So where do I get the badge??
No not all RAP and Hip-Hop is rubbish. Just very little of it is much good IMO. The earlier stuff (from the early 80's) was far better than the modern stuff. At least back in those days it was more original and actually there were quite a few real musicians involved in producing it.
Ultimately though for me the issue is the very raison d'etre of rap and hip hop ie the vocals. It's not singing, isn't intended to be and so never will be. I just can't get around to calling anything that has no melody, (even in the vocals), music, and that's comming from a drummer !
RnB is the only other genre of music that I just can't see any value in.
Other than that I can find good music in a very broad spectrum of music:
Rock, Blues, R&B, Metal (of all sorts), Jazz, Clasical, Samba, Salsa, (and various other Latin styles), Jazz Funk, Funk, Soul, Reggae, Calypso, Ska, Flamenco, Fado, HighLife and others.
Edited to add:
As for RAP being poetry or having it's roots in poetry. Well I guess that opinion would very much depend on your definition of poetry. I've heard a lot of RAP over the years, (I'm old enough to have been around when it started), and there is one thing I can say for sure. If RAP is poetry, it sure isn't Shakespeare, Cummings, Auden, Tennyson or Poe.
No not all RAP and Hip-Hop is rubbish. Just very little of it is much good IMO. The earlier stuff (from the early 80's) was far better than the modern stuff. At least back in those days it was more original and actually there were quite a few real musicians involved in producing it.
Ultimately though for me the issue is the very raison d'etre of rap and hip hop ie the vocals. It's not singing, isn't intended to be and so never will be. I just can't get around to calling anything that has no melody, (even in the vocals), music, and that's comming from a drummer !
RnB is the only other genre of music that I just can't see any value in.
Other than that I can find good music in a very broad spectrum of music:
Rock, Blues, R&B, Metal (of all sorts), Jazz, Clasical, Samba, Salsa, (and various other Latin styles), Jazz Funk, Funk, Soul, Reggae, Calypso, Ska, Flamenco, Fado, HighLife and others.
Edited to add:
As for RAP being poetry or having it's roots in poetry. Well I guess that opinion would very much depend on your definition of poetry. I've heard a lot of RAP over the years, (I'm old enough to have been around when it started), and there is one thing I can say for sure. If RAP is poetry, it sure isn't Shakespeare, Cummings, Auden, Tennyson or Poe.
Last edited by gezmoor, .
Well considering that the XFG is as fast or very close to the XRG on nearly every LFS circuit despite giving away 10bhp I'd put my money on the XFG.
But that's irrelevant anyway as LFS isn't actually accurate enough to be used as conclusive proof.
As I stated, I'm perfectly aware of the technical issues of FWD, I'm just stating that in modern cars it's not nearly as much of a handicap as it was back in the 80's or 90's even (back in the days put a 150bhp engine in a FWD car and it would track all over the place, these days it's perfectly possible to have 240bhp or more and have no problems). Just because a car is RWD it is NOT guarenteed to perform better than a FWD car in the real world. Every car design principle has it's advantages and disadvantages, how an individual car will perform is down to how those pro's and con's have been addressed and to a large extent how much money was put in to the design and development.
The other way to look at it is that you only need the oversteer of a RWD car because you went in too deep/hard and can't make the corner without sliding the rear. In other words RWDs are good for those who can't really get corner entry right in the first place
Apart from torque steer, I don't see any real inherent issues with FWD cars. There is nothing inherent in RWD that actually makes such a car better handling or faster around a track, (all other things being equal), and they're only "more fun" if you get a kick out of hanging the tail out, (which is an inherently slow way to drive anyway).
oh yeah? what's a "proper" race car?
If it doesn't excite you, don't drive it. Simple really.
Relative to what??
It's a road car, what do you expect it to weigh? It's actually completely average for a hatchback type car.
