Hello I was wondering how many people drive this Sim?

I see there are sometimes up to 950 People Online Racing at the same time. I think that might be very much compared to other Sims?

How many people are licensed drivers? (S1 or S2)

Is a figure publicly known? If not, what would be an estimate?

Greetings

Screw all driving Aids, Keyboard, Mouse or Joystick controls. A Steering Wheel should be the only thing able to control a car in a real driving Simulation. Maybe we will reach that point in Simulations in 2007 with iRacing. Until than Arcade Racers will remain in Simulations.

Last edited by George Kuyumji, Sun 19 Nov 2006, 16:35.

Quote from duke_toaster :

Probably because it would be nigh on impossible to drive the cars around Monaco without it.

They would have to drive with different gear ratios settings to prevent wheel spin. It wouldnt be impossible. There has been times were they had to control 1000 hp in Monaco

-1 for Power Boost and all kinds of this stuff

Last edited by George Kuyumji, Fri 17 Nov 2006, 18:37.

Quote from Hankstar :

Anyone who's played GPL, or thrashed an LX about recklessly will know how important the four-wheel drift technique is in a powerful car without much grip from the tyres and without any downforce.

Imagine a four-wheel drift

+1 for warm up lap at the start of the Race as an Option for the Host

Quote from Becky Rose :

On public servers it would be a nightmare, but having the option for league races would be nice.

It can be pretty bad I would agree, but in league Races (NR03) I have yet to see it ever go wrong.

But on Public Servers it does go wrong I would say approximately about every 5th or 6th Race Start. Which can be annoying too of course.

One has to say that a start to a NASCAR Race is also totally different than standing starts.
On Standing Starts everybody must get to his right Starting Point all by himself. Finding the right point to stop on every track is not that easy.

On the other side NASCAR starts are also not as easy as one might think. There are 43 big cars, on a tracks that can have a 16 seconds laptime. Talk about a chain reaction.

I do like to join Servers who run the warm up lap, it is fun, and it adds something to the Race that is just naturally to do and realistic.

Like the Hardware Mode Options this is another thing for Server Side Options. Not all Servers should have to run the whole warm up lap, just those who wants.

Last edited by George Kuyumji, Thu 16 Nov 2006, 18:01.

Quote from bigj6230 :

possible but perhaps better if you use a keypush to ask those sorts of questions...because getting it to recognise different voices is going to be VERY difficult from what i understand..

but +10 for the idea

I perhaps wasnt clear, but programming to have voice recognition and a "talking" Mechanic might be something very complicated to program and long to develop.

This would be something to add later perhaps.

But the basic idea is to only click manually with the mouse on some answers regarding the cars behaviour, and the LFS Mechanic would then show suggested changes for the setup.

This is what this Tool is doing basically.

Hello again

We know how it goes in real life, the driver goes out with some basic setup or the Setup from last year on this track and drives some laps.

Then he comes back and talk with his mechanics about the handling characteristics of the car, then he changes somethings, goes out and tries out, then comes back, change something again, goes out again and so on.

Now wouldnt it be cool to have an Mechanic working with you in Setting up the car?

Picture yoursef coming back to the pits, make some statements about the cars handling, then the Mechanic offers you a solution or to try something different, than you go out, come back and report on "how the car felt".

I'm sorry again I do have to bring up NASCAR RACING 2003 Season by Papyrus here...

There is a Setup Helper Program, where you can answer some questions specifically about the car handling.

Like how is the car when entering the corner?
How is the car in the cut zone?
How is the car in the Middle of the corner?
How is the car in the accelarating zone?
How is the car on corner exit?

Question like these you have to answer with "understeer", "oversteer", or "okay", and the Program throws out some solutions you should try with the setup.

Its a very nice and cool thing, it also can help you finding the right tyre Pressure as it can analyze your tyre temps and suggest changes or not.

The Crew Chief Program is a very nice tool for NASCAR RACING 2003 and can be found here http://www.keonsworld.com/scgi-bin/tutorial_main.htm

Hello!

NASCAR RACING 2003 Season by Papyrus has that very nice feature, that when you move with the Mouse over a button and stay there for a second or two a little window appears explaining the function and some General Info regarding this button.

This is very practical when it comes to Setup Changes for example, you dont know how a specific parameter will change the behaviour of the car? Move with the Mouse over it and stay there to see an explanation of what this function will do to the cars handling.

