Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown · published · build 20496150
Season 5 is the largest content update to arrive in TDUSC so far, so let’s recap all of the details we discussed on the recent showcase stream, and more!
Season 5 Details
Release Date / Maintenance Details / Length
Stream Recap
Taxi Missions
Poker
Before/After Map Changes
KT Engine Improvements
Construction Sites
Economy
Vehicle Improvements
Live Events
Update 1 Details
Update 2 Details
Known Issues
Sounds
Upcoming Updates
What’s Next?
Community Spotlight Winner - October
Winners
How To Enter
Coming Up Next
November Solar Club Letter
December Solar Club Letter
It’s time to recap and learn everything coming day one in Season 5!
Season 5 is releasing October 29, 2025. We will be starting the server maintenance at 10:00am CET and the maintenance will last up to 6:00pm CET. We will keep you updated on our progress during the day.
Season 5 will also have a 5 month length, with Season 6 releasing March 2026. Before Season 6 releases, we will have a larger communication on the next Season release dates. The content of each Season will however remain unchanged.
This change also means Season 5 will get 2 updates. This longer period will help us focus on polishing and bug fixing various areas of the game that the community have mentioned, as well as creating a dedicated update for optimisation within Season 5. Details on Update 1 and Update 2 will be discussed in the letter below.
On October 23, Community Manager Alex VII and Game Director Guillaume Guinet went live on the Nacon Racing YouTube channel to showcase all of the features coming to Season 5, as well as answering some questions from the community. Below you can find the following details
We also created a gameplay only video showing off the game in a stream highlight fashion with timecodes, so if you’d like to watch gameplay without the talking from the stream and see the game in it’s max quality, check the link below!
There were many questions asked during the stream, and we wanted to clarify our answers on some of these subjects. Let’s take a look at some of the most common questions asked!
Q: Will we expand Ibiza?
A: Ibiza is something a lot of the community is asking for, and we know it is something that we want to bring in the future, but we don’t want to make any promises on this until we have a dedicated team working on this. At the moment, our art teams are working on year 2 features, the most important one being Season 8 Housing. This feature requires a lot of work from our level designers and environmental artists. Another reason why we aren’t working on this is that right now we're focused on optimization. Optimisation means to create new processes to build the world. We cannot work on new processes while adding areas to the world using the old ones.
Our plan on this would be to update Ibiza in sections, rather than the entire island at once, especially as we want to add content to the expanded areas of Ibiza as they arrive. When we have a dedicated team working on the expansion of Ibiza, we will be able to communicate this with you.
Q: Will we implement DRL’s/high-beam/low-beam?
A: We’ve seen this request a few times, and it’s something we think we can integrate into TDUSC, but it requires a new lighting structure to set up the differences between all 3 light modes, as well as integrating the feature into the KT Engine and following each car's DRL setup. That said, we can’t communicate on this improvement yet until it’s something we start working on, but we believe it fits TDU perfectly!
Q: When will crossregion/crossplay arrive?
A: We have currently prioritised crossregion over crossplay. It will require a lot of work on our network to adapt for this system, but we have a dedicated team working on this feature. We do not have an update on specific ETA for this feature, but we hope to have it completed by the end of 2026.
Q: When can players expect more optimisation for TDUSC?
A: Our next large optimisation update will arrive in Update 2 of Season 5. We will detail this in this month’s letter in the ‘Update 2 Details’ section!
Q: When will steering animation delay be fixed?
A: This is a bug report we are currently working on. We have found the issue with the system, and we hope to have this solution by Season 6.
Q: What are our plans for customisation for TDUSC? (rim size, rim colour, bodykits, spoilers, brake calipers, etc)
A: We already have more customisation options arriving in TDUSC in future updates. We think it’s something that can help elevate the personalisation aspect of TDUSC, however we also know a lot of the TDU fanbase prefers more TDU-DNA derived customisation options like just simply changing caliper colour, or rim size, rim colour, etc. We’ll keep you in the loop on these improvements throughout Year 2.
Q: What are our plans for a realistic tachometer UI (like TDU2)?
A: This is something we’d love to have in TDUSC. We have made a few samples of this concept to get approval from manufacturers on the design. Once we have feedback, we will evaluate our next steps on this feature. We can’t confirm for sure we’ll be able to bring this feature into TDUSC yet, but if it is something we can do, we will look into adding it into our roadmap plans.
