It is so good it is scary and it is not even finished yet!
I really doubt there will be any possibility to see it into LFS but hey.. we can still dream about it.
The computational resource could be intense if there are many vehicles moving around.

Quote from loopingz :

13 years later... I will borrow this script! Thanks!

Actually me too and it works nicely, even if I don't understand really why this is not already integrated into LFS instead of discover it randomly. Same thing about the directional lights, while I understand the script useful for complicated sequences or else and not really for basic keys or common behavious.

I really need to try this, both in LFS and in real life

Well, I actually checked and the first email with the friend I am still driving online with was sent on 13th September 2002 in which I was saying hey look, LFS is getting popular!
Happy 20th Anniversary LFS!
Thank you Scawen, Victor and Eric!

Well, congratulations!!!
This is highly unexpected but highly appreciated also.
Now it is up to you to deliver the best mod ever! No pressure!

Quote from rane_nbg :

Tnx Sawen for your work and progress report on gfx/physics. Might be worth thinking about some number for the gfx update rate which is an integer multiple of the refresh rate, like for example 120Hz. Would be beter for 60, 90, 120 and 240Hz screens. Then subupdates at 8×, giving 960Hz.
About optimizing environment checks, one approach that comes to my mind is to create at least 3 spacial zones around each important car propertiy. Each zone would have an increasing update rate checks, as the radius reduces. This way, one could save some CPU time, by avoiding unecessary checks that would not lead to collision.

I was thinking the same, but why not consider also 480Hz? It would be almost 5x better overall than now but 2x less CPU intensive than 1000Hz, besides the optimisations Scawen has to do anyway.

If, as Scawen says, the physics update rate can be changed now using a single variable, could it be possible to set this value based on the specific computer power? The more power the more updates, the less power the less updates, so everybody is happy.

Quote from Tomfuel :

please, give us a date .. we are turning mad

I totally understand the frustration, I could write the same post, but you have to stay strong!!
We waited a lot, we can wait more. The team is clearly working at full speed and I am fine just knowing that.
Silence, in this case, is good.
Don't let them "waste time" to update us, we already know what this is all about.
Updating is time consuming and it brings more questions from the people to be answered.
We will talk a LOT once it will be released.. it will be the biggest update ever!

Thank you Scawen, really, for this work. As a developer I understand the pain to rewrite che core system. But also I wonder how to test/compare it in 'real life'.. what a difficult job.

Are you planning to have more tyre compounds? Like the semi-slick for example. The new mod system welcomed many different cars but the tyres showed their limits. How strange to use a modern compound on a 1930 car. Modders tried their best to compromise, quite nicely too but always struggling, so having more compounds seems inevitable at this point.
I wonder if the new tyre physics is dependant to the tyre compounds or if you could add some after the new physics release.

Last edited by FIZ, Tue 31 May 2022, 18:09.

Please, someone at LFS hire this guy!

Quote from Scawen :

My plan is to get stuck into the tyre physics. The new tyre physics system is in the development version with the new D3D11 graphics system. So if I can get the tyre physics to a releasable state, then we'll be very close to releasing the graphical update (with the tyre physics). I can't give any time estimates but that is what I intend to focus on for now.

There are a lot of good suggestions for more improvements in the mods system, but it will be easier to develop such things in future when I only have one version of code to maintain.

The time has come!!!
We can happily wait months for this, you gave us a much better LFS we can play a lot with.
The new tire system would bring also variable wet/dirt/oil on tracks? Asphalt temperature changing? Vehicles with 5+ tires?

Quote from Scawen :

Email is a possible option, though we have learned recently that some people simply do not check their email at all regularly. Would an SMS notification help? As a separate option.

What about Telegram?
It is great for these kind of things.
Look at the Keepa bot on Telegram @keepa_bot
Once setup I can "follow" items on Amazon, then the bot alerts if there products notification.
It is very easy to use for the user, basically it is an alternative push system.

Quote from VladM :

I disagree with FIZ, compared to what you started with, this is a major improvement, and having a separate menu for the events calendar would prove the effort null. Only thing I'd change is the starts in "6 minutes" text should be red instead of green.

Don't worry, sometimes I disagree with FIZ too
I realized too late I was still in thinking process, then I saw the light

Ok, I know I arrived late to the party, but this is really intriguing.
I always found missing generic online information in the start page.
LFS is so "online" by many meanings, but that start page is too static.
I just sent a proposal, but changed my mind because I still think a dedicated page for the Upcoming Events like the mods one would be better: it would have a much wider page to show all the events info.
So, about the start page, just add a game button below "Multiplayer".

