Hey, I hope this is not already been posted about....

I've been reading around LFS, and some posts have rFactor, and NetKar Pro mentioned in them, and of course I was wondering...

LFS is competing with other devs right? Correct me if I'm wrong..

and another question, just how many Racing Simulators, (as good as LFS, not new or dead...) are there?

I've wondered about this for a long time, isn't there someone else out there daring enough to go against LFS? lol

Nick

Quote from UruNico2641 :

LFS is competing with other devs right? Correct me if I'm wrong..

Well, technically yes?

Quote from UruNico2641 :

and another question, just how many Racing Simulators, (as good as LFS, not new or dead...) are there?

That's a subjective question. If you ask on the netkar forums you'll hear that netkar is better, here LFS, and so on.

They each have their own "forte" and specific goals that they're trying to acheive.

Quote from UruNico2641 :

I've wondered about this for a long time, isn't there someone else out there daring enough to go against LFS? lol

I still can't decide how to answer this.

The racing sim market is a niche and with exception of rFactor, isn't a widely marketed. LFS doesn't actively go up against the other products you've listed. The team are just doing their own thing. It's more of a passive side effect of them just doing what they want.

Try them and see for yourself. Some people like rFactor/GTR/GTR2/GTL/RACE/RACE 07 (from what I've seen they're basically all the same), some like netKar Pro, some like LFS, some freaks even like all of them.

netKar Pro compares best to LFS IMHO. The cars feel nice and mechanical (it's way ahead of LFS in this regard) and the tyres are very believable, but unfortunately: It's not very well supported by its developer, there are elements of the package which seem sloppily put together or rushed, multiplayer (apparently) doesn't work very well on some computers, and it only contains single-seaters, which I'm not that interested in driving. But if you want a really good single-player, single-seater simulator then give it a try.

Hmm I just visited NetKar Pro and rFactor,

RFactor- looks nice, looks like a good enemy against LFS, but 60 ulimited trial time? What the heck is that?:arge: Thats a big Negative response for me.


NetKarPro- Looks ok, nice tracks, but absolutely no variety of cars!!!:sadbanana

Sorry if anyone likes these, they look good, but I'd say honestly, LFS is in the lead and will be in the lead unless things change... which they won't..... i hope........

True, some like it more than others, but I'm sticking with LFS,

but I'm taking your word, I'll give them alll a try, whats the worst that can happen?

Besides, a sixty min demo can change minds Lol joking, joking!!!



Nick

the devs don't want to "compete" with other devs. they want to develop their simulator at their own pace. NetKar, I've never heard of though.

NetKar is Good, but bad all at the same time somehow. It's a good base, but the developer has been... nearly non-existant for an entire year, where people had major issues, while he was off doing lines off of waitress' arses in Mexico/Italy (Not fact, but common belief, although the story changes ).

Nascar racing season 2003 seems like a dominant sim.

Quote from Kevin. :

Nascar racing season 2003 seems like a dominant sim.

You're not kidding.. did you see the price of Nas2003 on Ebay?

Quote from SamH :

You're not kidding.. did you see the price of Nas2003 on Ebay?

NASCAR 2003 was and still is a fantastic sim. the graphics are outdated now however, and S1 beat it in physics. but it was one of the best major sims at the time.

netkarpro for many people its the best simulator ever, but for me is ***, i am not the fastest driver but nkpro you hit a kerb and the car is undriveable, LFS give me the signal to control the car and I can hit the throttle and push ahead.

Hmm... no one has mentioned Richard Burns Rally! Well, if you consider rallying a kind of "racing", too.

It has one of the best physics engines and corresponding FF, rich and completely natural graphics, suitably punishing damage modelling, extensive garage setup, weather and loose surfaces, realistic sound effects... Suffice to say, for all things it set out to do, it does them extremely well.

It's still very much alive despite being published in 2004 (?) because of the frequently updating RS-RBR mod, which contains too many cars I've already lost count.

Quote from gp4racer :

netkarpro for many people its the best simulator ever, but for me is ***, i am not the fastest driver but nkpro you hit a kerb and the car is undriveable, LFS give me the signal to control the car and I can hit the throttle and push ahead.

isnt tat what happen if real life?

No

Quote from yoyoML :

Hmm... no one has mentioned Richard Burns Rally! Well, if you consider rallying a kind of "racing", too.

