I would like to be able to use one of these spectating tools to be able to connect to a server and watch the race without using up a slot. There seems to be several tools about and I'm wondering which one to use and how to use them.

I often like to sit and watch the racing on a busy server, have a smoke or whatever but when it gets full I begin to feel guilty that I could be stopping someone from racing. Also, my bird would like to watch me in some of my races but she doesn't have S2.

Is it possible that these tools can be used by people who do not have LFS S2 or do you need a licence?

Noobtv, lfs tv director etc only work if you're on the server itself. They have custom camera positions instead of the fixed lfs cameras. Atm you can't watch a race in lfs directly unless you connect to the server. There are only other apps that can display info, but you won't actually get to the see the actual action.

For viewing the racing while offline you'll need to use a client that connects to the insim relay. The server you want to spectate also must be connected to the insim relay to broadcast the car positions etc.

There are two clients available that allow this, one is LFS Spectator and the other is Becky's new 3D Race Watcher. Becky's app is still in early stages and is a little rough, but it has an advantage that it displays the actual car skins and 3d models of the cars. For simplicity you can't go past LFS Spectator.

I recommend trying them both out as they're both very small downloads and seeing which one you prefer.

There also is LFSTV. This does not take up space on server. It works with the replay file. It will download it and display it as it is being made. The server needs to be using the software also. Thats the catch.

Quote from SpikeyMarcoD :

There also is LFSTV. This does not take up space on server. It works with the replay file. It will download it and display it as it is being made. The server needs to be using the software also. Thats the catch.

Not the server needs this software but one guy on the server must broadcast his replay file.

The Duke's guide to TV Directors, Camera Control and external spectating software

Things that let you watch without being on the server

LFS TV

It cons LFS in to thinking that it is viewing an MPR.
Need S2 Licence as it is inside LFS.

LFSspectate

2D topdown view of the race.
Uses the InSim relay - to enable your host to it, get on to Victor or Geraldine. It costs
Shows timing and chat.
No need for an S2 licence - it's an external application
Doesn't support the BF1.

LFS Race Watcher (Still in development)

3D view of the race. Cameras are a bit screwy and a lot of people are having problems (including me).
Uses the InSim relay.
Shows timing and chat
No need for an S2 Licence - it's an external application

Applications that control cameras

LFS TV Director (Still in development)

Uses free camera to act as a TV director. Detects action.
Currently has built in camera sets for Blackwood, FE Club normal, Aston and Westhill.
Customisable camera sets.
Don't need 2 moniters to run LFS fullscreen.
Can be a bit screwy at starts though.

noobTV

Uses free camera.
Must make your own cameras and direct it yourself. Needs to run windowed or with multiple moniters.

Anyone knows what NdrTV is using ? Seems it is not Tv director ?

To do the cameras? Yes it was TVD.

Quote from Ger Roady :

Anyone knows what NdrTV is using ? Seems it is not Tv director ?

For our productions, we use TVDirector for the cameras. If it's live, we'll do it with the TVDirector overlays.

If it's produced after the event, we either use TVDirector for cameras and disable it's overlays and add our own produced ones. I've before ran all the cameras by myself, for shorter races or highlights.

We use either multiBC or Livestream for our broadcasting platform. We do commentary via Ventrilo.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask for clarification.

d

Oh, i see i have to do my own camera files for Kyoto and Fernbay. Anyone has already done this , and wants to share ?

Edit: Saw there is a good explanation in the TVD Documentation . Thanks all for help

Quote from Ger Roady :

Oh, i see i have to do my own camera files for Kyoto and Fernbay. Anyone has already done this , and wants to share ?

We do all our own for any track we broadcast from anyway. I'll see what I have for KY and FE and get them to you as soon as I get a chance.

d

Regarding Race Watcher it was developed under the old version of insim and no longer works with LFS.

I have started doing a new version in which i've actually got textures on the track aswell as the cars, although it's a bit of a cheat it does work and looks quite good. Graphically it's still quite a way short of LFS' own graphics but as an external viewing client it's a lot closer than anything else to date.

It is starting to take shape, but is not releasable at the moment because I started over from fresh with a new 3D engine and have had some trouble getting the cars to render correctly in the new engine.

Lately i've been working on code for a return of the STCC project which I hope to do next year, so Race Watcher isn't being worked on right now.

I would like to finish the new Race Watcher though, the last thing I was doing was writing a new program to convert all the car files to 3DS format with jpg textures so that I would stand a better chance of importing them into my engine, if anyone out there can do this for all the cars it'd save me a bunch of time.