Update feb-8-2013:
Version 6 is available!

LFS Shifter is a program I made to make the shifting in LFS similar to how a normal daily automatic road car would shift. When I was little, I always wanted the cars in the games I play to shift like normal cars. So here I present you with the "D" gear in LFS!



Features:
~ Three shifting modes to choose from: Economic and Sport modes, and Hold Gear mode

~ Dynamic shifting; it will shift at different RPMs depending on the situation

~ Immersive sounds including turn signals, and car sounds to let you know what's going on

~ Bouncing Rev limiter helps prevent the engine from revving too high in Neutral, Reverse, or at top speed

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There is an optional file attached that is a few example setups for some cars. These were used in a previous version of LFS Shifter, but may still work. They're mainly examples of how to set your gear ratios so it shifts less often.



(Your antivirus may go off saying it's a harmful file etc; tell it to shush. There is no virus or anything with LFS Shifter... it is just an autohotkey script compiled to exe)

Just a correction: It's not a neglected feature in LFS, auto shifting in LFS doesn't mean the car is suddenly an automatic, it's still a manual.
Auto shifting is a driver aid, not a setup option

Nice application anyway

Just tested this, its great nice work hope there is a update soon downshifting is abit funny but overall i love it

I dreamt about that, thank you I'll try it as soon as I will have a little free time

While a commendable effort to simulate the "deciding when to shift" side of an automatic gearbox, this still ultimately works like an manual box with a cruise style shift aid (rather than the race style shift aid LFS currently posses).

While I think this is accurate for DSG style autos that use a clutch, the way a torque converter works is fundamentally different (continuous slip and torque mulitplication at high slip), and would require LFS to be modded in order to really achieve a true automatic simulation.

Still, this gets us half way there. Cool stuff.

Well there's only so much you can do without doing some highly serious coding, and I think if you wanted an actual automatic, this is about as good as you can get until the devs do something a bit more 'realistic'. (By that I mean torque converter etc etc)

Looks like you can even use it while racing as it's pretty much the same as the normal autoshift we have at the moment.. interesting but not for me.

Most racing games don't bother trying to accurately simulate an automatic transmission because:

A) it's boring
B) it removes a level of control from the driver
C) anyone who uses it is an incompetent clod

Nice app. It's nice for cruise.

Thank you.

Looks nice from the video, even has kickdown.

Maybe when/if i am gonna cruise again i will try it out.

EDIT: Yes i tried it and it works fine.

hi man, it's filiphilopeno from YouTube.

goood stuff right here, I love it.

Quote from Forbin :

Most racing games don't bother trying to accurately simulate an automatic transmission because:

A) it's boring
B) it removes a level of control from the driver
C) anyone who uses it is an incompetent clod

ill have a say about this here. when i raced in a league in rfactor there was a guy who was handicapped and couldnt use manual with clutch and needed auto for his needs so we turned on auto for him to use so he could race with us. there is needs like the one i said and it gets more people into things like this. the more people the better i say and if we need auto transmission for people that cant use manual then so be it.

+100 on this man good work

Quote from natedog420 :

ill have a say about this here. when i raced in a league in rfactor there was a guy who was handicapped and couldnt use manual with clutch and needed auto for his needs so we turned on auto for him to use so he could race with us. there is needs like the one i said and it gets more people into things like this. the more people the better i say and if we need auto transmission for people that cant use manual then so be it.

+100 on this man good work

Racecars for handicapped people normally have a sequential gearbox, which is already available in LFS for any car by setting the shifter mode to sequential and enabling auto clutch

This is the config i am using.

Very nice job.. congrats..

Nice app.
I hope u will improve it some day with geting gear numbers from LFS not writing in ini.
Great job!

Really nice app!!!! Will it be possible to make it roll forward when you let go of the brakes like in a real automatic car

Quote from Velocity- :

Really nice app!!!! Will it be possible to make it roll forward when you let go of the brakes like in a real automatic car

Sadly that can only be done if you simulate a torque converter, as I pointed out before. Unless you were to cheat of course, and prevent the clutch from fully disengaging.

There is only one game I've ever played that simulated a real auto.

SODA Off-Road Racing.

If you let go of the brakes, it would roll. I belive it even had kickdown, but I don't remember because I used to always just mash the pedal down.

Wow, I used to have SODA Offroad racing. Used to play it on my P2 Dell 450mhz computer. Always got angry cause it took 4 hours for the AI to learn my new tracks.
Anyway, back on topic. I really like this program, and I've been tweaking the config file (mostly ending up making it worse). Only thing I can see to improve or suggest is to either have separate configs for each car or have the config file contain a different setup for each car. Just my 2 cents. Awesome program though.

looks nice Will try it later when I come home from school

Ahh .. so here it is. I tested and tweaked this a bit a while ago, and since I have been busy and without internet for the past few weeks, I have missed the development.
Let's try out this new version .

i did everything it said in the readme, but still it is still shifting back all the time. If i go back to the main menu it keeps pressing X which causes the game to continously say: Leave Game yes/no then it goes away, and then its coming on again, until i press Pause/Break. Can somebody help me?

Quote from timmie426 :

i did everything it said in the readme, but still it is still shifting back all the time. If i go back to the main menu it keeps pressing X which causes the game to continously say: Leave Game yes/no then it goes away, and then its coming on again, until i press Pause/Break. Can somebody help me?

Is the outguage window minimized? It cannot be minimized because the shifting script can only read from it when it's not. You should be able to move it off the edge of the screen or behind LFS without any problem, just no minimizing.

I tried this on a cruise server last night. It's not that bad...

It changes gears alot, mainly when you don't want it to. Normally if I get to a curvy part of a cruise layout, I just stick it in 3rd or 4th and leave it there. This just shifts up and down too much, and you kind of lose speed from it.

Also the low end power on the LFS cars sucks; giving it a tap on the gas and shifting around 3500RPM like normal driving just doesn't move the car as fast I think it it actually would in real life; whether the game and real car is a stick or automatic. Most of the cars in the game I got to plant my foot down some to get some normal acceleration out of it.

Or maybe im just used to big, torquey, american V8s and not little 4 bangers.

Quote from tigerboyz :

Is the outguage window minimized? It cannot be minimized because the shifting script can only read from it when it's not. You should be able to move it off the edge of the screen or behind LFS without any problem, just no minimizing.

Should it be active window?