Maybe the unpopularity of the FO8 stems from the pre-patch U era, when the tyre physics were a lot more slippery and regaining grip was a bit of a lottery. I know back then I wasn't too interested in driving it myself, as it took so much time and effort to master, and all the other cars were more accessible and more fun.

Which is a shame, because with the improved tyre physics I've had some good fun pushing the FO8 hard, albeit either offline, or alone on a server somewhere. I still prefer tin-tops with slicks, but now I'll happily have a go in the FO8 whereas in the past I used to avoid it.

Quote from yegadoyai :

He [Brundle] is even fairly level headed about his patriotic duty and will happily support DC if he happens to do well.

Yes... And I'm sure Brundle's constant rose-tinted view of DC has nothing to do with the fact that he is DC's manager.

James Allen is a cock, undoubtedly. Brundle's commentary is good and he's very knowledgeable, but his connections and fingers in other pies often make me question whether we get a whole story on some issues.

Aye, I was reading about the new Conroes just the other day. They look pretty damn good, although of course the prices are extortionate for the first few months. I've been an Athlon guy for the past few years but if the Conroes live up to expectation then I wouldn't hesitate to switch.

But I doubt I'll be upgrading until this time in 2007, so who knows what AMD will have out by then. Even if it's nothing, at least AMDs chips will be going super cheap to counter the threat from Intel, and the Conroes themselves won't have the premium/novelty price tag anymore. Probably just as well, given the demands of Vista with all the bells and whistles turned on. :o

@ DEVIL 007: I already run LFS with AA and AF. Not the full 8x in either case, but enough to get rid of the jaggies. I usually get ~30-70fps, depending on how many cars in view.

Cheers guys. I was 50/50 whether it would be worth it but if the difference between a 5900 and a mid-range 6xxx isn't much then I'll save me pennies for the HD LCD telly I want towards the end of the year. Over a year of watching a 14" portable in the living room is getting annoying.

A cpu upgrade would certainly help LFS more, but I guess upgrading within Socket A isn't going to make much difference either, and isn't worth the cost. There's also the fact that I can't really be arsed to do a full rebuild at the moment with a new cpu, mounting the heatsink, etc. That can wait until next year when I upgrade everything.

I'm about to reformat my rig, nice clean fresh install of Windows to last another year, at which point I'll (hopefully) upgrade to new kit and Windows Vista.

Current hardware:
Athlon XP 2600+ T'bred B
Asus A7N8X Deluxe nForce2 mobo
2x 512MB PC3200 RAM
GeForce 5900LX 128MB

I was toying with the idea of upgrading my gfx card, but wasn't sure whether it was worth it? I can't justify the expense of new cpu & mobo now, so a new gfx card would have to be AGP, and it would only last a year until I upgrade the cpu/mobo/ram.

Reckon it's worth doing? Was thinking maybe an nVidia 6600 or 6800 which are available for ~£80-£120. Wouldn't help with LFS, which is most definitely limited by my CPU horsepower, but would I notice the difference in other titles and in general? Would prefer to stick to nVidia.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

useless hacks in motorsport journalism (James Allen - this means you)

Stop The Cock!

I usually do the race reports on the ITEK website, and could no doubt do these too. Unfortunately the ITEK reports have been extremely sparse lately, simply due to a lack of time to get them done. So sorry, although I could do it, I'd rather get my own existing commitments sorted before taking on new ones.

Unless of course the ESL Germany Intel connection means one of those nice new Core Duo processors arrives in the post - that might tip the balance in terms of things competing for my time.

Quote from mee too :

Whos industreal genius turned the tide???

Russia's, actually.

On topic, can't understand myself why Montoya would quit F1 when he still has some decent prospects. Unless the paddock jokes are true and he really is just a bit too fat/"large" to fit in F1 cars these days.

Quote from george_tsiros :

I don't want to become a pursuit driver. I want to find what way is better when driving my car every day, in terms of relaxation, ease, safety.

The same principles that make advanced police driving fast and safe also apply to everyday road use. Police drivers aren't racing drivers. They drive road cars on public roads. I had the benefit of some instruction from a Class One police driver once, and one of the things I noticed was the phenomenal level of awareness, observation, anticipation, and control. Every single second, at every single situation, he was in the perfect gear with the perfect road positioning with his hands in the perfect position on all the controls - and all subconsciously too. After all, you can't safely drive a large pursuit car at insane speeds if your steering wheel technique isn't relaxed, easy, or safe.

