Changes
- Online play (#56): the game's Xbox LIVE mode works again, on a server this project provides instead of Microsoft's. One player's game hosts the server; the others join over the network. Create Match, Quick Match, the lobby (with the host's course, players and laps) and online races work, and players on Windows, Linux and Android can race together.
- Setup: on every device, Launcher → General → Online play → Xbox LIVE. On the host, turn on Host the server. Windows asks once whether to let the game through its firewall; allow it on private networks. On the others, enter the host's local IP address under Server address, and give each player a different Online name. Your save and profile stay as they are.
- In the game: Main Menu → Xbox LIVE. The host chooses Create Match; the others choose Quick Match and press A on the lobby they find. The host starts the race.
- Full guide: Online play.
- Android can use the network: the app now has Android's
INTERNETpermission, which online play needs both to join and to host.
Validation
- Three devices in one race on a home network: a PC (RTX 4090) hosting, a ROG Xbox Ally X and an AYN Thor joining. All three raced Dolphin Resort together, each showing the other players' online names.
- The Thor as host: it ran the server inside its game, and the PC and the Ally joined it. All three raced.
- A player leaving mid-race: the Ally closed its game halfway through. The PC and the Thor raced on to the end without a single slow frame.
- Two games on one PC: joined and raced together. One early run had a game crash while preparing pipelines at start. It did not happen again in 20 paired startups; if you see the game close right at start, please report it.
- Unit tests: CTest passed on Windows (145) and Linux (137), and the Python tests (335) passed. GitHub Actions builds passed (Windows, Linux, macOS, Android).
- Windows package: completed race checks on D3D12 and Vulkan, every pipeline prepared and the save left unchanged.
- Linux package: passed a Vulkan startup smoke test in WSL (all 455 pipelines prepared).
- This release's Android 10+ APK on an AYN Thor: all 455 Vulkan pipelines prepared, 59.2 fps in an offline race without frame metrics, no errors.
- Android: the APKs keep the existing signing certificate.
Downloads
- Windows x64: download and extract the Windows ZIP; run
FreeRidersRecompiled.exe. - Linux x64: download and extract the Linux archive; run
FreeRidersRecompiled. - Android 10 or later: prefer
android10-arm64.apk. - Android 9: use
android-arm64.apk. - Android version code: 37. The companion licence archive applies to both APKs.
- Checksums:
SHA256SUMS.txt.
Use your own game disc image. No game data, private saves or test overrides are included.
Known limitations
- Online play:
- Tested on a home network only. Playing over the internet needs TCP and UDP port 47800 forwarded to the host, and that has not been tested.
- At most three players have been tested in one race (the lobby holds eight).
- A Windows handheld as host has not been tested.
- Leaderboards, Xbox LIVE Party, voice chat and achievements are not supported.
- Everyone should use the same version of the game.
- Being investigated: the start-up crash on Vulkan 1.1 phones (Issue #88; waiting for a report on v0.6.8 or later); a crash at start on a Galaxy Tab A9 (Mali-G57, Issue #1); a race crash on 4-core PCs (Issue #64; v0.6.11 has a fix, waiting for the reporter).
- Relay Race: 2P vs 2P is not supported yet.
- From v0.5.0: lighting has not been compared with the Xbox 360; no camera motion inference on Linux or Android; performance varies by device.