It's not supposed to be something you carry around, though. It's supposed to be like an external hard drive -- you hook it up when you're at home, thus giving you the same graphics performance as a desktop. I think it's a good idea!

Quote from james_bskt :

ha! i said to my mate last week they should make something like that, external bits for laptops such as graphics or RAM and he said i was being ridiculus. can you say which companies are working on it so i can back up my argument (and hopes)

Found it! ASUS has already released one such product, actually: Here's a link. Uses external PCI-E for connection.

Quote from word. :

Set the Logitech profiler to 720 degrees
Set LFS in game settings to 720 degrees
Set wheel turn compensation to 1.0


This will give you 1:1 matching for all the cars, but you will only get FFB stops at 720 degrees

This is what I use. Could someone tell me the main advantage of using less degrees of rotation? Does the wheel get significantly quicker/stronger, or do you just use it to make it easier to catch a spin and control the car?

Quote from Dajmin :

I reckon bare minimum based on my experiences...

1.5Ghz CPU / 512Mb RAM / 128Mb GeForce 5

That CPU would absolutely die with a full field of AIs on-screen though, and I suspect it wouldn't like a cockpit view of a full grid either.

Ranking CPUs in terms of GHz only doesn't really work any more though.. a 1,5 GHz Pentium M would be far better than a Pentium 4 running at the same frequency (just like a 3,2 GHz Pentium 4 would be absolutely owned by a 2,4 GHz Core2Duo even in applications using only one core)

About the GPUs for laptops: Several companies are working with ways of connecting external GPUs to a laptop. So that you'd have an integrated graphis solution in the PC itself, and then when you got back home you could hook it up to an external graphics solution (kind of like a portable hard drive). I don't know when it's coming out on the market, though, but I know they're working on it.

Quote from CasseBent :

This does bring up an important subject. Do conjoined triplets have to pay for separate licenses?

Can't believe I didn't spot this comment before. I just laughed hard!

Very nice going! Any chance of a picture of your controller equipment? Sounds amazing!

Nice! Creative touch. Although I can't imagine they'd be very good at conveying long-duration acceleration/decelleration, as the vest can't expand indefinitely.. more suitable for crashes and sudden moves, I'd suspect.

I always thought Westhill is the most bleak and uninteresting track. The layout itself is nice, but the surroundings could use some work I think. When showing off the game to friends I never choose that track.

But IMO aesthetics shouldn't be the priority.. other things should be (and most likely are) higher up on their list of priorities.

Quote from Töki (HUN) :

Hmmm that's why I won't buy this porsche wheel. OK it looks amazing, but it has problems such as the shifter and gas pedal... My MOMO is totally broken down, so I'm planning to buy a G25...even if Porsche is newer

Talk about jumping to conclusions.. remember, these are test units. I'm assuming the reason why Fanatec do this test session is to pinpoint and fix problems and issues. Plus, people are just getting their wheels.. it will take some time to get feedback from many enough people to make conclusions!

Quote from HVS5b :

Cracking piece of kit, but disappointed it hasn't lasted more than 3 months before the left hand (downshift) paddle has stopped working
:evil:

There's your punishment for not using the H-shifter like real men. And now you have no choice!

I'm not sure, but it might be possible to find some laptops with GeForce Go 7600 or ATI Radeon X1600 that would fit in your budget. (There might be some old models on the market that have these GPUs) I believe they are quite similar in performance as my GeForce Go 6800. With my laptop (17" 1440x900, 1 GB ram, 1,86GHz Pentium M) I get the following, with the high-res pack installed:

• 60 FPS offline, 8X AA and 16X AF
  
• 40-50 FPS online with up to 15 cars in view, 4X AA and 4X AF. This is what I use most of the time for up to 15 cars in a grid.
  
• Down to 20 FPS with more than 20 cars in view (for example starting from back of the grid on full CTRA 1 server), 4X AA and 4X AF
  
• 30-40 FPS with more than 20 cars in view, 2X AA and 2X AF.
  

In other words, more than decent.

If you're experiencing similar problems in other games as well you could re-format the whole thing and start from scratch. That should bring your PC back to how it was when it was new.

Quote from The Moose :

I just watched the replay with the wheel in view and the steering wheel movement is ridiculous. I think that's because i only have a 270 degree wheel. The tiniest movement on my wheel is exaggerated hugely on the in game wheel.

