It's not tight-lipped secrecy. Scawen's said that Eric's working on LFS. He took some time out last year to move house, but other than that he's working on LFS.
A week or two ago, this was covered too.. Eric's work can't appear in LFS until Scawen is ready for it. That's how game software development works. Now that Scawen's nearly finished Patch X and is on the verge of delving into physics updates for the first time in a year, I expect we'll begin to see lots of elements of Eric's recent work cropping up in the sim.
Meanwhile, all the speculation and (in some cases) agitation to stir a reaction is pointless.
If you'd make poll right now and ask what people expects from S3, I bet the most answered thing would be "über DX10 graphics". Since summer 2005 not much has changed in the graphics area if Patch X only includes new interiors and slightly updated (still lo-res?) South City, I think people should drop their dreams about those S3 graphics. Yes, S3 is still years ahead but such a huge graphical revamp is not very realistic to expect regarding this current pace.
I have to wonder if the project has become too daunting, i realise quality takes time but jesus this is taking some time.
I,m 44 this year, im thinking if i will be too old to care or to drive LFS S3, or there wont be anyone still around to drive against?
I hate being a downer about the length of time its taking and i totally understand how big a deal this must be for two guys ,maybe just maybe its time to let others help out with the precious...
ps: even if eric's modem is two cans on a string it takes no time and bugger all energy to post a few lines to keep the faithfull informed..
Well, I hope that Eric has started working on some dedicated rally cars ! And as he wants not to modelize a lot of km of roads, he will just modelize Pikes Peak, a 100 % dirt track and a brand new ice track !
For non Rally as most of the race cars type are now covered we will see the first truck !
Speculating ?
For those worried about whether Eric is actually doing anything, I say rest assured that he simply must be.
I'm also occasionally frustrated by the slow pace or lack of communication regarding content, but given that Scawen is making all of these "small" changes I think it's a certainty that there's at least significant progress in the background. Scawen is able to do these things, such as skin-downloads and increasing the grid size, car balancing etc which in all honesty are not going to sell any extra licenses directly and so won't make them any money. If the project were ill-fated, on a downward spiral or Eric had jumped ship and there was no progress in the content area at all, I think Scawen might not be "wasting time" on things like that.
Seeing Scawen doing the little things still is a good sign.
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(GP4Flo)
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by GP4Flo : same reply has already been posted
[devil's advocate again]
Erm, except of course for the skin downloading for those who use it (I do use it) - which isn't going to make them rich of course, but at least add a little dough to their tins! So perhaps your theory is right, but you're wrong! Maybe they are falling behind and need dough!
[/devil's advocate again]
All comments posted tongue in cheek; since the nature of the thread requires it.
Screenshots were posted pre-S2 and S1 and whatnot, so why not anything in the last year or so? I wouldn't mind even just seeing a silly GTR or other cockpit or something just so I know what I can look foward to. For those that would rather be surprized; don't look at it!
no. As long as the number of sold GPL copies isnt reached in sold
LFS licenses they will always have a constant flow of new licenses. GPL selling numbers is a good look at the worldwide sim-community and almost everyone of them will get LFS sooner or later just to have the collection of Sims.
So LFS will, and that's also due to it's ongoing support and development, reach that number sooner or later imho. From that point on, every additional license is a bonus OR means, LFS is just great also for others
Since summer 2005 LFS has not changed much at all. Still no engine damage, sounds are still bearable at best, turbos are still super laggy, no rewindable replays... etc...
It took one whole year to get rid off that high-nose bug and two years to get false starts and preload.
I am not worried about Eric's pace - as I said already we may have already got the content what was suposed to be in S2. I am worried about the fact there is so little differences between S2 P and S2 W(24) on the areas that I consider the essential areas in a sim.
im a little worried when i see this "hype"
at the end of the day we havent seen much of erics work for almost 2 years now and many here seem to get impatient and also expect quite a lot for patch y ... as always with hype im sceptical if it has any chance of living up to the expectations many here seem to have
Definitely you're right about the continued support helping make LFS a success, but I don't think the small updates that only matter to existing (more so for long term) players directly sell any extra licenses. Which was the point I was attempting to make. You know better than I do, of course, but if LFS were in any kind trouble SCAVIER could just brand the current S2 version as S2 Final and whip up some S3 tracks and cars to cash in on all the current players that wouldn't hesitate to buy the S3 license.
like i said. look at the detail of the bf1 and new interiors, they blew everything previously done out of the water. Im sure it took longer that previous cars/interiors. If every lfs car has the interior details of the formula cars, i'd be pretty happy. If their is something new up his sleeve, id be thrilled.
thing is, this wont come to fruition till the new physics, which could be the better part of a year off...
That man is the epitome of everything that is wrong in the mainstream computer games industry.
I'm absolutely 100% confident that Eric does read these forums, he just doesnt post and I for one can fully relate to why.
One other thing you guys must bear in mind, when doing what seems to be the norm now that is assessing the quantity of Eric's output. 3D modelling is a way more skillful and daunting process than programming, no offence to Scawen (i'm a programmer too). To create game ready 3D artistry is a skill that only a tiny proportion of 3D graphics artists are capable of doing, game media is a sub-skill of 3D graphics which is in turn is a skill that very few people have the capacity to master in the first place.
Making game ready media is a highly skilled process, and because of this, is often quite time consuming ESPECIALLY in LFS where a lot of emphasis is placed on two particularly time consuming aspects: detail; and compatability with low end systems.
A model like the BF1 would by itself probably take my little freeware team over a month to produce, and it wouldn't have been as good as Eric's work, or if it was, it would not have been as well game-ready rigged and usuable in a game that will run on such entry level systems.
