Throttle Trace

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• Announcements·21 Aug 2026Official

  Throttle Trace Launches September 15 - Watch the New Gameplay Showcase

  We have two big pieces of Throttle Trace news today: a release date and a brand-new Gameplay Showcase!Throttle Trace launches in Early Access on September 15, 2026.But before we get there, we wanted to give you the best look yet at what actually happens behind the wheel.Watch the Gameplay ShowcaseJoin the developer for a complete racing weekend, from practice and qualifying through to the race itself, as he plays and explains the mechanics, strategy, and decisions that make Throttle Trace tick.Learn the circuit. Find the limit. Chase the perfect qualifying lap. Battle through the field. Adapt when the race doesn't go according to plan.Because in Throttle Trace, Every Corner Is a Decision.September 15 - Save the Date!The starting lights go out on September 15.Until then, you can play the demo right now and put everything you've seen in the showcase into practice.If you like what you see, don't forget to wishlist Throttle Trace on Steam. It makes a huge difference, and we'll see you on the grid!
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• Announcements·17 Jul 2026Official

  v0.32.0 - Weather and smarter strategies

  The demo has been updated to 0.32.0, bringing an all new weather system to the game! This system adds essential depth to finding the optimal pit strategy that gives you an advantage over your competition.New Weather SystemEvery session will now have air and track temperatures, track wetness, and current/forecasted precipitation levels.Track wetness impacts grip. Just how much grip is lost depends on your tire selection (more on that later). Track wetness changes during the course of the race, depending on the amount of rain that's falling.Track and air temperatures directly impact tire temps (which in turn impact performance and degradation rates), and will eventually impact engine and brake temps once those are implemented.The weather is dynamic, meaning both the player and the AI will have to react to changing conditions throughout a race. The system generates all kinds of weather conditions, from near-flooding downpours to mixed wet and dry sessions. A race that starts sunny could end in a mighty tempest, and vice versa.The AI cars will make mistakes more frequently in low-grip conditionsNew Strategy SystemThe potential for interesting tire strategies means little if the AI doesn't execute them. This updates adds a strategy builder that will compute all the (reasonable) strategies for a race given the race distance, track-specific degradation rates, weather conditions etc. Each AI car will select from a weighted distribution of the top 3-4 strategies, ensuring that each race has a satisfying and dynamic mix of strategies on offer. For the player, this system is used to create your race engineer's recommended tire selections.The updated tire selection UI now displays useful information about each compound and the compound recommended by your race engineer.Of course, just like real life, best laid plans can go out the window in an instant. Changing weather, safety cars, incidents and damage, all of these events will trigger the system to reevaluate the chosen strat...
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• Announcements·29 Jun 2026Official

  v0.31.0 - New Sound Effects

  The demo has been updated to v0.31.0, bringing new SFX for engines, gear shifts, and contact. Engines now sound much more aggressive, and audible gear shifts are both satisfying and helpful in keeping track of downshifts. I personally calibrate my speed based on the gearing (I think of each corner by the target gear e.g. "high 3rd gear" or "low 5th gear", and then adjust from there based on other conditions), and this change has been very helpful for consistently hitting those marks.I'll continue to iterate on the SFX, such as battery whine for the power unit, a DRS activation sound, and more.Improved PerformanceI optimized the AI's lookahead algorithm that predicts their target speed for the upcoming corner, made several updates to the data structure from which the physical properties of any point along the track are retrieved, and other small performance changes. The end result is a 12% reduction in processing time for each physics step. That may seem small, but for some machines it will make a world of difference.Community-named TracksIn the discord, we organically decided that the first player to beat my benchmark Time Attack laps would get to name that circuit (with the exception of a mystery player who first set the mark on Snow Circuit but never joined the discord, so the naming honors were given to the most recent champ). Now each track has locked in their new name.Testing Circuit Jade Hill Testing CircuitSnow Circuit Helios Polar Crest CircuitForest Circuit Domas Greenwoods CircuitSea Circuit Melfice Seaside SpeedwayThanks so much to everyone who has been grinding time attack!What's next?I'll be away on vacation later this week. I plan to spend the time beforehand investigating issues with Intel Arc GPUs not being able to run the game, and when I get back the items at the top of my backlog areWeatherReliability modelTrack Editor
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• Patch Notes·26 Jun 2026Official

  v0.30.1 - WASD, spectate mode tweaks, and positioning tweaks

  The demo has been updated to v0.30.1. This brings a much-requested change to map throttle/brake inputs to the W/S keys for keyboard players, as well as improvements to the spectate mode UX. It also makes a number of changes to the positioning system and AI behavior, intended to create more natural field spreads (and less running 4 or even 5 wide into turn 1).ChangesKeyboard controls now support W/S inputs for throttle/brakeAdjust positioning system so that the attacking car requires sufficient overspeed to the car ahead to make a move alongside when within 50m of the apex. This prevents cars from making late, half-committed moves that have no chance and only ruin their momentum. It also helps prevent car from clustering as much into tight corners, creating more natural behavior in tight sections of the track.Adjust AI braking and cornering behavior to divebomb less and prioritize exit speed in more scenariosSelect 1x, 2x, or 4x playback speed during spectate modeUpdate spectate mode HUDAdd simulate session button to pause menu, only visible while in spectate modeIncrease affect of dirty air by 50%. This helps the field spread more naturally, and increases the value of track position as overtaking requires more of a raw pace delta to the car ahead.Decrease affect of slip stream by 10%
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• Announcements·23 Jun 2026Official

  v0.30.0 - New Track Scenery System

  I'll be honest, up to this point the circuits have looked like run-down karting tracks. This can have its own charm, but doesn't fit with the fantasy that Throttle Trace is putting forward. You are a Vroomula 1 driver, one of the best in the world! The circuits on the calendar need to look the part.And so, my aim for the week was to make each track start to feel like it was designed to host the highest echelon of motorsport.New Track Scenery SystemManually placing barriers, fencing, grandstands, etc is tedious work, doubly so in a game where those elements are anchored to a winding, curved track. So I worked out a system to place items in the editor with just a few properties:Mesh what 3D model to placeProgress How many units along the track's total distance should the item startLength How long should the item follow the trackOffset How many units away from the track centerline should the item beSide left or right side of the trackThe system then computes the width of the mesh, and places as many instances of it within a MultiMeshInstance3D as required to fill the specified length, positioning and rotating to conform to the track's curve.This worked great, but I hit a snag when it came to runoff areas. I wanted runoffs to follow a similar API, except you specify the type of runoff (currently just "paved", I'll add gravel in the future) instead of a model. The issue is that runoffs are not usually a fixed offset away from the track centerline. They have their own unique shape, informed by the layout of the track entering and exiting to corner. So to make this look more natural, I added new Offset Curve and Offset Curve Amount properties that allow each scenery item to have its own distinct shape.There are now several track items using this system! Catch fencing, barriers, curbs, updated grandstands, updated pit garages, and runoff areas (which compose the catch fencing and curbs, in addition to rendering the runoff surface).This took most of the week get working, but...
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