Hi, I confirm that we had to stop using the Japan server. It was an i3d server that was very expensive to run.
We did write to you on 16th October, informing you in advance of the change and suggesting you could try the Hong Kong server.
To explain the decision:
When we released the mods system, we started the Japan server (along with the USA server) hoping that it would be good for a lot of users from China, Japan, Korea and a lot more of Asia and even Oceania. But the ping was too low in Australia and China (and South America too) so we had to open some more, cheaper servers, including Sydney and Hong Kong (and Brazil).
The Japan server has been used very little from the outset and in recent times there were only two hosts running on it, and even they were not used much. It was clear we could not continue with that dedicated server so that's why we closed it down at the end of October.
What ping do you get when you are connected to the Hong Kong server? Is it consistent and stable? I would be interested to hear from anyone in East Asia, what their experience is when using the Hong Kong server.
We did write to you on 16th October, informing you in advance of the change and suggesting you could try the Hong Kong server.
To explain the decision:
When we released the mods system, we started the Japan server (along with the USA server) hoping that it would be good for a lot of users from China, Japan, Korea and a lot more of Asia and even Oceania. But the ping was too low in Australia and China (and South America too) so we had to open some more, cheaper servers, including Sydney and Hong Kong (and Brazil).
The Japan server has been used very little from the outset and in recent times there were only two hosts running on it, and even they were not used much. It was clear we could not continue with that dedicated server so that's why we closed it down at the end of October.
What ping do you get when you are connected to the Hong Kong server? Is it consistent and stable? I would be interested to hear from anyone in East Asia, what their experience is when using the Hong Kong server.
I know that problem with Cloudflare timeout. Have you tried the option to reduce the size of the mod upload by excluding the png files?
As you are OK now and upgraded to S3 I'll mark it as answered. 
I won't try to give all the answers. Each point you mention has been discussed many times before, at great length. You could try searching "Steam" for example.
I could make a few points though, before instantly unsubscribing from the thread as I don't want to start answering questions.
If financial growth was the aim, LFS would have been a completely different game. Eric and I founded Live for Speed with a deliberate aim to work on our own project, free from the pressures and issues of working in a larger company. Admittedly, we thought it would just be a project of a year or two, so that looks a bit different more than two decades later.
Live for Speed was on sale before Steam existed, so this is why we have our own payment system. Moving to Steam at this point would require restructuring our business and changing the code model. We would then be at the mercy of Steam ratings and in my opinion no longer "independent" (even if Steam is said to be for indie developers, such 'independent' developers are entirely dependent on Steam). This is too long a subject and I won't get involved. Many pages of forum text have been written about this already.
Regarding income, Eric and I believe that the ability to work on what we like, in our own time, is more important than a high income. If we wanted a high income, it would have been better to stay employed in larger companies. However, there was a period of relatively high income for some time starting with the release of S2. But over some years, sales dropped off gradually until income was eventually too low to live on. Some of this was caused by my change in life, moving house and bringing up two small children, which affected development. By the way, they are now 18 and 16 years old. Another cause for the eventual drop off was the well documented piracy, in which pirates were able to create a bigger active community than the legitimate one.
There were some boosts in that time, such as after important updates and the S3 license release. Although that only provided access to the laser scanned Rockingham track, people who upgraded to S3 did ensure continuing development. Eventually we were able to offer mods, which are not properly available in pirated systems.
How is all this relevant? Well, now we have enough income to pay our bills, so we can continue developing. We are still not interested in hiring more staff and moving into an office. I'm sure we are even less willing to do that now, after all these years working from home. There is no thought entering our minds to suddenly give up our entire work philosophy and try to get rich by running a company!
I could make a few points though, before instantly unsubscribing from the thread as I don't want to start answering questions.
If financial growth was the aim, LFS would have been a completely different game. Eric and I founded Live for Speed with a deliberate aim to work on our own project, free from the pressures and issues of working in a larger company. Admittedly, we thought it would just be a project of a year or two, so that looks a bit different more than two decades later.
Live for Speed was on sale before Steam existed, so this is why we have our own payment system. Moving to Steam at this point would require restructuring our business and changing the code model. We would then be at the mercy of Steam ratings and in my opinion no longer "independent" (even if Steam is said to be for indie developers, such 'independent' developers are entirely dependent on Steam). This is too long a subject and I won't get involved. Many pages of forum text have been written about this already.
