The online racing simulator
Rfactor vs LFS
(1872 posts, started )
Quote :
Quote :Ford Racing 2 - body roll and suspension show up well in driving view

So why doesn't rFactor if its meant to be such a good racing simulator?

Ford Racing 2 was an unexpected suprise regarding the driving view. Most games seem to keep the driver's head vertical, but I think Ford Racing 2's making the view relative to the car was a cool effect. It really added to the realism for me. It's possible that the .PLR file for an ISI game allows you to adjust this, but I haven't messed with them that much, except for increasing volume on tire sounds.
Quote from tristancliffe :Long live the mediocre and non-obligatory sampled engine sound mods - it keeps the whiners quiet.

Mediocre? Still one of the best LFS mods so far, even in the v0.2 stage. I wonder why no one did this before.

I've never had "a problem" with the generated sounds but I think I won't be playing LFS without this CSR in the future now that I have used to it already.

Anyways, this CSR simply shows how small additions to the sound engine makes a huge difference. Scawen just seems to be completely disinterested doing anything to the sounds for now.

Quote :LFS's great sounds

Wrong term, sound engine is great but the actual sounds aren't.

Quote :(I never have a problem with the sounds, not even the loud crashy one people always seem to burst into tears about. Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe I just don't crash so heavily).

Considering how f*cking annoying that collision "sound" is, it's surprising that very few people whine about it. Most of the LFS players doesn't even seem to notice it anymore, which is kinda weird. I guess same people could get used to a constant "BANG BANG BANG BANG" sound in their heads after getting a bad hearing defect.
You mean the 'Bang Bang Bang Bang' isn't supposed to be there?
Sorry for OT
Quote from deggis :Scawen just seems to be completely disinterested doing anything to the sounds for now.

Okay, well this depends on how you define "for now", but he's certainly aware of that problem and lately he even mentioned sound improvements direclty. He didn't say when, but we WILL get them.
Quote from Scawen :You can look forward to many improvements to LFS - graphical, physical and audible.

Tristan, i know that you're an uber fan boy.. so am i.. but these sounds are really great, and you don't loose that much feedback compared to LFS sound, because you also hear the LFS sound, and these samples really keeps up with them so it's not that noticable that there are two sources of sound playing..
Curently, only the Yamakawa's FZR sounds totally good to me.. There are few LX6 sounds modifications that are very good, but every one of them has something that annoys me.. if someone combined the best out of them all, then it would be great.. But even with those annoying things, it's way better then default LX6 sound..
As Android said, especially for RWD cars, the LFS sound engine is giving me contra effect, so i drive worse with LFS sounds.. because i can't feel all that power with that sound.. With samples, it's a different storry.. I drive RWD cars much better with them...
@Tristan's opinion about the sound addon:
Try using it to only mix in gearbox sounds. LFS lacks gearbox sounds completely. That way LFS gains a great deal of immersion and keeps all the information from the generated engine sounds.
The rest of the application isn't of interest to me either.

Vain
I tried the CSR, but while I liked the improved sounds (hearing only default LfS-sounds afterwards is like going from a huge sabre-tooth tiger to a little kitten), all the information the standard engine sounds provided were gone... I couldn't tell the moment to shift anymore, which I can without CSR... And although the CSR is a big improvement (I love the gearbox sounds and the exhausts banging when I downshift quickly), I'm staying with the default sounds for racing... I might try vain's suggestion though...
Hmm, maybe try setting the mix level to the minimum (1)? You could atleast leave it on for the shift sounds
Quote from AndroidXP :Sorry for OT
Okay, well this depends on how you define "for now", but he's certainly aware of that problem and lately he even mentioned sound improvements direclty. He didn't say when, but we WILL get them.

What Scawen said was pretty vague. And we all knew that already. "For now" I meant time perioud from S2 alpha to final.

Quote from Boris Lozac :Curently, only the Yamakawa's FZR sounds totally good to me.. There are few LX6 sounds modifications that are very good, but every one of them has something that annoys me.. if someone combined the best out of them all, then it would be great.. But even with those annoying things, it's way better then default LX6 sound..

UFR sound is also great, very nasty sounding though it might fit some other car better. Though I don't like the LX6 sound, it's not so beefy like it should be compared to Lotus 7 onboard videos I've seen.

