To me simulators (be they motor racing or flight) are all about immersion, so I'm in the cockpit.
Simulators to me are also about a level playing field, and I think LFS would benefit from server side options to force drivers in the car where they should be. That way people who don't treat it as a simulator don't impede on people who do.

Quote from JJ72 :

did about 1 hour of running in total, and first of all it didn't blow me away, and secondly I don't really feel a stronge urge to load it up again. It's good for sure but not special enough......

Me too and my thoughts almost exactly. I don't know if it's because I haven't/can't tweak the views and controls to my liking.. maybe it's the 2 initial cars I find a bit uninspiring, but this just hasn't excited me like I was expecting.

I've been lapping both the Solstice and Legends around Laguna Seca and Summit Point (Short). There's certainly not much to fault with the physics model; it feels really good. But, I can't say that it feels better than LFS. Sence of weight is slighly better and colision detection is, but overall close to par I reckon. Graphics might be 'fancier' but I wouldn't judge them higher either as they're not as solid as LFS (there are some noticable clitches where the tyres meet road), and I definitely don't like the interface and displays at all, although I admit that I haven't spent hours tweaking things like I have for LFS. And I don't like the default racing view. Too much cockpit and not enough track. The sounds are better.

In the end though, I don't think iRacing provides the 'sandbox' feel LFS gives me, and I just don't have as much fun playing it. I like to shift+u to replay that moment from whatever angle I like. I like uploading people's skins and when I'm offline, I like just mucking with things. I don't think I can get the same satisfaction in these respects from iRacing.

Having said all that, I think that LFS has a really important lesson to learn from iRacing.
- A Structure.
I know that there are leagues etc, but LFS clearly needs to do more to promote competetive and clean racing for the masses. The sandbox approach leaves it aimless in many respects, with all these silly cruise and drift servers. It would benefit greatly from some sort of ranking structure to promote clean racing and so that drivers have something to aim for. CTRA achieves this to a small degree, but a structure needs to be integrated in to the game and not left to in-sim apps and leagues.

Anyway, my 2 cents are now spent...

Last edited by farcar, Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:54.

Quote from southamptonfc :

Only the things I like are worthwhile, everything else is pointless and stupid. People who like things I don't like are a$$holes.

In the context of 'LFS as a motor sport simulator', I think you've summed up Scawen's private thoughts exactly...

Quote from dawguk :

THE, THAT and DON'T.

I think you should learn to write, and perhaps speak, before anything else

It would be great if someone could make different game that cruisers could go to. I understand this is a very harsh comment, but they're a blight on the community from my point of view. There, I said it.
This is a racing simulator which has been designed to replicate motor racing. I feel that the increasingly large number of people using this software as a glorified chat room are putting off people who want to use LFS as was intended.
I also understand that people will argue that they can use LFS however they like, and that is true. It's just my opinion that they are a blight on the game and it's community.

Needs a bit of a hose down.
It'll be right...

Quote from Nick A :

Thanks to Gil for the code

Hate to beg, but if anyone has a code available, I'm keen to give this iRacing thing whirl as well.

PM me if you can help!

I have absolutely no interest in cruise servers, but I'll suggest that there are not enough RACE servers in LFS at the moment which is unfortunate seeing as it is a racing simulator.

Hopefully the new content that the Devs are concocting will bring some racers back.

Speaking of...
Here's one of the most famous moments in Bathurst history. Dick Johnson's top 10 hot lap in 1983.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ektTw5lpoyY

And a really interesting little story on the aftermath.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YnZQLzK8Q44

The true spirit of motorsport.

2 videos here related to one crash, to be watched in order. The second one is not really for the squeamish. It's not graphically violent or anything, just a bit 'Eeww'.

Enjoy!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2WnozUgp3jg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lmABLPfW6Ro

It's an interesting time for LFS, there is no doubt.

There are a few people who have been around for quite a long time who have snapped (inappropriately in some cases) at the recent pace of development, said some nasty words and left in a huff (or been banned). There's no doubt that they are but a few, however there is often a larger volume of silent people beneath the bitter, vocal tip of the iceberg. iRacing seems to have taken a lot of interest away from LFS at least in the short term, and must be a concern for Scavier.

I honestly think that the Devs have taken this on board somewhat, and will pump a few more hours in to development and get some more content out this year.

The good news is that the commitment is still there in spades as far as I can see. Besides, people will slowly filter back from iRacing when they're asked to fork out for another month's subscription fee.

Yeah, I'm in.

We all know about LFS as a game, but I'm also interested in LFS in terms of development, and as a project.

LFS as a pile of code is one of the most solid and glitch free pieces of software I've ever used. No installer, very well optimised, never crashes, logically and simply laid out, and user friendly.

It's like this because of Scavier's unique goals and business model. The industry as a whole leans towards very large development teams pumping out software on very short lead times, then moving very quickly on to the next project. Result: graphically impressive and perhaps licensed software, but ultimately flawed and bug/glitch ridden software that will never be fixed.

Scavier have gone the opposite way.

A very, VERY! small dev team, and very long leadtimes. So, akthough development is slow, the big plus is that enhancements are overall very thorough, well thought and relatively free of bugs and glitches.

