Quote from ORION :

What do you expect to happen when you clamp negative mipmaps except non-negative mipmap levels?
LFS cant just override the driver settings :P

Well, according to Nvidia's explanation, this clamp is supposed to lock the program's MIP settings, but also give me the best quality, which it didn't. I'M SUING!!

Quote from M.Mos :

In your Nforce driver. Try set 'Negative LOD bias' to 'Clamp' , this way LFS can't change the Mip bias anymore (the mip bias slider in LFS has no affect). Giving you best Mip bias always.

Thank you guys for your help! The above quote turned out to be the problem, although the weird thing is it was REVERSE!

Apparently, LFS does not work well with the Clamp settings, because it seems to default to the worst MIP level rather than the best. I unclamped (or "allowed") Negative MIP bias, and the slider now functions correctly in LFS. The most negative setting, of course, giving me the best image.

Thanks again!

Quote from tristancliffe :

MIP Bias in LFS?

Unfortunately, that was not the problem. In fact, the slider did nothing as far as visual changes go.

I attached a picture I took just to illustrate what I am talking about. Notice how low-res the road looks compared to the rest of the game as the depth increases. Nasty!

Alright, so now I have an Nvidia 7800 GT, a Sempron 3000+, and 1 GB of RAM. When I fired up LFS after the upgrade, I saw that the image quality had become worse!

The main problem is that as the road texture goes off into the distance, it becomes blurry very fast. I thought it might be my Anisotropic Flitering settings, but I cranked it all the way up to 16x with no difference.

All my LFS settings are the same as when the image was better, no half texture sizes, full LOD and all the goodies. I'm running 1280 x 960 (32 bit) in-game, and my video card settings seem to be fine. Lastly, LFS is the only game that this happened to, so I'm sure it's a localized issue, maybe it has a problem with this card or something.

Anyway, does anyone have anything I can try to try to solve this annoying texture issue?

Last edited by TaiFong, Wed 21 Dec 2005, 19:41.

Quote from Pain-less :

Is it just me or does Fern bay have a blue cast to it? I put a white car on the track and it has a blue cast. I only noticed this on Fern Bay.

Whatever it is, Fern Bay has the worst reflection map ever. Cars look like they haven't been washed in 2 years.

Thanks for this. Much better.

Those drivers are certainly a bit cheeky.

Quote from 96 GTS :

The show is actually produced by MPR and distributed by NPR. It's called a prarie home companion, and it's recorded about 30 minutes from my house.

<edit>That doesn't sound like Garrison Keillor to me</edit>

Well jeez, if you want to get all technical. Yes, it's a production of Minnesota Public Radio, but the point is, A Prairie Home Companion is ON NPR. Oh, and that is DEFINITELY Keillor's voiceover!

Last edited by TaiFong, Fri 9 Dec 2005, 07:02.

Quote from Stellios :

and the guy that does the voice overs is amazing, i want him to talk in every ad.

Just FYI, his name is Garrison Keillor, and he hosts a show on a US radio station called NPR (National Public Radio). Amazing voice, yes.

The most impressive thing to me is how rich the devs are. Splitting profit only 3 ways must be divine.

Interesting how this thread has grown. Thanks for taking the time to think about this idea everyone.

Anyway, I believe that having one setup is not too unfair to anyone either. For instance, a keyboarder has chimed in on the previous page with one point I'd like to discuss. He said his brakes are on/off, which is expected when using the keyboard, right? So what is the solution to eliminating wheel lock? Lower the braking power. What does lowering the braking power do? It increases your stop distance at full brake. Because there is no way to accurately modulate the brake, you have to go below the max braking capability to accomodate for elevation change and/or threshold braking.

This means that there are control problems inherent to LFS already which are just part of the game and MOST games for that matter. What about other driving games where there AREN'T any (or barely any) setup changes? Does that automatically mean the game is crap just because there are so many different control configurations that there is too much disparity between participants? No. Like has been said, you must adapt to your control style. It's unfortunate, but it's true in this game and many others. It just comes with the territory.