0.3 version was released today and now it has brake squeal sound too.
#860 - Woz
Oh well, I decided to look at rFactor again as I have not touched since early on.

I downloaded the latest version, installed and started it up. 1 hour after playing with the visual settings and it is still a slide show on the lowest settings. OMG what a pile of crap.

Before people shout its your machine....

I run on a 3000+ AMD64 lappy with 512Mb and 64Mb ATI 9600 pro. This lappy runs the likes of Doom III without issue at good FPS and runs LFS perfect.

Why is rF so demanding. I have DX7 selected and EVERY visual setting at LOW and 800*600*16bit with NO AA or AF and its still a slide show.

It used to run fine with the first point release so what have they done to this piece of crap. Its not like I am well above the minimum requirements?
Quote from Woz :It would be great to hear the scream of straight cut gears in the mix.

fine ... as long as i can turn them off
Quote from Shotglass :fine ... as long as i can turn them off

Cool, so real race cars has a "turn off annoying gearbox sound" button in the cockpit?
Quote from deggis :Cool, so real race cars has a "turn off annoying gearbox sound" button in the cockpit?

no but just because they havent means ill have to use earplugs like them just to enjoy my favourite pasttime without going mental
Quote from Woz :Oh well, I decided to look at rFactor again as I have not touched since early on.

I downloaded the latest version, installed and started it up. 1 hour after playing with the visual settings and it is still a slide show on the lowest settings. OMG what a pile of crap.

Before people shout its your machine....

I run on a 3000+ AMD64 lappy with 512Mb and 64Mb ATI 9600 pro. This lappy runs the likes of Doom III without issue at good FPS and runs LFS perfect.

Why is rF so demanding. I have DX7 selected and EVERY visual setting at LOW and 800*600*16bit with NO AA or AF and its still a slide show.

It used to run fine with the first point release so what have they done to this piece of crap. Its not like I am well above the minimum requirements?

Hmm, that is odd thing to happen, I'm getting 20-90fps(depends from mod and track, 90fps only with my shitty looking Kantti mod) with DX7 settings at high or full, trilinear, 1024x768x32 no AA
A3200+ and Radeon 9550, but 1GB of memory and desktop.
Your gfx card is perhaps somewhat more powerful and I think that should mean most with rfactor, anyway with your system it really should run much faster, something is not right somewhere.

btw, quite pointless arguing wich is better as rfactor and LFS are not competing, imo. rfactor is nice platform to get stuff made, but it is so much different from LFS that we really can't compare them well. LFS is great to race, when rfactor is great to build something, it is platform to build something.
Graphics are really not part of realistic sim experience, just some eyecandy that is quite meaningless. When we get motion simulators and possibility to good 3d picture, then we can start to get into nice graphics
#865 - Woz
Quote from JTbo :Hmm, that is odd thing to happen, I'm getting 20-90fps(depends from mod and track, 90fps only with my shitty looking Kantti mod) with DX7 settings at high or full, trilinear, 1024x768x32 no AA
A3200+ and Radeon 9550, but 1GB of memory and desktop.
Your gfx card is perhaps somewhat more powerful and I think that should mean most with rfactor, anyway with your system it really should run much faster, something is not right somewhere.

btw, quite pointless arguing wich is better as rfactor and LFS are not competing, imo. rfactor is nice platform to get stuff made, but it is so much different from LFS that we really can't compare them well. LFS is great to race, when rfactor is great to build something, it is platform to build something.
Graphics are really not part of realistic sim experience, just some eyecandy that is quite meaningless. When we get motion simulators and possibility to good 3d picture, then we can start to get into nice graphics

How much vid ram does your card have?
Bah, okay you win! I'll give it a try, and see what I think (rather than just having my blind fanboy opinion [I do normally try things before I turn my nose up at them, just not this one]).

Won't have the time to have a proper fiddle until next week though
Quote from Woz :Oh well, I decided to look at rFactor again as I have not touched since early on.

I downloaded the latest version, installed and started it up. 1 hour after playing with the visual settings and it is still a slide show on the lowest settings. OMG what a pile of crap.

Before people shout its your machine....

