I've seen this thread countless times before....

Sure. Why not?

*Pass the Kool-Aid.

After a few weeks I was able to reach 1:35s and after that the road to 1:34s was long, very long. Still haven't hit 1:33s yet. 3 hundredths more to achieve that.

...to my point. I had to learn to chill out. Learn the lines I 'need' to take and drive them by instinct. I find when I am forcing speed, the less speed I receive.

Another thing. If you don't know how to tune a setup very well, DON"T MAKE ADJUSTMENTS!! Go to http://setupgrid.net, find a set. Doesn't have to be the 'World Record Set' or whatever. Get a good solid setup and drive it. Don't change it for the love of god!!! Don't constantly ask for new sets, etc.... This can and most the time does disrupt your progress you have made so far and leave you feeling disappointed. I have killed lap times by putting too much faith in a setup and not enough in me. This is a hard thing to overcome. I still fall victim to Setup Lust frequently....

Lastly. Go to practice mode or better yet start a server host so your laps can be recorded on LFSworld. Put 15 or 20 percent fuel in the car and drive the track a few times slow and work on driving your line. Observe the track. Drive it fast. Slow and Observe. Fast. Slow Observer. Fast. Rinse. Repeat....

Hope this helps.

Last edited by jbirdaspec, Wed 19 Nov 2008, 17:08. Reason : Grammer Mistake.

I would like to hear some ideas thrown around about what we as LFS Community members can do to spark some more participation and enrolling new members to LFS.

I'll start:

In the Americas it seems to be mostly demo servers during prime time and while demo is great there seems to be not a lot of s1 and s2 races going on. I'm looking at getting a N. American server for ping attraction and keeping an admin around. Won't be a problem seeing as though I and a close racing buddy and I are one just about every night. FBM is a good class and seeing as how there are so many demo servers using this class on BL1 a step to other tracks would be nice change for some. I think there are a lot of drivers in the Americas that have S2, but end up in Demo for lack of S2 races going on. I also think there is a whole market of N. Americans that know nothing of LFS. Due the changing USD, LFS S2 is $15 dollars less then it was 10 or 11 months ago when I purchased it.

If anybody has experience with this or failed attempts or know of failed attempts I would like to know the details.

Jay

Quote from banshee56 :

US servers not available anymore....

Thats is a disappointment.... I had just convinced the wife to let me do it to. How is the performance on UK servers from in the states? I'm working on getting a server established for N./S. Americas. Having a low ping on the server browser is high on my list. Along with a simple racing configuration and an admin available during peak times. I'm wanting to provide a solution for our time zone as demo servers becomes all there is during our peak hours and that just gets annoying.

Franky,

I just went to the site to order a U.S. server, but it isn't an option. I also can't get most all of the order page to load in IE7, but it does work in FireFox and Chrome. I wanted to see the list of options i could use too, but that page won't load either. Can you help me out?

Jay Odom

* Edit: I tried again with IE7 and I could load the page, but I can't select United States.

Last edited by jbirdaspec, Mon 17 Nov 2008, 06:17. Reason : New Information

Quote from chavm481 :

how can we get out license revoked and go back to demo?

I know a few guys that would take it off your hands if you don't need it.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

What works best, I find, is playing with the brake force, so that when you're braking, on a flat road (I actually use the corner in question on blackwood, the harpin on FE forward, and the harpin on SO forward to test this), is making the brake force so that under braking, having a manual pedal clutch, I use engine braking alot, so I can apply maximum pedal pressure and be at the very limit of locking the wheels, so I can really concentrate on braking without having to worry about the wheels locking up.

I agree that optimizing your force will help with wheel lock and over/understeer . At the same time though with changing tire temps and wear the tires are never the same from one corning to another. I prefer to have brakes that will lock, not to the extreme of course, but still lock so you always adjust to situation and still have maximum braking ability. If you can't lock the brakes very much, you can stop to the full potential of the tires at the moment it counts. Since I clutch with my left, i blip with my right side of my right foot or towards the heal of my right foot depending on what flows well for that corner. I like blipping to help prevent wheel lock because the jar of the transmission engaging is lessened. Plus correctly done helps the cars attitude to remain true and driver initiated. I found i could make a RWD car looser in the backend resulting in better flow into corners because I didn't have to fight as much on turn in while blipping the throttle. Just my 2 cents and this is part of my driving style that might not fit another driver.

Quote from Zen321 :

That is exactly what I feel. I just can't get BL1 right, while I have much less problems with BL1R. My main problem in this track is the right hander after the long-straight. Usually my car get a snap oversteer, and understeer badly there. However, I am quite happy with my times on BL1R ^^

If you don't do this already...Try blipping the throttle with down shifts when braking for the corner. Try and match the revs of the engine when the clutch engages. Don't be in a hurry to down shift the car. In a timely manner, but smooth. This will keep you front wheel from locking when braking or/and trail braking. If the front wheels don't lock or skip as much you will have less understeer. As for the oversteer try rocking the wheel to maintain grip and be on the throttle as much as possible without running the front end out to the sand. Keep the chassis loaded with torque from the engine as often as possible, but with out grinding them. If this is something you do already you might try tuning the dampers a bit with VHPA. Don't go to far with tuning sets though.

