Quote from xaotik :

Programming-wise I have only a vague idea - but in any case you'll need the math so read up on trigonometry. However what I've found, practically, so far using a synthesizer is that you can create a similar result by using a gated noise generator and a limited delay line fed back into the mix through an LP filter. Sync that with an LFO, you don't need a high freq oscillator for that, and then it's mostly time tweaking fun - you might need a clock divider as well to simulate the explosion in the second set of cylinders.

Got some questions. What synth are you using? What's the gate for, individual cylinders? How is the delay line *limited*? What do you hook the gas pedal up to?

Quote from thisnameistaken :

So you use more than one sample; this was a lesson learned in the '80s. A good 32Mb grand piano will sound just like a grand piano to your average listener, you'd need even less data for an engine because it's not such a pure note.

A lesson I learned from NR2K is that mixing those samples to be convincing is not an easy task. Partly because the engine sound is not a pure note. It's very complex, and partly because we are not playing one note then the next, but rather gliding up through the pitch. It's much easier to hear small differences that way. As far as data goes. A sample is a sample and takes exactly so much space.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

You'd need to go to the track with a few good mics, filters and a DAT, and bundle the lot into the cockpit of twenty or so cars. I don't see how you'd manage that with the single-seaters though

Aah... but that's the easy part, isn't it? Getting a good sample is fairly simple if you know what you're doing. Forget the filters, pick the right mics and put them in the right place. It's the handling of the sample after the fact that is rough. Another lesson I learned from every Sierra game sound I've analyzed is that no one at Sierra had a clue what they were doing. The work looked like it had been done by a ten year old. Great programmers. Bad plummers.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Anyway I think the synth sounds are an interesting way to go, and have plenty of room for improvement. Given that the dev team is so small, if they switched to using samples adding new cars would become a huge amount of work.

Yeah, certain pitches need to cause different resonances in the cockpit, stuff rattling or buzzing would be cool.

That's the beauty of the whole deal. The synth can be made convincing. It seems to be more directly connected to the right foot and different cars is all a matter of how much time you put into each one. Modifications are a matter of the same. ...and all this without having to leave the house.

In the end, I'd be really interested to know how they are creating the sounds. Did they write their own software? Something off the shelf?

What do you hook the gas pedal up to?

It would be RWD all the time.

The cars would change daily.

Open wheelers 4 days a week, every week.

The tracks would change weekly.

It would hold six races every day at opportune times for NA, Eur, and Aus.

The races would be an hour long.

The rest of the time would be practice.

There would not be leagues, but rather all races would be whoever can get in and run.

All race stats would be exported to a supporting website for gloating and weeping.

Beer would be free, hot dogs a quarter.

Quote from Mbrio :

@TheAfro: this has nothing to do with LFS or LFS's security. This is just a regular trojan that sends your IP to an FTP and leaves a backdoor open (atleast that's my guess based on what Kegetys found out). That way the guy who made this can just connect to the IP through the backdoor and do whatever he wants. Assuming you understood all that, you'll realise this has nothing to do with LFS, apart from the fact the guy was using LFS as a ploy to get people to download the trojan.

In a way, it's almost commical that someone wishing to install a trojan would advertise in a manner to seduce those of us with 56k dial-up.

If he wants my Yoko Ono box set in .wav format that badly...

I have to argue with the prerecorded sound idea. For one thing, when you pitch sounds that much, say from idle to 10,000rpm, they really sound bad at one extreme or the other, or both.

Second. Sounds pitching off the charts like that create massive distortion that is not healthy for our ears. Anyone play N2K or GPL for hours on end and notice ringing or compression in their ears afterwards? Even if they played at low volume?

Third. Bit truncation and square wave distortion. Also really hard on the ear drums. There is no way to avoid these problems in third party sounds considering the general lack of knowledge and crappy software that I would assume most, if not all, LFS devotees will produce these sounds with. And, at the risk of making an incorrect assumtion publicly , that perhaps the DEVs are not aware of the finer details of handling digital audio.

But mostly, it's just the sound quality I don't like. Sure, at the sample rate rev, real sounds sound cool. But up and down the range synth sounds are better and have the potential to sound very much real.

Last edited by Slartibartfast, Fri 25 Nov 2005, 06:38.

I've seen a few discussions on FFB about how to set for maximum intuitiveness. But am reluctant to look them up and add as I don't use FFB and don't want to get something wrong. But I would assume there are pros and cons to each setting regarding how we react physically and mentally? And tips?

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I'm as slow as Captain Joe "Ponderously" Slow drinking sloe gin on a slow boat to Slow-venia.

Never heard that one before, I love it.

Quote :

I'm a bit happier with the LX4 and it's a lot of fun to drive, but bumps and dips are still a bit of a gamble. Do you think getting comfortable with the 4 will help ease me into learning to control the 6?

Also: I've found the 4 likes to squirm around a lot under braking, which is fun but not always ideal when trying to line up a corner as it tends to slide off the circuit in braking zones with a lot of camber - is this normal behaviour or should I be looking to modify the setup?

