Is this a bug?

If more than 1 car type is allowed on the server, it will not be shown if I filter by a specific car type (ie all cars allowed on server, filter set to GTRs, server won't show up).

This was probably the most boring F1 race I have ever seen. Hoping Canada will provide better racing than that shit.

Quote from Jakg :

that was just a random comb - "wierd combo flash-mobbing" - coming to a W21 server list near you!

I would love to race, but i got stuck at Karkand

Let me guess, game went something like this:

1. Spawn
2. Everyone runs to first battle / tks for the tanks / APCs
3. 'Nades / Medic
4. Tank vs infantry
5. 'Nades / Medic
6. Artillery
7. USMC takes a flag (at some point)
8. No one spawns, flag is lost
9. 'Nades / Medic
10. USMC wins by spawnkilling / loses by not being able to take flag / takes a flag.
11. etc


(spent more than 258 hours on Karkand)

A small clarification from you Scawen, where should I put skins from other people I manually download (i.e. skins downloaded from the forum)?

I use 600x400 (or 400x600) with 1px black border around the image now. No need to go bigger than that unless you are going to use it as a background or something.

A few of mine. All Nikon D50 with kit lens or 2x teleconverter + 75-150/3.5 (no autofocus).

While I was doing some testing for a possible LFS poster (A2 paper size, 300dpi, about 5000 pixels wide), I needed LFS to draw a very big image to avoid as much upscaling as possible.

I set Windows to use a very large resolution, 5000 x 800 pixels (meaning you'd have to scroll to see the entire picture).

When LFS goes to that width (5k pixels) it'll crash, see error report for info. Also tested at 4k pixels wide and it doesn't crash.

Tested with patch W.

System specs:
Intel Core Duo 1.66 GHz
1 GB RAM
nVidia GeForce Go 7300 256MB Turbocache (512 MB available)
WinXP Pro SP2.

Spent some time going through Scawens posts, some of these are somewhat interesting, and somewhat related to the topic.

About model updates:

Quote from Scawen :

Quote from Cue-Ball :

If that's true then can I assume that every surface carries the same weight? If so, this would account for the fact that the hot hatches seem very top heavy. Sometimes after going over an inside curb I swear that the engine must be mounted on the roof!

The meshes aren't used in the mass calculation any more. However, they are used to create a physics collision box and also to determine a radius. So they can affect physics in small ways.

Any tiny change to the car could put replays out of sync. For example, if a driver's position was moved by one millimeter, because of an updated steering wheel or whatever, the replay would be out of sync.

Not all the car interiors are done and Eric wants to release them at once, not having half a car class updated while another car is not. And one thing leads to another, so if the XRR is updated, the XRT is updated, so then the XFG should be updated as well. I expect all the interiors will be released at once, in an incompatible patch.

--
December 29th 2006
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=298604#post298604
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=17074

Criticisms:

Quote from Scawen :

Simply, the criticisms of LFS development stated a few posts back are just wrong and displaying a lack of understanding, and failure to see the big picture. Or if you wish, you may interpret that as my failure to explain to you what I'm doing every step of the way. But seriously, my job is not to explain to you every step of LFS development and every plan I have for it, while they run through my head. My job is to get LFS done.

It was actually the two Vista compatibility issues (unlocking and sound) and the arrival of the G25 wheel that got me onto this series of test patches. It's very important, with more and more people getting Vista, and us receiving several technical support emails "I can't unlock on Vista" and so on, for LFS to work on Vista. Also we need that improved controller support to be readily available to new users. Also I've had enough of "How do I install a patch, I've downloaded it and LFS doesn't work any more" so I've been working on and nearly finished the auto updater. And that means, Patch V needs to go on the main site. And guess what - it should not go up there completely bug ridden and full of hundreds of small issues that have been waiting a long time to be fixed. But it should be compatible, I need to do some months of incompatible work, which I have outlined elsewhere and won't go into here. And there's no point delaying the compatible fixes, leaving the much poorer version U up there when we are so close to V.

