is this a bug in the new skins 'feature'?

see the 2 screenshots, the FE track is W the AS track is W20. the conversion in W20 seems to downgrade the skin quality quite alot. Especially if you compare around the bonnet.

I'm still not seeing anything worth creaming over on the shop page

Quote from Termi :

I have to run two Server 24/7, i know wat traffic costs.

Then your comment about the "pay for hi-res skins" option: "thats to commercial for me" is stupid, right?
Because you know what it costs

Quote from mr_x :

is this a bug in the new skins 'feature'?

see the 2 screenshots, the FE track is W the AS track is W20. the conversion in W20 seems to downgrade the skin quality quite alot. Especially if you compare around the bonnet.

Did you remember to change the texture compression off? It defaults to ON in W20.

Quote from mr_x :

is this a bug in the new skins 'feature'?

see the 2 screenshots, the FE track is W the AS track is W20. the conversion in W20 seems to downgrade the skin quality quite alot. Especially if you compare around the bonnet.

That is very odd, and quite noticeable. I'm going to take a guess that the W screenshot is using a high-res skin that you put in the skins_x directory manually, and that the W20 is a lower-res version, following conversion to the new compressed format. Is this correct? If so, you're comparing apples and oranges. You need to compare the same skin downloaded from LFSworld in both patches.

Quote from trebor901 :

So.... but if you have a good graphics card that runs this GAME well then you cant get the most from it

if youve got the money to pay for a gf7+ chances are youll be able to afford 1£ for 2000 skins which should be enough for what ? 5 months of racing ?

Quote from Cue-Ball :

That is very odd, and quite noticeable. I'm going to take a guess that the W screenshot is using a high-res skin that you put in the skins_x directory manually, and that the W20 is a lower-res version, following conversion to the new compressed format. Is this correct? If so, you're comparing apples and oranges. You need to compare the same skin downloaded from LFSworld in both patches.

both skins are 1024x1024 and both were in my Skins directory as they are my team skins.

my LFS W and W20 folders are clones of each other, just with the patch files added to the W20 obviously

Quote from geeman1 :

Did you remember to change the texture compression off? It defaults to ON in W20.

bingo, you got it!

Quote from GP4Flo :

I have just connected to a W20 host and it looked like LFS only preloaded a single skin - the rest followed in-game after connecting to the server. Can someone confirm this?

Edit: Happens on other hosts as well, seems to be reproducable.

Thanks, bug noted.

Quote from traxxion :

Yep, same here.

Also LFS stutters slightly everytime the "Saving skin....... " (or something similar) message comes up... wasnt racing now, but I can imagine that could be very annoying while racing!

My cpu is a P4 3.2 Ghz, trying to find out my harddisk type atm (think that's relevant at least?)
Edit: 160GB 7200rpm Maxtor 6V160E0 8MB SAII

It would be annoying while racing, but that's why it doesn't happen while racing

Quote from danowat :

Still confused about adding your own hi-res online skins.

Before, we used to download hi-res skins from forums etc and place them manually in the skins_x folder, is this still possible to do?, or is the only way to get hi-res online skins by paying the £1?

You can manually save high res skins to your skins folder, then you can see them in high res without using the premium download option.

Quote from BBO@BSR :

Then your comment about the "pay for hi-res skins" option: "thats to commercial for me" is stupid, right?
Because you know what it costs

But ... .. .doesnt matter, you all pay for skins, i think its not ok, and thats wat i mean..

Quote from Termi :

But ... .. .doesnt matter, you all pay for skins, i think its not ok, and thats wat i mean..

So the devs (who are by definition entrepreneurs) can't try and make a little bit of money (and let's face it, they won't be making much at all from the skin downloading service)? If people want to hand their money to ScaViEr to get the high res skins downloaded automatically, it's their choice. If they don't, that's also their choice. The people who don't want to pay for a premium service (noone goes bickering on about people paying more for a better net connection, or a better PC, do they?) don't have to

P.S. (to keep this slightly on topic) the skins look soooo good now, thanks Scawen/Vic!

Quote from Termi :

But ... .. .doesnt matter, you all pay for skins, i think its not ok, and thats wat i mean..

Nothing is being taken away from you, you're not excluded from anything, you are offered the OPTION to use an extended feature. It's there for you to either accept or refuse, and if you choose not to use it, all will remain the same as it was for you.
You would have a point if the devs would say, from now on everyone has to pay for the automatic skin downloading, regardless of skin resolution. Right now, you really have no point and are being a whiner. I can't believe this kind of twisted logic.

Do you expect the devs to be a charitable organisation or something?

Quote from Termi :

But ... .. .doesnt matter, you all pay for skins, i think its not ok, and thats wat i mean..

Nobody pays for skins. Some people choose to pay for better quality skins. I don't see the problem.

I do have one question about the high-res skin payments. How will we know when we've reached our limit? Once we download 2000 skins, will we get some sort of message, or will the system just throttle down to low-res again? I'm guessing this will be handled the same way as the SMS messages that were implemented, but I honestly don't know how that's currently handled either.

Quote from trebor901 :

I think charging for hi res skins is stupid and people will say "oh but its only £1". So what maybe people like me dont have the resources to pay for it so us people who arent prepared have to use the crap skins

That's life.

The developers give us so much for free as it is, a lot of online games charge monthly for the use of their services. We as a community relay on the servers that provide us the host list, the forums and LFS World. These are not free and your measly £24 doesn't cover that.

I'm sure you can find a way to pay that £1, postal order... cheque... paypal, the list is endless.

I am only disappointed, thats all.....

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

Nobody pays for skins. Some people choose to pay for better quality skins. I don't see the problem.

and those who dont pay, DL them here or from friends and put them in their skins folder. Which actually gives better quality, cause I dont like the .dds compression at all. Gives to many artifacts.

I joined a server, about the only one with more than 1 person in (why is nobody using the test patches?). I got stuttering as people left the pits, and I've never had that before. Only small, but unacceptable.

So all in all, no reason to be disappointed

Quote from Cue-Ball :

I do have one question about the high-res skin payments. How will we know when we've reached our limit? Once we download 2000 skins, will we get some sort of message, or will the system just throttle down to low-res again? I'm guessing this will be handled the same way as the SMS messages that were implemented, but I honestly don't know how that's currently handled either.

you have an overview on your status page : https://www.liveforspeed.net/?page=viewstatus

oh and you will be notified in-game too if you ran out of credit

Quote from Termi :

I am only disappointed, thats all.....

Jesus, you're dissapointed in what?!

This new feature is OPTIONAL(you know the meaning of that word?)
You've lost NOTHING with it, you can still do everything with skins as before...

rodger (dont want to pay for skins)

I personally cannot see what everybody is whinging about...I just checked my skins_x folder in Patch W mode..(no update on that one yet, as I use a separate folder for the test patches)..and there are 4024 skins in there...
considering that not everybody has uploaded a high rez skin to LFSW, then you can guarantee that the total cost of that folder would have been less than £2.00.
That is accumulated over more than THREE years!!!

Damn reasonable price if you ask me...it works out at 20 skins for a PENNY!

Only thing I would ask, is that considering that we cannot download them and convert them ourselves, could the skin storage limit on LFSW be raised from the current 36 skins to say, 50?

I hate to say this Scawen, but this thread has really only caused mass confusion. :S

Owell...

/me downloads new patch

I welcome the hires skins option and I've laid my money down. If I have one reservation it's that I'll be downloading a lot of crappy skins and skins of people that come on the server and then almost immediately leave, never to be seen again. I may be daft, but I have a thing about having a load of stuff on my pc that just sits there not doing anything.