Fpv Labs - Drone Simulator · published · build 25127430
Hey everyone!
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working on one of our largest core updates since FPV Labs entered Early Access.
A huge part of v0.1.2a was shaped by your feedback, including everything we learned throughout the Preview builds. We’ve rebuilt major parts of the flight model, retuned the included drones around the new simulation, and redesigned the Drone Configurator and menu UI to make setups easier to understand, build and tune.
Alongside the physics and UI overhaul, the update also introduces new flight modes, the first Beta of our dynamic sound system, AMD FSR, NVIDIA Frame Generation, map improvements and plenty of smaller fixes.
We’ve rebuilt large parts of the underlying drone simulation to improve how propulsion, aerodynamics, momentum and control interact throughout a flight. A lot of the final tuning was shaped directly by feedback from the Preview builds, especially around excessive drift, cornering grip and overly rocket like punchouts.
Propulsion and flight control have been rebuilt around four individually simulated motors, reworked motor and propeller response, and a new flight controller. PID tuning now uses more realistic values instead of abstract, simulator specific settings, while Dynamic Motor Idle improves low throttle control and responsiveness.
Battery simulation has been rebuilt as a connected system. Cell count, capacity, voltage, sag and battery health now interact with the propulsion model, with voltage directly affecting motor RPM, available thrust and control authority throughout the flight.
Aerodynamics have been extensively reworked with improved frame drag, propeller drag and airflow interaction, affecting how the quad carries and loses momentum throughout a flight.
Punchouts now behave more naturally. Propellers interact more realistically with the surrounding air under high load, allowing quads to retain their intended Thrust to Weight Ratio without the excessive rocket like acceleration of the previous system. They also transition back into a fall more naturally once throttle is reduced.
Cornering and grip have been significantly improved based on Preview feedback. Quads now feel much more planted through turns, carry noticeably less unwanted drift and behave more predictably during orbits and direction changes.
Propeller braking and deceleration have been improved, giving the propellers a stronger and more believable influence on how quickly the quad loses momentum.
Propwash and disturbed air behavior have been rebuilt to better separate thrust loss from physical instability. Turbulence and vibration behavior have also been refined for more natural reactions in disturbed air.
Collision and crash behavior have been improved with better propeller contacts, collision reactions and a new adjustable crash stiffness setting.
Added 3D / Bidirectional Propulsion, your Quad to generate thrust in both directions.
Added Turtle Mode / Flip After Crash for recovering an overturned drone using the motors.
The mode will continue to be refined and improved in future updates.
Improved Air Mode behavior.
The Drone Configurator has been redesigned to make building a believable setup easier, while keeping the full simulation depth available for players who want to go deeper.
Clearer configuration structure: The configurator is now organized into sections for Core Setup, Throttle Configuration, Propwash, Battery, Aerodynamics and other simulation systems.
Real world core values: Core Setup now focuses on familiar FPV values such as frame category, prop size, motor KV, battery cells and total weight, reducing the amount of manual tuning needed to reach a believable baseline.
Advanced tuning: More technical controls such as Flight Controller tuning, detailed Frame Drag and Prop Aerodynamics are now clearly separated as Advanced settings.
Pinned parameters: Configurator parameters can now be pinned, allowing you to display only the settings relevant to your current tuning task.
Math input: Numeric fields throughout the configurator now support mathematical expressions. Calculations such as 500 * 1.1 or 1200 / 2 can be entered directly into a value field.
Automatic Frame Drag scaling: Frame Drag now scales with the selected frame category. Converting a setup from a larger drone to a smaller one, or vice versa, no longer requires manually compensating the base frame drag. Detailed drag tuning remains available in the Advanced settings.
Reorganized battery settings: Battery cell count is now part of Core Setup, while detailed controls for capacity, battery sag and battery health are grouped in the Battery section.
Improved names and tooltips: Parameter descriptions now explain what each setting changes, how it affects flight behavior and how it relates to real world FPV concepts.
Improved Statistics: The Statistics panel now displays the calculated Thrust to Weight Ratio of your current setup.
Redesigned Main Menu: The Main Menu and several other parts of the overall menu experience have been redesigned and improved.
Important: Existing drone configurations Due to the extensive changes to the flight model and Drone Configurator, drone configurations created in previous versions will unfortunately no longer behave as they did before in v0.1.2a. Your existing drone configurations have not been deleted and can still be found and loaded. However, many of their values were created for the previous simulation systems and may no longer produce the expected results. Some configurations may even be completely unusable due to incompatible PID values. To make use of the new simulation as intended, we recommend starting with one of the updated v0.1.2a drone presets and recreating or transferring your setup from there.
All included drone presets have been retuned for the new flight model and further refined throughout the Preview based on your feedback.
Updated all drone presets to better match the revised physics, grip, aerodynamics and propulsion behavior. We’ll continue refining and tuning them further based on your feedback.
Improved the Tinywhoop preset with reduced oscillation and a more direct, responsive feel.
A first Beta version of our new immersive sound system is now available. Instead of relying only on static audio effects, the new system reacts dynamically to the environment around the drone and listener, changing how the drone sounds depending on where you are flying. Our goal is to recreate the energetic and immersive soundscape you experience when flying FPV in a real bando, where the sound of the quad comes alive through the surrounding structures, reflections and reverb.
Added dynamic environmental reverb and reflections that react to the surrounding environment.
Added support for both Pilot Perspective and Drone Perspective.
The system is currently available as a Beta feature and will continue to be expanded and refined in future updates.
Lighting improvements: Improved lighting across the existing environments.
Map refinements: Made smaller additions, refinements and extensions across the existing maps.
Costa Roja: Added another opening to the asbestos roof.
Human scale reference: A reference person now appears at your current Spawn / Home Point, giving you an immediate sense of scale wherever you choose to start.
Controller setup and mapping have received several quality of life improvements.
Copy mapping data: Controller mapping data can now be copied as JSON for manual saving or sharing.
Controller UI fixes: Fixed empty Controller Mapping dropdowns when connecting a controller while already in the menu, along with several controller axis preview issues.
Mapping and menu fixes: Fixed incorrect category assignments in the Experience Menu and mapping descriptions not wrapping correctly.
AMD FSR support: Added AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution support.
NVIDIA Frame Generation: Added NVIDIA Frame Generation support on compatible systems.
Popup input handling: Gameplay keyboard input is now blocked while popup windows are open, preventing unintended inputs.
Unsaved changes warning: A warning now appears before changing mappings or leaving the menu with unsaved changes.
UI polish: Added various smaller improvements and fixes throughout the menus.
Thank you for all the feedback, testing and support you’ve given us since launch. It continues to help us understand where FPV Labs needs the most attention, and many of the changes in this update were directly influenced by your feedback. A special thanks also goes to everyone who tested the v0.1.2a Preview builds. Your feedback directly influenced several of the final physics adjustments, particularly around grip, drift, punchout behavior and the updated drone presets. With much of our recent work focused on the core simulation and UI, we’re now putting more focus back into new content and features. Our next map is making great progress, and we’re looking forward to showing you more of it. Alongside several other features currently in development, we’ll have more news to share soon. For now, have fun with v0.1.2a and please keep the feedback coming. We’ll be reading it.