LFS CarFocus is a LFS addon to control the cameras in LFS. CarFocus can be used by movie makers to help with their movie scenes to create some nice fluent camera movements.
There are many features in CarFocus, the general idea is that the user can change the camera settings on the fly while keeping the right focus at a driver/car. By camera settings are: FOV, Roll and Heights.

CarFocus has also a highly timed based camera control: CameraPath
With this you can save specific camera sequences and restore those later. The interface of the Camerapath is very simliar to the Flash timeline, where you can slide cameras back and forth to the right point when they should be activated.

The last updates are mainly focused at the usage for broadcasts.
CarFocus has another application called CarFocus Broadcaster. You can control the LFS cameras via CarFocus Broadcaster.

A picture says more than 1000 words and a movie contains more than 1 picture, so here are a few videos of CarFocus 'in action': http://vimeo.com/album/59509

LFS CarFocus Downloads, Manual and more

• Here you can find the latest downloads (when released) of both applications.
  
• Detailed explanation of each feature and possible usage.
  
• Possibility to report bugs/ideas ect
  

Nice App, I'm sure this will come in quite handy for movie-makers

Looks very interesting already. I'm not a movie maker but I can see the possibilities. One question though. Does this only work with static camera locations or does it work if you manually move the 'camera'. What I mean by that is if you're in Shift+U and you're manually following the car. Will the application still focus on the car then?

Very nice app there. Can you give us some estimates like when will it be realeased ? This year? next ?

that's wicked!!!

Quote from amp88 :

Does this only work with static camera locations or does it work if you manually move the 'camera'. What I mean by that is if you're in Shift+U and you're manually following the car. Will the application still focus on the car then?

The spot you picked on the track is static. As for now, you can't move the camera manually. And this would be a nice feature aswell, I'll look into it.

Quote from kamo2000 :

Very nice app there. Can you give us some estimates like when will it be realeased ? This year? next ?

Like I said, its kinda a prototype and it hasn't got the necessary checks for errors. I think it would be ready next year.

I'm not satisfied how LFS replicate the camera position information. For example if your move the camera from position A to position B. LFS speeds up the movement to position B and when its almost at position B, the camera movement slows down to stop at position B. This looks kinda strange when you placed several cameras across the track and you let the camera move to each position.

Quote from THE WIZARD DK :

more wicked you got my tag on the screen.... wiiii my first video...lol...

huh, care to explain?

Edit: I've updated the link in the first post: http://lfs.finalgear.com/download/carfocuscircle.avi (4MB no sound). A camera path where a few cameras are places around the car. The mouse is not used to control the camera!
Another update: http://vimeo.com/2450043 Fixed camera locations around the track. (The switch to the cameras isn't that great:P)

WOW will make good movies alot easier to make.. eh..? Good job.

I missed the edit you made to the first post and the post above. Really good work!

Thanks
Made a public release. I've added a readme for a quick explanation of how the tool works. I hope its easy to understand and looking forward to the awesome created movies I did my part

Thank you SO MUCH.
Downloading it right now

Doesn't work for me, and i don't know why.. (I am in the game.)
I did all by the instructions.

Here is the screenshot..

I think you forgot to enable the insim connection. press T in LFS and type: /insim=63392

For the camera path feature gotta do it like this: Position the camera.(it will record the camera setting, location, fov, shift u mode ect)
Give the camera a name (usefull for later reference) before you click on 'record' give the amount of seconds in ms to go to the next camera. I've put the default on 1 second, but for a long camera path (T1 and last corner of Westhill) you wanna make a nice smooth movement of 10 seconds.)
Then click on 'Record' Redo this several times with different camera positions and then click "play camera path"

I've noticed with the latest version that it tries to load the Autcross PTH file. Because there isnt any AU1.pth the application disconnect again. That will be fixed in the next version.

its /insim=30000 now i thought

i downloaded the program yesterday, and i have to say: It works like a charm! if you dont enable autoconnect, because then it will start to disable everytime i wanna enable it..
Other than that, Great Job!!
I hope the autocross cams will be added soon, i wanna record some drifting of me and my mate with custom camera's.

Thanks for the program!! It's very nice.

Greetz and merry christmas!
DutchShogun

I think I'll remove the auto connect feature, because its not really usefull imo and the AU cameras will be fixed in the next release.
I did some other work on the camera path feature. I used the idea of a 'flash timeline' to control the camera locations/configurations. Adding and removing camera and changing the length of a camera transition is now easier to edit


This system works quite well if you shoot at a standing still car. The same technique Victor used in the promotion video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsYGl5fK93Q at 0.15 - 0.45 seconds.
Atm, the timeline feature is a pain in the ass to use for a replay battle, because you have to start the timeline at the right moment. If you don't all the camera will have the wrong focus.

Awesome! I'll try this as soon as I get on my PC tomorrow (um.. make that later today when the sun comes up!).

Quote from ChiKisT :

Doesn't work for me, and i don't know why.. (I am in the game.)
I did all by the instructions.

Here is the screenshot..

Try with the name of your pc instead of the ip, that worked for me.

It says something went wrong what do i do?


Cheers,
Matthew

i cant open it. it says "application failed to initialize properly"

Quote from Ghfrirfk :

It says something went wrong what do i do?
Cheers,
Matthew

Nothing really went wrong. It says that when it tries to auto-connect to the ip and port that are configured when you first start up the program. Turn off the auto-connect option, save the config, then restart. Now it should work just fine.

Quote from haha360 :

i cant open it. it says "application failed to initialize properly"

You need at least .NET 2.0 for this program to work.

Quote from burnsy1882 :

Nothing really went wrong. It says that when it tries to auto-connect to the ip and port that are configured when you first start up the program. Turn off the auto-connect option, save the config, then restart. Now it should work just fine.



You need at least .NET 2.0 for this program to work.

thanks

Hello, Would like to try your program but I am receiving these messages:

InSim - TCP : LFS CarFocus
InSim guest closed : LFS CarFocus

The program updates the drivers list, but thats it.

The steps I use:

Open LFS.exe
select replay
type /insim=<port>
hit connect on LFS CarFocus
lack of profit

Quote from doyal :

InSim - TCP : LFS CarFocus
InSim guest closed : LFS CarFocus

Are you loading a replay which runs AU1, AU2, AU3 or AU4? Then its a known bug and I will try to fix it as soon as possible.

Can I watch live race and use it??

Quote from misiek08 :

Can I watch live race and use it??

Yeah, its possible to watch a race although its not the program its main purpose.
There are features that will interest movie makers like automatic focus in Shift U mode or you can preset some camera locations and follow a racer around the track.

v2.6 is finalizing: Fix fro AU layouts, included a better camera path GUI and a few new ways to focus at drivers while following the car.

I can't set it on a LTC server(I haven't pass of course). What can I do?