Yes, as i said, anything other than new languages make the game physically incompatible so those kind of patches are rare because of the hotlaps.. And since they reseted them at the end of 2007, we probably won't see cockpits and physics changes till the middle of 2009.. Cockpits and graphic stuff maybe, if they manage to do them without interfering with the physics..
Getting bored with the game I mean. I don't play LFS for the graphics or eye candy to begin with, I have an old Dell 4600. The game for me is all about who your playing with Online. This is where LFS shines. Everyone has the same tracks and cars, everyone can compete with each other no matter how rich or poor they are. And if someone has a bad connection they dissapear. So what, its a game,SORRY "SIM!!!!!!"Forgot myself for a minute there
Anyway I have only played for a little over a year and I am already sick of this topic. I think I've heard it a few times already.
And we'll have this discussion again six months after the next major LFS patch. I tend to believe that one of the reasons for this is the fact that LFS developement is indeed slow. Very slow and quite naturally so, considering that there's only one coder at work. It has nothing to do with being pessimistic, just realistic.
I believe iRacing will have most of the features we've been asking and hoping for in LFS rather sooner than later. Stuff like varying grip, changing track conditions, weather, engine/gearbox/clutch damage etc. As someone said earlier, iRacing is sort of like LFS but with manpower and money. Knowing that there will be very frequent updates and new features introduced all the time does seem more and more appealing to me, the more I think about it.
As people like to point out: LFS is not like other sims, you're along for the ride -- but iRacing will probably ride much faster.
You missed my point completely. Charging money monthly won't change behaviors, but it will change demographics . The casual sim racer won't be able to justify spending a monthly fee and will stick with whatever he/she is currently playing. While MOST sim racing enthusiasts , given iRacings superb offering will jump at the opportunity.
Wait, that's not all! There is another reason why iRacing will feature much cleaner races; iRacing tracks your safetly rating, and the developers had placed great importance on it. Even as far as to drop you in class/rank if you're safety rating gets too low. So every time you try to bump, push or cheat that safety rating will plummet.
So let me ask you this, jayhawk, in which scenario do you imagine people driving more carefully?
a) Where crashing has no consequences (LFS)
b) Where crashing has consequences (iRacing)
Is there any proof of this speed of updates, or just conjecture? Sure it's got more money and manpower, but afaik there's no proof of it's developement.
It doesn't have to be that way. I can say with certainty that I would pay money for more cars and/or tracks. Three new tracks for LFS (real or fantasy) would be worth 10 pounds to me, easy. This would be an easy way to appease the users, giving them what they want, while increasing revenue.
Let's say that tomorrow the devs released three "packs", each of which contained 2 tracks and one car for 10 pounds. Pack one is two banked ovals and a NASCAR-like stock car, pack two is two road courses and a Formula Ford-type car, and pack three is a stadium course and a point-to-point course (similar to a rally stage) with an off-road truck. The devs would have a chance to double their money, we would get some new stuff to play with, and the community as a whole would be better off. Release one of these packs every three months or so and you could continually bring new people into the sim, you could continually drive profits (so that the devs can afford to keep working on this wonderful sim), and the community would be appeased in their knowledge that something new is always coming down the pike.
Just think of all the different cars that could be offered and how many people it would bring to the game. We might finally see a sprint car and a dirt oval. The drifters could get a mountain pass track and a car with massive steering angle. Maybe we'd finally see a muscle car, a mid-engine exotic, a LeMans prototype, a 60's F1, or a rally car! If sales of the track/car packs were even remotely successful it would easily pay for the development cost of hiring another modeler (assuiming Eric already has his hands full or does not have the time to commit to such a project). Hell, the cars could probably be had for free! I'm sure that people would step up to the plate and create models if they knew there was at least a glimmer of hope they'd end up in the game.
Seems like a win-win scenario to me. The devs get to make a little extra money, the users get more cars and tracks, the game stays fresh, and we attract new people to LFS and to sim racing. The main drawback to such a system would probably be that it would require at least a modest amount of time from Scawen to change the UI, integrate the tracks and cars, and possibly code tire changes or new suspension types. This seems like a small price to pay to really grow the game and user base, but it would definitely postpone some of the other stuff Scawen wants to add/fix. Also, the more cars are added, the more time it will take to ferret out bugs. But, again, I think this would be an acceptable compromise. Of course, whether or not this is even possible, given the way LFS is coded, is impossible for us to know.