GOOD LUCK!\\
Jay

Quote from master_lfs.5101 :

256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS - For Core 2 Duo Processors
that any better?

That is an ok at best graphics processor. My mother has one in her Dell laptop. I put LFS on it and it will run, but not as well as it would with one of the bargin ACER laptops. Most people still consider ACER a generic brand, but believe me their laptops have great bang for the buck. I have recommended 3 of these to people over past 6 or 7 months and they all love them. This one http://www.newegg.com/Product/ ... aspx?Item=N82E16834115486 it has a 9500m GS nvdia with 512 of dedicated memory in it. At around $1000 USD it is a real good price on a laptop with great specs and should run LFS very well. Some reviewers said that it ran COD4 very well and it that will run on this laptop, LFS would too.

Jay

You can do this without it being supported in LFS.

You can bind just about anything you want with autohotkey http://www.autohotkey.com/

For example I have one button I press on my DF GT and it shows the Damage. 6 seconds later it switches back to tire temp without me pressing another key.

These are also conditional type scripts that can be written that will for example:

Left Paddle Pressed - send num7; Wait for Left Paddle Pressed Then Send NUM7. <----Edit** I mean send Num0 there.

That isn't the scripting syntax, but rather the flow you would need to follow. you can find the syntax on autohotkeys website to make a process like that work. i have my whole logitech profiler turned off cause it's just a PITA most the time. It might take a little learning to use autohotkey, but you can do many things with it.

Example of how powerful this tool is:
At one point I want to adjust my FFB on my wheel only 1% at a time instead of 5%. I made autohotkey go out and read my lfs config file, get the current FFB setting, and add '1' to the FFB number from the config file and sending as a keystroke if I went up and subtract a one if wanted to go down. This way, when I turned the game off it would be able to call my settings back again and start adding and subtracting as I wanted.

Have fun. If you want some help finding out what your wheel buttons are in windows or want some help in general I would be willing to listen.

Last edited by jbirdaspec, Thu 18 Sep 2008, 19:15. Reason : Correction

I own this wheel as well. Have had not problems at all.

You might should check that all of your power is at proper voltage. You could also have a problem with the USB port you are plugging into. Is it one of the front USB ports on your computer or one of the back port? In all case i've seen the fronts are an extension from the boards USB pin out. These could, because of the length/quality of the wires inside the computer cause a power issue and power issues can cause odd computer behavior.

Here are a few things to check on:

are you using any USB hard drives/cd drives on your computer? The self powered type can eat a ton of power from your USB bus.

Are there a lot of USB devices connect at the same time?

Are you plugging the wheel into a USB hub instead of directly to the computer?

Do you have a USB extension cable on the wheel? Note: i have had weird problems with cheap USB extension cables before.

Have you tried the wheel on another computer?

can you see the voltage monitor and if so are volts in operating range of the computer? I you need a motherboard monitor try this one it is free: Motherboard monitor 5: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311

I do not have those extra mice/keyboards installed on my PC with this wheel. Are you using a laptop by chance? Those can have up to 2 pointing devices installed (touchpads and/or small joystick in center of keyboard).

Lastly. If all of the above check out I would see if you can return it to the store or where ever you purchased it from for another. Remember Logitech doesn't support this wheel on the PC so if you have to return it I would try and stay away from mentioning use on a PC. Play dumb and just say it doesn't work.

Quote from johnfromsunnymull :

Sorry all done! Just took ages for my profiler to kick in.

FIXED

Even though you have it fixed.....

I have the profiler installed, but I has it disable on startup. you can still adjust the steering degrees in the Joysticks/Game Controllers menu of the control panel. I find that having the profiler not running in the background seems to make the feedback smoother.

Quote from teedot :

DFGT is a good choice over the DFP... kinda feels like a plastic g25, minus clutch and h-shifter.. lol

+1
I got my DF GT last week. I like a higher wheel rotation and the DF GT suited my needs much better then the DFP because of the faster FFB and wheel montion. My laptimes in RWD drive cars were very noticable after a hour of using it. It feels better in my hands as well, plus you I always felt like I had to force the DFP to turn. I think the DFP is slightly better made then the DF GT, but I wouldn't go back to my DFP ever again after using the new DF GT.

Great Wheel for the money.

Quote from chavm481 :

links dead...

HERE YOU GO

link

Jay

Quote from jbirdaspec :

LINK

Hope this works better. If it for some reason doesn't work again the wheel is the Driving Force GT and the website is smoketronics.com

Jay

Ok. This is just weird. Either I posted in the wrong forum or there was very odd problem with the message board...I bet it was my fault. Sorry.

Jay

Quote from chavm481 :

yup, and hopefully more

LINK

Hope this works better. If it for some reason doesn't work again the wheel is the Driving Force GT and the website is smoketronics.com

Jay

Quote from chavm481 :

im gonna test them to their potential and make sure they dont go on and off like my old ps2 controller

WAIT!! Don't buy that MoMo Yet!!

