Image credit – Oscar Liang
Are you looking for the best free drone or quadcopter simulator? Do you want to race other pilots online or just perfect your flight skills? Let us help you find the best free drone simulator and get flying quickly. First thing – for the best flight experience you will need a simulator cable to connect a flight controller to the simulator – use the graphic below to pick a suitable cable or cable-controller-combo (for those new to the sport). Then check out footage from each simulator courtesy of AndyRC and BMSweb to decide which simulator you want to download. Happy flying!
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3. HotProps Simulator
Using a Unity game engine, the Hotprops drone simulator offers great graphics and flight physics. Adjustable parameters let you vary battery cell number (e.g. 2S, 3S, 4S), motor kv, number of propellor blades and weight to increase (or decrease) your thrust-to-weight ratio. This helps you model the precise flight physics of your real-life racing drone. The HotProps drone simulator further features an online multiplayer mode if you want to test your skills against others, but its still in ‘beta’ development so watch out for the occasional bug.
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2. Velocidrone Simulator
Although the full game is $25, Velocidrone offers a free trial of their realistic FPV Drone Racing simulator (also great for freestyle). Graphics are not as good as the Liftoff drone simulator (by ImmersionRC & Fat Shark) but better than FPV Event simulator (the best paid simulator by MultiGP Drone Racing League). The full game features 17 real-life drone models (including the Lisam 210, TBS Vendetta and Catalyst Machineworks Speed Addict 210R), 14 maps (including football stadiums, warehouses, abandoned buildings, gymnasium), a great track editor and multiplayer mode.
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1. DRL Simulator
Although the DRL drone simulator falls short with its flight physics and realism, the maps and scenery are some of the best in any drone simulator (paid or unpaid). The real focus of the DRL drone simulator is fun – navigate tall buildings, shipyards, abandoned factories, or many of the tracks featured in the real-life Drone Racing League (DRL) in single player and online multiplayer modes. Like the race series, only a single 250mm size drone is available to fly.
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Best Paid Simulator FPV Event
At $50, the little known FPV Event is one of the most expensive drone simulators but also the best. Graphics aren’t as good as the Liftoff drone simulator but flight physics are simply unmatched. Developed in collaboration with the MultiGP Drone Racing league, FPV Event is more of a racing simulator than a freestyle simulator. Despite this, freestyle is still massive fun. A great feature is the ability to race yourself – whilst you’re flying you see a ‘ghost’ drone flying your previous fastest lap. Like the Hotprops drone simulator, you have fully adjustable parameters to play with (thrust to weight ratio, camera angle etc). In short, this is the ultimate FPV Racing Drone simulator.
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