Right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozdejs5GOxA
From the Where Are They Now Files: Jacques Villeneuve, Le Mans & Peugeot
Looks like Jacques Villeneuve will be driving the new Peugeot 908 HDi at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Sébastien Bourdais. Peugeot themselves have said that 2007 will be a learning year and that they don't expect to be competitive until 2008 but, even so, it will be good to see JV back on the track again. The car's quite a looker too: http://www.endurance-info.com/article.php?sid=3030
You've got some exemplary online statistics too, Bob. I'm glad to see that you really put LFS through its paces to allow you to write about it knowledgeably.
Forbin, you're right. The word 'improved' is a subjective value judgement. I should have used a phrase like 'more natural' instead. The closer the in-game FOV approaches the 'natural FOV' setting which Bob's FOV Calculator derives based on the geometry of eyepoint distance to screen and screen dimensions, the more natural the spatial relationship between the elements in the scene will seem. In my case, at least, that improves my ability to judge speed and distances and to be more precise in hitting apexes and choosing braking and turn-in points. However, as the poll results show, I'm very much an outlier in this regard; an overwhelming majority prefer to use much higher FOV values.
As an experiment, last night I asked my wife, who is not a gamer, to try LFS with a few different FOV settings. She was most comfortable with lower FOV values, though she found the lowest settings (i.e. less than 50°) disorienting largely because she could no longer see much of the frame, dashboard and steering wheel.
As an experiment, last night I asked my wife, who is not a gamer, to try LFS with a few different FOV settings. She was most comfortable with lower FOV values, though she found the lowest settings (i.e. less than 50°) disorienting largely because she could no longer see much of the frame, dashboard and steering wheel.
Last edited by BuddhaBing, .
Thanks for adjusting the cohort ranges, Bob, and apologies for not including more cohorts in the 90+ range. There's so much fish-eye distortion at high FOV values that I didn't think many people would use higher settings. Looks like I was wrong.
The reason for the question and the poll is that I recently did a few experiments with FOV settings in RBR and found that I could shave a couple of seconds off of my previous best stage-times by using a lower FOV, largely due to the improved sense of depth. Reducing the FOV in LFS and GTR2 has also improved my laptimes and consistency in both of those games too.
The reason for the question and the poll is that I recently did a few experiments with FOV settings in RBR and found that I could shave a couple of seconds off of my previous best stage-times by using a lower FOV, largely due to the improved sense of depth. Reducing the FOV in LFS and GTR2 has also improved my laptimes and consistency in both of those games too.
What FOV do you use?
Adjusting the FOV can dramatically change the look and feel of the game. Increasing the FOV improves the sense of speed but causes fish-eye lens distortion. Decreasing the FOV improves depth perception and the ability to judge distance but restricts peripheral vision.
What FOV do you use?
As an aside: if I've done trigonometry correctly, an eyepoint 77cm away from a 33cm wide monitor screen corresponds to a FOV of approximately 24°, so setting the FOV to 24° would render the most accurate visual representation of the game world. However, a FOV this small would make the game almost unplayable due to the very constrained viewport it provides. Multiple monitors would be needed to make this FOV playable.
What FOV do you use?
As an aside: if I've done trigonometry correctly, an eyepoint 77cm away from a 33cm wide monitor screen corresponds to a FOV of approximately 24°, so setting the FOV to 24° would render the most accurate visual representation of the game world. However, a FOV this small would make the game almost unplayable due to the very constrained viewport it provides. Multiple monitors would be needed to make this FOV playable.
Yeah, a lower FOV gives more sense of depth and makes it easier for me to judge relative distances and to hit the apex of corners more precisely. You lose a lot of peripheral vision though which affects sense of speed and your ability to see who's beside you but I make up for that with a TrackIR head-tracking unit. I tend to vary my FOV setting from around 65° to as low as 45°-50°.
I love these excerpts from Eric Alexander's 'The Future' article on pp84:
"I hope 2007 sees sim-racers supporting all developers of quality racing simulations by purchasing their products. This means dropping the sim vs sim argument and supporting all top-line sim-racing titles." (emphasis added).
Yet, two paragraphs later:
"I hope Gjon and everyone at ISI continue to push the limit of developer support and update rFactor to even greater heights of sim-racing benchmarking. And if they 'were' to charge for a future update, I'd gladly pay as rFactor already is the best value ever in the history of sim-racing." (emphasis added).
Hey, good job dropping the odious sim comparisons there, Eric!
"I hope 2007 sees sim-racers supporting all developers of quality racing simulations by purchasing their products. This means dropping the sim vs sim argument and supporting all top-line sim-racing titles." (emphasis added).
Yet, two paragraphs later:
"I hope Gjon and everyone at ISI continue to push the limit of developer support and update rFactor to even greater heights of sim-racing benchmarking. And if they 'were' to charge for a future update, I'd gladly pay as rFactor already is the best value ever in the history of sim-racing." (emphasis added).
Hey, good job dropping the odious sim comparisons there, Eric!
Speaking of ASS, I notice that the new issue actually has some LFS coverage in it for a change. Glad to see that Becky Rose is getting some recognition for all of her work with the STCC too. I was surprised to read that there are currently 5000 licensed drivers in the series. That's a metric crap-tonne of people.
A Race Car is Born
Just finished watching this TV series produced by the Discovery channel in which the presenter, Mark Evans (also known for the series A Plane is Born, A Chopper is Born etc), builds a Westfield kit car and takes it to trackdays, sprints, autocrossing and finally goes circuit racing. What an excellent program!