Regarding income, Eric and I believe that the ability to work on what we like, in our own time, is more important than a high income. If we wanted a high income, it would have been better to stay employed in larger companies. However, there was a period of relatively high income for some time starting with the release of S2. But over some years, sales dropped off gradually until income was eventually too low to live on. Some of this was caused by my change in life, moving house and bringing up two small children, which affected development. By the way, they are now 18 and 16 years old. Another cause for the eventual drop off was the well documented piracy, in which pirates were able to create a bigger active community than the legitimate one.
There were some boosts in that time, such as after important updates and the S3 license release. Although that only provided access to the laser scanned Rockingham track, people who upgraded to S3 did ensure continuing development. Eventually we were able to offer mods, which are not properly available in pirated systems.
How is all this relevant? Well, now we have enough income to pay our bills, so we can continue developing. We are still not interested in hiring more staff and moving into an office. I'm sure we are even less willing to do that now, after all these years working from home. There is no thought entering our minds to suddenly give up our entire work philosophy and try to get rich by running a company!
I haven't seen that before.
- Does it work correctly if you use a maximised window instead?
- Is there any desktop scaling? I'm trying to imagine what could make LFS set the wrong window size, if that's what's happening.
- What do you see in cfg.txt "Window" line (near the top) after exiting in that state?
- Does it work correctly if you use a maximised window instead?
- Is there any desktop scaling? I'm trying to imagine what could make LFS set the wrong window size, if that's what's happening.
- What do you see in cfg.txt "Window" line (near the top) after exiting in that state?
Unfortunately, there is no "/mod" command similar to the "/car" command.
When originally considering this, the problem I encountered was: if implemented in a reasonably simple way, it would give access to non-public mods.
Currently, the downloaded list of mods is required to determine if a mod can be used. I couldn't think of a simple and reasonable solution to this problem, so I left it out. So for now, this is one of the many improvement suggestions that I can't stop and do right now as there are more important things to do first.
When originally considering this, the problem I encountered was: if implemented in a reasonably simple way, it would give access to non-public mods.
Currently, the downloaded list of mods is required to determine if a mod can be used. I couldn't think of a simple and reasonable solution to this problem, so I left it out. So for now, this is one of the many improvement suggestions that I can't stop and do right now as there are more important things to do first.
First image, I don't know why speed is low, maybe try what johneysvk said:
Options - Display - Show pedals - YES
Then you can see if your pedal axis is reaching the top.
Middle picture shows overheated clutch, slipping badly.
Options - Display - Show pedals - YES
Then you can see if your pedal axis is reaching the top.
Middle picture shows overheated clutch, slipping badly.
Are these exact numbers? 4000 RPM and 120 km/h or does it vary?
I'm asking in case you damaged the engine, by shifting to low gears while at high speed. In that case your engine power is reduced and the engine makes a damaged engine sound (like popping while revving). This damage gets worse the more times you over rev.
I'm asking in case you damaged the engine, by shifting to low gears while at high speed. In that case your engine power is reduced and the engine makes a damaged engine sound (like popping while revving). This damage gets worse the more times you over rev.
The minor updates I did to dashboards and wheels were only in the editor. I didn't put them in public LFS game because hotlaps would be affected by the slight differences in wheels (old hotlaps would go OOS but for no really good reason). For example some have a slightly reduced rim width to make them more realistic for the size of tyre.
I did have, on a list, a thought about importing the dashboards into the public version. But minor game updates and editor updates could go on forever so at some point I had to just stop and do the release.
I did have, on a list, a thought about importing the dashboards into the public version. But minor game updates and editor updates could go on forever so at some point I had to just stop and do the release.
Thanks for the info.
I've now corrected it, in a new installer you can download with this link. It has a different file name ending _install.exe instead of _setup.exe to avoid the CDN caching the old version.
Download: https://www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_EDITOR_7F_install.exe
For interest only:
The problem seems to be that NSIS stores the empty folders in some other location, not in the standard directory structure visible when you open the archive. So that's why you couldn't see them in the 7E installer, although they do appear in the fresh installation. That 7E, with editor patch applied, was also the source I used to create the 7F installer. I didn't know that before and annoyingly I forgot to test that installer, although I did test all the game ones.
I've now corrected it, in a new installer you can download with this link. It has a different file name ending _install.exe instead of _setup.exe to avoid the CDN caching the old version.
Download: https://www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_EDITOR_7F_install.exe
For interest only:
The problem seems to be that NSIS stores the empty folders in some other location, not in the standard directory structure visible when you open the archive. So that's why you couldn't see them in the 7E installer, although they do appear in the fresh installation. That 7E, with editor patch applied, was also the source I used to create the 7F installer. I didn't know that before and annoyingly I forgot to test that installer, although I did test all the game ones.