The home page will be empty again, wait no.
I would use kinda the same approach for this Upcoming Events approach, but, my professional UI approach is always the same: the home page is control panel of everything, it shows every-thing.

- The last official LFS NEWS
Some text/title + photo from the article,
(link the the LFS page)
- The last official LFS Tweet
The complete text
(link to the tweet)
- The last 3(?) forum thread opened/messages
(3 links, one row per thread)
- Twitch Event Live right now, otherwise the last stream
(pic title and link)
- The Next Event
(but only 1 event)
- Users online count? Mods count? Other things to count?
I don't really know, it would depend by how much space left. Could be nice or ugly.

This would be a quite complex interface, many different elements to be harmonized.
If I had a day I would provide a good example instead of the last one I posted earlier.

A more interactive, more complete, more true "start page" for LFS.

Last edited by FIZ, Tue 29 Mar 2022, 18:35.

Dear Scawen, I really do not like that button in the upper part, too unbalanced for me.
I am still undecided if it is better to have a dedicated "page", though.

It creates confusion, all buttons should be on the right part?
Or at least aligned more precisely vertically and horizontally.
The first 5 buttons (training singleplayer, multiplayer, hotlaps and options) are all strickly Game menù.
The other two buttons, separated by a bigger vertical margin, can be external links.
I would add also the "external link icon" beside the text to make it more clear and more standard.

My 2 cents:

Quote from Avraham Vandezwin :

Putting the LFS demo on Steam is using Steam to promote LFS. LFS needs visibility. Maybe that's a good thing? (how many licenses were sold with that?).
Forcing players to go through Steam to play LFS is something else. This would add huge constraints (40GB of total pollution, connection obligation, update problem, unwanted advertising...).

Using Steam is like giving the keys to your house to someone who can decide if you have the right to enter and if your house is still yours...

LFS is an off-the-shelf, off-system, indie game. This is also what makes it unique. Platforms like Steam are already the past. The future is the LFS marketing model: The short circuit. Direct from producer to consumer without unnecessary and costly harmful intermediary.

I agree 100% and wanted to add that Steam is not needed for a simulator racing enthusiast.
That "club" is well known, a person don't casually play a racing simulator game.
Every time you google, youtube, etc the words "racing simulators", Live For Speed is always at least present in the list.
Youtube is still the biggest advertiser for games: the reviewers are thousand, any new game is played by many, even live. Comparison videos have always many views.
In these comparison videos, LFS is really popular in racing simulators category: I've heard many people saying "yeah graphics sucks, there are so few cars and tracks etc, but that 'feeling' is unique and you must try it".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZEY2JvWJ4I

Dear Scawen, thanks to this post I discovered that a very short layout rallycross race exists!
As far as I love driving, I know very little about the racing real world.

Anyway I knew about Events, I knew about Twitter (following already) and Twitch broadcast (following already too).
I always felt a lack of rallycross tracks on LFS, especially nowadays having so many more cars available.

So, I will look more into it, definitely want to try the layouts at least and if I can a race for sure.

This is the video, it seems really fun indeed.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1431367089

LFS is having a "second youth", more people is coming but still we are a bunch of guys.
That number will surely increase by a huge factor when we will have the graphic update, I'd bet on it.
Having cars with real lights, the sky changing daylight and even more importantly the night races will be the best advertisment for LFS.
Updated physics and updated tracks will help a lot too.

So, my suggestion is: keep doing these kind of races, have patience, it will pay out in the long run.

In the meanwhile I expect better and better mods.

It would be great if the Calendar of Events will be integrated in LFS.
I always loved the LFS integration between the game and the web pages, but the average user just looks at the game.

Another thing is to integrate the "Car Setups" page ( https://www.lfs.net/files/setups ) like you did for the Mods.
(Of course, setups must be available also for mods, not only original cars.)

That page can be improved a lot.
The download icon is ugly and hidden, I just discovered I can "add to my collection", have my team setups, the rating system.. this is so good in theory but not advertised nor integrated into LFS.
Do it with the same philosophy for Mods and Car Setups will be a huge factor to help newbies and also 20ish years user like me.
In game, just under the car setups list, add a button which opens the online setups for this car+track combination.
Yeah, I hear your thought and I agree: too much to do already now.
But it will be really handy and important for the future.

TL;DR: please do the Physics and Graphic update asap, it will bring more people into LFS. Also, try to integrate the Events Calendar into LFS game.

Quote from Scawen :

OK everyone, I only really want to hear about bugs or issues now.

