Hi I just purchased LFS. I have been enjoying the game using just my mouse and keyboard for controls but I find that I am having difficulty controling my car properly. I'm having most of my problems with rear wheel cars accelerating smoothly and locking my brakes while braking. This is due to the off on effect of using the mouse buttons. Do you have any tips for redusing my problem. I was thinking of lowering the strength of my brakes to lower the chance of locking up the tires when braking and also raising the gear ratio to lower the car's acceleration. I'm worried that those changes will gimp my chances at winning any races. What are your opinions on this? Also, do you have any settings that you suggust that I change to make the car easier to control and faster around the track when using a mouse.
Less brake force is a good idea, but pretty much all fast sets have the brakes set up in a way that lock-ups are virtually impossible. If you're still using the default one, ask a quick racer online for his set or get one from http://setupfield.teaminferno.hu
Instead of changing the final drive, just select a higher gear. It'll have the same effect, but doesn't have the disadvantage of ridiculously wide gear spacing. Most importantly, stay away from the curbs. The FWD cars are very forgiving in that regard, but the RWD ones will punish you.
It may also be a good idea to fiddle with the diff settings (try open diff or minimal locking) and to increase the button rate in the control options. The most important aspect is practice though. The current world record for the BLGP/XRT combo is held by a mouse-driver, for example, so it IS possible to be fast with mouse. Just give it some time.
Of course there's always the option of buying a wheel...
hmm - not sure if I agree with that statement mate. I find if you set your brakes so they don't lock say in 2nd then you don't have enough braking force at higher speeds. I find I have to stamp on them while knocking it down through 5th,4th and 3rd but then have to lift off the brakes slightly before taking 2nd. Also, when braking downhill you can't use as much brake as uphill. This means you would need to set the braking force very low for the downhill braking e.g. SO Long hairpin, and this would mean you wouldn't have enough brakes for T1 which is flat or slightly uphill.
I always set my brakes so I CAN lock them sometimes and rely on my skills to avoid lockups. I used to set my brakes up the same way as you mate but I found that I was getting passed in braking zones by other drivers who had more braking force than me. Now I have a squash ball stuck behind my brake pedal and I set the locking point to be about where the pedal becomes harder to depress. Works well.
Sicarius - mate - if you're enjoying LFS with a mouse and keyboard you'll love it with a FFB steering wheel. I highly recomend you buy one.
u know u can use the mouse for the X and Y axis for smoother braking and accelerating, the problem comes when braking from speed, you tend to steer whilst braking
- Decrease the mouse sensitivity in the Windows Control Panel, and switch off all motion acceleration. This gives you much better control. (You may need a bigger desk, tho. )
- When you start using other people's setups, make sure that the creator is also a mouse driver. (The default RACE_S setups are for wheel drivers.)
- If you have problems with spinning when accelerating out of a turn, do not simply push the throttle-key, but first "stutter" it a few times. This simulates the gradual pressing of the throttle pedal.
I'm a mouser also, here's some settings that I use.
In the options/controls menu.
Change the button control rate to 2.00.
Auto Gear shift, your going to to want this at [yes].
Steer center reduction, I placed at 0.70.
Mouse Left - Acclearate
Mouse Right - Break
Shift Up - Mouse Whell Up
Shift Down - Mouse Whell Down
Mouse Middel - Clutch
Handbreak - Space
Left View - W
Right View - E
Might take you some time to get used to it. I've been racing LFS like this for about a year now and I'm with in a second of a few world records on here.
No, no, no . . . Nooooo. Na. Not at all . . .heaven forbid.
Sicaruis.
I am a mouser, although with my next rig I shall be upgrading to wheel and pedals . . .
But.
To mouse. Some of these settings need getting used to. But they are tryed and testing and proven to be very competative.
Start with your windows settings. Reduce your mouse speed and take off any acceleration you have. LFS takes it's mouse speed from windows.
Next, reduce steer centre to as low as you can handle. It will take time to get used to it but it reduces the amount of wheel turning acceleration LFS puts on the turning extremities. (I'm sure there are a few other settingy things you can do for the mouse but they are what I found most usful and effective. But I did most of my mouse tuning with the car setup itself.) I had the mouse set up to acc/brake and steer. Some people don't like this as the right hand is doing everything but I find it very usful to leave the left hand free (With doing gear changes) to do all your F'ings . . and stuff.
With the car . . .
Reduce the steering lock. Get it as low as possible that still allows you to manouver effectivly. This again slows down the 'digital' input of the mouse and allows you to more effectivly capture slides and the like by giving you more accurate control.
With acceleration . . .
Raising the gear ratios is a good tactic, just choosing a higher gear is a bit extreme and can seriously dent your performance, the higher gears are less vital but first is a definate. Lengthen it for all it's worth untill you are confident of the line. The grid start is the place where you will notice this. How often have cars breezed past you as you struggle to maintain grip. Lengthen the first gear untill you regain control. Second can be played with as well. Many tight corners will require second gear and a good way of settling the car is to lengthen the gear. A note here . . I find that 'tapping' the mouse buttons is counterproductive. The car still responds to the input and it will be rapidly changing from accelerating to slowing down. Making control even more difficult to achieve. To be fast you need to be smooth and know that when you put the power down the power stays down. You need this to maximise any areas you fall behind wheel users.
And so onwards . . .
