The way I see it, it should be forced.

I don't really care who doesn't -like- it.

LFS graduated from a racing game to a simulator a while ago now. Arcade-style views have no place in a sim.

That said, I don't try to force that on anyone. I don't tell server admins to do it, I don't tell other people to do it.

I simple feel that the quality of racing in the game overall would be improved by it changing, and if it were made a part of the game, that you are always forced cockpit, then I would welcome and love it.

When asked my opinion, I will give it. But it is just that, an opinion.

If I had to think of one thing to make Blackwood better, it would be moving the start/finish line.

I think if the S/F was on the straight with the pit entrance, or on the long straight after the chicane, it would make for a great time. It would fix the T1 jumble in the chicane, because it would be a little more spread out by then.

And if I had a little more leeway, I would put a kink in the long straight, just to take out a little of the boring...

as was said above. If you're looking at where you are, you've lost already.

Know your marks. Know where you brake, know where the track is... the other car shouldnt matter unless they force you to slow down, and even then, you should still have enough situational awareness to work through it.

Quote from Hyperactive :

It is all very easy when you have loads of time, attempts and visibility to get it right. But it all changes when you are going over 100mph into a corner where you have to maneuver through multiple apexes within few inches off the walls. It is easier to aim the the car through the corners when you can see where you are and where you are going instead of building and updating a picture in your mind. Especially when you can see where you are going. Hitting the apexes becames quite hard when there's car in front of you (if you are using cockpit view).

Here are two pictures that show one situation from two views. There is defenetive adventage imho.

Quote from gp4racer :

I mean, i spent almost four years with open wheel sims and after this i switch to gt cars...really hard the change, is not a easy vehicle to drive and you have to understand some of the physics, a real challenge! I am really sure that gt drivers are more skilled than F1 drivers.

I think its a "different" skill, and the two don't fall on the same linear measurment

Tiptops in general require more finess, since they oversteer alot if you push it. The TBO class cars are lots of power, with more weight, and less grip, so they take a different style of driving. That said, you can slide one around quite a bit and get away with it... you can screw up an entry and save it.

The single seaters require much more precision. Once you screw up, they are much harder to save... and they dont generally give you the slow spin, its just BOOM and you're sideways... Add to that they fact that casual contact that is ok in the tintops will mostly spin both cars...

So maybe SS are a little easier to drive, but require you to be more consistent and "perfect" in your driving. The tintops are harder overall to drive, but are more forgiving of mistakes...

...

if that makes sense...

Quote from lerts :

yeah i think chase view should be the one to be forced there are less crashes that way

a guy was gonna hit me from behind saw it,i stopped braking and avoided collision

I don't think that's particularly true... Mainly because most newcomers to the game are expecting a NFS/arcade style racer and use the external view by default ... and they are the ones wrecking.

Personally, I find it's easier to drive from the cockpit in all cars. There is a slight visibility loss, but if you are paying attention, you know where the cars around you are. What you gain by being inside is a visible g-forces (the way your head moves around), and it's easier to save a spin, because you can see the car coming loose faster (at least for me) when you're in it.

I would think alot of it has to do with age, the younger ones like it outside more (this is just from talking to them in-game...not absolute). I think that if you are of driving age in real life, you are more likely to like the interior view.

And in the end, I like this game better than other games because of the realism... and it's kind of a slap in the face of said realism to drive my car from 10 feet behind it...

Since you've picked up a sponsor, you going to back off the ads on the site?

7 flash ads + google text ads is a bit much, and basically means that I turn on adblock and deny you of any impressions...where normally I would keep it on and usually click a couple just to help out...

"An emergency brake is a separate brake system in a vehicle for use in case of failure of the regular (hydraulic or air) brakes and commonly used as a parking brake in automobiles. In automobiles, it is also called hand brake. Many people shorten emergency and call the devices e-brakes."

Stop being a dick, really. They are Called Emergency Brakes, shortened to e-brakes, sometimes Hand Brakes or Parking Brakes.

