Hi all.

I just wanted to say I just got LFS last night and am very impressed with it. I've been on a search for a realisitic driving game for the PC and had almost given up. I was about to go out and buy a PS2 + GT4 and a steering wheel to satisfy my urge to race. I race auto-x and track in real life but am limited by a budget so can't do it as often as I'd like.

So I had a few questions about getting this up and running on my computer and having some fun with it.

1. First off, what steering wheel would you all recommend? I want it to be as realistic as possible... it would be awesome to have one with a clutch pedal as well as a shifter, but I also want the steering to be realistic (i.e. 900 degrees not 270 or whatever the others are). I heard that the Logitech was a great wheel for the PS2. Is this same wheel also compatible with the PC and is it also the best I can use for LFS?

2. After downloading my password and whatnot for S2, I assume I need to be connected to the internet to activate the game... after that, can I continue to play it while my computer isn't hooked up to the internet? It is frequently disconnected and some games I have won't let me play unless I am connected (Steam and HL2 comes to mind). Is this the case with LFS or can I play offline if i wish?

3. This may sound stupid, but I am an auto-x junkie and am primarily interested in doing the auto-x stuff in this game. How would you all rate the auto-x feature?

- can you make courses out of only the parking lots, or can you make them out of tracks as well? what about using dirt sections as well?
- for those of you who auto-x in real life - how close does the steering wheel come to real-life auto-x? I'd like to use this as a sort of off-season training, if I can.

I've been playing the game with a mouse & keyboard... it sure is hard to control the car and I imagine it would be a lot better with the wheel and pedals... especially cause the mouse only lets me mash the gas or the brake but not really do anything in between.

so let me know what you all think... I'd like to use this game primarily for training... I also design courses for auto-x in real life, so want to use it to act as a testing bed, so to speak.

Quote from dark_vandal :

Hi all.

I just wanted to say I just got LFS last night and am very impressed with it. I've been on a search for a realisitic driving game for the PC and had almost given up. I was about to go out and buy a PS2 + GT4 and a steering wheel to satisfy my urge to race. I race auto-x and track in real life but am limited by a budget so can't do it as often as I'd like.

So I had a few questions about getting this up and running on my computer and having some fun with it.

1. First off, what steering wheel would you all recommend? I want it to be as realistic as possible... it would be awesome to have one with a clutch pedal as well as a shifter, but I also want the steering to be realistic (i.e. 900 degrees not 270 or whatever the others are). I heard that the Logitech was a great wheel for the PS2. Is this same wheel also compatible with the PC and is it also the best I can use for LFS?

2. After downloading my password and whatnot for S2, I assume I need to be connected to the internet to activate the game... after that, can I continue to play it while my computer isn't hooked up to the internet? It is frequently disconnected and some games I have won't let me play unless I am connected (Steam and HL2 comes to mind). Is this the case with LFS or can I play offline if i wish?

3. This may sound stupid, but I am an auto-x junkie and am primarily interested in doing the auto-x stuff in this game. How would you all rate the auto-x feature?

- can you make courses out of only the parking lots, or can you make them out of tracks as well? what about using dirt sections as well?
- for those of you who auto-x in real life - how close does the steering wheel come to real-life auto-x? I'd like to use this as a sort of off-season training, if I can.

I've been playing the game with a mouse & keyboard... it sure is hard to control the car and I imagine it would be a lot better with the wheel and pedals... especially cause the mouse only lets me mash the gas or the brake but not really do anything in between.

so let me know what you all think... I'd like to use this game primarily for training... I also design courses for auto-x in real life, so want to use it to act as a testing bed, so to speak.

1. Link to wheels in my sig

2. you unlock online, but you can play offline with no connection once you have

Quote from dark_vandal :

1. First off, what steering wheel would you all recommend? I want it to be as realistic as possible... it would be awesome to have one with a clutch pedal as well as a shifter, but I also want the steering to be realistic (i.e. 900 degrees not 270 or whatever the others are). I heard that the Logitech was a great wheel for the PS2. Is this same wheel also compatible with the PC and is it also the best I can use for LFS?

I'd definitely recommend the Logitech G25, which has very nice force feedback, 900° rotation, clutch and H-Gate shifter (you can also use sequential gearstick mode or paddles). It will be about 250-300$ though, but it's worth every cent. There are of course even better ones by professional companies, but they are in the 1000$+ range and a bit overkill in my opinion.

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2. After downloading my password and whatnot for S2, I assume I need to be connected to the internet to activate the game... after that, can I continue to play it while my computer isn't hooked up to the internet? It is frequently disconnected and some games I have won't let me play unless I am connected (Steam and HL2 comes to mind). Is this the case with LFS or can I play offline if i wish?

