add the option to create 8 gear transmissions in LFS editor

Create a new subobject, position it near one of the wheels, set its object type to hub object. Then, when you exit to the vehicle editor, you should see it positioned at the wheel centre and it will move with the wheel.

Quote from Amynue :

Although, now I've also read the changelogs for the D33 (game) Test Patch and didn't see a mention of that change

You are right, there is barely a mention, I can't find it in the log either, just mentioned in this post.
https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/2049235#post2049235

I do recommend that mod creators should use the latest patch. I'm not like Microsoft. My updates contain many useful updates and more fixes than new bugs. Any new bugs are fixed extremely quickly, especially when there are more people testing.

I know it's not practical for everyone to get every update, but I'm sure it is best to keep up with the updates, which have been done with a lot of care and input from community members. Then there is no need to read such a long list that can leave your head spinning.

Quote from Amynue :

All I want to know is - why can't we have 65535 triangles in the main object, if that's the triangle limit for the whole mod?

There are different reasons for limits on points and triangles.

Triangles refer to points using 16 bit integers. 15 bits for the point ID and one bit to specify whether the referred point is the original or mirrored version of that point. So no point can have an index above 32767 (the maximum number represented in 15 bits). So that's the point limit. Sure we could make all objects use 32 bit integers instead and be bigger, but then the pit out glitch would be worse. Related to CPU usage when creating the in-game model from the 'editor model' stored in the veh. So limits are a good thing, in the context of a game. In this case that sensible limit happens to be around that point where we would need to switch to larger integers, so as there is a natural 'hard limit' there is little incentive to change the format at this time. Better if artists work within boundaries. As it's a game efficiency is important.

For triangles, the same limit does not actually apply in the same way, but the number of triangles is in the same region as the number of points, so the same limit seems to make sense. It is intended that mirrored triangles should be used as most vehicles are mainly symmetrical. There is a limit on output triangles of 65536 and I think the modeller limit of 32768 "original" triangles is to prevent this number being easily exceeded by mirroring all the original triangles.

If the maximum number of original triangles was increased, then the artist would be able to exceed 65536 easily (by mirroring all) and the game would simply not add them to the output mesh. This doesn't seem clean. Although I see there is a case where number of modeller triangle could be increased without exceeding the output limits (but not mirroring them all) this doesn't seem a high priority. These are very high numbers anyway, and it seems better for people to work within the limits (that already cause a disruptive pit-out glitch on some computers).

Quote from Avraham Vandezwin :

I don't know how Eric's current tool works, or what else needs to be developed to make it public. I'm not talking about complicating things to waste time.
In my opinion, a 3D track modelling algorithm and a few specific 3D object libraries would produce tracks faster than doing everything from scratch.
No matter the visual resemblance to reality. What matters is the quality of the track. In the track environments, there are always the same things (grass, pits, stands, etc.). A track is not a car . It is totally unnecessary to model everything every time. Having standard resizeable generic objects would suffice. And we would have quality tracks more quickly.

Of course the main thing is the layout and design of the track itself and reusing assets to a degree is a valid and widely used technique, but generic environments and reusing generic assets in the name of 'quickly' doesn't scream 'quality' to me to be honest.

Either way, i feel like track editor should be lower priority than more official LFS content and updating the existing content to a somewhat modern standard.

Quote from Avraham Vandezwin :

I don't know how Eric's current tool works, or what else needs to be developed to make it public. I'm not talking about complicating things to waste time.
In my opinion, a 3D track modelling algorithm and a few specific 3D object libraries would produce tracks faster than doing everything from scratch.
No matter the visual resemblance to reality. What matters is the quality of the track. In the track environments, there are always the same things (grass, pits, stands, etc.). A track is not a car . It is totally unnecessary to model everything every time. Having standard resizeable generic objects would suffice. And we would have quality tracks more quickly.

I'm sure the track editor has its own subobject system, after all you can see plenty of reoccuring objects across existing LFS environments.

Just a clarification for the 32768 thing. Usually one only has to model 1 half of the car and the other half is just a mirrored copy. A full car model has to fit into a 16bit integer. I guess that Scawen can make an option in LFS editor to enable/disable a planar symmetry with 32k limit. When disabled a 65k limit for the whole car would be allowed. I'm not using the editor so I may be wrong as this feature might already be implemented.

Last edited by rane_nbg, Wed 26 Jul 2023, 10:36.

Quote from Scawen :

That's all done and you should find it in the list of changes, there was a major overhaul for the clocks recently.