You have a MOMO then perhaps? I was certain you'd have a more high end wheel, considering your impressive CTRA stats. Well, kudos to you then.

And Troy is indeed very fast.. I got a XRT setup from him, and that helped me improve a lot. Can't wait to gain access to the Silver server and drive the XRT again.

You should definitely overclock that processor. Most guys manage to get 50% higher frequencies even with the stock fan! By the way I'm playing on a laptop, and it works just fine. Even with all settings maxed (including AA and AF) I still get > 30 FPS in the start of a race, and 60 FPS when there aren't many other cars around (that's when I've taken the lead :razz I have a GeForce Go 6800 on a 17" display.

Quote from frokki :

Bathurst would be my choice.

Mine too. Absolutely loved it in TOCA3.

But I don't think it would be necessary to implement real life tracks. I imagine it would require so much work and be so expensive that it would squeeze out other projects. But a hilly, narrow fictional track similar to Bathurst would be awesome!

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Ah, that's a shame.

I guess if you get up in the middle of the night to play it shouldn't be a problem (provided you don't lag, that is). No harm in asking them, is there?

Good idea. Then all racers would compete on equal premises, and the most skillful driver would be the one to win.

Quote from W1ldPort75 :

I also have the same problem , but my game only stutters if someone joins the race or server . Tried doing all those things with vsync and what not , but it still the same . I also tried different resolutions at 60hz-85hz but no change . The thing is i never had probs with LFS until patch Y , but oh well , nothing is perfect

I'm assuming you've played around with the skin downloading settings too, then. That's the only thing I can think of.

What about heel&toe? Has anyone used that IRL? I don't think it would work in stock cars for me, as I have huge feet and just barely manage to juggle them in place for normal driving.

When I started playing LFS I asked around to figure out which car I should start with. Someone recommended the XRT, so that's where I started. It took a lot of effort to get reasonably comfortably with it, but since then, most other cars that I've tried are a breeze in comparison. I think it's true that if you master the XRT you can handle anything. I agree 100% that the RWD cars are much more fun.

I don't know why that happened, but my only suggestion would be to try downloading this little applet and re-configure the Pitspotter settings from there.

Hi!

I thought heel&toe was nearly impossible with the G25 pedals. But then I came across this thread, which describes a very cheap, easy and reversible (if you should regret it) mod which makes it MUCH easier. It's definitely worth checking. I've done it myself, so if you have any questions just ask. (I also posted a picture in there somewhere so you can see what it looks like)

It's still not a very easy technique, but once you get reasonably comfortable doing it, it adds lots to your LFS experience. Just makes it feel even more real.

It sure looks amazing! What kind of price range are we talking about here? Couldn't find that in the FAQ on your website.

Quote from pine-fin :

hrr.. only 20% ffb? The more ffb I use (always 100%), the easier it is to drive, but thats just my style.

If you set the FFB very high, the wheel will give maximum resistance too early, so that anything beyond that will feel exactly the same (=maximum force). I, and others, think it's easier to "feel" what the car is doing with a lower FFB setting because it means that the force will not feel the same always. But I guess it all comes down to personal opinions.

Hi!

Background:
I got this idea when seeing people with second grade hardware complaining about low framerates in the beginning of races with large grids. I've noticed that as the race progresses and there are fewer cars in your immediate vicinity, the framerates go up. Take me as an example: if I maximize AA and AF, everything runs smooth with only a few cars around me (which is how it is for most of the duration of a race), but my framerates are so low in the beginning of the race that I'm forced to play with "only" 2x AA and 4x AF for the duration of the race. In my case it isn't that much of an issue since the game still looks great with my race settings, but I'd imagine it could be a problem for people who have to disable AA and AF alltogether in order to get decent FPS in the beginning of a race.

Suggestion:
What I'm wondering is if it would be possible to implement a feature that automatically changes graphics settings in the game to keep frame rates above a user defined minimum as the race progresses. So that in the beginning when the whole grid is in frame AA and AF and stuff would be turned down, but then as the race progresses these things would be turned on again to make the graphics better? Would that be at all possible? I imagine it would be hard to seamlessly integrate it so that the view doesn't stutter as the settings get changed, but perhaps this can be overcome by some clever design?

I had a look through the forum and didn't see this mentioned elsewhere, so I figured I'd start a new thread.