Quote from Marty_Deslions :

I must admit that the prolonged silence has left me a bit concerned.

I'll start by linking to a couple of threads which show a lot of the work I have been doing recently:

Test Patch D33: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102117
Editor Test Patch D40: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102626

As you can see, particularly on the Editor Test Patch thread, I have made a huge number of improvements for the mod support. I find it a great thing that LFS is a way for people to be creative, and the mods system is a massive new part of that. It was very "new" indeed when released (basically a bunch of dev editors brushed up a bit) which is why there have been so many issues to sort out.

In the past months, while I have been doing these, Eric was at first finishing South City, which took a lot longer than he anticipated. Filling those holes is not easy, and he likes to fill them just as people would actually "fill the holes" when building a real city. I received an update recently and tested it, reported a bunch of issues and he fixed those. We find the completion level very good now, basically good enough for public testing when we can get the full version together. He is now working on the Kyoto improvements. As you may know from the official progress reports, that was never finished before Eric moved onto the South City, that turned into an epic development and massive expansion.

On my side, I'm trying to finish test patch things so that I can finally complete the tyre physics. In fact my current focus is on wheels, both in the development and public version. In the public version there should be a graphical update for wheels in the next few days, to go along with the many updates there have been for mods. Again, please read the test patch threads to know what I'm talking about.

There is also other work I do, that you never see, such as updates for the track editor. Suppose Eric is doing a task and finds he has to do something in a laborious or repetitive way and one of us thinks of a new editor function that could help him achieve certain tasks more quickly, then I always want to stop whatever else I was doing and work on the track editor for a few days.

I'm trying to get to an official release so my focus can then be entirely on the tyre physics in the development version. It has taken me much longer than expected to complete this round of test patches as there were so many unfinished things in the mods system. When I see creators, working hard and having to use workarounds for issues, I feel a great responsibility to get that issue sorted out.

Of course, the priorities I attach to various tasks, will not be the same as someone else's priority. We all have different priorities, so there's not a person in the world who could agree with all my choice of tasks to work on. But I must work on what I feel is important. Actually I find it a huge mental effort to complete these tasks, and that's why I need to follow the inspiration. Sometimes I'm awake at night working out how to do something, then experimenting and testing, it's a lot of work.

It takes a long time, but there is always progress.

I understand there is a conflict at the boundary between LFS generated tyre/rim and the user created objects. It's something I need to consider. I can't jump to quick fixes. This is because the tyre generation and profile will change a bit in future and existing mods cannot be broken at that point. Maybe LFS needs some defined profile styles for physically plausible rims, including a proper 3D edge between the rim and the tyre, and/or some way to interface cleanly with user defined rims. The current tyre shape is a compromise, designed a long time ago, so I need to examine how the visual tyre and rim width are produced from the "Rim width" setting in the vehicle editor. I realise there is a resolution issue - some mod creators want to use a lot of triangles around the edge to create a perfectly round appearance, but that is not compatible with the tyre resolution as the LFS tyres can move and they are CPU-expensive to send to the graphics card each frame, even in the new LFS system. No doubt there is a better way to do that too, with a special shader.

I do see the issues as I can see the high quality rims that people want to make, so I have to think about this a while. At this point I think the changes are not in the immediate future, as you know I'm trying to do this full release to get back to the tyre physics, so things will be easier when I only have to work on one version of LFS, and we all get the benefit of the new graphics.


Anyway, for today there is a new update, D40.

Vehicle editor:

Hub object custom colours now appear in the list of wheel colours

Modeller:

Reflect object function is now available for individual subobjects
Combined clean object buttons into a single button with a dialog
Spoke mode "export SRE" saves combined spokes as a modeller object
Spoke mode "import SRE" function to load modeller object as a spoke

Download: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102626

Quote from Evolution_R :

I wish the texture was appearing a bit brighter.
In the editor looks fine, but in LFS appears a bit too dark.

I agree, I'm having a look at this to see what sort of results I can come up with, to make the public LFS dashboards have a similar brightness to the ones in the editor, without making older ones excessively bright. I think it's a few hours to carefully figure this out, maybe can release an update tomorrow with better brightness in game.

Quote from Yasso7up :

Are you looking forward to do the same thing to formula and f1 clocks?

