WARNING: THIS IS A TEST

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

PLEASE TEST BEFORE YOU POST


EDIT: The official update is now available! Thanks for the testing!
https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/93160


Hello Racers,

Here is a new test patch: 0.6T7

It contains updates to allow the use of Samsung Odyssey+ and Pimax VR headsets.
There is a new option to lock the view to the horizon.
Some updates for AI are also included.
Various updates and fixes listed below.

0.6T7 is compatible with 0.6T

- You CAN connect online with 0.6T
- You CAN play replays from 0.6T

You cannot upload hotlaps made with this test patch because it is only a test patch, not an official patch.

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


Changes from 0.6T6 to 0.6T7:

Views:

View filter time minimum value reduced to 0.05 sec

Controllers:

Gearshift debounce code changed to help with the button release

Misc:

More translations updated - Thank you translators!


Changes from 0.6T to 0.6T6:

Views:

New setting "View lock" can be set to car / filter / horizon
FIX: Offset mirror was not drawn offset in forces draw (F)

VR:

Updated to the latest version of OpenVR (1.2.10)
Pimax headsets can now be used in native mode (rotated eye views)
Minimum value for manual FOV setting reduced from 80 to 75 degrees
FIX: An error in OpenVR caused Samsung Odyssey+ wrong eye levels
FIX: A loss of accuracy in the automatic FOV calculation

Multiplayer:

Server side improvement to speed up recovery when there is lag
FIX: Timing bug that allowed damage repair to be done in zero time

AI:

You can now set the skill level of individual AI drivers
Single player race limit increased to 32 drivers (AI + real)
You can now change AI live settings / pit instructions (F11 / F12)
Command /aiskill X to set skill level 1 to 5 (for adding new AI)
Command /aiset name X to set AI driver 'name' to skill level X
Command /aiset_all X to set all local AI drivers to skill X
FIX: In overtaking lesson all AI drivers had PRO skill level
FIX: Non-qualifying race restart affected the overtaking lessons
FIX: Spam "This car does not have a handbrake" when hit parked AI

Interface:

Increased resolution of dashboard texture
Faster saving of screenshots when you press CTRL+S
Driver name and AI skill level are now shown in F11 / F12 windows
Entry screen shows "Unlock Live for Speed" instead of "Demo racer"
New key CTRL+P to copy the LFS window to clipboard excluding border
FIX: Some narrow unicode characters corrupted by an incorrect width
FIX: Host options could state "no bans" before clicking "edit bans"
FIX: Character dialog could be messed up when selecting languages

Misc:

SHIFT+F2/F3 can adjust time in single player mode (not hotlapping)
FIX: Attributes no longer copied when opening file by command line
FIX: Crash at startup when loading a corrupted car model file


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

A FULL version of LFS 0.6T 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: 0.6T7


DOWNLOADS:

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE 0.6T:
PATCH 0.6T TO 0.6T7 (SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE)
www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_PATCH_6T_TO_6T7.exe (1.6 MB)

FOR HOSTING ONLY:
DEDICATED HOST 0.6T7 (non-graphical version for hosting only):
www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_S3_DCON_6T7.zip (1.8 MB)

Last edited by Scawen, Thu 14 Mar 2019, 10:22.

Quote from three_jump :

As it came up a few times now. When you talk about CPU loads (or hardware requirements in general) and optimisation / performance considerations, do you have a specific plattform in mind?
Of course having lean and fast code is always a plus, but with the new lighting system (and tire physics) I would guess some people might to upgrade their PC.

No, I don't have any specific requirements in mind. It's really hard to say, without having loads of computers to test on. That's where the community will come in and we'll have to see how it goes when it goes into public testing. Anyone who struggles with the current LFS version will definitely need to upgrade as the shadow maps are quite heavy and the textures with shine level in the alpha channel take more memory. Also the higher mesh details are becoming a serious graphics card memory consideration. You can't reduce that by selecting half texture resolution.

I think LFS would be completely dead as a business if we only targeted the latest graphics cards. We earn an income from many customers in countries where the latest super gaming rig is just too much to afford, so I really hope that LFS will be able to run well with a lot of cars on track on computers with a few years old performance levels.

On the other hand Eric is using the new features and trying to get the graphics up to a certain level so the graphics card and CPU requirements are increasing.

Quote from 5tag :

Okay this looks awesome and all but *for now* can you please limit it to static daytime? Give us the updated tracks to play with first. Dynamic lighting and nighttime opens a whole other can of worms that would push this patch many months further away.

You seem to think Eric already has all the tracks finished and we are just waiting for me now. But that is not the case.

Quote from Bass-Driver :

@Scawen:
Did you do something to make it harder to crack this game?
especially after this big update.

Not yet but that is another project on my list.

Lighting, tyre physics and the master server protocol are my priorities.

Nice cars and drifting! We are interested in providing a much larger flat area at some point. Of course it is a lower priority than getting to a release with the new lighting and new physics.


Here is a new version of LFSOpenVR.dll which is cleaned up and does no logging.

This one works differently and should be future proof even if the bug in OpenVR is fixed (I raised an issue on GitHub but it shouldn't affect us).

It now calls GetProjectionMatrix instead of GetProjectionRaw, then works out the raw values from the matrix, reversing some steps of the ComposeProjection function in the GetProjectionRaw documentation.

https://www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFSOpenVR_20190225.zip

Quote from RC-Maus :

So still wonder why

The main problem is latency rather than bandwidth. In other words, the problem is the time delay between the server and the guest computers, not the frequency of the position packets.

Of course, we can't solve this latency problem by increasing bandwidth. In some cases the latency can be made worse by increasing bandwidth.

Each time a packet arrives on your computer, LFS runs that car through the physics system from the time it was sent, to the time it arrived, to try to predict where the car is now. It is always a bit wrong, of course, or sometimes a lot, depending on how long the delay was and how many driver input changes have been taking place.

Increasing the number of packets per second increases your CPU load (which can result in lower frame rates and worse latency - imagine this at T1 of a race) but will not get the cars into better positions than they already are, because that error is due to latency rather than bandwidth.

I think when you and other drivers are connected with good connections to a server with low latency, the other cars are not jumping around all over the place. Is that true? The problems begin when you or someone else has a laggy, high latency connection to the server. That problem wouldn't be helped by increased packets per second. In that case the lagging remote car would just flick more frequently into more of the wrong positions.

Quote from borja_s13 :

Just a question @Scawen, will the new light and shadow system help to create a night version? I mean, to add some lights to the cars and play it at night, because now that you guys are updating every shadow, I think that it will work very well.

As three_jump says, this is just a step in the right direction. I don't think there is time to add night version support in the next release because too many complications e.g. headlights. But what I do plan to do for now is share lighting between tracks, so each track doesn't have to just have 3 weather configs, but they can all use any of them.

Quote from Degats :

I'm trying to work out whether the shine on the wet grip area is supposed to be water or shiny rubber.
I'm going to regret saying this, because it's another shader rabbit hole to go down (sorry if this delays the release ), but for "overexposed" shine like this, it could probably do with a subtle amount of bloom.

It's just an experimental water shine effect as there are sprinklers there at Rockingham but it isn't currently supported by physics.

I don't expect to add any post-processing effects at this release. I need to finish up on the lighting and shadows so I can get to sort out the tyre physics and get that to a releasable state if at all possible. I can't bear the thought of trying to merge the current changes you see in the development version, into the public version. I want to get past that point where there are two branches and I want LFS back on the right track again.

Physics, mechanics, linear algebra, calculus, C/C++, D3D or similar, vehicle dynamics, tyre physics.

Quote from Evolution_R :

..."LFS "runs" at 100 Hz, so you're going to end up with a little stuttering if your display is locked at 60 Hz."
...
So my question is this going to be improved somehow with the new graphics / physics update? Thanks!

It's a good question. If I can get the graphics ready to a condition that is suitable for this release and could then get back on the physics so that is suitable in time for Eric to have finished the tracks, then this opens the possibility of working on separate physics and graphics threads. That would be a great help and the plan would be to combine this with some means of producing visual frames at the correct visual frequency for the monitor. That would either be by using a high frequency physics update that can be interrupted at any point for a graphical frame, or by using a lower frequency physics update that can be interpolated to produce graphical frames.

Obviously the graphics needs to be done then that would make it releasable, even with the current physics and it's possible this may happen. But I really hope I can sort out the new physics so we can move on.

Hi, I'm sorry but Arabic is not possible yet. It's mainly because of the right-to-left complication which needs special coding.

I know Arabic would be popular and I would like to support it eventually. But for now we need to get the new graphics and tyre physics finished.

I don't actually think VOB mods affect other people, because the mod is only on their computer, not yours. On your computer you just see the unmodified car - loading happens in the same way as usual. So if the mod is constructed in such a way that is has the same physics bounding box, then it passes the OOS check and all is well and collisions take place as normal.

We don't support such mods in any way. They are only 'wrong' in the sense that all cars of that type look different on the modded computer. But I don't believe they are harming other players.

We don't have any predictions for other things. The graphical updates are really important and I still have some more work to do on them. Eric still has some tracks to update. Depending on the timing, maybe I can get the tyre physics updated to a good state in time for the graphical update, although it is possible to release the new graphics with the old tyre physics. The long awaited tyre physics update is also really important because we'll be able to move into the future and consider car updates and so on. We'll see how the timing works out.

I don't know much about VOB mods, but some of them can have the correct physics mesh so they can be used online without harming any other players. From the crash address I was given, it looks like the crash was when reading an object, so that's why I'm asking if any of the people who got a crash, were using a modified VOB. But no-one has answered yet so I'm still worried about the possibility it could a be a problem in some standard installations.

Either way, I'd better add a thorough validity check when loading an object because a crash is not acceptable in any case. But it would be reassuring to know that it was caused by a modified VOB, otherwise there's a more serious bug here.

Quote from ardalan5090 :

Hi
Scawen , please add arabic and farsi translate in this version , our team can translate this ... you should do our font and utf-8 compatable in your software ....

Thanks alot

Hi,

I'd really like to do Arabic at some time. It's just the sort of thing I like to do because I like LFS to be accessible to everyone and I'd be interested in learning how the Arabic alphabet works. But it is much more difficult than you imagine. We are talking weeks of work for me before you guys can start to translate it. Of course languages like Arabic and Hebrew have the difficulty of being right-to-left text (but with occasional left to right Latin text within that) and this means a lot of rewriting of many functions in Live for Speed.

There will be a lot of studying for me to do and a lot of problems to solve. I can't just click my fingers and magically all the code is done.

Now, I hope you will understand, I am in the middle of some extremely important graphical work and need to get the tyre physics finished. This must be done or Live for Speed sales will dry up completely and we will have to go and get another job. There is no doubt at all, this is a higher priority than adding a couple of tricky languages.

Unfortunately I was interrupted by someone taking our servers down two weeks ago, so I had to stop all the work I was doing and make a new patch in this old version of LFS which can resist the attacks. So that attack has slowed my development by maybe three weeks so everything that I will do in future will come a little later than it would have been

That is really off topic as it's nothing to do with the test patch.

But, for a quick answer, the new tyre physics is based on a mathematical model for producing the output forces from the current state of the tyre (velocity, rotation, camber etc.) instead of a 'made up' combination of lateral and longitudinal forces from 'made up' slip curves to try to match the data. It provides a more realistic response for steering and application of throttle and brakes, affect of camber and so on. It feels good to drive but is not finished and I would like to get it done for the big update we are currently working on (which is a really important graphical update).

I guess you could find more information about the tyre model by searching for my posts, but you would have to search back quite far. I'm a bit too busy to go looking for it now.

Quote from MacedoSTI :

i feel something different gearbox from some cars... and fxo tyres gets hot easly on fernbay...

I tested it on all WR hotlaps yesterday and it ran them all without going OOS.

So I'm sure there was no unintentional change to physics.

Quote from bobloblaw :

Does this mean the official update will include the current WIP tracks?

That's not the plan. This patch is supposed to be a quick update to help get LFS back online again. On future plans, I'm hoping to release the new graphics system and new updated tracks with the new physics, not in this update (that is "hope" not "promise" for anyone reading - and we are talking months, not weeks, for that). I don't know if it's possible to re-enable any of that lost lighting info in the test patch but I'll have a look.

Quote from chucknorris :

Sorry for the mood killer but the replay function seems broken.
I've played on a R & R8 server. Both replays won't start with a "Corrupted file" message.

I can reproduce that bug - seems you can record MP replays but you cannot playback MP replays.

Quote from dragon66 :

I didn't get the 40 second hang and can't connect to any servers. Also did not have to re activate which is weird.

Maybe you had R7 before so you already converted the files. You can't connect to the servers when we are under attack. Check the status at www.lfsworld.net - we are still working on the server side solution for that.

Quote from RC-Maus :

LFS R8 can't connect to master also Dcom R8 lost connection to master

Please check the status at www.lfsworld.net - you can connect when we are not under attack.

Quote from Krisz16 :

After installation:

Could not open vertex shader (World2)
Could not open pixel shader (World2)

Incorrect installation - there are some World2 files in the installer which need to be in the data\shaders folder.

WARNING: THIS IS A TEST

NOTE: THIS DOES NOT CONTAIN NEW TYRE PHYSICS

PLEASE TEST BEFORE YOU POST


Hello Racers,

Here is a new TEST PATCH: 0.6R22

It contains some updates related to some recent changes on our servers:
- A more robust method for connecting to the master server
- Skin downloading now works with the updated website

There are many updates to the layout editor.
These are described in the change log below and in a separate thread:
https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/92152

0.6R22 is compatible with 0.6R

- You CAN connect online with 0.6R
- You CAN play replays from 0.6R

You cannot upload hotlaps made with this test patch because it is only a test patch, not an official patch.

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


Changes from 0.6R21 to 0.6R22:

Layout editor:

ALT key now temporarily hides the outlines of selected objects

Interface:

More updated translations - Thank you translators!


Changes from 0.6R to 0.6R21:

Multiplayer:

More robust method for connecting to the master server
More informative error report for "Unknown file transfer error"
FIX: Skin downloading now works with the protected website

Layout editor:

New layout editor instructions: docs\Autocross.txt
New cut / copy / paste system using standard keyboard shortcuts
COPY (CTRL+C) toggles between real selection and copied selection
Place objects (O) key is equivalent to PASTE followed by COPY
Move objects (M) key is equivalent to CUT followed by PASTE
UNDO (CTRL+Z) and REDO (CTRL+Y) functions are now included
A green or yellow outline is drawn around the selected objects
Original objects are shown with a grey outline after COPY pressed
Editor buttons and keys affect real or copied selection - not both
PGUP / PGDN can now be used to adjust Z value of selected objects
C key now clears selected object type as well as selected objects
It is now possible to set marshall circles to have zero diameter
Objects and marshall circles can now be selected at the same time
Multiple object rectangle select CTRL+drag with left mouse button
Start position / checkpoints / finish line now in control section
You can hold SHIFT to keep objects selected when exiting edit mode

Graphics:

Slight reduction in some excessively bright driver models
RAW files are no longer used and skies now use DDS textures
Existing RAW files are converted the first time LFS is started
Removed option to view sky in 16-bit colour

Interface:

New URL for skin uploads lfs.net/skins
Text message dialog now has variable width
Clip mouse to screen is now CTRL+M as CTRL+C is used for copy
Command /axsel to copy layout editor selection text to clipboard

Free view camera position text command:

Type /cp to copy a text camera position to the clipboard
The resulting text can be saved in a text file, forum, etc. or into
another instance of Live for Speed to reproduce the camera position

Commands:

Improved processing of command line to be more flexible
New command /settings=X.txt - uses X.txt instead of cfg.txt
Command /settings must be the first on command line or in file
Command /mp (join local host) can now be used on the command line

Misc:

Live for Speed can now recover from a graphics driver error
Textures are no longer reloaded when changing weather (faster)
LFS starting in borderless window mode now goes to the same monitor
New option "Display LFS logo in game" (not optional in demo mode)
English file is no longer saved when LFS starts (can be deleted)
New check for corrupted 3D models to avoid possible crash on load

VR:

New commands to skip F8 menu /vr reset_headset and /vr use_relative

InSim:

New value PMO_POSITION for IS_AXM packet to report a blank position
New packet IS_CIM reports a connection's interface / editor mode
New values PMO_SELECTION_REAL and PMO_MOVE_MODIFY for PMOFlags
New values TTC_SEL_START and TTC_SEL_STOP for IS_TTC
New value PMO_GET_Z for IS_AXM packet to report Z values
New value PMO_AVOID_CHECK for PMO_ADD_OBJECTS avoids validity check
UCID can be set in some IS_AXM packets by an external InSim program
to make the resulting packets appear as if sent by an editing admin
(PMO_ADD_OBJECTS / PMO_DEL_OBJECTS / PMO_CLEAR_ALL)


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

A FULL version of LFS 0.6R 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: 0.6R22


DOWNLOADS:

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE 0.6R:
PATCH 0.6R TO 0.6R22 (SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE)
www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_PATCH_6R_TO_6R22.exe (1.4 MB)

FOR HOSTING ONLY:
DEDICATED HOST 0.6R22 (non-graphical version for hosting only):
www.lfs.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_S3_DCON_6R22.zip (1.8 MB)

Last edited by Scawen, Tue 3 Jul 2018, 14:26.

Quote from Flotch :

back refreshing the mailbox

I am still working on graphics code (mainly optimisations at the moment) and need to get onto the tyre physics code and then the packet encryption. Eric still has more tracks to update. So it's still quite some time yet.

Quote from lfsrm :

But it's still a little bit problematic in case of night/day transition, as you cant use the indirect lightning in real time conditon ?

Yes, because the indirect lighting has "amount of sky visible" and "artificial light colour" stored separately. So the sky colour / brightness can be varied and the ambient lighting can vary in real time.

I have tried to design it to be able to handle changing lighting (day / night transition) although that is complicated and seems lower priority than the physics updates and a lot of other things I need to do and finish, so I don't know when that will appear.

Quote from lfsrm :

Also is the new dynamic shadow also can be rendred inside the car interior ?

Yes, inside the cars too, cars do cast shadows on themselves.

Quote from Keiichi_Tsuchiya :

Any plans on non directional sun light bounce?

Yes, there is also a component of ambient lighting contribution from light reflected on nearby objects.

The ambient vertex lighting consists of: sky light, artificial light, light from nearby objects.

Quote from nacim :

Did you converted all the textures to sRGB or do you convert to linear on the pixel shader?

I use D3DSAMP_SRGBTEXTURE so we can use standard sRGB textures without needing to convert them in the pixel shader. Then all the processing internally is linear and finally the output is converted to sRGB using D3DRS_SRGBWRITEENABLE.

Quote from nacim :

Nice, I was waiting for this one for a long time! Will you still use vertex color to bake indirect lighting/ambient occlusion? I simply hope we don't loose indirect lighting, it would downgrade a lot the sense of depth on tracks.

Yes there is still an offline render for the ambient lighting, but now it is a single offline ambient render shared between all lighting configurations. For anyone who doesn't know what I am talking about, this is the thing mainly concerned with sky lighting, so for example you can have two different places that are not lit by the sun, but one of them might be a lot darker than another because the sky is obscured.

See in the attached images, the first two have all direct (sun) lighting switched off. The first one is simply default ambient lighting without the offline render. The second one has the offline ambient render applied. Finally the realtime direct lighting and shadows are applied in the third image.

NOTE: This is the original South City track with the old textures and no specular lighting added. This is simply a plain conversion of the old South City into the new system and Eric hasn't had a go at it yet.

Quote from denis-takumi :

@Scawen, as I noticed, you say that the merging of the graphic code into the version with the new physics of tires is a nightmare for you. Why not in 2006 do not make version code with a branching, this would reduce your time to merge different versions of the game.

At the time, I believed the new tyre physics was about to be released and had done a significant amount of work in the new version. It was difficult to avoid clashes in the code because of the number of changes so I deleted the old code out, thinking it was finished other than any emergency patches.

If I had known at the time I would be going for over a decade with two versions, I would have taken a different approach.

Well, since you ask about the physics, I might as well say, although I am very well aware and should point out that plans may change.

I'm really working as hard as I can on the graphics but taking care not to go into mental fatigue. The reason is that Eric should have the best version to work with, so his work looks the same as it will end up.

To explain what I mean... for example, right now he doesn't have the new shadow code because really it needs to look right in the track editor, and the old shadows have disappeared at this point. But currently the shadows only work in game because it uses a special draw mode. So I need to make that draw mode work in the track editor. So there's the work for the week, as each time he moves an object it needs to update the object on the GPU so the shadows can appear.

What point am I making... well every graphical change has lead to repercussions, other things that should be updated to make the most of the new stuff. It's quite exciting and that's why I've been very motivated to do a lot of work recently.

Anyway, as some of you know, due to a separation in the code when the new tyre physics was to be released may years ago, there are two separate versions of LFS, the development version with the new tyre physics and the public version with the old tyre physics. The trouble is that updates (to graphics, interface, etc.) in each version need to be merged into the other version. It has been like a chain around my neck attached to an iron ball and one that I want to get rid of. At the moment there are just so many changes for the new graphics, it would be a bit of a nightmare to try and merge that into the public version. The only way to avoid that tedious merge now is to get the physics complete to a point where it is good enough to release. So the development version can be finally released to you and LFS will be back to a single version again.

So my intention is to keep on this graphics stuff as much as Eric needs right now, then get that physics suitable for release while he is finishing the remaining tracks.

That's how I see it right now, it's an exciting thought that LFS development could be kind of back on track again and that's why I am hoping to be able to do. But in reality as we have seen, there are sometimes unforeseen things that come up and change the plans. I hope it will all go as planned!

Well, I don't really need advice on prioritisation.

I'd like very much to work on the tyre physics, because of all the possibilities it will open up, but currently I am working on the graphical updates, more shaders for Eric to use.

In fact, LFS does need graphical updates as it gets the most criticism in that area, unfairly at times. Comments along the lines of "LFS is from 2002 and hasn't had a single update since then, therefore it has shit graphics". Typical comment from someone who doesn't even have a look to see how far it has come. But in truth there is quite a lot of modernisation that needs to be done, and I'm doing the things that allow Eric to make some significant improvements.

As I've pointed out before, most people have one thing they think is most important. That may be graphics, physics, autocross objects, changing weather, network security, etc. And it seems many of these people find it totally incredible that I am not devoting all my time to their own favourite issue. In fact, all these things need to be worked on and they are all challenging. Luckily I enjoy working on them so we'll get there eventually.

It's not really good advice to ask me not to prevent a crash issue that is badly affecting someone, when it might only take a day or two to fix. So as I said, I'll have a look into it.

I'm not sure how many times I will need to repeat that I do intend to encrypt the master server protocol to improve security. Maybe if I say it 100 times, you will believe me? I expect not - you'll only believe it when you see it. Well, that is fine, but you don't need to keep making negative comments about how the devs don't seem to care about piracy and so on.

In that case, the devs don't care about physics. The devs don't care about graphics. The devs don't care about tracks. The devs don't care about cars. Yes, we do, and we are working on them, but it takes time. I'd be grateful if you could learn a little patience, and understand that YOUR priority does not rank about everyone else's priorities.

Each time one person goes on about their own personal priority, we can't just stop everything else we are working on, just to try and shut you up. Please, be a bit more mature and have some PATIENCE!

Well... it does need graphical updates to stay vaguely up to date. If you take a look at the really old versions of LFS, you'll see it has come along a great deal over the years and there wouldn't be anyone at all online any more if it looked now how it did back then.

That is important, and it's important for me to try and make sure the 3D system can allow Eric to create the effects he wants to. Or at least some of the effects. I'm always behind what he would really like it to be.

I had a relaxed month in August due to the school holidays and had a nice time here with the family. I'm back on getting some updated shaders finished so that Eric will be able to use them. We'll be able to release a patch with some fixes and graphical updates on Blackwood, Rockingham and Westhill.

Then what I really want to do is get the tyre physics finished so we can release the needed updates and then hopefully get onto supporting some elements of user created content. I can't be any more specific on that as there are no fixed plans.

Quote from Bmxtwins :

Needs a squishy tail so you can ride it in the woods. Roads are for sissies haha

My preferred hobby is shown in the attached pictures.

I would like to add bikes to LFS. More likely motorbikes.

Thinking forward in the short-medium range I would like to:

1) Release an update with the current physics, with Eric's Blackwood fixes and minor updates on Westhill and Rockingham including 3D kerbs.
2) Finish some graphical updates that will help with new tracks.
3) Get back to tyre physics and release it with the Scirocco.

Note, that is not a list of promises. It is simply a short list of things as I personally see it.

In the future I am still interested in various things that the LFS team and I cannot make any promises about, but I can state an interest in. Such as bikes, karts, trucks, user created content.

Hi there, we have been working hard, but the tyre physics have not progressed since the January update.

It's not because I took around a week off rebuilding my road bike. Although I am lucky enough to have been able to deliberately take a career that focusses on allowing me time, rather that maximising my income. So it was really nice that I was able build my own bike up from the component parts.

In fact apart from one month where I did less work than the others, since January I have been working on shader updates and editor functions that help Eric create some of the effects he wants to. In fact there is a lot more to be done, but the current version allows a few more possibilities, and also does existing things in more efficient ways.

So, as usual, good updates but slower than you or I would like!

Eric has been working on one of his new tracks in particular and also done fixes and updates on Blackwood, Westhill and Rockingham which we hope to release in an update in the not too distant future.