I dont know why we dont get an option to host our own HI Res skins anyway? I mean everyone has probably a webhost from his ISP with at last 10MB web space. OR most even have big upload them self and if you would enable download high res skins in your game and the client would have one to offer whats the deal?
You would just write an url somewhere in the game where others would automatically download just like from LFSW right now.

Maybe it is to avoid slow connections that could cause lag...who knows

If 512 isn't enough, then why stop at 1024?

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I'm still holding out for in-game downloadable 1024 skins from LFSW one day.

+1 BUT make the choice to download 1024^2 textures optional.

2048^2 would be an improvement again, but visually the improvement is not worth the 4x filesize of going to 2x^2 the resolution in my opinion. I think 1024 allows enough detail on the cars. 512 textures look stretched to me, they are clearly a compromise when you look at them in game.

I appreciate some people run LFS on old heaps of junk, but I dont, and i'd like the option of using my computers full power. Sure let the "poor" people who can afford a half decent computer, monthly broadband and LFS to play the game, but let me play it with the options turned up on my PC too please !

Currently LFS assumes we are all on computers from half a decade ago, and that just is not true.

if u have time to tell the difference while driving u are definetly too slow. (or u are racing an uf1:razz

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if u have time to tell the difference while driving u are definetly too slow. (or u are racing an uf1

I actually feel that is wrong, If you dont have time to take in what you are seeing you are clearly driving in a formula that is too fast for you.

well, then the cars i race are too fast for me.

Yah, try sail boat racing, there's a link in my current sig - then you will see what bad textures look like at low speed! ... (specifically, the textures I drew!)

Quote from Becky Rose :

+1 BUT make the choice to download 1024^2 textures optional.

2048^2 would be an improvement again, but visually the improvement is not worth the 4x filesize of going to 2x^2 the resolution in my opinion. I think 1024 allows enough detail on the cars. 512 textures look stretched to me, they are clearly a compromise when you look at them in game.

I appreciate some people run LFS on old heaps of junk, but I dont, and i'd like the option of using my computers full power. Sure let the "poor" people who can afford a half decent computer, monthly broadband and LFS to play the game, but let me play it with the options turned up on my PC too please !

Currently LFS assumes we are all on computers from half a decade ago, and that just is not true.

I'm sorry sweetie, but the world doesn't revolve around you. You want the skin server to send bigger files? Then buy more licences to cover the dev's increasing bandwith bills.

Did I miss the post from the devs saying they cannot afford it? I dont see it anywhere.

If bandwidth really is an issue then we can look at other solutions, perhaps having a premium LFS world account as an optional extra or something like that?

Quote from Becky Rose :

Did I miss the post from the devs saying they cannot afford it? I dont see it anywhere.

If bandwidth really is an issue then we can look at other solutions, perhaps having a premium LFS world account as an optional extra or something like that?

Yes, you are partly right that devs haven't mentioned whether there are financial reasons involved, but it seems only logical that bigger files = more bandwith consumed = more £££ to keep things running.
Like mentioned before in the thread, the 512x512 limit was for testing purposes when S2 Alpha first came around. Not many people have had problems with automatic skin downloading - and thanks to solid code and design - the side-effects of file swapping between server and player are barely visible to end user. I guess Victor knows if the skin server has actually been struggling during peak hours and if more reserve is needed in the future.

Peace!

EDIT: Fixed typos.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Yah, try sail boat racing, there's a link in my current sig - then you will see what bad textures look like at low speed! ... (specifically, the textures I drew!)

Helps if any of the download links work

Sending 512 over LFSW doesn't need to be changed, as pretty much every skin on there is in the skins section here anyway, so if you want 1024 grab it from there.

Don't get me wrong, eye candy can be nice (why else do I have a PC worth more then a small car), but who needs such eye candy in LFS? The only we need custom skins is you know who's race you just screwed up because you over brake on a corner and they back ended you.

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Helps if any of the download links work

The archive of old versions is offline because i'm out of hosting space atm, the current version works, or at least it should. Anyway this is offtopic.

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ending 512 over LFSW doesn't need to be changed, as pretty much every skin on there is in the skins section here anyway, so if you want 1024 grab it from there.

Is that really true? I havn't uploaded any of the skins I have made, I showed a couple of screenies of some of my latest skins the other day, but i've not put the skins themselves up for download and that's because they are personal/team skins and not for general use. I'm sure other skinners do the same, there seem to be many hundreds of personal skins in LFS from what i've seen, and although i've not looked extensively through the skins section - I think only the F1 skins I have seen used in game.

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who needs such eye candy in LFS?

I dont need it. I want it. I have the hardware for the game to be prettier and this strikes me as a very small programming change which will go some way to achieving that.

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but it seems only logical that bigger files = more bandwith consumed = more £££ to keep things running.

Bandwidth is now an aweful lot cheaper than it was just a couple of years ago. Two years ago entry level web hosting would set you back £30 a month and get you a maximum of 1gb a month transfered from your site, now you can get the same hosting for £20 a year (example: http://www.xrshosting.com).

And as I said, i'd personally be willing to pay for a premium LFS World account to let me have the higher res skins and I am sure that some (certainly not all) other users would feel the same. I spend a lot of time in LFS, so it seems like money well spent.

Do 1024^2 skins make a difference? Not on everyones skin, frankly some are aweful and if I could scale them to 1 pixel by 1 pixel I would! lol... But some skins are fantastic and i'd rather seem them in their full glory, especially so in the saloon classes where the back of the cars skin is fully visible, I also enjoy watching half a dozen or so replays from most nights racing.

