It is already bad enough to sometimes lose mods for legal reasons, sadly there is very little leeway there.
So it really does not need any more drama.

Quote :

the mod authors will lose the ability to make their project private or delete it if they are no longer playing.

I do not see that as a problem.
I think once a mod is published it should stay public. That is important for multiplayer and community.

Private mods should in my opinion not exist at all: It is a tool to test wip projects or temporarily hide bugged mods. It is not a way to create personal private cars.

Also, beside deleting a mod, another way to grief is to make silly edits to it. In my opinion, in such cases moderators would need to take over ownership of the mod.
Maybe those stricter rules should only apply to "approved" mods?

Can you clarify what you mean by "coding the driver instead"?

AI is just a form of algorithms and math, like any other program code.
I have not seen LFS's code but generally AI in video games works like this:

The AI-code takes some data as input and outputs data as control.
In a racing game the input might be:
-car speed
-engine rpm
-car position
-track layout
-car properties (weight, condition of tires, center of gravity,...)
The more input data is taken into account, the more detailed the calculations can be.

and the output would be:
-steering wheel angle
-throttle position
-brake position
-all the other driving controls, like clutch, gearbox etc
Notice that for a non-cheating AI, this would be the same as for humans.

To get from use "data input" to "controls output", there needs to be some AI program code. The more detailed this code is, the better/faster/life-like the AI driver will be.

There is an old 2D racing game called "RARS" that was not about driving but about programming AI that would drive the cars.

In this link someone briefly explains how his AI-driver worked:
https://rars.sourceforge.net/selection/felix.html

Also interesting, but more technical:
https://rars.sourceforge.net/help.html
click "Tutorial Part 1,2,3,etc"
It explains in more detail how to code an AI for that racing game. The basic principle should apply for LFS too, just that LFS physics are more complex.

Did you try "Show: Approved" ?
It only shows mods that were manually selected and they should have decent quality. I think that works okay, gets rid of all the tweak mods and derivatives.

(If you think a good mod is missing from "Approved" list then you can rate it or suggest it.)

Quote from Flame CZE :

I haven’t heard people reviewing iRacing saying “wow not bad for a game from 2008” or other popular sim racing titles.

I have read similar about other games/software.
It seems basically every longer running project gets such comments, some more, some less. Sometimes people are annoyed because the "15 year old program" no longer runs on their 15 years old hardware.

Seems like an old leftover text. Technically correct but an unfortunate to write it.

I do not have the options menu in front of me right now, but:
Set gas/brake as axis, not as button.
Also set them as separate axes, not combined.

Vehicle class :Saloon car

can you change it to "Object"?

Quote from MousemanLV :

It's not really an obstacle, clearly other games and the modders get away with it. There's always going to be this level of comparison because others have done this and continue to do it.

Other games / modders do NOT get away with publishing ripped content.
This gets posted so often but it is wrong.
Maybe for small websites it goes unnoticed for a while but never forever.

Here is a 31 pages thread on racedepartment about illegal mods:
https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/illegal-mods-steer-clear-of-them-simracing604-we-stand-with-you-too.199546/
Several posts where staffs explains how they try to keep it legal.
If you use that website then you will have noticed that sometimes downloads disappear because they were found to be ripped.

Here is an announcement about www.assettocorsa.net no longer hosting mods because there was too much ripped content:
https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/modding-section-subforums-terms-of-use.33407/

Quote :

(...) However, the same section was targeted by some users that, careless of our rules and ethics, advertise contents ripped from other copyrighted software, making conversion without any authorization by the original creator and basically without any respect towards those modders that make their work from scratch. This has led to interminable discussions on the subforums resulting in a huge loss of time for the devs, moderators and those users that are very active in our community.

Due of this state of things, we as Kunos Simulazioni decided to close indefinitely the "3d Models", "Tracks" and "Liveries" subforums of the modding section.

That said, releasing a track, car or liveries is no more possible on our forum. (...)Links to external sites of which there is even just the suspicion of "not legit content" will be removed without any warning and proper measures will be taken. We will be very strict about this.

That post ist from Jun 2016.
AC was released Dec 2014. So it took barely two years until they had to close the mods section.

Have you seen the UF Robin?
https://www.lfs.net/files/vehmods/42B264
Yours looks more detailed though.

which mod?
just one or all.

