Now that is clear proof that he is talking out of his behind. I haven't seen single figure framerates since trying the S2 demo in 2005 with a Celeron 667 MHz.
I have a 3 year old off-the-shelf system that wasn't the greatest when I got it, and has only been upgraded from onboard video to an ATI 1650. I lock it at 45 FPS and unlocked it runs between 60-80 FPS. You can't expect a game to run today on a 75 MHz computer. It's time to upgrade there, Ian...
Atm it looks like Scawen tries to gain ground in Asia, we don't know what Eric has done the past years except Bf1, FBM and two configurations (SO Chicane and AS North(?)), Victor is fiddling with both Forum and LFSWorld.
I suspect, that 1. they are working on big stuff in the background like new graphics, tracks and completly new things for a major release, may it be S2 Final or even S3.
2. they are somehow trapped in details about current LFS, taking their independent working style a bit too serious
Sometimes I just fancy a "quick blast".. or simply prefer endurance style racing (but preferably in road-going cars like the XRT etc).. a lot of pickup races are way too short to be of much interest when looking for the racing aspect.
Me aside, my littlen loves LFS. He's not quite at the stage yet of being able to be let loose on public servers and guarantee not to piss someone off due to mistakes.. thus the AI are all important to him. The additional speed was great, but as you say, that's pointless if they still have zero awareness of you on the track.
The only positive I do have about the AI is I remember what it was like back in S1 days, so I do have faith in Scawen in getting this right (whereas ISI for example, don't have the foggiest).. just not sure my bones will be able to function correctly by the time it's actually finished.
Too many things in LFS are half done. Yeah I know it still proudly (for some reason) wears its 'alpha' tag.. but there seems to be almost nothing that's even close to becoming final.. just tiny amounts of lots of features thus making some / a lot of them entirely useless.
Doubtful. Scawen once said in a test patch thread that he has no code waiting to be released on his end. I'm sure he has done some experiments here and there, but basically what you see is what he has done. I'm sure Eric has some stuff waiting to be released (interiors at least), but I don't think Scawen has.
I do need an upgrade.. I have an AMD3000+, 1Gb RAM and a FX5900XT gfx card.. but within 1 foul swoop (between X and Y).. there's been such a massive change in FPS it's laughable.. especially when I get far higher FPS in rF, which looks a lot better in the gfx dept (and I only run that in DX8 so it's kind of comparable with LFS in that area).
So I don't always add smilies, and say / post in a blunt manner.. that's the way I am.. and certainly not just in regards to LFS.
Not LFS performance itself, just the rate at things are developed. Sure, I do expect a drop over time unless I upgrade, but considering LFS is pretty primitive in comparison to other games in some areas, I get far better performance in some others than I do in patch Y. Previous to this, the patches made little difference since 0.5K or whatever.
I don't have all gfx maxed etc.. I do set things up to be reasonable between eye candy and functionality.. but LFS doesn't have great gfx to begin with.. turning everything off will remove all immersion, meaning I may aswell boot up an old Amiga
I respect Scawen for what he's achieved so far (ie: I've looked at, and have no idea about coding AI for games etc.. it made my head hurt for one example).. but things have seemed to take a massive turn compared to what they were like when I started playing... he just doesn't seem too interested anymore. I don't expect you or anyone else to agree with that feeling / statement, but it's the impression I get looking at what has been in the recent changelogs compared to what's glaringly obvious about needing to be addressed.
I get burned out on projects too and like to take a step away from them. It's one reason I only develop C++ apps as freeware.. there's no definite commitment that has to be made.. but when it comes to producing something for clients / customers, that's something that you simply have to work through, but it seems like it's becoming a taller wall with every patch.
Well compared to 6 months ago there are many more racers than before. When patch y came out LFS hit a new record of 1800 people online at once, small when compared to MMO's but for any type of racing game I don't think you will ever find a larger number.
I play LFS since the first public release and I am not bored. Maybe you need more more social life or do something different when in front your computer?
Yeah, there is a lot of at least cruising going around (which I really don't get, but that's another discussion). I'm still not sure the total number of racers is going down though. It just seems like it's more common for people to race a single combo (or server like CTRA) over and over and over again. Combine that with the increased number of players on each server and it might seem like the numbers are going down simply because you see less variety.
But please lets keep the recent mentality of destroying threads with this sorta "non"sense. and calls for it to be locked i for one would like to keep this thread open and flowing please.
Ian once you get to know him is really quite a decent fellow, sometimes you need someone around you who will say the things the majority of people wont dare say or wont say.
