Seems like 1680x1050 is the resolution to be going with. It's high enough to allow high-definition gaming and video viewing. It's not an overly demanding resolution for modern graphics cards, and it is of course, a 19:10 wide screen aspect ratio.

Seems like 20.1" LCDs, and 22" LCDs both use the same resolution. So which looks better? Does it look stretched on the 22" screen? Or does it look compressed on the 20" screen? I haven't had the chance to directly compare two LCD's, so I have no knowledge of how it looks. So, with price aside, what looks better? a 20.1" LCD, or the slightly bigger 22" LCD?
~Bryan~

I can't seem to break .95g Anybody have any setup tips? I didn't know the XRG could break the 1g mark with its little pizza-cutter tires.
~Bryan~

*Scratches head* I'm not TOO knowledgable, but that does sound okay. The full grid will bring anything to its knees (except maybe one of those new e8x00 series chips, clocked at 4ghz+) But still, why complain? Your monitor is probably only kicking a 60hz refresh rate anyways. Plus, with low latency DDR2 ram, a Conroe chip with plenty of cache, and an 8800GT with DDR3 memory, you should get smooth performance, even at 35fps.
~Bryan~

I just fired up LFS, loaded Blackwood, and took a lap around in the XRG, alone. I benchmarked it with FRAPS to show that you can still play the game with a lower spec PC. Settings as followed:

800x600 16bit @ 100hz
User LOD = .2
Mirror LOD = .1
Dust LOD = .2
Haze, sky, shadows = off
Full wheels, trees, flags, rubber = main
Texture MIP Bias = -4
dither, mip filter, full size texture = off
car and helmet skins = compressed
Z buffer depth = 32
Simple track = all
View = Wheels
Mirrors = off

Like I said, I could bump the resolution down to 640x480 and get smoother performance, but my machine is more then acceptable to play LFS.
~Bryan~
EDIT: Added graph of 640x480 resolution, average framerate of 23fps.

Last edited by dropin_biking, Thu 13 Mar 2008, 18:16.

Exactly, but it's still playable. I average about 15fps doing some hotlapping (the trick is to use half-res textures, replace some textures with solid colour files, things like that) But don't you have your e2180 machine anyways? Why would you care about crappy performance on a P4? Oh and just so you know, your P4 is much more powerful then my Celeron.

I play LFS just fine on my 2.2ghz Celeron on onboard graphics, even back when I had 96MB of RAM. The MINIMUM specs listed seem okay. I run 800x600 to be greedy, I get perfectly smooth performance at 640x480, so I'm sure a lower spec processor, and lower spec intergrated graphics will be able to run LFS okay.
~Bryan~

That's why if your running on pavement or an equally as hard surface, you need to adjust your step acordingly, and wear more appropriate foot-wear. If your jogging or running around your area, try and design it so your on pavement as little as possible, it'll murder the balls of your feet, and your knees in the long run
~Bryan~

Good luck on the run. A couple years ago before I got into sprinting, a friend and I signed up for a 15km run for charity. I can honestly say I'm never doing something like that again. The only way you'll make it is if you stay dedicated. I hope you do well and let us know how it goes when it's all over.
~Bryan~

That's great news. I have to go in and write my drivers test to get my learners permit in a few weeks, hopefully this snow will hurry up and leave so I can teach my friend how to drive his 7.
~Bryan~

Quote from Ball Bearing Turbo :

I used to watch it when I bothered to have cable TV; but it's far too "pop-culturized" and probably scripted. Just a bunch of hot heads and some quite poor driving usually. Still fun to watch, and fun to laugh at sometimes hearing people act like they have a clue and vehicle dynamics.

I always found Pinks more entertaining, I love that show. At least there's no pretense there! That and the fact that Nate Pritchett actually has a functional brain.

Yeah I'll agree with you there, Pinks effing rules. Although it seems like Rich doesn't know dick-all about cars, but Nate's always there to stop him from looking like a twat on national TV. Did you ever catch the episode where Nate put his car on the line? I can't remember the specs, but it was a pretty bad-ass 'street' car. How about Pinks All-Out, I've found that a pretty damn good show, they cut right to the action, no BS scripts or conversations, or negotiating.
~Bryan~

They're decent I suppose...
~Bryan~

Did a quick search and found nothing, so here we go...

I was watching TV earlier today, and settled on SpeedTV (Quite a good North American auto-sports channel) The show 'Setup' came on. it's not a new show by any means, but I've never really followed it. It's basically a bunch of up-and-coming racers and their teams, they get the same car (a new crappy little Pontiac, can't remember the model) and they race head to head. At the end of the season the winning driver and team gets a contract with a high-end racing team/corporation.

So anyways, I'm watching an episode, and my god, these drivers SUCK. They had a 25 lap race in a desert setting, the course was a little tight, no real elevation changes, a couple decent corners, but it wasn't an amazing track. There were people off track every other lap, loads of 'bumper breaking', cutting corners, T-boning, cutting off drivers, it was horrible.

Anybody follow the series? Or has anybody caught an episode? I'd like to hear what other people think of this show.
~Bryan~

I never said I wasn't weird

A little more on topic, how much change would there be in size between North American highways, European highways, Japanese highways, etc? I remember reading something a while back on the forums about parking spaces being different sizes, I wonder if highways and roads vary in size as well. I would imagine so, but how much?
~Bryan~

Well if the power is out or something, or I just don't have access to internet or LFS, I'll go hit the gym. Usually an hour and a half workout clears my mind, plus it's a great recreation. Sometimes I'll politely ask if I can take the car into town to hang out with friends. If I'm still bored I'll usually light up a couple fat bowls or a nice joint and chill out watching TV, listening to music, or chatting on the phone. It's amazing how great things can be when your melted to a chair, baked like a cake
~Bryan~

Quote from Jakg :

The joys of Geography coursework - last time i did some i ended up taking pictures outside a local primary school, inadvertantly getting a few pics of little kids on the way to School - all the parents thought i was some sort of 16 year old peadophile!

