Have you ever wanted to control a drone, but not had the equipment to do so? Well, so long as you have a Meta Quest 3 you’re in luck, as Lugus Studios has just released a mixed reality drone simulator that you can play for absolutely free!

After seeing the footage of it in action on Reddit, I knew I had to give this one a try. After all, could this really work as well as the video made out?

I’m pleased to say that it absolutely does.

WE HAVE LIFTOFF!
Using the Quest 3’s passthrough mode, the game starts off by taking a scan of your surroundings and calculating nearby furniture. This allows for the drone to be able to act realistically with your surroundings once you’re in flight, and the scan does a pretty good job for those who want to get straight into the action. If you need to tweak the results to make it more accurate then you can do so, but once you’re happy then all that’s left is to place the drone landing pad and get ready for takeoff!

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There’s not a huge amount to controlling the craft, with the left analogue controlling the vertical and horizontal movement, and the right moving you forward and back as well as turning. I have no real experience with real life drones, but the movement and physics of the drone feel suitably realistic. As mentioned before, the game keeps a track of your furniture so you’re free to land or bump into things dotted around the house should you feel inclined.

Once you’re up and running, it’s a real joy seeing the drone whizz by your head, and you can even place balloons around the room with the press of a button should you want something else for the drone to do. The balloon popping is fun enough,  although I wish you could place runs around the room to make your own little drone race-track. In addition to placing balloons, you can also even open up one of your walls so that you can fly off into a virtual environment. It’s a nice touch

Visually, each of the drones look fantastic and surprisingly well detailed when viewed up close. Clearly the game has been made by someone with a passion for drones, as there’s an incredible degree of care and polish. It really is astounding that the developer is giving this away for free, and I hope they keep adding more to it in the future to make it a must download for anyone with a headset.

VERDICT
Liftoff®: XR Drone is incredibly well polished for a free app. With realistic controls, it really is a joy guiding the drone around your house. Hopefully the developer adds in a couple of extra things to do to help give it some lasting appeal, but this is definitely worth checking out!