I'm not really looking forward to that, no!

I don't have plans to update those clocks at this time. I felt the dial clocks were in serious need of an update for all those reasons. People were forced into either accepting a look they didn't want, or doing workarounds that would not be the proper way to do it. I didn't even plan to do this but sort of fell into it because of the need to add the damage light to the clocks. I don't regret it though, as I'm happy to see what results people can come up with. But it has been surprisingly intense work for the whole of last week and already two days this week.

All I really want to do is get this official update finished so I can leave it and work on the tyre physics. I want to get to the situation where everyone has the new graphics and I can work on one version of LFS instead of copying all the updates into two divergent versions of LFS.

Thanks for the test / demonstration.

One tip for people making custom dashboards:

To protect your mod from future physics changes, in the Speedo settings you should set "Max" to manual. Even if the auto value is OK right now, it's possible that future physics changes will result in a different estimated maximum speed, which could mess up your speedo accuracy.

I think it's less of an issue with the tacho as in that case auto is based on engine setting "Redline" so should not change unexpectedly. Using the manual setting could still help by allowing to you adjust the redline without changing the tacho range.

It's extremely unlikely to be related to the update.

All such times there have been sound and frame rate issues, it has been due to mods with bad sound settings or other issues causing extremes of physics, packet hacks, etc.

We have had cases where such issues were deliberate sabotage, others where it was an innocent mistake, and others due to the low resolution physics not being able to deal with a mod. In no case has it been caused by an LFS update. On the contrary, LFS updates have been released to prevent such issues.

I really have no idea how your exe could be corrupted.

Maybe the issue is reproducible in an MPR. If you could provide an MPR of the server at the trime of the issue, and explain which driver's viewpoint to take, and which time point in the replay, in order to experience the issue, then it should be possible for me to track down the problem. Maybe a good idea to state which server it was on (I guess just a ride?) and what time it was? I guess someone must have an MPR that includes the event?

Last edited by Scawen, Mon 19 Jun 2023, 07:27.

As you may know, I'm trying to finish this round of test patches and release an official version so I can focus fully on tyre physics.

Unfortunately, finishing always takes longer than expected but I'm getting there. One thing to add was the dashboard version of the engine damage light. I did that on Monday, but noticed certain issues with dashboards while I was in the dashboard editor. Remembering various issues and requests for improvement, on Tuesday I started to add options for the tacho (allowing x100, steps of 5, set maximum value) and on Wednesday for the speedo (set maximum value, make mph and km/h have the same needle position). On Thursday I added several options that can be applied to all the dials. Finally today I've added the option to show and position the unit (km/h or mph on speedo, x100 or x1000 on the tacho).

I'm sure many of you will find these options useful and they will add some variety and realism to the traditional style dashboards you set up. I don't suggest that this is complete or allows all the possibilities you would like, but these are the things I could do quickly, in a semi-compatible version.

To see the effect of these options in game, you will need Test Patch D26.

By "semi-compatible" I mean that versions before D26 can still load vehicles you save with this new version, but they won't see the effect of the new options.

Vehicle editor:

Engine damage light can be enabled (in Transmission tab)
Maximum value for main body drag increased from 1.0 to 6.0
Some tooltips added and descriptions adjusted in Aerodynamics tab
Estimated max speed (in Aerodynamics) shows speed in mph or km/h
FIX: Dashboard for electric vehicles was switched off in editor

Dashboard editor:

Speedo:
- set maximum value in km/h (steps of 5)
- option to show units (km/h or mph)

Tacho:
- set maximum value
- x100 or x1000
- gap 1/2 (x1000) or 5/10 (x100)
- options to show units (x100 or x1000)

Options on all gauges:
- needle colour = text colour
- needle is long
- needle above pivot
- hide pivot
- hide numbers
- hide symbol (if applicable)
- hide marks
- smaller text

Download: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102626-Editor-Test-Patch-0-7D34

There are no changes to physics. Maybe on the server you were on, someone applied a handicap. But more likely a psychological, physiological or environmental effect. Our perception and skills vary from one day to the next.

Quote from Flame CZE :

Crashed when trying to enter the modeller from the "new vehicle" screen:

Thanks for the report. This is fixed in D29 which I'll upload in a minute.