Anyway, people put too much stock on absolute weight. I recall a video of a track comparison between a 350Z, M3, S2000 and Boxter and the two fastest cars (over several laps) were the 350Z and M3 both of which outweigh the S2000 and Boxter by over 200kg. The only one of the cars to suffer any real issues was the M3 which basically just had too much power and didn't corner all that well compared to the others, (especially the S2000 which was all over it in the corners).
In a word. Yes.
LFS is mean't to be a driving simulator. IF the car is supposed to be a road car it should come with a fixed road car set up. The fact that the car is fictional is irrelevant in my mind.
Of course the "race" versions should have adjustable settings, but even then only such things as would be readily adjustable on a car with a race suspension system and to the same levels of adjustability.
IMO none of the cars in LFS should have what is effectively infinite adjustability in any of the set up options.
Then the only decision that needs to be made when a new tin top car is introduced is whether it's a road car or a race going version of a road car.
LFS is mean't to be a driving simulator. IF the car is supposed to be a road car it should come with a fixed road car set up. The fact that the car is fictional is irrelevant in my mind.
Of course the "race" versions should have adjustable settings, but even then only such things as would be readily adjustable on a car with a race suspension system and to the same levels of adjustability.
IMO none of the cars in LFS should have what is effectively infinite adjustability in any of the set up options.
Then the only decision that needs to be made when a new tin top car is introduced is whether it's a road car or a race going version of a road car.
I despair of some of the people around here really I do. 
It seems to me all a lot of people want is a car that drives like they want it to, and the name/bodyshell is the only thing that is different. People asking for the Scirocco to be oversteering in nature for example. I just don't get it. Which part of this is a simulator don't you lot get??? It'll handle like it's supposed to, not how YOU want it too !! That's what a simulator is all about !!
Scawen,
Thank you for giving us the heads up. I for one would much rather that the car was right and the release was bug free. I'm also extremely pleased that an extra effort is going in to making the Scirocco as realistic as possible by taking away all the setup options that would effectively make it handle in a way that just wouldn't be possible in the real thing.
It seems to me all a lot of people want is a car that drives like they want it to, and the name/bodyshell is the only thing that is different. People asking for the Scirocco to be oversteering in nature for example. I just don't get it. Which part of this is a simulator don't you lot get??? It'll handle like it's supposed to, not how YOU want it too !! That's what a simulator is all about !!
Scawen,
Thank you for giving us the heads up. I for one would much rather that the car was right and the release was bug free. I'm also extremely pleased that an extra effort is going in to making the Scirocco as realistic as possible by taking away all the setup options that would effectively make it handle in a way that just wouldn't be possible in the real thing.
Looks to me that those starting in the outside position have an advantage.
Race of Champions
Anyone see it?
What do people think of the whole concept/format?
What do people think of the whole concept/format?
What would you rather?
a) A cheaper race series that doesn't fit in with your personal opinion about what constitutes "exciting" racing.
or
b) No race series at all?
Motor racing doesn't exist in a vacuum, it's part of the world we live in. Unless you haven't got out of bed and opened your curtains for the last 6 months I can't believe anyone really thinks that what's happening in motorsport is of any consequence what-so-ever when thousands of average people with no savings to their name are loosing their jobs and potentially their homes too.
So to put it bluntly I couldn't care less about WRC or F1 rule changes brought about by the current economic crisis.
a) A cheaper race series that doesn't fit in with your personal opinion about what constitutes "exciting" racing.
or
b) No race series at all?
Motor racing doesn't exist in a vacuum, it's part of the world we live in. Unless you haven't got out of bed and opened your curtains for the last 6 months I can't believe anyone really thinks that what's happening in motorsport is of any consequence what-so-ever when thousands of average people with no savings to their name are loosing their jobs and potentially their homes too.
So to put it bluntly I couldn't care less about WRC or F1 rule changes brought about by the current economic crisis.
Definitely. More cars to drive and more tracks but more importantly (IMO) access to a far better quality of clean races on licenced servers.
Exactly. It's practically unheard of for suspension units to be infinitely adjustable. At least for cars anyway. It's relatively common for production sports bikes to have continuosly adjustable rebound/compression damping. But even they have limited preload/ride height options.
