Hey Riders,

We really hope you’re enjoying Synthtober Fest so far - and we have a special treat in store for you in today’s update!

Free New Song - “Cyberpunk (Synth Riders Edition)” by Extra Terra
To celebrate Synthtober Fest, we’re giving you all a free new song for the Cyberpunk Essentials pack! Extra Terra, the France-based Sci-Fi & Cyberpunk producer, has put together a special Synth Riders edition of his track “Cyberpunk” to give you an intense, electrifying experience!

Special Effects Now Have Individual Effect Volume Controls
You can now individually control the volume of many of the game’s special effects - from the sound when you hit a wall, to the sound when you miss a special section! Use the master control to manage the overall volume, and adjust the balance of each of the other sound effects to your taste!

Quest Players: Tune the Visuals with Advanced Graphics & Note Texture Settings
Paving the way for the increased processing power of the Quest 2, we’ve also opened more detailed graphics settings for the Quest through the Settings > Visuals > Advanced Graphics panel. Quest users can also now select different note textures under Settings > Colors which some players may find aids in visibility.

Bug Fixes / Improvements

• Unusually long game & stage loading times for some SteamVR users fixed. This error was caused by a SteamVR component, thank you to Banana, Fizz, Freyar, Grist, Waurgus for helping us find, fix and test this one!
  
• Memory leak bugs in Custom Stages, News and Updates fixed.
  
• Significant improvements to custom song loading times thanks to caching, one of the big goals of our overall song management changes over recent months.
  
• Minor changes to the in-game news.
  
• To assist with bug reporting, your game version is now visible on the Settings menu.

As always we welcome your feedback and bug reports on our Official discord server (Invite: http://discord.synthridersvr.com). Please use #bugs-report to make sure that we see your feedback.

If you want to support the development of Synth Riders, we really appreciate reviews left on the Steam/Oculus Store!

It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly 12 months since Synth Riders left Early Access on Steam and launched on Oculus Quest. We want to celebrate with our community all month long, with a bunch of activities and events - and giveaways!

• Play a Halloween Challenge created by SteveKnows, available now until November 3rd!
  
• Join Gleam giveaway to win the Oculus Quest 2 headset!

• We’ve asked some of your favorite VR YouTubers (EricForPresident, SteveKnows, Naysy & HeyFalcon) to each set a Featured Challenge for you this month!
  
• Challenges from YouTubers will debut every Wednesday. YouTubers will play their Challenges and invite you to beat their scores.
  
• For more details, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
  
• The Halloween Challenge created by SteveKnows is now live!

• There’s an $800 prize pool in cash for those who join Challenges in October.
  
• You can win $25, $50, or $75 for placing top scores in the Challenges created by YouTubers.
  
• You can also win 4 x $50 for taking part in at least one Featured Challenge every week in October
  
• Find out more here: LINK

• Be ready for the drop on October 8th when we unlock a brand new track in the Cyberpunk Pack, a special Synth Riders exclusive remix of “Cyberpunk” by Extra Terra!

• On October 20th, we will release a “Perfect Hit VR Bundle” on Steam.
  
• The bundle will include Synth Riders, Eleven: Table Tennis, and The Thrill of The Fight.
  
• It’s a great opportunity to pick up some amazingly energetic games at a generous discount!
  
• The bundle’s price will be flexible so you can grab it even cheaper if you save 40% on Synth Riders now.

• Join us on Halloween night to celebrate the anniversary together
  
• It’s a “Play with the Devs” event in the multiplayer mode of the game
  
• The party begins on October 31st at 6 PM PST ADD TO CALENDAR!

Extra Custom Camera Options
You can now lock Pan, Roll, Yaw, Width, Height and Depth, which lets you position and lock the custom camera in one place or control the degree of movement you'd prefer.

Bug Fixes

• Rail scores correctly reflect accuracy of the initial note hit (thanks @MiMiXis & @Silzoid), in addition the score flyoffs should now match the score accrued for special rails.
  
• Exiting the game and canceling while loading custom songs will continue to load custom songs correctly (thanks @Nova_Max)

Score Rebalancing
After lots of discussion with players, we’re adjusting the values of notes, rails and specials to give a better overall score experience.

