I remember asking this before, but I don't remember getting a (decent) reply for it so...........
I have just taken the plunge and spent the £3 so I can try out this new fangled hi-res skin download.
My question is this, when I switch over to downloading hi-res skins, will it overwrite the "old" lo-res skins?, or do I need to delete them?.
Might be a stupid question, but I thought I'd ask

I'd suppose it checks for the skin file in question if used. I guess if it works from hash numbers or whatever they're called it will overwrite.
If it's only filename it won't.

The skins you need to delete are the custom downloaded ones in your skins_x folder if I'm not mistaken. For good measure just delete them all to be sure.

Nope lo res are downloaded in skins_x and hi-res in skins_y or the other way around.

And you dont need to delete anything. The switch in game to higher res will take care that lfs check right map.

It's more than a filename check - if you update your skin and give it the same name, I'm pretty sure everyone with your old skin will automatically get the updated one (next time they race with you, that is).

Yes, lfsWorld.net says "When you update your skin just upload it with the same name. S2 checks the file-date of a skin to decide if people should re-download it."

I have always wondered about the High-res skin downloads. I wish I could just see a comparison on like the same car, with the same skin. One High-Res, and one Low-Res. I would probably try it if it looked much better, but how much better can they look? I just believe that you wouldn't really notice a difference. Maybe someday they will show a comparison on their site.
-LoganC-

Funny you should say that........

I went online last night, after enabling hi-res skins, which according to my license details, has downloaded 6 hi-res skins, and TBH I can't notice ANY difference, certainly not when racing.

Probably much better for screenshots and such, but from a racing point of view, I am hard pushed to notice any difference.

For the record, I am running a 19" LCD screen @ 1280x1024.

I noticed a difference straight away, so did everyone else (well nearly) I talked to about it.

They're much brighter, way, way clearer so that any text is much more readable, just better. 1024 or 512, the difference is obvious

Here you go, direct comparison between hi and lo, quite good really, I just didn't notice the difference when racing

Guess which is which

Edit, I am gonna go out on a limb here and say, I can NEVER remember the skins being that low quality before patch X

Wow!!! You're right! Much better!
hmmmm....I think I just might give in to the High-Res fad!
Thanks!
-LoganC-

Quote from danowat :

Edit, I am gonna go out on a limb here and say, I can NEVER remember the skins being that low quality before patch X

DDS gives the skins ever such slight compression and makes 'em look a bit worse, even with all the "compress skins" set to no.