WARNING 1 : THIS IS A TEST

WARNING 2 : SKINS ARE CONVERTED THE FIRST TIME YOU RUN THE TEST PATCH - IT TAKES 2 MINUTES OR SO

Hello Racers.

Here is a new test patch W25 - a minor update with some single player improvements (but no AI improvements yet). Please see the list of changes below.

Here is some information about the major changes in this series of test patches :

- Most notably, the number of cars in a race has increased to 32.
- Also, false starts are now possible (LFS does not hold you at the start line - you must make your car go)
- Skin improvements including high resolution premium skin download service

There are various improvements related to skins including the option to download high resolution skins while online, for a small charge of £1 for 2000 downloads. The low resolution downloads are still free. We have to charge for the downloading of high resolution skins because of the increased bandwidth and the need to buy and maintain more internet servers for LFS online usage which is always increasing. Please note, we are not selling skins. The skins remain the property of their owners. Your copy is a high resolution compressed version of the original. This is a charge purely for the downloading service which allows you to see other cars' skins in higher resolution.

Downloaded skins are now always saved and shown in compressed form. The original jpg is not saved on other computers. This allows the best use of memory and the quickest load from disk.

To use your own jpg skins, or to view skins that you manually download, save them into your skins folder - you will then find them selectable in game, just as before. You can see your manually downloaded skins compressed or not compressed according to the option for local skins. There are now 4 skins folders but you can ignore them all, just forget about them and just use the skins folder as usual.

skins : you save jpg skins that you want to select in game
skins_dds : lfs uses this to store dds (compressed) versions of your local skins
skins_x : lfs stores automatically downloaded low res skins
skins_y : lfs stores automatically downloaded high res skins

NOTE : SKINS ARE CONVERTED ON THE FIRST RUN OF THIS TEST PATCH - THAT MAY TAKE 2 MINUTES OR SO

If you want to use this service, you can make a payment at www.lfsworld.net or at the main site https://www.liveforspeed.net/?page=shop

To deal with the increased memory usage, there is also a skin purging system which removes unneeded skins from your graphics card memory, some time after they were last used. You can see the list of skins in use in the Misc Options screen. White means the skin is actually in use. Black means it was recently used and is hanging around a while in case it is used again (to avoid a disc access). In the past, LFS just left all skins in memory until you changed track or weather.

Changes in TEST PATCH W25 :

Now supporting TrackIR with 6 degrees of freedom
Button look is now added to the yaw output of TrackIR
Automatic unpause when starting or restarting a replay
Ignition key "I" is now assignable to any key or button
Pit instructions fuel load can now be adjusted in 1% steps
Pit instructions and live settings now work in single player
SHIFT+G gear shift selection no longer stops replay recording

InSim :

Admins can now use the IS_REO (race reorder) packet
New packet IS_MSX - allows typing of longer messages
New packet IS_MSL - output a message on local computer

FIXES :

SPR with pit stop would often go out of sync at the pit stop
SPR with different help flags could go OOS when changing view
If reset allowed - driving out of bounds results in safe reset
AI drivers reset now safe - no reset if it could cause a crash

Changes from W to W24 :

Multiplayer :

Up to 47 guests can connect to a host
Max cars in multiplayer race increased to 32
In demo still only 12 racing but up to 15 can connect
Car is no longer held at start line - false starts possible
Start lights time between red and green is changed each race
Avoided most of the "Can't x - a player is connecting" messages
Implemented a new "canreset" option while leaving hotlaps valid
Automatic spectate if you drive out of bounds when reset not allowed
Global handicaps for class balancing (set by master server)
Remote car's handicap shown in F11 menu, tyres in F12 menu
Grid reordering is now done on end race as well as restart
Kick and ban votes are held open a little longer

Racing :

