Yeah, Scawen says he is hard at work but if you have seen his twitter he is probably still rebuilding his bike as it takes him that long to get stuff done.
Hi there, we have been working hard, but the tyre physics have not progressed since the January update.
It's not because I took around a week off rebuilding my road bike. Although I am lucky enough to have been able to deliberately take a career that focusses on allowing me time, rather that maximising my income. So it was really nice that I was able build my own bike up from the component parts.
In fact apart from one month where I did less work than the others, since January I have been working on shader updates and editor functions that help Eric create some of the effects he wants to. In fact there is a lot more to be done, but the current version allows a few more possibilities, and also does existing things in more efficient ways.
So, as usual, good updates but slower than you or I would like!
Eric has been working on one of his new tracks in particular and also done fixes and updates on Blackwood, Westhill and Rockingham which we hope to release in an update in the not too distant future.
Also as an external observer I would guess several days/weeks were burnt to resolve br-lok servers, and thinking about hardening LFS security, plus anti-cheat... (just in case if you wonder if it may help to force Scawen to release something faster, if you will break things. Nope.)
is there any plan for LFS that i could see? did you ever consider moving to steam? wouldn't it result in larger player base?
or since you are working on these physics for so long would it become an ace up your sleeve that could give you both money and players?
is there a chance that it will be so damn good that some big automotive companies would want to get a piece?(in exchange for cash/tech support)
and in case of reving up tire physics development a bit, check out what ive found:
please keep in mind im not a programmer (aside from css/html5 basic bootstrap shit) nor a physicist, so i have no idea if it could be usefull, but it looks and sounds so good:
Relax, LFS has become more of a sim for those who just wanna drive and enjoy themselves on a Sunday evening, nothing like other sims that deliver updates from time to time and have a community full of track / car modders etc.
I don't expect LFS to do well on Steam, people there expect you to update the game from time to time.
LFS is a great game, don't get me wrong, most of us grew up along with this awesome masterpiece, but it needs more to be competitive with the other sims on Steam.
Already been said it's not coming to Steam and there's been many discussions about it. I assure you every single point has been talked about, so there's nothing more to add or say about the subject.
P.S. Yes, it's obvious the devs would have a higher income and more support if the game was on Steam. But it's also obvious by now that Scawen likes to do things his own way and there's nothing we can really do about that.
There aren't many new effects yet, though there was a lot of restructuring to allow future development to take place more easily.
One of the main benefits is that the shiny windows with an overlay are now done in a single pass using a new shader, so that is good for performance and ease of modelling although visually there is no difference. It was just "wrong" to leave it the way it was done before and it's "right" to update the shaders to do things a better way.
There are also new shaders that allow the alpha channel to specify the shine level at that location on the texture, instead of transparency. Eric is applying these in a few places where it seems like a good idea but there aren't any dramatic new effects yet, for example I have not yet developed something that can be used for specular effect on the road surface.
You can't just add cars like nothing happens. You have to pay a License (IIRC it has a certain number of Years of validation, but I might be wrong) and they don't cost just 1€, they cost thousands and thousands, and you can only add cars the brand wants. Thats why they make the fictional cars (except RAC, MRT5, FBM, BF1 and the so awaited Scirocco).
Scavier is doing a big effort offering us for such a long time their product with frequent updates. Great to see that business is up to the level that it provides more free time for life things without worrying about monthly income. Still would like to have few more reasons to update licence to S3 besides Rockingham. Not only me I guess, but many more long-term LFS fans. LFS has always been something special, lots of memories, experiences, meeting new people around the country seeing how their lives moves on from competing in online and being in forums to participating in different car related topics, also myself, and even some of them competing in racing championships, even in LEMANS. Thumbs up definitely. Hoping to see news soon.