ChatGPT seems to have abit more tact than I do on this subject, so I'll leave this to them.



Hello fellow LFS enthusiasts,

I hope you're all doing well. I wanted to take a moment to discuss our shared passion for Live for Speed. It's a fantastic racing sim that has brought us many enjoyable moments over the years.

As you might know, it has been quite some time since the 20th-anniversary article teased new content and updates for the game. While I understand that the development team consists of a small number of individuals, I must admit that the prolonged silence has left me a bit concerned.

I want to express my appreciation for the work they have put into LFS thus far, and I'm genuinely excited about the potential updates mentioned in the anniversary article. However, it would be great to receive a status update on the progress of these promised features. Transparency is crucial in maintaining a strong and supportive community.

I also encourage everyone to share their ideas and suggestions on how we can improve LFS further. Let's collaborate and support the developers in any way we can. If any members of our community possess skills or knowledge that could benefit the development process, don't hesitate to step forward and offer your assistance.

Let's keep this discussion positive and constructive, as I believe that together, we can help shape the future of LFS. Thank you all for being part of this fantastic community.

Best regards,
[Your Forum Username]


Please don't lock this thread.

yes i agree with marty, how is the update going

bruh there will never be the proper update you're waiting for. deal with it or find another game

Quote from hsvdin0 :

bruh there will never be the proper update you're waiting for. deal with it or find another game

But there will be a big graphical overhaul!

Quote from Evolution_R :

But there will be a big graphical overhaul!

in 2050 hopefully.

Quote from Marty_Deslions :

I must admit that the prolonged silence has left me a bit concerned.

I'll start by linking to a couple of threads which show a lot of the work I have been doing recently:

Test Patch D33: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102117
Editor Test Patch D40: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102626

As you can see, particularly on the Editor Test Patch thread, I have made a huge number of improvements for the mod support. I find it a great thing that LFS is a way for people to be creative, and the mods system is a massive new part of that. It was very "new" indeed when released (basically a bunch of dev editors brushed up a bit) which is why there have been so many issues to sort out.

In the past months, while I have been doing these, Eric was at first finishing South City, which took a lot longer than he anticipated. Filling those holes is not easy, and he likes to fill them just as people would actually "fill the holes" when building a real city. I received an update recently and tested it, reported a bunch of issues and he fixed those. We find the completion level very good now, basically good enough for public testing when we can get the full version together. He is now working on the Kyoto improvements. As you may know from the official progress reports, that was never finished before Eric moved onto the South City, that turned into an epic development and massive expansion.

On my side, I'm trying to finish test patch things so that I can finally complete the tyre physics. In fact my current focus is on wheels, both in the development and public version. In the public version there should be a graphical update for wheels in the next few days, to go along with the many updates there have been for mods. Again, please read the test patch threads to know what I'm talking about.

There is also other work I do, that you never see, such as updates for the track editor. Suppose Eric is doing a task and finds he has to do something in a laborious or repetitive way and one of us thinks of a new editor function that could help him achieve certain tasks more quickly, then I always want to stop whatever else I was doing and work on the track editor for a few days.

I'm trying to get to an official release so my focus can then be entirely on the tyre physics in the development version. It has taken me much longer than expected to complete this round of test patches as there were so many unfinished things in the mods system. When I see creators, working hard and having to use workarounds for issues, I feel a great responsibility to get that issue sorted out.

Of course, the priorities I attach to various tasks, will not be the same as someone else's priority. We all have different priorities, so there's not a person in the world who could agree with all my choice of tasks to work on. But I must work on what I feel is important. Actually I find it a huge mental effort to complete these tasks, and that's why I need to follow the inspiration. Sometimes I'm awake at night working out how to do something, then experimenting and testing, it's a lot of work.

It takes a long time, but there is always progress.

Quote from Scawen :

...
It takes a long time, but there is always progress.

Allright thank you

I don't really understand why people want a new update in just a day and a night. Even thought they know that it's not like a 100 developer team,it's just a 3 people dev team and they're doing the best to keep this progress going. Even thought it's slow but it's very good for a 3 people dev team.

Quote from Scawen :

Of course, the priorities I attach to various tasks, will not be the same as someone else's priority. We all have different priorities, so there's not a person in the world who could agree with all my choice of tasks to work on. But I must work on what I feel is important. Actually I find it a huge mental effort to complete these tasks, and that's why I need to follow the inspiration. Sometimes I'm awake at night working out how to do something...

This is the most sensefull way to avoid burnout. That's the way I function too, and it makes progress slower, inspiration is like waves on a beach, they come, and vanish, and another comes and vanishes.
It is not easy to resist the expectation of other people, society, forum community, and stick to our way of doing things, while resisting that pressure. This pressure alone costs quite an amount of energy.