I think ultimately LFS is going to have to move towards suspension options, (rather than infinitely adjustable everything), much as it does now for tyres.
For example you pick a damper, (eg koni etc) and your spring, (eg eibach etc). The units you pick will have set options such as preset no of rebound/compression damping values; fixed spring-rate & length etc
Then it's up to the user to find the combo that works best for the car concerned, the circuit and their driving style etc.
That's what I'd like to see anyway.
Yes I am fully aware of that. However the Scirocco in LFS is supposed to be a stock production car. As stock none of these things would be options.
Anyway all of your cheap suspension options will be pretty unadjustable, just have different settings from the OEM units. You only start getting the option of adjustable settings on suspension with more expensive coil-over options, (ususally starting from around £6-700 for the likes of Koni units and going well over £1000 for well spec'd Bilstein etc)
As I said, if there was a GT version of the Scirocco in LFS then it would make sense to have adjustable suspention settings as such a car would almost certainly be fitted with fully adjustable "race" suspension.
PS - camber/toe settings are often adjustable at the front on cars such as the Scirocco but very often they are fixed at the back. The only way to adjust them is to fit camber shims.
My opinion exactly. WiMo is just too complex, it's Microsoft trying to push the market in the direction of software dev that suits them so they can make a mint in a market where they had next to no share previously.
Personally I'm dreading the day when I am forced in to buying a device with a big fat bloated complex OS on it, (with all the associated instability/speed issues), in order just to be able to contact people when I'm out and about.
That would be their problem. The point of this sim is to recreate realistic driving under race conditions. That in itself should be all the fun people need, if it isn't then I would respectfully suggest they should be looking elsewhere for their "fun".
Best leave that for a different thread really.
Maybe I should have said first "production road car". I don't know much about the RaceAbout apart from the fact it's from a small speciallist manufacturer but the other cars you mention are all "race" cars and so a considerable amount of flexibility in the set up of gearing, camber, damping, springing etc is to be expected. A production road car comes with fixed settings. There is no option to change any of these things on my SEAT Leon for example. If there were a Touring Car version of the Scirroco included in the game then that would be different. I would expect more flexibility of set up, but in a road car I expect next to none.
Wrong way around. The new Leon has been out a couple of years now, so it predates the Scirocco by some way.
I haven't read the whole thread so appologies if this has already been posted.
Firstly, thanks for the new car, looks really nice.
My question is this though. Given that this is the first "real" car in LFS how will the sets work with this car? I would hope that they are essentially fixed and have no adjustments past things like TC on/off, tyre pressures/choices and amount of fuel. I really think going through all the time and trouble to code physics of this car with its stability system, TC, etc would be a complete waste if someone can come along and change it's handling to something completely impossible for the real world car.
So I'm hoping that there will be little to no adjustability in the set up of this car. ie no gearing changes, no steering changes, no camber changes, no ride height changes etc. Sure that'll probably mean that the cars handling won't suit everybodies driving style but IMO if LFS wants to really present itself as a realistic driving sim these things have to be exactly like on the real car with no option for changing them except in ways that would be possible on a production road car (ie practically none).
Firstly, thanks for the new car, looks really nice.
My question is this though. Given that this is the first "real" car in LFS how will the sets work with this car? I would hope that they are essentially fixed and have no adjustments past things like TC on/off, tyre pressures/choices and amount of fuel. I really think going through all the time and trouble to code physics of this car with its stability system, TC, etc would be a complete waste if someone can come along and change it's handling to something completely impossible for the real world car.
So I'm hoping that there will be little to no adjustability in the set up of this car. ie no gearing changes, no steering changes, no camber changes, no ride height changes etc. Sure that'll probably mean that the cars handling won't suit everybodies driving style but IMO if LFS wants to really present itself as a realistic driving sim these things have to be exactly like on the real car with no option for changing them except in ways that would be possible on a production road car (ie practically none).