This Information Windows are there in all Screens, like Replay or Options Settings, Car Garage, these little Pop-Up Windows are there in all Menus and whenever you need a Info on a certain function.

It makes the whole Setup in the Garage very explainable for Newbies who have never setted up a car, what does strengthening the front springs do to the car handling? Move with the Mouse over the Spring rates + button to see an explanation of what this change does to the car. The Mouse gives an Info wherever you put it and keep it on the screen.

My English is not that good so I included some Screenshots for those who just dont know what the hell I'm talking about

Quote from Woz :

1) Allow the car engine to stall.
2) Disable auto clutch properly in manual mode.
3) Allow definition of two points in the clutch axis. First being the bite point and second being when the clutch is fully depressed. No clutch I have ever used operated over the range of the pedal travel.

+1 for Clutch Pedal overhaul.

I hope this will be soon in the Update schedule for LFS.

No G25 here but one MOMO Racing and a Thrustmaster Pedal for Clutch.

Well one has to hear the Opionions of those Race Simmers and Flight Simmers who already HAVE this thing. They are praising it to be an amazing addition that raises the immersion very much.

The seat costs € 220, its technique is not a "Rumble Pack", it is to simulate the vibrations you feel in the cars seat when you are accelerating, braking, switching gears, G forces, every car or plane feels different and as I sayed everybody who already got one says he wouldnt drive without it ever again.

S14, the Racing seat needs information from the Game such as RPM, Asphalt, bumps or Gras, Grip level, weight transfer and some parameters like this one to simulate the forces and vibrations to the driver.
I wish Scawen could find some time somewhere to give the iVibe Programmer the information he needs to get this thing working properly with Life for Speed.

People who already got a seat are falling all over themselfs in excitement in Games such as rFactor, NR2003 because driving those Sims with the Racing Seat is a very awesome experience.
Unfortunately you cannot fully simulate the Racing seat in Life for Speed because the seat doesnt get the full amount of information about the car as it was the last time I heard about it. The Programmer of the seat says on his website that a Programmer would just need a half hour to get the Racing Seat fully supported by the Sim.

However, the Seat is an amazing experience in Flight Simulator, rFactor, NR2003 and even Grand Prix 4 gets exciting with it. I also know somebody in my league who recently got one and is very excited about it, he took his original SPARCO Racing Seat, which costs about € 200, and cut it open to put the minimotors of the iVibe into it and he loves it. This is his Racing Rig:

(The ivibe Vibrations seat motors, which covers vibrations to the drivers back, ass and legs, have been put INSIDE the SPARCO Seat)

http://www.virtual-racingcockpit.com/images/rig_2.jpg

I'm going to get one too and report on it. I hope there is a chance by Scawen to get its functions fully supported by a LFS car.

Last edited by George Kuyumji, Sat 11 Nov 2006, 10:29.

+1 for F1 style start lights.

If I remember right there are 5 red lights.

Every second or 1,5 seconds one light goes on.

When the last light are is on they sometimes go out very fast, but sometimes take a second or two.

There is no green.

So while the lights look the same at every track - the moment they all go out are not the same. Sometimes they go out sooner, sometimes later. But the starting procedere of the lights is always the same.

This should really be added to LFS at some time

Take a look at the start of the Malaysian Grand Prix 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUEAxQJ3D_c

Last edited by George Kuyumji, Fri 10 Nov 2006, 15:26.

Hello!

Last time I heard about it LFS does not support the iVibe seat ? I'm going to get one soon so I'm wondering if there is any new Patch or Update in the making for this? Or whats the latest about this matter?

May the Grip be with you

Last edited by George Kuyumji, Sun 12 Nov 2006, 17:17.

thanks guys. I just had a CTD yesterday and the PC said he saved the crash report somewhere. Going to have a look to report it....

Edit: Okay hyperactive I found the list with the error messages. However there are no details there. Just a single line reporting the error. HAve to search for a file I think to find the error message Report I guess

Last edited by George Kuyumji, Tue 7 Nov 2006, 14:17.

Where are crash reports saved?

Somebody with 'insight into the gaming market', but without Programming skills says Vista Compatibility now is not important

:feedtroll

I like the development process of LFS. I'm also happy with the product. € 36 for this Software feels like a steal

Last edited by George Kuyumji, Sat 4 Nov 2006, 15:58.

