now we have a lap number display which display the current lap you are on as well as the total laps of the race, on the upper-right corner of the screen.

i think an alternative 'laps-remaining' display format which displays the number of remaining laps of the race would be handy, because iirc currently you dont know what lap the race leader is on thus cannot tell when the race is actually going to end.

so you are thinking about an online career mode of which the purpose is to make the online races more competitive? imo it could be an interesting system for a certain league, altho you dont really need a system that complex (and requires a lot of changes to LFS itself) to produce great racing. to do that a much simpler licence system like the STCC is probably enough.

i think LFS itself should remain a platform, which offers the environment with unlimited possibilities but no specific system for things other than physics and basic motor racing rules. so i dont think a complex system you described should be implemented into LFS

now that the lap times in latest test patches are color-coded, maybe the same thing can be done to gap times

and how about coloring the split times (on the upper right corner of the screen) according to your last lap split times too?

Quote from ColeusRattus :

Well, I did search, but if it was brought up already, throw stones at me.

I would find it very convenient if any of the sliders would also have a inout field where I could type in the desired values. Would help a lot to reduce clicks

Also, it would be quite convenient to set the wheel and body colors via numerical RGB values...

i think you right click on the slider then an input box pops out?

don't know about RGB input box tho.

Quote from anttt69 :

yeah right, what a load of aunt fanny's frilly knickers ants:, where did you read this?, La La land

i am sorry for my English if i worded my sentence wrong. i was just trying to say i remembered the delay of gearshift is a possible problem that had been brought up before. i was not being negative or anything, i also think an animation would be cool. i don't know if i offended anyone in my earlier post, but sorry if i did.

of course this has been suggested, and i think i read something about it not being feasible because of the delay of gearshift (the animation needs time to complete and you have to shift earlier so that the driver in the game shifts at the right time)

Quote from Gentlefoot :

Tell you what else would improve the replay functinality. I recently got my own server so I spend a lot more time just watching and making sure there is no nonsense.

Now I often sit back on the sofa, have a smoke and watch the action on my new 22" widescreen monitor. I always like to spectate in in-car view as you can really see how the driver is doing.

Problem is this. I have to keep getting up to hit [TAB] to switch cars when the one I was following is on their own and there is nothing to watch. I check the mini map, find to cars closest on track and watch the one behind so I can see all the action.

My suggestion is this. Why not create and additional replay option called maybe "follow action". This would encapsulate the same logic I use when I decide which car to follow. The logic would be like this.

For each car in the race find the gap to the car in front.

Follow car with smallest gap to car in front.

since gaps are always changing, an automated camera can get quite jumpy, constantly switching focus and moving etc., but i guess a more complex logic will be able to do the job

how about a (preferably clickable) 'cars on track list' similar to the position list we have now in a race. this list will order the cars according to their locations on the track (maybe relative to the finishline) and have some kind of visual hint for car clusters, maybe even flags too. so with this list you can always see where the actions and dangers are, and then just simply click on the car you wanna watch.

or, a completely interactive (bigger) map when you are spectating, with player names etc. it will be even easier to survey the track.

by the way i think with current InSim you can already have the camera follow the actions on track, if the camera control logic is well defined of course

Last edited by icyocean, Sat 12 May 2007, 09:07. Reason : typo

i don't think there are arrows in the connection list.

a 'cars on the track' list with an arrow showing the currently viewed car in qualify would be good

i wonder if it is possible to have a 'complete' server relay tool for pure spectators. i mean something which connects to a certain server, possibly as a normal client, and at the same time functions as a connectable server for LFS clients as well. it will connect and get all the data a normal (spectating) LFS client gets from the server and then as an indepentent server it will dispatch the data to its own clients. obviously spectators on this relay server will not be able to join the race but they can watch it using LFS with all the physics and skins etc.. and maybe a relay server can connect to another relay server so a chain can be established to provide a lot of bandwidth for pure spectators.

i do not know what kind of server-client protocol LFS uses. if all clients get the same (complete) race data all the time then (i guess) maybe this would actually work

watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDfNZYNb66s&NR=1
i noticed the wind noise changes when the car start to slide (is the guy driving with open windows?). maybe this can be put into LFS too?

Last edited by icyocean, Mon 23 Apr 2007, 08:02.

imho it'd be a good idea to have dynamic volume for engine sounds, like low rev = low volume and high rev = high volume. and when the volume is already at its maximum maybe the volume of other sounds can be dynamically lowered so relative loudness is changing.

also a higher maximum wind volume would be nice, with more significant volume change when driving in slipstreams.

