Quote from troy :

he mentions that due to LFS' openvr implementation chaperone seems to be always on, so he always sees the green gridlines when he plays lfs.

Quote from Oliver Feistkorn :

A short article about the Vice and LFS.

Thanks for the links and translations.

I believe the chaperone problem is solved in the latest test patches (since 0.6M3). There's something pretty strange / buggy / pointless about the OpenVR chaperone setup for seated experiences, but now the F8 screen offers two options, "reset headset" and "use relative position". I think the first one does solve the Vive chaperone problem (but does not allow the seating position to be saved).

Also the F8 problem has been fixed, because F8 no longer sets the seated position instantly, but instead runs a special setup screen and you can do a "VR Click" on the button using your controller.

Thanks for the test, I'll check out SK keyboard tomorrow.

A long requested feature has just been added!

A button on the List of Hosts screen to filter out Demo servers!

Test Patch 0.6M6 : https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/89160

Test Patch 0.6M6 is now available!

Multiplayer :

New Demo filter at bottom of List of Hosts screen

Virtual keyboard :

Czech and Hungarian keyboard layouts are now supported
Mouse button function (e.g. throttle) disabled if clicking keyboard

Look and click :

Crosshairs did not work with vertical scroll bar

Download : https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/89160

Conpatible Test Patch 0.6M4 is available: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/89160

Please try out the Virtual Keyboard (press backspace or an assigned controller key). You should be able to operate LFS fully with only a controller and mouse. It's really for VR purposes but anyone else can test it too.

The Virtual Keyboard system now supports for several different keyboard layouts. It should work correctly with most of the main input languages used in LFS, specially the Latin ones. I think a few keys are in the wrong place on Czech keyboard and quite a few out of place in Hungarian. Japanese and Korean virtual keyboards are not supported properly, but will work fine in US English input mode.

Test Patch M4 is available in the first post:
https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/89160-Test-Patch-0-6M2-%28now-M4%29

Please try out the Virtual Keyboard (press backspace or an assigned controller key). You should be able to operate LFS fully with only a controller and mouse. With a VR headset you don't even need the mouse.

There is now special support for several different keyboard layouts. It should work correctly with most of the main input languages used in LFS, specially the Latin ones. I think a few keys are in the wrong place on Czech keyboard and quite a few out of place in Hungarian. Japanese and Korean virtual keyboards are not supported properly, but will work fine in US English input mode.

Quote from cargame.nl :

But I can throw in an error report, maybe this helps? (I thought it was happening always so initially didn't include it).

Quote from Whiskey :

I was able to reproduce it. Loaded a replay and kept changing that setting until it crashed, took quite a few tries.

Thanks for the crash reports.

I was able to track down the line, reproduce and fix the crash.

I plan to release an update (test patch) today.

Test Patch 0.6M3 is now available.

For VR users it has a look and click feature and a virtual keyboard. You can assign Click, Escape and Virtual Keyboard to controller buttons so you can operate LFS without keyboard or mouse.

The virtual keyboard is also available for non-VR users, so you can control LFS without the keyboard. You will still need a mouse.

https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/89160

Last edited by Scawen, Sat 12 Mar 2016, 18:48. Reason : typo

Test Patch 0.6M3 is now available.

For VR users it has a look and click feature and a virtual keyboard. You can assign Click, Escape and Virtual Keyboard to controller buttons so you can operate LFS without keyboard or mouse.

The virtual keyboard is also available for non-VR users, so you can control LFS without the keyboard. You will still need a mouse.

https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/89160

Last edited by Scawen, Sat 12 Mar 2016, 18:49. Reason : typo

Yeah, I don't know why they display a chaperone if the program asks for seated mode. And why it's offset in front and to the left, after setting it up at the actual seated position. Seems buggy to me.

Yes, I am working on VR features. As both Vive and Rift are shipping within a month, this has become the most important thing. Tyre physics can wait another month.

A good VR implementation with all the wrinkles ironed out will help bring in more users and that will be good for everyone. It's not possible to be in Steam, for reasons discussed before, but Valve have kindly supported us by sending Vives and we can be fully up to date with the software. On the Rift side, I have been in touch with Oculus and there is still a possibility of having LFS in the Oculus store. This is ongoing and I won't be able to say any more because if there was any more information, it would be under NDA. You'll just have to leave that to me, I'm working on it.

