I hope he doesn't.
Somehow the standard of driving has hugely increased from W to the incompatible W testpatch and I believe this has something to do with people thinking: "There won't be someone telling me where other cars are, I have to think about that myself."
Wether or not, fact is: Without pitspotter the standard of driving was better than with.
You don't think it has been anything to do with the test patches only being available on the forum? Or being incompatible so maany users sticking to vanilla W, thus only leaving enthusiasts on the test patch servers?
Somehow Vain, I think when the masses get hold of patch X you'll be posting back here with a polite and subtle retraction. Something along the lines of "Oh for the love of god PLEASE Kegetys PLEASE update this".
My thinking is that the masses don't use pitspotter either because pitspotter is only known to the people who go to the forum which are incidentally also those who use the testpatch. And those people managed to deal just fine to drive without pitspotter.
Personally my driving has improved greatly since I don't use pitspotter anymore. I check my mirrors in a completely different manner and drive more responsibly. Also I'm well aware that no effect has a single cause - I'm merely making an observation and suggesting one of the many reasons for that.
^ It's true, I used pitspotter for about a week or so, and after not using it on that day afterwards I was causing all kinds of chaos because I just didn't know what was going on around me.
Spotters are only used on ovals, its impossible to have a spotter for you on any other track. Plus, whats the use of a spotter really? Its something YOU (the driver) should be doing anyway, its something that has to be known and understand how to react etc, there is no spotter for you in the real world, so don't depend on something that only makes you the weaker driver.
I use the pitspotter simply because I can't see my mirrors. The mirror doesn't tell me when the car behind has broken the vertical plane of my back bumper either. I use it strictly so I don't cut the other guy off by half an inch. If he disappears from my mirror, either he is coming up on my corner, or just moved over, I have no idea. Without pitspotter though, that gives him an easy chance to get beside me as I would leave room if I don't know if he is there or not.
I don't see pitspotter as a crutch. I see it as a tool that developes even closer and cleaner racing.
Granted in real life you won't have a spotter on a road coarse, but in real life you'll have much better awareness of what is around you than in an artificial environment like this.
IRL, you can swivel your neck or glance at side mirrors while your peripheral vision keeps an eye on the road, and your peripheral vision can spot other cars next to you.
In LFS you can use the look left and look right function, but compared to all the sensory info you'd get IRL, it's a crude approximation.
I use pit spotter to overcome some of the gap between real life and simulation.
I tend to have a few less incidents because of it and I think that's a good thing.
Besides, I have no natural talent, so I need all the help I can get. :P
FYI, I do still check mirrors and look left and look right even though I use the spotter.
my computer is way to slow about 35-40 down to 5 fps in traffic so i cant run mirrors if i did it will drop BELOW 5fps!! so i NEED pit spotter very much unless u guys want me cutting u off and causing an accident in front of a feild of 20+ which is hard enough to avoid with it at this frame rate
stop being so picky some of us NEED not want this update
Agree with people who wants spotter... I use it to avopid crashing into the wreckers that inhabit the servers nowadays... when it was only test patches, there were some nice and gentle REAL racers online... but when X was released, a wave of crashers and wreckers who want to do the BL Gp first cornar at 130 Km/h for an example was released in the servers... spotter helps A LOT avoiding stupid crashs with those kind of drivers.
Just a while ago I managed to finish a 60 lap race at Blackwood, even though there was a crasher driving an XFG that was trying to punt me and the leader quite a bit, he managed to clip me twice but i escaped his grip with minimal damage, and I have seen wreckers and chat flooders on EVERY SINGLE SERVER I have been on except for my team's server.