i got and idea, for new patches or for new S2 full or S3 start
it could be nice to join server like only spectator in future and enjoy a race from first person...i mean the ppls could be able to move around the track and see interesting moments maybe its a kid idea, but its nice and i think thx this in future there will be leagues which can be stream on TV ort something like this

i mean this in some leagues not on public servers, but why not i think thx this it could get more and more ppl to race = more and more leagues

Good idea.

not bad idea

definate a good idea, i drop in on servers quite often before i go to bed just to watch a couple of races in spectator mode


its pretty entertaining, especially the demo servers

Me likes the idea too.

I would especially love A HLTV approach with the Auto Director (can't remember the name exactly), where the game changes camera angles automaticly depending on where the action is - ie. overtaking, crashing, spinning.

i waas totaly thinkin the same.. just 6 places around the track or something where you can sit and watch the race.. with the TAB button you change from place to place and with you're mouse you can look around!

and what realy would be nice is.. when you are racing that you can see the public around the track..! what also is fun is that team leaders can scout around the track and see who is good enough for there team.

illepall haha virtual spectator's =) me likes =) make them cheer, wave, fly banners ect

Isn't this something that is implemented in NetKar Pro? As many people that think it's a good idea will also say it's a bit of a gimmick that people would only use once then forget.
Me, I'd like to see it.

I want to be able take a seat amongst the crowd in the stands, enjoy a virtual beer and wave my flag while watching the races

And then you get virtually drunk only to be virtually killed after falling on the racetrack

Or better, Scawen builds a paintball course behind the stands, so we have something to do during boring phases of a race :duck:

yeah and let us run across the track naked too

Quote from Shotglass :

yeah and let us run across the track naked too

Would I be out of line to ask for more female LFSers when that is implemented? :P

I'm all for trackside seat cameras, but the problem is that none of the sims I've ever played (and most of them had these modded in one way or another) has ever produced realistic images from the stands. You're either hovering 12 ft over the crowd, or there's huge amounts of clipping spectactors when panning.

I'd like to see a person-element in LFS, maybe not sitting in grandstands but walking round the track (the outside). If this didn't count as extra connections (although I don't see how it couldn't) or the amount of people on a server increased then I think this would be a brilliant addition.

The spectator-possibilities should definitely improve in LFS.
For example a spectator tool that buffers the last 6 seconds of the race and can thus switch to interesting events before they happen (well, actually they already happened, but the cam switches before they are displayed). This tool could also smooth out the "steps" with the buffered data for better viewing.
The gaming-community would appreciate this and it would help LFS to become more public.

In LFS there are better races than in reallife, so why not also get better spactator-tools than in real life?

Vain

Quote from Vain :

For example a spectator tool that buffers the last 6 seconds of the race and can thus switch to interesting events before they happen (well, actually they already happened, but the cam switches before they are displayed).

yes, that is an excellent idea and would make the races more interesting to watch.

Considering bandwith issues, I was thinking about the following. I'm no programmer, so maybe the following will be complete nonsense. In that case please forgive my ignorance

Say you want to create an "LFS TV" like discussed in this topic. Ofcourse this will put a serious stress on the bandwith. But what if you would put a maximum on the ammount of connected players who watch the race by a direct "TV" connection. But those spectators would function as a sort of secondary server/seeder/hub for more spectators. In other words their upload bandwith will be used to further "broadcast" the race to a part of the other spectators. Who in turn do the same for more people. The race can be buffered so delay will occur but that wouldn't be too big of a problem. A bit similar to the way bittorrent works.

Would something like this be even remotely possible or am I talking out of my a**se? Am I even making sense? lol

Quote from joen :

yes, that is an excellent idea and would make the races more interesting to watch.

Considering bandwith issues, I was thinking about the following. I'm no programmer, so maybe the following will be complete nonsense. In that case please forgive my ignorance

Say you want to create an "LFS TV" like discussed in this topic. Ofcourse this will put a serious stress on the bandwith. But what if you would put a maximum on the ammount of connected players who watch the race by a direct "TV" connection. But those spectators would function as a sort of secondary server/seeder/hub for more spectators. In other words their upload bandwith will be used to further "broadcast" the race to a part of the other spectators. Who in turn do the same for more people. The race can be buffered so delay will occur but that wouldn't be too big of a problem. A bit similar to the way bittorrent works.

Would something like this be even remotely possible or am I talking out of my a**se? Am I even making sense? lol

I think this would be very hard to do and keep it live. With all the packets trying to make it to certain destinations, they would get there on the wrong time or even lost completely. This would be very odd to receive though. The only possible solution is to use the upload of one person completely for someone else. (If that made any sense to you)

It'd be hard to implement player relaying because of router config, but using a relay is a good idea and infact LFS Spectator (gives a 2D overhead of a race) works off the same principle by relaying live info to a master server.

From a league server point of view this could just meen setting up a relay or two for the popular events, which many leagues can do with their existing bandwidth. Or perhaps by sharing a central LFS master spectator server like the way LFS Spectator works now.

One of the big problems with truly freeform movement is that more off-track area would need modelling, this would result in a dramatic overhaul of the existing tracks and lots of work on a seemingly less important detail, but having fixed location viewpoints with view rotation is a very workable idea and would involve little or no extra modelling.

One then has to ask, would such a system give you more than the current TV camera system. Bearing in mind you then loose the flexibility of camera zoom.

One of the major drawbacks of racing game replays is the sheer quantity of camera positions because they dont zoom to watch the racing, LFS almost addresses this now.

Where LFS still falls down (like most others) is that the camera follows a particular car, rather than the average position of a car and the one next to it.

An auto-director system would be good too, but this is hard to calculate in real time without using a live "replay" system, which gets very complex to write. In a race replay it's much easier because you can look at the heuristic calculation of events ahead of time and decide to move the camera early.

It's quite easy to do as a replay, but in a live event ... I personally would not want to code that.

Good, but only if the other drivers can see your driver model in the appropriate point on track. How else do I know to hang the ass out if I can't see from where I'm being watched?

Quote from Shotglass :

yeah and let us run across the track naked too

+1 call me freeballing driv£by

be hard to do, but i'd like a virtual beer and 1:18 scale model BF1 from the mobile shops.

What happens when a car flys into the stands?

++++++++++++1

in spectator mode, imagine if we had the option: " Throw tomato" :duck: or " Shout: Boooo"

yes good idea ! but what about lag issues, the server will have to hold more then 20 spectators.... maybe a "shut the crowd up" button for server admin?

Quote from al heeley :

Isn't this something that is implemented in NetKar Pro? As many people that think it's a good idea will also say it's a bit of a gimmick that people would only use once then forget.
Me, I'd like to see it.

possibly, but i remember this being suggested a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago back in rsc

Quote from -DrftMstr- :

in spectator mode, imagine if we had the option: " Throw tomato" or " Shout: Boooo"

And after the race you would be able to walk to the pitboxes and beat up the wreckers

Awsome idea but i can see it creating a major problem for 56k Users.

Think about it.. say you've got 20 spectators, that means the server has to get information about 20 individuals walking around the track at any one time.. then you've got the 10 or so actual Racers driving around.

I can see it working, but not very well, or at least not as well as we'd like