Physics overhaul for KartKraft

Indie KartKraft developer Black Delta has released what it calls the “biggest change to the handling of the karts since the launch of KartKraft.” Bold statement indeed. KartKraft has been generally known to have the premium physics in the karting simulation market so this will only go to increase that should the update back up the statement.

The reasoning behind the update is that anomalies were detected in the damping response of tyres. The initial investigation into behaviours when karts rode kerbs quickly escalated into a full-blown identity crisis for the physics engineers! Luckily, they’ve got on top of the big and are now seeing more “consistent loads across varying steering input rates of change.” As such, all vehicles have received an update and you should now experience a “much more natural driving feel.”

The last tyre model update was in December when the developers added a dynamic model and HUD. Presumably, that’s where the issues were first detected.

Along with the major tyre model fixes, Kartkraft has also announced a fix to some player’s issues with steering wheel detection. It’s not something we’ve experienced ourselves but some drivers were experiencing problems. Evidently, Valve/Steam have patched its side of the issue. Bad news though – you will need to rebind your controller inputs.

Those were the headline changes to the KartKraft simulation, you can read more on Steam or check out the full notes below:

Changelog / Patch Notes (February 10th 2021)

• Improved implementation of Minimum Force for wheel force feedback
• Improved FFB algorithm
• Improved KZ2 shifting logic. It is now much quicker and easier to lift off the throttle when changing gears
• Added basic support for Logitech Wheel LED lights
• Reduced stopping force of gravel traps
• Setup parameters now display the significant digit when set to values below 1. i.e 0.1 rather than .1
• Fixed bug where controller would receive force feedback when wheel is being used and vice versa
• Fixed tyre damping bug that caused incorrect loads when cornering
• Improved tyre and handling model for KA100, X30 and KZ2 classes
• Fixed issue where Steam would steal Direct Input wheel control away from the game. This change will require you to rebind your wheel
• Added frame identifier to udp telemetry. Telemetry clients can now validate telemetry frames using KartKraft.Frame.FrameBufferHasIdentifier(bytes)
• Fix for wheel input being overridden by Steam when user has Steam Input enabled
• HUD now shows vehicle class
• Fixed leaderboard not updating after exit of time trial event
• Easy/Medium AI retuned to make them easier
• Fixed crash when adjusting KZ2 drivetrain sprocket teeth.
• Fixed AI vehicles sometimes failing to load