Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Season 3 brings tons of community-requested features

After a notoriously terrible launch, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is slowly getting back on track. After Season 2 saw players return to Ibiza last year, today’s (19th March) Season 3 update brings tons of community-requested features – including the return of a fan-favourite game mode from Test Drive Unlimited 2.

Season 3 was originally set to add a ‘Clan Warfare’ mode. However, this has been postponed in favour of new features, changes and improvements that “speak to fans of the series.”   

Weighing in at around 30gb, Solar Crown’s Season 3 update can be downloaded now on all platforms, with access expected to start at around 5pm GMT / 1pm EST / 10am EST once server maintenance is complete.

Headlining the Season 3 updates is the welcome return of car delivery missions from Test Drive Unlimited 2. This fan-favourite mode sees you deliver prestigious cars to demanding clients without damaging them. During these missions, a bar starts at 100% and will decrease if you damage the car or drive on unsuitable surfaces.

Finishing missions with a higher percentage will give you better payouts and reputation, but some clients have higher requirements than others. Over 30 convoy missions are included in Season 3, with more to be added in a future update.  

There’s also a new navigation mode, where you must reach a destination as fast as possible using an old-school compass instead of relying on your GPS to highlight the route.

Previously capped at level 25, the Solar Pass (effectively a battle pass offering paid and free rewards as you progress) will increase to level 50, though Season 3’s paid tier is delayed. Progressing through it will unlock two new cars: the DeLorean DMC-12 (Solar Pass Level 25 reward) and Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta (Solar Pass Level 50 reward). The Aston Martin Valour is also a ranked reward for Season 3.  

There are also new personalisation options, with new rims and customisable license plates available in Clan Shops.

Alongside the new cars, game modes and customisation options, Season 3 brings a plethora of quality-of-life improvements. While Solar Crown still requires an online connection, a solo mode allows you to skip online lobbies and only race with AI opponents, which also now have difficulty settings.

Season 3 is shaping up to be a substantial update and will hopefully attract new and returning players to give Solar Crown another chance. Player numbers have been worryingly low on PC since launch, though Nacon recently confirmed to Traxion that the PS5 version has “way more players.”

That said, Solar Crown will soon face stiff competition on Sony’s console, with Forza Horizon 5’s surprise PS5 port set to arrive in April.    

Responding to other commonly requested features such as buyable houses, multiplayer optimisation and graphical improvements, KT Racing preview Season 4, which is set to introduce the casino, in an upcoming developer diary, along with other seasons ahead.

More details about Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s Season 3 update can be found in the full patch notes below.

Will you be trying the Season 3 update? Let us know in the comments below.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Season 3 patch notes

New Features

• Car Delivery Missions
• Solo Mode on Races
• AI Difficulty Choice
• Gameplay Pause In Solo Mode
• Navigation Mode
• License Plate Customization
• Clan Shops

New Content

1. New Cars– DeLorean DMC-12 (Solar Pass)
   – Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta (Solar Pass)
   – Aston Martin Valour (Ranked)
   – Pininfarina Battista (S1 Ranked Reward In Dealership)
2. New 50 Level Solar Pass– Offered to ALL players for free! (players will have to redeem it in the dedicated Solar Pass menu in order to activate it)
   – Season 4 will be the first paid Solar Pass. (there will still be a free tier with the level 50 car being available for all players)
   – Gold & Silver Edition bonuses will be applied in Season 4.
3. New Live Events– Live Events will now consist of 5 new races on both Ibiza & Hong Kong Island instead of 3 races on Hong Kong Island only.
   – Liveries, Clothing, Stickers, Accessories

General Fixes & Improvements

• New exhaust sound for Porsche 918 Spyder.
• Improved exhaust sound of Porsche 911 R.
• Improved exhaust and shift sound of Mclaren 720S
• Ferrari Portofino limiter sound improved.
• Improved sound EQ across ALL vehicles. (changes can be from improved exhaust, shift sounds, engine noises, etc)
• Added penalty time and corresponding SFX when changing gear without disengaging the clutch (when clutch is enabled).
• Fixed a crash when colliding with too many assets.
• Fixed a crash when closing the game.
• Fixed various localization issues.
• Fixed wheel and rims rendering issues.
• Fixed rim and wheel size on Audi Q7, Audi TT, Audi R8 RWS and Spyder, BMW M4, Corvette C8, Lotus Emira, Lotus Evora, Bugatti Veyron, and Lamborghini Aventador Xago.
• Fixed mirrored wheel logo on Porsche 911 Adventurer.
• Reworked paddle shifters of the Nissan GTR, Ferrari 812 Superfast, Ferrari California, Ferrari Portofino, Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and Alfa Romeo 8C Spider.
• Added animated sunroof on Audi Q7.
• Added sliders to control volume.
• Fixed steering wheel angle not saved in photo mode.
• Increased max volume options to 1.25 instead of 1.
• Added a check so that Lifestyle battle rewards are only given to players who participated.
• The Island where an event takes place (Hong Kong Island or Ibiza) when voting to participate in an event is now shown.
• Removed unnecessary level 0 tile on the progression screen.
• Added road wetness information to Convoy Mission panels.
• Added real world time difference between Ibiza and Hong Kong Island.
• Fixed wrong price being displayed on Selene cars after a test drive.
• Fixed world map filters not properly supporting emblematic races.
• Improved steering wheel animation transitions.
• Fixed binding error when replacing an already used binding by a non assigned binding.
• Fixed invisible vehicles when using virtual garage from workshop menu.
• Fixed cockpit cam on Citroën 2 CV.
• Added UI feedback when starting an engine.
• Fixed players panels sometimes displaying from too far away.
• Fixed instances where cars could clip through NPCs.
• Fixed default car appearance tile not displaying for the Porsche 918 Spyder.
• Fixed Alfa Romeo 8C Spider Panel.
• Removed ‘Beauty Salon’ from the listed service of the Selene HQ.
• Updated effect on transition loading.
• Homogenized race panels from world map and world.
• Removed ‘Jump’ & ‘Jump over’ FRIM actions.
• Fixed race course not displaying during lobby preview.
• Fixed various auto-respawn issues during races.
• Fixed collision issues in photo mode.
• Fixed incorrect display of sticker list when making liveries.
• Fixed overlapping subtitles in Ibiza intro.
• Fixed wrong opacity on parked vehicles after leaving photo mode.
• Fixed Solar Pass car texture flickering when scrolling to the left.
• AI Updates:
  – Improved accuracy for predicting collisions.
  – Improved overtakes.
  – Added a spline for the base optimized raceline versus spline with different offsets from other ai systems.

