It has been a long time since the last update for Downtown Drift, also it has been quite some time since I had initially announced this update to come out... my bad. I suppose I've gotten a bit rusty when it comes to estimating how long the final stretch of an update can take. A lot of bugs came up somewhat last-minute and there were certainly a few other things I wasn't completely happy with. This led to me delaying the update and even having to delay the delayed update once more. I did release a somewhat stable release on the beta branch two weeks ago and thanks to the feedback from the community over on discord I have been able to catch a handful of bugs and get rid of them. In the end, I think I have learned my lesson to not under-estimate and over-promise. Will not happen again!

With that out of the way, now onto this update: There is a new map, a new music system and a hopefully better new Input System.

One thing that had definitely bothered me before was the very limited map versatility. Having the map as a strict grid of roads was a decision I made in order to simplify the development of an early prototype, but I ended up sticking with it because it did somewhat work fine. However, my initial idea was to have a far more interesting map with different districts and areas to drive through. With the new map generation system I have come a great deal closer to this vision. From now on you can still drive on the roads but also take turns into different city blocks with exterior and interior areas. The only current problem is that there is just one finished district: the industrial district. So while offering a lot more physical space to drift through, visually speaking the space might still seem a bit repetitive and bland. Do not worry too much though, there will be more districts in the future. So more to come here!

Another thorn in my side had been the pretty bad input. I partially blame Unity for this since their Input is quite shitty to say the least. I have now migrated the project to use their new Input System, which is shitty in its on ways, but should offer some more flexibility when it comes to Input devices. So I hope with the new Input it is now easier to play the game with Controllers and especially Steering Wheels!

At last, but definitely not least: the music. Up until now the music in the game consisted of a 2 second loop that would repeat without any variation for however long it took one to find that there is a way to mute the music. I can't blame anyone for it, I myself enjoy playing the game much more with the music muted but sound effects on. However, I still wanted to improve the music in the game so I came up with a dynamic music system that allows for greater variation with little additional effort. At least so I thought... I ended up having to completely switch the audio engine from Unity's own to a middleware called FMod. This migration took a good amount of time, but was certainly worth it in the end. The new music system now transitions between different instruments of the music track based on how close police is to the player, and in addition each instrument has a selection of different loops now. It is far from perfect, but definitely far better than what there was before.

Here are all the changes for this update:

• added new map generation system
  
• added new input system
  
• added new dynamic music system
  
• added new police pathfinding
  
• reworked police radio
  
• adjusted Post-Processing and Lighting
  
• migrated audio engine to FMod
  
• added new icon
  
• fixed various UI bugs
  
• fixed rear mirror material
  
• fixed road material
  

Feel free to leave any feedback for this update in the comment section below or over on the discord server.

I want to especially thank everyone who played Downtown Drift throughout the last years and struck around despite such a long hiatus. It has been really amazing to see so many people enjoy the game and give lots of positive feedback. Equally I am happy with the often constructive critics that have helped make the game better over time. There is actually more average daily players right now than there has ever been at any point in the years prior, so I am super motivated to continue working on the Downtown Drift and deliver the best possible experience.

Best,

ThatMadProgrammer