I was driving LX4 at a track I can't remember now, the other night. It was beautiful. I thought, "I'm gonna get out my trusty LX6 (which is quite trusty, BTW) and see what I can do with that." 10 or 15 laps later and I'm still only within a second of my LX4 times for exactly the reasons you mention.

Also, I've noticed that some LXx set do get squirmy. No idea why, but the two sets I keep going back to are Bob's Easy Race for LX4, and Road Going for LX6. The squirm factor is really low with these sets on my computer, with my style.

The LX6 set is based on Bob's, the LX4 is Bob's.

I've had some really nice races online. Wheel to wheel, lap after lap. But I always forget to save them.

What follows in not a hotlap, race, spectacular crash, wrecker, or weird occurance. It's a bit different. It's me, alone, offline, in "get to the end of the race" mode. It's something I'm proud of. This one isn't terribly consistant, but it will do.

FOX at South City Long
20 laps - R1 Tyres
Total Time - 32:55.57

For those who correctly assume the replay will be boring:

• 34.34 1:10.48 1:46.30
  
• 28.15 1:03.28 1:39.06
  
• 27.77 1:02.97 1:38.71
  
• 28.20 1:03.31 1:39.08 (where is my brain?)
  
• 27.86 1:02.71 1:38.69
  
• 28.21 1:03.37 1:38.99 (lobotomy?)
  
• 27.80 1:02.81 1:38.43
  
• 27.83 1:02.62 1:38.30
  
• 27.97 1:02.93 1:38.55
  
• 27.92 1:03.07 1:38.50
  
• 27.76 1:02.78 1:38.34
  
• 27.71 1:02.41 1:38.07
  
• 27.63 1:02.74 1:38.19
  
• 27.95 1:02.70 1:38.32
  
• 27.50 1:02.34 1:37.94 (whoops :-))
  
• 27.68 1:02.71 1:38.36
  
• 27.78 1:02.79 1:38.17
  
• 27.70 1:02.39 1:37.82
  
• 27.63 1:02.70 1:38.24
  
• 27.37 1:02.09 1:37.31 (I could run a tank off on R1s.)

[EDIT won't TAB in a list, FWR... ]

Last edited by Slartibartfast, Thu 24 Nov 2005, 06:24.

Yes. And I think part of the T1 trouble arrises from some people not knowing what the brake marker is from a standing start and some people knowing. Now we have a group of cars, all with different brake markers.

I know I have that trouble. I do practice new tracks online and don't like being forced to the front before I know a track. That's when I start the race from the pits. (Doesn't help my learning the standing start brake marker does it? Doh!)

I think online practice is perfectly valid in low populated servers providing you use the map to put yourself on track as far away from others as possible. You can also fire up an empty server and change to the track you just left because it was too hectic for you to be on track. By the time others start joining, you should be up to speed.

Last edited by Slartibartfast, Tue 22 Nov 2005, 19:55.

Quote from tristancliffe :

The vast majority of quick racers would never hit a slower person on purpose. But it's very difficult to judge just how slow beginners are.
The faster guys obviously expect you to brake a bit earlier, and go a bit slower through the apex, but we cannot possibly imagine just how early and how slow some people go.

In that respect, it's probably better for everyone if beginners made every reasonable effort to let faster drivers through quickyl and safely - eventually you'll be quick enough to overtake them! And at the first corner it's unlikely you will win the race with a slingshot down the inside 40mph faster than anyone. Don't do it.

I agree with you for the most part. It's everyone's responsibility to drive, well... responsibly. But that second paragraph bugs me on an attitude level. If it's a blue flag, I'll be leaving plenty of room. But if it's a full on race for position, you are going to have to get around me in a racely fashion, regardless of how much slower I am. I expect you to be a gentleman. As I will be in front. Being a gentleman includes not giving you the position like I might give a child the win at chess. (Actually, children typically give me the win at chess. But you know what I'm saying.) I do not block in public races unless I know the person I'm racing very, very well. I do not use erratic lines. I do however, from time to time, get nervous and become less than solid in my intention. As "the follower" I also expect and look for those traits in the one I am hounding. It's all part of maturity and cunning.

Part of being a gentleman also includes knowing when I am solid. I give positions to quicker drivers frequently if I know I'm holding them up for no reason. But if I'm sticking my line within a few seconds of WR, and sticking within a few 10ths every checkpoint, then I consider it my right and duty to go for the win. This is when I become the most frustrating for the quick driver. I'm solid. Just quick enough to be a chore to get around. I don't make mistakes. That's when I get punted by the odd impatient veteran. When I say punted I mean intentional removal from the racing line. Not a racing incedent. It doesn't happen often, but there are a few who simply let the red mist take over.

Part of the task is also being able to withstand the heat of someone on your tail. Online is the only place you can get that sort of mental training. So in my opinion, whatever happens on public servers is par for the couse. That includes the solid mature races, and the cluster frags.

(This from an intolerant hot head who deep down, really believes that if you can't lap within 3 tenths per minute under severe duress, you shouldn't be on the track. LFS public servers have made me a better human being. And I'm not just saying that.)