Ah, now I see you said Editor
I missed that as the previous person did not say anything about the Editor. https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/2098019#post2098019
I agree misc is missing from the 7F folder in the Editor installer and there should be a simple fix for that (a new installer, with that folder included and maybe a tiny text file to make sure the folder doesn't disappear in future). Does it work as expected if you manually add a misc folder?
I missed that as the previous person did not say anything about the Editor. https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/2098019#post2098019
I agree misc is missing from the 7F folder in the Editor installer and there should be a simple fix for that (a new installer, with that folder included and maybe a tiny text file to make sure the folder doesn't disappear in future). Does it work as expected if you manually add a misc folder?
Someone else had that and there was no data\misc folder in the installation.
Although it's clearly there in the install file, and worked fine when I tested it...
Although it's clearly there in the install file, and worked fine when I tested it...
I don't want to get involved in a conversation but I'll say a few things then I'll unsubscribe from the thread.
I think Eric knows what I have been going through this year and probably didn't want to bother me with a progress report. And on the other hand he took on a pretty monumental task and so maybe he wanted it near complete before showing anything. I don't know really, I have not tried to discuss a progress report with him.
He did even more finishing of South City and has done repairs and updates on all the other tracks too. There's a curious thing about finishing things, as anyone knows who takes on big projects. The 'last few things' take a lot longer than expected.
But the biggest task he has been on for a long time, is Kyoto. Not only has the track had a lot of work done, but also the surrounding areas, it has had a treatment that could remind you of Westhill. I think he saw the potential and went for it. I'm sure you will be very happy to see a progress report about it when the time comes.
I just want to make it clear, I didn't start this year saying, "OK, now I will spend the first 7 months of the year doing web stuff that is out of my comfort zone". I didn't know at the start of the year that Victor would be more involved with his other job and gradually become more reluctant to work on Live for Speed.
The reality is I encountered a barrage of emergency situations (and growing problems) which needed attention. To list a few:
1) Mod hacks that were destroying the online experience
2) Mod submission spam that was overwhelming the reviewers
3) Bugs in mods system e.g. archives of deleted mods never being removed
4) Apparent leak of passwords that LFS users had given to a pirate website years ago
5) Bugs in hosting system causing crashes, slowdowns, etc.
6) DDoS attacks on web server
7) DDoS attacks on game servers
This is not a complete list, it's just off the top of my head. Each of these things took days or weeks to resolve, but at the start of each task I couldn't really delegate the task to community members. I just had to look into the issues and figure out what is going wrong, although the relevant systems were not written my me, and at the start of this year I really had no idea how it all worked. After figuring out the issue, either fix it (sometimes simple) or implement new systems as required (not usually simple).
I'm just explaining how one task after another has come my way, preventing me from doing whatever was planned, and this has sometimes been very frustrating, but it's not something that could be delegated to community members.
This new patch is intended to be a stable release. With all the fixes done, I hope that our systems may be stable for a while. This should let me focus on the tyre physics, to complete it to a good condition so it can possibly be released, along with some remaining graphical tasks. I can't give a time frame for this, as so far this year I've had almost no time to look into it. It seems like now I'm where I thought I would be at the start of January.
At least with all the delays on my side, Eric has had more time to do extra good work and keep up the detail. I have also learned a whole lot about PHP and SQL and understand how our web systems work. For example I was able to do this whole 0.7F update release alone without Victor's help.
I think Eric knows what I have been going through this year and probably didn't want to bother me with a progress report. And on the other hand he took on a pretty monumental task and so maybe he wanted it near complete before showing anything. I don't know really, I have not tried to discuss a progress report with him.
He did even more finishing of South City and has done repairs and updates on all the other tracks too. There's a curious thing about finishing things, as anyone knows who takes on big projects. The 'last few things' take a lot longer than expected.
But the biggest task he has been on for a long time, is Kyoto. Not only has the track had a lot of work done, but also the surrounding areas, it has had a treatment that could remind you of Westhill. I think he saw the potential and went for it. I'm sure you will be very happy to see a progress report about it when the time comes.
I just want to make it clear, I didn't start this year saying, "OK, now I will spend the first 7 months of the year doing web stuff that is out of my comfort zone". I didn't know at the start of the year that Victor would be more involved with his other job and gradually become more reluctant to work on Live for Speed.
