Simply because of the best physics out there, also the extremely good netcode. The excitement of hotlapping, competing for WRs, leagues cannot be found in any other sim racing games.
Also, we have a good community and great devs here!
The approach to LFS is what makes it for me. The engine driving LFS is more than an Excel spreadsheet, so that's a big difference right there.
In a nutshell I would say that the tire model and diversity of vehicles are what make it for me. LFS really caters the most to those who comprehend physics to a reasonable degree and put physics at the top of their priority list for a sim. The physics in a sim, for me, define the experience. That doesn't mean I'm not looking foward to more sound / graphic / feature improvements, but that is all just icing on the cake for me.
Physics, synthetic sounds: more immersive on their own than many big bucks eye candy "sims".
Gameplay, netcode, simplicity of use.. You never have to fumble for what you want.
The best Design is the one that nothing more can be substracted from, LFS is it for me.
The only thing that I suppose could outdo it at this point, is the West Bro's sim going gold unanounced.
You make some logical, if tough, points in your posts. I see what you're saying: just because LFS is possibly the best of a bad bunch, that doesn't mean it's flawless. But I'm curious about which driving sims you currently enjoy putting in time with. For me it's LFS. Do you have a current favourite driving sim or are you avoiding playing any of them while waiting for a better one to be written?
LFS is a real driving simulation, all other simulations i tested was not so realistic like LFS.
Everything much realistic:
-great physics
-realistic tyres with overheat, dirty tyres.... never seen so good
-forces
-tracks different with grip
-down force, it is unbelievable how fast a curve can be taken because right tyre temperature and right wings-setup for right downforce
-drifting
-overrun, it is possible to drive on 2 wheels if u are good! but not with Formula1-Cars
-wind, and the slipstream.
-drafting (Slipstream) with BMW Sauber in the Kyoto-oval is just the best game in the world and absolutely realistic
LFS provides Mouse steering for non-wheel-driver. With mouse is a high steering-precision possible
The Multiplayer Mode only makes LFS not better than other multiplayer games. I can also go in counter strike to play war, but only war everytime is horrible.
LFS is just absolutely the best, thats true.
Richard is one of the best Sim Racing drivers in the World, having won the NASCAR ESCORS BallRacing Championship, and dominated numerous other Simulations and leagues.
He is on a level with Greger Huttu and the likes. He is also the guy in this very nice LFS World Record Video
20,000 rpm Karts?! Anywho, the new sounds are good
Lack of feedback is no problem, I've been surprised how much feel there is from FFB in LFS, certainly better than any other sim I've tried. Particulary in the cars above demo level.
Unless you've cracked the game, you wouldn't know about the tracks ... several of the SO courses are tight (more than two accross isn't feasable), and hilly enough for it to be a factor ...
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Anyway, the reason I plumped for LFS is that its tightly written (there's no extra crap thats not needed), as well as the other good points listed earlier ... its like a modern version of "Car and Driver" (1992) that came on 2 discs and was 100% sim
As was said before, the sounds got quite nice improvement step in the latest patch. And of course you should buy the S2 licence to hear most of the new sounds, but I can tell you that the GTR cars sound good now.
This certainly shouldn't be the problem in LFS, but it might be matter of taste what kind of feedback you are looking for. Driving with real cars is of course whole different thing than driving car sim. You can't get the same immersion what ever you do (with moderate budjet.)
You should buy the S2 licence to see the other tracks. Blackwood doesn't represent whole variety of tracks in LFS.
At the end of the day, you like the sim you like and you don't like the sim you don't like. Nobody can convince anyone to like something that they, deep inside, don't like. What's the point in even trying? You can argue about this technical detail, or that brilliantly modeled physical aspect all you want, but at the end of the day nobody needs or should expect to be able to coax anyone into any sim-favouring camp.
Nobody should object to a bunch of positively shaded comments about LFS, posted in a thread on the official LFS forum. In point of fact, nobody should expect anything less. To counter-balance those opinions, some people may have opposing views. This really shouldn't be a problem, but those people have to bear in mind the location they're posting and anticipate the response they'll get. If they still wish to proceed, that's entirely their choice. I do think there's an additional burden on those people to qualify, wherever possible, their negative perspectives with some comparitive examples. If you don't, you're just peeing on a hornet's nest and it's probably going to get ugly. Think before you post.
We've done the "LFS vs X-Named-Sim" to death in the past. There's no need to go there again, in any detail whatsoever. If you want to post here, make it relevent to the title of this thread and the OP's question, please.
It is better than others due the set. Its immersion is the same that NKP, but NKP has not the enormous mp and gameplay resources, neither the various car models and tracks layouts.
But the physics behavior of the car and its handling of NKP is better than LFS, however NKP has not the same tyre deformation and calculation level.
LFS still needs to be improved, from grip to aero, from graphics to sound, and still has too many lacks that Scawen wisely keeps reserved and provide each 6 months with the dropper.
Simbin games has natural driving, good looking and superb sampled sounds, but can't give the same imersion than those both.
RBR has the best physics in certain situations, a like-real graphics (lights and colours) and amazing sounds, and the best ever made behavior when crashing and keeling over.
I think LFS is the best for who knows it once had used to it. But if you are new to it, you'll realize many things that is not good enough.
The best simulator is about to be done, but not yet. The various simulators are good in many points, one completing the lack of the other and vice-versa.
I currently drive nr2003 mostly on a league basis, although i'm currently on a break from the league stuff. But l'll pretty much drive anything, i have rfactor installed and i give just about every single mod a try just to see what its like, but good driveable mods are few and far between.
But i'm waiting on anything new, iracing is one of the major hopes for the future of sim racing in my view as not only do they seem driven to achieve and take sim racing to that next step, they also have the backing to do it.
LFS to me is prob the most frustrating simulation on the market, its clear it can achieve something but there doesn't seem any drive behind that from the developers.
LFS has no indentiy, its just a 'driving game', and within the driving game there is no indentiy as to what anything is, which isn't helped by the fact the tracks really don't fit within what i would call a realistic racing simulation and fit more along the lines of what i would expect in driving a shareware racing game. Sure a real track would be nice, but even something that resembles a professional real track would be nice and not just a few corners ripped from suzuka/spa that are copied in a poor fasion.
I'm still confused to this day why LFS hasn't achieved more, its still in its own little corner because of the above. Which is more puzzling considering that there are a bunch of idiots in the RF community developing professional mods based on real series from just showing that they can insert a model into rf and call it a game.
My final point will be the physics, yes live for speed has some really nice additions imo there is still a ton of work to model each specific type of racing series, the GTR cars and F1 car for example are not really authentic in my view and are just making the best of the what the engine has to offer without really going after modeling what they actually are.
The main problem i have with the physics in genera thoughl is the way the car is too easy to save when you go over the physical limit, which results in insane drifting which personally i never saw from some of the cars that it does happen to. Also, alot of the really fast setups drive like shit, i've been shocked at times when friends have sent me sets that they have done really good times with just how bad they actually do drive.