Last edited by Slartibartfast, Tue 22 Nov 2005, 19:42.

Quote from Lucasinio :

Im pretty sure that everyone has come across the noobs as mentioned above. It is especially annoying when it is a packed server, and that they do not know the track. Maybe there is someone of stopping newbies joining 'filled' rooms straight away. Maybe offline they have to do a certain number of laps. Im only posting this because ive noticed it a lot recently, especially with them blocking the track at the Oval etc.

What I find much, much more offensive than being knocked around by a noob (because you can watch them drive and know to give way) is being shunted by someone with tons of experience who is 3 seconds a lap faster than me but behind me because he either drove off the track or set the server to put slower traffic in front. People with that much experience should either pass with grace, or follow with humility. Bullying has never been attractive to me. Right now I'm thinking of a hero of mine, I see him from time to time. Even if he is only a second faster, he goes by so quick, with so much cunning, you never even see it coming. It's always a surprise when he pops out in front of me and takes off.

The other night I saw a very well developed racer (and I mean *really* good) ordering people to stay out of his way on a public server because he was trying to set fast lap and we (well, not me, I was far track from him) were getting in his way. illepall

Last edited by Slartibartfast, Tue 22 Nov 2005, 07:27.

...

...

Well...

Which ones are they?

I do tweak FOV, that was one of my first suspects because it affects my control timing so much. Unfortunately, it didn't have as great an effect on the spinning problem as I'd hoped.

I looked at the replay this morning because this is bugging the crap out of me. All four wheels just suddenly lose grip in a place, that makes sense on a physical level, but that really is no problem to drive through with my current cfg. I need to figure out how to use the telemetry program.

Please note that this latest description tries to define how these settings affect the driving "feel". Anything that doesn't directly relate to kinesthetic interpretation will be disgarded. It has been my intention all along to add useful interpretations to the WIKI manual.

VIEW
Perspective is very important in driving sims. In the past, the developers based on what they liked in the lab, have locked perspective options. Since we all have different eyes, monitors, seating heights and distances, etc… the ability to change these things really levels the playing field. LFS is king of sims in this respect. Be thankful.

Field Of View range: 40° – 120°
This adjusts how much we see to the top, bottom, and sides of our sitting position. You will notice that with FOV the impression is that you are sitting closer or farther away from the dash even though you are not. If you sit closer the ‘feel’ in the front wheels increases while the ‘feel’ in the rear wheels decreases. Set the FOV to 120° and you will notice that the car feels like it has a lot of understeer. At 40° the car will feel very responsive, steer angles are very easy to gauge. Too far in either direction and we start to lose sense of speed.

Another effect of FOV is that our timing is dictated by how close or far we are. Again, FOV does not adjust that, but the perception is tricky. A low FOV makes us feel closer, we will be perceptually farther up the track, making all of our movements such as braking and turning happen too late. A high FOV makes us feel further away, and we will be making these same movements too early. Low FOV makes the track seem shorter between turns. High makes the track seem longer. If you want to brake, turn in, and apex later, make your FOV lower. If you want to brake, turn in, and apex earlier, make it higher.

The balance of FOV is a tough one based on how much feel we need front to back vs. how much timing adjustment we can tolerate. In rear drive cars, higher settings can increase the ability to drive in a ‘seat of the pants’ style, while lower FOV can make it easier to point the car.

These next features are again, what separates LFS from the rest. This is the dynamic cockpit that had never really been implemented correctly in previous sims because we all need different stimuli or feedback. Too little movement, and we don’t get enough information, too much and it becomes confusing. All of these settings are highly personal, experiment a lot.
1g Head Tilt range: 0.00° – 2.00°
Head Tilt is how much the head moves back and forth and side to side under acceleration, deceleration, and lateral acceleration. The setting is for how many degrees the head moves per 1 gravity of force. Very helpful when braking.
1g Lateral Shift range: 0.25m – 1.00m
How much the driver moves during lateral acceleration. Increases realism, but can be confusing.
1g Forward Shift range: 0.25m – 1.00m
How much the driver moves during acceleration and deceleration. Increases realism and can help read the car. Really helps with reading the brakes. Too much can be confusing.
1g Vertical Shift range: 0.25m – 1.00m
How much the driver moves up and down when riding over bumps or rises. Increases realism and can help read the car. Too much can be confusing.
Default Drive View options: In Car | Custom
Quite simply, this is where you sit when you drive. In car is the proper realistic view for simming. Other views give different awareness, but what are we doing here, slot cars?

