Hello

A few days ago I tried out the available vehicle mods with a friend. 3 PCs were involved. The friend's, the streaming PC and of course mine. The temporary server was created in the Netherlands (Switzerland or Germany would also be desirable). The ping was between 30 and 50 ms - see connection info at the bottom right of the video. Depending on the vehicle, however, significant jumps in position were noticeable.

Stream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG2xExQ__RY
First car: OK
Second (friend) car: OK

position jumps @9:11
https://youtu.be/CG2xExQ__RY?t=551

position jumps @12:08
https://youtu.be/CG2xExQ__RY?t=728

very ugly jumps @16:02 (with a new car)
https://youtu.be/CG2xExQ__RY?t=962

jumps @28:38 (with other car)
https://youtu.be/CG2xExQ__RY?t=1715

smoother position @31:35 (with other car)
https://youtu.be/CG2xExQ__RY?t=1895

Watching makes you almost nauseous. And that's not only because of bad driving. :-)
Any idea whats going wrong? Perhaps it depends on modded car?! My internet connection really has enough bandwidth.

BTW: Yes, I know, I forgot to select the right sound source for streaming. Video doesn't have any sound.

By the way: When creating the server, I chose 12 packets per second.

I have carried out demo events sporadically. A server was also active in LAN mode. That will probably no longer happen or it will be much more time-consuming (team colleagues who have to activate LFS with their account).

It's a real shame that this is no longer possible. But I understand the reason for the "online compulsion"; it seems like the only option. The loyal or paying drivers suffer because of idiots who prefer to have fun with cracked software.

Excellent! Thanks for the update before the holidays! - I wish the devs a nice, relaxing and well-deserved holiday season

If I have skipped the note, then sorry. But what do "slots" mean in hosting? Are these real connection of users/drivers or "slots" in relation to number of cars on the track?

Short: Are AI vehicles counted as a "slot" or not? I think not but I'm not sure.

Thanks - I didn't know that yet.

Impressive pictures - The video is great and gives an exciting impression. However, the sky does not quite correspond to the current (real) weather situation!

I'm excited for the patch test release and can't wait.

Once again: A great job from the developers. - Thank you for your work and the current progress report

On Sunday I drove with a colleague version U18 and 6 AI drivers each with 12 packets/second. The position of his AI was always very accurate. Was a lot of fun with the bigger AI field. Next time we will continue to increase the number of AIs.

Not very representative (number of AI and real drivers). But I like the new MP update. :-)

Last edited by Pasci, Mon, 8 Feb 2021 20:21.

Quote :

I don't know why that would be. In a quick test here it did work. I only tested on my local computer, joining a local server on the same computer. I was able to enter "localhost" or my network computer name and it did join.

EDIT: Was there any kind of message, in the chat or a dialog, when you click GO?

Sorry - Of course the issue was on my side. :-) Everything works as expected.

The test device (notebook) was in the wrong DNS domain and get a wrong (public) IP for the hostname. Perhaps a message can help that the entered hostname resolves to a public instead to an allowed private IP, if "LAN" is selected?

Quote from Scawen :

LAN:

Easier to set up LAN race: local IP address is shown on host screen
You can enter the local network computer name instead of IP address

Hm... I tried yesterday evening the U18 version. I noticed that the hostname input for the target host no longer works. I needed to enter an ip address again. Is the new code accidentally not in this version? That worked great before (incl. U15; i didn't have time to test u16).

How is the AI currently performing during the pit stop? Does the AI choose the last free slot for the pit stop and should a real driver make that too? Do we need take the last one too in order not to get conflicts with the AI? If the number of AIs per host is increased, it could lead to (more) accidents in the pit lane if someone does not know the behavior of the AI.

By the way: Why is there (still) no fixed assignment of a pit stop slot where you should / must make the pit stop? Is that planned (on one of your todo lists)? Perhaps with instruction by staff, too?

Quote from Scawen :

AI on server would be good but our current DCon can't possibly do that, as it only has a very cut-down version of the tracks, not including the physical surfaces. It doesn't need them because it doesn't run physics. It is already possible with a full version of LFS running as the server but that requires a user name. A full version can run in 'dedicated' mode but currently runs in the same way as DCon. I think that option could be made to run physics but it's really beyond the scope of this minor update.

I only started this process to allow a wider range of settings. It's turned into a multiplayer prediction + various other things but I still want to get this done ASAP because there is a lot still to do in the development version.

Oh! Of course - Thanks for your feedback/answer

Quote from Sobis :

Hmm, windows defender removed LFSLazy and marked it as "Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.DB!ml" This never happened with previous versions but yesterday I downloaded U13 version. Any thoughts?

You can confirm that this version is OK. Windows Defender only remove the file, if you confirm that. Looks like parts of content of lfslazy.exe match to this virus signature.