Start and pit fuel loads range from 1% to 100%
Qualifying sessions now start from the pit lane
Qualifying out lap is no longer counted as a valid lap
Single player now allows up to 20 ai cars (powerful pc)
New voluntary handicap system in pits (part of setup)
Added preload setting to clutch pack differentials

Display :

Small map colours can be changed : Options-Display-Interface
Small map cars more than one lap ahead are a different colour
Automatic show results - leaves small map visible when driving
Hide / show results removed from options - now available on CTRL+TAB
Timing info is show in yellow after winner crosses line or time over
Yellow finished message is no longer duplicated in central text
Connection bars are not drawn if they would obscure tyre info
Qualifying cars on out lap are drawn orange (others yellow)
Qualifying position is shown in yellow like race position
Added text on screen showing the reason for a penalty
Display option : Virtual steering gauge
Display option : Rotate small map

Interface :

Added button to spectate from garage
Scroll though autocross results with PgUp / PgDn
SHIFT+P now enters garage from game setup screen
SHIFT+O now enters options when watching a SP replay
New keys SHIFT+S (spectate) and SHIFT+P (go to pits)
Removed the sound effect of a racer pitting or spectating
Escape menu improvements : can use keys (listed on screen)
Race control message now has priority over wrong way message
Wider FOV and more view pitch available (for extreme settings)
Filter added to list of games to avoid hosts which allow reset
Place objects is now switched off when entering race or qualifying
FIX : Start restriction countdown was missing from OK button in pits
FIX : Q / X / ESC / ENTER keys did not exit from pits if player in race

Skins :

Replay skins download screen new "always" and "never" options
High res premium skin download system (£1 for 2000 downloads)
System to purge skins from graphics card memory when not used
Skin download and preload during connection after loading track
Improved the "new colours" system - combined with skin selection
Skins in skins folder are not converted to dds if using full skins

InSim :

New version of InSim allows up to eight TCP or UDP connections
More race tracking info and many packets added (see InSim.txt)
More commands now work on AI drivers : /spec /pitlane /p_xxx
More commands work even if player joining e.g. /spec /laps
New /i command to send a message to a race control program
Race penalty can now be removed with /p_clear command
Send all players to their pits with /pit_all command

System :

Removed the option not to use HVS if it is available
Better messages showing the reason for disconnection
Admins can now edit and /axsave layouts while online
Admin ban dialog now asks for a number of days to ban
Admins can now see other admins in list of connections
Added short track name to SPR, MPR and RAF file formats
Added handicap mass and restriction to hotlap file header
Increased maximum physics objects due to more cars on track
Start grid remains when track or config changes (if possible)
FIX : Removed the need to pass a split after receiving admin penalty
FIX : The TAB key did not work with /press /ctrl and /shift commands
FIX : Autocross checkpoints in line could cause rapid lap count bug
FIX : Path followers were reset when an object was added or removed
FIX : Path follower reset caused a glitch or an out of bounds reset
FIX : Some objects were not drawn after exiting pits while paused
FIX : Start lights were not shown in some of the training lessons
FIX : Autocross layout number of laps sometimes did not load
FIX : Message "NETWORK FATAL : NOTSOCK" when joining a host
FIX : Find user in S2 mode looking for racer on S1 host
FIX : Occasional crash when exiting from List of Games

DOWNLOAD :

PATCH (Version W must already be installed) :
www.liveforspeed.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_TEST_W25.exe

ZIP VERSION (If you prefer a zip file) :
www.liveforspeed.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_TEST_W25.zip

DEDICATED HOST (for hosting only) :
www.liveforspeed.net/file_lfs.php?name=LFS_S2_DEDI_W25.zip

Awesome!

:woohoo:Eyecrazy::wow::bannana_g:eek::davrosmil I'm a happy DALEK. No EXTERMINATION needed!

Woah! I installed W21 before lunch, and now W23!

Sweet going to test now

Oh nice job! Good thing you figured out the leaving-crashing thing. awesomee

great! another patch! download it later.

