Well, I know people have wanted one for a really long time, there have been posts made before, and one by myself.

I don't know how busy you developers get, though I have 7+ years of 3D Max/Photoshop under my belt, and was wondering, could I make one? Of course it would have to be "approved" though I'm willing to take whatever steps are necessary. You guys have an amazing physics system with the vehicles, to be able to test it out further for me has been a dream ever since I started to play LFS.

Just my 2 cents, if I'm wandering in a pointless direction just say so, thanks.

EDIT: Oh yes, this would be free of course I don't charge for my work. (just in case someone asks)

Yeah, I think it's a good idea to have access to some kind of test courses (maybe a racetrack?) and possibly a skid pad to let us test out our cars. Please can you add some racetracks and a skid pad to LFS?

Has anyone here seen the episode of (something) where an English woman takes a really old Mercedes diesel, and tests its durability .etc .etc. She takes it on a special road track which "ages" the vehicle, different series of bumps, and other odd obstacles.

Then if you note in Top Gear, they test out the Bugatti Veyron on the "secret road course" which is extremely long, long enough to test the top speed of the Veyron, and oodles of space to spare.

Some may say "What's the point of a track like that, you only have short length tracks with no horrible bumps." The point is, why limit the dev's amazing physics system to a flat road, or at most, the blackwood rallycross with that big hump?

I don't know, I've been going nuts to see something like that.

Vicki-Butler Henderson with an old Mercedes for 5th gear and the Veyron on VW's Ehra-Lessien test track (where the McLaren F1 did its top speed run).

What's the point, though, in simulating conditions you aren't going to encounter on the circuits you visit to race on? If you want to test out the response of the suspension (the horrible bumps) take something out on one of the rallycross tracks. On the top speed issue the difference between the top speeds you can achieve on AS3's start/finish straight and an endless course probably isn't large enough to see any appreciable differences. If you just want to know how fast your car would go if it were on an unlimited track check Bob Smith's setup program, it's supposedly very accurate.

Testing bumps on the rally cross track? Too many variables as you have infinite possible lines to approach or completely avoid bumps.

There's only one way to test suspension bump response properly, and that is to run the car straight through a bump track with very well designed and defined bumps or to run it through a curve that is very well defined and bumps placed and ran over at the right places.

BTW, nothing can teach people about the effects of setup on steady state cornering grip better than a skidpad. Since this is a computer program, we should just make it as big as possible and allow people to test cornering at all sorts of radiuses. How is this relevant to racing? Well, it teaches you a lot about setup vs. apex speed, especially on tracks where there is a lot of time spent in mid corner.

Slalom? That teaches people a lot about how to set up cars to be agile and responsive in transient conditions without making them ridiculously unstable. A great example is a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, which did great in slalom tests and surprise surprise, it's extremely good on RL mountain passes where transient states are dominant. The same could be said of cars such as the Lotus Exige, which was great in slalom tests too which translated well to agile yet very controllable track behavior.

If test tracks were really half as useless as some here insist they are are, car manufacturers would have abandoned them a long time ago. They may not simulate a track exactly, but they allow a excellent way to come up with base setups that are fundamentally good.

Quote from amp88 :

check Bob Smith's setup program, it's supposedly very accurate.

That sounds SO exciting... Someone should code a program that tells you lap times with certain setups, I assume that would be good fun eh?

EDIT: Found a good text-based driving game you may like: http://www.ashracing.com/

Quote from Tekspdy :

That sounds SO exciting... Someone should code a program that tells you lap times with certain setups, I assume that would be good fun eh?

My sarcasm detector is going crazy at that post, however such a tool would be incredibly useful if it could be made accurate enough (which is the hard part).

Also, what,s so exciting about a massive straight where you can get the car up to top speed? Once you,d got the gear ratios spot on, there,s nothing left to do. And you're not going to ever use those ratios on track, since they'd be too tall for anywhere but the oval, which needs furter tinkering anyway.

Quote from amp88 :

the Veyron on VW's Ehra-Lessien test track (where the McLaren F1 did its top speed run).

No, it did it at Nardo IIRC. Why would VWAG let (basically) BMW use their test track?

Lfsnoob,

are you insane aswell as crazy?

Matt

Quote from duke_toaster :

No, it did it at Nardo IIRC. Why would VWAG let (basically) BMW use their test track?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ho3IH81McYk

Quote from amp88 :

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ho3IH81McYk

Me > :chair: <Amp

Quote from Bob Smith :

Also, what,s so exciting about a massive straight where you can get the car up to top speed?

Not exciting at all of course, we could just have a top speed-o meter to calculate instead.

lol.

Sometimes I don't understand how some people cannot get a simple point understood. I thought my sarcasm would kind of bump you in the right direction. LFS is a driving simulator, not a text-based racing game. Yes, it would be handy to have tools that told you top speeds .etc. Though is it really fun? Perhaps maybe YOU find it boring to floor it and hear the wind, the engine pushing against it for a whole minute, the gears changing .etc though have you considered, that a great deal of people would like that?

I assume if you watched the top gear episode with the Veyron on the high speed coarse, you'd probably be yawning from boredom, sucks to be you?

Quote from Tekspdy :

Perhaps maybe YOU find it boring to floor it and hear the wind, the engine pushing against it for a whole minute, the gears changing .etc though have you considered, that a great deal of people would like that?

Close racing with others around a circuit I enjoy. Going in a straight line until the cars stops accelerating? ZZZzzzz. That's like drag racing with what little fun there is removed. I would suspect your in the minority with what you find fun.

Quote from Tekspdy :

I assume if you watched the top gear episode with the Veyron on the high speed coarse, you'd probably be yawning from boredom, sucks to be you?

No, I don't watch TV. It's (mostly) boring.

Well, guess the minority doesn't count then? Perhaps not, but the offer is still there, I could design and build this track, not like it would take much time at all from the dev's to brief me on how to properly group/lod the track .etc.

I don't care about being a dev or anything, just want a "fun" track like the one that's already there just less flat and more sophisticated.

Tis all.

I'd like a top speed track, but once you max out every car, its pointless.

Extending the existing drag strip into a mile long one makes more sense IMO.