-10: I prefer having to use my left and right glance, mapped to wheel buttons, to establish the 'race awareness' that LFS requires. Little arcade-like HUD graphic indicators would really downgrade this sim, imo.

Quote from al heeley :

Little arcade-like HUD graphic indicators would really downgrade this sim, imo.

That's right. Exact distance measurements should be avoided. But perhaps it is possible to create a system that just enhances the sim driver's senses, which does not at all have to be accurate. There are certain things you notice while driving a real car that are not visible in LFS.

I think about some kind of shadow (transparent bar, or something) that appears at the sides of the screen if a nearby / overtaking car would be visible in the corner of the eye in a real car. Just that you know that there is something, but not exactly how far it is away.

A feature like this would enhance the driving experience - and not be at all unrealistic. Things you don't notice in a real car without turning your head should require turning your head in LFS, too.

Quote from wollschaf :

...

i suggested something very similar a while ago ... didnt get much supporters and im still not convinced its a good idea myself

-1

A proximity alarm is like cheating. Look left and look right works just fine from the cockpit for me. Real race cars have very poor visibility too and the introduction of the Hans device to makes it even more difficult.

-1111111111


sounds kinda dumb, and takes away from the realism of the game.

Wonder why certain people feel the need to threaten to leave if a feature is added. seems silly
and why do people do -111111000 its kinda insulting don't you think. a simple -1 would convey the same thing.

I see were the thread started comes from though. Its annoying not being able to see the person in your blind spot. somepeople say use the look bottons but sometimes you can't, if your side by side going into a corner using using the look bottons might be worse.

i think a propper solution to this problem would be some decent surround sound. a person would beable to somewhat guage where someone else is based oppon sound. better than without it.

But you have to cater for people without surround sound.

And people threaten to leave because they play LFS BECAUSE it's the most realistic simulator. Any arcadey aids added would reduce or destroy this fact, and I for one don't want to play a racing game with morons - if I did I'd play ISI games.

The best way really is to learn to look. I can race side by side whilst trail braking at 100mph looking out of my side windows momentarily. And I use smooth look not instant. It's fine, just get used to it and learn the skills needed to race properly.

Quote from tristancliffe :

But you have to cater for people without surround sound.

Not sure what u mean by that. do mean make sure the game supports stereo sound aswell.
Personally i don't have a problem with going side by side not knowing where the person is, i just restrict my self a little. what i have a problem is with mofo sneaking up on me

on the surround sound topic there alot of sub 100USD 5.1 7.1 surround sound sets. i would imagine people getting upset if it was added

-1 from me.

Though i do not always know where someone is when the racing gets close, i dont want something telling me. Being aware of where people are and if you dont then looking where they are is racing and i would hope lfs would stay true to real life racing.

Quote from Jamexing :

3
Just a little idea. Look-back is pretty useless in LFS since most cars have sizable pillars that block massive chunks of the rear view. Looking at the mirrors isn't so terribly practical either. What we can do without this radar idea is to use 2 look buttons that istead of looking exactly straight/left/right, looks to the left/right mirrors instead. This allows for realistic FOV settings while still allowing for proper rear view/side mirror use and visibility.

As I said before, we could just add a look button that runs in between full sideways and front which aims at the side mirrors. No need for some radar device, whilst allowing realistic looks of what's in the mirrors.

IRL driving, we do glance at our side mirrors once in a while to check what's behind us. This mirror glance button idea should allow for a realistic action that helps avoid wreckages.

I wonder what people would think of such an idea though. If anyone agrees please give a +1.

+0.9 (i.e. needs refinement)

At the moment our look left/right is 90 degrees which is too much most of the time, and certainly not realistic in something like the Sauber. 45 degrees would be much better. But with some peoples FOV they might need to turn more or less to see the mirror, so LFS needs, imo, some 'intelligent' system to give a compromise between viewing angle, mirror position (relative to driving position), head turn etc.

But a basic choice of 'head turn x degrees' on a slider or 'mirror-look' would be a nice start

As stated previously, I don't want to have this radar-thingy in LFS, but it's not unrealistic at all. It is already possible to have sensors in a car, which tell you where other cars are. I believe the system is called "Car's Eye" or something, and it works. It can detect the white lines on the road (like the C4 can), crowds of people, other cars and sign. I don't have yet seen it in live-action, but I already saw some video footage that was done just a few kms away.
(In this footage you see, that the system doesn't work 100%, so it isn't built in current cars, but exspect something like this in the next S-class )

The "Adjust angle of side view" get's my .
In LFS it is difficult to peak on the side mirror on the other side of the car, because it's seldomly in the focus of the side-view and very small.
The inside mirror usually get's cut up in the middle. Forward view shows the left part of it, side view shows the right side of it.
(Switch left and right here if you're sitting on the right hand side of the car.)

45° however isn't optimal either because the view of the car's side is limited then. This should just be adjustable via the GUI.

Vain

I don't like the look-left/right buttons as they are now. I'm afraid to lose control of the car while my whole world is shifting sideways.

But couldn't these buttons act on the contents of the inside mirror, instead of on the whole view? Then I could still see what is happening in front of me.

So, for example, when you press the "look right" button, the inside (virtual) mirror switches its display, and shows what you'd see IRL when looking in the right-hand-side mirror. That would be a proper simulation of using your real-life mirrors, without the fps price of having 3 mirrors simultaneously.

Actually there is just one mirror. It's just displayed three times.
LFS calculates one mirror-view. It displays a flat part of it as the inside mirror, the left part of it as the left side-mirror and the right part as the right side-mirror.

Vain

Quote from tristancliffe :

But you have to cater for people without surround sound.

properly implemented head related impulse response sound rendering for headphone players without a surround system

Quote from wsinda :

So, for example, when you press the "look right" button, the inside (virtual) mirror switches its display, and shows what you'd see IRL when looking in the right-hand-side mirror. That would be a proper simulation of using your real-life mirrors, without the fps price of having 3 mirrors simultaneously.

I kinda disagree with the bolded part, since modern racing cars really use mirrors instead of cameras and display you could control with buttons. illepall

The present system is just fine. Customizeable (from options) head turning speeds and angles is all I miss.

Most of the bits are now in one 'pile' kev, but the box and the hat are at the other end of the house.

PM me your address and I'll stick them in the post one day.

Don't forget to write a rude name on the hat with a permanent marker before you send it. Even just "tosser" would be funny.

Quote from Vain :

45° however isn't optimal either because the view of the car's side is limited then. This should just be adjustable via the GUI.

+1

Quote from AndroidXP :

Right now I'm using 68° fov and move the central mirror around to fit into the screen. Speaking of that, the mirror is actually quite unrealistic, not only because the actual car you're sitting in doesn't block anything of it, but also the cars in the mirror get very small very fast, even if they're just a few metres behind you (too high mirror fov, I think).

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear!

Hehe, yes, but not that extreme

Let me put on my flame suit first.

I think GTR has some form of look around with the mousey thingey. Whilst this would f**k up mouse control, surely it would be a good idea to allow looking around by holding left mouse button and moving it. Releasing the button should make it spring back to normal.

Well, apart from the "spring back to normal", we already have this in LFS.

Quote from AndroidXP :

Well, apart from the "spring back to normal", we already have this in LFS.

The spring back to normal is the important part really