Is LFS addicting or something?

I am 37. I work full time. 8 to 10 hours a day. I raise 2 kids with my wife and I play at least a few hours a night of computer.

God I hope you are not playing WOW instead.

I just started LFS.

I hope whatever it is, that it is cool too.

L8tr G8tr.

C.

I know that in some games, there is a setting for doing reverse FF. Not sure if that applies to LFS and cannot find anyone meantioning it.

I have GTL and GTR 2 and they appear to have near perfect (if not a little faked) FF.

In LFS, the wheel sort of seems to pull opposite of what I have come to expect.

Especially at high speeds on the straights. It seems to try and make me swerve on purpose as opposed to staying nearly straight.

I mean common. No car starts to just sway at high speeds. At least none I have driven.

Any comments?

C.

Quote from IDUI :

I'd like to thank cvearl and all those who contributed to this thread. You've made me faster! I now can actually see where I'm going. Didn't bother with changing FOV before. Now I gave the smaller FOV a chance and :wow: I can see! :woohoo:

I am just very happy and suprised that so many actually responded. Usually forums are not this alive.

Although I have not gotten my LFS Full version yet (but will soon) I am becomming increasing convinced this is a long term game opportunity for me.

This number of responses in this little time is a testiment to the quality and quantity of the online community of this game.

Just got to get off my azz and register and get out there and drive!!! Still finnishing GTL and RBR seasons first though. Gotta get my moneys worth outta those tites. Because something tells me I will not be driving other sims once I start here.

C.

Quote from Zero7 :

Interesting theory cvearl and when I started to think about it I could see what you were getting at. Now I drive in cockpit view (67 FOV), but tried experimenting with the view attached, which I think is what your suggesting, someone else posted something similar previously.

The only "problem" with this view is that you do need instruments displayed but to overlay these on top of your view is still unrealistic, IMO, hence the reason most people go for cockpit view with instruments visible.

Still, interesting theory. In the attached view, what you need is the ability to move the drivers head down and left to see the speedo to simulate the glance at the instruments. Something for the future perhaps?

edit: Just thinking a bit more about the moving head comment - I guess that's what TrackIR is for! Still, assigning a keystroke to move the head would be useful.

That view in your screenie is pretty much what I had in mind. But with the hud up for intruments and mirrors. While that would be "unrealistic" it would provide the same split second data to the driver that we get in real life being able to glance in a split second. I just find glancing for speedo in a racing sim harder to do than in RL for some reason. LOL so I would likely opt to have the stuff turned on.

But you got my point. I just hate some of the defaults in Flight sims and Car sims as it feels like your watching from a web cam that's been placed on the headrest and trying to remote control the car or aircraft. It's not very immersive.

But that screen shot looks very true to percieved focus in RL.

C.

Quote from Gunn :

**Changed it to "custom" so it is more informative to those who are unaware that a custom option exists.

Thanks Gunn. Makes this poll more accurate!

Wow I did not expect this much feedback. As a new (soon to be licensed) LFS driver, I have gotten alot of REALLY good feedback here.

When it comes to views when driving I need to point something out that I have noticed over the years of driving sims and real life driving.

Driving games that put you into a cockpit where the whole dash/instrument pannel/steeringwheel and roof frame (above you and to your left or right) is visable is not an accurate depiction of what the human BRAIN sees when driving. This is a little hard to explain but think about this. Most STANDARD cockpit views offer a view akin to looking from the back seat if the front seats were removed. Sit in the back seat of a small car. If the seats in front of you were pulled out, there's your "in-game" cockpit view. Not a good way to drive.

One would certainly not drive like that let alone race. Notice I said BRAINS see and not "eyes" see. Pardon a short geek statement here... In the visual "perception" of humans, most of our periferal is white noise as we focus where we need to. Even ZOOM to some degree although our eyes are incapable of doing that. Everything around our FOV funnel in stereo vision is not there as far as our focus is concearned. you cannot make out many details outside of that "cone" of focus.

When driving a real car today. Take note of what you actually see regardless of how much of your real life cockpit is in your periferal. Perception-wise it is alot less than you might think.

What I notice is this. Looking at the road ahead, I see my nuckles on the wheel while not even realising they are there unless I think about it (remember this is my Brains perception of what is in my field dead ahead). I certainly cannot see my gauges unless I look down slightly or most of the rest of the interior. The road in front of me is HUGE from a perception/field of view standpoint.

So IMO it makes sense to move your virtual head forward in the car to simulate that experience. A little dash and top of the wheel and very little other cockpit details within your FOV. Perhaps barely framing your FOV. And just a smidge of hood as you will notice that in most vehicles you do not even see your hood unless you lean forward and try.

But the intruments and mirror are esential of course so they should be turned on to virtual as part of your hud. But I would REALLY like to see a side mirrors option that can enabled where they would then appear in the bottom left and right of the screen and only take up a few inches square as in real driving you do not see your side mirrors unless you turn to look which in Real life is a split second. Can't simulate that on a monitor so they need to be there in the corners all the time. They would not have to be very big.

Just some thoughts.

In the end I REALLY appreciate the fact that some effort went into this games FOV design and it's customization abilities.



C.

Last edited by cvearl, Tue 14 Mar 2006, 23:28.

Bumper? Cockpit? Chase? and so on...

When I say bumper I mean the view where all you see are your front wheels. ie; custome wheel views and so on.

How do you edit a poll to add an option? Ahh darn. You get the idea.

C.

Last edited by cvearl, Tue 14 Mar 2006, 05:26.

Wow.

The fact that I got 14 responses in an afternoon to an important question was almost enough to convince. But the fact that the repsonses were obviously from the mouths of mature drivers then that pretty much seals the deal.

You had me at hello. Hahahaha

C.

I have been playing the demo a few nights. Took a while to get it all working the way I expect. But it's a good racing experience now that I have the MOMO gear setup right and the graphics cranked up.

Decent graphics, physics, controller setup and sound. All check!

But since I already have Richard Burns Rally, GT Legends and soon GTR, I will have all the racing I really need from them albeit solo vs. A.I. not to meantion I have not even tried Flat Out or rFactor.

So the only real attraction for me to LFS is the online community RPG element of having tracked stats and some minor recognition and some relationship to people of like mind. That being people who can't get enough racing. That's the "cool" feature to me.

So I grabbed latest version of the demo. Here I have been joining servers to try on line and of the 15 or so different games I connected to, what do I find???? A bunch of loosers playing smashup derby or tag and talking smack to eachother. Or a race starts finnally and some dork ruins it by doing headons in the wrong direction and laughs.

Not fun. In fact the opposite of fun in every way. I want to race with other racing fans and not a bunch of 10 year olds.

Is the REAL online environment of LFS better if you own the full game? And I mean ALOT better?

Please describe!

Because if it's not much different. Playing against AI in GTL and GTR is more than enough for me already. And my Rally fix already comes in the form of RBR.

C.