One requirement is that it must be possible to operate the game with a controller only. For the last two days I have worked on a system that draws a crosshair in the view centre and allows you to click buttons using the space bar. Obviously this "Click" function needs to be assignable to a controller button. At first I thought this task would be a few hours but the complexity is quite surprising. Various adaptations and improvements have become necessary. I think the only other buttons that are needed are "Escape" and "Show Virtual Keyboard". These will soon be available in a compatible test patch.

Quote from Amynue :

As far as I know chaperone is supposted to show up only when you get close to the boundaries of your "play space", which you assign during the installation. So you may have to reconfigure that.

No, I set it up for a seated experience. There are two options in the setup and I chose "seated". I am beside a wall in so I cannot set a large open room play area (because I can't push the headset through the wall). SteamVR is buggy about this. Sometimes it shows a ring on the floor, sometimes it shows a box around me, sometime it shows a box in front of me and to my left. LFS specifies a SEATED VR experience.

Just trust me, the behaviour in the SteamVR system is buggy, wrong, inconsistent and annoying. Also, just try to imagine how many times I've reconfigured and reconfigured the area setup, trying to fix this.

I'm the sort of person who tries many times over, before I state that some software is bugged.

Quote from Amynue :

That's kinda good since the speakers are not good for VR and the software is written with headphones in mind. Not sure if you noticed, but Vive Pre have a cable with audio connector somewhere near the back of the strap. Did you get earphones with your Pre? Some guy on Reddit claims that his Pre was bundled with some HTC in-ear earphones.

There are some crappy little earphones, yes. But I am not interested for one second to stick them in my ears. I have headphones if I wanted to use them. But I am in a racing simulator and I have to put the headset on and take it off loads of times. Also I have to lift it frequently to see the keyboard. So actually it is not really good that it disables my speakers without asking me, and that there is no option to enable them. I am in a seated experience and have a warm box on my face. It's going to be more comfortable to not have headphones on if you are trying to race for an hour, unless you like being drenched with sweat and your VR headset to be fogged up.

Now I am just supposing here, but Valve don't seem to think about seated experiences a lot. As a Vive user, I can see that the seated experience support is very buggy and it's the same with the speakers, it's an oversight. They don't seem to really test seated things or think about them much.

Quote from Amynue :

A bit off topic but - any news on your submission for the Rift CV1/SDK 1.0? I've seen that your thread on Reddit about patch 0.6M caught the attention of Philanthropi (Developer Relations, Oculus VR).

No, that was the last I heard.

I suspect that you updated the dedicated host EXE but did not install the full package. The problem then is the ROCKINGHAM_GHOST in the wld folder is from an earlier test patch and only has 3 lighting configurations.

To check this, look at the date on the wld file. The correct one has file date 11 February and size 395 KB.

Test Patch 0.6M2 contains improvements to the lesson editor :
https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/89160

Test Patch 0.6M2 includes input smoothing in multiplayer replays :
https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/89160

WARNING : THIS IS A TEST

NOTE : THIS DOES NOT CONTAIN NEW TYRE PHYSICS OR ANY NEW CONTENT

PLEASE TEST BEFORE YOU POST

PLEASE AVOID : OFF-TOPIC FEATURE REQUESTS / UNRELATED COMMENTS


Hello Racers,

Here is a new TEST PATCH : 0.6M9

- New siren sound and doppler effect on all car sounds
- A long requested feature, to filter out demo servers, has been added
- Virtual Keyboard (press backspace) so you don't need to use the keyboard
- Look and Click feature (for VR) so you don't need to use the mouse
- An improvement to the steering input of remote cars
- Input smoothing for multiplayer replays

This test patch is mainly compatible with 0.6M
- You can connect online with 0.6M
- You can play replays from 0.6M
- An M9 guest's horn or flash will not be seen on pre-M8 guests
- The host must be M8 or later to allow a guest to use a siren

You cannot upload hotlaps made with this test patch because it is only a test patch, not an official patch.

Please keep a backup of your LFS.exe from 0.6M so you can easily go back if there are any problems.


Changes from 0.6M8 to 0.6M9 :

More translation updates! Thank you translators!