After you bought S2, your account here (or whichever account you create on the LFS main site), will get its status updated to "S2 licensed". You can then unlock the demo to get the S2 content. To do this you need to be online once, after that you can stay offline without problems. It won't hassle you into an "offline mode" like Steam, either

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3. This may sound stupid, but I am an auto-x junkie and am primarily interested in doing the auto-x stuff in this game. How would you all rate the auto-x feature?

- can you make courses out of only the parking lots, or can you make them out of tracks as well? what about using dirt sections as well?
- for those of you who auto-x in real life - how close does the steering wheel come to real-life auto-x? I'd like to use this as a sort of off-season training, if I can.

It's definitely a pretty good implementation which allows you very much freedom, though it's not used online very often. You can place AutoX objects on every track, so you're not limited to the "autocross" location. Recently we also got the ability to add marshals and route checkers to autocross tracks, so any "cheating" is penalised. Can't comment on real life autocrossing, but in my opinion LFS has by far the best physics and FFB you can find today.

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I've been playing the game with a mouse & keyboard... it sure is hard to control the car and I imagine it would be a lot better with the wheel and pedals... especially cause the mouse only lets me mash the gas or the brake but not really do anything in between.

The only thing you could call a benefit of the mouse steer is the quick reaction to slides/drifts. You *can* be very fast with the mouse, but ultimately the wheel is a million times more immersing and easier to handle, as the FFB will give you exact cue points on how much you have to countersteer. The pedals give you much much MUCH more control, too.

One thing to add, the force feedback in LFS has no effects whatsoever. All it does is take the forces that act on the steering column through the front wheels and apply them to the FFB wheel.

You might also want to check this.

thanks for the feedback guys.

I've been looking at that G25... found it for decently cheap ($225 or so) so maybe it is better to just spend the extra $$ and get it done the right way the first time.

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One thing to add, the force feedback in LFS has no effects whatsoever. All it does is take the forces that act on the steering column through the front wheels and apply them to the FFB wheel.

Few questions about this... What exactly does force feedback do in general? I imagine it just straightens the wheel automatically if you let go (like in a real car). Does this happen with LFS?

Finally... does the clutch pedal and the 6 gear shifter work well in LFS, or do you have to just use the sequential shifter? what about other racing games? the clutch/shifter are really what attracts me to this setup... seems really cool!

The force feedback gives feedback about what the front wheels are doing, you can feel if they're losing grip, or if you need to countersteer. It doesn't work with vibration, it pulls itself from left to right or makes steering heavier or lighter (in-air).

Clutch and shifter work perfectly in LFS, you don't need to use the sequential. However, iirc, you can't use the h-shifter in the single-seaters.

Quote from dark_vandal :

Finally... does the clutch pedal and the 6 gear shifter work well in LFS, or do you have to just use the sequential shifter? what about other racing games? the clutch/shifter are really what attracts me to this setup... seems really cool!

It works perfectly in LFS, and there are a few other games out now that work with the clutch and H-pattern shifter. Most new games coming out will support it as well.

The force feedback on the G25 is amazing, I had sore shoulders for a few days after first using it. It adds quite a bit of realism to the game, it doesn't feel like some cheap toy, it feels like the real thing.

well i got S2 licensed and boy am I enjoying it! I started out having a lot of fun with some auto-x courses and have tried several tracks. I sit there for 30-40 minutes just doing laps and then realize I lost track of the time

I really need to look into getting a wheel right now... the pedals especially should make it a lot easier to give it gas in auto-x... I'm either at full throttle or nothing right now, and that's pretty tough to deal with.

btw: does anyone else think the AI drivers in the game are terrible drivers? Every time they try to pass me they rear end me and spin me out... kind of frustrating that they don't use more caution... oh well.

Ai suck atm, but this is an alpha and it is an online racing sim!

Welcome to S2

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What exactly does force feedback do in general?

Concerning the FFB, in broad (not specific to LFS) terms, it's everything that makes your wheel return to the center, rattle when you drive over curbs, resist turning more against lateral forces, shake when you crash etc.

Essentially in racing games there will be some main force acting on the wheel, that derives from the steering column, and on top of that will be canned effects which "add" to the simulation by immersion.

In LFS there are no predetermined FFB effects, the only forces applied on the wheel are the lateral ones affecting the steering column, exactly as in real life. The advantage of this is that you can tell what's really happening, whether you are over/understeering and how far from the limit you are, instead of the proper steering response being (somewhat) obscured by additional effects.

AI??! Get online, doh!