I just really admire them for settung this goal, and moreso for making it work.

Top work lads.

Quote from Scawen :

If you try to make programs too clever, or even telepathic, it doesn't work. Gotta keep it simple, then it stays usable. And now it just gives you whatever you want with one keypress. That is a definite improvement and if you knew what it was like before, then you'd know it was an improvement. Before, if you pressed F9 in SHIFT+F mode, then NOTHING would have happened! The user didn't know what mode switching they were doing behind the hidden HUD.

If you want easy access to remove the HUD, just program, say... F8 key to the text "/shift F".

Just tested, it works, now F8 can hide my HUD with one key press. LFS is quite programmable...

I agree with aspects on both sides of the argument.
The only thing that confused me with this was when HUD kept reappearing when I was making FRAPs recordings (F9 was my 'start recording button'). Anyway, when I worked out what was happening I just changed it to a differernt key and moved on.

I suppose little things like this will alway make some people happy and others a little inconvenienced.

Quote from deggis :

According to your theory, you should have been banned by now too?

Hehe. Perhaps he was right!

Quote from total konfuzion :

Gotta love all these "big brave posts" now that the account is banned and people think there's no chance of a response

Funny how no one managed to say this sort of thing so brashly before the account was banned....

A bit like those kids who shout "yeaaah!! c'mon then.. I'll knock ya out!!!!" as they're driving away at speed from a pedestrian... how manly

Oh I'm so scared. If Ian was still allowed in here, he might direct a negative comment towards me.

Rubbish.

Yet you still post here with great regularity, bitching about how bad everything is. I don't understand what you're trying to achieve .

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Some of the after conversation though isn't and I think it's very angering. It's not like we were going "SCAWEN, YA ****ING PLONKER!", we were being relatively mature with our comments. It's one of my biggest frustrations actually is censorship, especially when it's related to criticism, becuase I believe in that thing called "free speech".
Now if the conversation was completely immature, then I'd agree with the moderations decision, but it wasn't anything close.

I remember reading some clearly abusive stuff in some of Ian's posts and it looks as if at least one racist comment was made. I totally agree with the mods censoring any such crap and banning him from the forums.
It's only a piece of software. People who take this stuff so seriously and personally really,really need to get a life. If you've so proudly given up on LFS, maybe think about moving on from the forums too.

Quote from Scawen :

Well, no, about tyre physics, I haven't been thinking about tyres recently. On the physics side of things I'm more concerned about collisions and damage before another session on tyre physics. My brain is too small to think about TOO many things as once. So, no real reply, no plans on that at the moment.

First, thanks for the patch Scawen. Loving it
Second, I agree with your train of thought. Collision and damage should be next on the agenda before tyres are done again.

Fix the weakest points of the sim then tweak the strongest ones.

Quote from Highsider9 :

That Commentator is a genius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... DG-Aw&feature=related

Pretty sure that's Clive James. (-Edit- As has already been pointed out...)

Quote from unseen :

Slow motion, Mellow tune. I like it

Glad you liked it. Thanks for the skin, it's one of the best I've seen.

Thanks to everyone who has left a comment. I should also credit 'unseen' who made the awesome Mini rally skin used in this movie.

Quote from samforey12345 :

That looks really good, but i'd suggest not to make it much longer, if any..

Yup, I agree. I reckon 3-4 minutes all up. So the final movie would only have bits and pieces of this preview along with the yet to be done stuff.

This is just a little taster of something I'm playing around with. Time permitting, the final movie will have a variety of combos and some racing action. The resolution is halved for the preview to make for a smaller download. Comments welcome!

http://www.divshare.com/download/4533119-b8f Click 'Download Original'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2zzQ17MpRg

Properties
Size: 27,164,354 bytes
Frame Rate: 60fps
Resolution: 480*300
Data Rate: 164kbps
Compression: Xvid

Last edited by farcar, Mon, 19 May 2008 12:33. Reason : Added yourube link

Jump in some tin tops and learn about racecraft rather than lapcraft.

I kid of course, but you really should drive a bigger variety of cars than the 2 fastest open wheelers. You're missing out on so much if that's all you drive. Especially if you're an Aussie and really don't have much of a choice for online racing during our waking hours.

Quote from UKMANUK :

In the test patch the fram rate is too low so it causes lag. But the alpha y last patch the fram rate is like 60.** not sure why but it might be a bug dont know if there is an answer to this i would love to know thanx. also scawen good work on the new patch your one amazing man i must say and ur fellow developers.

This happened to me too, FPS would not go above 60 even though I had not set a limit. It's no longer a problem, but I have no idea what I did to fix it. I made several changes to my video card setup for another game (Nvidia 8800GT), I also upgraded the drivers to 171.23 (I think. I'm on a different machine at the moment)

Anyway, now they're back to normal.

Quote from SilverArrows77 :

in my opinion any server that has vote kick/ban enabled isnt worth racing on anyway- there is no subsitute for a server with a good group of admin around to handle these things themselves. So simple solution is stick to servers that dont have voting enabled

Maybe you're right, but the whole idea of this thing is unification of demo and licenced users, so Scawen will need to make a decision one way or another.