Audio :

Reduced the minimum volume to play a sound (can hear further away)
Added doppler effect to all car sounds that didn't have it already
Removed doppler effect resulting from SHIFT+U mode camera velocity
Updated commands.txt with commands /cansiren /siren /ujoin /uai

Siren sound :

Command /cansiren now works on players that have not joined race
Command /cansiren username 0 now switches off username's siren

Fix :

Fixed a recently introduced bug in the /key and /button commands


Changes from 0.6M7 to 0.6M8 :

Multiplayer :

More accurate horn and flash with shorter transmission delay

Siren sound :

Text command /siren=off/fast/slow
Only allowed on cars with a horn and if allowed by host
Allow a multiplayer guest to use siren : /cansiren username 1

InSim :

New ISS state flags to notify if local PC is in dialog / text entry
New packet SMALL_LCS - set local car switches (lights, horn, siren)


Changes from 0.6M6 to 0.6M7 :

VR :

Crosshairs auto-hide in game when buttons visible (e.g. N or InSim)

Virtual keyboard :

Added Serbian / Croatian / Slovenian keyboard (QWERTZ)
Added Slovak, Turkish, Bulgarian and Romanian keyboards


Changes from 0.6M5 to 0.6M6 :

Multiplayer :

New Demo filter at bottom of List of Hosts screen

Virtual keyboard :

Czech and Hungarian keyboard layouts are now supported
Mouse button function (e.g. throttle) disabled if clicking keyboard

Look and click :

Crosshairs did not work with vertical scroll bar


Changes from 0.6M3 to 0.6M5 :

Virtual keyboard :

Can now operate assigned keys - Speed Limiter, Reset, etc.
Most Latin keyboards and Greek and Cyrillic are now supported
The key to toggle the keyboard is now backspace (or controller)
Virtual keyboard is now drawn in front of overlapping buttons
Shift and Alt Gr keys now affect the characters on keyboard
Dead keys (for diacritics / accents) are displayed in red
Virtual keyboard position moved above text entry dialog

VR :

Crosshairs can now go past the interface edge and fade out
Talk function (T key) can now be assigned to a wheel button

Fixes :

LFS could crash if interrupted while generating track
The Alt Gr key + a number could cause the text colour to change
Simultaneous Left + Right view keys were not working properly


Changes from 0.6M2 to 0.6M3 :

VR :

Look and click (with space or button) can be used instead of mouse
OpenVR SDK now 0.9.17 and supports live IPD adjustment (Vive Pre)
Removed interface aspect ratio 1:1 and added 14:9 (default)
New click and type buttons in place of some slider bars

Virtual keyboard :

Automatically displayed in VR mode below text entry dialog
Can be toggled by controller button or backslash key (VK_OEM_5)

Misc :

Input and sound are now enabled by default when LFS is not focussed
Mouse click on demo exit screen now exits LFS or opens www.lfs.net

Fixes :

Out-of-path start warning incorrectly showed local player name
Dedicated server did not search for path after out-of-path start
Non-dedicated server could crash if guest driver drove off track


Changes from 0.6M to 0.6M2 :

Multiplayer :

Reduced steering wobble each time a position packet is received
Smoothed steering / brake / throttle inputs in multiplayer replays
MPR smoothing is disabled by switching on network debug (SHIFT+F8)
Passwords hidden on Start New Host and Join Specific Host screens

Training lessons :

Previous and best times are shown during the lesson replay
SHIFT+R now restarts the lesson without returning to instructions
SHIFT+X exits from replay or lesson back to the instructions screen
Press 1 to watch or restart replay without finishing the lesson
ESC once starts the replay / another time to exit lesson

Lesson editor :

Reverse and open configurations may now be selected
Lesson image filename no longer needs to start with zzz_
Image does not need to be square (but is still shown in a square)
On entry to lesson editor the current track and config are selected
You can now select the lighting (weather) for a lesson

Misc :

Layout editor now allows unmovable objects to intersect

Fixes :

LFS could crash if a shadowed object near a paused car was deleted


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS :

A FULL version of LFS 0.6M must already be installed

To install the PATCH using the SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE :

1) Move or save the patch into your main LFS folder
2) Double click the patch to extract it to that folder
3) When you see "Confirm File Replace" select "Yes to All"
4) Now you can start LFS in the normal way

NOTE : You can see if the patch is correctly installed when you run
the program (LFS.exe). At the bottom of the entry screen : 0.6M9


DOWNLOADS :

PATCH 0.6M TO 0.6M9 (SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE) (if you already have 0.6M) :
www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_PATCH_6M_TO_6M9.exe (1.6 MB)

PATCH 0.6M TO 0.6M9 (ALTERNATIVE ZIP) (if you already have 0.6M) :
www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_PATCH_6M_TO_6M9.zip (2.0 MB)


FOR HOSTING ONLY

DEDICATED HOST 0.6M9 (non-graphical version for hosting only) :
www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_S3_DCON_6M9.zip (1.8 MB)

Last edited by Scawen, Wed 23 Mar 2016, 18:22.

Thanks for the info.

