NOTE: OFFICIAL VERSION 0.7D IS NOW AVAILABLE


WARNING: THIS IS A TEST

PLEASE TEST BEFORE YOU POST


Hello Racers,

Here is a new test patch: 0.7C6

The changes are listed below.

0.7C6 is COMPATIBLE with 0.7C

- You CAN connect online with 0.7C
- You CAN play replays from 0.7C

Please back up or rename your LFS.exe from 0.7C so you can revert to it if necessary.


Changes from 0.7C5 to 0.7C6:

Interface:

FIX: Virtual keyboard full of question marks in Greek or Cyrillic

List of events:

Lock icon reduces width of Join button to share the usual width
Generic 'play' character added for other live streaming services


Changes from 0.7C to 0.7C5:

List of events:

Time to live stream is displayed if it starts in less than 1 hour
Displays current and max connections on host if any are connected
Live stream service links are now shown as icons instead of names
A lock icon is displayed beside Join button if password required

Mods screen:

If host has a limited list of mods the filters are set to show all
Page Up / Page Down keys move a whole page (5 lines instead of 4)
FIX: Selected mod's name was not always identified as selected

Force feedback:

Change in force feedback code for devices that report two FF axes
- to fix a problem with some wheels with inverted FF turning left

Interface:

Click "Join" when no official cars allowed now enters mods screen
FIX: Crash after selecting a driver name from Join Specific Host
FIX: Assigned arrow keys adjusted brake balance (etc) while driving
FIX: Viewer button was available in garage during welcome sequence
FIX: Corrected width of characters in text dialog code page view


INSTALLATION:

A FULL version of LFS 0.7C must already be installed
To install the PATCH using the SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE:

1) Move or save the patch into your main LFS folder
2) Double click the patch to extract it to that folder
3) When you see "Confirm File Replace" select "Yes to All"
4) Now you can start LFS in the normal way

NOTE: You can see if the patch is correctly installed when you run
the program (LFS.exe). At the bottom of the entry screen: 0.7C6


DOWNLOAD:

PATCH 0.7C TO 0.7C6 (SELF EXTRACTING ARCHIVE) (If you already have 0.7C)
EDIT: Link removed, full version is now available (1.0 MB)

As described in another thread, this is a minor update for some keyboard users whose controls were messed up by version C.
https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/98298

(0.7C2)

Based on my short testing, when using the "mouse / keyboard" control profile, it did fix the arrows adjusting brake bias.

While using the "wheel / joystick" profile, like I normally do with my wheel/pedals, the left/right arrow keys still adjust the brake bias. Not as urgent or disturbing as the previous bug was for the keyboard users, but still, this might not be an intended behavior either. (I don't have any keyboard arrows assigned to any other functions in the "wheel / joystick" mode)

Tested and works great with the patch, no issue with the brake bias being altered with the arrow keys

Thanks for the tests.

Quote from MandulAA :

While using the "wheel / joystick" profile, like I normally do with my wheel/pedals, the left/right arrow keys still adjust the brake bias. Not as urgent or disturbing as the previous bug was for the keyboard users, but still, this might not be an intended behavior either. (I don't have any keyboard arrows assigned to any other functions in the "wheel / joystick" mode)

I think this is intended and has always been this way. The arrow keys are supposed to adjust whatever instantly adjustable setting is selected and visible (on the steering wheel in the case of a Formula V8). But before doing so, it checks if the incoming keypress has been assigned to some other function. If it has, then it does not consider that key unless SHIFT is held down.

The bug fix is that the incoming arrow keypresses were now on a different range of values (65536+) to allow for Unicode character input. To fix the bug, these particular keys needed to be mapped back to their traditional values (256+) when considering if they were assigned.

Quote from Scawen :

..
I think this is intended and has always been this way.
..

Oh, I see! One learns something every day! I didn't know about this, always entered the F11 panel first, and adjusted there. Now I'm using a script mapped to a button on my wheel to adjust bias, but seems like I overcomplicated that as well, since that does press F11 first - now I know it shouldn't need to and I can simplify the script a bit more (though only for FBM/FOX/FO8 then).

It's fix !! Thank you very much !

A crash fix and a few minor updates in Test Patch C3

Tried the changes in C3, they work great!

A really small, visual thing (see attached image):
seemingly there is a double spacer between the date/time field and the • character that bugs my eyes.

Even though I understand C2 and now C3 are just hotfix-like patches that should be released as soon as possible (due to the keyboard/brake bias thing), I can't resist suggesting a little addition to the upcoming events list:
Would it be possible to show connection count next to the server names, given they are online? I suspect it would encourage people to join, if they see someone practising for an event they are interested in as well. Something like this:


or

I think I agree about the space. My family members pushed me to add the extra space as they thought the blob was too close to the other text. Although I felt as you do, I went with the majority.

I've removed that extra space now in the attached image. What do you think? When the next character is a 1, I can see what my family were worried about.


