Test drive unlimited - Solar Crown

Dear community,

The second major patch for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown will be released tomorrow: Tuesday, November 5th at 9:00 AM UTC. This update primarily focuses on graphical enhancements for PS5. The patch also optimizes game performance on PC and Xbox Series. Additionally, it includes network upgrades, improved peripheral compatibility, and numerous bug fixes.

Also, we'd like to take a moment to update you on where we stand and what we're doing to improve your experience. We understand your frustration, given the difficulties that have been encountered during the launch of TDUSC. We are sorry for this situation and we want to acknowledge your concerns. We genuinely appreciate your patience and commitment to Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.

Over the past few weeks, we've worked hard to roll out multiple maintenance phases and hotfixes aimed at enhancing the game. We know there’s still work to be done, and we hear you. Please know that your feedback is invaluable, and our development team is fully dedicated to addressing the issues you're encountering as quickly as possible, while also refining features to ensure a smoother, more enjoyable gaming experience for everyone.

Launch Compensation:

To thank you for your patience and support, an exclusive ‘Adventurer’ off-road edition of the 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe will be given to all Gold Edition players who have played the game before October 12th. This exceptional German car will be part of the Cross Country category, available from level 15, and is fully equipped to navigate on the rugged off-road trails from Hong Kong Island.

The Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe ‘Adventurer’ edition will automatically be transferred to your garage in the first weeks of the Season 2, the time it takes for us to polish the car and its integration into the game. A pack of 5 ‘Pioneers of the Solar Crown’ premium stickers will also be part of this compensation, with more details coming in the next weeks.

Second Major Patch:

As mentioned in our Launch Dev Diary, we have been working on enhancing the performance and graphics for PlayStation 5 players. The first major patch introduced an initial wave of optimizations on all platforms, especially regarding graphics, framerate, and global quality of network services. We will continue to improve these technical aspects over the upcoming months to ensure an increasingly smooth and stable experience. In this second major patch, we are introducing various fixes and improvements across all platforms, while significantly enhancing the visual experience on PS5. As soon as this update is released, PS5 players will be able to enjoy:

A more consistent framerate in Performance mode.
An increased resolution in Quality mode, from 1080p to 1440p.

Overall, the experience across all platforms will also be improved:

Over 40 bugs fixed
Improved game stability
Enhanced optimization and framerate
Better compatibility and stability for steering wheels.

You can view the full changelog of this update at the end of the article.

This new patch will be released on Tuesday, November 5th at 9 AM UTC. There won’t be any maintenance phase. To access the new patch, simply restart your game after 9 AM UTC and download the update on your gaming platform.

AI Improvements:

We’ve heard your feedback on AI difficulty and behavior, and this is a top priority for us. We're actively working on key improvements to enhance the AI experience. First of all, we’ll make the "Expert" AI more accessible for a smoother racing experience. This update will be applied by the launch of Season 2 at the latest.

Following that, our development team will focus on deeper AI balancing and refining overall behavior to ensure consistent performance across different race conditions—whether in dry or wet weather, on asphalt or gravel. We’ll share more details on these AI improvements in a future article.

Server Stability:

Since the first major patch on September 30th, we’ve seen improvements in server stability. A few new maintenance periods were carried out over the past few weeks to further improve lobby performance and stability, providing a smoother experience across various activities. The development team will continue working in this direction to provide the best possible experience in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.

Ranked Matchmaking:

We understand that many of you are facing challenges with ranked races. Our development team is actively seeking a short-term solution to alleviate the situation, and we’re fully committed to finding a more permanent fix that will ensure you get the best possible ranked experience.

We acknowledge that the competitive Solar Crown experience in Season 1 may not be optimal, especially in less populated regions. To improve this, we’re focusing on game design adjustments to better align the ranked system with player behavior and needs. In the meantime, we recommend grouping with other participants before entering ranked events to enhance the experience.

Additionally, we’re aware of concerns regarding cheating, and solutions are already being implemented to tackle this problem.

Car performances and meta:

Some cars have upgrades that are too powerful. We've listened to your comments, and we will be making changes accordingly. Some vehicles will see a reduction in performance, while others will be improved in the future. There is no ETA yet, but this is a significant topic that the team is actively working on.

