NITRO CARNAGE

A welcome for new drivers

• The first time you play, the game asks your name, then takes you to the Garage to pick your car.
• Your name has moved from the main menu to Settings.
• The Garage button has left the main menu: it's still on the track screen and in the lobby.
• The lobby has a Settings button, so you can change your name without leaving the room.

A Nitro Carnage icon in your browser tab

• The game's tab now shows an orange NC badge instead of a blank page, so it's easy to find among your other tabs.
• Adding the game to an iPhone or iPad home screen gives it the same badge.

No more freeze when the hotlap ghost first appears

• On a new track, the game no longer stalls for a moment at the start of the second lap, when your ghost first takes to the road.
• The ghost is now made fully ready while the track loads, not just started.

Hosting a room: you can step off Track of the day again

• On the room's track screen, the ‹ › kind of track could get stuck on Track of the day with a pad, so the host had to race it. Stepping right went to an empty Favourites and jumped back. Stepping left went to Seeded, which still held today's date, so the room read it as Track of the day again.
• An empty Favourites now stays put until you step past it, and Seeded brings back your own seed word.
• The same empty-Favourites fix applies to the quick race's track screen.

A changelog, linked from the main menu

• This changelog: every change so far, newest first.
• A Changelog link on the main menu, on the version's line, aligned right.

Windmill sails near upright

• Windmill sails now lean back about 11°, as a real windshaft does, instead of 54°.

Photo mode: save to the gallery on a phone, no Save on consoles

• On a phone, Save photo opens the share sheet, so the photo goes into your gallery rather than the browser's downloads.
• Xbox and PlayStation browsers block downloads, so consoles no longer show Save photo.

Bots time the train, missiles set off mines, two random boxes a row, Leave race asks

• Bots time their run to the level crossing at their own pace and stop only if the train will really be in the way. Expert bots wait about a quarter less, and none get hit.
• A missile that flies into an armed mine sets it off, and the car beyond is unhurt.
• Each row of pickups is two boxes, each a random useful kind.
• Leave race in the pause menu asks first, with Stay as the default. A hotlap asks too.

Photo mode: click or tap to focus

• Click or tap the scene to focus the depth of field on that exact spot. A ring marks it for a moment.
• On car focus now works the same way, so a car at the edge of the frame is as sharp as one in the middle.

Photo mode from the pause menu in offline races

• The pause menu in offline races has Photo mode. The world stays paused while a free camera flies around by keys, mouse, pad or touch.
• Depth of field (focus distance, focus on car, blur strength), Hide UI, and Save photo as a PNG.

Experimental camera views

• A new Experimental… page in Settings lets you choose the race camera: Overhead, Helicopter, Chase far and near, Bonnet, Bumper, Cockpit, or Custom.
• In a race, C or D-pad up cycles through the views.
• The chase cameras swing round smoothly, and sounds pan from the camera's point of view.

An always-on throttle setting

• With Always-on throttle on, the car is flat out unless you brake, reverse or use the handbrake. The touch pad drops its accelerator button.
• The settings rows sit closer together, so the longer list still fits without scrolling.

Handbrake above the accelerator on the touch pad

• The handbrake moved to sit directly above the accelerator, a short reach for the same thumb.

No weapon buttons on the touch pad when weapons are off

• With weapons off, or in a hotlap, the touch pad leaves out the missile and mine buttons.

Rounder corners on seeded tracks and real circuits

• Bends on seeded flowing loops and real circuits now sweep smoothly instead of reading as short straights joined by sharp corners. Hairpins stay hairpins, and city grids keep their right angles.
• Records and ghosts on reshaped tracks start afresh.

A fanfare for the winner

• When the winner crosses the line: fireworks, confetti, a cheering crowd and a brass fanfare.

Touch buttons with pictures, in their own colours

• Each touch button has a drawn icon (missile, mine, handbrake, pedals, steering chevrons) on lit glass in its own colour.

Touch steering by ◀ ▶ buttons, as a setting

• A new Touch steering setting offers the floating slider or left and right buttons.