The new values for notes hit as Perfect are:

• Standard Notes - 1000 points
  
• One-Handed Special (Green) - 1500 points
  
• Two-Handed Special (Gold) - 2000 points

Rails are then calculated at double those values per second of time on the rail:

• Standard Rail - 2000 points per second
  
• One-Handed Special Rail (Green) - 3000 points per second
  
• Two-Handed Special Rail (Gold) - 4000 points per second

Hit Detection Changes
We’ve made some changes to our hit detection system, and now the shape of the hit detection surfaces better matches what you see in game (yes, they’re spherical!) This should be more intuitive for players, is properly unidirectional - but will mean you’ll need to make a bit more effort to get to the centres of the notes!

Small / Large Notes
Previously these modifiers have been cosmetic only, but not anymore! To spice things up, we’re really making small notes harder to hit (you’ll really have to earn that modifier bonus!). At the same time, we’re making large notes easier for you to hit if you’re someone who needs a bit of help to pass those more difficult maps.

Extra Options for Graphics
In the Visuals menu, there are new options to control graphics. You can now choose a level for the neon glow effect, and there is a new Advanced button which gives you a menu of new graphics adjustments to help you tune game performance. You can adjust the quality of textures, lower antialiasing and anisotropic levels and toggle alpha blending on particles.

Confirmation Prompt for Game Exit button
When you exit the game using the exit button located on the main stage platform, you will be asked to confirm that you wish to exit the game. This will prevent accidentally exiting the game, particularly during Multiplayer games while using Push to Talk!

Configurable Game Pause Delay
You can now specify how long you wish the pause button to be held down before the game will pause during a song. This is helpful for players who hold controllers in such a way that accidentally pausing the game is a problem.

Fade Music (Ducking) for Multiplayer Voice Chat
In Multiplayer, a new option allows you to have the game automatically duck the music when other players speak. You can configure this to happen either just in the Lobby, where it will fade out the preview music and menu background, or always.

Bug Fixes / Improvements

• In Multiplayer, the announcer will now wait a while before telling you your position.
  
• Song Request queue is working again for Twitch Integration.
  
• More work behind the scenes on LIV SDK 1.5, fix for Mixed Reality players will be coming soon first in LIV public_beta, so if you want to be ready you can swap to that in advance if you wish!

NEW MERCH ALERT
You ask - we deliver! We’ve just added three new T-shirts to our store on RedBubble. You can now proudly wear the official logo of the game, or go. New t-shirts (with a link: https://www.redbubble.com/people/synthriders/shop)

And If you enjoy Synth Riders, please leave your review on the Steam/Oculus Store. It's one of the most powerful ways to support the game!

Challenges are weekly mini-tournaments that allow you and your friends to play against each other in heart-pounding matches, even when you’re not in VR at the same time.

Every Wednesday, we dare you to accept one of the official Featured Challenges created by our development team. The Challenges are cross-platform so you can join in on a challenge with the entire Synth Riders family!

Join the community to make sure you never miss a new Challenge:

On Discord
On Twitter
On Facebook

If you can, please write a review of Synth Riders. It's one of the most powerful ways to support the game!



Still want more? This update is packed with great content updates and quality of life features to help every player get the most out of their experience playing Synth Riders!


Now you can keep up with all the latest Synth Riders news via our in-game news panel visible in the main game screen! But you want to keep up with the Synth Riders news outside of VR too?

Well, there’s a completely revamped Synth Riders website at https://synthridersvr.com where you can find all the latest news and updates no matter where you are!




You may recall that we recently sent out a survey asking for your feedback on all our stages! Based on your feedback, we have revamped all the stages except for “Dystopia” (the most recent addition for the Cyberpunk DLC). You’ll find improved environments with a new feeling of space and scale, performance improvements and enhanced lighting - while adding visibility corridors to improve the play experience! Why not try a new stage, or use the random feature to try them all?


On the Song Select panel, you’ll find a new Sort & Filter icon in the top toolbar. Select this to open the Sort & Filter panel where you can sort your music packs & custom songs by name, BPM, plays and date added (use the reverse button to flip the sort), in addition you can also filter here by song difficulty!



Each person can now adjust what they hear from other players in Multiplayer. You’ll see a new gear icon next to each player’s name in the lobby, which you can use to turn down or mute the player! In addition, the player with the crown may also ban a player from the room.

Now you too can try out the new Master level for “Carry On” by F.O.O.L. which was used as a sight reading challenge for our finalists in the VAL Tournament! (Congratulations Moinn, RAPTOR & Jade!)


More improvements to LIV support under the LIV 1.5 SDK, which will require you to use the public_beta branch of LIV until advised otherwise! Please keep an eye on the Synth Riders & LIV discords for more news as SDK 1.5 rolls out. We are excited to be early adopters of the new technology, and grateful to our content creators using LIV for their patience as we make this transition.

