Did you have any other USB devices connected? Do they still work? Just wondering if it might be something else (like PSU?) that had a fault and caused the destruction of the CPU, mobo and act labs thing?

Quote from mantis9 :

You do need dedication but Im not sure its much more than a regular degree, its all modular so you only take as many courses as you think you can manage. You also get a tutor for each course who you can meet in person at tutorial meetings about once a month, they are not compulsory though. There are many OU forums available to you from the most general catagory down to just the people on your course, and then just the people in your tutor group (20 to 40 people depending on your region) so help is never far away.
Imho the internet has made degree work alot more productive, correspondance courses are now much more practical.

Yes. From what I've seen so far there is plenty of help available. There are tutorials to attend if you wish. My tutor even phoned up at the start to check everything was ok and tell me that help was available if required. The forums available look like they will be very useful when doing the harder courses courses, as will the tutorials.

I'm considering doing an OU degree. I should've applied to uni last year but didn't. Course fees have now gone up and I'm not sure I fancy all the debt of going to a 'proper' uni. With open uni the actual courses will cost next to nothing because of grants (I think it will cost something when I get a job though). As you can do your studying whenever you want, there should be no problem in getting a job even if studying enough to get the degree in 3 years. I want to work towards the BEng degree, and have started with a level 1 maths course which is quite easy having just done A-levels but I don't know yet whether I want to continue. My only concern at the minute is whether employers would have as much respect for an OU degree as they would a normal one. I'm definately going to try and get a somewhat related job while I study to try and make up for any practical experience missed by doing an OU degree.

I would say it definately falls into the "otherwise objectionable" category, but there isn't much that wouldn't fall into that category. I doubt they would do anything though. Unless they fancy their chances of getting that $500.

I think it would quickly end up available through p2p networks etc anyway. It would also probably mean that all downloads have to be hosted by the devs and not through the many mirrors that there are. It might end up costing them more in increased bandwidth costs than they gain by extra purchases. I would guess that most people capable of finding a crack would also be able to aquire the main download via p2p networks etc.

Was at Spa I think:



EDIT: Just thought... if you've forgot who won and want to find out again by watching it, dont click the link!
http://www.gpracing.net192.com/races/reports/575.cfm

Last edited by dave_w11, Fri 4 Nov 2005, 04:41.

Thanks! The big one is on the way albeit slowly. There were a few smaller ones too of the equal qualifying laps and of the schumacher villeneuve incident.

Quote from ayrton senna 87 :

link! or info how to get it, pls!

Could you point me in the right direction too? Thanks!

Also, are you recording at full speed? Assuming it's a replay you can play it back at 0.5x and record at half the required FPS. Then do another recording at full speed in super low resolution or use something other than fraps to capture the sound. You can then use virtual dub to sort out the frame rate and play speed and add the sound in.

Love it.

One related thing I dont like is the 'jump to pit' ability. I haven't been online for a while so I don't know if it's still this way, but it seemed that if you crash and end up on the track you're expected to hit the pit button quick to get off the track. If someone crashed in front of me, I'd prefer them not too! It would be good if there was a server option to allow you only to go to the pit menu from within the pits.


As for the resetting, I'm of the opinion that real racing should be recreated as accurately as possible including the bad bits (or rather have server options so it can be made that way if desired). However, as pointed out there are times where you may be able to get back on track with the help of marshals etc. This obviously isn't simulated at the moment, so perhaps the ability to reset is a fair replacement?

I don't think the automatic resets reset your damage and tyres etc, just plonk you back on track where you were.

Quote from Bob Smith :

The gearing tool I made for LFS, since you missed the link in my sig I'll put one here too: GRC

Doh, I appear to be blind. Thanks! Great tool!

I think it usually uses one with a monitor plugged into, and you just set the priority for if there's both in the bios.

Try and find a manual though for the motherboard. They are usually very detailed in the bios section and you might be able to navigate through it blindly using the manual as a guide. There always the risk of changing something you don't want too though!

Quote :

You've got that the wrong way around. You gear down, not up. This goes back to skiingman's F1 comment, their torque isn't that impressive at the engine but with so many revs there gearing will be really short, so torque at the wheels will be monstrous. Add to that low weight and you've got something that flies.

