Hello.

I just wanted to suggest to improve the following two things:
1. The LFS driver shifts pretty quick for H-gate shifters. The procedure should take a bit more time. That would also make heeltoeing easier.
This will be even more important when LFS gets sequential gearboxes. There was some talk about this earlier where f.e. the FZR could have a normal gearbox while the XRR and FXR recieve a sequential gearbox to balance this class.
Also flatshifting will be penalized with longer shifting-durations because the engine will reach higher rpms which will hopefully cause enough damage to make flatshifting only possible in either hotlapping or the last lap of the race.
2. The current shift-indicator light is pretty smart for a simple LED. It always knows the amount of torque of the engine at every rpm, the theoretical rpm of every gear at every speed and even the current slip-angle of the driven wheels and can calculate the ideal gear in about every situation. Most LEDs aren't that smart. Of course there are sofisticated systems that are equally powerful, but I don't think that regular XRGs come with those.
I suggest to have 2 different shift-lights:
A basic one that is fitted into all cars in LFS except the really fast ones. This indicator will light up at a given rpm that is editable in the setup. Actually this isn't a gear change indicator, but just a "the given rpm has been reached"-indicator.
The second stage for the more advanced cars has an rpm-setting for every gear and these settings can be calculated automatically by LFS in the setup-screen or can be entered manually.

These suggestions have been in this forum earlier, but they never had an own thread and they aren't in the improvements-log, so I wanted to make sure that these points have their place in the forum so they are easier to find.

Vain

I think Scawen mentioned somewhere about adding proper gearbox simulation in some point. And it would be good to have. And that adjustable led. I think it would be good. And we should have inbuilt analyzer for it, setuping the led would only be possible with 3rd party addon at the moment and that would be silly

I guess it should spend more time in neutral between gears, and if you don't hold your clutch in long enough it won't finish shifting?

FZR seems too high budget for an H-plate though. It would be pretty awkward if the other GTR cars went sequential and it didn't. If any balancing should be tweaked it shouldn't be via shifting means. Paddle shifting wouldn't even be out of place on the regular FZ50.

I would expect more realistic sequentials sooner or later anyway. It must be on Scawen's to-do list.

Edit about my MRT5 example:

Quote from McGill Racing Team :

The MRT5 was designed to be as simple as possible to machine and use. A simple stick is pushed or pull to activate the 6 gear sequential transmission. The clutch lever is mounted on that very stick. Squeeze and pull to go up, squeeze and push to go down, as simple as that.

Firstly paddle shifting doesn't mean sequential shifting. In normal sportscars pedal shifting often means auto-tranny with manual override, in other cases it's just a hydraulic standard gearbox.
Secondly, while the balancing-idea came up someone said that it is extremely difficult to equip a modern Porsche with a sequential gearbox. For reference, the Alzen brothers, who regularly build a Porsche that is a favorite in the 24h of the Nurburgring, never equipped a sequential gearbox into their cars. Even though these are propably the fastest and most expensive Porsches ever modified for racing (except the 90x series). This is, by the way, not due to regulations of their class.

Vain

Yes, I could have said sequential, but that would have left out direktschaltgetriebe. That's pretty much what I was thinking of... not that you would find it on a Ferrari/Porsche hybrid in that layout, but hey...

If they want levelling, shrink the FZR's fuel tank.

Wouldn't work in the short run.

I said something about those porsches. Thing is, you can equip a porsche with a sequential, but you'll have to have one hell of a sponsor to do so. It's just extremely expensive, and most racing teams just aren't able to do it. So I guess the FZR shouldn't have sequential box either, it'll make it a little slower too. (Porsche is about 1 second slower/lap comparing sequential to H-gate).

Well, maybe if you shifter is set up as being a sequencial shifter, and you are driving a H-gate car, then the 2-3 and 4-5 shifts should take longer than the 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6 shifts. After all, it takes longer to go up, over, and up, then it does to go down!

Quote from wheel4hummer :

Well, maybe if you shifter is set up as being a sequencial shifter, and you are driving a H-gate car, then the 2-3 and 4-5 shifts should take longer than the 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6 shifts. After all, it takes longer to go up, over, and up, then it does to go down!

Nah. I'm just as fast from any gear--it's still one motion (you just push straight up to get from 2nd to 3rd. It's actually easier than shifting between 1st and 2nd, or 5th and 6th because you're not pulling/pushing sideways at all, but that's regardless of speed), and if I shift any faster I'll probably damage/wear something out. Haven't driven a car without synchros.

I have a viddy of Uwe Alzen taking a 996 turbo around the Nordschleife and it sounds like a sequential the way he's shifting (from any gear the same).

It is a stick, so... +1 for anything Vain has said.

Alzen Porsche has an H-gate. It's a DogBox (no clutch needed), it's the same in the M3 GTR, BMW WTCC car, ...

Quote from Vain :

Hello.

I just wanted to suggest to improve the following two things:
1. The LFS driver shifts pretty quick for H-gate shifters. The procedure should take a bit more time. That would also make heeltoeing easier.
This will be even more important when LFS gets sequential gearboxes.

I don't see anything wrong with shifting times, it's not that hard to shift fast when you put some effort into it.

Also, LFS already has seq boxes.

So that makes it -1 from me.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

It would also level the playing field for racers who choose to use slower shifting methods.

+1. At the moment people using a clutch pedal are made to feel like masochists. If there was no temptation to use auto-clutch, things could get interesting.

i dis agree with making shift times longer in lfs i can shift the same speed as in my real car if not a bit faster in my real car ( dont wanna boost to much befor i jump the clutch into the next gear

Quote from MAD3.0LT :

i dis agree with making shift times longer in lfs i can shift the same speed as in my real car if not a bit faster in my real car ( dont wanna boost to much befor i jump the clutch into the next gear

OK, I see your point, but wouldn't it be good if there was a more level playing field between real clutch pedal users and autoclutch users?