BallisticNG

BallisticNG

Developers
	Neognosis
Engines
	Unity 2020.3.5
Release dates
Windows	December 14, 2018
macOS (OS X)	December 14, 2018
Linux	December 14, 2018
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Racing, Shooter
Vehicles	Hovercraft, Track racing
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Cyberpunk, Sci-fi

BallisticNG is a stylized sci-fi racing game developed by Neognosis. The game was developed using the Unity engine.

The game initially developed as an unofficial HD fan remake of Psygnosis' WipEout series, but some of the team members of the project branched off during its development and redesigning the game's graphics in the style of WipEout 3. The team that branched off the SlipstreamGX project before its development went on hiatus would go onto form their own development team as Neognosis and would go on to develop BallisticNG. Rather than base the game around the WipEout series' later installments, BallisticNG was developed as an anti-gravity modding sandbox that pays homage to the series' earlier installments from the PlayStation era in terms of gameplay and art style. It was formally released as a free-to-play game through Steam after passing Steam Greenlight with monetized support through the developer's Patreon prior to its closure. It was released as an Early Access game on May 30, 2016, however, since September 21, 2017, the game has transitioned into being a commercial game on Steam and the developer's closed their Patreon, while previous donors would receive a Steam key and a special set of liveries for the game as gratitude for supporting the developers. The game left Early Access since December 14, 2018, and has since continued to receive content updates and downloadable content. The game was updated from Unity 2018 to Unity 2020.3 on Novemeber 30, 2022, along with content updates and a price increase to reflect on the changes introduced in v1.3.

The game includes modding tools for creating and adding user-made tracks and ships, as well as allowing users to import their own music tracks and sound effects (see here for details). Mods for the game can be found through the game's Steam Workshop and the official Discord server. A roadmap of the game's upcoming features and content can be found on the developer's Trello.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Official wiki (Gamepedia)

Official Discord Server

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
GOG.com
Steam		Can be played without Steam running, but Steamworks features will be disabled.

Game's soundtrack can be streamed here, v1.0 songs here, Neon Nights Expansion songs here, Outer Reaches Expansion songs here, and Legacy v1.1.6 songs here.

Any additional music tracks introduced via patch updates are added to the game and Soundtrack DLC free of charge.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	Some downloadable content are free while others are commercial.
Free-to-play	Formally free-to-play prior to September 21, 2017, when it transitioned to a commercial game.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Neon Nights	Adds 5 new tracks, a new campaign with 48 events, and extra sets of liveries. Requires v1.1 or later.
Outer Reaches	Adds 6 new tracks, a new campaign, and an extra set of new liveries. Requires v1.1.6 or later.
Maceno Island	Adds 6 new tracks, a new campaign, and an extra set of new liveries.
Donation Liveries	Adds a set of Golden liveries, which also changes the color of the player's name in menus. Exclusive to donors of the developer's Patreon prior to the game transitioning to a commercial release through Steam.
Bling Pack	Adds a set of Golden, Platinum, Iridescent, and Psychedelic liveries. Patreon donors whom previously received the Donation Liveries set are granted this DLC free of charge. Available here.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\User\Configs\Controller\ <path-to-game>\User\Configs\ini\
macOS (OS X)
Linux

It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\User\Save\
macOS (OS X)
Linux

The Campaign sub-folder stores the vanilla campaign progress, the Ghosts sub-folder stores time trial ghosts, the Precision sub-folder stores Precision Run records, the Stats sub-folder stores achievements and gameplay records, and the Times sub-folder stores time records for various modes.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud		Stores up to 953.67 MB of game save online (maximum of 1,000 save files). Sync between Windows and Linux works (MacOS: untested).

Video

Display settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor		Splitscreen supports use of two monitors, one for each player.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Between 70-100° vertically; field of view for 2159 (default) and 2280 game modes are independently adjustable.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA, can be toggled on or off.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Framerate Limiter can be toggled on or off, and is adjustable from 30 Hz to 300 Hz.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unity page for more details.

• 

  Effects settings.

• 

  Retro settings.

• 

  Gameplay and camera settings.

Input

Control settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Mouse is not used during gameplay.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		Xbox 360 variant.
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers
PlayStation button prompts
Light bar support		Blue (Player 1), Red (Player 2)
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes	, Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth)

Tracked motion controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 

  Keyboard remapping.

• 

  XInput remapping.

• 

  DualShock 4 remapping.

• 

  Sensitivity settings.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Sliders for Master, SFX, Music, Voices volume. Some announcer voices can be either be toggled on or off or replaced by a sound effect.
Surround sound
Subtitles		No speech outside of the announcer.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Adding custom music tracks and sounds

Instructions

Go to the configuration file location and open the following folders: Music: <path-to-game>\User\Mods\Ingame Music Sounds: <path-to-game>\User\Mods\Sounds Add any folders containing the desired music tracks and soundpacks to their respective locations above. Launch the game, go into Config → Audio and then go into the Mods section. From there, set Custom Music and/or Custom Sounds to On (Mix allows both default and custom music), then change Current Playlist (music) and/or Current Soundpack (sounds) to your desired music playlist(s) or soundpack settings, and finally click Save to save the settings. Notes WAV, MP3, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis audio files are supported. Windows shortcuts cannot be used; you must place true copies of the music and sound files into their respective folders. It is recommended that each custom soundtrack and soundpacks should be placed in a sub-folder with a descriptive name to allow them to be selected in the Mods section of the Audio settings.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2	Splitscreen, dual monitor output supported.
LAN play		8
Online play		8

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	25565
UDP	25565

This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

VR support

VR settings.

Headsets	State	Notes
SteamVR
Oculus VR (LibOVR)
Windows Mixed Reality		This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer, or Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR.

Devices
Tracked motion controllers
Traditional controller		See Input for details.
Keyboard/Mouse

Play area
Seated
Standing
Room-scale

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c, 11	Direct3D 9 only supported on v1.0 and below; the game will only use Direct3D 9 if Direct3D 11 is not supported on the GPU.
OpenGL	3.2, 4.5
Shader Model support	3.0, 5.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows			Since v1.0 the game is only available for 64-bit systems. v0.9.4 was the last version available for 32-bit systems and is not available on Steam after v1.0 has released. v0.9.4 could be backed up manually to preserve the 32-bit copy of the game.
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	Steamworks

Playing Steam Workshop content without Steam running

BallisticNG uses Steamworks to load custom user-created content into the game, however, they can also be installed locally within the game's respective mod folders.

Instructions

Open a File Explorer window of <path-to-game>\User\Mods and <Steam-folder>\steamapps\workshop\content\473770. Browse the game's Steam Workshop to subscribe and download the desired Workshop items via Steam. Take note of the item's ID number shown on the URL address bar. Browse <Steam-folder>\steamapps\workshop\content\473770\<content-id-folder>\ for the installed Workshop item's contents, copy the file in the item's folder, and then paste them into the following folders based on these file extensions: Ships (*.csf, *.shp): <path-to-game>\User\Mods\Ships Tracks (*.wtrk): <path-to-game>\User\Mods\Tracks Launch the game and it will import the Workshop items into game where they can be played within the game outside of the vanilla campaign. Notes It is recommended to install the Workshop items in a sub-folder with a descriptive name, otherwise they will be sorted and stored in the Uncategorized folder when importing files.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	OpenGL 3.2+ compatible DirectX 11 compatible

A 64-bit operating and system processor is required.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.14
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	OpenGL 3.2+ compatible

A 64-bit operating and system processor is required.

Linux
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	64-bit distro
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 GB
Video card (GPU)	OpenGL 3.2+ compatible

A 64-bit operating and system processor is required.