Oh... I've read all of the changelogs in the first post, but didn't see anything about it so I've assumed this hasn't been addressed. What I didn't think about, is to read the changelogs for the test patches of the game itself as this issue is related to the game rather than the editor My bad! Although, now I've also read the changelogs for the D33 (game) Test Patch and didn't see a mention of that change. Anyway... I've installed the D33 Test Patch and the needle indeed is in the same position for both speed units. Thank you! I will make another attempt at "horizontal speedo" for my next mod, which happens to also use such speedo.

Quote from rane_nbg :

I think he asks if there is any other technical limitation that LFS cannot handle 32-bit integers.

Thank you for the comprehensive answer, although I didn't understand much of it
All I want to know is - why can't we have 65535 triangles in the main object, if that's the triangle limit for the whole mod?

Quote from rane_nbg :

in LFS editor one should be able to play with 32-bit models and at the time of export make it into 16-bit, similar to how people do with car skins when they make them in 4096x4096 and then export to 1024 as a final skin for upload.

Yes

I wonder if there is any more info in the deb.log text file? I should probably add some more logged info for startup errors.

Could you try deleting (or renaming) the cfg.txt file? Then the editor will try to start up like a fresh installation.

Yeah, 16-bit unsigned integer, has a range 0-65535. I think he asks if there is any other technical limitation that LFS cannot handle 32-bit integers.

I'll try to answer. Well, most probably the reason is once you increase to 32-bit mesh models the frame rate will start to suffer greatly if you want to display all those polys with a full grid. So Scawen decided to make a compromise of good enough quality. But you have a very good point, in LFS editor one should be able to play with 32-bit models and at the time of export make it into 16-bit, similar to how people do with car skins when they make them in 4096x4096 and then export to 1024 as a final skin for upload.

On the subject of gauges...
I was trying to create a "horizontal speedometer" for one of my mods. When I was trying to calibrate it I've noticed that the speedometer needle position is slightly different in MPH mode than it is in KM/H mode.

Here you can see what happens when I switch between KM/H and MPH units in options:


It was impossible to calibrate it to show accurate speed for both the KM/H units users and the MPH users. Because of that, I decided to scrap it and went with a fictional digital gauge cluster.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say - it would be nice if the needle position was identical for both MPH and KM/H setting. This would be helpful when creating custom gauges. Ability to adjust the thickness of the needle would also be useful.



I also have a question regarding the Modeller - why are we able to only have 32768 triangles in the main object if the total triangle limit for the mod is 65535? Is it due to some technical limitation or... ?
It's especially annoying when importing from .obj file. I would like to be able import an .obj with - let's say - 62k triangles and then split some of it into subobjects from within the LFS Editor. Currently you have to use 3rd party 3D software to split it into two .obj files (below 32768 triangles). I would prefer to do this in the LFS Modeller.

It would be even better if we were able to import .obj files bigger than 65535 triangles. So, let's say - I import a 3D model with 75k triangles into the LFS Editor and then I delete some stuff that I won't need in LFS - for example the engine bay - to reduce the polycount to less than 65535.
LFS Editor should not allow to "Export mod for UPLOAD" if it exceeds the 65535 limit.

Hi, since i have updated my windows, lfs Editor don't open, and i have this error named "No modes found" every time i try to open it.

How should i fix it? Thanks.

I think it'll be a long time before we ever get realistic tracks with the track editor. Most mod tracks in other sims are just rips from other games which likely won't fly here.

Im so happy that lfs team suprise us all with the LFS mods editor. Next thing what im really waiting for is if they give us a proper LFS TRACK EDITOR that you can build realistic IRL race tracks.

LFS in my heart to the grave what ever happens to the game, thank you scawen and lfs crew.

Give us the track editor, you know you wanna.

You must follow the installation instructions correctly.

Install a fresh new version of LFS editor then install the test patch.

hi i cant go lfs editor because its say could not load humans
anybody can help me?

anybody can help me?
i cant go lfs editor because its say could not load humans what i do?

Quote from Scawen :

Note, from Editor D34: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102626

Oh thank you, that will be very useful I need to sit down and read all the test patch changelogs.

Quote from Scawen :

EDIT2: Not yet released but I've been working on some wheel rim updates that should allow reproduction of a rim lip with the style of a steel wheel (and other styles) also with higher resolution and not appearing to blend directly into the tyre.

For the time being I was creating fake lips on my steel rims by adding 2 surfaces in the rim editor - at the spot where the tire meets the rim. It looked better than nothing, but still - not quite right. Looking forward to that improvement

The message "Invalid file" comes up if a dds file or a png file has the wrong header (the first few bytes of the file). Are you able to open that file using other software?

