Thanks! Don't worry, we aren't going to give up.

There was a quiet time for a few years but we are back on full power. We like what we do. I don't like having to come here and ban trolls, but if we have a forum, we have to deal with them. It feels strange to just be here working very hard on a free update, and being interrupted every few hours to deal with insults from talentless fools who can't think of anything better to do. But it seems this is the way of the internet.

We look forward to getting this update done soon and eventually releasing the other things we have been working on, plus things we haven't yet started, into the future!

By the way, for anyone who feels the pace of development isn't quick enough, there is no need to come and insult us. We don't charge a membership fee. Remember, it was a one-off payment. You can go and use other simulators or games and come back here when there is an update. That's what they are there for. Try what you like, without feeling bitter. There is no loyalty issue. We think you can have more than one sim installed on your computer. Better not waste your time and ours insulting us just because you don't like the pace or can't understand why software development takes a lot of time.

Thanks for the update Scawen, I love to come here and see a little bit of development info. I know you are a busy man but the one question I have regarding development is mainly pointed at Eric. With the westhill overhaul, was the track surface changed? In terms of bumps and camber. I wondered if by laser scanning Rockingham changed the way Eric developed new tracks to make them more or less bumpy.

Quote from Scawen :

I was also reading up about shadow maps the other day, where a shadow map (Z buffer) is rendered in real time from the position of the sun. It also sounds interesting, but brings up many issues to solve. Apparently pretty easy to get a first version but becomes more complicated as you fix the problems, such as a requirement for multiple renders, at lower resolution in the distance. Maybe wouldn't work, I don't know, but it's interesting.

You can use a scaling algorithm in a shader to vary the shadow resolution in a single render, something which Cody Darr (of Sonic Ether's Unbelievable Shaders for Minecraft) apparently came up with. It has the advantage of there being no discrete steps in resolution, too.

Quote from Scawen :

Graphics... [edited by Scawen - don't need the whole quote]

OMG now I really can't wait to see all of this in action , I am curious about your new cars shader system!

just one stupid question : will you bring those graphical improvement and working on the tires at the same times or you will wait until you finishing all physics stuff ?

I don't know about the order of things... better not even guess!

One thing at a time.

bah, I suppose you have two hands Scawen... simply use two computers at the same time ^^ : graphics on the left, tire physics on the right !

Quote from Scawen :

I have a work in progress on my computer, which involves various changes to the default car shader. It includes a real time rendered version of the environment map, drawn from the car's position. It's not a cube map, it's just a single wide angle vertical view, distorted into a circle. In a car game this is by far the most important thing as the most visible reflections on a car are of the sky and objects that block the sky. At least it only requires one vertical draw of the environment per car, instead of 6 images of the environment per car, as required for a cube map. It's nice to see the trees and buildings zipping past the car as you drive.

I'm glad to see this. Keep it up!
But what? Just one pass?
The best solution i saw yet is dual paraboloid which takes two passes.
Did you figured this out by yourself or used any reference?
I'd really like to read the technical details about this method.

Quote from Scawen :

If you could tell me, on your thread, exactly which extra data you need, maybe I can make a note to see if it can be included in my planned update.

There's nothing special, just variables that every renderer have. Transformation matrices and internal variables.

While Eric works on Westhill on one screen and Rockingham on the other

EDIT : Grilled

Quote from Scawen :

The Oculus Rift DK2 came out and that was seriously worth supporting. I don't want to hear what a waste of time that was, from anyone who hasn't tried it, because they can't imagine something better than looking at a monitor.

I have tried the DK1 for a few minutes on a motion platform (poorly optimized) running LFS with XFR and it wasn't the most immersive experience as they didn't set up the Rift for each individual trying the sim. That being said I absolutely agree that DK2 support and future CV1 support is something that was definately the right thing to do. Can't wait to get the CV1, hopefully Oculus will not postpone the release too far into 2015 or even further...

Quote from Scawen :

Hope that explains why we are doing a Westhill update, until the next person asks the same question!

