vfpv

Keyboard-only drone FPV low-altitude high-speed flight experience built with Godot Engine 4.

Play in browser on itch.io

Screenshots

Motivation

Drone FPV footage looks fun. This project tries to capture something like that feeling with just h, j, k, l — familiar keys for vi users. :god and :auto make it even easier; combine both and it practically flies itself.

Requirements

• Godot Engine 4.4+
• Linux, Windows, or Web browser
• Android 10+ (API 30+) — see ANDROID.md

How to Run

Linux

chmod +x vfpv.x86_64
./vfpv.x86_64

Windows

Run vfpv.exe.

Web

Open index.html via a local HTTP server:

cd Web && python3 -m http.server 8000

Then open http://localhost:8000 in your browser.

Android

See ANDROID.md.

Controls

Normal Mode

Key	Action
h / l	Yaw left / right
H / L	Sharp yaw left / right (2.5x)
j / k	Pitch down / up
J / K	Sharp pitch down / up (3x)
Space	Boost (consumes fuel, auto-recovers)
p	Pause / unpause
<digits>g	Set speed (e.g. 100g = 100 m/s)
gg	Set max speed
G (Shift+g)	Set min speed
.	Repeat last action for 1 second
:	Enter command mode

Command Mode

Command	Action
:speed <n>	Set base speed (20-400)
:reset	Respawn at start position
:auto	Toggle auto-avoidance mode
:god	Toggle god mode (bounce on collision)
:fpv	Switch to FPV camera
:follow	Switch to follow camera
:stage terrain	Switch to natural terrain stage
:stage city	Switch to urban city stage
:stage canyon	Switch to canyon stage
:stage tube	Switch to tube tunnel stage
:quality low/mid/high/auto	Set rendering quality (default: auto)
:audio music	BGM music
:audio drone	Drone propeller sound (pitch linked to motor output)
:audio off	Mute all sound
:quit or :q	Quit game
Escape	Cancel and return to normal mode

Features

• Vi-style controls — Navigate with familiar vim keybindings
• Stage selection — :stage terrain for natural terrain, :stage city for urban flying, :stage canyon for towering rock walls, :stage tube for enclosed tunnel racing
• Procedural terrain — Infinite Perlin noise terrain with 3 biomes (canyon, mountain, plains)
• City stage — Dense urban grid with buildings 15–100m tall, tight 8–15m street gaps
• Canyon stage — Sharp ridged rock walls rising up to ~170m, red-brown to sandy palette, 30–60m valley gaps
• Tube stage — Infinite enclosed circular tunnel (diameter 40m) with coaster-style curves; colored ring markers and white spine line make curvature readable; up to 5 rival aircraft fly ahead slightly slower than the player
• Dynamic chunk loading — Terrain generates/destroys around player position
• Speed-linked FOV — Field of view widens with speed (80° - 110°)
• Motion blur — Radial blur intensifies with speed
• Chromatic aberration — RGB channel split at high speed
• Low altitude particles — Parabolic debris particles when flying low and fast
• Bank — Camera/drone tilts during turns; deeper bank on sharp turns
• Crash effects — Screen flash + camera shake + crash sound on terrain collision
• Auto mode — :auto toggles automatic obstacle avoidance (raycast-based, last-moment, lateral preferred)
• God mode — :god toggles invincibility (bounce off terrain instead of crashing)
• Racing drone model — X-frame drone with spinning propellers and neon LED accents
• FPV overlay — Drone frame silhouette visible in FPV view
• BGM — Looping synthwave track with seamless crossfade
• Pause — p to pause, auto-pause in command mode
• Boost system — Temporary 1.5x speed with fuel gauge and engine sound
• Hyperspeed effects — Speed lines, drone glow, and music pitch up when boosting over 200 m/s
• Procedural SFX — Crash noise and boost engine sweep (generated at runtime)
• Quality settings — :quality low/mid/high/auto adjusts render distance and mesh resolution; auto mode adapts to FPS
• HUD — Speed, time, boost gauge, quality level, command line

Project Structure

project.godot
scenes/
  main.tscn            # Main scene
  pause_menu.tscn      # Android pause menu
  settings_screen.tscn # Android settings screen
scripts/
  main.gd              # Scene initialization
  player.gd            # Flight physics, boost, crash/respawn
  vi_input.gd          # Vi-style input handling (desktop)
  android_input.gd     # Accelerometer + touch input (Android)
  settings_manager.gd  # Persistent settings via ConfigFile (Android)
  terrain_manager.gd   # Procedural terrain chunk management
  city_manager.gd      # Urban city stage chunk management
  canyon_manager.gd    # Canyon stage chunk management
  tube_manager.gd      # Tube stage: procedural tunnel + rival aircraft
  hud.gd               # HUD display
  pause_menu.gd        # Android pause menu logic
  settings_screen.gd   # Android settings screen logic
  auto_pilot.gd        # Raycast-based obstacle auto-avoidance
  post_process.gd      # Shader uniform management, crash FX, hyperspeed effects
  sfx.gd               # Procedural sound effects (crash, boost, wind)
  low_altitude_particles.gd  # Speed/altitude-linked particles
music/
  bgm.ogg              # BGM: "Future Travel" by Zodik (CC-BY 3.0)
shaders/
  motion_blur.gdshader
  chromatic_aberration.gdshader
  speed_lines.gdshader

Known Issues

• Web (Compatibility renderer): Shadows disabled — Due to a Godot engine bug (godotengine/godot#90259), shadowed lights cause surfaces to appear overbright/white on the Compatibility renderer (WebGL). Shadows are automatically disabled when running on this renderer.
• Web: BGM does not play until first user input — Browser autoplay policy blocks audio until a user interaction (key press, click, etc.). BGM will start automatically after the first input.
• Web: BGM loop restarts from the beginning — The loop_offset setting is not supported on the Web backend. On desktop, BGM loops seamlessly from a mid-point; on Web, it restarts from the beginning.

Credits

• Music: "Future Travel" by Zodik (CC-BY 3.0) — https://opengameart.org/content/zodik-future-travel