Q: Can we see GPS navigation added into vehicles?
A: Similarly, this feature will require feedback from the manufacturers. When we know the next steps on this feature, we will be sure to communicate to you on it!
Q: When can players expect 8-player groups?
A: We have made progress on this feature since we last communicated it to you, but we want to make sure this feature arrives well polished.
We are aiming to have this ready for Season 6 but we will confirm with you closer to the launch of Season 6 if this feature will be ready.
Q: When can players expect a photo mode update?
A: Good pictures from the community can write a game's success itself, and we know we can do better with the photo mode in TDUSC. We don’t have any plans to work on this feature soon, but we think it’s something that could go well with housing. It’s a big work though, because it requires taking the KT Engine a step further in how photo mode renders and works. When we have better visibility on this, we’ll let you know!
Q: When can players expect a livery editor update (grouping of stickers, sticker material, etc)?
A: There is a lot to do to the livery editor in TDUSC, and we don’t think we will be able to do a complete overhaul in Year 2, but we are looking into bringing some QoL features to the editor in 2026. We’ll communicate this when we have better visibility on the subject.
Q: When can players expect more details on camera improvements (seat height, turning off camera shake, etc)?
A: Camera improvements in TDUSC will arrive in the future for sure. We know players want to customise this experience of TDUSC, but similarly we cannot provide a concrete date on this feature.
Q: When can players rotate the camera during rim purchases/vehicle purchases?
A: This is a feature we hear often from the community. We believe it is something we should work on for TDUSC, and we’ll share news on this in a future update.
Q: Can players expect to see more weather scenarios added to TDUSC (rain on Ibiza/thunderstorms with lightning)?
A: We have worked on improving many scenarios of weather in the Season 5 Hong Kong Island timecycle update, but we have not added a scenario for severe thunderstorms with lightning.
We think the addition of rain to Ibiza would be nice, and we have also thought of adding a cycle in Ibiza called ‘Calima’ (learn more about it here), but we have a lot of other things to focus on at the moment.
Q: Can players expect more Casino game modes in the future?
A: Before bringing more gamemodes to the Casino, we want to focus on features that all players can enjoy, as there are restrictions for many countries that prevent players from accessing the Casino in TDUSC. We are also going to look into the possibility of opening up the Casino to more countries where government rules may be discussed further. More news on this will arrive when we have more to share.
Q: When can players expect JDM vehicles? Sedans? Wagons?
A: Players can expect a JDM filled Season in Season 7. All vehicles both in the dealership, online store, and Solar Pass will be JDM.
Recently, we also had the community vote on a vehicle which fits such description, so we know its something you all want to see! We don’t want to reveal too much yet though!
Q: Will other TDU2 features be returning?
A: There are many gameplay elements to TDUSC so far from TDU2, but we think there is always room to improve and adapt more. We cannot comment specifically on what we plan for the future of TDUSC outside of the already communicated Year 2 content, but we have some great ideas to evolve TDUSC in the future.
Q: Are there plans to change the design of dealerships and workshops?
A: This is something on our minds as it helps us reach the end goal of a more realistic and cinematic experience with TDUSC. We however are not working on this yet, as the art team is working hard on the ORC, houses, race layout improvements, and more! Rest assured, it’s something we want to bring to the world of TDUSC in the future.
Q: Are there plans to add a police mission system to TDUSC?
A: Adding a police system for TDUSC would be nice, however we don’t think it is something we can commit to yet. Such a feature would need to be like TDU2’s. Both singleplayer and multiplayer, the feature where it calls other people on the map to join the session, associated licenced police themed vehicles with the livery/appearance being rewarded to players, and more. This making the feature complex would take us some time to create, and we are currently full on our Year 2 roadmap. This is something we could discuss for an update after Year 2, possibly bringing back another ‘Community Voted Season’ concept.
The flagship feature arriving in Season 5 is Taxi Missions! This feature previously in TDU2, was given immense depth for its reveal in TDUSC. In Season 5, you’ll be able to pick up and drop off passengers in 50 different scenarios. Within each of these are different client profiles, and within that, different questions and requests from them! Let’s quickly recap everything you need to know about this feature!