One possible cause (other than a corrupted file) is that a file of one type was renamed to another file type, by changing the filename extension. That cannot work, of course. LFS will create dds files from png files when required. You should use png files in the LFS editor and just forget about the dds files because LFS will create them for you when you do an export.

Quote from Amynue :

- Increased Max Drag value from the default 0.400 N@1m/s to 1.000 (maximum value) to reduce the top speed shown by the speedometer. It went down from 290km/h to 210km/h - which is still higher than desired, but 1.000 N@1m/s drag is the max. This also means that the bus will now be slightly slower to accelerate, especially at higher speeds.

Note, from Editor D34: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102626

Quote :

Vehicle editor:

Maximum value for main body drag increased from 1.0 to 6.0

Dashboard editor:

Speedo:
- set maximum value in km/h (steps of 5)
- option to show units (km/h or mph)

EDIT: there are similar options for the tacho now, and you can set it to 5..10..15..20... if you set it to x100 instead of x1000

EDIT2: Not yet released but I've been working on some wheel rim updates that should allow reproduction of a rim lip with the style of a steel wheel (and other styles) also with higher resolution and not appearing to blend directly into the tyre.

Last edited by Scawen, Sat 22 Jul 2023, 14:02.

Quote from Draggo :

You just noticed it there? It is there since 2022, when people tried to upload your mods.

I dont see anything about lfs since release of the editor

Quote from Evolution_R :

There was like 40 updates (text patch D40).
Allowing to make some beautiful looking gauge clusters.

Wow! Cool Cockpit - This gives me a better idea of what Scawen is still busy working on (mod/vehicle editor > next test patch version).

It remains exciting!

Quote from Marty_Deslions :

I must admit that the prolonged silence has left me a bit concerned.

I'll start by linking to a couple of threads which show a lot of the work I have been doing recently:

Test Patch D33: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102117
Editor Test Patch D40: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102626

As you can see, particularly on the Editor Test Patch thread, I have made a huge number of improvements for the mod support. I find it a great thing that LFS is a way for people to be creative, and the mods system is a massive new part of that. It was very "new" indeed when released (basically a bunch of dev editors brushed up a bit) which is why there have been so many issues to sort out.

In the past months, while I have been doing these, Eric was at first finishing South City, which took a lot longer than he anticipated. Filling those holes is not easy, and he likes to fill them just as people would actually "fill the holes" when building a real city. I received an update recently and tested it, reported a bunch of issues and he fixed those. We find the completion level very good now, basically good enough for public testing when we can get the full version together. He is now working on the Kyoto improvements. As you may know from the official progress reports, that was never finished before Eric moved onto the South City, that turned into an epic development and massive expansion.

On my side, I'm trying to finish test patch things so that I can finally complete the tyre physics. In fact my current focus is on wheels, both in the development and public version. In the public version there should be a graphical update for wheels in the next few days, to go along with the many updates there have been for mods. Again, please read the test patch threads to know what I'm talking about.

There is also other work I do, that you never see, such as updates for the track editor. Suppose Eric is doing a task and finds he has to do something in a laborious or repetitive way and one of us thinks of a new editor function that could help him achieve certain tasks more quickly, then I always want to stop whatever else I was doing and work on the track editor for a few days.

I'm trying to get to an official release so my focus can then be entirely on the tyre physics in the development version. It has taken me much longer than expected to complete this round of test patches as there were so many unfinished things in the mods system. When I see creators, working hard and having to use workarounds for issues, I feel a great responsibility to get that issue sorted out.

Of course, the priorities I attach to various tasks, will not be the same as someone else's priority. We all have different priorities, so there's not a person in the world who could agree with all my choice of tasks to work on. But I must work on what I feel is important. Actually I find it a huge mental effort to complete these tasks, and that's why I need to follow the inspiration. Sometimes I'm awake at night working out how to do something, then experimenting and testing, it's a lot of work.

It takes a long time, but there is always progress.

Quote from Evolution_R :

I just got an idea (probably a silly one ):
Can we have our custom gauges shown in the follow view too:

Edit: But that will require another (transparent) version of it... which means different texture...

I think it is like that on the new version (judging from the Editor since it is using partly the new graphics.)

Checking on my laptop with amd integrated graphics and nvidia dedicated gpu, also get that error when I try to switch to the dedicated graphics, but I've found a fix.

Don't change the adapter in lfs settings, but set the "adapter select" to 0, for me in the nvidia settings I have to set the lfs_editor.exe to use dedicated graphics, then it works fine and i go from 361fps to 462fps when viewing the rb4 in vehicle editor. (idk why not more, 60% gpu usage, 11% cpu, but no cores are fully utilized)