I meant a small amount of torque at the wheels compared to what an engine with less torque, but at higher revs could at the wheels after gearing. Not compared to the torque at the flywheel. I didn't put it very well though :sorry:

Quote :

Hang on, you're not thinking about gearing reduction enough here. The bike engine revs twice as high, so to get the same speeds you need to double your gearing reduction, doubling your torque in the process. So now you've got the same torque (nearly) but less weight. See? So it accelerates quicker.

I would say that amounts to the same thing I was trying to say: That although the torque/tonne is lower at the flywheel, after gearing (thanks to the higher revving bike engine), the torque at the wheels is higher than that of the car engine with higher flywheel torque.

Quote :

One big reason you can't give out torque-to-weight figures in reality is that it totally depends on the gearing. And then the difference between a peaky engine and a flat torque curve makes a big difference. So really you need a plot of the torque curve for each gear to analyse things. Just what GRC does.

That was the main point of my post aswell.


What is a GRC?

Last edited by dave_w11, Fri 7 Oct 2005, 01:48.

Quote from colcob :

Sorry but I think you're wrong. Currently delivered torque absolutely dictates your acceleration.

Torque/effective wheel radius = delivered linear Force at contact patch.

Acceleration = Force/Mass

Therefore as weight = mass*g

torque/weight is directly analogous to force/mass which equals acceleration.

Therefore torque to weight is the most accurate way of defining a cars acceleration potential. The reason its never quoted is perhaps because people dont understand it.

That is at the wheels though. An engine could deliver a huge amount of torque at the fly wheel, but once geared to have any reasonable sort of top speed, deliver a relatively small amount of torque at the wheels.


Edit: Small example:

A lot of lotus 7 style kit cars are fitted with bike engines. These may produce a maximum torque of around 70lbft and typically weigh around 450kg, so a torque/weight of 155lbft/tonne.

A popular car engine fitted is a ford zetec, and cars with these fitted will normally weight about 650kg. A google for 'zetec dyno' has found one producing 150lbft maximum torque, so assuming that's a typical value, that is 230lbft/tonne.

The car engined car will still not beat the bike engined one (the bike engined one will batter the car engined one). This being because the bike engine produces useable torque up to 12000rpm, whereas the zetec only to about 7000. The gearing is altered to suite and the bike engine produces more torque/tonne at the wheels.

The bike engine produces ~150 bhp, so ~333 bhp/tonne. The car engine produces ~165 bhp so ~250bhp/tonne. Coincidence? I suppose it could well be and someone could most likely find an example to prove power not to be a good indicator either. For example I suppose if an engine gave a very narrow band of torque at high rpm? So that is maximum torque and maximum power values are both useless


Just my thoughts, might be a load of the brown stuff.

Last edited by dave_w11, Fri 7 Oct 2005, 00:44.

I had/have the jumpiness problem too. Not managed to get rid really. I took them apart and cleaned them which solved things for a while, but I found it came back quicker and quicker. Now I can just about reach the straight on blackwood before they go jumpy again (slight exaggeration there). A very short term fix I've found though if mid race, is to pump the pedal up and down quickly a few times. This seems to help for a few corners for incase you're near the end of a race.


Coupled with the problem in this thread I've pretty much given up.


Does that cure the jumpiness problem DodgeRacer? I can see it curing the calibration problem but it seems unlikely for the jumpiness for some reason. I'll definately try it though! I might try and make a sort of seal to keep the dirt out using some bath sealing type stuff after cleaning.

Last edited by dave_w11, Mon 3 Oct 2005, 03:00.

My first DFP was my first wheel.



Grrrrr, very frustrating.

Quote from Ziploc :

Wow really?

If my wingman isn't running my binds stop working when i boot LFS.

The extra binds are pit control (In the second set of the wheel -shift- mode)

F keys and signals. They stop working without wingman.


EDIT: Problem persists with or without wingman...

I hope it goes away when I reformat in a few weeks. Still haven't exanged the wheel yet.