Read the post again in context, please (pay attention to the words "believe" and "probably" in particular).
The sentence you just quoted was not meant to be a statement about iRacing. I was simply trying to express that the idea of knowing that there wil be frequent updates is appealing to me and not that I know that there will be frequent updates. And in case I put that wrongly, I apologize, but there are still enough hints that I was merely voicing an opinion. The topic sort of calls for that, tbh.
While it may be partially conjecture as to whether or not iRacing will be updated in the future, many things that are coming are certain or nearly so. The version of iRacing that is being offered now is very different from the beta version, according to reports. That shows that development is continuing. Things like the current gearbox and engine model are not representative of a "hardcore" simulation, and to think that they won't be changed is a bit short sighted, in my opinion. Most importantly, iRacing charges for cars and tracks. There is no reason for them not to offer as many of these items as they can since they are the main revenue stream behind the subscriptions.
To put it simply, iRacing must continue to make improvements to their product because of the fact that they are charging a monthly fee. If you don't continue to improve people become bored and stop paying. Their unique business model virtually guarantees a continual influx of new content and enhancements because that is the only way they can ensure a continual revenue stream.
Cars which have just reappeared either due to having a large position or orientation discrepancy (usually during a crash) or whose driver has just entered the car are now not collideable for two seconds after appearing. This should alleviate some problems with being taken out by latency effects or unfortunate pit exits.
All the cars have more accurate chassis inertia numbers, so the response rates have changed. Some cars have higher moments, some lower.
The impact levels for 0x and 4x car contacts and 3x wall contacts now take the car mass into account (lighter cars will get incidents a bit more easily).
There are now 0x wall contacts for light brushes with the wall.
The Rookie cars now allow you to view tire information in the garage, although no changes can be made, or setups loaded or saved.
All cars now have baseline setups, so the error message that a baseline setup couldn’t be found should no longer occur.
The effect of camber is more correct—driving over the edge of a curb does not upset the cars as much.
There have been tire changes made to several of the cars, most notably the Late Model, Formula Mazda, SR8, and SK Modified.
Cars
The USAC Series Silver Crown car has been added. Be afraid.
The ambient occlusion level for each car’s cockpit has been tweaked. The cockpits should no longer appear to be as dark.
The Radical’s mirror angle has been tweaked
The Radical’s front fender will no longer flicker when damaged.
The Solstice’s brake lights are now hooked up.
The Skip Barber Formula 2000’s steering wheel no longer flickers.
Tracks
Added the Infineon Raceway Long Circuit which is generally used by Clubs
Track Bump Maps
Many incorrect surface bumps, mainly where racing paths merged together, have been fixed at several tracks (VIR, Lowes, etc.)
Remote Cars
The problem where cars in on-line sessions would sometimes arrive with all white paint jobs (and with helmets missing) has been fixed.
Tweaked Late Model remote car orientation to hopefully improve the appearance of “dirt tracking” in the corners.
When first connecting to a race server the in-sim chat window will now list disconnected drivers as “disconnected” rather than as large (usually negative) numbers.
Graphics Options Screen
The frame rate limit in the advanced graphics options is now adjustable and also better maintains the selected limit. If you are having stuttering issues you might try enabling this with a moderate FPS limit which may relieve some of the strain on your system’s resources and improve overall performance.
The virtual rear view mirror’s field-of-view (FOV) is now adjustable on the advanced graphics options page.
The graphical antialiasing level (1xAA, 2xAA, 4xAA multisampling) is now settable via the advanced graphics options. If you wish to use the in-sim settings you may first need to disable any override you may have previously enabled in your video driver’s settings. If you wish to use an AA setting other than those available in the current options screen, please continue to do so via your video driver’s overrides. The in-sim settings may allow you to choose an AA level which your card cannot handle, in such a case AA will silently revert to 1x during startup.
iRacing Chat Client
Several voice chat bugs have been fixed.
Chat room names which contain hyphens (or that exceed an internal length limit) are no longer truncated incorrectly.