Quote from xolan1993 :

Sorry I dont want to seem tone deaf and insult the devs.
Scawen, the way I deal with crash reporting is:

Thank you and don't worry, that is not insulting. I don't pretend to know everything.

I should have a look at a crash handler, though I don't want to spend much time on it now, a good one could save time in the future.

At least to write out exception code, crash address and the module might be nice so people don't have to look in Windows logs. A call stack would be great information too and could solve more cases, especially if the crash is in a commonly used function or in a non-LFS module (called by some function in LFS).

I seem to remember looking at this a bit in the past and it was apparently not easy to obtain a call stack for some reason, or maybe it required a lot of knowledge. Well, I guess that's why you made your own library for it. Anyway, I will read up a little can contact you for more information if I want to do something. Though my priority is to quickly release the new version and get back to the tyre physics.

Interesting thought but it won't be in this round of test patches. Everything I do in the current public version must be merged into the separate development version, which isn't always easy. Also any changes in the core of the physics system are likely to invalidate all the hotlaps, which isn't worth doing at the moment. Also, incompatible setups, online compatibility, interface updates, etc...

I look forward to releasing the development version, so we only have one version and it will be much easier to add new features then.

I just watched this 12 min video about heave springs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNInCfCkrkE

Last edited by Scawen, Wed 10 May 2023, 08:01.

The LFS developers should host instructions on how to reverse engineer someone's software without their permission?

Honestly, I'm not even sure programs should be allowed to work the way LFS Lazy does, hacking into LFS. But it was allowed in this case, so that is beside the point.

I've added a couple of the most requested features from LFS Lazy into a recent test patch.

I know there are many other features of Lazy that are still wanted, though I assume you would prefer me to to continue working on the new tyre physics, instead of trying to implement the features of LFS Lazy?

It's possible to recreate many of the features of LFS Lazy without resorting to hacking obsolete software which is itself a hack, even if a very good one. I mentioned above, the PACT Driving Assistant which is currently in development has many features that may be of interest (although I don't know which features of LFS Lazy can or cannot be done by PACT).

Last edited by Scawen, Thu 20 Apr 2023, 08:41.

I'm working on it. Progress is not stalled.

I did spend a lot of time last month on test patch and editor updates, but that's not my focus now. I won't go into all the reasons why that happened, but there was an important update, then I saw the E-Challenge, saw something that could be improved there, thought of a few other useful improvements, one thing lead to another...

Not a problem, that's all good. The updates were significant and important.

The idea of the progress reports wasn't really "this is what I will do forever". It was an insight into the development process, and I went into extreme detail, maybe even too personal, so people could really understand what being a programmer is about.

Tyre physics doesn't go the way multithreading goes. For me, it's not really suitable for rapid progress reports. There's a lot of experimentation and testing, research and hard thinking.

However much you want the new version released, multiply that by 100 (rough estimate) and that's how much I want it released. The new version is what I work on and think about for many hours every day. All I can really say at this point is don't worry, I'm on it.

Quote from Aleksandr_124rus :

I have a suggestion (If it's not hard to do) to make visible the tire surface temperature (with tire inner layer temperature) and pressure level with value as it was in earlier versions.

This is really not on topic and has nothing to do with the test patch.

I'm trying to finish the things in the test patch and get back to tyre physics. The test patch thread will not become a random suggestions thread.

Remember the forum section for suggestions: https://www.lfs.net/forum/8-Improvement-Suggestions

Last edited by Scawen, Thu 23 Mar 2023, 10:22.

Quote from NumberTwo :

IT could be a simple graph instead of clutch pedal graph or it could be something stylized like EV cars have.

Maybe a clutch pedal bar replacement at first, quick and easy to implement (hopefully, if the values can be extracted from the physics system without any trouble). And eventually something for the dashboard display.

I know a lot of people would like to hear more progress.

I've been working on tyre physics but I'm not ready to do a proper report yet.

Just to say for now that a tyre model may be broken into:

- carcass model
- tread model
- friction model

The carcass model is about how the tyre's structure and pressure affect the output forces depending on the state of the wheel. I can use my simulated tyre carcass (non-realtime) to see how some of these forces vary. I've been making changes to the in-game realtime model to more closely match the simulated tyre.

I don't claim that the simulated tyre is an extremely accurate model of a real tyre but it does give an insight into distortion and deflection and how that changes with tyre proportions and pressure.