Following the LFS adventure since 2008, I see it like you fell from your bike, got hurt and confused for some time, and got back on it a bit changed, with a renewed vision and faith about what makes senses in your life.
From this perspective, I find you quite admirable. (but on a few others I dont )

Quote from Countess :

I don't really understand why people want a new update in just a day and a night.

It is definitely not just day and night! It will be day and night of a change. LFS Public and LFS Dev are day and night difference.
It does look great.
It was promised.
So, yeah.

Quote from Viperakecske :

update in 3 weeks

There was like 40 updates (text patch D40).
Allowing to make some beautiful looking gauge clusters.

Quote from Scawen :

..

I have LFS on my PC from 8-9 years and I can say there is already an HUGE progress in past 2 years (rockingham, mods, lfseditor etc...) When the update is out this sim would be even more epic and I am so hyped about that day.
I'm sure there is a way we can help. Donations?.. Or working with you, helping with textures, modelling or something else?

Respect to all (3) devs working so many years on the best sim!

Quote from Evolution_R :

There was like 40 updates (text patch D40).
Allowing to make some beautiful looking gauge clusters.

Wow! Cool Cockpit - This gives me a better idea of what Scawen is still busy working on (mod/vehicle editor > next test patch version).

It remains exciting!

Thanks for the report!
I hope you don't get too many roadblock on the remaining stuff!
And thanks for the good work and the test patches they are already making improvement!

It's good to hear some news.
Looking forward to testing new physics with new shading on updated tracks. Thanks for the update!

I'm wondering if the update or test patches will be split? I remember it was said that Fern Bay will probably come out in the next separate update after big one, but has it been a long time since, maybe something's changed. Maybe it will be part of one big update with new graphics, all the updated tracks and tire physics?

Quote from ivo_drifta :

I'm sure there is a way we can help. Or working with you, helping with textures, modelling or something else?

I've been thinking about this for a long time, as I've been working as an industrial designer for a long time and modeling a lot. And I would be happy to offer my help on a non-reimbursable basis. But perhaps it may be problematic for developers, because they will not have authorship of the models or confidence in the authorship of the models of helpers. Roughly speaking they are not responsible for other people as they are not contractually bound to them. Or is that not important?
Although it is possible to put models on publicly available resources with GNU license for example, and with authorship verification for example through modeling on live streams. I, for example, did streams for modeling of my mods, it's not hard for me.
In general, if there is a possibility I could help with modeling and texturing without any demand for benefits.

All the tracks have been updated for the new graphics, but some more than others.

From memory, I'll post a few words and you can follow the links for more info. The ones that say "Mainly texture updates" are because the track was already at a high detail level, but needed textures updated for the new specular system (e.g. shine on roads, and many other objects too). Also there would be fixes for objects that did not cast shadows properly.


Blackwood - Mainly texture updates
https://www.lfs.net/report-aug2018-bl

South City - Major overhaul and expansion
https://www.lfs.net/report-may2021-so

Fern Bay - Minor update, mainly road textures and fixes for lighting
https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/2028515#post2028515 (December 2022)

Autocross - Major overhaul
https://www.lfs.net/report-dec2018-au

Kyoto - Major overhaul
https://www.lfs.net/report-apr2019-ky

Westhill - Mainly texture updates
https://www.lfs.net/report-jan2019-we

Aston - Major overhaul
https://www.lfs.net/report-oct2018-as

Rockingham - Mainly texture updates
https://www.lfs.net/report-sep2018-ro

...

Most recent South City images: (18 August 2022)
https://www.lfs.net/20th-anniversary

I wonder what will come first, geometry dash 2.2 or lfs update

Quote from Scawen :

All the tracks have been updated for the new graphics, but some more than others.

Are u guys also working on the sky I mean will there be clouds or will it stay clear sky in update?

Quote from RC-Maus :

Are u guys also working on the sky I mean will there be clouds or will it stay clear sky in update?

Check out the following "Graphics Progress Report: Lighting research":
https://www.lfs.net/report-jul2019

There you can find this phrase:

Quote :

Planned development on lighting includes a system to produce clouds in the generated skies and better night support including the brightness of artificial lights and automatic exposure control

For me that sounds like a "yes".

Quote from Pasci :

For me that sounds like a "yes".

Thank u

I don't think lack of clouds is something to delay the release, though. It's something I definitely want to do. We do have quite a few things we want to do, that don't have to be done before the release.

Thank you Scawen for keeping up the work on this, I can only imagine the difficulty to keep motivated. When I get a chance one day I will get back to playing it once more, there were some great memories back in the day.

Kinda interesting to see user's 1st forum post 2 days after 20 years profile anniversary!

Quote from ivo_drifta :

Respect to all (3) devs working so many years on the best sim!

Much respect. Thanks to the 3 of you for all you do.