The problem is that most forum visitors do not read and remember each comment made by the devs (me included), the answers are buried under myriad of posts and topics. Some kind of FAQ could be usefull regarding the current and future status of LFS. Otherwise the same questions keep coming up from time to time.

When is coming out new lfs version ?

Quote from kepp1313 :

When is coming out new lfs version ?

When it's done.

Around the year ?

No, when it's done. No date specified.

@Scawen:
I'm really impressed and excited how you communicate with us over the last few weeks/months.
Keep it up!

Just run my offline Championship against AI last weekend with 0.6G at KY2 and everything worked perfect (stats recorded with LFSStats). Next track on the list: Westhill
I'm looking forward to another perfect race weekend on the new Westhill track.

Quote from aaltomar :

The problem is that most forum visitors do not read and remember each comment made by the devs (me included), the answers are buried under myriad of posts and topics. Some kind of FAQ could be usefull regarding the current and future status of LFS. Otherwise the same questions keep coming up from time to time.

Actually, I give +1 for this. Depends of course does it need to repeat.

Scawen,

I've spent 6 years of my life as a lead game developer; I've gone through love and hate from the community that we developed around our game.

I've dealt with thousands of messages,
from "You guys are awesome, keep up the great work" "you will go really far" "Thank you, we love you"

to "You're not working fast enough" "we need to be updated more often" "why didn't we hear from you during the last couple of days" "We deserve this, and that" "The latest patch wasn't big enough" "You make false promises, don't make them anymore"

As hard as it was, and god knows how much time I lost arguing with ungrateful kids for a game we released for FREE, I've learned to ignore the few hate messages and focus on all the people that supported us.

And one thing that I noticed and that always made us all laugh in the development team was that the worse flamers were the first ones to spread the love when we were giving news and releasing updates.

I really, really feel you, don't even take anything negative being said here personally and keep up the great work and focus. You have made a fantastic game that I'm sure you're proud of and the recent pace is thrilling and makes me very optimistic for its future !

Arnaud

(ps: if one day you change your mind and need some backup in the assets development front, message me. I have 10 years of experience in Sound Design and Level-environment Design)

Quote from THE WIZARD DK :

Quote from Flame CZE :

No matter what drivers you race with or how competitive the races are, you just have to get bored of the same things at some point. This is when the motivation drops. Most of those people have driven the same combos hundreds of times. It's hard to be original.

but it doesnt mean people should goto race servers to troll on track either... which i see many do, none specific.

Are you referring to Flame with your post?

Quote from Scawen :

I definitely do want to change the shadow rendering system! And as you can imagine, Eric would like nothing more than that! My last century rendering system puts shadows where there shouldn't be any and misses shadows where there should be some. But I think it is of a lower priority compared with releasing the Westhill update.

Cool, but Rockingham ?

Expects this to be deleted along with the rest of my questions......

A bit strange as this is actually an important question. but, hey, welcome to IT in 2014.

Quick, look, a squirrel.

Quote from Racer X NZ :

Cool, but Rockingham ?

From an earlier post of Scawens:

Quote from Scawen :

Rockingham is nearly ready, that's true, but we don't think one track is enough to justify an upgrade to S3.

Yep, I notice that there is still no words about cars that would (yes, who knows maybe there will be none) come in S3 ... ^^

Quote from Flotch :

Yep, I notice that there is still no words about cars that would (yes, who knows maybe there will be none) come in S3 ... ^^

Scirocco (even though it's S1 content)

true , shame on me !

Is my memory making a fool of me or did Scawen actually mention that there's another car waiting for us that he won't go into detail?

Nice reading aboug progress! It's been so many years since it all started, that most of us which were still kids back then have matured and grown into something which starting to look like a normal human beeeing

As for me Im still lurking around, but I guess time has caught up to me and I dont have all the time and will to pick up fights with the members and the devs of this community ;p

Back topic, Scawen, I know everything is work in progress and subject to change, but at current time beeing, what do you belive will be the final track / car number addition in S3? Again, your answer will be taken as a guess, not promise. Just wondering!

Have a jolly good day further!