I have to say, that as a new(ish) member, I'd be surprised that the numbers of people online has decreased, as I almost always find heavily populated servers every evening and even more so at weekends (in my time zone).
I agree with ACCAkut, i think they must be working on something major ATM. (and I hope so too)
I think that the car choice at the mo is pretty good actually, just needs a rally car and a le-mans prototype imo.
I do think we need a new track though. I love the current ones, and sure I'd love a new one even more.
As a side-note, there's a world of difference between expressing an opinion on a subject using constructive criticism along the way and Ian's comments. All this "down to earth talk", "say it it as it is" and so on and so forth little tirades that a good percentage of has-beens, wanna-bes, and think-they-ares are prone to is pretty amusing but really has as little to offer in terms of actually being constructive as most of my smart-ass comments.
The way the malice gets churning is quite impressive though. I can't imagine how it would be if this wasn't about a computer game.
Despite my previous tongue-in-cheek comment about syndicates, strikes and marches I'll play ball and say that I agree with AndroidXP about the physics improvements being the most interesting bit of new patches but I can't say I share the same pessimism about the future of LFS. As has been likely pointed out, asian languages (or perhaps some other high and mighty imperial would care to humor us with some other derogatory term) are quite an undertaking and will open a pretty large market for LFS.
I reckon S2 will go Final within the next 6 months and S3 Alpha will appear around Christmas. I'm not sure what else there is fix in S2 at the moment. It should be more or less feature complete now and the next 6 months would be plenty of time to fix things like aero-modelling, damage and crash physics.
Couldn't agree more. I've been following this thread and it was a worthwhile read until Ian.H stepped in and ruined another thread. There's only so many people will be fooled by the explanations of "I'm just being blunt", "it's just the way I am", etc, like it gives you a golden ticket to say what you want.
Well, I think Ian.H comes across as an obnoxious little twat with a chip on his shoulder the size of an Intel factory, and who brings shame upon the name DSRC, but things such as "manners" and "general decency" restrain me from openly saying such things. Most of the time. There's plenty of discussion to be had in a constructive manner about the things we don't like about LFS, without resorting to describing aspects as "shit", "crap", or "some other bullshit". That's just trolling and dev-bashing, nothing constructive at all.
So, back on topic...
It's funny that this topic should spring up just as I was trying to motivate myself to return to LFS. The very fact that I mention trying to motivate myself to play a game/sim is a clue to the fact that things aren't as good in LFS land as they used to be. I've even got a team to race and practice with, but I still haven't managed to get on the track for weeks and months.
Why? There just isn't anything new to tempt me back. I'm someone that's bored of the tracks too. They're nice, but we've been racing the same circuits for many years now. The revised Blackwood drives great, and looks great, but... well it's still Blackwood.
Physics improvements in the form of aero, no-locked-diffs, ground effect and so on would provide a huge boost to the game. Day/night cycles, weather effects and more eye candy would take the immersion to almost unbelievable levels - but whole teams of programmers can work for a year or two to build graphics engines that can handle such stuff, so how long will it take Scawen, despite his considerable talent?
I've no doubt I will be back on track soon enough, but I just wish I felt the desire to get on the track right now.
There was a time when LFS would be one of the first non-essential apps I'd install on my pc. But I've just built myself a pretty decent specced PC, and LFS isn't anywhere to be found on it, not even the downloaded zip file.
There cannot be a direct comparison exactly, but we tried to figure it out a while ago. The maximum you will see online in RF or and GTR was around 200-300 or so. We could be wrong though.
Well i still love the game - lots of people were raving about the patch at xmas, 2months down the line and we are getting impatient again
For the past 5 years, I've tried loads of alternative racing games as they come out, but none of them have cut the mustard in comparison with LFS. I keep coming back for more. I completely understand why some of the hardcore long term players could get bored after a while, but as a casual pick up and play person the game just keeps getting better. If I want real life tracks, I pick up an ISI game, if I want great physics and racing, LFS is THE game to play.
Hopefully the new language work will bring in a whole host of new racers from all over the globe.. In the meantime, try to appreciate LFS for what it is - a fantastic online racing game !
I fear some of you have no idea about the difficulty of level-design and what huge amount of knowledge about internal 3D processing workflow is needed to get acceptable FPS.
Besides that, I quit with the last patch (FOX is no fun an more for me).
Maybe I'll give LFS a new try with the next physics update, they have to work on the tires most.
But all in all it became too difficult to keep up in LFS as a "after-work-hobby".
At last a well documentation is missing (comparisons with RL are useless here since this still is a SIM which implies it acts different to RL).