A rare crash bug was fixed which sometimes occurred during shutdown of the chat client.
Control Assignments
Keyboard assigned gear shifting controls should now work from one session to the next without the need to re-assign them in the options each session.
The clutch pedal control should now work correctly when the chat entry window is open.
Installation, Updating and Launching Software
The installer now creates a start menu shortcut to members.iracing.com (instead of alpha.iracing.com). If you do not re-install from scratch, please make sure you manually fix your existing shortcut.
The simulation no longer triggers downloadable packages to require a download after certain simulation software crashes.
The graphical auto-configuration has been adjusted to be less aggressive and to set the amount of video memory available for textures more accurately. Your system may now default into a lower PC class and may report slightly less video memory available for textures after running the graphics auto-configuration tool.
Fixed an issue that was preventing the iRacingService from launching the sim in some instances.
Changed a timeout that should reduce the number of “The sim didn’t seem to launch for unknown reason” errors on the web site.
Website
Safety ratings are now displayed to the hundredths decimal place
The “[ ] Use iRacing.com™ dollars towards my subscription.” option on the web site now works.
The proper sales tax rate for downloadable software is 1% in the US state of CT, not the normal sales tax rate.
Abbreviated season stats are now available on each season’s Series Home page.
The navigation for the STATS section’s Series Stats page has been improved. You are now able to jump directly to any page, the last page, or the first page.
Club stats are now available on the STATS Clubs page.
Event Results have been re-skinned.
A car and track dropdown has been added to the TEST panel to allow quick selection of cars and tracks for testing.
Your selected car and track will now sort to the top of the car/track lists.
The “Rolodex” page has been re-named to “myRACERS”.
A bug that would cause the session page’s session panels to not wrap during a race-week change has been fixed.
Race Control
Fixed a bug where some races with too few entrants were being counted as official.
Fixed a bug where a race that ended before half the scheduled length was not being marked as unofficial.
Incident points incurred by cars you have contacted within 4 seconds of that contact will be attributed to both of you.
When you break rules and get a black flag, the rules you have broken will be listed.
In a race, the white and checkered flags are now shown to you based on your position in the race, not just the leader's position which could be confusing.
General Simulation User Interface
Smallest text all uses the same bold font – should be easier to read at low resolution
Increased contrast in text colors
Drive screen UI can be scaled larger
Accented characters in driver’s names shown correctly
Qual sessions have a Qual tab on the replay screen showing session results
Race sessions show Qual times in Grid tab
FOV shown on drive screen when changing FOV
In-car FOV adjustable in Options / Graphics
Cockpit Look options added
List of all key bindings in Options / Other (these cannot yet be rebound)
Bug fixed: all screen resolutions are selectable in Options / Graphics
EAX, which is not implemented, can no longer be set manually in app.ini
Garage screen no longer needs to be scrolled
Series name shown on replay screen
Various little tweaks to several UI widgets – droplists scroll faster, sliders react more intuitively
Laps tab uses colors rather than fonts to highlight best laps
UI will show on the center monitor on Matrox Triple-head-2-go three monitor setups.
Sound
Flat tires now make flat tire sounds.
Driving Views
You may only drive using the cockpit view, chase views are no longer available.
The maximum driving field of view has been raised to 135 degrees, to help folks with extra wide triple monitor setups.
Updates for end of June
User Interface
Force Feedback ‘Dampening’ option removed – it no longer did anything.
Corrected sorting order for numerical columns in Session screen tabs.
Re-ordered sound options to ‘Simulation’ and ‘Voice Chat’ sections to clarify the options’ intents.
Cleaned up voice chat notifications.
Removed voice chat ‘you are transmitting’ sound – people thought that they were transmitting static.
Session screen tabs, F2, and F3 black boxes corrected to no longer clip times, some club names, etc. Long driver names may still clip if too large to fit in the available space.
The F3 black box can no longer scroll past the end of the list.
At race start, the F2 standings black box correctly shows qualifying times.
Your wheel now shows up on the replay screen after exiting the drive screen twice.
Pedal displays are more accurate – they no longer display a small minimum depression at lower display resolutions.
Fix for Euro symbol being displayed in some system messages in text chat (but long messages still clip).
