A wheel is never out of anyone's budget. You just need to look around and find a deal. A friend of mine found a Logitech Wingman wheel on eBay for $5. FIVE DOLLARS! It works fine and he's been using it quite successfully for going on a year now. The new G25 wheel comes out next month. Once that happens you can count on a ton of Driving Force Pros going up for sale.
Anxiously awaiting the video for the second round!
I totally agree with this. Hopefully we'll get "locked setups" eventually which will allow for pick-up races that are much closer and more contested, as well as lite-leagues for those of us who want to race on the weekends, but who don't have time to practice, make setup changes, qualify, etc. throughout the week.
Get the vids up there and not only will I view 'em, I'll send links to all my buddies as well.
Excellent, excellent movie. Very well done and professional. Although Google Video and YouTube aren't the best quality, I definitely think they are the best solution. In my mind the best possible thing would be to post a vid on YouTube and have every LFSer view it, giving it a ton of hits. Hopefully enough to get on the "most viewed" list where it will get exposure to even more people who probably have never even heard of the game.
I agree that having both commentators in the same room would add tremendously to the production value. It helps take the load off of each individual and they can play off of each other as well. Hopefully this works out for you next race.
I would love to see more in-car/on-car cameras. In the last 10 years racing coverage has really gone all out with these cameras and they're used almost constantly. Let us see some views from slightly behind the driver out through the windshield, rear facing cameras during those close battles (or even better, during accidents), views from near the wheels as the cars are hitting the curbs, etc.
Overall, excellent job. I can't even imagine how much time and effort it took to put this together, and I can't wait to see a video like this for a longer race with pit stops and a bit more driver strategy.
Keep up the good work!
I agree that having both commentators in the same room would add tremendously to the production value. It helps take the load off of each individual and they can play off of each other as well. Hopefully this works out for you next race.
I would love to see more in-car/on-car cameras. In the last 10 years racing coverage has really gone all out with these cameras and they're used almost constantly. Let us see some views from slightly behind the driver out through the windshield, rear facing cameras during those close battles (or even better, during accidents), views from near the wheels as the cars are hitting the curbs, etc.
Overall, excellent job. I can't even imagine how much time and effort it took to put this together, and I can't wait to see a video like this for a longer race with pit stops and a bit more driver strategy.
Keep up the good work!
Not sure if you're taking suggestions or not Becky, since your to-do list is pretty full, but I thought I'd chime in anyhow.
I'd really love to have 'pit noises' (ie: air ratchet, pit crew chatter, etc) during a pit stop, a "wait, wait" radio message during repairs (maybe hammering in the background), and a "go, go, go!" when the stop is completed. If you need, I'll volunteer to record a few sounds that can be used for these things.
Excellent work so far. I really love this mod and can't wait to see what else you've got in store.
I'd really love to have 'pit noises' (ie: air ratchet, pit crew chatter, etc) during a pit stop, a "wait, wait" radio message during repairs (maybe hammering in the background), and a "go, go, go!" when the stop is completed. If you need, I'll volunteer to record a few sounds that can be used for these things.
Excellent work so far. I really love this mod and can't wait to see what else you've got in store.
It's really slow on "real hardware" too, so don't presume that the slowdown is caused by qemu.
Nobody is forcing you to buy those copies of Windows. You did so out of your own free will. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Vote with your dollars. If enough people stop buying then things will change.
Excellent video! Would you mind giving some details about the size of monitors you were using and your wheel setup (I'm assuming it's a DFP with a hacked wheel)?
I myself use a projector and would never want to go back to a regular computer screen. Having a huge screen is just SO more immersive. Though, I must admit that I really do miss having the 120* view that I had when running a Parhelia.
I myself use a projector and would never want to go back to a regular computer screen. Having a huge screen is just SO more immersive. Though, I must admit that I really do miss having the 120* view that I had when running a Parhelia.
+1 Wheel is set at 720* in Wingman and LFS. Compensation is set to 1.0. All the cars steer as they should. I don't know why anyone with a DFP would drive any other way, honestly.
There's a big difference between needing some new textures and needing a whole new graphics engine. I'm one of those people that thinks LFS looks good, yet I run modded textures. The textures add a lot to the game with relatively little effort. Changing to DX9 or 10 would not add anything in my opinion, and would take considerable effort.
Like I said earlier in the thread, if there were animated crowds, slightly better textures, more detailed 3D models, etc it would go a long way towards improving the graphics of the game. None of these things would require anything as drastic as switching to a new DirectX version.
WRs really don't mean anything to me. Running one fast lap is one thing, running 20 of them back to back is another entirely. I'll have to trust you about the league racing because I've never seen a league that races these cars. In my personal experience the UFR is way more difficult to control than the XFR due to the extra short wheelbase. The XFR is nearly as fast while also being easier to control. The same thing is true with the XR GT versus the XFG. Sure, you CAN be as fast in the XR GT, but why bother? The other car is just as fast and much more forgiving. If you make one mistake in the XRG the race is over while all of your competitors in their FWD cars just plow ahead and win.
This is my personal experience. YMMV.
Ditto. I'm already saving up for my new Mac because Vista sucks so badly.
Personally, I think the LFS engine is perfectly fine as is. The things that would really improve LFS graphics wise don't require DX9 or DX10. If the game had higher res textures and improved texture mapping, that would help immensely. Add on more track details (flag men, track marshalls, higher quality crowds, ambient noises) and some car model details and sound improvements and you'd have a beautiful game (not that it isn't now) with the best physics and a high immersion factor.
