The existing bike simulation in LFS works by the user "setting the lean" with the mouse or wheel. The bike then does the necessary physical steering to get to that lean. So it's a physically simulated bike but obviously doesn't actually feel like being on a bike. It has a similarity with controlling a real bike because in real life we do get a bike round a corner by, through the bars, "setting the lean" appropriate for the current speed to achieve the required turn radius. There's quite a bit of work to be done on the LFS simulation and it's not a high priority yet but I would like to release it at some point even if it will never seem as convincing as car driving. Left / right / front / back body movement could be done using an analogue stick while another stick controls the lean angle. Body movement would not be necessary to ride but would be used to get the best lateral or longitudinal performance from the bike.
It was originally about the German car, but then we got bored.
I know what you all mean - the bike leans when steering no matter where you are on the bike, and my original statement was poorly worded, exaggerated, maybe a bit too dry... and admittedly, my time on motorbikes has been limited and for the most part fairly sedate, and nowhere near the sort of speeds we're talking here, but i do know that it's just as much about where you are on the bike, as Scawen says, to get the best lateral or longitudinal performance from the bike.
As Cargame says, the leaning is counterintuitive to the physics you experience at your desk. Those subtle bodyweight adjustments would probably see you falling off a rig like this, but in saying that, this guy probably has it the most right (especially compared to those arcade units ). I'd love to get a better look at what he's got under his feet...
The more I think about this, the more certain I am that I could design a better bike simulator
You could have a great sim with automatic body movement. It wouldn't be perfect but with realistically controlled force feedback handlebar controllers it definitely would be massive fun, a huge challenge, and a real laugh!
Scawen is probably the only person in the world that would do it right.
Scawen dropping bombs like this and no one takes notice.
Have you considered doing things the other way around? The steering is handled by the wheel, ffb provides sense of balance and lets us know what the front wheel is doing,and the body positioning is handled by the sim.
Bikes are different than cars in that there is a lot more athletic talent required to be fast. We can't really have the user provide these movements because they require so much info from the bike/road that can't currently be conveyed though a sim rig (yet).
GP-Bikes has a hidden mode that lets you control the bars directly. It's a method I always advocated in the past but it's... really, really difficult when you can't properly feel what's going on. Granted, the low-speed physics quirks in that game don't help.
GP Bikes is already enough hard
But for sure, seeing a bike well done in LFS would be terrific
Doing battle with cars would be just incredible
But let's not disturb Scawen's mind too much with things not on "a high priority yet" . The damned tire physics needs all the possible care
I'm personally glad that your opinion is not shared by too many people. The reason is that, the improvement of both simulation software and hardware is a chicken and egg problem. When some early sims came out, say early Nascar Racing, wheels were either non-existent or not accessible or really bad, depending on which part of the world you're in. Now if sim makers back then stopped making sims that were "not really simulating" just because players didn't have wheels, then the wheel makers wouldn't bother making wheels because there were no games. If the wheel makers didn't make wheels, then the sim makers wouldn't bother making sims, player wouldn't bother playing... Then we'd have gotten nowhere.
But we did get far. Racing sims had been made drivable using keyboard/mouse/joystick in the absence of wheels. Then the hardware caught up. None of the improvement was made by people who thought "not really simulating" then walked. The same story goes for flight-sims. I'm thoroughly in the hopes that motorcycle sims will grow until someone figures out the proper way to make a good controller for it, one which I can go out and buy.
I think, with the recent renaissance of VR, it's going to be easier for users to provide the movements. Perhaps the user also gets more feedback from stereoscopic HMD's.
Was thinking..... In the late 1960's a company - I think it's name was Chance manufaturing - marketed a gas powered pogo stick. I'm not making this up. There really is such a thing. What about having THOSE in LFS?
OK, but the car skin would need some crappy bumper sticker bragging about their stupid kid being on some school's honor roll. Or maybe a stick family on the back window.
Things i want to see on LFS:LX8 coming again in the game,scirocco being in the game if possible and bikes would be nice to see in game like mini 50cc's or 600cc superbikes