You're logic is absurd...considering that most people, if they don't have ABS, do the lock up their tires in an emergency anyways.

You are wrong. Period. You're trying to argue semantics because you don't like the facts, but you don't change them.

tristan, are you, yourself, incapable of partially, gently applying a handbrake. I think you are not, and that must be the basis of your confusion. Applying the hand brake does not equal locking the rear tires...

After cutting an engine off, the first time you hit the brakes, you're not going to have much stopping power, you will, for the most part, need to pump the brakes in most modern cars because you would have lost power brakes at that point...

I had a master cylinder break (literally split in two...was caused by a bad mold job...bubbles in the walls of the master cylinder.) When that happens, you lose ALL brakes unless the car has a completly redundant system, which most dont. I stopped the car perfectly safetly and controlled, never once locking the rears up, using nothing but the ebrake (a pedal-type in this case...meaning i had to reach under the dash and hold the brake release while doing it...)

And millions to 1, thats not very good odds, really... Hundreds of millions of people on the roads at any given time in the world... Failures happen all the time... brake failures happen all the time... its like any other mechanical system, every joint, seal, and moving part is a point of potential failure. Throw in other things like air in the brake lines from bad installs, slow fluid leaks...etc, you end up with a not-so-improbable situation.

I wanna know how many cars have Electronic brakes.

I have yet to ever drive one. Most are a direct cable to the rear brakes. I'm not saying there aren't any, but it seems strange (and wastefull).

As for uses...Mine gets used quite a bit, but extensively as a parking brake because its a Pickup and its not a lever, but a high/out of the way pedal, and you have to bend down to release it (though I have stopped a car, a 90 pontiac bonneville, with that kind of setup, its just tricky). Mine gets used now because I often have a trailer hooked up, and one of the places I frequent, I have to park on a hill. Most people don't realize that the only thing the "park" gear in your car does (automatic) is set a small pin between the teeth of a gear...it doesnt take a whole lot to actually shear a park pin in most transmissions. Parking on a 20 degree grade with 5000lbs trying to pull it backwards is pretty stressful...thats where the parking/e-brake comes in handy.

oh...and powersliding...

A good quote from a decent movie that applies..

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) - "Men in Black"

The simple answer to your question:

The Greater Internet F***Wad Theory - NSFW (Language)

-1

It undermines the purpose of the sand...thats a corner that alot of people wreck in (Depending on the config) ... the idea is that a little screw up doesnt completly cost you the race.

Honestly, I have never seen people do it. I'm sure they do (they do everything) but I can't say its a problem.

Besides, they might be faster for that lap, but when they get to t1 (ok, maybe not t1, t1 is fast) they wont have such an advantage, with busted suspension. Especially if they do it a couple laps straight. Besides...I see anyone do it, obviously and intentionally, I'll take them out (if not in an Admin'd server of course) ... I will throw a race to keep someone from getting away with cheating...im here for fun, the win i secondary (and honestly, rare)

tristan is right, most leagues REQUIRE the car being lapped to stay in the racing line, and be predictable...and its the lapping car's job to move out and pass when appropriate..

You got banned from a junk server, don't sweat it.

There is no magic bullet.

Start with default settings.

If you are running high framerate (60+) then start increasing things. Bump up resolution, bump up texture quality...one at at time. The best thing is to use a replay, so you can see numbers from the same rendering over and over.

If you are running low framerate (20-) then start easing up...lower framrate, lower settings, one at a time...

Its trial and error, especially with laptops, because not only is the hardware (gpu/cpu/mem) slower, but busses and all of that are slower...so its more unpredictable...it shouldnt take you more than an hour to drill down a good setting range...

You should shoot for 40 or so FPS... 30 is borderline. Start a full field of AI cars, and let them all pass you in a group...if you drop down to 20 or less, ease it up...you're in the range of being jumpy, and that causes wrecks...and other people dont generally appreciate it when you wreck them because you just HAD to have the 1024 textures turned on.