I'm experimenting, adjusting and thinking a lot so will report some results eventually!

As mentioned in another post, I've had an initial look and made some notes about converting LFS to 64-bit. I don't see any real problems but a lot of lines need to change. Initial thoughts are it might take a week or two, which puts it on a low priority compared with tyre physics. I can't really think of any short-term benefits at the moment other than allegedly it's the only way to connect to OpenXR (which I've barely heard of and obviously would have to code for as well).

Anyway, maybe you could tell me what is the difference or connections between OpenXR and OpenVR and SteamVR?

I thought that the aim of OpenVR was exactly what you seem to be suggesting is the aim of OpenXR. But as far as I know, the only implementation of OpenVR was SteamVR? But thought that didn't have to be the case?

I must say that OpenVR/SteamVR has been really fantastic in providing a way for many games to connect with many headsets. Has its time really come, and why?

I could go reading and researching but thought you might give me a short explanation (if you feel like it).

Quote from superlame :

I assume that, there still be an option in the settings, if we want to see not that much of detailed Shadow, right? ( Don't get me wrong, the shadow looks more than fantastic but, I am bothered about FPS, how will it affect 4 core 2.56ghz cpu ( really specific huh? )

There are some shadow options. Quad core is fine for new LFS as it has two main threads (graphics and physics). That leaves 2 cores for OS use and other minor threads. I think 2.56 GHz should be OK for most things. I've been developing on a dual core CPU with 3.2 GHz (nice fast computer, despite what people seem to think). I imagine you might want to turn down some settings at heavy tracks. But I can't say anything for sure. That might struggle with a full field of visible cars at South City, for example. But my words are pure speculation. We aren't like a big game studio that has actual budgets for such things, it's more like have a go and see what happens, try to optimise what uses a lot of resources.

EDIT: As for shadow options, the biggest one is to switch off shadows in mirrors. But that means very illuminated mirror views if you drive in a dark place. I have on my list to have an option for the number of shadow cascades to be drawn in mirror, Maybe it will not be noticeable to skip the cascade responsible for the distant shadows, for the mirror view.

Also you can set 1024/1536/2048 for the texture resolution per cascade (number of cascades normally 4).

It could be possible to do more optimisations like options to remove smaller objects from the distant cascades. So you still get building shadows but small objects don't produce a shadow which you probably can't see anyway. The trouble with shadow maps is they can draw a lot of things that you can't see and make no difference to anything, but it's hard to stop them doing that in a good way.

Quote from Evolution_R :

Thanks. "A picture is worth a thousand words."

So, I'm on my way to optimize (reduce tris) of the LOD2s of my mods.

I think it always uses the same LOD for the shadow, as for the main object.

But LOD2 is still used to create the soft ambient shadow below the car, even if main object is LOD1.

Last edited by Scawen, Mon 13 Feb 2023, 20:38.

No, it is generated locally. I think the clue is that it is a translated message? Unless it's actually generated by your InSim program? I've looked in the code and can't see anything that would remove a dot from a user name, so was hoping for an easier reproduction.

I'm trying to do things in a simple way, rather than spending a long time creating fake user names, to try to reproduce the fault. This is to save me time as I have a lot of other things to work on. Maybe you could get your friend with a user name that starts with a dot to join a server to create a short MPR.

When i searched our system, I couldn't find a user called ".user1" so assumed it was an example and you are protecting the identity of the user?

A similar thing has happened on the test patch forum. A bug has been reported, I asked for a reproduction, but no-one is interested. That's fine but it'll take me longer to develop the tyre physics if I'm the only one reproducing obscure bugs.

Were all the conditions definitely met? In pit stop, etc. I could stop and test this using two user accounts but I'm in the middle of tyre physics so don't really want to stop at the moment, so if anyone else can test that would be appreciated. I'd suggest testing with D9 and D versions together. If all works then I'd suggest that all is OK.

Last edited by Scawen, Mon 6 Feb 2023, 18:56. Reason : edit: originally wrote D8, meant to say D9

Quote from Facu23 :

lovely option to repair the engine but isn't 12 secs too little for a major engine damage? should be at least 30 or 1 minute.

LFS mechanics are among the world's finest.