We want to make the car experience in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown more realistic, both in terms of driving and the power of the available upgrades. Race restrictions will also be revised accordingly.

As a reminder, Season 1 is live and will run until December 2024. With the 25-level Solar Pass, you can unlock unique rewards like the Audi RS e-tron GT. New Live Events are available each Wednesday at 8 AM UTC. Thank you for your passion and dedication to Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. See you on Hong Kong Island!

Changelog:

🌐 Servers/Network

Fixed various login issues

🛠️ Performance/Stability

Reduced shadow cost in performance
Added various optimizations to improve memory consumption and overall stability
Fixed a crash that could happen when entering a spot
Fixed a crash that could happen when traffic spawned
Fixed a crash that could happen while buying car parts
PC: Fixed a crash that could occur when playing with certain AMD GPUs
PS5: Reduced frame drops in performance mode

🌄 Graphics

Improved global illumination performance
Improved octree tracing performance
Improved shadow quality created by headlights
Improved SSR upscaling
PC: Use DLAA instead of FSR TAA by default when available
PS5: Improved quality mode resolution from 1080p to 1440p

🔀 Compatibility

PC: Fixed binding and default preset on Thrustmaster TMX wheel
PC: Fixed Logitech G923 default binding
PC: Fixed Moza devices default preset
PC: Fixed issue where FFB was lost when the mouse was moved
PC: Fixed issue where FFB could still be present when navigating menus
PS5 & XS|X: Added presets for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox 360 and PS5 controllers
PS5 & XS|X: Added clutch binding to default steering wheel presets
PS5 & XS|X: Added gear binding to default steering wheel presets
XS|X: Fixed default binding on Logitech devices
XS|X: Added Fanatec CSL Elite as a recognized device

🐛 Bugfixes

Fixed a softlock that could occur when opening the map at the same time than various menus
Fixed a softlock when pausing and accelerating at the same time during cutscenes with Vivian
Fixed garage's slot not updating when uninstalling and reinstalling DLCs
Fixed various localization issues
Fixed an issue where pause menu would be unresponsive if Alyss menu was opened before
Fixed Aliasing of certain fonts
Fixed fences sometimes not having collisions
Fixed pre-order Ford DLC text
Fixed start button POI on Lotus Evija
Fixed license plate light turning on with reverse & brake input on Alpine A110
Fixed dirt wrongly applied on Corvette C7 ZR1
Fixed brake light animation while spoiler is open on Porsche 911R
Fixed cases where NPCs could be run through
Fixed various wall collision issues
Fixed issue where french audio was not playing correctly
Fixed pink pixel in dark areas
Fixed RPM leds not resetting on the pause menu
Fixed car color widget order
Fixed the race "Fateful Confrontation" always being identified as a ranked race
Fixed wrong highlighted races while having the secondary task "Ad Campaign" pinned
Fixed DLCs vehicles appearing in the pause menu before unlocking them
Fixed a case where the avatar could fall underground during onboarding in the first car dealer
Fixed rewards depreciation enabling itself when abandoning or being disconnected from races
Fixed a case where the wrong garment were applied to the avatar preview when switching rapidly from one category to another
Fixed issue where car livery were not applied on other player's cards
Fixed High Stake event's rush hour sometimes not triggering
Fixed an issue where beard were not displayed properly after adding a mustache
Fixed wrong car thumbnail ratio when using an ultra-wide monitor
Improvement in AI behaviour while close to the player
Fixed yellow floating lines
Fixed GPS voice still talking when set to off
Fixed issue where parts of the avatar would turn grey
Fixed "Roof" selection on radial menu when driving a car with no roof
Fixed issue where cars could change color depending on the distance
Fixed ghost sometimes not being visible in Time Attack
Fixed rain in the pause menu
XS|X: Fixed black blinking during races
XS|X: Fixed crash when reconnecting Logitech wheel
XS|X: Fixed issue where wheel angle was being wrongly reset on Logitech devices

💠 Misc

Updated matchmaking value for toxicity
Updated camera settings in shops
Added F13 shortcut for ping display on Nvidia Reflex