512 skins are quicker to download too. I don't think it's about the hosting bandwidth, it is about everyone downloading skins while online too. Some tremendous lag can be caused from even downloading a batch of 512 skins from LFSW. If we had loads of 1024, it wouldn't be fast, and I am guessing quite problematic for people with slower connections and/or just unstable connections. The 512 download is fairly quick, but not as fast as you think it could be. 1024 would slow it down, I am sure of it. Plus, your 1024 skin would HAVE to be compressed by LFSW, no doubt. Because they are in excess of 300-400kb in size on average, and there would have to be some filesize cap for that. There have been nearly 1mb 1024 sized skins, and there is no way LFSW would support that. And as we've seen, the LFS sites are not so fond of high bandwidth. (Well LFS.net and LFSW are hosted on 2 different boxes and locations).

So, all I can say is what the devs have already said. It is a test with the 512 for now, and if it seems ok, they might consider using higher res. I still think 512 is nothing to complain about while online anyways. You get a sense of what their skin looks like, and it adds to the racing atmosphere. I could care less if their skins were higher quality. I'd rather manually go download high quality skins of my choosing.

simple point, becky: 1024^2 skin is 4times bigger in filesize as 512^2. That's already quite a lot. And atm it's just a compromise, to suit all people.

Yes I appreciate it's double the quality for four times the file size, I shouldn't think storage size is an issue on the server ... hard disks are dirt cheap these days, and bandwidth as we've covered doesn't cost much and I for one would be happy to pay a small premium for it.

The issue Tweaker raises with skin downloads causing delays is something to talk about though.

I notice when I log on to a server it can be a bit jittery whilst I am still spectating, I think LFS uses more bandwidth for skins when spectating, this doesnt really matter - if the skins where larger it just meens this laggy period which is what, 10-20 seconds or so at the moment, would be 40-80 seconds. There's no real loss there.

Once you get in the car I think LFS gives less bandwidth to skin downloading and the effect seems less noticeable, so the real difference would be that skins took longer to appear on other cars.

Sure it's a compromise, 5 years from now we might be talking about 4096^2 skins and moaning that things could be higher quality! I just would like the option of having higher quality skins.

Quote from Vykos69 :

simple point, becky: 1024^2 skin is 4times bigger in filesize as 512^2. That's already quite a lot. And atm it's just a compromise, to suit all people.

MAybe I am blind but when I made test there is no 4x times difference in size between 512*512 and 1024*1024 at all.
1024*1024 askin can be compressed by JPEG at very,very high quality around 400-500KB.

I think it wouldnt be bad idea to have possiblity to have a premium account which you would pay monthly/quaterly/yearly and have access to special features.Like better skins for online downloading and maybe some other cool futures which cost SCAVIER money or whatsoever so they cant support it atm.

There are more and more poeple who want better graphics because they have powerfull machines/internet connections.Why not to listen then and give it to them.

The LFS developing and comunity were always about listening to others and putting the nice ideas live.Thats what make this game top-notch.

nice feature!
didn't recognized!
thx InC!

Quote from CrazyICE :

nice feature!
didn't recognized!
thx InC!

I am missing something...illepall

Quote from DEVIL 007 :

I am missing something...illepall

First post maybe?

Quote from BlackEye :

First post maybe?

:banghead:

Quote from DEVIL 007 :

MAybe I am blind but when I made test there is no 4x times difference in size between 512*512 and 1024*1024 at all.
1024*1024 askin can be compressed by JPEG at very,very high quality around 400-500KB.

Devil is right, its not 4x the size, far from it, you can have the hi-res version which tops out around 700kb, using 1024x1024, as for causing delays, i wouldn't say that either, this auto up/down system the devs have come up with has proved itself with flying colours, i reckon if they allowed upto a max of 800kb per skin that would be ample..

(512^2) x 4 = 1024^2
In memory the image is 4 times the area for double the size because it's doubled in two directions, if jpg compression happens to be giving similar filesizes for 512^2 and 1024^2 then that's jolly good, but does that apply with a full (99%) quality jpg?

I cannot check until tommorow, but I suspect if the ratio of the filesize is somewhat dependant upon the content of the skin itself and may change with some skin designs.

Personally I couldn't care if the skins where 2mb a piece, i'd still download them at full res . That's beauty of investing in your past time .

Quote from Becky Rose :

(512^2) x 4 = 1024^2
In memory the image is 4 times the area for double the size because it's doubled in two directions, if jpg compression happens to be giving similar filesizes for 512^2 and 1024^2 then that's jolly good, but does that apply with a full (99%) quality jpg?

I cannot check until tommorow, but I suspect if the ratio of the filesize is somewhat dependant upon the content of the skin itself and may change with some skin designs.

Personally I couldn't care if the skins where 2mb a piece, i'd still download them at full res . That's beauty of investing in your past time .

There is difference if we are talking about downloading the skins from LFSworld or storing them into memory.In the 1st case the file size of 1024*1024 is not 4 times bigger then 512*512.In the second case Vykos and you are right.

The jpeg compression really destroy the images more from 90percent down but at this value the skin looks completly same as 99 procent unless you compare it at pixel view .

And you are also right with your assumptation about the content affect skin file size.The more colours areas is used the less is compression effective.

As I said there are nowdays a lot of guys with good hardware so why no give them the option to have the best of they want.

Just tested it with the ZT BF1, Picture publisher and 95% quality:
512 - 62 KB - 100%
1024 - 158 KB - 255%
2048 - 394 KB - 635%

Thus the amount of Pixels is 4 times as much, the jpg filesize only 3 times.