This isnt another "WhErEs ThE CiViCs yAaLL" post. I'm just interested in whats involved in attainting the license to use brand cars. Anybody know how LFS aquired the BMW car? As I found out rFactor also realeased it as a new car among their fake ones. Did LFS pay for it, or is the team wanting to get some public shining on their cars and offered it up?

Now, what about actual manufactures. Anybody know how that goes. Do they charge a continuing fee, do you pay per car? Royalties? How much do they run? Insane like 10k plus per car license? more? less? I've always wondered about that.

On a side note, I wonder how much Gran Turismo pays out. You would think a ton with the 650+ cars in their latest game. Then again, GT is extremely popular - so maybe its the other way around and manufactures dont charge much because of all the publicity the cars will get. Looking for a civilized discussion on the matter . I love the cars in LFS now of course, each has its own character. but I do feel it would be more realistic (possibly more engaging?) with a BMW, mercedes, etc logo staring back at me on the steering wheel as I swing around the track. I'm a hardcore car, racing, and simulation fan, and would love to see familiar cars in LFS. If there was a known price set for licenses for cars, I wonder if the devs would start a thread for donations torwards a actual car license or something like that. I would be willing to donate considering how much it is.

one of the members here started the talks between BMW and the devs.. and it was a win win for both.. and no money was involved from memory..

but to get a licenced car, it does cost a fair bit of money, hence why there are very few real cars in the game (MRT, RA and the BMW)

Yeah i think its down to agreement from both parties. The big manufactureres like Ferrari will have thier own agendas so will want to change a licensing fee. Some of the smaller companies will be glad of the publicity so they will agree to the terms that the Devs set out.

Once the devs have time on their hands, we should find that there are many opportunities for real cars in LFS.

^^ Whs ^^

It's possible to read between the lines and infer that Polyphony don't spend _too_ much on the licenses for the GT series, because some of the most famous (and therefore most likely to want to charge Polyphony large wodges of cash) manufacturers are missing - particularly Ferrari and Porsche. So it's obvious that they're not willing to just fork out unlimited bundles of cash. I doubt it'd work for LFS, though, because it just doesn't have the numbers of the GT series, hence it looks less like a great advertising deal for the car firms, hence they will want to charge more for the license (we need them more than they need us).

Personally, I'd rather see real world circuits before real world cars. For me its the one thing that lets LFS down. Don't get me wrong, it's still the dogs danglies!

Quote from Gentlefoot :

Personally, I'd rather see real world circuits before real world cars. For me its the one thing that lets LFS down. Don't get me wrong, it's still the dogs danglies!

Yeah im with you there, can understand the amount of work to get an accurate track would be high though.

Quote :

The big manufactureres like Ferrari will have thier own agendas so will want to change a licensing fee

Back in the days of Enzo Ferrari getting a license was dead easy, you agreed it first and you sent them a copy, that was it!

Now that Fiat are in charge I have no idea what would be required, except perhaps a degree in Italian Political Corruption.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Now that Fiat are in charge I have no idea what would be required, except perhaps a degree in Italian Political Corruption.

I'm not sure I understand the meaning of this sentence. Maybe it's because no English skill was needed to get my degree in Political Corruption. You know, all Italians have one, because we like corruption.

In fact, when Bettino Craxi (former and now dead Italian Socialist Party leader) was accused of stealing public money, Italian people threw coins at him, perhaps a bit too violently, screaming "You've taken a lot of money, now take also these coins". We're a generous people, and we forgive easily.

*cough*The Mafia*cough*... I agree ¬_¬

Though I do like the way you people think... maybe we should do that to the bank manager who stole £21m from a bank, and to Blair who uses tax payers money to go on holiday. :/

/me goes to a change machine.

I'm wondering if there's any way to leverage work that's already been done to add cars (and perhaps tracks) to LFS. For instance, there have been several add-ons for NR2003 which have now been essentially shut down due to legal action. Many of these add-ons do not use licensed cars or intellectual property (the sprint car mod, for instance). I wonder if the 3D models from these mods could be easily ported to LFS, if the model makers were to give the okay? I would think that the authors of these mods would be very receptive to this type of agreement. Everyone benefits: the mod makers get to drive the cars they want, the LFS community gets new cars, and the LFS devs get to add desireable content with little work on their own part. Some of the most requested cars are things like sprints, stock cars, etc. and most of these have been convered by people who's mods are now useless because First shut them down. I would imagine that the same thing could be done using tracks created for other sims which now cannot be modified (NR2003) or which have reached end of life (Namie) or have stagnated development (Racer). As long as they're not real-world tracks which require licensing, perhaps the track modelers would be willing to give their models over to the LFS devs for inclusion in this game?

Just wanted to clear up the rF version of the F1 car. Yes the F1 car is in a private build of rF just for BWM/Intel and it is not available to the rF community yet. There is also no news of when ISI will be able to include in the build. So no rF does not yet have the car.

Each deal will be different. I am sure what is required to get something like the race about in LFS is far less than getting the likes of a DB7 in lfs.

Quote from Woz :

Each deal will be different. I am sure what is required to get something like the race about in LFS is far less than getting the likes of a DB7 in lfs.

This is where I feel that "generic" cars will really come into play. A modern stock car has a generic shape. A sprint car has a generic shape. A modified has a generic shape. All of these could be put into LFS without the need for licensing.