Vehicle Dynamics/Balancing

• Change category from Hypercar to Supercar on 720S.
• Fix clutch on DB11.
• Fix strength to slow down cars in puddles.
• Fix Green Hell from RWD to AWD.
• Active filtering on Alfa 4C Coupe.
• Fix hp on LP800, 815 to 814.
• Fix wrong offroad tyres on Cox Baja.
• Wall Riding Dynamics:
  – Increased friction force applied to vehicles when sliding along barriers / walls.
  – Improved feedback (sound and vibration) when sliding against walls.
• Fixed wrong vehicle stats (HP, 0-60, etc) for Audi R8, Ferrari FXX-K, Ford GT, Koenigsegg Regera and Jaguar D-Type.
• Fixed Regera HP level.
• Audi E-Tron GT weight corrected.

PC

• Fixed a soft lock when pressing the Pause button while watching Ibiza’s onboarding video.
• Fixed a soft lock occurring when abandoning Instant Challenges.
• Fixed missing DLCs.
• Changed format of user graphical options (this change will reset all graphic options) and changed the way options are saved to prevent further reset.
• Fixed infinite loading when buying some cars in Selene HQ (like the lambo SVJ Xago) while using low graphics.
• Temporarily Disabled SARD Anti-Cheat:
  – We disabled SARD Anti-Cheat to work on a variety of improvements and fixes for the PC community. We are working hard with the SARD team to improve the experience for players and having a fully automated system for reports and bans for players. We will work on another leaderboard reset and communicate to the players when we implement SARD Anti-Cheat again.

PS5

• Fixed a crash happening sometimes when participating in the “Champions Parade” event.
• Fixed save game download error.

Xbox Series

• Fixed a crash when opening the map just after landing in deep water.
• Fixed several memory linked crashes.
• Fixed a crash that could happen while a video was being played.
• Fixed a crash that could happen when fast-travelling.
• Fixed a crash when travelling around Talamanca – District 4.
• Fixed an infinite loading that could happen when exiting Workshops.
• Fixed end of season rewards not unlocking correctly.

Wheels

• Fix Thrustmaster FFB not being reactivated after pressing the pause button while in gameplay.
• Fix crash when closing game with a TSS handbrake and a TH8A shifter.
• Fix Simagic DS-8X shifter bind possibility 6-7 gear.
• Fix steering wheel animation for Logitech G920.

Network

• Better Stability and Performance

Future Fixes & Improvements

In this section of the patch notes, you will find some things that we are working on improving for future releases of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown as our commitment to be more transparent. Understand that there are priorities given to some topics over others, and some are harder to investigate and solve than others, so no timeframe can be given currently unless otherwise specified. That said, here are all the future fixes and improvements we are working on:

• Suspension Improvements: Throwing vehicles with insane forces after a jump or by taking small objects at high speed.
  ETA: Bug solved, gone to Quality Assurance
  
• Collision Improvements: Bug with the restitution of forces when colliding with the Ibiza race blockers throwing the car in a strange way when wall sliding.
  ETA: Bug solved, gone to Quality Assurance
  
• Road Wetness On Events: We are working on adding road wetness to all event panels similar to those currently found on Convoy Missions.
  ETA: Being worked on, no ETA yet
  
• Improved Acceleration/Clutch On All Vehicles: The engine brake is currently present when the player accelerates preventing the car from having its true acceleration at low revs (present in cruising mode or on low-powered cars).
  ETA: Under Investigation
  
• KT Engine Improvements:
  – Optimization Improvements
  – Rendering Improvements
  – Lighting Improvements (Shadows/Light/Reflections)
  – Water Surfaces and Ocean Floors Improvements (Reflections)
  – Shadow Management
  – Cockpit Lighting Improvements
  – Networking Stability
  ETA: Being worked on, planned for deployment on S5
  
  We will be able to talk more about this in a future Dev Diary about the future of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.
  
• Steering Angle Radius Improvements: Vehicles have a limited steering angle radius, more noticeably at small speeds, and when the vehicle is in neutral compared to in-gear.
  ETA: Under Investigation
  
• Friends List: Players are not able to see their friends list on any platform.
  ETA: Under Investigation
  
• Transmission/Clutch Improvements: Vehicles sometimes hold at a certain RPM while accelerating. More noticeable when in a higher gear than usual, and the acceleration is at 100%.
  ETA: Under Investigation
  
• Auto Hazards: Players complain of hazards being on when coming to a stop, ruining the immersion.(Solution = Timer removed)
  ETA: Bug solved, to be deployed on TDU SC (Season 3 Patch 1)
  
• Auto Handbrake: Players complain of the auto parking brake being on when coming to a complete stop, often ruining the immersion of cruising.
  ETA: Under Investigation