Settings For In Car View [XR]
This next group of settings is different for each individual car. The letters in parentheses designate for which car the settings are. In this case, I am driving the XRR.
Pitch View range: -22.50° – 22.50°
This setting also deals with perspective and has been greatly overlooked in previous sims. Where does the horizon line fall on the screen? It is of utmost importance to look ahead while driving. Where we look has as much to do with our success as almost anything else. I prefer my horizon to be higher. It keeps my vision aimed at the right place on the track. If I lower the setting, I tend to look too closely in front of me. This setting is highly personal, experiment a lot.
Rotate View range: -30.00° – 30.00°
This setting rotates the static view right to left.
Mirror Offset Lateral range: 0.000m – 0.250m
In cars that have central overhead mirrors, this allows us to place them left to right. In non-formula cars, this is extremely important. Place it where you can easily see the whole mirror while driving. [Note: Hitting other drivers needlessly is considered impolite in most circles.]
Mirror Offset Vertical [0.017m] range: 0.000m – 0.100m
In cars that have central overhead mirrors, this allows us to place them up and down.
Clocks Mode options: Off | Real | Virtual
Depending on how you have your cockpit and FOV set, you may need help seeing your revs, speed, and gear.
Move View With Animation options: Off | On
(Not sure what this does.) Me neither. I see no difference.
Draw Driver/Wheel options: Driver ON WheelON | Driver OFF WheelON | Driver OFF Wheel OFF
In sims, it’s critical to have as much awareness of steering angle as possible. Having the wheel and/or arms on can help. Most drivers use very consistent steering angle throughout their turns and memorize how much by “O’clock” in their over-hand. You may find the graphical representation helps, at the expense of frame rate of course.

Look Function options: Axis | Steer | msX | msXY
Look function rotates the forward view to look in the direction that the selected axis is moving. This can be especially helpful. When we are driving in the real world, it is only when entering a long straight that we are actually looking perfectly forward. Most of the time we are looking off to one side or the other. Sims are rough in this regard because the screen is only in front of us. Until we have wrap-around monitoring, this is a good option. It allows for sight lines that are more intuitive, but at the expense of balance. Keeping this to a minimum will make the rear drive cars easier to handle. Especially during oversteer.
Look Sensitivity range: 0.00 – 2.00
With rear drive, it’s probably better not to use Look Function or keep it very low. When we countersteer the view turns towards the wheels. This can challenge balance, but after a little practice can also indicate steering angle, making it easier to correct slides. Again, this is very much a personal setting.
Button Look options: Instant | Smooth
This is how you look out the sides of your car. One way is instant to 90°, the other pans over to 90° and back to forward smoothly. Each of us will prefer one to the other. It is very important to look when racing. It’s also very important to not lose control while doing so. Choose one and practice with it. [Note: Hitting other drivers needlessly is considered impolite in most circles.]


DISPLAY
Frame Rate Display options: Off | Left | Right
Use this while testing all your options to see what impact your changes have on frame rate.
Digital Speedo options: Yes | No
One or the other will be much easier to read at a glance.
Mirror Mode options: Off | Real | Virtual
Depending on your viewing settings and the car you are in, more mirror will be very helpful. In road cars with a centrally mounted mirror, Virtual will be redundant and eat up frames. In the formula cars, it’s a must. [Note: Hitting other drivers needlessly is considered impolite in most circles.]
Show Pedals options: Yes | No
Helpful when calibrating, trouble shooting, or watching replays.
Show Small Map options: Yes | No
Of course! [Note: Hitting other drivers needlessly is considered impolite in most circles.]
Show Position List options: Yes | No
Can be informative during a race, but also distracting.
Drop Shadows options: Yes | No
If you are having problems reading message text, this may help.
Message Test Size range: 0.020 – 0.060
If you are having problems reading message text, this may help.
Display Results CTRL+TAB options: Yes | No
This allows the user to turn off the display of race results with CTRL+TAB
Overall Times Display options: Relative | Absolute
Relative will show you the winner/leaders absolute time and all times after will be represented by the difference to that time. Absolute show you the raw times.
Check Point Text options: Split Times | Split Times and Names | None
What you see when you cross checkpoints.
Show Virtual Start Lights options: Yes | No
If you have a habit of starting very, very far back the grid, this may help.
Manual Shift Indicator options: Shift UP and DOWN | Do Not Display | Shift UP Only
This can be helpful to learn the redlines of individual cars.

PLAYER
Shift Type options: Auto | Sequential | Shifter
This needs to be adjusted to match your controller set up. To ease switching, you only need go to Player tab now for shift type and autoclutch. Otherwise, you'd have to go to Player to set autoclutch and Controls to set shifter type.
Brake Help options: Yes | No
For keyboard/mouse, or gamepad, this will be very useful. If you are using an analog brake controller, this will limit efficiency.
Throttle Help options: Yes | No
For keyboard/mouse, or gamepad, this will be very useful. If you are using an analog throttle controller, this will limit efficiency.
Auto Clutch options: Yes | No
If you don’t have a clutch pedal/axis this will be very useful. If you are using an analog clutch controller, this will limit efficiency.
Throttle Cut On Upshift options: Yes | No
This cuts the throttle as you shift up. It is the same as lifting your right foot. Doing your own throttle work is gives you much more control.
Throttle Blip On Downshift options: Yes | No
This blips the throttle as you shift down. It is the same as pushing down on your right foot. Doing your own throttle work is gives you much more control.