Private Driver
Taxi contracts are driving missions in which you need to fulfill the needs of clients to earn a good final rating. Depending on the client profile, you also need to arrive at the destination by a certain time. The difficulty of this will also change depending on the mission. Get a 5 star rating to achieve the maximum earnings, but be careful, once you reach 0, the mission ends, and you cannot restart!
Client Profiles
There are 4 different client profiles. Fulfilling their specific needs will improve your rating, but accidents and careless driving can have the opposite effect. Pay attention to the mission page UI and see what your passenger will take note of. For example, some clients might want you to not follow the speed limit, and get them to the destination on time, however, some might want you to follow the speed limit and drive very smoothly while obeying traffic rules!
Questions and Requests
Pay attention to your passengers throughout the journey because they may have specific requests that you weren't expecting. Some may ask you to turn on the radio or put your windows down, however there are questions that are a bit more in depth, and may require some thinking from you so make sure you answer them correctly, as they will affect your rating score!
Gameplay
We have uploaded various gameplay footage of Taxi Missions in action, check the link here at the following timecodes to see how they work!
Poker is finally arriving in the Casino in Season 5! Let’s again recap what you can expect from this new Casino gamemode.
To start, head to the Casino and enter a Poker room. Here, you have 3 rooms to choose from. Emerald features a 1,000 Solar Coin buy-in, Sapphire features a 100,000 Solar Coin buy-in but you have to win 15 hands in Poker to unlock, and Ruby features a 500,000 buy-in but you have to win 50 hands in Poker to unlock.
Once you’re in, you have 3 Poker tables, with a maximum seating capacity of 8, so you’ll have 24 players in a lobby for Poker rooms, slightly less than the 32-player lobby in the Casino hall. Next, head to any of the 3 tables and join a game!
All that’s left to do is look at your cards, and make the right moves! Don’t forget, there is voice chat, so use it wisely if you think you can trick other players into calling your bluff!
We uploaded gameplay of Poker on the Nacon Racing YouTube channel, so feel free to take a look at how it goes!
We also want to discuss some issues with Poker. Below are some known issues that are being worked on and fixed for Update 1.
SummaryNote/Comment
The current total of chips is not updated when leaving a poker table. It's only a visual issue and the total updates correctly when buying more or reloading the game.
Workaround: Note that re-entering another poker table will not update the displayed amount either. To work around this bug, after leaving a table, buy any amount of chips to have the correct amount refreshed.
When using the buy-in option after not having any chips to continue, the number of chips granted from the balance is incorrect.
Sometimes, when having multiple possible winning hands, the lowest one is displayed on screen. Note that the highest one is still taken into account correctly.
Another improvement coming to Season 5 is a large amount of map improvements to Hong Kong Island. Quarry Bay had some of these improvements in S4P1, but it gets the final touches in Season 5!
Let's take a look at Stanley's prison area, which had a massive change!
We did this to create a better feel of Hong Kong Island and make a more accurate map feel.
Here are some more photos of what players can see.
We have also created a video showcasing all map changes coming in Season 5. Check the video out below!
To discuss this change in more detail, Stéphane Cambier, the Art Director for TDUSC has more to say!
“While a small team is dedicated to optimizing and developing future content, another team is focused on improving specific areas of Hong Kong.
These areas required additional attention to capture the mood of their real-world counterparts, as they currently lack key details. Our primary focus has been Aberdeen and Stanley, with northern districts next on our agenda.”
- Stéphane Cambier / TDUSC Art Director
The KT Engine gets a lot of improvements for Season 5. You can find improved reflections, timecycles, effects, and more!
Ibiza Screenshots
Hong Kong Island Screenshots
The first two construction sites appear in Ibiza! These locations do not represent the full shape of the house, but if you look closely at the environment, you can have an idea of the garden or scenery around the location once it arrives in Season 8!
More construction sites will arrive throughout the next Seasons, so keep your eyes peeled!
Big changes arrive in Season 5 for TDUSC’s economy! Bigger race payouts, improved FRIM, and car selling!
Race Payouts: We’ve increased the payouts of all races found on both Ibiza and Hong Kong Island. Crown Jewel races now pay as they should based on the risk/time, so some of them can payout sums totalling over 1,000,000 Solar Coins.