Rail length compliance bug has been fixed (thanks Jade!)

https://youtu.be/v2IXW3DSP_A

This complextro track matches super danceable rhythm with dub and bass cuts, gorgeously spaced-out synth breaks, and topped off with the ethereal vocals of Holly Drummond.

This new addition joins other free songs in the "Cyberpunk Essentials" Pack, so let's find ways to "Carry On" dancing!





The Custom camera now allows you to lock movements. You can lock roll to stop the camera tracking any head tilt side to side, lock pitch to stop the camera tracking any head nodding and lock the height to stop the camera moving up and down when you squat and stand.

Select any score on the leaderboard to view the play summary screen for that score. This includes the notes hit, longest streak and the perfect/good/poor breakdown chart.

We have updated the LIV Mixed Reality SDK included with the game!

• The new LIV SDK no longer requires externalcamera.cfg file, so if you don’t require special options for the camera, you can remove this file from your game’s install folder. Doing so will fix the game window for users previously affected by a “tiny corner window” which made the game window unsuitable for capture.
  
• Removed visible black patches from the foreground which were showing under particle effects when in foreground.
  
• If you experience difficulty launching the game from LIV after this update, please try starting the game and then using Manual capture - Normal.

• Where a special note was placed on the end of rail at the finish of a special section, it was possible to hit the note first, triggering the end of the special and resulting in the rail score not always being counted as a special (Thanks MiMiXis!)
  
• Performance improvements for the “Rise of the Phoenix” stage (particularly on Quest).

Thank you so much, Riders. Carry on and join us on Discord!

Custom Camera
There is now a Custom camera option available in Settings > Visuals which allows you to choose stabilization (smoothing), distance and field of view.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• All notes in Force mode must be played the same way. Previously, close notes switched to accuracy mode, but for consistency this has been changed to one mechanic for the whole mode.
  
• All gold (two-handed) notes, including single notes and the first note in a special section, must be played with both hands.
  
• Improvements made to hand detection for green (any hand) notes.

Take a trip to a future dystopia, where neon lights our day and night, cyberpunks and hackers are the new revolutionaries striking back at a technocratic regime.

Synth Riders’ “Cyberpunk Essentials” music pack takes you there with 10 carefully selected songs from both established and emerging electronic dance music artists such as Tokyo Machine, Pegboard Nerds, RIOT, and Au5!

• “Voidwalkers” by Au5 & Chime
  
• “I’ll Fight Back” by Sullivan King
  
• “Showdown” by F.O.O.L.
  
• “Calling Out” by MUZZ (feat. KG & Skyelle)
  
• “Revenger” by F.O.O.L.

Plus a new Cyberpunk themed avatar!


Either individually or as part of a bundle:

• “Take That” by RIOT
  
• “Eden” by Au5 & Danyka Nadeau
  
• “TURBO” by Tokyo Machine
  
• “MOSHI” by Pegboard Nerds & Tokyo Machine
  
• “New Game” by Nitro Fun

Completing your experience is the brand new environment named “Dystopia”, where you take a road trip through a future city under the watchful gaze of “Big Brother”.

https://youtu.be/8aOJFPvyWRs

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/15876/


Look closely at the end of the pack, and you’ll also notice a couple of extra songs:
“Takeover” by Zardonic (feat. The Qemists) and “Cyberpunk (Synth Riders Edition) by Extra Terra
These extra FREE songs will appear in everyone’s library very soon!


You can listen to the whole pack on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/02hlMI0AeQuaAPtSTNlkgI?si=xhpcSYwHQ-WABVQfXewwFw

IT’S “PLAY WITH THE DEVS” THURS 13 AUG 6PM PST at https://twitch.tv/synthridersvr





(PCVR Only) You can now change the pattern shown on the notes through the Settings > Colors interface, choose a pattern that suits your playstyle and favourite stage.


Get Ready for the Invaderz!
Your chat can now cause a Synth Invader to appear in game! Head into your Twitch Integration panel in game and turn on INVADERZ. Now your chat can either use the !invaderz or !invaders command to spawn up to 3 ships for you to battle. Be sure to dodge or hit their fire! Change the button from “INVADERZ” to “INVADERZ BITS” to make the Synth Invaders appear in response to bit donations - 100 bits to launch the first invader, 400 bits for the second and 500 for the third - so 1000 bits instantly launches all three!