Quote from chp101 :

Since skins are being kept and send as JPEGs anyway - why not make an option to disable that DDS "dancing"?

DDS explained here: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=420214#post420214

Quote from chp101 :

+ faster loading times
- lots of additional space (jpegs + bigger dds)
- quality (double conversion, from lossy jpeg>lossy dds, important for low res)

Since skins are being kept and send as JPEGs anyway - why not make an option to disable that DDS "dancing"?

I guess they have been compressed anyway. Can a GFX card actually handle a jpg file?

Quote from ORION :

Can a GFX card actually handle a jpg file?

Nope. Skins have always been in "DDS" format (when compression is enabled in the settings), the difference is now they're cached to disk so LFS doesn't have to re-compress them every time it loads them.

Quote from Scawen :

OK, here's the explanation why we save as dds. jpg file take a very long time to load and decompress. Really, really long, like 1 or 2 seconds, you can see how long when lfs says "saving skin" after a download.

On the other hand dds files are near instant to load - no decompression or conversion is required, they are used by the card in the same format as they are saved on disk - and they use much less memory on the video card than an uncompressed jpg. The video card cannot use jpg files directly, they must be expanded to raw / uncompressed, or DXT1 / dds - there are no other possible choices for a texture in memory on a video card. The purpose of DXT1 / dds is that it is a compressed format that can be used at high speed by graphics cards. The file size is larger than jpg, that's true. It's not optimised for file size, but speed of use in memory.

We still download as jpg - partly because that's how they are stored on the server, and also to keep bandwidth to a minimum - that is important because bandwidth costs money and servers. They are saved as dds files on your hard drive for two reasons.

1) It's the best option for quick loading and allowing a lot of racers online without overloading graphics card memory. loading is sometime like 0.1 second rather than 2.0 seconds, that is the sort of difference we are talking about.

2) Some users don't want their original skins available in just as high format as they are stored on LFS World - this is to prevent skin theft. although some of you may find that unimportant, that's not the opinion of those people.

I hope that helps explain what it's about. I will not get into a discussion about what files we should use for this or that, or whether we should use 2048 skins or save as original jpgs, or what person A, B and C would like and how it should be done differently. It's done the way it is for various reasons and that's how it will stay. It's simple: if you want to see acceptable nice resolution skins online, please pay and use them - it works and it works well! But if you don't like it, don't use it. Then everyone's happy.

Scawen already explained that...

I guess I can suggest this here....


How about an option to vote for layouts. Say your in autocross and the layout sucks or got boring but there isnt an admin, maybe you can pull out the list or layouts uploaded on the server and click vote next to the layout name and others can hit 1 to vote to change it. Possibly vote to change the layout to one thats in your lfs folder.

I always forget to report this bug, i think it's there from the W version, it doesn't happen that often, so i always forget to post it..
Anyway, when i look in my main mirror (the central one), sometimes i don't see the cars that are close to me, when i look behind me with keys, the cars are there, like 20, 30 metters, so they should very well be displayed in the mirror, but they aren't... Maybe that isn't a bug, maybe it has something to do with mirror details? Maybe when mirror details are low, cars aren't displayed when they are not that close?
If that's the case, then it's a really bad thing, make it a black dot or something, doesn't matter, just so i know the cars are there, sometimes i don't have the time to look behind me with a key, i want to tell if someone is behind me by looking in the mirror...

On Trackmaina,(Original, Sunrise, Nations, etc.) the cars had dds as the texture file. I wanted to make more custom-like skins, but no programs were found capable to edit it. So I used the in-game texture maker (I got "not too bad results":eek: ). Maybe implementing a feature like this shouldn't be too bad.

Wow nice, will test out!

