Quote from Vince :

Don't know if it's a big or not!

Looking left and right has changed to 45 degree instead of 90 degree.

Pressing both at the same time results in the 90 degree watching to a side, instead of looking backwards

That is by design. Please read the first post by Scawen and make a mental note of what has changed.

Quote from duke_toaster :

The AI will just keep on going full pelt on tracks without pit lanes (like the shorter SO sprint where I tested it with the BF1).

You mean after the race is over?

Quote from deggis :

is it improved? Only thing in the feature list is: "Racing tyres generate more heat and wear more quickly"

Don't know because still downloading.

I'm not sure. I thought that the tires were going to get some changes for this patch, but with the addition of the BMW I'm not sure if that happened or not.

I ran a race with 8 AI drivers on the new South City layout for 3 laps. At the end of the race all the cars drove into the pit, but only two of them actually made it into the stalls. The other cars wrecked into the first couple that pitted, then continued through the pits and stopped just outside of pit lane. After the first car stopped there, subsequent cars plowed into him. I can upload a replay if need be, but it should be pretty easy to reproduce.

I'm at work and haven't had the chance to try the new patch yet. Can anyone give impressions of the new tire physics? Does longitudinal grip seem improved?

Excellent coverage, as usual. A few things bothered me though. During the intro it was hard to hear both announcers over the music. A car was damaged during the race which really affected the scores for several drivers, but we never saw a replay of what happened. What happened to the 3D cars that were used to show the grid order? Without that or a grid walkthrough, it's hard to know from the start who is who. Especially since it's quite a long time between races.

Other than those things, the broadcast was fantastic. I love the excitement from the announcers when a big pass gets made or when a leader stuffs it.

Quote from SpikeyMarcoD :

My thoughts cockpits are mostly textures so can be done compatible.

Scawen has said in the past that the new cockpits will require an incompatible patch. When the polygons in the cars change, it affects physics and replays.

Quote from BigTime :

I personally feel its the lack of real tracks and cars that bring this game down. I guess the reasons are going to be different for everyone but of everything I've played this reigns supreme...

I think that while people would like to have real cars and tracks, the underlying physics of the game are much more important. If it comes down to having a Porsche 911 or having break fade, I'll take brake fade. If forced to choose between a new supercar or adding overheating and blown engines, I would choose the latter. That's not to say that I don't really, really want more car types added to LFS...but I really could care less whether they're real or not. A generic off-road truck, a bare bones musclecar, and a fantasy supercar will be every bit as fun to drive no matter if they've got licensed names and bodywork or not.

Quote from BigTime :

I've got to agree with you on this one. Most simulation racers are going to know what Live for Speed is. I think you'll see a lot of new faces that haven't had much, if any racing experience. One thing you might see that will help the community is drivers coming from other simulations to LFS. It just blows my mind that hardcore race fans would waste time playing any other simulator besides LFS, nothing comes close to this realism...

I'm a total LFS fanboy, but I can still understand how/why people play other sims. As good as LFS is, there's still a lot missing that other games have. Me, personally...I haven't played LFS in probably 6 months or more. I got frustrated with the lack of a realistic clutch and other drivers downshifting like mad without engine damage. Hopefully the new patch will alleviate some of that frustration since the clutch will now work properly.

While I think that LFS has the best dynamics and the best feel of any sim out there, some of it's shortcomings can drive people away after a while. I don't know if the community will really grow all that much after the new patch but, at the very least, some of us who've left for a while might be tempted to return.

I would really like to see drag slicks in LFS, but there are a lot more things that are needed before drag racing will be any good in this sim. The new stalling and realistic clutch simulation will make a huge difference, but there is still a lot missing. The things that make drag racing fun and complex are all gone. There's no variation in track or air temperature. There's no variation in track surface. There's no "groove". There's no marbles on the track. There's virtually no engine damage due to over-revving. There's no 60-ft times, reaction times, etc. I could go on and on.

