VDrift

VDrift

Developer(s)	Joe Venzon, Chris Guirl, Dick Maurer, Matthew Nicholson
Initial release	March 29, 2005; 18 years ago (2005-03-29)

Stable release	vdrift-2012-07-22 / July 22, 2012; 11 years ago (2012-07-22)

Repository	https://github.com/VDrift/
Written in	unknown rendering engine, with Vamos physics engine
Platform	Linux, FreeBSD, OS X, Microsoft Windows
Type	Single player Racing simulator
License	GPLv3^[1] (originally GPLv2)
Website	https://vdrift.net/

VDrift is a cross-platform, free/open source driving simulation made with drift racing in mind. It is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) v3. It is currently available for Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

Goals

The goals of the VDrift project are:

to be a high-quality, open source racing simulation featuring enjoyable and challenging gameplay;
to take advantage of modern computing hardware to accurately simulate vehicle physics in rich and immersive racing environments; and
to provide a platform for creative experimentation to a community of developers and artists.

History

VDrift was created by Joe Venzon in early 2005. A fan of Gran Turismo, Joe had a lot of fun trying to drift in GT4, though he was disappointed with GT4's physics after loss of traction. Looking around online, the open source Vamos Automotive Simulator performed much better, although the graphics and features were minimal. Building around Vamos, using code adapted from his earlier 3D engine experiments, Joe created the first version of VDrift.

So far, every release has been a testing/development quality release. For this and other reasons, dates are used instead of version numbers.

The driving physics engine was recently^[when?] re-written from scratch but was inspired by and owes much to the Vamos physics engine.

Originally developed on a SourceForge repository, the project seems to have shifted around 2011 to a GitHub one.

Features

This game is in the early stages of development but is already very playable. Currently the game features:

45 tracks based on famous real-world tracks
39 cars based on real-world vehicles
Very realistic, simulation-grade driving physics
Mouse/joystick/gamepad/wheel/keyboard support
Fully modeled tracks, scenery and terrain
Several different camera modes
Basic replay system with Skip Forward/Skip Backward
Fully customizable controls
Joystick, mouse and keyboard input filtering
Brake and reverse lights
Driver aids: automatic shifting, traction control, anti-lock braking
Experimental force feedback
Race against up to 3 AI with variable difficulty
Engine and road sounds

Reception and impact

The game was reviewed between 2006 and 2009 by multiple websites.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

The game became a quite popular downloadable freeware title and was downloaded between 2005 and May 2017 alone via SourceForge over 2.3 million times,^[6] Softpedia counted 58,000 downloads,^[7] and Softonic another 175,000 downloads in May 2017.^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

Derivatives

Due to the Free and open source license of Vdrift forks and derivatives are possible and encouraged. Stunt Rally is an example which is based on VDrift and uses OGRE.^[12]