WARNING : THIS IS A TEST

NOTE : THIS DOES NOT CONTAIN NEW TYRE PHYSICS OR ANY NEW CONTENT

PLEASE TEST BEFORE YOU POST

PLEASE AVOID : OFF-TOPIC FEATURE REQUESTS / UNRELATED COMMENTS


Hello Racers,

Here is a new TEST PATCH : 0.6P9

- Realistic mirrors rendered from separate viewpoints
- Stereoscopic mirrors in VR and other 3D modes
- Controller improvements including a steering wheel turn limiter
- A new "walk" option for free view mode (SHIFT+U)
- Please read the change log below

0.6P9 is fully compatible with 0.6P

- You can connect online with 0.6P
- You can play replays from 0.6P

You cannot upload hotlaps made with this test patch because it is only a test patch, not an official patch.

Please keep a backup of your LFS.exe from 0.6P so you can easily go back if there are any problems.


Changes from 0.6P8 to 0.6P9 :

Mirrors :

Mirror offset sliders only shown if a car has an interior mirror

Graphics :

Improved detection of nearby objects that should be shadowed

Fixes :

Unassigned controls regained default key or button on restart


Changes from 0.6P7 to 0.6P8 :

Mirrors :

Increased resolution of mirror texture
Accurate view frustum for object culling in mirrors
Increased virtual mirror width from 0.3 to 0.333

Graphics :

Improved lighting on tyres and drivers - noticeable in dark places
Smoothed downward ambient lighting colour to avoid flickering

Misc :

New text command /horn X to set horn type (X = 1 to 5)

Fixes :

Your own car's shadow was not visible in the mirrors


Changes from 0.6P6 to 0.6P7 :

Mirrors :

Mirror adjustment and other view settings change with driver side
Reduced mirror up/down adjustment range to 20 degrees each way

Graphics :

Car shadow is now drawn when you are in an internal view

Fixes :

Mirror views could become corrupted when the car was damaged
Extreme adjustment of one mirror could corrupt other mirror views
Added checks to avoid a crash in LFS after a graphics driver error

Misc :

More translation updates - thank you translators


Changes from 0.6P5 to 0.6P6 :

Mirrors :

Increased vertical adjustment range for central mirror position
Added a "Default position" button to restore moved mirrors
Improved shape of interior mirror for XR road cars

Fixes :

Audio devices were sometimes displayed using the wrong code page

Misc :

Various translations updated - thank you translators


Changes from 0.6P4 to 0.6P5 :

Mirrors :

Adjustment values are now displayed and can be typed in
Additional translation strings for left and right mirrors

Fixes :

Objects could disappear with extreme up or down mirror adjustment


Changes from 0.6P3 to 0.6P4 :

Mirrors :

Mirror adjustment is now possible (in View Options)

Fixes :

Raceabout passenger seated positions were missing
Various steering animations included some unwanted leg movement
Internal mirror setting was overwritten by external setting on load
Helmet in mirror no longer moves with view when using a custom view


Changes from 0.6P2 to 0.6P3 :

Mirrors :

Mirrors are now realistic and include your own car in the image
A separate viewpoint is used to draw each mirror's view
Minor updates to some car models to improve visibility
Mirrors now use the same LOD setting as the main view
Virtual mirror is now available in follow view

VR :

Mirrors now use a full 3D view

Minor graphical updates :

Corrected downward ambient lighting colour (was too bright)
Slight reduction in near clipping plane distance

Multiplayer :

Increased UDP send buffer size from 12KB to 32KB


Changes from 0.6P to 0.6P2 :

Free view (SHIFT+U mode) :

Free view is now shown as an option in the Escape Menu
New walk mode which is good for wandering around in VR

Controllers :

Exit controller screen warning is not shown for real ESC key press
FF device is automatically assigned (if two or more are connected)
A single controller can now be selected (if two or more connected)
LFS tries to move force feedback wheel to centre when car is reset
Button and axis numbers now start at 1 (affects /button and /axis)
Assigned arrow keys work better (e.g. movement in free view mode)

Force feedback steering wheel turn limitation :