I run on a 3000+ AMD64 lappy with 512Mb and 64Mb ATI 9600 pro. This lappy runs the likes of Doom III without issue at good FPS and runs LFS perfect.

Why is rF so demanding. I have DX7 selected and EVERY visual setting at LOW and 800*600*16bit with NO AA or AF and its still a slide show.

It used to run fine with the first point release so what have they done to this piece of crap. Its not like I am well above the minimum requirements?

running at 800x600 here - now things run smooth... Except:

So I'm in a 10 lap race and starting from lap 5 onwards a certain point on an official track drops my FPS to 0.5. When I crash through that part I get again like 30 FPS... now, I'd understand if it was one part of track that did this always - but no! It started from lap 5.illepall

Additionally: @ 1024*860 when I am approaching cars in front of me then the frame rate does not drop. However, when a car from behind passes me I get 1 FPS instantly. When that car disappears from view it is fine again, but when I catch that car up the FPS bombs again... illepall

And what the hell is up with those 2 lap long caution periods. I run 10 minutes usually and when the caution laps start I know I've lost half of my play time...illepall
#868 - Woz
Quote from PLAYLIFE :running at 800x600 here - now things run smooth... Except:

So I'm in a 10 lap race and starting from lap 5 onwards a certain point on an official track drops my FPS to 0.5. When I crash through that part I get again like 30 FPS... now, I'd understand if it was one part of track that did this always - but no! It started from lap 5.illepall

Additionally: @ 1024*860 when I am approaching cars in front of me then the frame rate does not drop. However, when a car from behind passes me I get 1 FPS instantly. When that car disappears from view it is fine again, but when I catch that car up the FPS bombs again... illepall

And what the hell is up with those 2 lap long caution periods. I run 10 minutes usually and when the caution laps start I know I've lost half of my play time...illepall

Yep, this is what I keep hitting, it runs smooth for a bit then just goes to slide show then back to smooth again. Does not appear to matter what settings I use at all or how many cars are in view.

I have no mods or anything installed so this is a clean install.
Quote from PLAYLIFE :running at 800x600 here - now things run smooth... Except:

So I'm in a 10 lap race and starting from lap 5 onwards a certain point on an official track drops my FPS to 0.5. When I crash through that part I get again like 30 FPS... now, I'd understand if it was one part of track that did this always - but no! It started from lap 5.illepall

Additionally: @ 1024*860 when I am approaching cars in front of me then the frame rate does not drop. However, when a car from behind passes me I get 1 FPS instantly. When that car disappears from view it is fine again, but when I catch that car up the FPS bombs again... illepall


What video card/ CPU/ ram/ etc? It sounds like you just need to upgrade.. Or turn down some GFX options or number of cars visible, or other things.
If there's an issue after so many minutes of play, it might be related to the replay. Try turning off the replay feature and see if this makes a difference.
Quote :no arms

Must depend on which ISI game. GTLegends has it:

gtlhckpnt.wmv

So does GPL, but the shifting is done via telekinesis.

gplkllt.wmv
Well to add more fuel to the fire (have no idea where we started) bought GTR2 today and well to put it mildly i,m very dissapointed , same old rehashed shit thats been served up for years.

I like to give things a fair shake of the stick thats why i bought it in the first place but after a solid 6 hours of tweaking and poking around forums for some insight its not my cuppa tea at all, you know you have problems when the grass has the same grip levels or better than the tarmac,so dissapointed its no better than there free mod for f1 99c or what ever it was.

YUK!!!

Scawen, Eric and Vic ( i know your sort of gone ) keep doing what your doing cos i keep buying different sims but yours is the only one that feels like a car to me, a car with real mass and and a real sense of connection to the road.

Bring on S3 or whatever so i can buy a quality sim
Quote from deggis :http://torttu.net/temp/lfs/carsoundremixer.mp3

still hurts?

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=12863

It's basicly a sound expansion mod, you definately should try it.

Not normally fond of extras running in the background to perform tasks (my box isn't the most powerful for gaming etc so the less the better) but after listening to that sample, while not "perfect" it definitely sounds interesting and think the gearbox whine sounds cool (providing it's an option as an XFG with that sound would mean a new box is required ).