To complete the challenge it is enough to overtake one opponent.
Overtaking more cars just gets you a better rating. Overtaking all cars is hard. You have to learn the lines of the AI and then just stay out of their way.
Easiest is to pass on the straight after the chicane and then just cruise to the finish.

nice

So your team caused bad connection by downloading torrents and running VPNs because you were losing?
Losing in an event that is not even about serious racing but just about funny football with cars?
i am disappoint.

The Speed Dreams wiki has a list of cars with pictures:
https://sourceforge.net/p/speed-dreams/wiki/ListofCars/

Quote from Avraham Vandezwin :

Before, even if I allowed in-race refueling, the AI would run out of fuel and stop on the track. And sometimes not, with the same number of laps...

Can you can reproduce it with standard cars or public mods?
Then you could post the replay it in the Bugs forum. Maybe AI just need to take slightly bigger safety margins or something.

Does there need to be this threshold?
Or could it be like each 0.1% damage adds 5 seconds?

For the more creative repair rules that were suggested:
Customizable repair rules seem more suited for insim scripts rather than built into LFS because of how many options one can imagine.
If I see correctly there already exists a command to teleport cars:

Quote :

// IS_JRR can also be used to move an existing car to a different location

So if you want a longer repair time then just keep reseting the car to the pitbox position if he moved too early.
That is one example, I think insim allows for many ways to create custom rules.
A way to hold a player car (maybe a can-not-move-timer in the IS_JRR package) might help make things look nicer but general a lot is already possible.

In early versions the AI did learn but that is so long ago I only have vague memories how it worked.

If they get faster during a race I would assume the tires warm up and the cars get lighter as fuel gets used up. The 100 liter tanks in GTR makes quite a difference.

AI automatically calculates its fuel and you can not change that. If I recall correctly at race start it should say in chat how much fuel the AI starts with. Do they run out and stop on the track? They should be able to refuel in pitlane. In some races refueling can be faster than not stopping. Is it even possible to go the full distance with one tank?

That was a joke

You can only set AI strength yourself (amateur, pro, etc)
Plus the usual stuff that applies to humans too, like ballast/engine air restrictor, different cars etc.

Quote from NumberTwo :

atm there are 697 mods. Good way to prove me right with your 27 claim. Its less than 5%!

Does it make sense to use percentages like that or are absolute numbers more relevant?
27 is the number of mod cars that I already tried and found good enough quality and meet my personal taste to add to favorites. It is just a very rough ballpark number, not science.
I did not try all cars. Some mods were good but maybe not the type of car that I like.
With the filter set to "approved" it is not hard to find good content.

conveniently placed ramps are convenient.
I was waiting for "What kind of roadblock was that?!"

Actually reminds of an older similar movie from pre-mod days. It was also a chase and some players were acting as civilian cars and I think there might have been a traffic jam?

Last edited by Gutholz, Sat 21 Jan 2023, 18:10.

During summer an old open three-wheeler is sometimes parked near my parents house. Not sure if it is a Morgan, but something similar.
The tires are skinny, at rear too.

Also I found this random picture on internet:

LFS has 20 standard cars.
There are at least just as many mod cars of comparable quality. (I have 27 saved as favories and there are several I forgot to add or did not try yet.)
Also some are types that did not exist before. (Buggies, Karts, etc)

Layout Square is probably useful when creating mods or perhaps setup tweaking.
(to test handling/speed etc without worrying about crashing)
I think it not a full track and is more for experimenting. The custom tracks look a bit too abstract for my taste, it can be nice when you have grown tired of all other options.
There are nicer areals for custom tracks even if the buildable area is smaller.

Rockingham is another good track that uses the "newer" graphics.
If one likes the layout is a matter of taste.

for example:
https://www.lfs.net/files/vehmods/96776A?information

Pretty neat!
Some random points for improvement:

LOD2 has no textures/skins so the cars turns black when viewed from distance.

In the cockpit a speedometer and gear display would be good, maybe as a clipped-on device as in this video:
https://youtu.be/Gf-Kwojf5xY

The front air intake is super shiny/chrome on the inside, looks bit strange. (http://www.hrace.com/srf.html there is a picture. appearently it is just bare metal but maybe not that reflective?)

Visible axles and suspension struts would be nice.