The sounds of LFS since patch V is drastically better than before, thank you DaveWS

But does anyone think the off power volume now is too high? I mean shouldn't the engine be much more silent when no throttle is applied? I see 'increase throttle off volume' in the list of changes earlier and I wonder if there is a reason for this particular change (I kinda think it should be decreased instead but maybe it's just me :shrug

+1 for concurrent pit crew actions as a server option set by admins

it'd be nice if the camera rotation angle as well as its FOV is customizable for the look-left and look-right views. for example it'd be nice to set the angle and FOV so that the camera looks into the side mirrors while still being able to see forward. imho ideally the left and right look view should be views just like external view but rather than cycled through they are toggled by a key press

+100 for unicode and more language support

+1

and what about a list of car positions on the track, alongside the list of race positions which we have right now. in a long race there are cars all over the track and not in race position order, it may be a bit difficult to know whose car you are following etc, so a list of car positions on the track would be handy. it's possible to do this through insim now, but it'd be better if lfs has this feature built in.

is it possible to allow race admin control the grid order before a race starts, maybe through insim? for example a flag can be set by the admin to disable player joining etc. and then appoint grid position to each player.

ideally a race admin can do this through a insim tool, as well as in the race setup screen.

imho this would open up possibilities for custom grid arrangements (for example in league races which consist of more than one starts). so it'd be good to see it implemented, if it's not too much trouble.

imo basically lfs needs a lot more details to make it look really realistic, (for example look at NKP, the difference is huge), hopefully we'll see them in s2 final.

+1 for better shadows

and what about in-car shadows? on a sunny day there should be distinct shadows in the car too.

IMHO only simple and fixed formulas can be automated. All sorts of things happen during a race in RL and there is no simple fixed formula for all these situations so race stewards are needed to make a decision. In online gaming things are even more unpredictable thus you can never hope to effectively organize an online race without human stewards. Maybe the more feasible way to implement race rules like flags is opening up more possibilities and providing more useful info to help the human race stewards do their thing. Of course this is only my opinion.

Quote from XCNuse :

doppler effect

it has it, and its powerfull, but its not right at all, when you hear a car go by (commute cars) really all you hear is wind displacement, in LFS you mainly hear engines

in race cars you hear a loud sound of the engine, and as it goes by you hear a VERY loud sound of deep exhaust, LFS can't seem to create that loud deep sound race cars make without having serious clipping

Is doppler effect mainly about the frequency of the sounds, not about the volume of them? I can hear the frequency change between an approaching car and a leaving one, but without the proper volume change.

Another thing I noticed is that in TV mode in LFS, an approaching car sounds (IMO) kinda a bit too loud and a departing car sounds too quiet. In race videos a (close) racecar sounds kinda like a jetflight: as it comes towards the camera it sounds quite calm, something more like an echo from the surroundings; but as it turns and starts to pull away with its exhaust pipe now pointing towards the camera, it suddenly sounds really loud. I did not hear this in LFS, maybe in LFS the sounds are not yet directional?

Quote from Davo :

The engine is still turning if in gear so you can still hear it. Blipping the throttle opens the butterfly and makes the engine louder. This is what you're hearing. Press the clutch in and the engine will die when the revs drop

yes the engine parts are moving, but there should be no ignition, so IMO there should be maybe a very indistinct hum quite different from what's heard when the engine is actually working, if anything at all.

And the throttle makes the engine louder even when it is swithed off? I don't know, but in LFS the blip sounds exactly like when the engine is on and I doubt that is correct.

Anyway what about the engine volume? I think since there are much more explosions, the volume should increase quite significantly as the RPM goes up. Currently in LFS only the frequency of the sound is increasing.

Sometimes simply increasing the volume is not feasible esp. for those with earphones, maybe LFS can dynamically lower the volume of other sounds so relative loudness is changed.

hi!
I have had an impression from RL videos that a engine sounds much louder when its rev is higher, not just the pitch is higher but the volume also (I wonder if that's true or just my hearing). So if this is truly the case then maybe we should have that in LFS too, cuz right now the volume of the engine sound is kinda constant at any rpm (again this could just be my hearing ).

By the way when I was driving in LFS and switch off the engine, I can still hea
r it running, and if I downshift then I can hear the blip of the throttle. Is this supposed to be? Cuz I thought when the engine is off you are not supposed to hear anything from it.

hi!
It would be very nice if a race adm can set the grid order, especially in league races. For example before the race starts in the race setup screen a flag can be set to temporarily disable player joining and the race adm can assign grid order for each player, possibly through a set of insim commands.

Hopefully this won't be very difficult to do.

Last edited by icyocean, Tue 3 Apr 2007, 06:23.