The Drone Racing League has developed a racing simulator to hold tryouts prior to their 2017 season, which will be broadcast on ESPN. The reward for winning these tryouts is a contract to compete in the league.
The simulator runs on both PC and Mac systems, and it’s a standard, first-person-POV approximation of piloting a drone through different courses. There’s a tutorial mode, which introduces drone racing rules in addition to the controls and basics of flying; a campaign mode; free flight mode; and multiplayer mode, which is a wise addition for a game that’s supposed to be training people for competitive racing. It’s recommended to use a controller, preferably an XBox or specialized drone controller, but that applies for any computer game that isn’t a point-and-click.
If the idea of simulated tryouts sounds like a bit of a stretch to you, keep in mind that drone racing has a few steep entry costs: You need a drone, for one thing; and a lot of open space for practicing and trial runs, which isn’t feasible for everyone. With a simulator, the pool of potential racers widens significantly, and benefits the Drone Racing League in so doing. Since the league is just getting started on TV, it needs as much immediate interest as possible to generate momentum.
Below, watch a cool video about the simulator, and download it here if you want to try it out yourself.
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