The compatible fixes and improvements are totally necessary. The irritated commentators on this thread have no idea how much reworking and improving goes on inside the program while I'm on a roll. Also they don't understand how much simply MUST be done, outside the core physics, to keep the program on track. It does actually take more time than the core itself. If a great majority of the time was spent on the core alone, we would have a physically accurate, but totally unusable simulator that attracted no more than the absolute hardcore simmer. And we'd be poor and have to give up LFS and go and get a job!

This work NEEDS to be done. It's nothing different from any time in the past. A lot of compatible fixes, tested thoroughly by the community, followed by an apparently quiet period while we work on incompatible things which cannot be tested by the community because every day's test patch is incompatible, which would causing hotlap and online madness. And in that apparently quiet periiod there will be a new post each week "Where are the devs gone" and "They've taken our money and run" and "The devs owe it to us to write a detailed progress report each week" etc, etc... you know how it goes by now.

Anyway, I'm very happy with these improvements, I'm sort of embarassed now by version U and it's flaws and imcompatibilities, the visible things and the internal messes it contains that I have sorted out. I'm itching to get that version V up there but it needs the auto-updater finished (a couple more days work) and the new (minor) sound updates (a few more days work - still awaiting some longer work in the future). Nearly every one of these test patches has had some VITAL fixes, along with a few irritations fixed and some minor or major features. It really is not a bad thing for LFS, these compatible things that have been done, bringing us so much closer to a final S2 that can be released, when the other craved updates are completed.

It's a little sad the lack of trust displayed in those preceding posts. The belief that something has gone wrong inside our heads, that the developers who once knew how to develop, have changed mentally in some way, are hiding away in a hole, scared to develop anything but just scratching at the surface. It's quite a pathetic belief in fact, when the truth is Eric's there working on things that will improve LFS a lot amd I am working 10 hour days getting so much done, as fast as possible to get a stable version up there ready for the approaching silent period of core development.

It's going so well, and as described elsewhere our lives have been sorted out a lot this year helped by the S2 success, after neglecting ourselves for years, due to LFS development. It would be nice if the off topic commentators could just be happy about it and have some faith in the simple understanding that we developers who got it this far, and have devoted so much of our lives to this, probably want to take it to the next stage as well!

--
November 4th 2006
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=255879#post255879
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=14689

Progress report, October 2006:

Quote from Scawen :

Hello to all.

This is just a really quick note as I am starting to see more questions and frustration, from people who want an update. I hope this post will help to explain how things are going.

I first want to remind you how we work here. We don't work to a specified schedule or an exact feature list. We have our lists of things to do and we get on with them. We do allow ourselves to get sidetracked onto related tasks as we go, or even do completely unrelated things which we feel like doing, along the way. It's a good way to work, because we can follow our inspiration and interest, and so get a lot done. This is one reason why Eric and I left the company we used to work for, and set about working on our own. The only disadvantage is that sometimes, a planned thing takes longer to complete, while we finish something that wasn't planned. But that doesn't worry us at all - it just makes some people get impatient, sometimes.

Although progress is good, this year has been the slowest one yet. There are a lot of reasons for that, but none of them are really permanent.

On my side... as you know my first child was born this year, so there have been a lot of home improvements being done, and a lot of old rubbish to clear away, after years of letting things pile up when I only had a motorbike. Another issue has been the neighbours building. We are attached to a house which has had a loft conversion and a large rear extension. I won't describe what a building site is like, if you don't already know, you won't believe my description of the amount of dust and noise! Anyway, that has been on the go for 7 months now and they are really in the final stages, so most days are peaceful now. Of course Leo himself is quite a distraction and something to get used to. But you don't want to miss out on the first months of your first baby's life. He won't be small for long!