Scawen I visit this site once or twice per day, and I'm sure others would also like to help in cleaning up the Test Patch Threads if you want or could give Administrator Rights to some users in this Board. I would definitely want to offer my help.
Just to keep the Test Patch Topics off from statements who are not related to Test Patches (such as this Posting )

I also like Racing on the Redline Server. Theres always the thought of Huttu or other Aliens showing up I hope the FOX-BLGP Combo does stay, it's challenging to drive and good Races can happen there

PS: Hello Dik

+1 Hands rising like in GPL

I'm satisfied with how the AI works for now, so I'll hope Scawen can improve LFS on other things such as bug finding-fixing, Sounds, Weather implementation, Physic and Grafik improvements... and than maybe the AI.

Quote from mrodgers :

FWIW, ping numbers are definitely not the way to go to sort out laggers. I'm on dialup, you've heard me say this before. I ask often if I lag. I rarely get told yes. Usually I get a response of, "nope, you look good from here." Then someone comes in and lags all over the place. People point it out to them, but they don't believe it. "I'm on a 2 Mb connection, I'm not lagging. My pings are less than 50." Guess what. You are lagging and my pings of 250+ are not on my good ole 56k. So, ping numbers are not the way to go about it.

Well 56k users should be able to get under 300 Pings on nearly all Servers. After a overview of Ping Rates Online and Servers available one could find the Range between what is the general acceptable lag and after what point does it get unusable so the limit could also be at 600 Pings or 800 or at howmuch the Server Host is allowed to configure the Maximum Ping Rate.

Another possible Option for the LFS Host, like GPL or NASCAR Racing 2003 has:

The drivers do need to be within a maximum allowedconnection lag. That can be setted up by the host, to a Ping like .300 for example.
Should keep those with really bad connection out of the Server

+1 for blue flag or lights when coming out of the pit lane. I have never ever saw yellow flags when exiting the Pits.

So maybe one could keep a Marshall wavin green flag, or green ampel lights, in case no car is about to approach, and blue flag or lights in case car is approaching

Quote from Daveebee :

Matrox make a clever bit of kit that enables one graphics cars to feed 3 monitors. Its Triplehead2 go at about 3

What really buggs me about this TripleHead2Go is the refresh rate.

When you have a fast CPU and Grafik Card you want to play at high resolutions such as 1600 x something or at least with 1280 x something.

With the triplehead2 go 1600 x something is not possible at all, and 1280 x something only has a monitor refreshrate of 60 hz. Very uncomfortable, and impossible to use for more than several minutes for most people including me. 75 hz is a minimum for comfortable viewing experience.

With the Triplehead2go you have to stay on a 1024 x something resolution forever. Thats a big thumbs down on what could have been a very nice addition to Gaming.

"TripleHead2Go does is add support for three displays to your existing card. Once everything’s hooked up to your PC, TripleHead2Go looks like one really big 3840x1024 monitor to your PC, no custom graphics driver is needed to get it to work. Matrox uses the EDID standard to report the resolution to Windows (both Windows XP and Windows 2000 are supported), from there the TripleHead2Go module outputs the data from the GPU to the displays. Up to four resolutions are supported: 3840x1024@60Hz (giving you three 1280x1024 displays), 3072x768@75Hz (three 1024x768 displays), 2400x600@60Hz (three 800x600 displays), and finally, 1920x480@ 60Hz (three 640x480 displays)."

+1 for all driving starts from the Pits. Please keep LFS on the Simulation Path.

You usually do have to warm up the tires during the Out Lap... Starting from the second Split time should not be kept in the long term in LFS IMHO

I also would like to see the Road Cars starting from the Pits without preheated tyres.

And another thing I like to be able to do is going from the Pit Box directly to the Box "Garage" Options.

At the moment you drive into the Pits and drive inside your Pit House, when you make a normal Pitting in drive, during Practise or Qualy Sessions you would have to click ESC and click on "Box" to get into the Pits Garage while your standing inside the Pits already.
In Grand Prix Legends for example, when you stop at your Pit sign and press a button it gets you immediately to the Garage Options - cause your already drove into the Garage. Would be nice to have that also in LFS when you drive into the Pit Home

Last edited by George Kuyumji, Fri 27 Oct 2006, 18:59.

Didnt knew about that Options. Thanks guys