FWIW, just to clarify a bit after reading some posts.. I have no problems with the way LFS generates it's sound. I think it's a great theory and also a "fan" of 'doing something different'. Personally I have no problems with sampled sounds (if they're blended nicely, which after experimenting with, isn't _that_ easy IMO).

I'm no alien in any game but can hold my own in most and very rarely look at my dash displays for critical signs (gear changes etc) and rely on the sound as I pretty much always have in any real car so samples seem to work just fine for me, but I'll still be interested to see where the sound does go in LFS.

As long as I hear an engine and tyre sounds, I'm happy, regardless of how they're produced but it's an interesting system that LFS has adopted and curious to see how it pans out as it could be really great when evolved past the angry bees in a bean can stage (FWIW I didn't do more than half a lap in the rF Megane mod either as they sounded just like LFS cars do so it's not a this game vs that game argument for me)

I also agree JTBo that other than both are driving games, the actual comparison between the 2 is quite remote. The reason I stuck with rF was purely for the ability to create content and learn some extra things.. if LFS was modable too (without hunting memory registers / pointers), I'd definitely be having a crack at making stuff for that too. Fictional / real is of no importance to me either. It's a game, I'm not really Rousse flying about in a Cossie at Brands.. not with my office chair, £50 plastic steering wheel and a coffee in the immediate vacinity and love the models that Eric has created.

You can't beat LFS for quick pickup races.. you fire it up, make a couple of adjustments for your preferences (key mappings etc) and away you go. rF has pretty much non-existent pickup races last time I looked and full of idiots when you do find one or more chatting than racing. The netcode between the 2 IMO is very comparable now, so is the AI (they're both crap and unraceable which is a real shame being an offline racer) but rF wins for longevity due to an ever expanding collection of content (once you weed the crap from the goodness, there are some real gems, there's also plenty of real stinkers) and in most cases, if you don't like something, you can change it.. almost anything.

Different strokes for different blokes and really 2 different concepts. Sure, they all have 5 wheels and represent cars on race tracks, but that's about the end of the comparison IMO.

I tried GTR2 too.. I like it (never played a $limebin game before due to their starfarce infections). It feels like like a complete / finished product.. the handling is nice and how I'd have thought a car that it's representing would feel like. Easy to drive _to_ the limit.. at or over the limit is a different story. The rain however is a joke and looks like exactly what it is.. a 2nd set of polys for the road surface with a reflective material applied.

End of the day, I like racing games. Sometimes I like racing GTR cars, sometimes I like racing Beetles.. thankfully I have that simple choice available made possible by various companies / groups. Hell.. I still love Hard Drivin' and SpyHunter from the 80s!



Regards,

Ian
Quote from Ian.H :Not normally fond of extras running in the background to perform tasks (my box isn't the most powerful for gaming etc so the less the better) but after listening to that sample, while not "perfect" it definitely sounds interesting and think the gearbox whine sounds cool (providing it's an option as an XFG with that sound would mean a new box is required ).

I just tested, first running without CSR and then with it, no difference in FPS. Though I watched a replay instead of actually playing but I guess it makes no difference as it plays exactly the same sounds in replay too (and it doesn't play sounds for other player cars).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vYczmOkQowE

I agree that this CSR is far from perfect - though it's only 0.3 alpha version - but at least it makes you feel like driving a noisy HP beast. That's most important thing. I guess the sounds can be improved a lot just tuning the samples, currently in most of the cars it feels like the engine is always on low RPM and it doesn't start to "scream" until it goes over the red shift light.
Ok I going to admit it, yes I got so indulged in the screenies
from RSC on Tuesday night and proceeded to d/l the latast version.

First off It took me ten minutes to find the bloody link
which I must say I could't see anywhere on the site,
so I click on the shite map and found
it amoungst all the other tripe there.
Got the installer about 45mins or so later and
"corrupt installer" pff! /delete
After a further ten or so minutes I managed to
select one of the crappy links that worked,
and went on with the download.

50% into the d/l my baby comes over and presses a load of
bloody key's d/l stopped
The second time round I got 90% into the d/l and low and behold like a message from the LFS god(prababley a weird ghost of Scawen) all of the electricity goes off in my neighbourhood
NEVER AGAIN! wot a waste of bloody time.

Rfactor vs LFS
(1872 posts, started )
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