Because the car running on worn tires is faster than the one on new ones.
If you have a WR set in such a way then it doesn't mean that you are the fastest one in the world. It usually means others won't be bothered to spend an hour cruising just to be able to set a faster time, so the whole picture won't be accurate
The problem is that if people have do do all sorts of crazy things to be competitive, then you can't be competitive without doing those crazy things.
So for example if it takes half an hour and several pit stops to get the car into a state where you can get a world record, then this is quite a problem. We don't want people to have to do that. This is about getting in your car and doing a fast lap. Ideally that's what it would be. The hotlap tables are supposed to show who can drive the fastest lap, not who is patient enough to exploit flaws in the physics system that can be exploited in a one hour replay.
Victor's point about not limiting the time is that really, LFS physics should be realistic enough that a car should be best when it is fresh, warmed up but not worn out. At the moment, LFS physics isn't quite producing this outcome. But we hope that in future it will.
The purpose of hotlapping is to go as fast as you can with the conditions you're given. It's good that Scawen is changing the conditions regarding the rough wall riding, because that was "legitimate" yet widely seen as unsportsmanlike. Spending time scrubbing your tires... well... do you get mad at people who set their fastest laps at the end of their stint in a race? In F1 this year it's really clear when the tires are fastest, even though they're carrying more fuel the fastest laps are set at the beginning of their final stint, not the end when their tanks are empty (which is how it is with LFS).
I've uploaded 82 hotlaps between May of 09 and April of this year. They're all still up, I don't have any world records but I'm in the top 10 in the XRG and FOX ranks.
Firstly, using a slider to move a long way into a replay still takes time, as (sadly) it seems that the SPR files don't have any checkpoints - on my PC skipping a long way into a replay can take tens of seconds. Not nice if you want to watch a particular corner a few times. But that's a side issue. The worn tyres thing is just massively obnoxious, legal and all as it is. To have to do that to match times with somebody is simply not fun. To have a set that's a bit crazy doesn't waste 20 minutes of my time, even if it's unrealistic (which setup aspects are unrealistic btw?).
Mmm, drifting off topic here but a quick reply (let's start another thread if you disagree with me ) is that while high pressure means less rolling resistance (less deformation), less tread thickness does not mean less surface area or friction. Contact patch area is more or less entirely decided by tyre pressure. I guess the most likely candidate (since Scawen sadly didn't answer this bit :shy is that it's just plain unphysical; another flaw in the old tyre physics.
Edit:
* Ah, I see in a recent post that Scawen implies it is indeed a physics flaw
* I don't feel really strongly about removing pitstops or having time limits btw - the point has already been made that the problem will sort itself out once the tyre physics is updated.
I'm not a hotlapper, and the following are not wall hits, but maybe they can be checked since you are working on the topic of hotlapping; am sorry if this is not relevant and simply a waste of time.
The same reasoning applies to pit stops, if the new physics come out right then there will be no point in doing pit stops just the same as there will be no point in spending an hour on the same tires.
Pre-weared tyres with a temperature we can choose (like 5-10° less than optimum to start the lap) is the best for doing hotlaps... (it will avoid 20 laps replay for WR with small cars, and 360° at 150km/h to heat up the tyres...)
I could not agree more on South City crazy wall-riding replays that have nothing to do with racing ...
Pit-stops .... hum ... of course not in hotlaps please
addendum :
pre-launched car before the main straight crossing the starting line (or the corner before) could be good too if possible (I mean not too hard) to implement ...
Hotlaps should only be valid when its driven between the white lines. I mean no apron, no green fields on KY3, no excessive curbing... simply !2 wheels must stay on track!, that is usual in all motorsport series.
I know that all tracks need an update then, but i just wanted to give my 2 cents on it
Just to double check I'm understanding this right.. Situation: front tires R2, rear tires R3 (lfs knows optimum temps are 85 and 100), one slider for all 4 tires.. how does one make the R3's 5°C above optimum and R2's 10°C below optimum?
Or did you just mean no for the individual sliders for each tire, but keeping the front/rear as 2 separate sliders (at least if different compounds are mounted on each axle)?
Must've missed that from earlier - but would you still allow full layout control of non-lfs world hotlaps? Would be useful for doing hotlaps on open configs. Ignore me if I'm talking shite.
OK, kinda defeats the purpose for most gtr cars (FWDs usually have very cold rear tires.. that's where + would be usefull, and the mentioned GT2 setups for GTR class), maybe we can get you to reconsider separating front and rear axles? Pretty please?
That makes sense with the absolute temps, and moving them to setups is also a good idea.
Not that my opinion counts due to lack of uploads, but the front rear/individual settings are taking it a bit too far. I thought the whole idea of this was to dispense with the protracted tyre warming period? There is still scope to get the tyres where the driver wants from a global start point after all. It is nice however that you have considered the requirements, and I hope that testing will show that individual tyres will not need setting.
[Edit]
While I admire the patience some people have had with getting their tyres "just right" before setting a lap. It is actually the reason I have never uploaded. I simply don't have the time or patience to go through all of that, so concentrate on simple warming. Scawen's "Warmed up, not worn out" is very much how I approach hotlapping
[/edit]
I was just experimenting with tyres and did it again. Not quite so well pulled off, and I aborted, but I did get the the replay which clearly shows HVLC was not triggered.
I'm guessing Scawens request was for objects that can be hit without triggering, and probably relates to the recent collision changes. Also it seems to happen at Kyoto, and might require track changes. Please ignore this if this is the case. SPR included for completeness.