When is it coming out as an official patch?

i tested this in single player:

when i finished lap 1 in qualify LFS tells me my lap time is 1:00:00.00, and this result is shown in the qualify result table too. this happens even if i join (shift+p then join) the qualify after the qualify time is over.

to me this seems like a bug.

edit: actually if i shift+p and then join the qualify after the qualify time is over, i dont have the 'QUALIFYING OVER' text on the upper-right corner any more and on my first lap out i get a 1 hour lap time, then on lap two the 'QUALIFYING OVER' text reappears and i can produce no more lap times. maybe there is something wrong with player status when shift+p?

by the way what is the qualify count-down for?

edit2: tested in multiplayer and it's the same. no 'QUALIFYING OVER' text for lap 1 and the same 1:00:00.00 lap time for lap 1.

Scawen and the other devs have been working there a**'s off lately and I for one appreciate it alot. Keep up the great work.

Just one question (may be flame worthy) every time my PC DL's skins LFS had a message "CLOSED and RESUMED" coming up around 20 times in the message corner. Bug or normal?

At low FOV angles (i.e. less than 35°), the rear-view mirrors are clipped under hard braking. Pillars are similarly affected.

I've tested this using several different cars (FXO, LX4, XFR) and each exhibits the same behaviour.

I am using a 1g forward shift setting of 0.036m.

If hotlap starts from pits, practice should too. Just an observation.

Quote from icyocean :

i tested this in single player:

when i finished lap 1 in qualify LFS tells me my lap time is 1:00:00.00, and this result is shown in the qualify result table too. this happens even if i join (shift+p then join) the qualify after the qualify time is over.

I can confirm the 1:00:00.00 thing.

Also (unfortunately I didn't get a mpr or a screenshot of this) during the qualifying for the 24hr race yesterday I had a weird thing where I hit shift-P to go to the garage and instead of being taken there, the word "pits" came up in the middle of the screen in admin-type text. While that text was there (for a solid minute or so) none of the keys worked (tried T, ESC, shift-S, etc). After a minute it went away and I was taken to the garage. I was about to alt-tab out and kill the process, though.

There were about 27 cars on track and several more connections spectating. Not sure if this was some weird kind of join lag or what.

Quote from icyocean :

when i finished lap 1 in qualify LFS tells me my lap time is 1:00:00.00, and this result is shown in the qualify result table too. this happens even if i join (shift+p then join) the qualify after the qualify time is over.

to me this seems like a bug.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

I can confirm the 1:00:00.00 thing.

It's not actually a bug. It's to stop cheating on the first lap of qualifying. The first lap (outlap) must not be counted as a qualifying lap. I did that directly before but it caused another weird bug. The only way for LFS to work correctly at the moment (in a W17-compatible version) is to send over that first lap time as a long time - I chose one hour.

In a non-compatible version, I can make a special packet so the lap is counted but the time is not registered.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Also (unfortunately I didn't get a mpr or a screenshot of this) during the qualifying for the 24hr race yesterday I had a weird thing where I hit shift-P to go to the garage and instead of being taken there, the word "pits" came up in the middle of the screen in admin-type text. While that text was there (for a solid minute or so) none of the keys worked (tried T, ESC, shift-S, etc). After a minute it went away and I was taken to the garage. I was about to alt-tab out and kill the process, though.

There were about 27 cars on track and several more connections spectating. Not sure if this was some weird kind of join lag or what.

When it said "pits" to you, that was because it was waiting for a player to connect. in the past it would have said "Can't pit - a player is connecting". But you know how many complaints there were about that. Now it registers what you want to do, and does it as soon as it's possible to do so. It's a bit strange that it lasted a minute - I would have thought such a slow joining player would have timed out by then.

Anyway, that's the reason, someone took a long time to connect.

Quote from fyber :

Wow nice, will test out!

When is it coming out as an official patch?

Don't know, but it will be patch X.

I still get a tiny micro-second of a pause when a new player leaves the pits for the first time, even on relatively empty servers and seeing 150fps+. 512 skins.

Quote from duke_toaster :

Don't know, but it will be patch X.

scawen said that: about 28th of may