The online racing simulator
Wind Noise
(59 posts, started )
#1 - Tez4
Wind Noise
I was wondering... what's up with the wind noise in this game? Is it reallistic to drive an F1 car really fast down a straight and have more noise from the wind than from your engine. I have the wind level in the game as low as it will go and this is still the case for me. Is this a bug, or is it like this for evryone? I can't imagine that being very realistic, especially in some of the bigger closed in cars (FXR, XRR, FZR).

What volume do you all have your different sound levels set at?
I think it is the "tire rolling sound" wich is so loud.
#3 - Tez4
Quote from Highsider9 :I think it is the "tire rolling sound" wich is so loud.

Is that what that is? I actually had thought it could be that, but it is just soooo loud. Is there anyway to turn it down, or is this much road noise actually realistic in a racecar. From in car cameras when you watch a race on television, it seems like you would mostly just hear the engine from inside your helmet.
This has been discussed before. I dont know about the single seaters, but I can tell you from experience in an LX type car (and thats not a quiet car), once you get above 80 or so you can mainly hear wind noise, I would say by 100 it drowns out the exhaust note.

Tyre rolling noise doesnt play a part really. Of course IRL there are hundreds of other noises which arent replicated in LFS, but as I say, at high speeds the wind noise drowns them all out.
One problem is when your watching a replay from a third-person view, as a car zooms past (like the Sauber) you can hear the noise as if you were sat in the cockpit. That isnt right.
#6 - Tez4
Quote from pb32000 :This has been discussed before. I dont know about the single seaters, but I can tell you from experience in an LX type car (and thats not a quiet car), once you get above 80 or so you can mainly hear wind noise, I would say by 100 it drowns out the exhaust note.

Tyre rolling noise doesnt play a part really. Of course IRL there are hundreds of other noises which arent replicated in LFS, but as I say, at high speeds the wind noise drowns them all out.

Thank you for your insight.
But what I found really unrealistic is the simple fact that you hear the wind noise from outside in TV cam.
When I was at DTM or F1 you really can't hear anything other than the engine noise, when a car screams past you...

There should be kind of a .cfg that lets you adjust every volume which is heard in game.
I race an F2000 formula car in the US and although it may not be an obvious noise you hear, you do in fact hear and feel the wind. Aside from that fact though, I absolutely love the fact that there is wind noise in the sim. It adds another dimension to the game giving you a sense of speed, something of which sims have been lacking up until now. It helps to make up of the lack of feel that any sim gives compared to the real thing.
And what about the "crashing" sound that just breaks your headphones and ears? Probably the most annoying thing in LFS... There are wav files in D:\Live For Speed\data\snd folder and afaik the crashing sound is produced when the tyres touch the ground. I've put the ScrapeHard.wav and ScrapeSoft.wav sounds to 0% volume but I couldn't get rid of the sound.
On the replays and from 3rd parties, it's not wind noise, it's tire noise I am sure.

Go outside and listen on the street, you can hear constant tire noise from cars, so yes it's realistic to have that. Not sure about the proportions in the different cars (IE Slicks probably don't make as much noise as a treaded tire)
but it's perfect on the road cars IMHO. Pay more attention IRL, you'll notice it. Heck, I can hear it inside my car at ANY speed. Also, try standing outside during even a 50km/h wind.... Can you hear it? How about a 100km/h wind? (!) Seems loud!
The sound of the wind generated by a helmet that you are wearing directly on your ears is VERY loud at medium speed already. I'm sure the wind noise at about 300 km/h would be enormous. Although I haven't tried myself, I find it possible that the noise generated at F1-speeds can reach levels of an unsilenced engine like F1's are. But you can't really hear this from the outside since the impression of loudness in this case comes mainly from the sound being produced directly at your ears.
If anything I'd say there's too little wind noise in the closed cars. In road cars, once over 120mph, the engine is basically inaudiable. In quicker cars a passenger will not be able to tell if it's sitting at the rev limiter in 5th at 140mph or turning 5k rpm in 6th.

Same goes for the GTR's basically. Here's a video of a 700hp 911 race car which should be relatively close to the FZR in terms of noise. All you hear at higher speeds is wind and drivetrain, but you can't really tell where he lifts:
http://www.blinkerfluid.net/vi ... Alzen_996_turbo_700HP.avi
(It's also rather entertaining to watch if you not interested in noise levels, btw)
Yes, I agree that the wind noise is pretty realistic. Really, onboard F1 cams dont really produce whats in the helmet because the cam is directly picking up the engine that is <1 metre away. I do think that at speeds in excess of 300 km/h the wind does take over anything, because of the violent nature of the air at that speed when hitting the cars different compounds. Now in a road car in excess of, 160 km/h, (which i have first-hand experience in) the engine is completely drowned out depending on the car or speed. The road/tyre noise and wind are much louder than the engine. And like stated before, treaded tyres are much louder than slicks. So, there may be a couple things off, but for the most part, i like the sound balance. Just not the actual engine sounds. But actually, I am quite proud of the BF1 engine sound from within the cockpit. I think it has a very striking similarity to the onboard cams in F1, which, in this case is accurate because it is picking up the engine. BUT, the noise from spectating/tv cam needs lots of work. It needs that distinct whine only F1 cars have, although, really, nothing is like the V10's, the V8's just dont sound as good, but they are growing on me
Yeah, remember the relative volume of sounds depends very strongly on how close to you ears they are. So the sound 'source' for wind noise is all around you and particularly your helmet and surrounding bodywork. The main output source for the engine noise is the exhaust, which is behind you and pointing the other way.
Quote from bal00 :
Same goes for the GTR's basically. Here's a video of a 700hp 911 race car which should be relatively close to the FZR in terms of noise. All you hear at higher speeds is wind and drivetrain, but you can't really tell where he lifts:
http://www.blinkerfluid.net/vi ... Alzen_996_turbo_700HP.avi
(It's also rather entertaining to watch if you not interested in noise levels, btw)