CONTROLS
Mouse/KB | Wheel/JS
Wheel Turn range: 180° – 900°
This should match your actual degrees of rotation for your wheel. This is purely cosmetic, to match the on-screen steering wheel rotation to your real-life one. However, could be of utmost importance if different rotations between your hands and onscreen wheel distract you from racing.
Wheel Turn Compensation range: 0.00 – 1.00
This is steering non-linearity. Lower number = more linear. This setting can be of vital importance. For one thing, how do you expect or want the car to act when turning the wheel to say, 11 o’clock overhand? Also, it’s important to experiment and fine tune while timing laps. Reading slip angle is very tough in sims. It’s possible to have a car and interface that feels terrific, but do not use the front tires to their full potential.
Force Strength range: 0 – 200
The overall force feedback multiplier in percent.
Throttle/Brake Axis options: Combined | Separate | Buttons
This needs to be adjusted to match your controller set up.
Shift Type [sequential] options: Auto | Sequential | Shifter
This needs to be adjusted to match your controller set up.
Clutch [button] options: Axis | Button
This needs to be adjusted to match your controller set up.
Hand Brake [button] options: Axis | Button
This needs to be adjusted to match your controller set up.
Throttle/Brake Centre Reduction range 0.00 – 1.00
This is helpful if you are using a single axis on your throttle/brake controls. Or, as in my case, if your analog controller is going nuts in XP it can keep the idle down to around 4,000 rpm. J
Buttons 1
Use these options to customize your controller. Such as putting your shifter on paddles on your wheel.
Buttons 2
Use these options to customize your controller. Such as putting Button Look on your steering wheel or changing your Pit Lane Limiter to the SPACE key. I have turned off the Zooms and Car Reset because they bug me.
Axis/FF
Force Feedback options: Yes | No
This turns FF on or off in the game.
Calibration Lock options: Yes | No
This locks the axis calibration. Means that even if you remove one or more axis, or an axis should become uncalibrated, LFS won't recalibrate it to the new range.
Remove Deadzones options: Yes | No
Some controllers have deadzones in their drivers that can't be adjusted. This setting removes those.


MISC
Full Screen Vertical Sync options: Yes | No
[insert CRT and LCD technology explanation here] This force the game to wait for a screen blank before drawing the next frame. This makes video smoother and inhibit video tearing, but can severely affect framerate and can cause stutters and jumps in framerate.
Limit Frame Rate In Game options: Yes | No
If your computer can’t run flat out graphics all the time, this will help give you a smoother experience by keeping the frame below the maximum frame rate setting.
Maximum Frame Rate range 10 – 100
What works for your computer? Use the Frame Rate Display under DISPLAY settings to see what’s right for you. Remember, low frame rates are harder to drive.
Minimum Sleep range 1ms – 20ms
This force the game to release control over resources for the set amount of time. Can help some stuttering issues caused by external apps and services that are running low on resources.
Screen Clear Type options: ellipsoid | clr+sky | plain sky
(Not sure what this does.)
Sound Lag range 0.10sec – 0.50sec
Audio takes time to get through a computer. If this is too low for your system, the sound may get funny. If it’s too high, the tire and engine noises play at the wrong times. Experiment to see what your computer can handle.
Analog Steer Smooth range 0.00 – 1.00
This is basically a low-pass filter for the steering input. If you have an old controller that spikes and jitters, enable this option. Can cause slight controller lag.
Dynamic LOD Reduction range 0.00 – 1.00
This turns level of detail graphics down determined by your frame rate settings. So if you are on a crowded grid you may see the details change. Once the pack thins out some, all returns to normal. Can really improve online play for everyone.

Maverick and I of GURU put together an explanation of the Options screens that we are hoping will help the comunity overall. It's not intended to be a direct technical explanation of what the options do, but rather a more subjective explanation of how you or I might react to each setting.

I am posting it here for a few reasons, hoping to have it deleted once it's done.

1. Obviously, any mistakes should be corrected.
   
2. I know a lot of you have your own tricks or observations that can make this more helpful still. (note the lack of explanation on why certain FF settings may be more succesful than others.)
   
3. Suggestions about where to put this thing when it's done.

If you would be so kind as to give it a look over, then make additions...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Slartibartfast and Maverick of the Grown Up Racers Union have put together an interpretation of the Option screens in LFS in hopes of helping drivers sort through the mysteries of how each setting effects us on a visceral level. This is not a complete list of the settings, but rather, focuses on the settings that can affect the way we interpret our drive in LFS. Transforming visual and audio input to kinesthetic interpretations is a very important factor in how successful we are with our simming. Absolute lap time, consistency, and our level of enjoyment are all effected by how much we “get” or “do not get” from the illusion in front of us.