Until we get traction variations and temperature changes, drag racing is not going to be very challenging or a whole lot of fun.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

I dunno, Personally I feel that the ticker would work better along the top or bottom, in a horizontal manner, but that's just my opinion

While I tend to agree, let's not forget the restrictions that Becky has to work with. The LFS button system is versatile, but only to a certain extent. I'm no programmer, but I'm fairly sure that you can't do any sort of scrolling using that system. So, any horizontal, scrolling ticker would probably require a lot of from-scratch programming.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I try and I try, but the best drivers in the world are a bunch of tards... On the whole this race was not too bad, but we've all become such good friends over the year that I cant get you to report each other, and i'm not sitting there watching the full race from every drivers point of view any more! Suggestions welcome...

I think this is something that will solve itself, once Scawen can implement a better damage model. It seems like 90% of the "problems" are from drivers getting over-eager and taking risks that they would never take in real life. Once LFS gets to the point that hitting a wall ends your race, you can bet that such accidents will decline dramatically.

Excellent coverage! The race was exciting, and the new camera system is GREAT! The coverage was smoother, tighter, and better controlled than all of the previous videos.

I know that this broadcast had to be pieced together long after the fact, but it sure doesn't look like it was. I do have a few suggestions, but I'm sure you already have plans to address them for the next broadcast.

I miss having Tristan doing commentary. The way you two would play off each other made for a very entertaining and educational race. You (Becky) seemed to be the excitable entertainer while Tristan was the grounded informer. I hope that makes it back next time.

The upcoming in-car shots and telemetry would be most welcome. I found myself wishing for in-car shots a few times during the race. But, again, the camera work in this video was far and away better than the others. Very smooth, controlled, and professional.

The new sidebar listing the drivers, their place, and whether they're moving up or down in the ranks is awesome! My only complaint would be that the three letter designations are a bit hard to read. I imagine they'll be impossible to read on 320x200 or youtube videos. Perhaps move the display over a bit and use full names?

I would really love to see "studio" shots of the commentators before and after each race. All professional racing series do this, and I think it would add a level of polish to the production. Of course, it would also take extra time and effort, but it would be nice for viewers to put faces to names and feel that they're really "there".

Overall, this was a very solid video and the coverage was excellent. I missed some of the things that have made the past videos so good, but also understand the time and hardware constraints. I can't wait for the next race (coming soon! yay!), and I'm sure it will be the best one yet.

Cheers!

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

I don't understand this, and why the US request the political stand point of Europeans. As far as I am aware politics is a completely anonymous system, as such the only people who know who you voted for is you. I've never had to register which side of the fence I sit on, just that I want to vote.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really work that way. Oh, how I wish it did. The two party system totally sucks.

Getting back on topic...

Quote from Slopi :

*yawn*

Laws like this have been passed before with basically zero effect. More as a 'backup' in case things get really bad. Realistically, you wont see anyone being arrested for protesting the war.

Oh really? People have ALREADY been arrested for peaceable protest. And perhaps you don't know about the new "free speech zones" that are in effect around the country. Details of the hundreds who were arrested for protesting the war and the Republican party can be found here: http://www.nyclu.org/rncdocs/

Note that over 75% of these people had their cases dismissed outright, which goes to show that they were NOT breaking any laws at all. New laws, like the one in the OP, will ensure that these arrests are "legal", even though they are unconstitutional.

This country is going down the crapper and US civil liberties are being stripped at an alarming rate. So far, I've only seen one candidate for the 2008 election who even wants to restore our liberties. And, shock of shocks, he's a Republican (and, assuming he gets nominated, he'll get the vote of this registered Democrat).

Quote from StewartFisher :

Oh, and gyroscopic effects have no effect on the stability of bicycles

Ummm.....

I hope your smiley means you're not being serious.

