After hearing the ripple of applause at the end of the race I realised that LFS is skimping on some decent and realistic background sounds to create more of a sense of 'being there'. The applause is more akin to a tennis match than a race track.

Probably most importantly, you should be able to hear the trackside commentary echoing round the place, (an incomprehensible murmur will do, just like it is in real life ). GPL did this when you were sat in the pits and it worked really well.

There are other noises that make up that racing atmosphere, such as engines being started up when you're in the pitlane, the air horns when a group of fans spot their driver, or the ridiculously loud warble to warn that a car has entered the pitlane.

Very good idea, this would improve the experience. But I don't think it should be really high priority... Engine sounds and the like should come first

In real life you wouldn't hear much of that anyway unless you pitted and turned off the car. It seems to me that there are more important sounds missing right now. For instance, there is engine and wind noise, but no tire noise. I can hear the tires in my street car with a full interior. It should be fairly pronounced in a stripped down race car. Also, there is no transmission sound. Road cars don't make too much tranny noise (except in reverse) but any car with an adjustable tranny (straight cut gears) like a GTR model will have a very pronounced transmission whine. This is completely missing from LFS and can be plainly heard in real life in-car videos. There are no pit crew talking to you on the radio either. It would be great to have someone tell you over the radio when you are running low on fuel, when your next scheduled pit stop is coming up, when there's a wreck ahead of you, or when the person behind you is gaining on you. Many of these things are already modeled in competing products. Compare an in-car (or better yet, in-helmet) video or audio recording to the sounds in LFS and I think you'd find a very big disparity between the two.

I'd like to see these sounds addressed before "ambient" noises that you won't hear anyway.

Granted you wouldn't hear them whilst actually racing but if certain simple sounds were imlpemented, it would help create a more believable environment. Then there's also the replays, when you should, at the very least, hear the trackside commentary.

I think LFS comes under fire for not really capturing the essence of motorsport. Technically it is excellent but, with all due respect, I don't get the impression from playing it that the devs are complete petrol heads. I'm not saying they aren't, I'm saying it isn't apparent in the product. GTR does a fantastic job of creating a realistic atmosphere and a lot of it is from an extremely good understanding of sound. Although I wasn't impressed with GTR on the whole, it's difficult to argue that they don't love the sport.

Quote from Cue-Ball :

In real life you wouldn't hear much of that anyway unless you pitted and turned off the car. It seems to me that there are more important sounds missing right now. For instance, there is engine and wind noise, but no tire noise. I can hear the tires in my street car with a full interior. It should be fairly pronounced in a stripped down race car. Also, there is no transmission sound. Road cars don't make too much tranny noise (except in reverse) but any car with an adjustable tranny (straight cut gears) like a GTR model will have a very pronounced transmission whine. This is completely missing from LFS and can be plainly heard in real life in-car videos. There are no pit crew talking to you on the radio either. It would be great to have someone tell you over the radio when you are running low on fuel, when your next scheduled pit stop is coming up, when there's a wreck ahead of you, or when the person behind you is gaining on you. Many of these things are already modeled in competing products. Compare an in-car (or better yet, in-helmet) video or audio recording to the sounds in LFS and I think you'd find a very big disparity between the two.

I'd like to see these sounds addressed before "ambient" noises that you won't hear anyway.

I think there is some tire noise, but it's not very prominent. I only notice it on the oval, when I'm running 260+ km/h.

Transmission whine is something worth noting--it'd also be audible in the road cars when in reverse, since the reverse gear in all manual cars is straight cut for mechanical reasons.

Audible pit crew is an ambivialent thing for me--yes it's realistic that you'd have a pit crew , but somehow it just doesn't seem "right" for LFS. I'd almost say what you should do is have a friend in spectate mode watching you all the time, and have hir actually talk to you.

Quote from bobvanvliet :

Very good idea, this would improve the experience. But I don't think it should be really high priority... Engine sounds and the like should come first

What about sounds of a highway when you're standing under the highway overpass at Blackwood?

or erh.. crowd noise.. crickets.. aircrafts in the distance.. I dunno.. something

Overall the sound is pretty lacking and what is there is not really up to par for 2005. I hope they do a lot of work on the sound.. and soon.

dont forget its only 1 guy coding the game. go easy on him give him time and the game will shine

Maybe they should hire a sound expert? Just and idea.

They have - Victor :P

Besides, I think LFS has the best sounds in any driving game yet (from a control point of view).

So skidding sound when one of the front tires lock.. No ambient sounds.. No transmission sound.. no gear shifting sound.. no 3d sound (stereo only- one of the biggest problems).. the list goes on. The sound is not horrible, but it could be improved upon in so many ways.

There is transmission sound, just it is quiet.

Somebody suggested before to make some ambient sounds as an ogg file and play that as music while racing. I'll try to make something nice and quiet when I have time (and if I remember to do it). Something that doesn't sound odd with empty grandstands in LFS. Distant traffic in South City, little birds in Blackwood with bit of wind in trees, more of the same for other tracks or a mix of those, all very subtle... Its difficult to think what do you REALLY hear as an atmosphere on an empty racetrack.

Atmospheric sounds would make the experience every bit more enjoyable.
It's the small things that make a game that much better.
I'd love to be able to hear air horns blasting when you go speeding down the straights, and also when you start the cars, I wana hear a car starting, cranking over, etc.

Quote from Misko :

There is transmission sound, just it is quiet.

Somebody suggested before to make some ambient sounds as an ogg file and play that as music while racing. I'll try to make something nice and quiet when I have time (and if I remember to do it). Something that doesn't sound odd with empty grandstands in LFS. Distant traffic in South City, little birds in Blackwood with bit of wind in trees, more of the same for other tracks or a mix of those, all very subtle... Its difficult to think what do you REALLY hear as an atmosphere on an empty racetrack.

That would be really cool, an ambient sound pack.

Well don't hold my word for it, I might do it or might not. If anyone else wanna try that go ahead.

Quote from Misko :

Well don't hold my word for it, I might do it or might not. If anyone else wanna try that go ahead.

Please do it.. that is actually a really good idea!

I agree, yes it is only one person coding and cannot be compared to the 100s of people that do just the sounds of another game. In terms of racing games out there right now LFS is up there with the other games because LFS does not play engine sounds from sound files but like IRL the sounds comes from how much pressure you apply the the gas pedal, ETC. that is why the sounds are kind of boring, but you really couldn't expect too much from that type of sound.

But that cannot be an excuse not to get better, the suggestion of hiring a new person is a pretty good idea, thinl about it, 3ppl = LFS(amazing game), now with twice that number what will we be expiriencing? I'm sure there are lots of skilled people out there that are willing to help out.

The sounds are important and I do feel that LFS is lacking some things, the most important is shifting sounds, I don't know how you could hear them, I could not, I have used many different kind of speakers including the normal pc speakers home stereo ones, stereo headphones, mp3 headphones, and I can still tell that there are specific sounds missing.

I think that in the upcoming stages S2 will get even better than what it is now, we'll just have to wait and see, and was 2 years of wait for S2 worth it? I'd say yes. Plus if you compared the first alpha of S1 and the finished S1 product you can tell that S2 is just going to get better.

So my point is that sound is very important, and I'm sure improving it will make the game much better,