Another way you can reduce the on/off power on effect is by increasing rear toe in. This gives the loaded rear tyre (In any given corner) the attitude of trying to force the car to straighten back up again. This is useful on turn in to reduce the rear 'snap' and very useful on exit as the squating rear tyre transfers the power to the road. Enabling to greatly increase your power on time. You can do marvelous things with the suspension as well, but that might need to be for another time. It's well worth learning about though and there are much better people than me to explain it for you.
And now onto the point . . ..
Manual box. Use it. You struggling with braking and this helps no end. You need to learn to use it if you want to have any hope of good racing against good racers, wheel users or mousers. The engine is a major tool in the control of any car and any control method and especially so with the mouse. It's an analogue input as apposed to the mouse's digital one. Use it or loose it. With it you can hold gears for corners, change mid corner if you have a control issue and most importantly slow you down with control. I can't tell you enough. Use it . . .
Along with this is clutch settings. Now, I was an FZR racer. Powerful rear wheel drive. Things are very different for other cars but I shall give you my general rule of thumb. Use the clutch pack and think of it this way . . .
Power on, mousers struggles with so reduce it. This is less apparent with the increased rear grip but try and stay low and work your way higher as you gain confidence untill you find your 'limit'.
Coast = Engine braking. Maybe more applicable to the FZR again but get this as high as you can. That way you maximise everything the engine can give you. Again, might take some getting used too but I helped me amazingly in braking.
A few other things that have come to me.
Reduce the tyre pressures. Gives the car more 'play'. It might feel a little loose but you kinda need that. Try and balance out between longevity of the tyre and best grip levels. Keep the rear tyre pressue lower than the front. This gives much better stability under heavy braking. Increase rear downforce if you are struggling for rear grip. Again this is something that you can reduce once you feel more comfortable with the car and setup.
I used to run the fronts of my cars quite loose with very low front bounce settings, this enabled the car to 'dive' effectivly under braking and allow you to maximise braking potential. Because you need to reduce the maximum braking force to save your tyres and allow you a full grip decelleration. Again. Once you are confident and used to things then you can up the brake force.
Start low and get higher. Don't try and race the wheel users without a good setup because you can't. Just concentrate on getting better, trying setups, experimenting and practicing. Before you know it your PB's are dropping and you are winning races. It don't happen over night though. So keep persevearing. You can do it with a mouse. The wheelers ain't always the last to laugh.
Just for note. I'm a 1.41.57 on AST/Nat wit the FZR. And I f I was still playing atm I would probs be a bit faster still.
I will be upgrading to a wheel as soon as I can though . . .lol
Back from when I raced with mouse, I found steering became more natural the less CSR you used. But too little and obviously things get too sensitive. I found 0.4 to be a good compromise my self.
yeah. i tried to use the keyboard and had a hard time, so i switched to the mouse. i started noticing my hand started hurting some from it, so i went out and got a momo racing wheel. my hand doesnt hurt anymore. my buddy use to use a gamepad and was awesome at it, then i got him to buy the momo too. then my buddy drove with a keyboard, and 2 days later, i got him to buy a momo too.
Gas = W
Brake = S
Steer = Mouse Left to right
Gear Up = Left mouse button
Gear Down = Right mouse button
Look left/right = A/D
The best way is when you start to feel the brakes lock up, start tapping the brake consistantly to get more of a mid brake like wheel users can get. Its hard especially going around the City cause alot of turning braking and accellorating so theres alot of tapping entering a turn, and alot exiting..
Thats giving your hands a lot too do. Try reducing the brake power,the front tyre pressures and giving the front more 'bounce'. That should help you weight the anchor without destroying the tyres and 'tapping' for all your worth.
Turn on Brake Help. Tweaking the setup is better imho, because Brake Help makes it harder to steer under braking, but Brake Help is the easiest way to avoid tapping.
this probably sounds kind of obvious but youll need a good mouse too probably one where you can really disable all mouse acceleration (which to my knowledge is only possible with razers atm)
yes i use mouse aswell but i wil be buying a wheel soon i notice wit FOX when turning into hairpins den excelerating he car just spins no matter how slow i enter the cornor its just so hard to control ... any ideas to control this thanks ......
I use Mouse+Joystick. I find it easy to have Joystick as accel and braking(the up/down) and mouse for steering and gear up&down (left and right mouse buttons) I have no steer reduction and I just got used to driving now. Although some set-ups are not made for mouse drivers, thats why I normally get my sets of other mouser's
i dont alter sets atall and im on the pace of most wheel users, i just changed the way i drove, like straightening the mouse while applying the power as not to ask too much of the tyres.....
Yes, it was a bit stupid. There are various reasons for not getting a wheel - I raced for over a year between keyboard/mouse before finally being able to "go wheel".
OMG, guys i have an idea, maybe a bit crazy but here it goes: Some people can't afford a wheel at this time/or are waiting for the new Logitech Wheel/or prefer mouse.
I find if you set your brakes so they don't lock say in 2nd then you don't have enough braking force at higher speeds. I find I have to stamp on them while knocking it down through 5th,4th and 3rd but then have to lift off the brakes slightly before taking 2nd. Also, when braking downhill you can't use as much brake as uphill. This means you would need to set the braking force very low for the downhill braking e.g. SO Long hairpin, and this would mean you wouldn't have enough brakes for T1 which is flat or slightly uphill.