On Eric's side... he was finally able to buy his own house, something that was impossible in the earlier years of LFS and he was forced to waste a lot of money renting a house. Now with S2 sales, he got the chance to get his own house again, so of course he took that opportunity. That kept him off his work for a little while. As anyone knows, who buys a second hand house, there is a certain amount of work to be done before you move in.

So, I hope you can now understand the reasons for our slower progress in 2006. This is by no means an apology! We never give estimates of when things will be done - we are very careful about that because we don't want to be in the position of failing to deliver on our promises. We are very happy with the improvements to our homes and our lives, and I am happy to report that our improved environments are helping us to continue working on this project we love so much! You can look forward to many improvements to LFS - graphical, physical and audible. We won't give any estimates though, of when any particular patch or version will be out. But we are progressing towards it day by day.

--
October 16th 2006
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=239869#post239869
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=13882

Read through these threads for more posts by Scawen:
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=14689
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=17074
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=13882

Eric's work comes with the incompatible patches from Scawen, no such version has been released since last april as Scawen decided to do a compatible patch before an incompatible one (patch V).

I'm guessing it took a little longer than expected to complete that patch (about 8 months), after that some fixes and updates where released in patch W. With those patches released Scawen was able to start work on incompatible work - this time a mulitiplayer incompatibe patch before a physics one.

While Eric's work may be ready for release Scawen's work isn't. I remember reading in one of the threads for the U test patches that model updates (such as interior, car and track) isn't compatible updates (if anyone can find that post please post it). As they decided not to do an incompatible post just for Eric's updates they'll have to wait for Scawen to complete his incompatible stuff.

+1, low priority tho.
I'd also like to see a HANS-device added, just about every (higher) racing series requires the use of such a device.

I feel that the FZR has gained a bit to much weight. The handling is okay, no problems at all - it's just gotten slow. To be able to keep up with the fast FXR drivers you'll have to drive the wheels of the car. I'm not sure but I think it consumes more fuel per lap with the added weight.

The FZR should be slightly faster than the FXR so that in the end of a long race (after pitstops and such) neither car will have an advantage. As it is in W9 it feels like the FZR isn't fast enough to complete more pitstops than the FXR and still finish close together.


I think about 70-80 kg extra for FZR would be better instead of the 100 kg used now.

The penalty system needs to be track-combo specific to be good. Will take a lot of work to get it done properly, but once done it'll be possible to win with every car in it's class on any given combo.

Balancing per combo is going to take a lot of time to make it perfect though, is it worth it?

One good thing has come of this tho: Aliens won't run away with the race now, even you can win a race with them (but they probably need to be a bit heavier than you).

Along with more smoke, this would be cool:
http://img221.imageshack.us/my ... =image11ericmos8224yg.jpg

Quote from Scawen :

Maybe I can choose colours that are more distinguishable for colourblind people... it's quite a common thing.

I'd be interested to know a set of colours you find easy to see the difference between, then I could take your colours and ask some other colourblind people which ones they find easy, then choose ones that I like and change the small map triangles to match them, so they are ok for everyone.

A question for you Scawen:
Is the color-coding of the minimap too hardcoded to make it possible to use custom coloring like other GUI parts?

And a comment on the colors used:
In some views the triangles of cars more than 1 lap behind becomes hard to make out when the graphic behind it is dark, such as trees.

Quote from Bob Smith :

I thought the MIP bias could only be set between -4 and 0 in LFS?

You're correct.

Default is -2.

I don't like because it doesn't feel like I'm driving a car. Doesn't feel like I'm driving anything that could exist IRL actually.

If someone could give me a link to control/ffb/settings for a G25 that actually make the game feel even sligtly like driving a car, please give me that link.

I think I had driven several hundred laps on the Blackwood configs over the month or so I played LFS before I got my licence.

Only team-order: Don't crash your team mate. Guess what Juan managed to do.
Great race tho.

Quote from Blackout :

Cars, generally, don't blow up to pieces when you smash them like they do in the movies. It just doesn't happen. A fire is of course possible, but you could say it's quite rare if the poor car was properly built.