I actually LOL'ed at that. Jakg you are one weird kid
~Bryan~

Sweet tunes. I'd post some personal stuff, or throw up some of my bands recordings, but my dial-up sucks. All our proper stuff is lossless wma anyways, but I'll see if I can grab some songs off the mixer next time I'm in the studio. Theres some pretty good talent here on the LFS forums, keep it up.
~Bryan~

Looks sweet so far. Be sure to keep us updated as things progress. Good luck!
~Bryan~

S2 is most definatly worth it. There's a fair amount of noth american LFS'ers, not too sure about the west specifically. You may have to be online at odd hours to catch a good group or some good races. I find the same problem living in Ontario, anytime I get online, the servers are pretty dry.
~Bryan~

Nah, Eric is just a quiet guy. He's got a life, and I'm sure developing LFS is enough for him, I think theres many things he'd much rather do then browse the LFS forums if he ever got free time I can't imagine the dev's having '1337' computers. It doesn't take much to run LFS, and it doesn't take a whole lot more to run it full-out.
~Bryan~

We have Xeon (Server platform) quads in a couple school PC's, from what I've dealt with, they are amazing. I brought in some movies to do some HD encoding for com-tech class and the quad ate them up, with plenty of juice left to alt-tab. IIRC, I had LFS, Nero, Divx, and some winrar unzipping, with no hitches, there was still about a full 'core' left for processing. Quads are the way of the future, and it's best to prepare early. Although my judgement on fast processing may be distorted due to the fact I have a shitty processor
~Bryan~

I'm slower then usual when I've had some drinks. I find, if I enjoy a couple brew I'm more consistant but my times arn't exactly PB's. If I'm on anything hard (rum & coke perhaps) My driving just goes out the window, and I usually wander off to play guitar.

Driving high, on the other hand does wonders. I was laying down times roughly a tenth faster then some of my PB's after a nice joint the other day. I find bong hits usually get me in the zone the best. I used to do a lot of racing on the rally course online (before patch Y, my computer can't keep up with the texture update) and I would be taking hits on the line, and after 10 laps be battling the top three.

Different strokes for different folks. However, like already mentioned, there are some sports that benifet from a drink or two (literally one or two, nothing to get a 'buzz') Darts, pool, golf come to the top of my head. Only relaxing, slow pased sports would benifet from the relaxed body that alcohol provides. Although, I wouldn't recomend getting sloshed and hitting the golf course for 18 holes
~Bryan~

Curious about my next build...is it true an aftermarket cooler will let an 8800GT hit 740~ core and 2000+ on the memory? I read a few reviews for the Accelero S1 from Arctic Cooling. It seemed quite promising, think It'd be worth the $35 ontop of the build? or would the overclocking not be worth the money?
~Bryan~

Oh snap! Stage6 was amazing. When I first got to the internetz youtube blew my mind. Than I saw Stage6, so fast, so sleek, so amazingly high quality. I hope Divx (or anybody for that matter) releases something like Stage6, I wouldn't even care if it cost money to upload (perhaps x amount per MB)
~Bryan~

Well I finally took a read through this thread, I've been busy as hell at home the past day. Shoveled four decks, two roofs, and detailed 3 cars. My parents are really working my ass about this.

I can't believe some people here think I was selling, I think I shall clear some things up. I had .57grams on me (weighed at purchase) It was in my coat with my papers. I only got busted in the first place was because of graffiti that was going around the school, some little kid thought I was part of it. So when I got called down they searched me and found the weed. They got 'intent to sell' because when they were searching my bag they found an empty sandwich bag thats probably been in there for months. Acording to the law, thats 'packaging' for the 'product' so it can be 'distributed' What a load of bullshit.

Thanks for all the advice guys. And for the few of you, thanks for keeping posts mature, I know how that can sometimes be hard
~Bryan~

I make this thread not to whine, not to complain, not to gloat, or brag. I make this thread simply to give a piece of my mind, and share something personal with the LFS community. I know there are many young, and many old that browse these forums, and I'm sure you'll have some words of wisdom to share with me.

Yesterday during school (grade 10 year at a catholic school) I got busted for possession of narcotics with the intent to sell. I had about a half gram of dope, and my pack of papers. I'm really confused. I know how badly I screwed everything up by letting this happen, and I know how big of deal this is, yet, it just seems to feel like 'another day'. I'm guessing I haven't yet let things sink in, because I know I should be more upset and worried then I actually feel right now.

I have a court date set in April, I'm really sceptical about that, I've never been in a courtroom, or even dealt with the law. Anybody here ever have a court date or a hearing? What's it like? Any ideas on how I can prepare?

I've been suspended until further notice, so I'm really stressed that I won't be able to keep up with my work (I was just settling into second semester with some of my best grades ever) Yet I can't seem to realize how big of a problem that is.

I'm feeling down, but very empty. I've tried listening to lively music (Zeppelin, Rush, Floyd, AC/DC, Stewart, Clapton, SRV) But even the songs that always pick me up can't do anything. I don't really know how I should be feeling right now, but I know for certain I shouldn't be as relaxed and empty as I feel.

Anybody here been in this situation? Or even have any advice or help about any of this. I've got a lot to deal with at the moment, and you guys are the only mature people I can talk about this with.
~Bryan~