Exactly what kind of news do you expect us to have? Nothing can happen with the car interiors until the next incompatible patch comes out. Even then, there's no guarantee (or even indication) that we can expect improvements to the road cars. Only the GTR cars have been addressed by the devs, as far as we know.

All we can do is ask that they be improved and hope the devs listen and have time to do it.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Oh yes, and LFS Companion is well and truly dead.

That bums me out to no end.

Quote from Syfoon :

The thing with forced setup usage is that everyone drives differently.

One person may fly around the track with one setup, but someone else using the same one might bin it into the gravel on every corner...

Except in the most extreme cases, that excuse is a big cop-out. If two people take showroom stock vehicles and race them, the winner won't win because of the car setup, he or she will win because they are the better driver. As long as we're dealing with "showroom" (ie: Bob's) setups or something like RACE_S, everyone should be able to drive those with no problems.

Quote from GAS-Hugo :

I CANT USE THIS VIEW, because i drive with shutter glasses (VR) and in cockpit view, there is no way for me to get good settings (VR). If the car is ok, the environment is flat. If the environment is ok, i´ll see the car twice.

I used shutter glasses with LFS for quite a long time and I've never raced in anything but cockpit view. You just need to turn down the "effect" a little bit, allow yourself to get used to that, then increase the effect again. Everything in LFS is 3D, so it should all work fine, provided your eyes/brain can handle it and you don't have the 3D effect turned up too high.

Quote from noel_cr :

ei guys, which is the command for disable the handicap¿
We can't quit 80 kg mass on FZR :/, and the race is only FZR.

There isn't one. If you want to race multiplayer with the FZR, you get the handicap.

Quote from Mike85 :

I predict that S2 0.5 Y will be even more hardware demanding.

I would actually predict the exact opposite. Each patch, Scawen finds places to streamline the code and make it better. We also know that the next patch will be incompatible and have physics changes. This is the perfect time for Scawen to make big changes that could improve fps since everything will be incompatible anyway.

People are getting fewer fps in Patch X because the grids are bigger. But, I think that comparing apples to apples, Patch X gives better fps than patch U, V, or W.

Quote from MaximUK :

In the screen shots of the results of the 4 hour race all 3 top teams stopped 5 times so does that really support any real advantage for the "legendary" fuel and tyre efficiency of the XRR?

This is exactly what I was saying earlier too. Everyone says how the FZR uses more fuel and tires than the other cars, but I've yet to see a race where it actually had to make more stops because of it. Does this even happen in the ultra long 6+ hour races?

I have a feeling that the fuel usage really doesn't matter at all, and that the tire usage would only matter if we had changeable track temps and ran a race with very hot asphalt. Under those circumstances, the XRR might gain a bit of an advantage from a tire wear perspective.

Quote from srdsprinter :

As for the endurance league as a litmus test, I agree its not ideal, but amassing a large amount of information is. (You were only .3 off in qual DWB, but the 1.5 off in race pace, were you using the R2's in qual? Prophet ran R2's in the race vs your R3's).

Are you saying that the race winner was in an FZR running R2s, but the guys in the XRR were running R3s? I'm not sure who was driving what, but if the FZR is able to run a 4 hour race using R2s, while the XRR guys are using R3s, then the FZR isn't as hard on tires as everyone makes it out to be (in comparison to the XRR).

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Something other than the insta-shift situation we've got now would be a big improvement, yes (it's one thing that netKar-Pro does much better than LFS). I wasn't talking about that though, I was talking specifically about the clutch automatically saving the car from stalling not being a big deal. And I don't think it is.

I'm not sure if I agree with you there. Even pro drivers stall their cars. Surely a bunch of guys who drive sims in their free time won't do better. I think we'll know for sure how big a deal it is once it's finally implemented. I have the distinct feeling that we'll see a lot of cars stalling during spins and, in the case of the open wheelers, retiring.

Quote from MaximUK :

And +1 to all cars getting stuck in the gravel although this will need to wait for a patch with physics changes.

Lucky for us, the next patch will be chock full of them.