Hehe, well said
The thing is, that I definitely see your point. And I do agree that in a way LFS would benefit if it had all the cars (and more) that you mentioned. BUT, would it do good for the community, and for the racing we see on-line? For some reason I don't think so, and that's precisely why I have doubts about this whole add-on business in the first place.
I believe that it would be good for the community. Throw in a stock car and a couple more ovals and you satisfy (and draw into the game) more of the stock car junkies. Put in a sprint car and a dirt oval or two, and those people will want to play LFS. The Formula Ford would be not only great for a league, but the perfect training car for newbies. A trio of supercars would let everyone live out their dreams of being Jeremy Clarkson.
As long as the ease of joining a multiplayer game is not affected, I think that new cars and tracks would be nothing but good for LFS and for the community.
I remember suggesting similar years ago about charging a bloomin fortune for the tools to do such things in the future, its the only logical way of allowing those with the willpower and dedication to take on such a task. Its no like picking up photoshop and botching something, they're professional tools which create these results, and i dont think they should be put in the hands of the casual gamer who thinks their botch-job efforts are what the community would want.
I'd love to have a go at it all, and if i had to pay say £100 in order to do so, i know for damn sure i aint going to pay for it have a little play and then say 'feck it', im going to sit down and do whatever it takes to get the results required. The downside is that the community would then be partly dependant on certain figures/groups paying for the software and spending hours coming up with these creations, while everyone sits round waiting for them having paid nothing.
It could be amazing, but it could just as easily be quite horrific.
Its either a mass free-for-all, sky-high costs to keep the 'riff-raff' out, or heavy moderation of what is acceptable and approved into the community... or a mix of all 3.
Free-for-all is just a very scary prospect im certain will never happen, i doubt the Dev team would just open the doors and let the rush of sub-standard pap come flooding through with the occasional appearance of a true jem.
I suggest people should be able to post models, and very good ones should be considered for addition to LFS. Someone did a model for a GTP type car somewhere ....
As for tracks, there could be the £250 track making kit, £50 of which should be refunded if it gets put in to LFS. The tracks should not be in a "ready to rock" form for any Tom, Dick or Harry, just only on specific licences until it gets put in to LFS. And they should be sure if they trust them first.
Adding cars would be a better idea then new tracks, it would probably be easier to code in another car than another track but I don't have a clue.
That's what I'd like to see. One would think that the actual modeling itself would be the hardest part of adding a car. However; none of us really knows how much work Scawen and/or Eric has to put in, defining suspension hardpoints, determining tire size, figuring out texture mapping, etc. Also, any model that is submitted would have to have a fully modeled interior (something that most guys don't bother with), multiple poly models (for LOD reduction), an exterior skin that's easily editable, interior textures, etc. Another possible hold up that I can foresee would be the car selection screen. It's pretty full and would have to be changed for more cars to fit. I used to think that the devs were leery of including the work of others, or that they didn't want to have to deal with the legal paperwork of getting rights to the content. But, I think most any fan of LFS would be happy to sign away the rights to their car, just for the chance to see it in the game. Also, it seems like Don, Kid, and now Dave WS (sound pack) have gotten stuff into the game, so I would think that any possible legal hurdles would have long since been resolved by now.
Unfortunately, this has been suggested many, many times and the devs have never so much as commented on the possibility, one way or the other. So, I think the chances of this ever happening are slim to none.
I have a feeling that Eric makes the tracks using non-specialized tools. I would guess that something like 3DSMax is used, with some other specialty tools for track smoothing and maybe texturing. If this were the case, tracks could potentially be handled similar to the way cars would be in the paragraph above since anyone with the desire would be able to model a track in 3d Studio or Blender or whatever.
But, again, we don't really know anything about the process, what tools are used for track creation, how long it takes, what has to be done before the track can be used in-game, etc. Until the devs give us some details, we're all just guessing.
Cue, I recall Scawen (from S1 days) saying that the Car and Track creator are all scawens own make, which is why its more difficult for us to make tracks to just plonk in.
That's easyish to do, just have smaller, front on, pictures.
The tracks would be harder to do, maybe we can hold on them - for most cars that could be put in to LFS (Protoype, stock car, FFord, A1GP type car, F3, Champ Car, IRL etc) could be accomodated - in some form - on the current tracks.
Ramtech's prototype in that thread looks great. It reminds me of the Toyota TS020.
Well, if someone posted the models and rough specs it would help Scawen.
Which is why IF Scawen allows other people to create cars, he's (most likely/IMO) going to make it so they are built with said rumoured car builder, to avoid incompatibilities with imported models. Also the .3ds file format is apparently quite easy to read from, seeing theres many converters made for crossing 3d editors.
I don't see how charging a fortune will prevent people. 3DS is $3,500 or there abouts, yet many people using it for rendering don't even know how to load a file, so unlikely they "need it" less paid for it. With that in mind, how would a £100 price tag stop muppets creating "drift masheens"?
Sorry, but people need to move forward and stop being so scared of modding. It seems that many here despise the idea, thus going by those "stats", finding an online race with stock content isn't going to be difficult at all and the ones who do want 3rd party content can "take the risk"... but I'd lay money down now that if LFS does become modable, all the nay-sayers will be the first to jump into an LMP900 class car if one was created I can already smell the irony and S2 isn't even final yet
As for allowing just body shapes, how stupidly pointless. If you allow modding, it needs to be unrestricted.. yes, you can put a 500bhp engine in a Ford Transit and make it stop and handle well.. but it's not the "norm" but done many times.. yet from what I read, people will jump up and down and cry about it as for some reason, they'd see it as "unrealistic" :rolleyes: Modding isn't a setup process, it's about creating scratch content, not adding from a selection of generic "Halfords bolt-ons" for every car shape.
I remember there was going to be the first addon car external to the LFS team, announced in ASS I believe done by sketchi, anyone know what happened to that?
I can already smell the irony and S2 isn't even final yet