Tidal Rush – Update 0.4.0 is LIVE!

Update 0.4.0 has officially splashed down – and it’s a big one. This update lays major foundations for Tidal Rush’s future, introduces our first stunt system prototype, upgrades the entire project to Unity 6, and brings hundreds (yes, hundreds) of gameplay, visual, audio, and performance improvements.

Let’s dive in:

NEW: Stunt System Prototype

Show off mid-air! Our first pass at the stunt system is now live, including:

• A one-button stunt system feature – press the drift button midair to perform a stunt and get an extra boost when being successful

• Ability to chain stunts in order to get an improved boost reward

• Early crash-landing penalties & animations

• Multiple flip directions (early placeholders, but way more variety!)

This is just the beginning – we’ll be refining the system heavily with your feedback.

🚀 Major Gameplay Polishing

We’ve shipped a wave of improvements across racing, drifting, bots, weapons, and powerups:

Racing & Vehicle Handling

• Tweaked drifting (easier initiation & more natural camera roll)

• More responsive Hydrospeeder rotation + small wobble during boosts

• Better autopilot logic & more reliable exit direction

• Improved buoyancy and flow physics

Bots

• More stable autopilot

• Reduced bot hopping when drifting

• Fairer rubberbanding behavior

Weapons & Items

• Weapon impact animations rebuilt with new curves & rotation handling

• Torpedo, missile, mine, and shield updates across visuals, logic & polish

• Mines now respect flow direction and don’t slide on sandbanks

• Blue missile now collides properly with the environment

• Item randomization logic fixed & tuned

• Boost tweaks (nerfed some item boosts, added a single-boost pickup)

Audio

• Multiple engine sound updates, including basic flywheel simulation

• Fixes for powerup randomization audio

• Better rumble logic per platform (PlayStation controllers included)

🌈 HUGE Visual & VFX Overhaul

A massive focus of this update has been visual clarity, effects quality, and world detail.

Water & VFX

• Implemented loads of new visual water effects (bow wave, wake, explosion ripple, geyser hints & more)

• Water flowmaps regenerated for Unity 6

• New soft-particle depth fade tech for all water interactions

• Updated drift spray, drafting VFX, and transonic cones

• Localised fog, improved explosions, glowing shields, rapid lightning effects, updated thrusters — lots of juicy chaos in the water

Tracks & Lighting

• Full remade lighting for Shatterstone Caverns, Mangrove Marsh and Timberfall Peak

• Various collision fixes and added rumble strips

• Billboards and navigational sign posts now hover and move thanks to shaders

• Updated Grand Prix trophies

• Many missing texture fixes

UI

• New How to Play tutorial containing video instructions

• Style adjustments to buttons on title screen and UI blur

• Fixed mode titles, pickup messages, and several menu bugs

🔧 Unity 6 Upgrade

We’ve fully transitioned Tidal Rush to Unity 6.2 including:

• Various Shader fixes across the board

• Updated materials and scripts

• Big Performance improvements (thanks to our new culling system) and data cleanup

• Bug fixes related to new engine behavior

This upgrade was a huge technical step forward, and it unlocks a ton of future possibilities.

⚙️ Backend, Networking & Stability

• Major Leaderboards code refactoring

• Improved server config & save handling

• Better network collision, stunt, and item reliability

• Fixes for race mode titles, shuffling logic, and item mode selection

• Unity warnings & build errors cleaned up

• Additional safety checks

🛠️ And… Everything Else

This update was full of small but meaningful touches – hundreds of little fixes from shader cleanup to collision polish, animation adjustments, sound fatigue tweaks and more.

If Tidal Rush now feels smoother, more responsive, more readable, or more vibrant – that’s because it is. 💙

🏁 Thank You

Update 0.4.0 lays the groundwork for some of the biggest features still to come. Your feedback helps us shape Tidal Rush every day – keep sharing your thoughts, clips, and bug reports!

Let us know what you think of the new stunt system, Unity 6 upgrade, and all the juicy VFX upgrades. 🌊 See you out there – and remember: land your stunts, hit your boosts, and ride the waves.

– Your Tidal Rush Team 💙