Skip the game and read about it

AFTERLIGHT is a free 3D racing game that runs in your browser

Seven race modes, nine cars and three circuits, with a keyboard or a controller. Nothing to install and no account: pick a language and you are on the grid.

Seven ways to race

The menu opens on a card for each. Every mode runs on the same three circuits and the same simulation; what changes is who you race and what counts.

ModeWhat it isField
Circuit raceFive rivals at your level.5 RIVALS
ChampionshipThree circuits. Points decide it.3 ROUNDS
EliminationLast car is out, every lap.1 OUT / LAP
DuelOne rival. Nowhere to hide.1 VS 1
Time attackJust you and the clock.SOLO
Ghost runRace your own best lap.YOU VS YOU
Drift attackAngle and speed make the score.SCORE
From the same garage · Windows 10 and 11 TEN/TENTHS Our desktop racing game: nine race cars with real handling, a six-city world tour, a drift championship over 16 tracks and Grand Prix circuits. Out now on the Microsoft Store. See TEN/TENTHS

Eleven cars, and they are genuinely different

Not skins. Each has its own top speed, acceleration and grip. The prototypes and the hypercar win on the straights, the hot hatches off every corner, the grand tourers a little everywhere — so the car you choose changes how a lap has to be driven, not only how it looks.

CarClassTop speed (km/h)HandlingAccelerationWhat it means on track
ORBITA GT GRAND TOURER 299 86 86 Balanced to the millimetre. Wins a little everywhere.
SCARLET GT GRAND TOURER 295 88 86 Late on the brakes, early on the power.
EMBER GT GRAND TOURER 288 90 89 The friendliest GT on the grid. Forgiving at the limit.
SERAPH R HYPERCAR 324 80 82 The fastest thing here in a straight line. Respect it in the bends.
HELIX P9 PROTOTYPE 317 92 84 Prototype downforce. It turns where others slide.
VERDANT X2 PROTOTYPE 310 94 86 Glued to the road. The line is yours to choose.
VIOLA RS HOT HATCH 259 98 97 Small, light and furious out of every corner.
KESTREL R7 HOT HATCH 263 99 95 A rally hatch on slicks. Throw it in.
ZENITH RS HOT HATCH 266 96 94 Wide arches, short gears, no patience.

Three circuits, each with a different problem

CircuitSettingLengthWhat it asks of you
Solstice RunCoastal, golden hour2.04 kmLong sweepers above the sea. The one the game opens on.
Midnight SignalNeon night1.95 kmTighter and darker, lit by the track instead of the sky.
Glacier LineAlpine2.04 kmHeight changes and cold light, with the least room for a wide entry.

Fifteen levels, and rivals that race each other

Start race asks which field you want before it starts one: fifteen levels in five tiers, from Rookie I to Legend III. Each level sets how fast the rivals run against your own car, how late they brake into a corner, and how often they get one wrong. At Rookie somebody runs wide or locks up most laps; at Legend almost nobody does, and the race is decided by you.

The rivals race each other, not only the circuit. They pick a line through each corner, go round a slower car on the inside or the side with more room, cover a car that is closing on them, and spend a limited push when they are in a fight. Everybody tows in everybody else's slipstream, you included, and the grid is shuffled every race, so no two races run the same way. From Club upward one rival is a contender that races you directly, and from Ace there are two: they are the quickest in the field, they hunt you down when they can see you, and they defend when you are on their tail. They wear an orange marker, and the HUD shows the gap to the nearest one.

None of it is rubber-banding. No rival speeds up because it is losing, and a lap time means the same thing every time it is set.

Controls

Every keyboard key here can be reassigned in the settings, and the arrow keys always work whatever you rebind. A standard gamepad needs no setup beyond pressing a button once so the browser announces it.

ActionKeyboardGamepad
AccelerateW or Up arrowRT / R2
Brake and reverseS or Down arrowLT / L2
SteerA D or Left/Right arrowsLeft stick or D-pad
DriftSpaceA / Cross
NitroLeft ShiftB / Circle
Change cameraCY / Triangle
Put the car back on trackRX / Square
PauseEscMenu / Options

If the car wanders while you are not touching the stick

That is the pad, not the game, and it is the most common reason a racing game feels untrustworthy on a controller. AFTERLIGHT has a deadzone setting for exactly this, but guessing at it costs you either a wandering car or a stick that ignores small inputs — and small inputs are most of steering. Measure it instead:

If the frame rate is uneven

Move Graphics first — Balanced, then Low. It changes more than any other setting, and on a laptop it is usually the only one that needs to move. After that, turning shadows off is the next largest single saving. The frame limit is there to hold a steady 60 rather than let the rate swing, which reads as smoother than a higher but unstable number.

Questions

Is AFTERLIGHT free, and is there anything to install?
It is free and there is nothing to install. The whole game is a web page: it runs on WebGL 2 in the browser, needs no account, and asks for no payment. Your settings and your lap records are stored by your own browser and never leave the device.
Can I play it with a controller?
Yes. Any pad the browser reports with the standard mapping works — Xbox and PlayStation style pads both do. Plug it in and press a button so the browser announces it, and the menus switch to pad navigation. The triggers are analog, so a light pull is a light throttle. If your pad is not standard-mapped, the buttons may land in the wrong places; the gamepad tester on this site shows exactly what the browser sees.
The car drifts on its own with a controller. What do I change?
That is stick drift, not the game: the stick reports movement while you are not touching it. Raise the Deadzone setting until the car sits still, or measure the stick first with the stick drift test on this site, which tells you how much deadzone that particular pad actually needs.
How do I drift?
Turn into the corner and press the drift key: the back of the car steps out. Steer further in for more angle and tap the other way for less; hold the wheel the other way and the nose swings across into a slide the other way, without letting go of the key. Keep the throttle down to hold it; lift and the car grips again. The further out the tail, the tighter the line. The meter in the middle of the screen shows the angle, and 25 to 40 degrees is the band it marks. Hold a slide with real angle and you get a drift boost and a little nitro when you straighten up; a slide that ends in the wall earns nothing.
Does it run on a phone or a tablet?
Yes, with on-screen buttons that appear on touch devices. A racing game is a poor fit for a touch screen and the lap times will say so, but it plays. If the frame rate is uneven, set Graphics to Balanced or Low in the settings — that is the first thing to move, before shadows or field of view.
What race modes are there?
Seven. A circuit race against five rivals at the level you choose; a championship of three rounds, one on each circuit, scored 25-18-15-12-10-8 against the same five drivers; elimination, where the last car is out every time the leader starts a lap; a duel against one rival who races you whatever the level; a time attack with the road to yourself; a ghost run against your own best lap on that circuit in that car; and drift attack, scored on the angle and speed you hold through the bends.
How does the ghost work?
Every lap you drive in time attack or ghost run is recorded twenty times a second. When one beats the lap stored for that circuit and that car, it becomes the ghost: a see-through copy of your car that drives it again beside you, with the gap shown live against it. It is kept in your own browser.
Is there an online leaderboard?
Yes. Every circuit has two world rankings: the fastest single lap, and the fastest finished race over one, three or five laps, each with a view for your own country. Choose a name once and your time is posted when you cross the line; there is no account and nothing to sign up for. A time trial posts its best lap; a race time only counts from a race against the field.
What languages does it speak?
The interface is in English, Russian, Japanese and Spanish. Pick one from the menu, or open the page with ?lang=ru, ?lang=ja or ?lang=es to start in it.

If you run into any problem with this game, or any attribution issue, please email hello@keymap.io.