Quote from AndroidXP :

I can agree with the force levelling off, but that is not what happens in nKPro. I just tried in the F1600, and in a corner you can simply throw your wheel in one direction and it goes completely limp, staying in this position forever. The tyres still provide relatively good grip and get me through the corner safely, but for unknown reasons the wheel has no resistance whatsoever, as if I was aquaplaning.

I don't know the details of how netKar PRO generates force feedback but I strongly suspect that the self-aligning torque generated by the tyres is at least factored in and may in fact dominate.

Here's a typical graph showing self-aligning torque (SAT) as a function of slip angle and tyre load. As shown in the graph, the torque increases to a peak and then falls off to zero. If SAT is used to generate FFB, the steering will feel increasingly light as SAT falls off past peak.



The peak in the SAT curve generally occurs at a smaller slip angle than the slip angle which generates maximum lateral force. This means that SAT starts to fall off even before the optimum slip angle for cornering is reached. By the time the car starts to understeer, the SAT acting on the tyres will already be well into the post-peak part of the curve.

Here's a timelapse video I took of the total lunar eclipse tonight. The video has been sped up by a factor of 50 so you can see almost the entire eclipse in about a minute. The moon moves across the sky over time so I had to reposition the camera every 10 minutes or so.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3RGTNIHZ

(785KB AVI)

Sample image:

Last edited by BuddhaBing, Tue 28 Aug 2007, 18:47.

Quote from Gener_AL (UK) :

Looks mighty nice indeed. Is there some link to a higher resolution video or longer clips ?

Those excerpts are from the 'Tearing up the Track' video which StewartFisher mentioned in post #22: http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/857/857126/vids_1.html

Very few graphics cards on the market support a 32-bit z buffer. The DirectX SDK contains a large grid showing the capabilities of various cards. None of the offerings from ATI or nVidia listed support the D3DFMT_D32 depth/stencil format needed for a 32-bit z buffer. The only DX8/DX9 capable GPUs in the grid which do are the SIS Xabre and the XGI Volari, both of which are relatively low-end, niche products.

v1 of the Corvette together with the RealFeel plugin completely changed my opinion about rFactor. This new version is even better. Excellent job with the physics, Niels, it's an absolute pleasure to drive!

Quote from deggis :

There is not that much body roll. Cornering speeds are ridiculously F1-like. Breaking from 200 km/h to 100 km/h in few metres...

Well, the body roll and weight transfer in the two excerpts in the attached zip look pretty good to me. These and similar segments suggest to me that they've got at least the core of a proper vehicle dynamics simulation in place.

Quote from StewartFisher :

Watch the 'Tearing up the Track' video on IGN...if you still think LFS looks better, I think you're deluding yourself. Of course, the cars don't move very realistically, but the graphics taken on their own are stunning.

Can you expand on your point about the cars not moving very realistically? I watched the video a couple of times and didn't spot any glaring problems with the way the cars move; suspension movement, lateral and longitudinal weight transfer, body roll, dive and squat, all looked plausibly realistic to me. The only aspect that looked un-natural was the way the car juddered across the gravel trap but even that wasn't glaringly bad. What areas of the vehicle dynamics do you think they need to improve? Bear in mind that I haven't played any of the Gran Turismo series since GT2 about 7 or 8 years ago so I'm not familiar with how the series has progressed since then.

Some points worth highlighting:

- LFSWorld: LFS's own statistics tracking database and website.
LFS automatically updates the LFSWorld database when you play online. The LFSWorld website allows you to query the database to obtain just about any type of information you can imagine. Want to know the race results and every laptime for every player in a specific race back in March, 2006? No problem, you can look that up on LFSWorld. Want to know spankmeyer's best laptimes for any track/car combination or how many races danowat has joined or finished, how many 1st places he has, how many 2nd, how many pole positions, how many laps he has run, his average gas mileage, etc? No problem, you can look that up on LFSWorld too. And that's just the tip of the iceberg; there's a vast amount of information at your fingertips.

- STCC/CTRA: basically an enormous league with over 14,000 users, a league table, licensing system and semi-regular events. This is a great way for people to get started without having to join a formal league. The system automatically registers you the first time you join a CTRA server and it tallies your performance, awards points and updates your license every time you race on one of the CTRA servers subsequently.