A lot of this is going to be highly subjective. Great! That is why they have put sliders on the values. Here we go:

OPTIONS

AUDIO
Car Sound Volume range: 0.0 - 20.0
Naturally, we need to hear the engine. It sounds cool and helps us know when to shift, if we have wheelspin, if the car is hopping, etc. If it is too loud, it will mask the other sounds. In rear drive cars it may be better lowered to help with ‘feeling’ the rear tires.
Skid Volume Boost range: 1.0 – 3.0
This is an important indication of what the tires are doing. It should be in the foreground of the audio mix to help ‘feel’ the car. If the tire sound is too low compared to other sounds, the driver will have a tendency to push too hard in corners or lock up the brakes. If the tire sound is too high, the driver will not push hard enough.
Wind Volume Boost range: 1.0 – 3.0
This increases perceived reality. It can also help sense of speed. Too much can be distracting.
Echo Volume Boost range: 1.0 – 3.0
This increases perceived reality. It can also help localization. Too much can be distracting.

SCREEN
The higher you can run your screen resolution the better. If we are trying to drive “inch perfect” and every pixel represents half a meter then we won’t be so successful. Also, it is of utmost importance that we look as far into the distance as possible when racing. Higher screen resolutions give us more detailed information, allowing us to plan ahead further.

There is a trade off however. The higher we run graphics options, the lower our frame rate will be. Frame rate is also important in sim racing. Frame rates below thirty get very hard to drive smoothly because every time we make an adjustment it may take a perceivable amount of time longer to get feedback from our monitor. Therefore, we will always be driving from memory, “I think I’m here… uh oh…. No I’m not.”

Each of our computers is different so taking the time to test and tweak will be to great advantage. The number one rule is, “Run as much as you can get away with, without sacrificing frame rate.” It is important to remember that online frame rates will typically be lower, especially in traffic.

There is no hard and fast rule, but settings like Screen Resolution and Frame Rates are considered necessary improvements, while settings like Simple Wheels and Disable Trees fall squarely in the “eye candy” department. Settings like Mirror LOD and Dust LOD can help situational awareness while racing, but if your computer is on the slow side, they suddenly shift into the eye candy category. There is a lot of gray area; you have to make the choices for yourself.

Wide Screen Effect options: Yes | No
All this does is put black bars over and under the image. I'd guess everything is rendered, and the black bars are put over the rendered image. Users with widescreen monitors or displays should use this, others should not.

On a typical 4:3 computer monitor, having Wide Screen set to [no] can give us vision that is a little more peripheral. It is easier to see how close we are to the side of the track. Hopefully, we won’t see someone’s wheel down there in the corner of the screen.

GRAPHICS
User LOD range: 0.25 – 1.00
This adjusts how much detail is in the distant track objects and other cars. It helps believability at the sacrifice of frame rate. Too little and the cars have square wheels.
Dust LOD range: 0.25 – 1.00
Depending on your setup, this could have a major impact on frame rates. Dust is good when racing because if you see the driver in front put a wheel off, you can guess that he is flustered and off balance. Dust is bad because if you are following “Black Jack” he is just trying to smoke you out to throw you off.
Mirror LOD range: 0.10 – 0.30
Mirror LOD also has a big impact or frame rate. What do you *need* to see. For me, cars only. The mirror is very important in racing. [Note: Hitting other drivers needlessly is considered impolite in most circles.]
Screen Width Affects LOD options: Yes | No
(What the heck is this? I can’t tell what it’s doing.) I'm really not sure what this does either. My educated guess is that it adjust LOD if you adjust your resolution (screen width). Slight impact on fps, pretty big impact on LOD. Try standing on the Blackwood starting line and tunring it on and off. I see details farther with it off.
Track LOD Reduction options: Yes | No
This reduces faraway detail to gain fps. It uses simpler models in the distance.
MIP Bias range: -4.00 – 0.00
MIPmaps are lower resolution textures calculated by the GPU to be used in the distance. Lower resolution textures are blurry. Higher resolutions are sharper. Can cause 'shimmering' of distant textures. Adjust to suit your preference. Lower is slightly faster. (More FPS)
Shadow Type options: Off | Low Res | Hi Res
Shadow has a great impact on frame rate. Ultimately we do not need it. It does add “weight” to the cars when viewing replays or following someone on track. Use with care.
Simple Wheels options: Off | Mirror | All
Removes highlights and spokes from the center of the rim. If you are having frame rate problems, doing without those things will help. Be careful with this setting! If you are using hardware shaders this cannot be set to on. That will cost you massive amounts of FPS, as much of the shading is done by CPU!
Disable Trees options: Off | Mirror | All
Removes the trees around the track. If you are having frame rate problems, doing without those will help.
Disable Flags options: Off | Mirror | All
Removes the flags around the track. If you are having frame rate problems, doing without those will help.
Disable Rubber options: Off | Mirror | All
Removes dynamic skid marks around the track. This can be very helpful as it gives you an indication of what your opponents are doing. If you are having frame rate problems, doing without those will help.
Enable Dither options: Yes | No
In lower than 32bit graphics modes, this allows the missing colors to be represented by something close. There is little, if any, frame rate hit. It is suggested for any mode but 32bit.
Enable MIP Filter options: Yes | No
This is some extra fancy filtering of MIPmaps. Enables you to run less MIPmaps with better result. Yes = faster.
Half Texture Size options: Yes | No
This option will allow you to use smaller textures. Depending on how much memory your video card has, this may be very helpful. It looks pretty darn good either way, and shows you what the estimated memory usage is in either mode.