In your wheel settings use a large turn amount e.g. 900 degrees
In LFS Options - Controls set "Wheel turn" slider to match that
In LFS Options - Controls set "Wheel turn compensation" to 1.00
You should now find your wheel is correctly limited in all cars

VR :

Mouse look in free view mode in VR avoids pitch (stays horizontal)
Rift errors "display lost" and "HMD not present" shown as message

Misc :

You can now select a specific audio device in Audio Options screen
D3DCompiler_43.dll and D3DX9_43.dll are now supplied in dll folder
The card_cfg.txt file is no longer used - options moved to cfg.txt


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS :

A FULL version of LFS 0.6P must already be installed

To install the PATCH using the SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE :

1) Move or save the patch into your main LFS folder
2) Double click the patch to extract it to that folder
3) When you see "Confirm File Replace" select "Yes to All"
4) Now you can start LFS in the normal way

NOTE : You can see if the patch is correctly installed when you run
the program (LFS.exe). At the bottom of the entry screen : 0.6P9


DOWNLOADS :

PATCH 0.6P TO 0.6P9 (SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE) (if you already have 0.6P) :
www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_PATCH_6P_TO_6P9.exe (3.0 MB)

PATCH 0.6P TO 0.6P9 (ALTERNATIVE ZIP) (if you already have 0.6P) :
www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_PATCH_6P_TO_6P9.zip (3.9 MB)


FOR HOSTING ONLY

DEDICATED HOST 0.6P9 (non-graphical version for hosting only) :
www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_S3_DCON_6P9.zip (1.8 MB)

Track cycle next

I've just spent a few mins testing some of the controller stuff and it seems to work nicely.

I notice the steering limit is softer than the wheel's built in one. Not sure if that's even solvable by the game, but it does the job well enough as is

Funny how one can climb the ladders / stairs
Would be even better if the camera in walk-mode worked like in first-person-shooters, without having to hold a mousebutton.
...and maybe footstep sounds

nice

Could you add a profile for this wheel:

https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/89593-Specific-Wheel-Controller-detection-improvements

?

Does this mean the marshalls are about 1.6 meters tall?

when compared with the adjustable concrete-parts from editor, the marshalls (with helmet) seem about 1.8m in height.

Quote from Flame CZE :

Does this mean the marshalls are about 1.6 meters tall?

Not really! Just from memory I think their eyes are slightly higher than 1.6 metres and the top of their head is somewhere above that - 15 cm or so. I guess they are around 1.75 metres in height.

EDIT: Gutholz probably got a more accurate measurement.

Quote from Gutholz :

Funny how one can climb the ladders / stairs
Would be even better if the camera in walk-mode worked like in first-person-shooters, without having to hold a mousebutton.
...and maybe footstep sounds

I somehow ended up on the roof of the pit garages in Westhill
Yeah, true FPS mode walking would be great and it would add a lot to the immersion if the driver's body would be visible and animated when in walk mode(but I guess Eric has more important work to do).

Tested the soft lock and automatic centering as well and they work quite nice on my G25, they could be a little stronger I think.

Walk Mode in sim mode for vintage Lemans race start?


With the wheel angle that is defaulted to 900 degrees, if I make this smaller, should it not decrease the travel on the wheel? It seems to actually increase it. (Logitech G29, LFSP2)
Maybe I understand its purpose wrong, but just reducing it to 800-something, the wheel can travel at full limit, but at the default 900 it will not go all the way to the limit.

The "Wheel turn" setting in LFS must exactly match the actual amount your game controller wheel can turn. It's not really a user preference, it's either right or wrong. So for a G27 that should be 900 degrees (if the wheel is set to allow 900 degrees in the driver software). Otherwise there is no hope of LFS matching up your wheel with the in game car wheels.

Gran Turismo on PS does a complete wheel right turn, left turn and then center it on every initialization of the game to get especially the degree information.
Just an idea to maybe go.

Unfortunately from DirectInput I don't think there is any degrees information. Just a value from a set minimum to maximum (e.g. -1000 to 1000) and that is the same minimum and maximum in all cases, regardless of how many degrees the wheel really turns. So we have to rely on the user setting the correct value.