Quote from superlame :

Bug report:

You get kicked from 0.7D servers for OOS, when you repair your car on Pit Stops. ( repairing engine damage )

Thank you, now fixed in D8.

Quote from Degats :

The high res physics seems to fix the "dancing" car issue we had on the E-Challenge grid (tested by turning on/off in the replay)

The increased CPU doesn't seem to have much of an effect on my PC, which is nice

It should be a lot better now when tabbing to other cars, often a car would seem to skate off sideways a bit (or a lot) when it hadn't been on the screen for a short while. Partly because it was in low-res physics before you brought it onto screen.

So I hope it might improve the appearance of LFS during the broadcasts quite a bit, along with the D4 update "Reduced glitch of multiplayer cars after TAB or fast forward replay".

All right, thank you for the feedback. D7 is now available.

I went for 97% to distinguish minor / major engine damage. Let's see how that goes.

Changes in D7:

Engine damage can now be repaired in pit stop
- yellow counts as minor damage (6 seconds)
- red counts as major damage (12 seconds)

Engine health now changes from yellow to red at 97%

Engine health percentage is no longer displayed for remote cars

EXPERIMENTAL option to avoid low-res (simple) physics in multiplayer
- Options... Misc... Avoid simple physics [EXPERIMENTAL]
- low res physics is normally applied to cars other than the 4 nearest
- the option approximately doubles CPU usage by physics in multiplayer
- could cause problems at turn 1 with many cars - only use on powerful PC
- use the "profiler" display to check CPU usage with this option enabled
- profiler enabled by pressing car icon then P in Misc or Graphics options

https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102117

I'm not really getting my message across very well.

I tried to explain in the previous post. I'm not stopping here to do complicated things. I'm still trying to finish the development version so we can release the long awaited version with the new graphics and physics.

I've offered a simple feature here, to fix engine damage along with the minor damage and major damage. It is not to be considered that I will do anything more complicated, because that isn't going to happen.

I've made this appear beside the CT indicator, just an early test so far.

Naturally it comes out as a "Health" value that starts at 100% and goes down from there (if you downshift too early -> over rev). No change in the physics, this is only a display.

One bad shift affects it quite a lot, so I think one decimal place is enough. Maybe the straight percentage with no decimal place would be OK?

Opinions welcome, maybe I'll release a minor update with this tomorrow morning so you can have a go.

I was thinking the engine symbol could start grey then go yellow then red with more damage. Possibly if pit engine repair is implemented, the colours could line up with "minor damage" and "major damage".

WARNING: THIS IS A TEST

THIS DOES NOT CONTAIN NEW TYRE PHYSICS OR THE NEW GRAPHICS SYSTEM

PLEASE TEST BEFORE YOU POST

PLEASE... NO OFF TOPIC FEATURE REQUESTS!


Hello Racers,

Here is a new test patch: 0.7D48

Please read the list of changes below.

0.7D48 is compatible with 0.7D
- You CAN connect online with 0.7D
- You CAN play replays from 0.7D

Please back up or rename your LFS.exe from version D so you can revert to it if necessary.


Changes from D to D48:

Interface:

A small map is now displayed at Layout Square if there is a layout
New display in F9 / F10 views shows estimated laps given fuel use
Engine health (with colour code) is displayed in F9 / F10 views
F9 / F10 extra displays are now switchable (Options - Display)
Speedo and tacho are moved UP if required for extra displays
CT display now uses dot matrix font if translation allows it
Driver / fuel buttons in garage are now only shown if relevant
Speed at redline is displayed beside each gear ratio in setup
Simple versions of F11/F12 displays are now available during an SPR
A message shows the name of any mod that can't be loaded in an SPR
Four-character mod names are shown in results table instead of MOD
Downforce tab is now shown for all vehicles
- previously was only for those with adjustable wings
- shows an estimated maximum speed based on wind resistance
- note: the estimate does not consider rolling resistance
FIX: Crash when two events on calendar used same event image
FIX: Calendar time could be wrong near start of daylight saving
FIX: Small camera movement on releasing LMB after 2-button rotation
FIX: Chat text in mods screen is now in front of interface buttons
FIX: User names that start with '.' now correctly displayed in chat
FIX: Crash if /track command was used while generating AI path info
FIX: AI skill level always used Latin codepage in F11/F12 menus
FIX: Engine brake reduction had no effect for EV but was visible
FIX: /setlap command error if name coloured and number 4 chars long
FIX: Replays auto-named with special characters could appear wrong