Graphics resolution droplist displays correctly. No, really, it’s actually fixed this time.
Graphics options for AA and AF now list ‘None’ instead of ‘1x’
Website
The functionality of STATS section’s Clubs page has been expanded to allow the viewing of all drivers in a given club. Currently the value shown under the Club Points column when viewing a club’s driver list is reporting incorrectly. This will be addressed soon.
The STATS Series page has been updated to show if a given race week is counted or dropped.
Firefox 3 now shows as a supported browser.
We have added the option to select your internet connection type in the “my account” section of the website. New customers will also be able to select their connection type during sign up.
Control Assignments
The sequential and direct shift gearbox controls may now be assigned to the same device.
The clutch pedal control now shows activation in the options screen when assigned to a button or keyboard device.
iRacing Chat Client
Several chat client audio issues have been fixed, including the initial pop or squeal sometimes played. Also a new option for recording voice using 8-bits (the default is 16-bits) has been added which might solve some of the recording issues for some audio devices – if you are having issues using voice chat from the web based chat client, you might try this new option to see if it works better.
Graphics Engine Updates
The graphical issue where many tire barriers sparkled in the distance has been fixed.
Track Bump Maps
Several incorrect bumps at various tracks have been repaired.
Art Updates
Floating crowd fixed near the start/finish line at Summit
Fixed tire LOD issues on the Radical and Silver Crown
Fixed Latemodel exhaust pipe changing to pattern color when damaged
Fixed helmet patterns 41 and 42 so the license strip displays properly
Physics Updates
The caster is now measured correctly at all tracks.
The gearbox timing is now set per car, and H-pattern shifters do not have a shift time advantage.
The Skip Barber car now has adjustable brake bias in the garage.
Race Control and ttRatings
Fixed a problem wherein car numbers were assigned incorrectly in races with a mix of Rookie and non-Rookie participants.
We have adjusted the ttRating formula so that drivers that have only time trialed at a few tracks are less likely to see their ttRating fall when they time trial at a new track. Everyone’s ttRating has been recomputed using this new formula. It is likely that the relative ordering of drivers based on ttRating has changed.
From time to time, ttRatings will be adjusted service-wide so that they better match the current iRating range. ttRatings have been adjusted during this release. Note that this amounts to applying a scale to everyone’s ttRating, so the relative order between drivers does not change.
Client Software Updater
The web site will now better track the download and install progress of iRacing updates.
Sound
Updated engine sounds for the Formula Mazda, Silver Crown, Radical SR8 and Pontiac Solstice.
Just tested iRacing... must say that I'm not impressed.
I'm having a hard time configuring my G25 to feel natural and direct... did't had not much luck yet. The physics are good but LFS is close... if not right up there. The force feedback feels bad for some reason, and this make whole gameplay suck.
For now I'm sure I'm not gonna spend a lot of money on something that in my opinion isn't that much better then LFS.
Maybe when i have some more time with it and get the controls right i change my mind.... for now: not impressed
All i know is that in my first 20 minutes race with mostly new people there was zero car to car contact and plenty of passing on the narrow LRP track. Thats worth the cost for me.
I think they have been laying out the bases so after that they can concentrate on physics updates. Languages, menus, bugs, online playing, making all the user interface perfect before doing the hardcore stuff. Basicly i think they're laying the pilars so they can construct the building . At least i hope so, otherwise oh boy
I am really looking forward to the new LFS cockpits, it'll be a sign of what we could expect in the future regarding the graphics/modelling department. LFS's graphic engine isn't that bad really, just need more details and refinement.
I'll be really surprised if they make it into patch Z. I think about a year ago I was saying to friends that the interiors must be right around the corner. So yeah, I was looking forward to the interiors, but I've quietly become a glass half empty type guy with the whole development thing. I can't understand where all the time has gone, and I feel I understand enough about how slow graphics work can be. It's just been too long...
If they interfere with the physics they certainly won't be in Patch Z, and we still don't know what changes abrupt the physics engine for sure, some say cockpits will be physics incompatible some say they won't
But the cockpits alone won't make me go 'WOW', they would in 2006, 2007, but not now..
Cockpits and graphic stuff maybe, if they manage to do them without interfering with the physics..
. At least i hope so, otherwise oh boy 