Last edited by TaiFong, Mon 5 Dec 2005, 23:41.

I read somewhere that you have to kick it really hard and then spread jam all over it. Then it should work.

Flying is better in a group...

Quote from deggis :

I use these wheel textures.. adds at least a tiny little bit for the immersion. :| Found these from Masters Skinnerz forum.

Thanks, but I meant the actual wheels of the car. I actually have a nice little steering wheel which is probably the same one you so kindly uploaded.

Detailed interiors are the only thing missing graphically from this game in my opinion. I can't wait until they are added, because like it has been said, it really adds to the immersion.

The only other (and very minor) thing I could think of that needs improvement is the material the wheels are made out of. I would like to see them as more metallic looking rather than the weird, flat ceramic look they sport now. Though, that has been talked about before also.

Quote from Tweaker :

I like this idea actually. But to have a specific car that is non-editable, well... why not just have a Hotlap mode that takes every car in LFS, and LFSW could have a 'Factory' or 'Stock' hotlap rank, where all the cars would use the stock setup supplied. This would be pretty fun in my opinion, considering it brings in a WHOLE nother aspect of hotlapping, rather than being beat by someone who uses some stupid bogus setup to beat your best time...

Thank you for your feedback. The idea to have a seperate class of hotlaps in which only the "stock" setups are allowed is a much better. It would increase the range and fun of the whole thing. I guess I didn't allow myself enough time to iron out the details of the idea and think of that myself!

Last edited by TaiFong, Fri 2 Dec 2005, 06:12.

Alright, well if you want to get on the subject of newbies, this idea is actually perfect for them. Let's say a noob is trying to setup their car and it keeps oversteering and generally has wonky handling. Your average noob is not going to know the finer points of how to alter their car. Setups are suited for the driver, yes, but what if the driver doesn't know what they are doing?

Something like having an unchangeable car wouldn't hurt anything. It would take you a dozen, maybe two dozen laps to learn the car's behavior, and that's it. You would then know how to drive it fairly well, and since its characteristics never change, you would just build upon what you know. So, it would be user friendly, and create a nice competitive niche.

Last edited by TaiFong, Fri 2 Dec 2005, 03:55.

Ok, so this idea is sort of odd, I know, but it just came to me and I wanted to post it.

It might be a good idea to include one car that is uneditable (except for fuel and maybe tires for long/short races) for us to drive in hotlap mode to better define true driving skill. This car would already be setup nicely. A good rear wheel drive car, weighing maybe 2800 lbs with 350 HP. Who knows, just something that handles well and is fun to drive.

The main point of this would be so that we could gauge actual driving skill as opposed to driving skill + tuning skill. I know, personally, when I work on a hotlap, I always wonder whether it's my line/entry and exit speed/braking points or my setup that needs more improvement. This would eliminate that frustration, and also create a very competitive new playing field. Just a thought. Tell me what you think.

PS: This idea could also work in multiplayer and would again show who the true drivers are.

Hell I think it's a good idea. Not really fair to be penalized by having your entire rubber surface get dirty if you so much as kiss the dirt's edge.

Amazing! This nice piece of work already helped me improved some of my lines and braking/acceleration points.

You should probably amputate it yourself before it becomes gangrenous.

Quote from L(Oo)ney :

You bent your suspension from getting too much G yet?

My wheels usually end up like this - ||---//

Definitely did! Haha. I can't imagine how scary that would be in real life if it were possible to take a turn that fast.

Man this is such a blast. You guys were right, oval + F08 is pure excitement! My quickest lap a bit ago was about 24.15 without even really pushing it!

P04 works for me, but the "Apply" button does not function and is always greyed out.

Alright, so MecaniK does not properly modify the MRT5. None of the values had any effect in-game.