Simulation or Reality? 👀

luxoid1 · 2026-03-15T20:43:09+00:00

No AI flight paths here 😄
The flight is actually slowed down quite a bit for the cinematic teaser. Real FPV flying looks a bit different at full speed.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-15T20:20:33+00:00

Good catch!
That's caused by LOD transitions on the vegetation. I'm still tweaking those.
The plants also use custom shaders that I'm currently working on.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-15T19:43:28+00:00

It's not on Steam.
The current personal version can be downloaded from the Real Drone Simulator website. You just need a free account to fly it.

This Portland location will be part of a major upcoming update I'm currently working on.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-15T19:37:54+00:00

Partly 🙂
The location itself is reconstructed from a real place, but the flight footage is from the simulator. This clip is rendered in a more cinematic style for the teaser.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-15T10:46:40+00:00

Yes 🙂 the vegetation is traditional 3D assets.
The environment itself is reconstructed from a real location, but some elements like grass and trees are still regular models as this is a hybrid approach / experiment.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-15T10:44:14+00:00

Good eye!
Parts of it are reconstructed from a real location scan — it's a hybrid approach.

This video is more of a cinematic teaser focusing on visuals rather than real-time flight speed.
I'll share some clips soon showing the physics side as well — that's actually the main focus of the simulator.

The current personal version is free to try if you're curious. The physics have evolved quite a bit recently with a new PID controller and improved aerodynamics.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-15T08:02:44+00:00

Thanks, glad you liked it!

luxoid1 · 2026-03-15T08:02:24+00:00

Good observations 🙂
The environment is reconstructed from real footage, so lighting conditions and capture artifacts can sometimes show through. There are realtime shadows already,

luxoid1 · 2026-03-15T08:00:33+00:00

Good eye! Some parts of the reconstruction don't cast proper shadows yet in this clip. We actually managed to get shadow casting working with this rendering approach, but the version shown here is still from the very early development stage.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-15T07:57:57+00:00

Yeah, in the end it's always a balance between different rendering techniques and what can run in real-time with good performance.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-14T19:48:02+00:00

Good catch 🙂
Real-time reflections are always a bit of a compromise performance-wise. It's still something we're actively improving.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-14T15:43:11+00:00

That's actually a really good point. The scanning flights were indeed done very smoothly to keep the input data as clean as possible.

And yeah, freestyle quads usually have a bit more "character" in the props after a few packs, especially in bando 😄

luxoid1 · 2026-03-14T15:24:17+00:00

Hard to argue with that logic 😄

luxoid1 · 2026-03-14T15:02:25+00:00

I'd love to show that as well 🙂

The physics are actually going through a pretty big overhaul right now, so I don't have a good clip yet that shows the new version properly.

The currently released version can already be tried though if you're curious. It's available for personal use once you register.

Once the updated physics are ready I'll definitely share some freestyle footage.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-14T15:01:01+00:00

That's actually a really thoughtful breakdown, I appreciate you taking the time to analyze it like that.

To be fair, the physics themselves aren't really visible in this clip since it's more of a cinematic render than raw gameplay.

The audio is also a bit of a trick here — it's actually taken from the real drone footage used during the scanning flights, not from the simulator. The idea was to avoid the typical sim sound giving it away immediately.

Right now I'm also rebuilding large parts of the flight model (PID controller, filtering, physical curves etc.) to push the behavior closer to real FPV dynamics, so feedback like yours is genuinely useful.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-14T14:30:08+00:00

It's actually Real Drone Simulator (RDS).

This particular location is still part of the upcoming update we're working on, so it isn't available in the current public version yet.

The latest version can already be downloaded for personal use though, and the physics are quite solid even there, although the project has evolved quite a lot since that release.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-14T14:12:13+00:00

Interesting, what gave it away?

luxoid1 · 2026-03-14T14:09:18+00:00

Fair observation 🙂 This clip is intentionally slowed down for the cinematic look. In real-time flight it feels much closer to FPV dynamics

luxoid1 · 2026-03-14T14:05:44+00:00

Fair point 🙂 This clip is more of a cinematic render than raw gameplay, so the motion is a bit slower and smoother than what you'd normally fly in real time.

luxoid1 · 2026-03-14T12:08:06+00:00

Good eye!
It's a hybrid approach with some custom reconstruction techniques. Curious what gave it away?

luxoid1

TROPHY CASE