Issue: Need to click "Go" two times to play against AI and that text is ugly.
In Single mode, when playing against AI in a new "track+mod" combination, the path generation calculation is very ugly on screen overlaying everything, it is not really useful and so annoying because I just clicked GO and then I have to click again GO after the calculation.
I just wish the GO button to be clicked once and I'd remove the calculation texts as it seems debug mode.
I understand a popup to be clicked if there were an error during the path calculation, but if everything is fine I just want to race quickly as possible.

Bug: cannot quit LFS if I disconnect the G29.
If I disconnect/power off the wheel (since I plug it in only when I play) while still in game, I cannot quit the program anymore.
Windows 10, Logitech G29.
LFS do not freeze immediately, only when I quit it and is then stuck at the last exit/credits image, not responding anymore.
The first time it happened I could not correlate the issue to the fact I disconnected the wheel, as I did it minutes before exiting the game and no error is displayed.
Only fix is the old classic process terminating via Task Manager.
I got used to it so much I even forgot bout it, a minor yet annoying interface bug.
TL;DR: not really "plug & play" while in game.

Quote from Snoop.DriftEra :

Youtube already saved us from suffering by removing dislikes

Strong suggestion: add this extension to Chrome: Return YouTube Dislike.
https://chrome.google.com/webs ... fogifgggkldgodflihgfeippi

Works like a charm

Thank you for the update!

First of all: I love this mod, challenging but rewarding.

Thanks for the custom color update, much needed!
I hope skin template is coming as well


I noticed, when front height is 160, the suspension still works fine but you can see the graphical problems:


Maybe it is possible to limit the height in the setup?


I have read in the description of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VntjByD6pg4 that the car, using the same engine as this mod, has a 6-Speed sequential gearbox, not an H-pattern gearbox. While I love to deal with the H gearbox, I wonder if it is realistic!


The interior looks basic but I am confident could be improved


I noticed the windshield is a bit darker than how it should be, I really prefer it more clear and transparent as it is irl.
Actually I'd love to see a dirty texture on the windshield, because a super transparent windshield is not realistic too

But why

Quote from MandulAA :

Skin template generation works fine for all types here, a handy tool for skinning!

I know the thread isn't for suggestions, but since the optimization was a topic, I'd like to propose a one-click on-demand solution for deleting obsolete mod folders inside /mods. It could be a simple maintenance-like button for cleanup in a place like Options/Misc or whereever it fits. For obsolete mod folders I mean those, which have multiple versions downloaded (like ~004, ~005, ~006, ~008 with 008 being the newest and current, others obsolete). To be honest, I'm not someone who regularly visits servers like Just a Ride with lots of mods, but even I had 1,5 GB of accumulated cached mods in the folder, and I recently found myself selecting the older versions and deleting them manually to make up for some space (roughly half of them were obsolete versions).

This is absolutely something to be addressed, I had 2,5GB in my mods folder and surely now It would be even greater.
I don't really understand why keep the old versions of a mod, just overwrite it at any update.

It could be a user setting:
- keep all version of a mod;
- keep only the latest version;
- never keep anything (it always requires internet to use the mods).

I thank you all for the replies, but I have to explain better what happened, quickly:

- my friend told me about this amazing new mod.
- great! gonna use.. wait I cannot see it
- the duck? how?!?
- I swear on my tires, nowhere for me!!!
* follow hours of testing things, changing computers, browsers, etcetera, then this forum thread. *

The point is: if you do NOT know that a mod was privately shared with you, this could happen again.

In my opinion, having only "access: custom" inside the mod page is too few and could be a lot more visible in thousand of easy ways (just a page background color change, for istance) and possibly also in the game.

This is the only thing I can slightly complain about the great new mod system, everything is better and better after each update.

Quote from Evolution_R :

Because it's private / custom access - only specific users can use it, which are added by name by the author of the mod. Check the access status.

I posted just after your post.. thank you very much.

SO, "access = custom" means "Private maybe with others".

Dang.

I propose the term "Reserved", cause "Custom" was not an alarming word for me.

Anyway, in the game is there any way to understand if a car I see can be seen by everybody else?
My friend just thought I was crazy or there was some LFS bug we were ready to report, cause it was the first time it happened to us and maybe the same misunderstanding could happen to others.

Quote from ELDemon :

Glad to hear some interest in this car, still working on the mapping for skins and doing some texturing, not long before I consider public release.

You are lucky there are already very good mods, so I cannot be bored anytime soon, otherwise I would heavily stalk you to have that car asap

Tnx ELDemon, your work is very appreciated.