I didn't mean the profiler doesnt have to be running, just that you dont have to start LFS through the profiler for the binds to work.


Pitty about the problem persisting Wonder what it could be. I'll be trying a format soon too, just awaiting DVDs to back-up on. *insert hope smiley here*

Quote :

Just wondering.... do you have two DFPs plugged in? Or maybe just 2 logitech wheels? I wondered if that might be related to the problem as I don't think it happend before I plugged in a second wheel for clutch pedal.

I'm using an XP 3200+ and with one car on track can play some replays at 32x quite smoothly, but only after it's been going for a while. I don't know why this is, perhaps it's still loading textures the first time round?


With any significant number of cars on track though it's a bit jerky in 4x and very jerky at 8x.


I think it's to be expected, especially as LFS is so CPU dependant in terms of how well it runs. Having to do 32x the number of physics calculations per second will hog the CPU a lot.

Last edited by dave_w11, Sat 1 Oct 2005, 20:21.

Aaaah, thanks for that. I never liked the profiler too much anyway so glad not to have to use it (and hopefully it solves the problem me and Ziploc have been having).


I never had to launch LFS through the profiler for all the key binds to take effect though, I just used my normal LFS shortcut and it seems to detect LFS starting up and change the FFB and key binds etc. I guess there's no reason to use the profiler though now.

In Misc options, set 'AI use player setup' and 'AI use player colours' to yes.


Then go to single player and into the garage and select the setup/fuel load/skin etc that you want the AI to have, and press add AI driver.

You can then go back into the garage and alter setup and skin ready to add the next driver etc.



EDIT: ^^ Doh beaten by a whole 3 minutes!

Quote from Ziploc :

Really weird. After unpluggin and plugging back in (to reset it) and killing the wingman (which helps put alot of shortcuts on the wheel) the throttle hang and spontanious re calibration problems went away... wtf? figure that out.

Will have to try that then to solve part of my problem. I like having the buttons altered though... oh well!

Just wondering.... do you have two DFPs plugged in? Or maybe just 2 logitech wheels? I wondered if that might be related to the problem as I don't think it happend before I plugged in a second wheel for clutch pedal.

Great video! A very good advert for LFS too. After seeing that how could anyone not buy lfs!



Just wondering though... what's that thing flying up in the air in the background at 45 seconds? Looks like a bumper!

I don't think welding's absolutely necessary. My setup so far is made entirely out of wood that was already lying around in the garage as I don't have any welding gear. It doesn't look pretty but it is very useable You'll have a tougher job than me as you want swizzelyness, mine's just sat on the floor (the frame that is, not the seat from the car)! I'm sure you'll manage with what's around though

The extra switches sound like a good idea. I was tempted to use the switches and possibly steering wheel off the car I got the rest of my stuff from, but will be using it for something else shortly so had to resist! :bitehard3 It would be great to be able to find the right buttons when I wanted them though.

Buying a battered old car is probably great value for getting 'sim stuff' from. The Ford Sierra I mentioned earlier I got for £120 delivered, and the scrap man gave me £10 for it when I'd removed pretty much everything (I'm using most the other parts for something else). If you were just getting it for sim stuff though you could be less picky about the car you get and probably get something a lot cheaper or even free! I don't know how cheap old battered cars are in other parts of the world?

Things I'm using for LFS out of it:
The drivers seat.
The pedals.
A nice big spring from the boot, to be used for clutch pedal as it feels about right + cable from bonnet catch to go from pedal to spring.
Accelerator cable and throttle body, so my accelerator pedal will feel authentic The car had fuel injection, so I can use the throttle position sensor instead of having to try and find another pot.
Windscreen wiper motor - I'm going to try and use this to make a force feedback/pressure sensitive brake pedal. Don't know quite how well this is going to work though yet.
Could also have possibly used the steering wheel and switches if I didn't need them. I guess the force feedback would feel a bit muted through a big heavy wheel though.

Sounds like good value for all that, and I enjoyed ripping the car to bits



That triple monitor setup looks great Cue-Ball! Didn't know someone had actually managed to get that working.




PS I think that's the longest combination of consecutive sentences I've ever written