A Full screen setting

• A new Full screen box in Settings. It isn't shown on consoles.

A fresh grid order for every race

• Your grid slot is shuffled for every race, offline and in rooms.

Reverse pulls like first gear

• Reverse has the engine's full force, up to 15 m/s.

Hide the touch controls under the pause menu

Choose the kind of track first, and keep favourites

• The track screens ask the kind first (Track of the day, Favourites, Real world, Built in or Seeded), then the track.
• A star saves tracks and seeds as favourites on this device.

Car type: Single, Any, Distinct or Random

• Single: everyone drives the host's body.
• Any: everyone drives their own.
• Distinct: everyone drives their own, but no two alike.
• Random: a fresh deal every race.

The car picture from the Garage's angle, nose to the left

A bigger dice button, as tall as the seed box

Laps: 1 to 10, then 25, 50, 75 and 100

A trophy beside the fastest lap in the results

Turbo switched off

• The turbo is gone from races, the HUD and the controls. Its code is kept behind a switch so it can come back.
• Hotlaps are driven without turbo and keep separate records.

"You finished 6th" under RACE OVER

Your name instead of YOU, in yellow; bigger speed and minimap on desktops

Bigger RACE OVER and HUD on big screens

• RACE OVER stays up for 5 s, then the screen fades to the results over 2 s.
• The HUD scales up on large desktop windows.

RACE OVER when the race ends, then a fade to the results

The race fades to the results instead of cutting

Rear missiles switched off for now

• The rear button only drops mines, which means fewer controls to learn.

Wind sound removed

• It sounded like a computer's fans.

The start line on the map lies across the road

Every generated loop and long straight dives into its infield

• No more round-blob seeded tracks. Every loop and straights layout has a pocket, and some have a kidney bend.
• Hotlap records on those layouts start afresh.

Controller and TV pass

• Leaving a room asks first, and B never drops you out of a room by accident.
• The race pauses when a controller disconnects, or offline when the game loses focus.
• The Garage and Settings fit an Xbox screen without scrolling. Text is larger on a TV.
• Many focus and label fixes for pad players.

Sound you can place

• Stereo panning, Doppler, per-car engines with gear changes, road noise by surface, and whining missiles.
• Music that builds on the last lap and in the lead.

The lobby in one column, its track on its own screen, real cars in the roster

• The lobby is a single column of settings, easy to walk with a pad.
• The track and championship moved to a screen of their own.
• The roster shows each player's real car.

Shadows reach the edge of the screen

• On the docks, building shadows used to stop 75 m from the car. They now cover everything on screen.

Championships

• The host lines up to ten tracks in the lobby, raced in turn for points (10, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1).
• The last race crowns the champion. The room keeps the points table even when the host leaves.

Docks shadows no longer stripe or flicker

Expert and Hard bots plan their corners

• Expert and Hard bots use power slides, handbrake stabs and the Scandinavian flick. Expert is about 7% quicker.

The menu's Garage button shows your real car

A Garage button on the main menu

The browser's Back button goes up a menu level instead of leaving

Generated loops and straights dive into the infield

• Fewer oval-blob tracks. Hotlap records on those layouts start afresh.

No stall at the end of the first hotlap lap

Direct WebRTC links between players

• Car updates go peer to peer, with the MQTT broker as the fallback.
• The lobby shows DIRECT or VIA BROKER for each player.

‹ › arrows in place of the short dropdowns

Car colour in the Garage, silver, a shorter track screen, a wider podium

Rooms side by side on the menu, a Track of the day mode, a new bot driver

Race option: every car on the grid in one body

Garage: a Formula 1 body

Power-ups and turbo can be switched off, like weapons

The frame rate no longer drops from the second race on (Xbox judder)

• Each race leaked GPU memory. It is now freed, and one renderer serves every race.

Pickups: rows of ammo, repair and turbo boxes round the lap

TV layout, a swooping race start and a podium

• A Text size setting. Large is on automatically for Xbox and PlayStation.
• The camera drops in over the grid at the start, and the results open on a podium.