The reality is I encountered a barrage of emergency situations (and growing problems) which needed attention. To list a few:
1) Mod hacks that were destroying the online experience
2) Mod submission spam that was overwhelming the reviewers
3) Bugs in mods system e.g. archives of deleted mods never being removed
4) Apparent leak of passwords that LFS users had given to a pirate website years ago
5) Bugs in hosting system causing crashes, slowdowns, etc.
6) DDoS attacks on web server
7) DDoS attacks on game servers
This is not a complete list, it's just off the top of my head. Each of these things took days or weeks to resolve, but at the start of each task I couldn't really delegate the task to community members. I just had to look into the issues and figure out what is going wrong, although the relevant systems were not written my me, and at the start of this year I really had no idea how it all worked. After figuring out the issue, either fix it (sometimes simple) or implement new systems as required (not usually simple).
I'm just explaining how one task after another has come my way, preventing me from doing whatever was planned, and this has sometimes been very frustrating, but it's not something that could be delegated to community members.
This new patch is intended to be a stable release. With all the fixes done, I hope that our systems may be stable for a while. This should let me focus on the tyre physics, to complete it to a good condition so it can possibly be released, along with some remaining graphical tasks. I can't give a time frame for this, as so far this year I've had almost no time to look into it. It seems like now I'm where I thought I would be at the start of January.
At least with all the delays on my side, Eric has had more time to do extra good work and keep up the detail. I have also learned a whole lot about PHP and SQL and understand how our web systems work. For example I was able to do this whole 0.7F update release alone without Victor's help.
No, that naming is inconsistent for no good reason. I think maybe when I did the IS_NCI packet, I thought of using the basic type 'unsigned' but no such thought came into my head when writing this packet recently and I just wrote it as a C programmer.
Despite the inconsistent appearance,
IS_NCI's unsigned IPAddress
and
IS_IPB's in_addr BanIPs
Have the same format and can be interpreted the same way.
Despite the inconsistent appearance,
IS_NCI's unsigned IPAddress
and
IS_IPB's in_addr BanIPs
Have the same format and can be interpreted the same way.
Yes, in_addr is a standard structure containing a 4 byte integer representing an IPv4 IP address.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/inaddr/ns-inaddr-in_addr
It can be used to prevent some players connecting to your host. They can only connect using IPv4 anyway so IPv6 is not needed.
I don't think this new packet will be useful for many people. I implemented it when I changed the way IP bans work as part of the recent updates to make hosts more resilient to attacks. You can set IP bans using the hosting pages, and that system now uses this new InSim packet to allow LFS to reject the connection, instead of setting firewall rules on the server.
I suggest that if you do want to use this packet to set IP bans, you should not use the IP ban system on the website. Choose one or the other.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/inaddr/ns-inaddr-in_addr
It can be used to prevent some players connecting to your host. They can only connect using IPv4 anyway so IPv6 is not needed.
I don't think this new packet will be useful for many people. I implemented it when I changed the way IP bans work as part of the recent updates to make hosts more resilient to attacks. You can set IP bans using the hosting pages, and that system now uses this new InSim packet to allow LFS to reject the connection, instead of setting firewall rules on the server.
I suggest that if you do want to use this packet to set IP bans, you should not use the IP ban system on the website. Choose one or the other.
No, I'm not interested in speculating about future versions at this time.
If you want to know about the future version, check out this page: https://www.lfs.net/report-may2021-so
See at the bottom, there are a lot of links. That info should keep you going for a while. If you would like to discuss it, feel free to start a new thread on the forum, but don't talk about in on this thread, because it is off topic.
If you want to know about the future version, check out this page: https://www.lfs.net/report-may2021-so
See at the bottom, there are a lot of links. That info should keep you going for a while. If you would like to discuss it, feel free to start a new thread on the forum, but don't talk about in on this thread, because it is off topic.
Yes, important updates for various technical reasons, but not exciting.
You can now select host version 0.7F.
It's quite puzzling. Do you have a data\misc folder in your new install? Is LFS successfully writing any other files, such as cfg.txt (should save a new copy when you exit LFS).
Sometimes, strange behaviour is related to anti virus software.
I tested a fresh install before release and it worked fine.
Maybe it's the location where you tried to install it? For example, I think there were problems when people tried to install into locations like "Program Files" so we recommend a plain folder on the hard drive like C:\LFS or maybe C:\GAMES\LFS_7F (if you want a separate installation).
Something you are fully in control of, not within the Windows directory structure. LFS is kind of old style, and isn't designed to fit in with the Windows way of doing things, with Program files in one place and user data in another (although I can understand there are reasons to do that).