DX10 isn't needed at all.
Because the fox is so precise and easy to drive I think it's most fun on unforgiving tracks like South City. Driving the fox on a track like Westhill just isn't as fun or challenging. The opposite seems to be true for cars like the FZ5. Because it's big, heavy, and doesn't turn as sharply it seems to be the most fun on tracks like Aston and Westhill. The shorter, tighter tracks are more frustrating than fun.
As to the OP - I think your list is a little off. The LX4 is one of the best cars in the game. I prefer it over the LX6 and even drove it for quite a while last night. The FZ5 is also a TON of fun on the right track. In fact, it's one of my favorite cars. It just doesn't get much attention because of the GTR model. The UF1 is also a ton of fun on the right track. It makes for very close and forgiving races around the Club track variants.
I do think that the UFR and XR GT are way underused though. Neither of these cars can compete with the other cars in their class on most tracks.
270* of lock shouldn't be a problem. Lots of people play with the DFP and use 500-720*, and lots of people play with wheels like the old wingman which, IIRC, uses 270* as well. It seems as though having LFS setup properly for your particular wheel is much more important than the number of degrees lock-to-lock it uses.
Not having force feedback....well, *I* would find that to be a problem, but plenty of other people get along fine without it.
I've always wondered why the FXO is FWD but the FXR is AWD. I don't know why they didn't make a GTR version of the RB4 if they were going to make an AWD GTR car.
I wonder if this has something to do with it? Seems like most people use either the Momo or the DFP. I don't really know anything about the Saitek wheel, but maybe you need to adjust your controls setup for it. If you've got the wrong amount of lock-to-lock or the wrong amount of compensation it can make a huge difference in how the car handles.
Actually, you didn't have two laps to go. Because once the leader crosses the line, that's your last lap too. You'll just be X number of laps down. Though, I understand what you're saying.
Perhaps a somewhat easy way to fix this: If the observed car is on the lead lap, play "last lap" message. If not, play "leader just crossed the finish" message?
I found the same thing as well. Since the tool is designed for long races the short ones can become quite busy with radio chatter. I actually renamed the "racing for position" and "car is a place" messages so that I don't get them any longer. Now, I'll know if a car behind or in front is a lapped car, or if I am a lapped car, but I don't have to hear that every car on the track is "a position".
Once Becky has a chance to get everything nailed down I don't think this will really be necessary. If we can stop all messages after the race finishes, turn off unnecessary messages during practice/qualifying, and somehow make the program a little more intelligent about when to play what, an on/off button and mode button won't be neccessary.
Honestly, it IS pretty confusing. You might want to remove all the old versions and just have one link for the .30 version and one link for the .41 upgrade. The first two links seem to be the same file, but the descriptions are different. This is confusing. I don't see any reason to have the older versions at all.
Becky - Just wanted to let you know how thoroughly I'm enjoying LFS Companion. I drove the other night without it and the game felt so empty! Once you get the program nailed down so that it doesn't get confused about which player it's watching, I think it will be one of the most used mods for LFS ever.
I know that you plan to put a name field in the program, to tell Companion which player to watch. How will this affect tabbing around from car to car?
I know that you plan to put a name field in the program, to tell Companion which player to watch. How will this affect tabbing around from car to car?
I haven't had any problems in any of the test patches, but my wheel is reasonably new. I have a feeling you guys that are having a problem with this are doing so because of hardware that's getting old and worn out.
Scawen is a nice guy, but I don't think it's reasonable to ask him to code a fix for a hardware problem (assuming that's what it is). Can this be worked around using the script system, perhaps? That would save him some coding, yet still fix your issue.
Says who? I've never seen a release schedule, so I don't see how it could be behind schedule.
Beta means that all the features are in, but that the product may contain bugs. Alpha means that all the features are not in. AI can't pit, can't account for fuel, and can't handle cambered turns. The clutch model isn't finished. The damage model isn't complete. Etc., etc., etc. LFS will be Alpha until all features are complete. Then we'll likely have a short beta phase, since there are about a thousand people "testing" the app every single day. Would you be happier if they called it final, then released a "service pack" in a year to fix the rest?
illepall You've got to be friggin' kidding me! We've had 19 test patches in the last month. Every single one was announced here in the forum, and almost every single one added a new feature that we, the users, asked for. How you can compare Scavier to EA just boggles my mind!
Yeah, imagine that. You sound pretty damn ungrateful to me.
See above section about test patches. We've received a LOT of new content recently - for example: a new script system, direct replays of spr/mpr/set/lyt files, sorting of multiplayer hosts, new track selection screen, new custom views, local/UTC clock, etc). When the patch is finally out of test I expect we'll see even more goodies. And we know for sure that there's an incompatible patch in the works that will have even bigger changes.
Sure there's still plenty that could be added (see improvements section), but this game has made a ton of progress in the last year. If you choose not to see that, I don't know what to tell you.
My guess is that either your download is corrupted or something else is causing the problem (video driver, background task, etc). If you look in the Windows Event Viewer you should be able to get more information about the crash (Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer).
What changed between the time it was working and now? If you extract whatever test patch you were using previously (U18?) does it work or crash? If U18 works, then it could be a corrupt download or a valid bug.
What changed between the time it was working and now? If you extract whatever test patch you were using previously (U18?) does it work or crash? If U18 works, then it could be a corrupt download or a valid bug.
Looks great! I'll definitely be running this version over the weekend. Great job, guys!
Try extracting a fresh install to a different directory and see if it does the same thing. You may just have a corrupt file.
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