A laps option for quick races, five laps by default

Rooms keep score: points, awards, rematch and a kill feed

Leaner netcode

• One message per client per tick, nearly halving the traffic. Important events are sent three times.
• The lobby flags players on a different build.

Pad: Y fires forward, X drops mines

Xbox fixes

• A opens the game's own keyboard and dropdown lists.
• The results are no longer skipped unseen.
• Engines no longer drone under the menus.
• Fixed a turbo that never ran dry, and overlapping containers.

Track of the Day: the seed is the bare date

Any day's Track of the Day by date; future days locked

Link previews: a share card for WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, Discord and X

Lobby: a map of the room's track, and colour squares

A steady speed readout; ten more bot names

Fixed Start doing nothing after the host went back to the lobby early

A ?daily link: today's Track of the Day, one press from driving

About 30 s a lap, and roads a quarter wider

• Every track was resized so the best bot laps in about 29 s.
• Start lines moved onto straights. Fixes for bots at the railway and on jumps.

Lobby: change your name, Back to lobby, named bots

Smooth remote cars in rooms

• Every tab keeps to the room clock, so other players' cars no longer jitter.

Faster, cleaner bots and a Rival skill setting

• Bots follow a better racing line and steer more smoothly.
• Rival skill: Easy, Medium, Hard or Expert.

Field of view: a Settings slider and the mouse wheel

Road lines stop at the chequered start line

Fixed speckled windows on the towers

Driver names over cars, a bigger roof number, the Garage on the track screen

Races end on the first cool-down lap, the last finisher, or 60 s

Turbo flames, Tractor and Forklift bodies, a flying hotlap start

• A wrecked car comes back with full health.

Twenty-one real circuits

• Spa, Monza, Monaco, Silverstone, Le Mans, Brands Hatch (GP and Indy), Hockenheim, Indianapolis, Daytona, Laguna Seca, Sebring, Road America, Watkins Glen, Gilles Villeneuve, Suzuka, Mount Panorama, Interlagos, Yas Marina, the Red Bull Ring and Barcelona.

Menu: modes and settings only; the track gets a screen of its own

The city by day, farmland and a working port

• A new built-in track, Downtown by Day.
• The park became farmland, with fields, animals and windmills. The docks became a working port with ships, warehouses and a marina.
• Random seeds no longer use words that sound like other words.

Seeded tracks in three layouts; a dice on the seed box; Garage arrows

• Seeded tracks are a flowing loop, a city grid or long straights.

Random seeds: three three-letter words, like egg-cup-top

Hotlap ghost, and track previews on the menu

• A see-through ghost drives your record lap, beside you or up to 2 s ahead to show the line.
• The menu shows a map of the chosen track.

Smoother touch steering

Track of the day, your own seeds, hotlap, and race only

• Any word makes a track, the same on every device. The date gives the Track of the day.
• Hotlap replaces free drive, with records and live splits.
• Races can be run with weapons off.

Your fire buttons work while the autopilot drives

The Garage: five body styles, liveries, wheels and race numbers

Greenbelt and Tidewater Docks, the train, water and oil, sound

• Two new tracks: Greenbelt parkland and Tidewater Docks, with a railway crossing.
• Water and oil hazards.
• Synthesised engines, effects and music, with volume settings.

Weapons, damage and wrecks; keyboard navigation everywhere

• Front missiles, mines and rear missiles, plus health, wrecks and kill credit.
• Esc and Backspace go back on every screen.

Multiplayer rooms, and console and handheld support

• Online rooms for up to six players, with host failover, a shared clock and late joiners.
• Pad-only play: an on-screen keyboard, matching button prompts and a Steam Deck layout.

Faster bots in corners

Racing against bots

• Laps, timing, positions, collisions between cars and respawns.
• Quick race against five bots, Free drive, and a race HUD with a minimap.

More steering before understeer

Handling fix: no push off the throttle, no spin on it

First playable: one car driving on Neon Downtown in 3D

• Car physics with drift, handbrake and turbo, plus ramps and jumps.
• A 3D city that cuts away so towers never hide the car.
• Keyboard, gamepad and touch controls.

Project plan: architecture and milestones