You can grant/revoke moderators special permissions for use with Twitch Integration using !enable <feature>/!disable <feature> commands for the following features:
moderatorall - disables all special moderators permissions
moderatortoggle - disables the !enable and !disable command for moderators
moderatorcommands - allows moderators to use interaction commands even when they are disabled
moderatorqueue - allows moderators to control the queue even when it is disabled
(All these features are enabled by default)


Your moderators may use !enable <feature>/!disable<feature> commands to turn on and off Twitch Integration features for you. The features available to control are: color, rainbow, timewarp, speed, superspeed, invaders/invaderz, bitinvaderz/bitinvaders, botreply, queue.


Moderators can add songs to the top of the queue, or promote songs with !top <songname>, and can remove songs from the queue using !remove <songname>. The queue is now saved when you exit the game, and you can clear the queue with the !clear command.

• Mapper name no longer shows as “zzzz” for OST requests.
  
• Modifier icons now show tooltips in Multiplayer mode.
  
• Oculus SDK performance improvements.

As always we welcome your feedback and bug reports on our Official Discord server.
Please use #bugs-report to make sure that we see your feedback.

Join us for the best dance party in the Metaverse! Put on your shiny shoes, jump into the Multiplayer Mode of Synth Riders, and become the king of the dance floor.

This weekly, cross-platform event is a great way to have a good time with your friends, meet new people, and get your daily exercise in the process.

Our host and one of the favorites VR streamers HeyFalcon will jump between the rooms to get the party going. The event will also be live at http://twitch.tv/synthridersvr.

"Saturday Synth Fever" event begins every Saturday at 6PM PST / 9PM EST.

Hit "Set a Reminder" button to make sure you don’t miss the party!

Hi Riders!

We really hope you're all enjoying the Spin Update, and we've been gathering all your reports of issues from all over and working to get as many things patched as possible. We want to thank everyone who has let us know about all these things for helping make Synth Riders a better game for everyone! There are a lot of changes in this patch, we've detailed as much of it as we can here.

FORCE MODE

• After feedback from our Force playing community, the Force setting has been changed to the equivalent setting of the old “normal” modifier. This should make Force mode more enjoyable for everyone (thanks ELZ, NotKouto, emikodo)

MULTIPLAYER

• Multiplayer scores for rooms with more than 5 players now display correctly (thanks Xrayxout).
  
• Multiplayer - players marked as "Not Ready" are still being brought into the game (thanks Glonkable)
  
• Multiplayer - wins not being updated in the main board (thanks Camelellogram)
  
• Setting Voice Chat to Always and leaving Push to Talk off now correctly lets you talk while playing (thanks Gruntled)

TWITCH INTEGRATION

• Prismatic notes behave correctly with the !rainbow command (thanks GeeseBreath)
  
• Colour randomization with !color colours the rails correctly (thanks Wirrel)
  
• Back arrow on the Queue menu works correctly (thanks Wirrel)

STAGES

• “Spin City” is now selectable as a stage for use outside of Spin Mode!
  
• Objects in the Spin City stage no longer disappear on head movement (thanks T-railed, Ichderhorst)

SETTINGS

• Multiple selections of the Load Scene button in Settings no longer causes a problem loading the ready room world (thanks Xrayxout)
  
• Auto Height & Units options in the Settings > Calibration Menu now work correctly (thanks mvoosten)
  
• Time format updated for Quest users on the platform clock behind the player (thanks Gruntled)

OFFLINE PLAY

• You are again able to play offline (thanks ThatDylan). In this mode, scores will not be saved or submitted.

SCORES & LEADERBOARDS

• You may now swap between two leaderboard views.
  
• Combined view shows all scores regardless of modifiers used.
  
• Modified view shows only those scores set using the modifiers which you have selected
  
• Player’s own score will now show again on the Friends tab in leaderboards (thanks Xoanon)
  
• Scores set in Multiplayer lobbies are now saved into the unified leaderboards, so while you’re waiting for players to join you can still practice those songs!
  
• Leaderboards are no longer just identified by the song’s name and artist information. Instead they are now tied to the song’s map. This means that if you have made a custom song then you will have new leaderboards as of this update, and should you make alterations to your custom song’s map this will in future also cause a new leaderboard to be created
  
• .Accuracy percentages now showing correctly again on the summary screen on PCVR versions and multiplayer (thanks MiMiXi)

As always we welcome your feedback and bug reports on our Official discord server (Invite: http://discord.synthridersvr.com). Please use #bugs-report to make sure that we see your feedback.