- Intel Racing Tour: run by Intel and BMW in Germany, a series of sim racing events using LFS and BMW Sauber mockup cockpits at various locations throughout Germany. The grand prize awarded at the end of each season is a brand new BMW car: an M6 last year and a Z4M Coupe this year. Over 25,000 people took part last year, the final event of the season was attended by Dr Mario Thiessen of BMW and the prize was awarded by Nick Heidfeld. More details here: http://www.intel.com/deutsch/racingtour/

Last edited by BuddhaBing, Fri 24 Aug 2007, 08:17.

That's great news, Vykos, thanks!

Quote from Shaun - SRT :

Here is one question I have for this group. Do you think that the fact that people use name like "MFP_JoJo9" is detrimental to LFS?

In some ways yes, in some ways no. It depends on the nickname. Leetspeak nicknames look immature and come across as clannish and unwelcoming. This can be offputting to new players, doubly-so if they're older. On the other hand, nicknames allow players to signal membership of a group (much like Shaun - SRT does) which can help team cohesion.

The anonymity that comes with using a nickname allows some people to behave in ways that they wouldn't if they were using their real names. Yet, that same anonymity also allows people who aren't comfortable using their real names online, for whatever reason, join in the fun without having to worry about privacy issues.

Last edited by BuddhaBing, Fri 24 Aug 2007, 06:22.

To expand on Viper93's post, the CTRA can be found at http://www.raceauthority.com/

I just noticed that BMW and Intel are running another season of the Intel Racing Tour in Germany this year, with the prize this season being a BMW Z4 M Coupe.

http://www.intel.com/deutsch/racingtour/
http://www.intelracingtour.de/index.php

Does anyone know if they are still using LFS?

I have the same card and it works fine on my system. I'm currently using the Catalyst 6.12 drivers.

It's interesting that it only crashes in multiplayer. LFS does try to switch to windowed mode when getting the list of servers so I wonder if that's a factor. To check, try setting the 'Window while connecting' setting to '[no]' in the main multiplayer screen. If the game no longer crashes, that may indicate a problem switching between windowed and full screen mode.

What I find most depressing about these sort of discussions about climate change is that so many people are quite happy to spend an hour watching something like 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' but aren't willing to spend the same amount of time reading primary source material such as the IPCC working group reports. Short summaries are available for those who don't have the time or inclination to read the full reports.

If people would just take the time to read the actual reports or even the summaries, much of the misinformation and misconceptions that are floating around - some of which have been voiced in this thread, in fact - would be dis-spelled.

For those interested, here are some links to the most recent IPCC working group reports. If you can only find the time to read one report, I suggest starting with the summary from WG1, since it addresses the areas that crop up most often in these sort of discussions.

Working Group I: The Science of Climate Change
Full Report
Summary
Technical Summary
FAQ

Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
Full Report
Summary
Technical Summary

Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change
Full Report
Summary
Technical Summary

Note that these are for the IPCC's fourth assessment report (AR4) and are currently being compiled and edited into their final form.

The final reports from AR3 (Climate Change 2001) are available here:
http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/index.htm
http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg2/index.htm
http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg3/index.htm

Quote from bigcheese :

http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1896/quadbig.jpg
Henry Ford's Quadricycle

You got it!

A change of pace.

Vaz Oka 1111

edit: never mind, misread the post.

Last edited by BuddhaBing, Tue 21 Aug 2007, 09:37.

Does anyone have a copy of or a working link to the Finland gravel mod by toper? The link on his website (http://toper.apes.pl/index2.html) doesn't work any more and I can't find a valid link in any of the usual RBR sites.

Thanks guys. It's a bit of a toss-up between a BT21 (http://www.autoextremist.com/r ... 4/Group4/big/DSCN7767.jpg) and a BT23C (http://www.autoextremist.com/r ... 4/Group4/big/DSCN7757.jpg) but on the whole, I remember the car looking more like the BT23C . Next time, I'll try to remember to take a photo of the placards for each of the cars to keep things straight.

Here's a link to the New Scientist article AH mentioned. http://environment.newscientis ... ate-change/mg18524861.400

Need help identifying the car in the photos below, which was on display at a local vintage car show this weekend. The placard under the windshield read '1966 Repco Brabham' and included some details about which series it ran in which I can't recall. It is not an F1 car and the placard did not claim it was. The badge on the nose also reads 'Repco Brabham'.

http://i9.tinypic.com/6cwuqv9.jpg

http://i15.tinypic.com/6gafv68.jpg

http://i16.tinypic.com/52lew08.jpg

Any ideas?

The term you're looking for is 'third spring' and/or 'third damper'.

Just came across this job opportunity in Vancouver: http://www.engineeringsearchfirm.com/details.php?id=290

Looks very interesting. If I had the necessary experience, I would be all over this.

Z06 Corvette