Quote from george_tsiros :

Yeah, but how and how? That's what i am trying to approach scientificaly.

Read the Roadcraft manual, it's more relevant and, considering the principles contained within it are used as the basis for training the UK's advanced/pursuit police drivers, has rather more credibility.

Quote from ajp71 :

The only people I've had real problems with are people who are fast, often WR pace with a huge number of miles in LFSW, don't normally post on the forum. These drivers seem completely unaware of the rules of racing...

I understand where you're coming from. I was racing on a packed FOX server the other night, with all the usual carnage that entails. Grid pileups, newbies spinning everywhere, people interlocking their wheels. But that's all part of the learning process of racing - people going slow or making beginners mistakes is to be expected.

The only thing that annoyed me was when I was battling to defend my position against a quicker guy. He got down the inside into a hairpin, and got the power down sooner so the position was clearly his. But he still felt the need to run as wide as possible on the exit of the corner and force me to either hit the brakes or run onto the grass. This guy was no beginner, he was one of the fastest on the server. It was no big deal and not even worth mentioning in-game. It just struck me as being rude / having too much attitude. I find that much more irritating than newbie-type mistakes or ignorance attributed to being new to LFS.

Quote from Scawen :

I've never heard of anyone in the habit of pulling away in second gear, unless they are aiming down a hill.

Anyone who likes to pull away in second, must not mind changing their clutch - which is surprising because that's a big job.

Hmm, my dad often pulls away from a standing start in second gear, quite easily. But then that's in a large turbodiesel 4x4 with quite low, close gears. First is almost redundant on a level or downhill road - no sooner has the heavy, slow gearbox engaged and you've got to change again to second.

My turbo Ibiza also has close gears and is fairly low geared (i.e. not good on the motorway with the engine turning over at @3300-4000rpm! Although that's depending on the speed too of course, officer...), but I can't pull away in second without having to slip the clutch way too much.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

When I left to help water the garden ( ), I returned to find my FZ50, which I had purpefully parked in the top corner of the map

Well if we're discussing attitudes of S2 licensed racers, one would have thought that common courtesy to others on the server means you do not leave your car idling somewhere when you're away for half an hour. There is a spectate mode for a reason.

Yup, been following the U11 test thread (although haven't applied it myself yet) and thought it was generally taking the piss with the way it turned into a request free-for-all feeding frenzy. Wasn't going to say anything, but since this thread is here...

I'm surprised Scawen's patience lasted as long as it did - I doubt mine would have. Do people forget that it's one guy doing the coding here? How the hell is he supposed to implement and follow-up some compatible updates in a test patch whilst being bombarded with every request imaginable and various complaints and off topic posts?

Appreciate what we have here guys (and some girls), we'll miss it if it goes and then it'll be too late.

Quote from Becky Rose :

and that typically meens logging off.

Or joining another server.

What you've described is unfortunate and obviously totally unwarranted. But looking aside the reasoning for it (i.e. sexism, harassment, etc), the effect on the track is no different from having some 'tard dicking around wrecking people or picking on someone just to annoy them. The solutions then are the same as the solutions for this:

a) bring their activities to the attention of the admin (if present)
b) start a vote to kick them after explaining to the other racers what the problem is
c) leave and join another server.

I'm sure there's literally countless numbers of times when we've all had our racing spoiled by some individual twat, but the effective, short term solution is to put it beneath you and move on to a different server where you get clean racing. Imho, starting a topic because one person spoilt your racing can be filed under "M" for "making mountains out of molehills".

If there was a group of people on the server that were teasing you, taunting you, harassing you, etc, for any reason then that would certainly be something to complain about and bring to the attention of the community. But to create this much attention as a result of one guy who (from what you've described) probably creams his pants if he so much as sees a girl walking down the street? Hmmm....

This isn't the prettiest or most sophisticated skin ever made, and it certainly isn't the most subtle. However it does have a personal significance, in that the "Don't Lose The Music" campaign by the RNID is an effort to get young people to protect their hearing. Even if you don't drive with this garish blue and pink skin, if you're the kind of person to go to gigs or nightclubs then download it and take note of what it represents.