People who prefer to use a smaller range of motion should set that in the driver settings, and set LFS "Wheel turn" to match, then they can use the "Wheel turn compensation" which is a user preference type of setting.

Quote from Scawen :

The "Wheel turn" setting in LFS must exactly match the actual amount your game controller wheel can turn. It's not really a user preference, it's either right or wrong. So for a G27 that should be 900 degrees (if the wheel is set to allow 900 degrees in the driver software). Otherwise there is no hope of LFS matching up your wheel with the in game car wheels.

Ok, I use to think it was an option to narrow your wheel lock if you wanted too. And let the FF stop the wheel from going past the set point. I never messed with it much.

I was curious, because setting it to about 850 on a Logitech G29 seems to match up really close to actual wheel position. Not sure if this is the case on all G29 (will check when I get more than 2 of them)




On CAR RESET, is the wheel suppose to go back to straight up?
It goes to about 45 degrees from straight up, on G29. Which is perfectly fine, and it does not really need to go back to 0. Just pointing it out in case it was meant to.

Hmm loaded game again, now 895 seems better, so I just put it back to 900.

I noticed with more than one LFS open, the car reset, re-centering only works on one of the screens... testing it a few more times, to make sure it wasn't something I did.

EDIT: Not sure why it did it, as it is working ok now...

Yep, I think I am good as far as running multi LFS on one system...

Quote from SimulatorRental.com :

I was curious, because setting it to about 850 on a Logitech G29 seems to match up really close to actual wheel position. Not sure if this is the case on all G29 (will check when I get more than 2 of them)

I have a similar issue with my G27.

It's quite weird, whatever I set in the driver software, the actual rotation is about 20° smaller. So what I usually did before test patch P2 was set it to about 20° more than what the actual lock should be in game to compensate for it. It must be a bug in the Logitech software/hardware or something.

So now in P2 I set it to around 880° in LFS so the rotations match.

Quote from Flame CZE :

I have a similar issue with my G27.

It's quite weird, whatever I set in the driver software, the actual rotation is about 20° smaller. So what I usually did before test patch P2 was set it to about 20° more than what the actual lock should be in game to compensate for it. It must be a bug in the Logitech software/hardware or something.

So now in P2 I set it to around 880° in LFS so the rotations match.

This happend becouse logitech DFGT G27 have something like soft stop when wheel is going to full lock and when wheel is around 880 degress force fedback is trying to slow down wleel becouse limiter can break when wheel hit full lock to fast same thing happend when You set to 720 degress in profiler in game will be around 710 degres becouse off this. This is protection becouse wheel can be damaged without this. Driving Force Pro dont have this protecion so You always have full 900 degress i dont know how G25 works but i think is behave same as G27. Sorry about bad english

Quote from jujek :

Driving Force Pro dont have this protecion so You always have full 900 degress i dont know how G25 works but i think is behave same as G27. Sorry about bad english

Just a quick note: G25 did not have this "soft hard lock", it was introduced with the G27, I guess too many wheels broke apart during the years, it sure sounded/felt bad during the calibration and extreme counter steers.

Alright, that makes sense now.

looks nice and works really well here.

..

Hmm, this reminds me that I had issues with my old ISP Plusnet (a pretty major ISP in the UK) because they used traffic management. They had systems to prioritise gaming traffic but although they genuinely tried to fix the problem for me, they simply couldn't find a way to make LFS packets work in the evenings when the net was congested. I think there was something about the ports/packets not being adequately consistent (or recognisable?) for their systems to identify the traffic as gaming.
Other gamers (e.g. COD etc.) reported no issues with Plusnet at the time. (I left them for an ISP who don't have any traffic management.)

If this problem is sufficiently common it might be worth modifying the LFS network behaviour? I know that most UK ISPs these days admit (sometimes proudly) that they do use traffic management...

..

Needn't be big changes - just enough to let the packet/port recognition spot a signature, and probably only needed in the connection sequence... Who knows, perhaps ISPs even publish ways for game devs to be traffic-management-friendly?

Switching protocol is a way to cope somewhat better with bad ISP behaviour but it certainly isn't as good as curing it at source.