I would highly recommend this.http://smoketronics.com/Wheels ... ion-2/3/product_info.html The feed back is very close to G25 type feedback and it will turn @900 degrees if you want. I got mine to replace my dfp. It is a really, really good wheel for the money.

Jay

I have a Driving Force GT and I can feel the back end come out instantly. You should be able to feel the same, if not better then I. You should adjust your settings in your profiler and then turn it off. On the Driving Force GT I have overall effects in the 90s, spring effect at 0 and damping around 40. I found the wheel too easy to turn otherwise with damping on 0. I did use 0 on damping with the Driving Force Pro though.

Good luck.

Jay

Quote from obsolum :

Without trying to be offensive, I think that if you have that problem on every server like you say, it just might be that the problem actually lies with you. True, this kind of behaviour occurs regularly, especially on non-adminned servers, but there's a lot of good and very clean drivers out there as well.

And about the CTRA reports, personally I haven't submitted a report yet that the admins didn't judge as I would expect them to. They are very just and I never have a single doubt that they will take the necessary actions. So the fact that the admin judged your report(s) as being racing incidents... I don't know... kinda makes me wonder how you drive and how you expect others to drive It is racing, after all, not cruising.

If you get shunted off the track when braking for corners that often, maybe you really are braking way too early?

What do you mean with "I almost never race"? What do you do then? Single player? Hotlap? Cruise? Drift? It's a shame, because there really is a lot of fun to be had in good clean racing. Maybe you just had bad luck But hey, as long as you're enjoying LFS in some way or another it's all good I guess

Agreed. I had to learn to keep the pace as to not get run over and hold positions. Not that I'm a great driver or anything, but I learned with lots of practice that a lot of the times I was becoming too nervous in traffic and getting it wrong. I had to force myself the slow my role a bit and analyze the situation to make a better decision.

I have a small testing and tuning server that anybody can join, even change the track if nobody and right now we are still working on our xfg and xrg cars. It is for S2 licensed racers. We pretty much use this server for setup development and dialing in our skills. Anyone is invited, but please don't park on the track drift etc.. there are other type servers for this kind of activity.

Server is NoTech Racing if anyone want to check it out.

Funny this topic popped up as I been thinking learning this technique since starting to learn the XRG. I hear it can greatly stabilized your car under breaking. Useful info. Thx.

Quote from legoflamb :

........ the DSG is the only AT transmission worth simulating.

Davey. You know I love U, but don't forget the new TC-SST tranny in the new Evo MR.

Quote from R3DMAN :

not really no, its about a year old now,

only a 8800 GT aswell.

Yes. It is a year old, but a great card the 8800gt is. I really have liked mine. I have my frames v-synched so my lcd doesn't tear. Runs constant 60 from what I can tell. I never bother to look in large start grids though as to not have an accident. Plus I display the time now so I don't end up playing till 5am on weekdays.

Quote from dannybong :

hi can eny one help me i cant get it to work whith full lock

Get those drivers mentioned in the thread. Don't set the FFB too high in the Profiler. Anything over 90% to 100% will cause the wheel to shake in really odd ways when pressing on the break. Even if you are standing still it will shake. I set spring % to 0 and Damper to 45%. If you leave the Damper to 0% or really low the wheel feels very light and it is harder to feel for the grip. It will also cause you to turn more then you want because the resistance is lower.

I got this wheel today and I have to say it is the best wheel I have seen or hear of for the price it costs. The G25 of course is better mainly because of the combo of a shifter and pretty nice pedals. I have a custom set of pedals and a Lightning SST shifter already so it wasn't worth it to me to get the G25.

Jay

Quote from wheel4hummer :

How about a 1036kg FWD GM Vehicle? What we need is a 1991-1996 Saturn SC2:

1036kg, 124HP. It could compete with the XFG and XRG. I'm sure the devs would easily be able to get this car in LFS, since Saturn stopped making the S-Series in 2002!

HAHA. I've even considered buying a Saturn and even I think that is a bad idea.

Quote from Gabkicks :

Well, you've made a few mistakes. 1st, the default cars are garbage. rFactor is a game designed to be run with mods. There are some great mods like the Historix GT and Touring Car Mod.

Exactly what I was thinking.

The rFactor demo is ass-tacular and i consider it a poor representation at best of the Sim.

I don't care for rFactor really at all. But the mods is were it's at with the rFactor title for sure. It is what it is and it serves it's purpose well.

Still, you probably won't see me playing it.

Quote from wien :

In the case of LFS I think it's almost that easy. The LFS physics engine is very general, since all cars use the same underlying physics engine. They probably just feed in the mounting points for the suspension, track width, wheel base, power train etc. and off it goes. If you've ever played with Tweak you have seen some of these settings there.

rFactor is different in this respect since many more of the actual physics properties are bundled with the cars themselves (tyre curves and all that wizardry). It also has a lot of bugs that makes it react weirdly if you input realistic data to it. This makes rFactor more customisable of course, but it also means only a select few can manage to create a car that isn't complete rubbish.

I would like to know exactly how it is done. Though I doubt it is all plug and go. But if it is doable LFS team would be the ones to make it happen. Maybe when S3 is Final we could have a SDK with customizable physics.