Quote from Trekkerfahrer :

why not?
more peaople can make more interesting programs more faster

and its ok, when they offer them 4 free... *hate payware*

Yeah, more people can make a more interesting, diverse programs faster...it's been proven over and over.

However, everyone involved must have the right mindset. Its not a "leader" or "follower" mindset, neither work. It's, for lack of a better word, a "Borg" mindset...collective cooperation towards a single goal.

Either way, I'm considering this idea dead here, not enough interest to really go anywhere...

As for the "*hate payware*", you shouldn't. Trade has a place in software, and thats not the "free" I speak of. I know of quite a few paid "free" projects, many of them on the enterprise level, but some on the consumer level...all are worth their price, and are continually improved do to community involvement.

There are 2 "free" types:
Free as in beer: Just that, no $$. No cost.
Free as in speech: Can be paid or free (as in beer), but is "free" in the sense that the software is open source, non-proprietary, and is distributed with a license like GPL that allows others to modify and freely redistribute it.

Don't know how well those 2 ideas translate across the language barrier though...

Cybix...you're flying a US flag here...Im in the US (east coast), my cousin is in US and plays lfs (michigan), I was playing with a lot of west-coast guys in sumo last night (cali and AK if i remember right...I've even played with Hawaians ... You're shitty connection has nothing to do with you being in the US... it's just a shitty connection...

If you lag, yo make it hard on everyone else..thats when it becomes YOUR problem...

Firstly, let me start by providing my motivations:

1) I'm not a fan of proprietary closed-source software. I understand it's unavoidable in the current state of the world (trade > deed), so I'll keep my Utopian views out of it for the most part.

2) Since we're given the tools to develop these add-ons (insim...etc) freely, it seems only fair that the development work done on them be freely shared as well.

3) 1 & 2 being said, I don't want to put the image out there that I want to "change" other projects or pressure any existing project to open up.

Now, onto the heart of my idea:

I think the "open-oriented" developers on here (and there are a few that I can see around) should get together on a few projects, one at a time... I've worked with number of community based projects before, and the enjoyment of working with a diverse set of people is great.

If I had to throw a few ideas out there now I would say:

1) Glade-like UI class to be used in any project. (http://glade.gnome.org/) basically, building UIs based on XML ... then interacting with the glade object to manipulate everything...a little cleaner and simpler than the current "every UI element is an Island to Itself" setup.

2) "Points" server setup. Much like the popular "points servers" now, but have a central DB for it, and allow people to create leagues ... etc, of their own, all running this as their core admin. Would be the larger in scale than most projects...requiring a web front-end as well.

3) Cruise server. I know most of us (myself included) don't particularly like cruise servers, but as a "development challenge" it would serve the purpose well. On top of that, it would provide a more "satisfactory" answer to the parade of cruise server requests and questions....

I have other ideas floating around...but I think these are the 3 that seem to stand out in my head as a) having the most impact and b) being fairly challenging and, in the end, rewarding.

Takers? I plan on starting on one of the 3 projects (likely the Glade-type engine) soon...

Lastly...for the "important" stuff. All code/assets of the projects will be GPL'd. All source for all aspects will be available. Obviously some components will be in compiled libraries (dlls) but code will be provided for those as well.

ZORER... design student?

You sound more like a design student than a designer...rattling off theory but failing to put it into practice.

Most of the designs here are ok...not great, but OK...but not for specific reasons you mentioned.

Most of what you mentioned applies to print media well, but you fail to recognize the difference between print and web (A common failing with older designers...maybe that's you..and not a student?).

Adam2k8's logo for example, is great. It's very readable, it's unique...I can almost guarantee you that the mechanics of placing the "of" were not a part of the font itself...and was executed very nicely. That logo also lends itself to an outline (black and white) very well...making it very versatile. I would bet that it's either done in illustrator, or in photoshop with all vector elements. It doesn't appear to have anything in it that would force it to be a raster image.