The Pre arrived this weekend. I should be able to have a look early this week. First I have to release a test patch with a couple of updates, either Monday or Tuesday afternoon.

The camera sounds interesting. I'll be pleased if it can allow the user to see the keyboard because it's so hard to type when online in LFS with a headset on.

I am not sure why it has inbuilt phone functionality. As someone who is not addicted to or interested in telephones, I am a bit shocked to think that someone can't take the headset off if they want to interact with their phone. I guess it's like the people who crash their car because answering their phone is more important than staying alive!

I noticed that my previous post could be misread, so I just want to make it clear there will be no tyre physics updates in the coming patch.

1) Test patch in a few days with crash fix, a few small lesson editor fixes, possibly an MPR smoothing.
2) Not going to get into a massive patching session. I've just come off one. Just release the full version with a few minor updates.
3) Do some editor functions that Eric has asked for.
4) Work on tyre physics.

Disclaimer: That's the plan, but plans change...

I have managed to reproduce it using vitaly's method. Thank you for this report and reproduction. It's a bit mysterious, something to do with accessing memory after it was freed. But I'll track it down as top priority.

EDIT: Now I know the cause of it.

EDIT2: It seems to me this bug is not new, and has been there ever since shadows could be cast on layout objects, I think when the concrete objects were introduced.

EDIT3: Now I've found a seemingly more reliable way to get the crash, and in this case it takes place in the new code that selects the correct draw lists depending on your height above ground. In this method, you do not wait for the car to go out of physics. Just use in car view and pause the game before entering SHIFT+U mode. Then delete the object the car is sitting on. You should get a crash when you exit SHIFT+U mode.

EDIT4: Fixed in my version. There are a few quick things on my list that have come up so there should be a test patch out sooner than expected.

Last edited by Scawen, Wed 17 Feb 2016, 21:01.

Quote from Pose1don :

Okay but there was handbrake on MRT for years in LFS. Why the change now?

Thanks for explanation.

There was previously a handbrake on all the single seater cars in LFS. But there are no handbrakes on single seaters in reality. Some people were using the handbrake to gain an advantage in some places while hotlapping. This forces other people to use the same unrealistic trick to remain competitive and there was a request on the test patch thread to remove this exploit while we were on some other hotlapping improvements.

Hi sinanju, thanks for the test.

First of all I see I made a mistake with the folder name. It's actually data\training and not data\lesson. So I've edited the first post with that correction. Hopefully that should solve the problem you found and you should see those files, ready to load.

I see what you mean that my description could be quite confusing. I've changed the "How a training lesson is constructed" section to be more informative.

It's interesting the way you have written your version, in a step by step way that is probably easier to understand. Anyway for now at least I have added a bit more info. I know it needs more, like a description of the format for the text file.

About your last question, yes, if you loaded the layout and image file into your lesson, then when you click "save" at the bottom of the screen, the saved file is a .lsn file, representing the lesson itself and that would be something you could add to the list.

Test Patch 0.6K23 is available with many improvements!
https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/88821

K23 is available on the public test patch thread!

Thank you for the testing, design and suggestions!

https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/88821

THE PLAN!

I plan to release an incompatible test patch tomorrow evening (Thursday).

Some of you may wish to try the current incompatible version, K21, on the programmer thread. Tomorrow's will be similar, and with the Rockingham with the sunset weather, and I'll see if I can squeeze in another update or two before the test.

I don't recommend that patch for everyone, but if you have an interest in the layout editor or InSim, then it might be good to have a look.

The change log would be a good place to start.
https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/88999

After Thursday's Test Patch, the plan is to do a full release on Saturday.

K14 is now available in the first post : https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/88999

It doesn't seem like a big update but in fact it is. The best solution for the duplication bug, when moving InSim checkpoints quickly and repeatedly in multiplayer mode, was to change all the marshall code to support multiple object selection and use similar code to the other types of objects (and share some code). They can't share all the code because these circles internally are really a completely different type of object.

It turns out this was a 12 hour job, because it is complicated how this multiplayer editor works, but I think it works now. I'm not fully confident about that so I'd be grateful if you could have a go and see if it stands up to a test.

Layout editor :

Multiple object selection is now available in marshall mode

Fixes :

Quick repeat moving checkpoints in multiplayer caused duplication

The incompatible updates are listed or discussed on the programmer test thread and to me they are interesting! Yes, most of the changes need InSim to use them but the changes offer some interesting possibilities for online racing, and that's why I'm working with server admins and InSim programmers on that thread. It's all about helping to support good online racing.