About the racers online, would it matter that the number isn't live, and only updates when you refresh the page? It would be easy to add a static display but much harder to make it check in with the website or master server for regular updates.

If so, what about a 3rd possible notation using brackets:

Rony's Tuesday Fun Race (45/47)

Quote from Scawen :

..
I've removed that extra space now in the attached image. What do you think? When the next character is a 1, I can see what my family were worried about.
..

Ah yes, I see it's a bit weird with 1 being the next character, although I think the one on your image still has less of a visual imbalance than with the current version C3 (and will only be close(r) while next char is 1, which will only happen for 10+1 minutes anyway ). Or, another way, put the word "in" between the blob and the livestream countdown. Not sure how it would look with char "i" next to the blob.

Quote from Scawen :

..
About the racers online, would it matter that the number isn't live, and only updates when you refresh the page?
..

Thanks for considering the feature! I think it would be more than sufficient to have it static, especially if that makes adding the display much easier and faster. After all, there is a refresh button, and I also guess the panel refreshes itself many times already (any time we go into the main menu, either when launching LFS or coming back from a session (?) ).

Brackets for the numbers would be great! Whichever looks best

Quote from MandulAA :

Or, another way, put the word "in" between the blob and the livestream countdown. Not sure how it would look with char "i" next to the blob.

Best solution!

Quote from MandulAA :

Brackets for the numbers would be great! Whichever looks best

When I realised the numbers should be coloured, I thought it looked better without brackets. Which do you prefer in the attachment? Other suggestions welcome.

I've gone with the cyan version in test patch C4.

It's not implemented on the web side so you won't see anything yet.

Cyan looks nice. Didn't even think of using colors to differentiate between the name and numbers, great idea! Might be worth to change the color to yellow if only ~10 spots are available, and to red when full. Might be overthinking now

I really appreaciate the feature, thank you! Hopefully that provokes a little bit of encouragement of joining in people who are interested in an event, but don't want to practice alone. I will be interested to see it live, once it's implemented on the web side.

These are really itsy bitsy, but it's starting to look like a children's paint book. I get that when event is getting close the countdown changes color, but I don't see any reason to color the number of people in the server. IMO just brackets and same color was fine.

And for it to be dynamic, couldn't you make the .exe self-click on refresh every x seconds, just like how it works when user does?

Quote from nexttime :

but I don't see any reason to color the number of people in the server. IMO just brackets and same color was fine.

It certainly looks better than being only green

Hi Scawen, I've tested the new patch and the changes with ffb are perfect. LFS is reporting AxisEnable byte as 0x04 (direction enable) and the direction is fixed at 90deg, while magnitude has both positive and negative signs for the constant force effect - resulting in a correct FFB for 2 axis FFB devices.

All good, tnx man.

Changes in test patch C5:

List of events:

YouTube and Twitch links are now shown as icons instead of names
A lock icon is displayed beside Join button if password required

Mods screen:

Mod name was not always shown as selected when entering mods screen

Misc:

FIX: Corrected width of characters in text dialog code page view

All is well here! FFB-wise I wasn't affected by that issue, but still works fine here, nothing went wrong. The online player counters appeared next to server names, I already found it quite handy. Great job!

One thing came to my mind is, - and since I have little to no clue about trademarks etc. -, if its required, make sure you have a disclaimer to use YT/Twitch logos somewhere. Again, I have no idea how these logos are copyrighted, attribution might not be required at all, I thought I just mention it just in case.

(couldn't see the lock icon next to any servers, but I guess it's just bad luck since no event servers are passworded right now - will check tomorrow, when the FOX Friday server gets locked for the quali)

Quote from MandulAA :

One thing came to my mind is, - and since I have little to no clue about trademarks etc. -, if its required, make sure you have a disclaimer to use YT/Twitch logos somewhere. Again, I have no idea how these logos are copyrighted, attribution might not be required at all, I thought I just mention it just in case.

Regarding YouTube - if you want to be super correct, you needed to submit a brand request form for approval first: https://support.google.com/youtube/contact/brand_request?hl=en

I find it quite over the top, but it exists

Weird world - you need to request approval for link to their service that's marked with recognizable graphic.

Yeah, that is exactly what I was afraid of... Can we even use the word "YouTube" legally?

Tested with controller (Thrustmaster T-wireless black V4) and wheel (Thrustmaster T248) and it was all good.
Only strange thing was that the force feedback was super low on power when i've used the wheel in the patch for the first time. Closed the patched version, launched LFS for a comparision and, when i used the patch again the ffb was normal.

Thank you for the tests.

I've uploaded a last chance test patch C6 as we plan to release the full version this afternoon.

Changes from C5 to C6:

Interface:

FIX: Virtual keyboard full of question marks in Greek or Cyrillic

List of events:

Lock icon reduces width of Join button to share the usual width
Generic 'play' character added for other live streaming services

Thank you all for the feedback.

Version 0.7D is now available!

https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/98364