Radeon
[This is the program recognizing my video card. Yours, and the options following, may be different.]
Hardware Vertex Shading options: Off | On
This allows the GPU to do very much of the work shading and transforming the geometry, greatly improving frame rates.
Z Buffer Depth options: 15 | 16 | 24 | 32
The Z-buffer is the buffer that stores how far into the scene polygons are. They are then sorted, and the ones furthest in are drawn before the closer ones. The accuracy of this buffer dictate how accurate this sorting is. Lower is faster, but you can get some mis-sorted polygons, like car parts being misaligned.
Simple Track (no car shadow) options: Off | Scenery | All
When you turn simple track ON, you turn vertex shading OFF, which means you just made the CPU do a lot of the shading and convolution of vertices that the GPU is perfectly capable of handling. The only time you would want simple track ON is when you have a GPU that does not support vertex shading, i.e. a 2d card or a very old type GPU.
Haze Effect options: Yes | No
This makes objects in the distance get progressively more ‘foggy’. It really helps with sense of distance and speed, making the sim more realistic by allowing you to drive more by ‘feel’ than by rote. Frame rate hit is minimal with a modern video card.

There are people complaining about soap on the track, or unexpected oversteer. I was one of them until a few months ago, at which time, I had been changing so much on a daily basis I couldn't say what the changes were that made LFS work correctly for me.

Out of curiosity I loaded up the original cfg.txt file and used a setup that I know is very, very good and drove a track that I have "wired". The original cfg.txt brought the evil handling car back immediately. This morning I thought I would troubleshoot it by adjusting settings, one at a time, back to the way my cfg is now until I clicked the one that is causing the unexpected loss of traction.

No luck. The game seemed to keep improving throughout the session, almost regardless of cfg settings. Before you say I'm nuts, this morning I guarantee the problem was there. The cure seems to be illusive and dynamic. The point is though, that yes, somehow the physics are dynamic. Or, the perception of what's happening leads to reactions from the driver that become unpredictable. My goal was to prove it was in the contoller setup as I am using an analog controller input in XP. I figured that was a likely suspect. Not so though...

Do you consider 40fps low? I'd love to have more, but I'm on an older machine.

I wish there were rewind or clip in the replay. It's a pain to foward to try to analyze a single common event in several long replays.

Last edited by Slartibartfast, Mon 21 Nov 2005, 03:39.

Well... I went and did some testing this morning and came up with almost nothing.

By loading the original cfg.txt I got cars that suffered from Sudden Unexpected Oversteer at all turn phases except NTOARSWRSI. So now I have to wonder if that was an S1 thing that I confused with S2 by not paying careful attention after starting to use S2.

I think the Sudden Unexpected Oversteer Syndrome may be mostly GUI realated and cumulative to a number of settings, but have some suspects that are high on the list. At least when considering my personal machine/driving style/occular disposition.

I started out by driving the FOX on Fern Bay Club because it is short and it yeilds the problems I was having. I used my test setup because it's crazy stable, predictable, and I know it inside and out. I ran there using mycfg.txt until I attained *consistent meandering* laps. I then loaded the originalcfg.txt and calibrated, locked, and changed wheel turn compensation. None of these adjustments made any change to the way the car handled and it still suffered from SUOS.

How did the car handle? It seemed heavier, did not respond quickly, was later than I expected in every aspect. The front took longer to set and reading grip front and rear was compromised. The rear would come away after it seemed to be set.

I changed Limit Frame Rate to 40. No effect. Then, back to the same page and because I am starting to think this is a GUI problem, changed Sound Lag from the default 20ms to 10ms. Something definately changed. The car was about 50% less evil in mid to late corner oversteer. How could this be? While we can hear 10ms delays, is our right foot/thought process/computer latency so sensitive that 10ms makes that much of a difference to our control factor? I changed the setting to 30ms. No difference in how the car reacted. But overall, a major improvment in the drive by adjusting Sound Lag. ? I changed it back to 20. From time to time the car would act poorly but not always.

I reloaded mycfg drove a lap then reloaded originalcfg.

Right back where I started. Again, controller and frame rate adjustments. Car was bad again suffering from SUOS. This time I didn't touch Sound Lag but went straight for Field of View and changed it to what I am used to. That cured a good amount of my timing problems and the car lost a good 60% of it's non responsive personality, but still, definitely suffered from the same traits. I adjusted Sound Lag again and got a noticable improvment in SUOS.

At this point I was recording in hotlap mode thinking that my Options screen adjustments would be recorded. I was wrong and did not write down what I was doing. But it was something like this:

I do not use FF. Turning Force Strength to 0 from 80 made a noticable difference in SUOS. Changing Minimum Sleep from 1 to 3 may or may not have made a difference. Calibration Lock and Remove Deadzone made no noticable difference. Because I don't use FF I turned the engine sound down and the tire sounds all the way up. Made the car easier to handle, but it still suffered. Not as much as orginally. Driver wheel on and off, no difference.