Maybe it's the location where you tried to install it? For example, I think there were problems when people tried to install into locations like "Program Files" so we recommend a plain folder on the hard drive like C:\LFS or maybe C:\GAMES\LFS_7F (if you want a separate installation).
Something you are fully in control of, not within the Windows directory structure. LFS is kind of old style, and isn't designed to fit in with the Windows way of doing things, with Program files in one place and user data in another (although I can understand there are reasons to do that).
I will update the hosting system later today. For now you can continue to use 0.7E15 hosts.
The editor patch link is on the Mods Downloads (etc) thread: Mods: Downloads / Web Pages / Videos / Documents
The editor patch link is on the Mods Downloads (etc) thread: Mods: Downloads / Web Pages / Videos / Documents
Thanks for all your help with the testing.
The official version is now available: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/108684
The official version is now available: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/108684
Version 0.7F
Hello Racers,
Introducing a variety of updates for Live for Speed and the LFS Editor!
Live for Speed 0.7F:
This year there is an increased emphasis on getting mods approved, so we have improved support for this process. On the mods screen, in addition to some new filters, you can spot approved mods more easily and there is a reminder in the garage if you use a mod but have not yet given it a rating.
Controller support now has increased input resolution and a better range adjustment system. There are some graphical optimisations and multiplayer improvements.
Please read the full list of changes: LFS 0.7F changelog page
LFS Editor 0.7F:
In older versions it could be tricky to produce realistic wheel rims. In reality wheel rims must follow standards to allow the use of tyres from different manufacturers. The updated editor helps you produce rims with realistic dimensions. Detailed rim guides are displayed in the rim editor and the spoke editor.
There are also various updates in the modeller, including a 3D line guide, a function to help align points and support for merging a subobject into another subobject.
Please read the full list of changes: LFS Editor 0.7F changelog page
Four ways to get version 0.7F :
1) AUTO UPDATER - If you already have version 0.5V or later :
- Click on "Multiplayer" then "List of Hosts" in LFS and choose a download mirror.
2) MANUAL PATCH 1 (1.8 MB) - If you already have version 0.7E or later :
- Click HERE and save the patch installer.
- You can run the patch installer from its download location or from your LFS folder.
3) MANUAL PATCH 2 (35 MB) - If you already have version 0.6R or later :
- Click HERE and save the patch installer.
- You can run the patch installer from its download location or from your LFS folder.
4) FULL VERSION (522 MB) - If you are new to LFS or making a fresh installation.
- Click HERE to visit the download page and get the full version installer.
- LFS Developers
Introducing a variety of updates for Live for Speed and the LFS Editor!
Live for Speed 0.7F:
This year there is an increased emphasis on getting mods approved, so we have improved support for this process. On the mods screen, in addition to some new filters, you can spot approved mods more easily and there is a reminder in the garage if you use a mod but have not yet given it a rating.
Controller support now has increased input resolution and a better range adjustment system. There are some graphical optimisations and multiplayer improvements.
Please read the full list of changes: LFS 0.7F changelog page
LFS Editor 0.7F:
In older versions it could be tricky to produce realistic wheel rims. In reality wheel rims must follow standards to allow the use of tyres from different manufacturers. The updated editor helps you produce rims with realistic dimensions. Detailed rim guides are displayed in the rim editor and the spoke editor.
There are also various updates in the modeller, including a 3D line guide, a function to help align points and support for merging a subobject into another subobject.
Please read the full list of changes: LFS Editor 0.7F changelog page
Four ways to get version 0.7F :
1) AUTO UPDATER - If you already have version 0.5V or later :
- Click on "Multiplayer" then "List of Hosts" in LFS and choose a download mirror.
2) MANUAL PATCH 1 (1.8 MB) - If you already have version 0.7E or later :
- Click HERE and save the patch installer.
- You can run the patch installer from its download location or from your LFS folder.
3) MANUAL PATCH 2 (35 MB) - If you already have version 0.6R or later :
- Click HERE and save the patch installer.
- You can run the patch installer from its download location or from your LFS folder.
4) FULL VERSION (522 MB) - If you are new to LFS or making a fresh installation.
- Click HERE to visit the download page and get the full version installer.
- LFS Developers
Thank you, any tips might help as my Linux experience is still low.
In this case I did my own implementation which I think was the easiest way forward with all the logs still being produced in the same folder. No code changed at that point. The new code moves them all into one of the 7 new day folders each time a new day comes around. It's naturally limited to one week of logs.
A first version of the generated log links system is available now on the activity page.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG