If your end goal is making games, what language you use to learn is wholly irrelevant. Yes C++ will probably give you more performance than C# if you use it correctly, but when learning that just isn't important. What's important is that you get the high level concepts used to build a game (creating a renderer, getting input, doing game logic, scene management, physics, that sort of thing). Once you get these and know how they all tie together you should be able to implement them in a language of your choice without too much difficulty, regardless of what language you used to learn in the first place.
Focusing on the language is just starting at the wrong end in my opinion as they all do pretty much the same thing. C# and the XNA framework is a very good starting point for games and you can progress onto the "harder" languages later if you feel you need the performance.
Focusing on the language is just starting at the wrong end in my opinion as they all do pretty much the same thing. C# and the XNA framework is a very good starting point for games and you can progress onto the "harder" languages later if you feel you need the performance.
Well, not everyone will blip correctly now that they have to do it themselves. So it's not like you'll be the only one. If you're really desperate it's also completely possible to use a button to blip the throttle while braking. Harder of course, but I don't see why you should get an unfair advantage over people actually trying to master this skill by themselves just because of your choice of controller. If the setting is there, why would anyone that's trying to go fast ever turn it off?
I could possibly get on board with autoblip only being available for people driving with combined throttle/brake because of the inherent disadvantage of this setup, but quite frankly I think implementing that would be a lot of hassle for Scawen for very little benefit.
Blipping (for those able) is now another thing to do wrong and mess up and that adds some diversity to the racing that we didn't have before. LFS needs that to get away from the online hotlapping we see everywhere. Every lap shouldn't be perfect, and LFS shouldn't help you in any way to make that happen.
Personally, I'd like to see them go too. At least for the road cars. If the car wouldn't have that kind of telemetry readout in real life, remove it.
It's my impression that the people thinking it is exaggerated are a small minority at this point. I've also seen much more reasonable arguments and "evidence" from the "it's actually pretty good" camp and the other way around.
Why? It's not like it's impossible to drive without blipping on downshifts. All you lose is a tiny bit of stability under braking. Compared to leaving it in and thus removing any benefit for people actually able to do this correctly I think that's a small price to pay.
Yeah, the thought of Valve having full control over my access to my games is what I don't like about Steam. I've heard enough stories of folks having their accounts revoked for no good reason to be worried about it. I also don't like the fact that they have the balls to change the Steam EULA retroactively. I do wonder about the legality of all this. It's a shame that it's so bloody convenient really as it would be easy to hate otherwise.
But I must admit that the system LFS uses isn't that different from Steam as far as activation goes. It's just that I trust the LFS devs a lot more than I trust Valve.
Are you sure you haven't changed any settings within LFS or the drivers? You shouldn't see that kind of a drop between those cards. You're almost certainly CPU limited with both of them so you shouldn't see much of a change at all.
I P4? They still sell those? Anyway, I'll certainly be a lot better than what you had. The 6600 is about the same as the 9800 PRO if I remember correctly, but the CPU is a lot better and that really helps in LFS.
Hah. Massive flashbacks of playing Tony Hawk 2 on the Dreamcast until my thumbs bled.
Heh, then I think we just look for completely different things in music because the "epicness" is exactly what I like about metal. Life is mundane and routine, so why would I want my music to just mirror that? If I want to escape for a bit, something epic is just the ticket. That said I certainly see where you're coming from, and depending on mood I also listen to more down to earth music. I wouldn't dream of having Opeth on in the background while working for instance.
EDIT: And about the pointlessness of growling. The way it's used by many bands is in my opinion pointless in that they have a hard and brutal sound coupled with brutal growling (what you just heard is nothing) making it all too much. What I like about Opeth is that the growling does in fact serve a very specific purpose in their music. The growling accentuates the melodies elsewhere in the music in a way clean vocals can't. If you added a melodic vocal on top of that song it would completely drown out everything else going on in the background. Too much melody in a way.
EDIT2: Oh and sorry for veering off topic...
Last edited by wien, .
Dynamic LOD reduction is your friend (under the misc tab). Also, and better CPU would probably do a lot more good than a new graphics card. LFS is very CPU dependant when there's a lot of cars about (something the dynamic LOD reduction helps alleviate slightly.)
As a metalhead (I have the hair to prove it too) I just have to take this comment completely out of context and jump on it a bit.
Metal as a genre is very much like any other genre in that there's shit metal, and there's good metal. (And the good has never been played on the radio/MTV.) A lot of it is over the top guitar masturbation with pointless growling and Tolkien references, but there is a lot of metal with real depth and quality too.
For example, have a listen to "When" by Opeth over here. (Not their best work, but it works as a demonstration) I'm perfectly aware this isn't for everyone, and that the death vocals can be a bit too much when you're not used to it (I hated them too in the beginning), but please give it a chance and try to listen to all of it. The way Opeth structure their songs to go from the full on brutality of the death vocal one second and then completely turn around and add the most beautiful passages with clean vocals the next just appeals to me like no other music has ever done. I can lie flat out on the couch listening and just take it all in. The contrast between the brutal and melodic parts just add so much to the song, and it makes both parts sound so much better than they would on their own. (Aw shit. Now I'm starting to sound like a hemp wearing, weed smoking, new-age dietician.)
Now the lyrics can admittedly be a big too vague and pretentious, but quite frankly I don't listen to them anyway. For me it's about the music first. The vocals are just another layer of instruments in the mix.
Now feel free to hate it, but you can't tell me this is just brainless noise.
Thank you. All these people telling him to act a colour were starting to scare me.
If this is happening often and randomly it's very likely it's your computer, and not LFS. Have you tried running a stability test like Prime95 or MemTest x86 to see if you have stability issues? Even a computer that "runs everything else fine" can have some hidden issues only encountered by certain software.
If you've run those and encountered no errors, and your drivers are up to date, get the crash address (should be reported in the little window appearing when the application crashes) and post that here. That way Scawen can have a look and see if it's a bug or not.
If you've run those and encountered no errors, and your drivers are up to date, get the crash address (should be reported in the little window appearing when the application crashes) and post that here. That way Scawen can have a look and see if it's a bug or not.
The reason you're getting this feedback is that your suggestion just doesn't belong in a racing sim like LFS. Although a lot of people use it to cruise and drift and whatnot, that is not the primary focus of this game, and any suggestions aimed purely at these users will not be implemented.
Big +1 on that one. Just got one myself and from the back of a nearly full grid I get a steady 60+ FPS @ 1920x1200 with 8X AA and 16X AF. Your CPU may still struggle a bit with very large AI fields, but nothing a little dynamic LOD reduction can't fix.
For the price the 3850 is a no-brainer.Obsolete replay? What patch is it for?
EDIT: Worked in X10!
EDIT2: D'oh!
EDIT: Worked in X10!
EDIT2: D'oh!
Last edited by wien, .
Oh for crying out loud. People driving badly in LFS go full throttle from green light to chequered flag, with a fairly slip-happy auto-clutch. I've NEVER seen anyone do anything even resembling that in real life. Can't you see the difference in aggressiveness between the two? I mean jeez.
To elaborate a bit; the vibrations you feel going over a curb in real life are mostly transferred through the wheels and chassis to your rear. The steering column doesn't have too much rotational force going through it, and it's only that which is simulated in LFS. That said there is definitely slight vibrations in the steering wheel when going over certain curbs in LFS, it's just not as huge an effect as in other games.
You're also right that LFS could use some sound feedback when going over curbs, but in LFS this is likely to happen as a generic tire impact sound rather than that "if on curb, play rumble" effect you see in other games. That's just how LFS works. Generic simulation trumps canned effects.
Here's a SPR of me doing an entire lap of Blackwood in 6th gear, with autoclutch, and the clutch was barely warm afterwards. If I had a clutch pedal I'm certain I could have done a lot better. I don't know what you're doing mate, but it's all you, whatever it is.
Which incidentally is exactly what I don't like about recent Top Gear episodes. I'm sure it's all been staged from day one, but since the stupid caravan fire of series 8, I just can't laugh at their antics any more. It just feels so forced. Top Gear was at it's best when they (at least looked like they) were 3 guys just cocking about and the cameras just happened to catch it.
Still fun, but not as fun as it used to be.
Free? Hardly. Valve takes a quite considerable cut out of everything sold on Steam. Still better than retail of course, but it's hardly free.
I think it's because using auto-clutch is more of a player preference than something dictated by the controller and as such the setting is stored with the player profile inside LFS. Useful if you have several people using the same computer for example.
If anyone would raise a legitimate concern and had evidence to back it up, I guarantee they would be taken seriously. This forum is filled with in depth discussions of all facets of car physics and through those many of the current flaws in LFS have been identified.
What will get you slapped around though is just stating opinion without relating it to something based in reality. "I don't like it" or "It was better before" are just not valid arguments. Likewise with anecdotal evidence like "I've never burnt a clutch in my real car", completely ignoring the differences in revs/gearing/aggressiveness between driving in LFS and pulling out of your driveway.
Furthermore bringing up topics and issues that have been discussed to death, beaten, revived, discussed to death again before being thrown in a wood-chipper and beaten one more time for good measure will not get you any favour. 95% of the issues brought up lately have been thoroughly explained soooooo many times seeing them yet again is likely to agitate some of us.
I know we may seem unreasonable over here some times, but do a search and really think through your reasoning before posting and I think you'll find we aren't that bad.
Well, Tristan is, but everyone just ignores him anyway. 
Are you using auto-clutch or something, because otherwise I just don't see how you manage to burn the clutch? And if you are using auto-clutch, well duh! The auto-clutch will always step in to keep the engine from bogging down, and trying to do donuts in a low-power formula car with big fat slicks and a tall first gear has a tendency of making that happen.
Right click on Portal in Steam and choose "Properties". Under "Set launch options" add "-width 800 -height 600" (or something you know works) and try again. If it starts select another resolution, quit, and remove the launch options again.
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