For those who don't know, the LX4 and LX6 are almost certainly based at least in part on Westfield cars. The resemblance is striking, even more so than other Lotus7 Caterham clones.
For those who don't know, the LX4 and LX6 are almost certainly based at least in part on Westfield cars. The resemblance is striking, even more so than other Lotus7 Caterham clones.
Try turning on the Wide Screen Effect in the Options | Screen window. This just puts some black bars across the top and bottom of the screen similar to the 'letterbox' effect used to fit widescreen films onto small aspect ratio TV screens but I find it enhances the sense of speed marginally.
There are times when I get bored of it and move on to other games for a while. I've been playing a lot of Richard Burns Rally and GTR2 lately, for instance. But I always come back to LFS eventually and, each time I do, I appreciate it even more.
The graphics don't look all that nice which is strange considering that's just about all it has to offer. I didn't have high expectations; I wasn't expecting accurate physics or realistic driving. All I expected were some pretty graphics and a reasonably believable environment but it failed to live up to expectations in even those areas. I like the idea behind the game but the execution is lacklustre in almost every area.
rFactor was initially released in October, 2005 if I remember correctly. That's almost 18 months ago. ISI has something like 8-10 permanent employees, each of whom has a family to feed. The company is no longer financed by EA which means that they live and die based entirely on revenue from sales of their product. Given that rFactor has been on the market for some time, the revenue stream from sales of rFactor has probably slowed to a trickle and while they undoubtedly derive some revenue from licensing their technology to third-parties, that source is likely also drying up, especially given that Blimey are now developing their own technologies in-house.
The only surprise in this announcement is that it took them so long to cut the strings.
The only surprise in this announcement is that it took them so long to cut the strings.
... including their staff.
Does Car & Driver rely on their readership to submit articles about, say, Mercedes-Benz while their in-house staff write article after endless article about every other manufacturer in the market? Does F1 Magazine call on their readership to submit articles about Renault F1 while packing their magazine full of fluff pieces about all the other teams? No, of course not; the idea is ludicrous.
The fact that AutoSimSport does not cover LFS is entirely a conscious decision on their part. They have staff writers; they have editorial staff. If they truly wanted to provide LFS coverage, they would devote staff resources to doing so. They haven't. Read into that what you will.
Currently driving a 97 Toyota 4Runner and a 98 Toyota Tacoma. Had a 2002 Subaru WRX but it was no longer practical after getting married so I sold it.
I lived just outside Los Angeles for a couple of years and the roads do become quite treacherous when it rains. This can't be blamed entirely on people's driving ability, though. Because there's so little rain in southern California oil builds up on the road. When it does rain, all the oil that has built up over months floats to the surface and the roads become very slippery. It's almost like driving on ice. One of the scariest drives I ever did was on the freeway to LAX airport at 4am in a torrential downpour. The road surface was slippery as hell and you could see that everyone was right on the edge of losing control. I seriously considered pulling off the freeway and taking the sideroads home but I had a flight to catch.
Oh, I think it's much worse than all of those. I play GTL and GTR2 if I'm in the mood and enjoy them for what they are. RACE, on the other hand, is just terrible. Avoid.
Real-time Engine Sound Editor
Saw this over at RSC. To bring up an interactive real-time engine sound editor, while in-game type /edit_eng and then press Shift-A. The editor allows you to save and load profiles, so presumably these can be shared with other users.
What a fantastic video. I love Best Motoring. The only problem with videos like this one are that they drive home just how far racing simulations have to progress before they come anywhere near reality. Even the most sophisticated racing simulation on the market today is a toy in comparison.
I've only had a chance to try the new engine updates for the RB4, LX6 and XRT so far and all three are excellent. It's a pure delight to listen to the engine note when blipping on downshifts or when breathing the throttle on long sweepers. These are definitely keepers.
Somebody must have written a script to automatically cast votes in this poll. I've just seen the rFactor vote count increase by over 500 votes in the space of a couple of hours. Edit: it's now increasing by about 10 votes per second and the GTR2 vote is also increasing at about the same rate. What a joke.
Last edited by BuddhaBing, .
Clay Regazzoni Killed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/h ... t/formula_one/6184347.stm
"Former Grand Prix driver Gianclaudio "Clay" Regazzoni has been killed in a road accident.
The 67-year-old Swiss, a former Ferrari driver, was killed in a collision with a lorry on a motorway near Parma, Italian police said.
Regazzoni won five of his 132 Grands Prix in an 11-year career, which ended when he was paralysed from the waist down in a crash at Long Beach in 1980.
Regazzoni spent five years at Ferrari and was second in the '74 championship."
More information in the link above.
Aw damn.
"Former Grand Prix driver Gianclaudio "Clay" Regazzoni has been killed in a road accident.
The 67-year-old Swiss, a former Ferrari driver, was killed in a collision with a lorry on a motorway near Parma, Italian police said.
Regazzoni won five of his 132 Grands Prix in an 11-year career, which ended when he was paralysed from the waist down in a crash at Long Beach in 1980.
Regazzoni spent five years at Ferrari and was second in the '74 championship."
More information in the link above.
Aw damn.
Next time, try going up to your professor and start throwing personal insults at him, tell him that no one gives a turd about his personal life or his family, insist that he has an obligation to sit on his ass all day and write his lectures the way you want them to be written, tell him that you've got other classes that you enjoy far more and then give him an ultimatum that if he doesn't make MAJOR changes to his course work, you'll stop coming to his class and will tell everyone else to do the same.
Out of curiousity, what games have you moved on to?
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG