Yay, finally managed to render the background in my scene!
Ok, it's not perfect, lighting is off, car isn't in perspective, but it's close enough for me!

I've written some step-by-step instructions (in the style of Ian.H's help file included with the original scenes), so should anyone else come across this 'simple' problem of adding a background, here's how I did it (with the help of Davo and Gunn - and XCNuse, i'm sure what you're saying is spot on, but I haven't gotten that far in the book yet.. )


How do I add a background to the scene?
---------------------------------------
- Press M to bring up the Material Editor.
- From the Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters, click on the button:

Add

- Scroll to the bottom of the Sub-Materials list to select the new 'Material #0'
- From the Blinn Basic Parameters menu:
- Next to the 'Diffuse' colour, click on the small, blank square button.
- Select 'Bitmap' from the list and browse to your background file.
- From the Coordinates menu:
- Select Environ, Mapping: Screen

- Press F10 to bring up the rendering window
- Click on the 'Renderer' tab and find 'Brazil: CSG Server' options
- Enable the [/] Material option and note there is a 'None' button next to it

- From the Material Editor, drag the 'Standard' button next to 'Material #0'
- To the Renderer Window 'None' button as previously mentioned
- Select 'Instance' and press OK

How can I see the background in my scene?
-----------------------------------------
- Press ALT+B to bring up the Viewport Background Editor
- Click 'Files' and browse to your background file.
- Select the [/] Display Background check box and press OK

You can now use the cameras in the bottom right hand corner
to try and put your car into perspective. Then, once done...

- Press F10 to bring up the rendering window (if not already there)
- Hit the Render button and make a coffee =)

Davo,

I've tried, gone back, checked your screen shot, tried again, checked again, etc.. I just can't get it to allow me to drag/drop the bitmap onto the Ground Plane Material button - I just get the back rectangle with the 'no-way' icon.

I've attached my screengrab, so hopefully you can spot something obvious and let me know!

cheers,
Sweeney

Quote from Davo :

Here's a basic render showing the differences betwen the two methods. Top is using the ground plane, bottom environment.

Wow, what a difference! - thanks for taking the time out to put that screen grab together, i'll give it a go and let you know my results!

Thanks for the speedy replies chaps. I'm quite literally half way there using Gunn's method... Render 2

Quote from Davo :

If you use Gunn's method I think you'll need to disable the brazil ground plane.

So, my next question is... how do I disable the ground plane ?!

Hi Render-frienders,

I've grabbed the excellent scenes from http://www.morrowdesigns.eu/downloads.php?cat_id=1 and rendered my car no problem. However, I can't seem to change the background, eg: add a photo backdrop or somesuch..

I've read the excellent tutorials and downloaded the AVI from the forum, but they just use a plain white background.

Googling for answers led me down the path of "simply" choose Rendering from the menu, then Environment, and specifying the Environment Map as a jpg image, but when it comes to render time.. nothing. Just plain ol' white again.

I have tried (honest) to help myself, but now i'm stuck.
Can anyone point me in the right direction..?

cheers,
Sweeney
My 1st Render

Quote from Meanie :

I just thought that maybe i could record some of my races and send to him, that's all.

I thought this was possible ? -- or am I getting confused.. I seem to remember a while back that in Demo Mode I could watch a replay of an S2 Car/Track and then drive 1 lap of the combo in a "demo" mode ?

..or maybe I was dreaming.. illepall

I'm often not the quickest on the track, but I follow a couple of simple rules if i'm joining a server which I have limited knowledge of..

1. Download a setup from teaminferno website, so at least you've got half a chance of having a competitively setup car.

2. Watch the race leader in car for a couple of laps to understand where the fast corners are, braking points, what gear you need to be in and what line to be on.

3. Start at the back of the pack and put into practice what you've just seen / learnt

4. If you're anywhere to being lapped, make a point of moving off the racing line and slowing down to let them through easily. (or even off the track if you want to make sure)

5. Goto Step 2.

Racing offline is fine for getting an idea about the track layout, but to go fast, and get progressively faster, nothing beats seeing how other people drive round and then applying that knowledge to your driving.

Another Sim-Dad here.. daughter of 10 months sits on my lap and presses all the pretty coloured buttons on the wheel, usually Look Left / Right whilst i'm trying to go round corners...

Quote :

I also think they should have their own section in LFS forum.

I second that idea.. maybe the Demo should also have a nag screen to point them to the forum so they understand it's not just a game they've downloaded, but also a community they've joined...

You might want to consider putting your firewall back on, once you've got your dedi host running..

As a separate thing, when I set my Dedi host up, I couldn't see my own server in the Master Server list, but everyone else could see it and connect to it without a problem.. So, bear that in mind when you're testing and have someone else check to see if they can see your host in the Master Server list.

A friend had this exact thing happen to them.. working fine one day, then unplugged it and brought it round to the Team Racing room, plugged it back in and nothing. Took the whole thing apart and checked cables and all sorts.. power was fine on another Momo, so something internally had broke, but nothing obvious.

Only thing we could do was find the receipt and swap it back at the shop where he bought it. Which is the only useful thing of not buying online..

Sorry 'bout yer luck tho..

Can you connect to your Dedi server from your own PC ? - just to make sure your server is actually working and accepting connections locally..

For Port Forwarding, make sure you have enabled both TCP and UDP for port 63392 on your firewall/router and that its pointing to your Server host IP address...

Also, does your Demo server show up on the master list, or is your friend just typing in the name?

http://www.liveforspeed.net/host.htm

Last edited by sweeney, Tue 9 May 2006, 16:18.

Tab to the car in front to see how much faster they are going than me..

Quote :

Does anyone know where I can get a good PC racing wheel, preferably from a SAFE, english online store, or, for anyone who lives in the UK, a shop in England

If you don't trust online stores, or can't wait for it to be delivered, or simply want somewhere you can quickly take it back to when it all goes horribly wrong... then you can buy the Logitech Momo for £79.99 at your local Comet shop.

Quote :

I'd like a "Volvo 240 GLT Estate '88" on two wheels exiting the BL1 chicane please.

With some tyres being knocked over too.

And please include Scawen, Eric and Victor in there somewhere, perhaps with their heads stuck on Raphael's cherubs, peering over a barrier.

Well, I couldn't find pictures of Scawen, Eric or Victor (someone could point me in the right direction for these ?) - but the rest I think I got in there..

Bit of artistic licence with the chicane, but it's all good..
Volvo at BL1 Chicane

Well, I don't think anyone requested this combo, but picking up the baton and starting up ye olde photoshoppe and finding an old picture i'd done from GT4 waaay back when (I have LFS now, why do I need GT4 ? )..

Anyway, enough with the excuses, here's my effort:
GT40 at Fern Bay

(no prizes for spotting the obvious mistake.. )

I also did this one a while back, when I was bored in the US..
XF GTI going through a muddy puddle..

Last edited by sweeney, Tue 4 Apr 2006, 23:12.

Ok, I have a workaround for the problem.. first the cause:

The problem only happens if you start the stats.exe AFTER you are already on the grid. Even if you Vote to restart or Restart via the Dedicated Server, it will go straight from "Race Started" to "Race Ended" and sit there with "Waiting for the race to start..." message in stats.exe window (see my previous message for the output)

This is with DedicatedServer set to true in the xml configuration.

Workaround:
Simply END the race and hit the Go button. You do not need to restart stats.exe, but this time it will see that a race has started. You can also Restart the race and stats.exe will see that the race has been restarted and it will work perfectly.

Conclusion:
Start Stats.exe first. Then leave the garage to join the grid.

If you do not run in Dedicated Server mode, then you must start stats.exe first before leaving the garage.

~~~
I hope thats a bit clearer as to why I was getting the problem. There maybe something you can do to fix it, but seeing as it only appears to be me having a problem, I wouldn't worry too much!

Smith, Thanks for producing LFS Stats - its absolutely spot on!

Last edited by sweeney, Fri 24 Mar 2006, 12:14.

Quote from smith :

sweeney, I'm not completely understood your problem, but maybe setting DedicatedMode to true in stats.xml can help to avoid restarting stats.exe after race restart...

Thanks for the swift replies. I set the Dedicated Server to true in the XML and i'm running the LFS dedicated server on a separate machine. I connect up using my PC as a client machine and start stats.exe.. the following is copied/pasted from the stats.exe DOS window:

LFS stats! v1.34 (c) 2004-2005 Alexander 'smith' Rudakov
Connecting [127.0.0.1 65000 64999 mypassword]..MCI.MCI.STA....VER
LFS S2 VER 0.5Q
Dedicated server mode on, press Ctrl+C to stop.
Waiting for the race to start...
> sweeneyL voted to RESTART
Race started
Race ended
No finished racers found, skipping.
Waiting for the race to start...
> sweeneyL voted to RESTART
Race started
Race ended
No finished racers found, skipping.
Waiting for the race to start...

I hope that helps you understand what i'm doing wrong!

I'm having some problems getting LFS stats running.. when I start the stats.exe program, it correctly comes up and starts going through the initialisation and then says "Waiting for the race to start.."

I hit restart on my lfs pc which duly comes up on LFS stats console that I am restarting the race.

However, by the time it has gone through the "Connecting [<ip address>] ... STA..VER.." the race is already started on my LFS pc, and the server is then back to square one "Waiting for the race to start.."

Anyone have any idea's as to what i'm doing wrong ? :pillepall

My car after driving your track... :bananadea

..
..
..
..and yes, I do drive an XF Banana GTi

Heh heh, the horn is ready..

Download Dixie Horn:
http://www.ffs-racing.co.uk/images/dixiehorns.zip

Included are rudimentary instructions to install.. basically you just need to replace your existing HORN5.RAW which is in the LFS game directory, /data/snd
with HORN5.RAW in the zip file.

Start Live For Speed..
Load track with suitable jump options..
Use SHIFT+H to change to Horn 5

Hold down the horn button to hear the full Dixie tune!

<Rosco P. Coltrane Mode/ON> Oooooh, I love it, I love it.. <R.P.C.M/OFF>

Don't forget, only *you* hear the horn.. you'll have to foist the custom horn on your friends and family if you want them to hear it too!! (maybe LFS S3 will allow downloadable hornage..? )

Thanks, I kinda got round it by using a font that looked close enough (college.ttf) and then painted in the rest to square off the "1".. looks good enough for me!

I chose a different car just for fun (FXO) and added some chrome bumpers and wing mirrors for a real retro look!!

Thumbnail:
http://www.ffs-racing.co.uk/images/fxo_general_th.jpg

Skin:
http://www.ffs-racing.co.uk/images/fxo_general.jpg

Now, just need to sort out that horn..

sweeet.. )

anychance you can post the font you used for the numbers on the door ? -- its what i'm missing right now!

I could probably come up with a General Lee skin for you.. let me know if you're still interested and i'll fix up a nice XFG GTi for ya

Quote :

There should be an option for packet/second too.

Heh heh, that's the obvious..

Quote :

/pps=4 :smoothness (3-6) number of car updates per second

Thanks Victor - I saw the option for smoothness, but didn't directly equate that to kb/s.

Just out of interest, are there any hard/fast rules as to how many cars a server can host ? - (I have 256kb upload)