Reminds me of this crash, pretty nasty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_gOisoUbEg

May not be completly legal here, but there is a free way of altering colors/look of Windows, it turns off the uxtheme certifying check to allow custom themes. These themes can be found at deviantart.com.

Only like .5cm of snow here, -3C outside.

School has only been closed once during all the time I've gone to one, it's was late october 1996 I believe, about 30ish cm of snow came during one night. Way earlier than anyone had expected snow to come.

Quote from zeugnimod :

Im sure, you are the only one who has bad luck in several consecutive races sometimes.

More like every public race since January 3rd. Quite a few...

How is that I'm not allowed to finish a race in a good position any))more. It's like everything that can stop will stop me. It's not fun racing anymore if you don't get to finish the race. Last (public) race i finished was January 3rd, since then I've raced on like 6 more days without a single race finished.

Unless I start at the front (or near it), I'm very likely not to survive lap 1 (70-80 % failure), doesn't help if I'm very carefull, or aggressive, some way or another I will get hit or run off road (not caused by me that often).

If I do happen to survive the lap I usually do quite well. Until something else happens, this could be backmarkers not paying attention, me forced to use bad lines in one way or another (driving defensively, or passing backmarkers etc), causing me either to spin/crash at that point or later on due to overheated tyres.


If none of the above happens I will most likely have a disconnect or make a minor mistake causing me to spin (happens sometimes) or overheat tyres which later will cause me to crash.

Most of the time it's no-ones fault, I just happen to be the one who comes out losing.

Can't someone else be a car/n00b magnet for a while? It's not funny anymore.


Sorry, I just had to write something about this...feel a little better now.

Trackwidth is okay on just about every track, but some corners could use slightly more track (mostly highspeed tight corners).

The problem I have with the tracks is what's beside them, nearly all tracks have some major security issues if they had been real life tracks. I don't think any of the tracks would be able to host a FIA event (or any other big event). LFS loses some immersion due to this.

Some suggested changes, for Aston in this case, a somewhat modern track), some don't really apply until there is a better damage model:

• Secondary Pitlane (Aston North pitlane)
  Quite dangerous when not beeing used due to the high speed through that part of the track. The entry/exit (depending on combo and if reversed or not), should be more in level with the rest of the track and closed off when not beeing used. The other side (sharp turn) should be straightend slightly (to avoid cars hitting the wall on entry/exit).
  
• Chicane (Aston National and others)
  As of now it's not really a chicane, too straight to be one (if using curbs), the left wall at the end of chicane (non reversed configs) should be slightly futher away from the race line and tires should be removed (too close to track for tires in highspeed classes such as GTR and F1).
  The sandtraps on both sides should be flatter and possibly replaced by Kyoto like inner parts, to make accidents like the 2006 Mid-Ohio Joey Hand crash (massive crash btw), less likely to occur. Needs to be some clever way of stopping cheating though (like 5-10 sec time penalty if last section is too fast for current car).
  
• Minor changes
  Distance to walls, evenness of runoff, objects in area etc. should be reworked. Some of the information can be found here: http://www.cba.org.br/download ... odromos/normas_gerais.pdf
  

NOTE!
Keep in mind these changes would only be for immersion and once the damage model is final, for safety when driving (imagine if someone whould wreck his/her car into the tire barriers in a chicane and throw debries onto track when other cars is coming through at high speed, it'd be a disaster.

Quote from spankmeyer :

No problems here.

Except my router that keeps rebooting itself randomly, but that's hardly LFS fault.










Anyone want to buy a great Zyxel ADSL-router?

What's your current router? Possibly a Prestige 660HW-61 S (had one of those, got it replaced once and got the money back the 2nd time)?

Currently using 660H-D1 Triple Play (supplied by Telia, not sure if it works with other than Telia(Sonera)), and a Prestige 336M connected to it. Better than the old Zyxel and a D-Link I've used previously.