Aye good point

A friend bought this for a tenner or so a few months back, and for that kind of money it's a stonkin game Really need to spend some proper time getting into it. Seems like it has a decent and lively community too, but I don't know how good the control is on the modding front.

Also provided a nice wee flashback to all those hours of CM rally back in the day!

I'm not sure there that much "competition". The games appeal to different groups of players. Based on the online stats, LFS has a fairly large number of online players. The ISI games pretty much split up the online players into many small groups.

I would say that most of the simmers from 1999 that played Grand Prix Legends, Nascar Racing 2003 (on road tracks) and it's mods, EA's F1C 99-02 and it's mods, have moved onto the ISI based games available today. Most of the mods and tracks from the previous games are available on rFactor now. This group is mostly interested simulations of real cars and tracks.

The early versions of LFS had questionable physics, and most of the cars were slow, something that wouldn't appeal to the older generation of simmers. LFS has since improved, good physics and faster cars, but it only includes a few real cars and no real tracks, so it continues to be a mostly separte group of players.

There are some "crossover" players, and I play ISI games, LFS, arcade racing games and non racing games, although not that much online. Too many games, not enough time.

rofl 160$ nascar 2003,come to me its free,just take it XD

/me runs to hungary!

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

/me runs to hungary!

Actually im closer,i live in Nj

New Jersey! Bah, I don't wanna go there.

Just don't tell me you live in Nutley, or someone will die

/me glares at Jakg

Quote from e2mustang :

rofl 160$ nascar 2003,come to me its free,just take it XD

New Jersey, eh? I'm just over here in Pennsylvania. I'll come pick it up tomorrow. After I sell it on e-bay for $160, I'll send ya $5.

No one has come up with a NASCAR sim since NR2003 that's worth anything since only EA has exclusive license for it. So, if you want to race NASCAR, you don't have much of a choice but to stick with NR2003. Still the best physics for stockcar oval racing available.

Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :

isnt tat what happen if real life?

Depends on the kerb, but not in nKPro

Quote from gp4racer :

netkarpro for many people its the best simulator ever, but for me is ***, i am not the fastest driver but nkpro you hit a kerb and the car is undriveable, LFS give me the signal to control the car and I can hit the throttle and push ahead.

I don't remember the kerbs being undrivable in nK Pro, but then again due to my PCs (that was identical to the test rig that got a stable 50 fps online, except for a slightly faster processor) pathetic performance.

The kerbs in LFS though are mostly easy to take, the reasons for this is some of them are flat and smooth, you do get that IRL but still there seems to be a lot of grip on them, you'd never want to be braking on a kerb IRL in LFS you can get away with it. Blackwood is a particuarly bad example with the green run off matting stuff that no driver would ever choose to drive on IRL, it should have pretty low grip and the car should be bouncing about and getting torn apart by the vibrations. In other words it would not be the fastest line IRL whereas in LFS I think it is identical to the tarmac.

Another issue is the lack of punishment for taking kerbs, I know there is a bit of damage but it's not really noticable. IRL taking to much kerb can result in race ending damage. I remember a guy who ended up in a big smash on the pit straight following suspension failure that he thinks was caused by just clipping one kerb too hard in the previous corner. You've also got to take into account other issues, cars which are generating any kind of ground effect will have big issues with loss of downforce over kerbs and racing cars with low tire pressures can easily get a tire deflated by clipping the sidewall on a kerb.

As I see it, LFS and rfactor have quite similar target groups while the nk pro is aims strictly for the realism, sometimes at all costs, making it too hard for the average driver.

I think it is a great pity that nk pro was left as it is. It has all the ingredients to be something really awesome, something that was once available for LFS too. But for all sims, I can't see any direct competitor, they are different enough to live on their own.

But tbh, I don't see any competition. Not because one is better than other, but because all are average in their own ways. Even GPL is just fine with today's standards

I try to avoid inner kerbs in LFS, quite many of those are instant spin out if you use clutch pack, with viscous coupling they are not an issue.

Other games and sims it seems to be similar to some extent as clutch pack in LFS.

I haven't got superiority of clutch pack in corner exits either, you have to be so careful with throttle that acceleration is slow, with clutch pack you can actually react if car starts loosing grip, so ease a bit and it handles situation well, I have noticed less severe behaviour with competitors in similar situation.

But then again, I'm not very good driver