At this point I'm not sure if any of the changes I've made are actually changing my ability to drive LFS or if I'm getting used to driving it in this manner. I change everthing back and it gets better in the SUOS area but is worse in my ability to understand what's going on. What? It's better with everything back to original? Is it a matter of flicking things on and off, or is it all in the GUI and my interpretation?

I reload mycfg run lap, then reload originalcfg. Now this time I'm positive the car is better. Even with all the defaults. Are there other settings in the game that are changed through the cfg.txt, but not ultimately controlled by the cfg.txt that are not changing? A few more reloads of this nature and each time the car is more and more consistently like it is in mycfg.

I give up. I know for a fact that with the original cfg this morning the car was goofy. I did not nail it down to one setting like I had hoped to, and it is significantly better after me futtzing with it for a couple of hours. I'm not sure it's entirely GUI related. The Sound Lag switching has me wondering about things I can't wonder. Like, does my personal computer need to be tricked into resourcing the game correctly? I don't know these things.

As fate would have it. A couple of the GURU drivers have been working on a subjective guide to the Options screen that should help a lot with any problems GUI related.

My cfg is working fine, so while I don't have any answers, I am having the time of my life with LFS. That counts for something, eh?

Last edited by Slartibartfast, Mon 21 Nov 2005, 03:32.

Quote from atledreier :

I started GURU (Grown Up Racing Union, www.grownupracing.com) for this very reason. If any GURU member are online there, feel free to ask them anything.

Your advice has certainly gotten me a few PBs and my FO8 set is dang near perfect because of you trackside skills. Woulnd't mind another session like that when you get some time.

Seen any Monsrosities lately?

OOOH.... SPARKS! I love sparks!

I like this idea as a filter. It would mean yet another set of buttons from the devs, but I can see it working off the car/track combo stats. Many solid racers join races they've never been to online or off and end up noobing around for a few laps until they get their line and set straightened out. I am, of course, guilty of the same and wouldn't mind spending a few laps in a restricted setting, getting my stuff together. I can't see how it would take from the game, there are so many open servers out there that allow us to set up whatever race we want.

The start thing could be sorted too. I also find my self on row one when I definately should not be. Shift+S.

PS, it just occured to me that wreckers probably don't complete a lot of laps at a given track, prefering to spend their time at one corner or going backwards. Do backwards laps count in the stats?

I might be odd, but I've always thought the GTR class is exceptionally well balanced. I think DasKlee nailed it right on the head. IRL different makes are not equal. Strategy and skill make up the differences and LFS allows us to simulate the reality wonderfully. I think the FRR is the megagas to drive, but if I *need* the points, I'll wrestle the FZR. Back when I was kid, the 911s and their breed dominated sports car racing. I always heard what exceptional cars they were from the drivers. I also heard they were absolutely evil to drive at the limit.

I don't know. When I first test the GTR class in LFS, and even now, I think it really lends to multi marque races like no other sim I've tried.

Here is my FO8. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to finishing the left side. But in my opinion, it's pretty smart. (That's why I drew it.)

I'd have to say the FOX in LFS.

But to be a little more specific:

FOX on So Long. I love the track, so many challenges. And I love the way the FOX just hangs on no matter how much you give it. I find myself getting into a rhythm where I am actually aiming the car at the armco on the insides of the corners at turn in, then skipping past in a drift. I like going round and round and never clipping a barrier, but coming "oh so close" so often.

Quote from Rotary :

Oh sorry, looks like I've spent the last 2.5 years or more of LFS racing somewhere I don't belong, my bad. Thank you for your enlightment. I promise to follow the straight and narrow and not step out of the box that is considered by you to be "normal". Please send me the bible on being you so I can correct my ways and learn to not be myself and become one with your way of life.

It's a matter of opinion, learn to understand others have different views on what they can and can't do based on their own life experience and its up to them to make decisions. You are not our parents, get over it. Don't like it? Tell the person who hit you, spectate, change server, start a kick vote.... wow, so many choices yet you'd rather try to say people are childish because they don't enjoy life the way you do.

Sigh, now we have after race smash up prevention nazi's... Christ I'm sick of all the "You can't do it because I don't like it" cry babies in these forums.

Edit: Yes, I may be immature in some respects (meaning others see what I find as entertainment to be childish) but in the real life issues that actually matter I have a very healthy attitude (such as starting a family). LFS is just a PC "simulation" game FFS. I can't believe I let this stupid thread get to me!

Just out of curiosity...

How do you feel about cigarette smoking?

NTOARSWRSI is just me abreviating myself after post #107. Neutral throttle oversteer at realistic speeds with realistic steering input.

I do have my frame rate capped at 40 and I have the reduce detail functions on. (I think it's funny when the farthest cars in front of me are just blocks at the start of populated races.) GFX and controller options are the first things I am going to check when I get more than ten minutes, as I have both a slowish computer and archaic controller interface.