I have never owned an Omnia but someone I know did. I was thinking of getting one until I had a go on a live one. After that I changed my mind because:
a) We couldn't work out how to make the "iPod looking" menu page be the default homepage. The adverts seem to give the impression that it can be but we spent a good 20 minutes trying to find the config to allow it but it isn't there. This would have been a selling point for me so that was one nail in it's coffin.
b) That stylus thing is unfortunately pretty much essential to use the phone in practice. Given that it's on a stupid laynard separate from the phone that was another nail.
c) I was hoping it wouldn't be neccessary to get involved with any of the WiMo parts of the phone in everyday use, (maybe for just initial config), but just playing with the phone for an hour or two you quickly realise there just isn't any getting away from the horrible WiMo interface and all it's fiddly little Microsoft foibles, such as insisting on thinking you must have mistyped when using predictive texting and presenting you with word options that have letters in you never even typed instead of the option to spell a new word which is what every other phone in the world does. Or insisting you put the contact in first when writing a text rather than letting you write the text first and then enter whom you want to send it to like every other phone on the planet does ! Not being able to keep your "phone book" separate, (and integrated with the phone function), from your contacts list, (which is full of other junk eg work contacts). It's little things like this that drive me up the wall about WiMo devices. It's the usual Microsoft knows better than you what you want to do that I really hate about WiMo devices.
I want a phone not a portable PC, that's what PDAs are for !!
If you need connectivity have you considered a Symbian device?
The Nokia E51 gets good reviews, (it's what I really wanted for work but we weren't allowed anything but WiMo).
http://mea.nokia.com/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_503142
Last edited by gezmoor, .
There is only one question that needs to be asked when thinking about getting a phone.
Do you need it for work? Does it need to be able to sync with your work exchange server and let you know when you've got meetings or if you have recieved a new email as soon as it arrives??
If the answer is no to the above, do not under any circumstances get a Windows Mobile device !!!! I can't stress that enough. WiMo is utter crap !! (unless of course you like all the junk/issues associated with running a microsoft OS on your phone). I don't know about you but I want a phone that is small, light, has long battery life, (and no I don't consider 3-5 days a long life), can send and receive texts and is simple to navigate and use those functions and that's it and I can tell you now none of the Windows Mobile devices fit that bill. They are all, bar none, a windows OS first and a phone a very distant second, (and yes I include so called smartphones) , no matter how hard the likes of Samsung try to cover up the fact its WiMo underneath.
If you must have other junk like a camera, music player etc on your phone, (though heaven knows why they're all nothing more than gimmics), then there are plenty of models from the likes of Nokia, SonyEricsson etc to choose from. The iPhone looks alright, but I'd only get one if I really had to have an iPod, (which I already have so it would be pointless for me), as they are actually quite bulky/heavy phones with not very good battery life. Although I must admit I do really like the interface so it has to be the size it is I guess.
Do you need it for work? Does it need to be able to sync with your work exchange server and let you know when you've got meetings or if you have recieved a new email as soon as it arrives??
If the answer is no to the above, do not under any circumstances get a Windows Mobile device !!!! I can't stress that enough. WiMo is utter crap !! (unless of course you like all the junk/issues associated with running a microsoft OS on your phone). I don't know about you but I want a phone that is small, light, has long battery life, (and no I don't consider 3-5 days a long life), can send and receive texts and is simple to navigate and use those functions and that's it and I can tell you now none of the Windows Mobile devices fit that bill. They are all, bar none, a windows OS first and a phone a very distant second, (and yes I include so called smartphones) , no matter how hard the likes of Samsung try to cover up the fact its WiMo underneath.
If you must have other junk like a camera, music player etc on your phone, (though heaven knows why they're all nothing more than gimmics), then there are plenty of models from the likes of Nokia, SonyEricsson etc to choose from. The iPhone looks alright, but I'd only get one if I really had to have an iPod, (which I already have so it would be pointless for me), as they are actually quite bulky/heavy phones with not very good battery life. Although I must admit I do really like the interface so it has to be the size it is I guess.
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