Many years ago I studied "Aerospace Dynamics - Aerodynamics" to an MSc level and have some questions about the Aerodynamices in this Sim.

I understand the wind force/speed actually really work in sim (why else would it be an option?) but how can I see data numbers to support this. I only ask this because if I drive an open wheeled racing car and I'm close to another car I don't seem to loose any front end grip, or when another car gets close to my rear I don't seem to feel any pull on the car.

I've tried running some unusal set ups to upset the aero flow over the car, i.e one corner higher than the other etc, and outside of the oddness of the car I can't really feel any difference in aero flow.

Now two years ago I ran a Mi16 powered 205 GTi in hill sprints, and found a few little mods, like flat bottom floor pan, front splitter, and rear roof lip made a huge difference at speeds over 70mph. You could feel the difference pretty well..

Thanks if anyone can offer some advice on this.

One thing: you DO lose grip if you are drafting. Makes me crash often and unpredicted.

Aero modelling is quite basic in LFS atm, its awaiting for major improvements in future patches

Press the F key whilst driving to display forces. You'll be able to see purple triangles at the front wing, diffuser/undertray and rear wing (on cars which have them) which represent how much downforce each of them is producing. Get close to another car and you'll see the downforce decreasing. It's more marked in the FO8 and BF1 than it is in the FBM and FOX but you can definitely feel it in all cars which produce downforce.

aerodynamic is not affected by ride height/ ground clearlance at the moment.

Thanks for your help, the more I look at this Sim the more I want to believe.

I swear some of the other sims don't work with real aero settings, and work with routines..

i.e if your car is close to another car increase speed by 3mph, and if you so close on a corner reduce grip level...

But if LFS user real aero settings and ranges, then wow,

I race in OneGP which is a F1 BMW Sauber league in LFS and trust me when you get anywere near someone from behind in a fast corner you are SCREWED. No more grip whatsoever at the front and I think that is slightly exagerated because as soon as you enter that zone your going straight for sure. I doupt it's like that in real life because you do see F1 drivers one behind the other sometimes in fast corners and they dont seem to back up as much as I have to.

If you wanna test it well take the BF1. Trust me you'll feel the loss of grip at the front like crazy.

Well if you get close to someone, you lose pretty much ALL of your own front downforce, which means you have pretty much no steering...It would be much worse the faster you go, as you would normally have much more downforce

I will do some test later in the week with running two cars.


Thanks again everyone.

Quote :

I doupt it's like that in real life because you do see F1 drivers one behind the other sometimes in fast corners and they dont seem to back up as much as I have to.

No its not like that Mr.T, in real world you would lose some or most of the front wings DF but you wouldn't lose under body DF generated by the underfloor and diffuser.

As the under floor generates a lot of the total DF of the Formula type car balance is largely retained and full DF is obviously restored the micro second you pull back into the airflow.

Best, Maz

Quote from paulinho :

I only ask this because if I drive an open wheeled racing car and I'm close to another car I don't seem to loose any front end grip, or when another car gets close to my rear I don't seem to feel any pull on the car.

As others stated, the effect of drafting is only half-implemented really. The car behind will get the benefits of it, however the car infront gets no reduction in drag (and downforce) on it's rear due to less turbulence and better airflow. Also, again as mentioned the diffuser's effect is hardcoded for each car. The aeromodel is sadly one of the most basic aspects of the sim currently.

Quote from xaotik :

As others stated, the effect of drafting is only half-implemented really. The car behind will get the benefits of it, however the car infront gets no reduction in drag (and downforce) on it's rear due to less turbulence and better airflow. Also, again as mentioned the diffuser's effect is hardcoded for each car. The aeromodel is sadly one of the most basic aspects of the sim currently.

The Bf1 is affected massively when following another car closely at speed in LFS.

I have no way of knowing if the effect is overexaggerated but from what Iv heard from real F1 drivers over the last few years complaining about the 2 second gap I imagine it isnt so far away from reality.

If the coding is in place for aero effects (deep breath) how hard would it be to code in a DX10 routine for volumatic smoke effects ?

Considering LFS is still on DX7 (or is it 8?), very hard. Scawen said that it would take 6 months to upgrade to DX9 alone IIRC

DX7, it does very well in the looks compartment. I've been putting in some hours on iRacing and have found that LFS is the only sim I can still play afterwards.

LFS really is a credit to the P.C sim world