I've thought about a new way to display player names in game. The way they are displayed at the moment is nice but has some disadvantages.

Screenshot 1: Current LFS Player Names



- Depending on distance, they become hard to read (see "blueSKUNK")
- As player names are above the cars, it's hard to see "thru" when there are a lot of cars in the race (especially at start).
- They look a bit old-skool (Quake 3?)

I think a mature sim like LFS deserves a better way to display player names with added functionality. I've made a plot of how player names could be displayed in future versions.

Screenshot 2: New Player Names


The new "player name plates" are sprites, therefore their size is always the same. That way the player names are always perfectly readable.

The plate's transparency depends on the distance to the driver. Near cars plates are fully visible, far ones are almost invisible.

Notice the color of the plates. Yellow ones are active competitors. The Black one (6 AzerRazer) is being blueflagged - just like the colors in the mini map.

If a driver is behind you, the position of the plate corresponds to the position of the driver relating to you. So if a driver is behind you at the left, it's plate is on your lower left corner of your screen.
This should finally solve the problem with people not using their mirrors (side view).

Also, the plates may display the current position of the driver.

Please post your opinions about that.

Edit 2007-05-12 16:10:
Thanks for your thoughts about that. Here are two more possible layouts.

w/ Country flags; no colors


w/ Country flags; w/o border/background



Also please note that in my theory, not *all* racers are being displayed as plates. It's just for those near front/behind/left/right you. The closer they come the more visible they are. So if a player is passing you it's plate is "fading out" in a linear way so from time to time you may distinguish the approx. distance according to the transparency value of its plate.

Imagine one more feature:
By having one hand free (assume you're driving with wheel the plates could resize whenever you come close to one of it (just like the Mac OS X toolbar). A click near or on a plate according to a click on one of the names on the connections list: quickly send a message OR select this player for the next F1 key press. Like clicking on AzerRazer's plate and hitting F1 will send:

Quote :

AzerRazer: =)

One more thought:
By holding down the shift key when racing, the plate's display change from player name to Player position / distance in meters or time or anything else useful. This could be automatically swapped by a timer as well.

And for those who worry about the added "unrealism", what about the reset car feature? Shouldn't that be like calling a caterpillar at the radio instead of a 0.001 second quick restore to the track?

Adding a feature that helps to prevent unclean races is something that would make LFS better as a SIMULATION.

Greetings
P. Van Reet (reetp)

+1
and
-1

when going downhill,the names tell you where other players r exactly, with you suggestion, this will be difficult and will cause more crashes

Quote from kiss me :

+1
and
-1

when going downhill,the names tell you where other players r exactly, with you suggestion, this will be difficult and will cause more crashes

huh?

i dont see the point in there...

Might work well in space ship sim but not in LFS, -1

It is fine as it is, maybe could look a tiny bit better (it doesn't even need to look especially good, just unnoticeable). Maybe option to turn the text smaller...

+1

+1 We really need a better way to display names, maybe display them in the dashboard, as in the closest rivals on the track (front and back) and when the other cars are more than 1.5 seconds ahead (class dependent?) the names would disappear completely, maybe a button to toggle the closest rivals with live timing. At the moment it's extremely distracting, especially the approach of a slow corner at high speed it's so easy to miss the braking point while reading the name on the other car and the next moment you're ploughing him off the track and getting banned instantly, just because you got a bit distracted by his witty name.

+1
And function in miscs maybe to show the distance from other cars

+1

Maybe have an option of changing the colour of the boxes too (only on your screens, kinda like how we can colour the dials)

Quote from VTiRoj :

+1

Maybe have an option of changing the colour of the boxes too (only on your screens, kinda like how we can colour the dials)

The plates are colored like the "arrows" on the minimap so you can easily distinguish if the player has blue flag displayed or not.

On the whole, I like.

i like the old one

+1 but keep the names above the cars.

And a passionate +1 for the markers for people behind and next to you! best suggestion I've heard in years (literally)! Ever play BF2? just like that.

Quote from wark :

And a passionate +1 for the markers for people behind and next to you! best suggestion I've heard in years (literally)! Ever play BF2? just like that.

Isn't the relative position display an arcade feature?

+1 for that.

+1 for me, providing it keeps the players colour choices

o if these tags could be above the car i would like them ALOT more then the ones currently in use for sure +1

I like it
+1
Much clearer and it doesn't block the view either

I like the additional information given- but I don't feel totally convinced that this is a better overall method for name display. Maybe I'm a bit used to the way the names are presented now. Like others, I would probably rather go for names above cars. Also I don't know about having lots of little tags moving around at the bottom of the monitor showing the position of cars behind you. That's what the mirrors should be for. The suggested method would make people rely more on these tags than the mirrors and it could also be a little distracting.

Interesting ideas though.

Quote from felplacerad :

Isn't the relative position display an arcade feature?

Only once you have surround sound and real visibility from a real neck. :nol2:

Nice Topic-start but no vote from for the suggestion, because it add no realism to the game. Your suggestion remember me the wallhacks in CS . (No my steam acc is not banned and im not a cheater.)
I think the watch out is a important game feature and if this made more players will be to lazily to use axes or buttons for watch out.

That we have the player names over the cars is unrealistic enough i guess, IRL the racers cant see a player name over the car. I know the resolution in the game is to bad to read whats written at the car, and therefore is the feature nice so how it at time is.

I think a crash-system will be nice that the player who ram another will be displayed. Beside the position list should made a wrecking list with all wrecked cars, and if you rammed should you see the player name of the one who ram you at the display or dashboard (not behind walls). Or a text should be written at display: "PlayerXXX rammed you and caused XXX damage"

Quote from felplacerad :

Isn't the relative position display an arcade feature?

Maybe, but the idea isn't bad, real racers doesn't have a feature like that, but they have a huge FOV that we cannot achieve (at least with one screen) In a real race track is much easier to know where you are and where are the other cars.

Seems like a solution for compensating that loss of FOV and increase safety in T1 or tight fights. At least the general idea is good.

+1 from me.

Quote from matze54564 :

Or a text should be written at display: "PlayerXXX rammed you and caused XXX damage"

ROLF. I hope you were joking about that.

Quote from Eldanor :

In a real race track is much easier to know where you are and where are the other cars.

Thats not true, if the pit crew send nothing to the racer the racer know nothing about other cars. So is the position list the most realistic thing. The radar (mini map) is also yet realistic, it can be send by the pit crew via radio in the race-car also like the positions list. But this cheatlike player-name display cant be realized IRL. IRL can you see more details, thats true, this is why the playernames over car how it be at time barely acceptable. In online games should be only the cockpit-view allowed and all wallhacklike views should not allowed, they are extremely unrealistic and cheatlike. So the Force-view is just for single player to learn about how lfs works. And the tires-view and the follower camera view are unrealistic views and in the outdoor-view are no mirrors and watch out and such players are unintendedly damage causer.

+1 for somehow better readable player names, but -1 for the relative position indicators, it's arcadey and not needed imo. I don't really have an issue with how it is now.

Quote from matze54564 :

Thats not true, if the pit crew send nothing to the racer the racer know nothing about other cars.

I'm talking about your situation and nearby cars, not the whole race situation IRL you have nearly 180º of FOV, something that you cannot have in a computer screen.

In a real race track you are more confident when having cars close to you, you have a better "situational conscience"

Let's also not forget IRL you can move the position of your head while looking in a mirror, effectively changing the mirror angle & eliminating "blind spots."