creating your own drones including a rebranded workbench, 3 new U.S. Air Force branded skins, and 2 U.S. Air Force branded motors.


In addition to the U.S. Air Force Boneyard Night Mode, we are bringing you our most graphically advanced map to date, the Campground. This map features a lake, cabins, power lines, cars, bridges, and even a train tunnel for you to fly through. We are kicking off the launch of this map with 4 new tracks for it.


Next up we have our paid skins feature where we are bringing you our first animated drone skins available for purchase. You can check out these skins under the new “Store” card where you will find skins like “Party Time,” a celebratory skin decked out with animated confetti. Our initial launch includes 2 individual skins available for purchase as well as a pack of 4 skins.

In our last update, we mentioned that our experience points system was being released as a beta. Today, we are simplifying that system where you will have a cumulative level and a weekly level.

We are also adding 3 new achievements today. You can now earn an achievement by winning 5 tournaments, creating 5 maps, and/or building maps that see at least 20 leaderboard times logged on them.

We’ve heard a number of community requests to add more statistics to the sim. To this end, you will now find information on your fastest lap, slowest lap, number of crashes, and finish percentile (relative to your time on the leaderboard).

Lastly, we have included a number of improvements including more work on the race line system as well as bug fixes. You can find a complete list of those below.

As always, your feedback and ongoing support are valued. Please let us know what you think of this release as we are constantly striving to bring you the best simulator that we can.


Bug Fixes

• Corrected issues with World Traveler achievement
  
• Resolved problems with camera boxes appearing on tracks
  
• Reverted multiplayer forced Racer4 default changes to resolved bugs
  
• Made Bridge map accessible in Map Editor
  
• Resolved issue with drone rotation on rates screen
  
• Resolved problems with various loading animations not working/loading
  
• Fixed problem with network disconnected dialogue message going out of box
  
• Made additional improvements to race line consistency
  
• Fixed issue where spectator name and time would not display when using spectator mode

Welcome to the 2021 DRL SIM Tryouts, a player-to-pilot esports competition, open to anyone at least 18 years old by July 1, 2021, who wants to be the next professional DRL pilot. The SIM Tryouts Champion will be offered a professional DRL Pilot contract to compete in the 2021 DRL Allianz World Championship Season.

To enter, head to the Tournaments section of The Drone Racing League Simulator and click on the 2021 Tryouts card. From there, you can register and join once the tournament opens on May 10th at 10am EST.

Players will have until May 16th at 11:59 pm EST to set their fastest time in the Qualifying Round. The Top 24 players will advance to the online tournament on Thursday, May 20th at 7pm EST.

SCHEDULE
May 10th - May 16th
Qualifying: DRL 2020 - Biosphere
Top 24 Advance

May 20th at 7pm EST
Quarterfinals (4 Groups of 6 / Top 3 from each group advance): Track 2
Semifinals (2 Groups of 6 / Top 3 from each group advance): Track 3
Finals (1 Group of 6): Track 4

The top 24 pilots who advance from the Qualifying round are advised to join DRL’s Discord server on May 20th by 7pm EST to sign in and confirm their spot in the bracket.

Want to go from gamer to pilot? Now's your chance. Enter the SIM Tryouts and you could be one of DRL's next professional pilots.

Terms: https://cdn.thedroneracingleague.com/wordpress/uploads/2021/05/2021-DRL-SIM-Tryouts-Rules-and-TCs.pdf

Hello Pilots,

You’ve been waiting patiently for the next set of features to come out and today we bring you a monster of a release.

We start off with two features that have been highly requested - Offline mode and a Favorite System. Yes, you can now play the sim offline when you are traveling or don’t have an internet connection. You can also now put all of your favorite tracks in a single folder, eliminating the need to navigate through multiple menus in between races to find the track you want to race.

Next, we bring you a custom bot feature and bot improvements. For the custom bot feature, you can now race against any player you want from the leaderboard. You can build a field of up to 5 pilots to race against with the new “custom” option in solo race. For the bot improvements, we bring you a default of racing against DRL Racer 4 bots. In the past, you would get matched up against drones from all classes so we wanted to make the competition more even by default.

We are still going strong here with the features as we bring you an achievement system on Steam. You now have 15 achievements that you can earn. You will earn badges based on the achievements you earn.

We also bring you a new track called the Foundry Circuit on Boston Foundry.

The monster release would not be complete without one more major feature. It is our experience points system. You will earn a level over the course of all of your flying based on the tracks you fly (Each DRL track now shows XP and you earn more XP for multiplayer races). You will also earn streak points for every day when you fly 3 DRL tracks. No experience points system would be complete without a badge system, which is reset every week. You can find more details in the sim under “About XP.” Please note that this is in beta and will be adjusted on our next release based on findings. Since we are launching on a Thursday, the weekly ranking (with badges) will reset on Monday as Monday marks the start of the new week.

Please let us know your thoughts. We always appreciate your feedback and are thankful for the engaged community we have that always pushes us further to deliver the best sim we can.




DRL Sim 3.8

Key Features:

• Offline Mode
  
• Steam Achievements
  
• Experience Points (XP) (Beta)
  
• Favorite System
  
• Custom Bot feature
  
• Bot competition improvements
  
• Tournament system UI improvements
  
• Performance improvements
  
• Leaderboard filter by controller

Bug Fixes

• Raceline improvements
  
• Goldberg tuning
  
• Metal Gate 01 issues
  
• Intermittent missions crashing
  
• Banners appearing that shouldn’t
  
• Tabbing in and out of sim causes system slowdown
  
• Audio repeating on fast restart
  
• Tabbing in and out of sim causes system slowdown
  
• Extended automatic timeout (previously set to 10 minutes) to 15 minutes when flying
  
• Changed default in graphics settings to “Full Screen” instead of “Exclusive”
  
• Fixed map voting issues
  
• Missions bugs
  
• Quest 3 Mission 14
  
• Quest 3 Mission 18
  
• Tournament system bugs
  
• Brackets misaligned
  
• Audio stuck after race
  
• System exceptions
  
• Navigation unresponsive when going to next and then back

Hello Pilots,

We are happy to bring you our latest release. This release features the first 9 tracks from our 2020 season, which can be found under the new Virtual Season card under solo race, multiplayer, or freestyle.

You will also find many of the new assets from the current season now available in map editor for you to design your own tracks with. We look forward to seeing what you can create.

This release brings a number of performance improvements that we expect you will find improve your experience in the sim. Please note that OSX users might be asked to give disk permission again when installing this update.

Stay tuned to our website for the latest on our 2020 season.

Lastly, remember that we hold community tournaments every Sunday at 3pm and 7pm EST. You can stay up to date on these in our Discord server on the tournaments channel.

Thanks for your ongoing support of the sim. We always welcome all feedback and comments.

Hello Pilots,

We are excited to bring you a new map today, the U.S. Air Force Boneyard. This map will be used for today’s Fanduel DRL Sim Racing Cup event at 4pm EST. This map will have a freestyle track and 2 race tracks in this release, “Stratotanker” and “Sim Racing Cup 8.” The Sim Cup track will be added shortly when today’s race begins.

The Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is the world's largest military aircraft maintenance facility and home to thousands of decommissioned aircraft. Although this map is not an exact replica of the real boneyard, it has hundreds of planes including KC-135 Stratotankers, F-15E Strike Eagles and A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthogs” to fly over and explore.

We encourage you to check out these new tracks and see how you stack up to your fellow sim pilots.

Thank you for your ongoing support,
DRL Sim Team