As usual... "Those who can, do. Those who can't, become critics."

I preface this by saying that this is meant to be neither argumentive nor coercive.

I like to ask people this though...because I like to understand both sides of the coin...

(and, all and all, I don't know the setup of ctra and who makes the call, so you may be the wrong person to ask)

But why closed? (I won't be arguing or providing counter-points...I just like to hear people's reasoning)

And after this...I will stop sidetracking this thread...i promise!

Just as a curiosity...

Is the source to the x-system available, or is it completely closed source? Frankly, I'm rather curious to see the inner workings of one of the server management setups...

If it's closed, I completely understand (personally, im an Open Source / Free (as in speech) kind of guy ... strong linux connections and such) ... but I would really enjoy seeing how some of this stuff works...

Love the game type...dislike the lack of admin in there...

Wrecking before the round started...was rampant last night (i got booted into the wall and launched into space before a match like 3 times...)

I think the "rush to your spot" thing is great..and very original...but an adjustment should be made....

Here is my suggestion (I thought it through pretty well, actually, i think)

1) Cannot start in the inner-most ring (people are doing this and just holding the brakes for the first part (before the shrink to blue line)).

2) Must be facing the center most ring (not sure if its possible, so maybe this cant happen) but if you could determine that, it would be great. Give +-30/45 degrees so its not super strict....

3) If you cant do #2, do a proximity check. make it so you have to be x disance from another car...

Heres why #2 or #3 are needed. People are waiting till others get lined up (usually outside edge, facing in) and then pulling up to their front bumper...then just pushing them the inch they need to get them out...

#4: The "closest to the X" draw winner...I don't thing it works well. Again, someoen will just stop fighting early and sit on the X. At that point, there isnt enough room to accelerate to really knock them off. I thought of an alternate setup though. What if you (via countdown) removed the walls and boundary...then made 4 "target" areas, equal distance from the center, outside of the walls. When the walls go away (at end of countdown) the first person to one of the areas wins. This way, you cant camp the goal...and having 4 means that people will be less likely to just stop and try to point in the way of a single goal...

Again, I'm not taking away from it...it's great fun (so much so I've devoted time to developing secret setup ideas that seem to provide an advantage...), just thought I would share my ideas/thoughts...

Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he crowds your fishing grounds...

(sorry, couldnt resist)

I'm new with the tin tops...I've driven the open-wheelers alot...and am compitent with them...

However, trying to run on the CTRA servers is nerve-wrecking to the the least. Im not fully confident in the car...and I've caused a few wrecks because of my "open wheel habits" ... the crubs kick you out alot more in the xfg then they do in the fox...and on more than one occasion i've taken my fox line through a corner and had the curb throw me into somone...

The problem comes in the atmosphere...people are so worried about their stats that the racing is almost secondary, and the second someone causes a wreck, they get belittled insulted before you can even get an appology out. It's the lowest "skilled" server... and people should expect as much....people WILL make mistakes, you WILL get wrecked out of a race...

I think something that could help racing a bit is to lower the overall points to get to the second server...so that you can progress quicker to it, or make (like suggested) an intermediate server.

Quote from March Hare :

As you see these coder dudes need a kick in the arse from time to time.

I know... I am one.

I need, and get...that kick often enough...

I'm glad it's fixed, I will probably start racing again.

Sam...I will appologize for being a prick. I stand by my opinions, but my delivery was snide and very rude. I'm fighting the flu right now, and am a little snappy. I do appologize.

The CTRA system and servers provide good races (yeah, I'm a noob with the tin-tops still...I can drive the wheels off of a formula car, but I can't race a tin-top to save my life...and when trying to learn with it, spending alot of time making a setup in single player to just be able to be competitive and stable (ie, not wrecking someone on accident), then having that setup rejected because of a bug...was frustrating to no end.

I'm happy you fixed it (and hey, if I hadn't have started something, maybe it wouldn't have gotten fixed just yet because it wouldn't have gotten the extra attention....nahhhh )

Thanks.