All I hear when there's wind is clipping... Nothing to do with the volume of the individual sounds.
Word of warning, in the attached video volume is turned up so that if you have your system volume on fairly normal level the sauber should scream bit closer to what it does in IRL, so watchout if you're using headphones or pets are laying on your megahifispeakers.


After you have watched the video I attached, compare to this Hmmm...


NB: Incase you missed it, my point is how the sound behaves and how far you can hear it - the engine that is. Although I wouldn't mind having cars that sounds like the BRM in the MP3 in LFS
Attached files
lfsaudio.rar - 428 KB - 235 views
Quote from bal00 :
Same goes for the GTR's basically. Here's a video of a 700hp 911 race car which should be relatively close to the FZR in terms of noise. All you hear at higher speeds is wind and drivetrain, but you can't really tell where he lifts:
http://www.blinkerfluid.net/vi ... Alzen_996_turbo_700HP.avi
(It's also rather entertaining to watch if you not interested in noise levels, btw)

http://0wn3d.nl/temp/VTS_02_1_NEW.avi

Different onboard video of the same Alzen Porsche 911, also at the Ring.
#18 - Tez4
Quote from bal00 :If anything I'd say there's too little wind noise in the closed cars. In road cars, once over 120mph, the engine is basically inaudiable. In quicker cars a passenger will not be able to tell if it's sitting at the rev limiter in 5th at 140mph or turning 5k rpm in 6th.

Same goes for the GTR's basically. Here's a video of a 700hp 911 race car which should be relatively close to the FZR in terms of noise. All you hear at higher speeds is wind and drivetrain, but you can't really tell where he lifts:
http://www.blinkerfluid.net/vi ... Alzen_996_turbo_700HP.avi
(It's also rather entertaining to watch if you not interested in noise levels, btw)

Wow, that video REALLY makes me appreciate how realistic LFS actually is. I love this game more all the time.

Thank you all for answering all my questions in great detail.
Quote from Krane :After you have watched the video I attached, compare to this Hmmm...


NB: Incase you missed it, my point is how the sound behaves and how far you can hear it - the engine that is. Although I wouldn't mind having cars that sounds like the BRM in the MP3 in LFS

That BRM sounds like a NASCAR V8 at the lower RPMs... But yes, LFS needs a lot of work on the external sounds, and especially how the sound reflects across the land and vegetation.
I agree that the external sounds are a bit loud at times. The in-car wind noise seems about right to me, though I don't think I've changed the level on my setup from stock. I think one thing that may make the wind noise seem extra loud is the fact that other noises are missing. Gear whine from the transmission, pebbles and bits of rubber hitting the inner fenders, the rattles that are inherent in a race car that has no sound deadening, the sound of a big, unrestricted intake, etc.

Once those other sounds are added to the game the wind noise probably won't seem so loud, or at least it won't stand out as much.
It seems that most of the sound I noticed in replays was caused by tire noise.

But there is still wind noise when the tyres are not touching the ground.
And I think the tire noise is a good bit too loud. Maybe not an the street cars, this seems to be quite right, but for the F1 it's just too loud.

About the wind noise look at my attachment
Attached files
ATHome_BL1_BF1.spr - 10.1 KB - 292 views
Quote from TagForce :That BRM sounds like a NASCAR V8 at the lower RPMs... But yes, LFS needs a lot of work on the external sounds, and especially how the sound reflects across the land and vegetation.

How on earth did you get to that conclusion? Having heard it in real life I can tell you it sounds nothing like a small block and is very very loud, although I have heard an Autsin 7 which was louder
the lfs wind noise (and not the tire noise that doesn't exist in lfs), it's perfectly realistic: when i drive my car at 200 km/h all i can hear is wind noise...and it's pretty huge! i can't even hear the sound of the stereo at full volume! and of course i have the car windows closed, for those who don't believe, just drive at 120 km/h with opened windows...and listen...

so imagine how it must be at 300 km/h inside a F1 car...
Tire noise does so exist in LFS

Wind Noise
(59 posts, started )
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