Looks very nice! The roads look photorealistic, sometimes even better than the real photo counterpart. The thing that gives away which photo is real and not is the grass, but it looks great too.
I edit my comment : just tested the LX8 version of LFS, and Fern Bay has evoluated a bit more than just the palm trees ... clearly
But seeing what Eric has done on Blackwood and Rockingham ... Fern Bay 2.0 will be great
Thanks! I need to remember that every time someone asks the same question, for each of them it was the first time!
I do know what you mean that although the cars don't look any worse than before, and in fact look better now with the self-shadowing and improved lighting, they can start to stick out when everything around them is up to a more modern standard.
Anyway I am sure that Eric is very keen to update cars when the tracks are done. I believe he could update some of them and we could do another patch some time after the tracks release. It shouldn't be necessary to update all cars at once. Ideally the oldest ones would be done first. But I'm not saying that's what will happen, because it depends what comes up and what seems to be the best thing to do at the time.
I would expect it may look even better.
Lynce is an amazing artist and she has done some great work with textures, but there was only so much she could do with low poly counts on scenery etc.
Cant wait to see what Eric has in store for us. I love the subtle details he puts in to the tracks.
Its the little imperfections that make them look more realistic.
Thank you Scawen for the update and also Degats for the comparison shots!
@Scawen: Thats is right what you 2 do...
First Update the Tracks (btw: Excellent Work ) and then if all works fine with the Tracks you can overhaul the Cars. And first after this you can back to work on other things like Weather? or Seasons? or what i dont know... Do what you think is right (and i know you know what is right)
Im a First-Time LFS Player (not really active in the Forums) but i follow every progress and i can say that LFS (also you) are one of the best Developers. Not the fastest but you do your work as it is your Baby
It really looks very good. It's an awesome improvement guys, it's a really interesting update, from my pov, there are some pictures that looks better than in real life.
Just a question @Scawen, will the new light and shadow system help to create a night version? I mean, to add some lights to the cars and play it at night, because now that you guys are updating every shadow, I think that it will work very well.
Obviously I'm not Scawen, but I suspect that this is a step into proper day/night simulation. However shadows are just one thing, you'd need to add lights to all cars and probably some more track objects. Sun is still fixed in LFS as far as I know, so that would have to move around the earth as well.
Also... we do not know what else is on his todo list. All we know is that the list is probably a book by now.
If there will be Weather (Rain, Snow etc.) and also Day/Night then i hope that the Water on the Track is Dynamic like in Forza that you get Aquaplaning if you Drive fast trought a puddle and the Water Flows off the Track into the Gutters.
What would be funny is if you can Control the Weather so in a Online Race you can say: "Now its Start Raining and the Track goes Wet and more Wet." (based on how long and strange its Raining).
I'm trying to work out whether the shine on the wet grip area is supposed to be water or shiny rubber.
I'm going to regret saying this, because it's another shader rabbit hole to go down (sorry if this delays the release ), but for "overexposed" shine like this, it could probably do with a subtle amount of bloom.