I expect the dynamic weather and dynamic day-time to be considered somewhere in future (and hopefully included), which would need just another shadow's system (and probably whole 3D engine) rewrite, so I think there's not much sense to do something half-baked in near future and rewrite it again later.
Anyway, the current LFS, as is, looks quite ok from the cockpit view for me, so unless there's a will to improve it significantly with some addition to the simulation side of thing, I wouldn't bother just polishing the graphics output.
great progress report! looking forward to driving that new westhill track!
on the last screenshot there is a traffic light visible - does that mean the new westhill track will have a functioning light system for the yellow and red flags?
off topic// as there recently was the suggestion to fill the grandstands on the tracks with people to make some more racing day athmosphere - scavier please have a look at how the audience in grid autosport looks. there are lots of animated people everywhere and most notably right next to the track, leaning over the barriers and waving and cheering along. this might be only a small detail, but it makes a great impression of life on the sides of the track even when racing along with full speed. as you were animation designers at lionhead some animated spectators would be easy to program, aren´t they? and for the faces please use all of the lfs racers pictures so everyone can be in the game. thank you! //off topic
You can see the same light on Blackwood already, so I doubt it. However, I remember Scawen saying that he already has a test version of the flag light system, but not done yet:
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(TheNoobisonFire)
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by Scawen : deleted the unrelated spam and the replies related to it
I didn't complain about anything because I'm OK with how LFS is being developed. If you have treated my last post in this thread as a complaint, then I'm sorry to say, that's not a complaint.
I just said to S.E.T.H. the force cockpit view maniac that instead of releasing a new feature to an incompatible patch (be it a track or something different) with flaws (be it serious or not) is a bit pointless.
Great progress LFS devs, Eric work on this track is very clean, can't wait to see more tracks or cars released/updated with such excellent quality.
I hope you will find a way to finish tires physics as fast as possible so you can focus to improve graphical engine ( real time shadow/light etc.. ), no way to keep this amazing work with such dated graphics.
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(Bmxtwins)
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by Scawen : deleted the unrelated spam and the replies related to it
Must say it looks stunning to my (possibly aging) eyes. I like that everything just looks right, without having to resort to shader-overload like some other games.
How many people I have seen crying already, "oh open layout my computer goes to 15 fps, nooooo" .. With this hi-res Westhill I can image half of LFS are getting problems with it. And this is what this update actually is trying to tell. Optimizing..
I'm not sure what you mean there. To be clear, we have not seen any performance issues at Westhill from use of polygons. Even on open configs, the frame rate is good, even in a Rift. The new open config systen is really very good as the frame rate is just as high on open configs as on any other config.
The only thing is on my computer I have selected low resolution textures because I won't be going around studying surfaces from less than 1m distance. The high res textures (for people who like to inspect things very closely) do harm the frame rate. I am still considering a per-track texture resolution option, with it set to low res on Westhill by default. Low res actually would mean high res in this case, just not extreme res.
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(smove)
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by Scawen : deleted the unrelated spam and the replies related to it
I've removed the spam / off topic / swearing posts and banned the person who started it for 6 months. We need peace here and the forum needs to be a place where mature people can discuss things.
Sorry for those of you who made valid points in posts that got deleted because they also contained references to the bad feeling and argument going on.
My mistake, I should have done this when it first started to go wrong. Sensible criticism must be allowed but of course when it looks like trolling and pointless insults start flying around, it has gone too far.
I don't personnally thinks that custom textures settings per track is a good idea. Maybe it can help some people, but it's just my personnal opinion so I'm waiting for other's opinion.
However, I think that the idea to optimize every code you work or re-work is a good idea, so keep it up and make LFS back in the race !
I have to say that the sense of time has been lost a long time ago by the developers. I can understand every game company has their own pace of developing their software.. but this so out of the line that I had to (finally) write this post down once and for all.
Not only that; devs don't care one single bit of what 90% of the community actually want.
They follow their own path's and you have to deal with it.
"If you like it, thank you very much, if you don't, there are other racing sims out there!"
Reading an update report such as this it's blatantly obvious.
LFS still has the basis to be the most realistic online racing experience on the market and I've enjoyed a whole lot for the past 3 years.
But as I've reckoned, there's no new content for 7 or 8 years... it's not only beyond ridiculous, it's embarrassing!
I'm not posting this with bad intentions, I admire a lot your work. For 3 men, this is amazing! I'm writing this because we are the people who still care and hope for new SIGNIFICANT stuff to come out. And as nothing significant happens, people are moving on, which is sad!
I am glad Scavier work in their own way and don't take crap from anyone. While I do wish things had gone differently, I am still glad for what LFS was, is, and always will be. Hindsight is always 20/20, and life is more interesting when you don't do things right the first time.
I would hope that once Westhill has been done, it would speed up the process for all other tracks (ones we have and ones we are yet to have). The lessons learned from being able to scan and develop Rockingham are evident in this improved Westhill. Scavier have proven their ability to adapt where it is needed in regards to the actual output.
New Dimension Racing (and perhaps other leagues) have (and may/will) stop operations in LFS for the time being while the community has stagnate. I can absolutely guarantee that the NDR stop down is soley due to the state of the community, and not the slow development pace. It's a shame the community is as weak as it is, as the possibilities for great on-track action are still there, if only the people would do so. Vicious cycle, that sadly has claimed victims.