BTW: Most of virus scanner don't found a match in this binary! Perhaps next time you can verify the binary itself over a such service? :-)

Result by VirusTotal
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/b12608a7de293f5a32f53c4a4f5a9a47d1cf6c7db1e19bc1c46f16705835975c/detection

Under certain circumstances, the outsourcing of AI drivers to the dedicated host would be a better solution than increasing the permitted number on the client side? It would be good if you could determine the "field size" and as soon as a real driver connects, the number of AIs is "dynamically" reduced (or increased if someone disconnects from the host).

Perhaps this variant would even be compatible with the U version, because the dedicated host has to manage all connections anyway? But I guess that's a too simplistic view on this subject?

Quote from Scawen :

This is not possible on a live connection, because the remote computer does not know where the driver's controls will be in a future position packet. During a multiplayer replay, LFS looks ahead to the next position packet and if there are changes in controls that can be interpolated, it does so (e.g. steering, throttle, brake). But that is because the next position packet is there in the file.

I was afraid of that. - Thanks for answering - If you can improve something, that would be great. But it's not worth too much time.

Quote from Scawen :

I've been asked a few times about increasing the number of AI per player in multiplayer mode. This is easily done but I'm not that confident to allow the full number of 32 drivers per connection. I feel it's better to test in smaller steps but in this case maybe we could go up a lot from the current maximum of 3. How about to 24?

Any increase is welcome! :-) Do you mean 24 for each host / real driver? For me at least 9 AI drivers instead of 3 are enough. But bigger values are also welcome.

In the current Test patch thread I ask you following question:
***
In multiplayer replays you have smoothed the steering wheel movements some time ago. Would that be possible or feasible during a multiplayer (live) race?

The background of my question is that I stream our training races (more or less) weekly on Youtube. The view changes among other things also in the cockpit view. If the cockpit is shown by a vehicle that is not on the streaming PC, the steering wheel movements are still jerky. Is the information missing for the "gentle" movements or is it possible to improve the behavior? Maybe - depending on the effort - does this improvement still have a place here? :-)
***

I guess this one went down? At least you didn't react to it. Maybe that would be something (small) to implement?

Quote from Scawen :

Pit speed limit is shown when car speed is below 2/3 of limit

Cool solution - Thanks!!!!

But the other stuff/changes are also great.

A small wish or suggestion for improvment:
The information for the allowed pit lane speed and the drive direction is only displayed in a short time window. Please display this information for a few seconds longer. The luxury variant would be if that you could determine this value yourself in the settings. :-)

Quote from TROLDMANDEN :

will all sounds have to be remade ?
im thinking about engine sounds mainly from current version to new.
but also other sounds (sound folder)?

Already answered in this post from Scawen:
https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/1947381#post1947381

Short: Nope, not in the this update

Did i misunderstand your question? Do you mean because of the new environments or new materials?

Maybe a stupid question, but:
When I drive with a Pimax 8K and 20 AIs with this current test version, the frame rate drops from 80 to 40 fps at most times. But it depends on how many cars are around me. Is the GPU or the CPU limited here? I guess it's the GPU (RTX2070) because the 20 AIs have to be calculated at all times, even if I can't see them, right?

By the way: I could fix the problems described above by starting LFS via a user-defined entry under "My Games" in the PiTool control panel.

Interesting project - thanks for sharing

Quote :

small question. will sound be updated? (thinking specially about ambient sounds)

Already answered in thread https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/93185-Test-Patch-U11%3A-Fixes---VR-updates

Quote from Scawen :

Well this is something I just don't want in my head at the moment at all. Any sound improvements would be a several weeks/months project and the current sound quality doesn't prevent us releasing the new graphical improvements.

wish was fulfilled > https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/94445-June-Progress-Report

Thanks to devs

Quote from Bose321 :

Are we getting lightning?

I know, my english isn't perfect but if I write in swiss german no one understand me, too. :-)
Typo is fixed.

Hello Devs

Do we get a little update about the current state/progress of LFS development?
- Tracks
- Lighting and/or DirectX 11
- Tire physics

The last (progress) video was from dec 2019. Hopefully you can publish some newer videos, too.

Many thanks

Last edited by Pasci, Fri, 26 Jun 2020 10:10.

I'm sorry for the late feedback. In the meantime LFS works again with my Pimax headset. But I'm not sure, which step resolve the issue. Perhaps reseting Nvidia settings? Normaly I do not change GPU/driver settings in the control panel.

Quote from Vilix :

As you said I'm not a complete expert on LFS, but from a casual players perspective this is my opinion.

What do you mean with that? That hundreds of route variants and vehicles are required for a simulation to be good?

I like LFS as it is and how it "feels". Of course, I would also prefer some variety in terms of new routes and vehicles ... but the older you get, the more patient you will be, or you just get different priorities. :-)

I also have other racing sims like AC, PC and AM. But I hardly played them in comparison because they hadn't convinced me; because they have too high hardware requirements (which I could not always understand), they were too unstable or they had complicated / cumbersome menu navigation.

I can't judge whether mods make a sim better. I never used mods for any racing simulation. However, it can certainly keep (old) racing sims alive longer.