Controls:

A force feedback display is shown below the pedals (bottom right)
FIX: Mouse wheel gearshifts are now equivalent to 100ms keypress

Game:

Possible to reset if an approaching vehicle is moving slowly enough
Reset is now possible during a pit stop if the state is "finished"
Speed limiter (at 80 km/h) can be manually enabled if no pit lane
Auto gear shift: downshifts are now done at slightly lower rpm
FIX: Auto shift *up* did not work if max power rpm above redline
FIX: Driver swap enabled very high speed limiter if no pit lane

Mods:

An EV charge/discharge power bar in place of the clutch bar
- only visible if Options - View - Show pedals is enabled

A new "Cleanup" mode in the mods screen
- you can select to keep latest mods and test mods
- there is not yet a feature to keep replay mods

Support for new options set per vehicle instead of by race class
Support for "hub" subobject that moves and rotates with a wheel
Support for new pit speed limiter flashing light option
One wheel drive and no anti-roll if wheels are staggered
Click Skin ID in garage colours tab to copy ID to clipboard
Hold CTRL in Garage: Mods button becomes Test (direct to Test mode)
Opening mods screen is prevented if a rating request is in progress
FIX: Mod with 27 character name appeared in mods screen Test mode
FIX: Crash if mod had more than 64 materials

Dashboards:

Engine damage light on dashboard is now available if set in editor
Support for new speedo and tacho style options (see editor notes)
Support for dashboard backing texture system, text colours, opacity
Can also set background colour without supplying a backing texture
New needle pivot texture works better on light coloured dashboards
Dashboard brightness should now be the same as in the editor
- this update also affects the RB4 and MRT5 (recently updated)
FIX: Text size on dashboard more closely matches text in editor
FIX: Brightness of multi function display now matches the editor

New steering model for bikes:

Improved handling and braking ability
- Feet down steering model up to 7 km/h
- Low speed model only from 7 km/h to 18 km/h
- Interpolated model from 18 km/h to 36 km/h
- High speed model only above 36 km/h
FIX: Steering glitch between feet down model and low speed model

AI vehicle control:

Improved braking prediction so less running wide at corners
- considers brake balance (which is not ideal for every corner)
- can result in better lap times due to improved line following
AI braking prediction now takes account of engine braking
AI can now ride motorbikes (a bit slowly due to safety margin)
AI will drive more gently when off track on a bad surface
Bikes slow to avoid taking off over large humps in the road
Avoid unnecessary downshifts by looking ahead to see if needed
FIX: Sometimes could reach a maximum speed and stop accelerating

AI misc:

Distance to vehicle considered dangerous now depends on length
Distance to vehicle considered safe is reduced at low speed
- should prevent long vehicles hitting the brakes on green light
- gaps between vehicles may be smaller when speed is below 20 m/s
AI can enter configs with no path (but will not drive)
AI can now enter the game with an object (to just sit there)
Better collision avoidance when close behind or beside others
Reset is available even after engine switched off after long wait
Message history is no longer enabled for AI path generation
FIX: AI can now reset if in contact with a stationary vehicle
FIX: Errors in fuel calculation related to "Refuelling allowed"
FIX: It was possible for the fuel calculation to report 0 stints
FIX: A hang generating path for a mod with "Max up" wrongly set

AI in pit lane:

Target speed 1 km/h slower in pit lane to avoid speeding by mistake
- was possible for a powerful car to overspeed shifting 1st to 2nd
Improved driving in pit lane when close behind other drivers
Avoid excessive downshifting when approaching speed limit zone
Approx 1 second safety margin entering pit lane to avoid speeding
Use speed limiter or throttle to avoid wheelspins causing speeding
Smoother transitions switching between main path and pit lane path
FIX: Choice of pit stop box was wrong (bug introduced in 0.7B)
FIX: Slow start / stuck in pit stop if max torque at very low rpm
FIX: Some mods would brake too gently and miss the pit stop point
FIX: Some mods would overshoot their pit garage when parking
FIX: Can now reset at the end of a pit stop (e.g. fallen bike)

AI overtaking:

Various improvements to improve the overtaking decisions
Overtakes are considered on a group instead of individuals
Better estimate of the possibility and duration of a pass
Pass decision from low speed now allows for acceleration
When planning a pass time is allowed to pull in after pass
More distant consideration of other vehicles at high speed
There should be fewer dangerous overtakes in braking zones
FIX: AI could get pointlessly stuck behind a slower vehicle

Regional downloading system:

We now have 3 download locations for mods (NL/JP/US)
Faster downloads if you are in N/S America or Asia/Oceania
Locations in Asia and Oceania will download mods from Japan
Locations in North and South America will download from USA
Download redirection is handled automatically by our server
Regional downloads can be disabled by a new Misc Option
Yellow redirect message is shown the first time you are redirected

Graphics:

Dust colour on grass and dirt tracks now uses a dirt colour
- previously used average colour of surface which looked odd
- smoke and dust acquire lighting colour from car's location
FIX: Mudguard / handlebar / trailing arm subobject could disappear

Physics:

Improved bike physics (affects lean angle and tyre forces)
Pit speed limiter now based on drive speed instead of world speed
- prevents wheelspins (e.g. at RO) pushing car over the speed limit
FIX: Narrow cars were sucked in when near fence or narrow barrier

Audio:

Tone variation limited to 0.99 to prevent an engine sound bug
Switched off experimental "Prevent clipping" option by default

Multiplayer:

Improved setting of tyre state after receiving a position packet
- previous location of tyre contact is better estimated (for forces)
- most noticeable when viewed car had not been on screen for a while
- e.g. after tabbing to another car or fast forwarding a replay

Misc option "Full physics for remote cars" is enabled by default
- low res physics previously used for cars other than the 4 nearest
- option approximately doubles CPU usage by physics in multiplayer
- could cause issues at turn 1 with many cars depending on PC power
- use profiler display to check CPU usage with the option enabled
- see profiler by pressing car icon then P in Misc/Graphics options

Engine damage repair in pit stop
- yellow counts as minor damage (6 seconds)
- red counts as major damage (12 seconds)

Team arrow colours on small map are now enabled by a host option
- arrows on non-race small map take colour of first name character
- option is not yet available but is coded as /teamarrows=no/yes

Cancel button and ESC key to cancel the process of joining a host
- the currently downloading skin or mod is allowed to finish first
Temporary (free) hosts are shown without colours in List of Hosts
Stationary cars can now lag for longer (3 seconds) before vanishing
FIX: Remote car using pit speed limiter did not move smoothly
FIX: Crash enabling filter in List of Hosts after all were disabled

InSim:

IS_CPP packet with Time = 0 is instantly processed (not stored)
- allows it to be followed immediately by an IS_CPP with Time > 0
FIX: ZByte was not set in IS_OBH packet

New commands:

/status none|F9|F10|F11|F12|next|prev - sets status screen
E.g. /status next will cycle through the F9 to F12 status screens
(you could assign it to a CTRL+ or ALT+ key and then a wheel button)

/liveset and /pitins - do the functions of F11 and F12 menus

You can use operators:
= (set value)
+= (add to value)
-= (subtract from value)

Examples:
/pitins ftyre = r3 : change front tyres to R3 in pit stop
/pitins rtyre = super : change rear tyres to road super
/pitins fpressure = 1.1 : set front tyre pressure to 1.1 bar
/pitins fpressure += 0.1 : increase requested pressure by 0.1 bar
/pitins cancel : cancel all pit instructions
/pitins tyres always : change all tyres
/pitins tyres 20 : change tyres if wear > 20%
/liveset bbal 60 : set brake balance to 60%
/liveset rarb -= 0.1 : decrease rear ant-roll bar by 0.1

Available options for /pitins:
fuel, tyres, repair, symmetric
ftyre, fcamber_l, fpressure_l, fcamber_r, fpressure_r, fwing
rtyre, rcamber_l, rpressure_l, rcamber_r, rpressure_r, rwing
cancel, fcamber, fpressure, rcamber, rpressure

/pitins pressure commands can accept unit (psi/bar) (no unit = bar)
E.g. /pitins fpressure 30 psi

Available options for /liveset:
bbal, farb, rarb

Multiple commands on single line:

Multiple commands can now be added on a single line which sometimes
can avoid the need for a script file, e.g. to set a button to
change tyres in pit stop, you could use a double command:
/pitins ftyre super /pitins rtyre super

NOTE: some commands cannot be followed by another command:
/say /echo /join /rcm /pass /msg /altf /ctrlf

Maximum length of command and F key text increased to 95 characters
Wider text display in CTRL+ and ALT+ tabs in controls screen

Translations:

Updated translations - thanks to our volunteer translators


INSTALLATION:

A FULL version of LFS 0.7D must already be installed

To install the PATCH using the SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE:

1) Move or save the patch into your main LFS folder
2) Double click the patch to extract it to that folder
3) When you see "Confirm File Replace" select "Yes to All"
4) Now you can start LFS in the normal way

NOTE: You can see if the patch is correctly installed when you run
the program (LFS.exe). At the bottom of the entry screen: 0.7D25


DOWNLOAD:

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE 0.7D:
PATCH 0.7D TO 0.7D48 (SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE)
https://www.lfs.net/file_lfs.p ... =LFS_PATCH_7D_TO_7D48.exe (1.5 MB)

Last edited by Scawen, Wed 22 Nov 2023, 18:12.

First thing I should say is it only relates to the new tyre physics system and not the public version, in any way.

They are supposed to be an estimate of slip angle and slip ratio at the peak of lateral or longitudinal force. But it is just an estimate based on an earlier version of the tyre model. In fact there is a comment beside the function:

// TYRE TODO - very inaccurate

This function is currently only used in these diagrams and in some estimates for AI drivers and keyboard steering. It's not actually used in the physics, although it should represent it to some extent.

It is based on a simple function with a few multiplications and a division. It doesn't take a reading from the actual output forces and really it shouldn't be displayed in the editor at all at this point.

Anyway, that function is supposed to report an increase in the estimated slip angle (and ratio) at the peak, as grip increases, and also as tread stiffness decreases.

That's what I'm seeing with the Formula XR rear tyres:
R1: mu 1.61 SA 1.8 SR 3.2
R2: mu 1.52 SA 1.3 SR 2.3
R3: mu 1.47 SA 1.0 SR 1.7

But that doesn't correspond with what you said. In this case the inaccurate formula predicts that grippier tyres will produce a wider slip angle at peak lateral force, which is what I would expect.

WARNING: THIS IS A TEST

THIS DOES NOT CONTAIN NEW TYRE PHYSICS OR THE NEW GRAPHICS SYSTEM

PLEASE TEST BEFORE YOU POST


Hello Racers,

Here is a new test patch: 0.7D3

The changes are listed below.

0.7D3 is compatible with 0.7D

- You CAN connect online with 0.7D
- You CAN play replays from 0.7D

Please back up or rename your LFS.exe from version D so you can revert to it if necessary.


Changes from 0.7D2 to 0.7D3:

Arrows on non-race small map take colour of first name character
Speed at redline is displayed beside gear ratios in setup screen


Changes from 0.7D to 0.7D2:

Audio:

Tone variation limited to 0.99 to prevent an engine sound bug
Switched off experimental "Prevent clipping" option by default
Removed an old distortion effect from the default sound output

Misc:

Speed limiter set to 80 km/h can be manually enabled if no pit lane
Reduced glitch of multiplayer cars after TAB or fast forward replay
A small map is now displayed in layout square if there is a layout
FIX: Driver swap enabled very high speed limiter if no pit lane
FIX: Crash when two events on calendar used same event image


INSTALLATION:

A FULL version of LFS 0.7D must already be installed

To install the PATCH using the SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE:

1) Move or save the patch into your main LFS folder
2) Double click the patch to extract it to that folder
3) When you see "Confirm File Replace" select "Yes to All"
4) Now you can start LFS in the normal way

NOTE: You can see if the patch is correctly installed when you run
the program (LFS.exe). At the bottom of the entry screen: 0.7D3


DOWNLOAD:

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE 0.7D:
PATCH 0.7D TO 0.7D3 (SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE)
https://www.lfs.net/file_lfs.p ... e=LFS_PATCH_7D_TO_7D3.exe (1.1 MB)

Last edited by Victor, Sat 14 Jan 2023, 11:40.