Screenshots below, it's already uploaded on LFSW, and download the full 1024x1024 skin here: XR GT Turbo "Don't Lose The Music"

Wooo, nice work Al. Really like the detailing on the rear vents, mirrors, etc.

Based on the real life GMAC Opel Astra in the DTM, but with a few accomodations to LFS. Preview screens below, and download the skin itself (1024) HERE.

Ok, been trying out pretty much every possible combination of everything suggested above - various/all devices/RAM attached/unattached. Result is always the same - nothing. No POST at any point. Even with the RAM out and the PSU hooked up to nothing but the mobo (and the Coolermaster front panel thingy which in turn powers the CPU fan) and FDD, it won't post or boot in any way. Things have power and fans spin, etc, but it's not doing anything.

Time to choose - do I replace the mobo or PSU first? :nerd:

Quote from L(Oo)ney :

Does watching violent movies make you more likely to go shoot someone up with an Ak-47?

No, but playing Grand Theft Auto does.*



* According to the trippy and hallucinogenic world of Jack Thompson

Quote from P1lot :

and suspended a cheeseburger from a remote control helicopter, and hovered next to his cage, LOL

Not to mention the guy that set himself up on Tower Bridge with a large supply of golf balls, his driving club, and proceeded to twat Blaine's box with full-power drives until politely asked to move on by the police.

As for David Blaine himself, I can't stand the twat. Don't care if he spent seven days underwater, don't care if he didn't make a new world record. I'm just surprised there was actually room for any water in his bowl after he'd taken his ego in there.

Quote from sweetreid :

I don't know if home made skins illegally using copyrighted tobacco logos qualifies as advertising.

My thoughts also. Tobacco companies are not paying anything to have their brands featured in replica skins in LFS, and the skinner does not stand to benefit (financially or otherwise) by making a skin with tobacco sponsorship. There's no commercial relationship that could make an LFS skin be considered as "advertising" on behalf of the tobacco companies.

Was in the pub when Boris Johnson came on, what a fantastic tackle - everyone in the place couldn't stop laughing, myself included. Brilliant!

Are you taking the piss?

Quote from joshdifabio :

People keep saying things like that but the physics and other coding improvements are down solely to Scawen. It isn't like they take up Eric's time and it isn't like Eric making more realistic looking cockpits would take up Scawen's time.

Very true. But remember that any changes Eric makes still have to be implemented into the LFS code by Scawen. I know little about software development but if Eric does the modelling, texturing and other art-related stuff, then he can't just draw a BF1 steering wheel and have it magically appear in-game with all sorts of lights and information on it. Scawen has to program it as such, and I'm guessing the same (and probably more) applies to whole new interiors like what everyone is wanting for the GTR cars (and to a lesser extent, the other cars too). As such, I'd prefer Scawen's priority to be getting the desired physical/technical features into the game, and Eric's work can introduced whenever the opportunity presents itself. I was hoping it would be with this patch, but not to worry if it wasn't, because there's other things currently lacking from LFS which have a more profound effect on the gameplay.

Quote from skiingman :

It costs me more to go to a movie with my girlfriend than it costs to buy a S1 license. If I buy dinner as well, I've then covered the cost of the S1, S2, and S3 licenses.

Exactly. Things such as the cost of upgrading from an S1 to an S2 licence really need to be put in perspective. I'm frequently staggered at folk here complaining about lack of this, too much cost, can't justify spending that, etc.

But presumably they can somehow afford a recent computer and a suitable internet connection to play online games, rather than using monkeys at a typewriter to send messages by carrier pigeon.

Presumably they then also go to movies, nights out, going out for dinner, and so on. And in one night will have spent at least the cost of S3. I know I've blown at least the cost of S8 in one evening of drinking before (and that's just of the nights I can remember), and I sure as hell aint loaded either. I count my pennies and check my account balance before writing any cheques. But it's just the cost of living. Times change, things move on, shit happens, we all have regrets, but Robbson you aren't going to get anywhere by whinging about it. Either understand how the S1 content dates from nearly three years ago now (are there many other three year old niche sim titles with modern-day sequels that still have an active online community?) and that the twelve quid upgrade really is neither here or there compared to the general costs of living, socialising, or even computing; or open your wallet.