I've figured out that this isnt discussed much, but since we have the option to customize the movement of the driver's head in LFS, what could be the most realistic settings to be used ingame? I know that a few of the forum users here had real life experience with cars on a track so your opinion would be appreciated here.
I found these settings to feel quite good in the TBO cars and in most cars in general but I think there could be better settings for the single seaters and the GTRs:
Tristan laid out some settings for the head movements for the "FOX" if I'm not mistaken. Quite some time ago...
He drives an old-ass () F3 so he probably knows what he's doing...
Use the search feature. I'm pretty sure there's a thread with some suggestions for that area.
what we really need is an option to move the steering wheel up/down. like a real car. for tall drivers (X-Axis all the way up) I can't see past 80kmh/4k RPM.
On thing I've never liked about the head movement in sims is that they seem to shake the view a lot, creating an unrealisticly vibrating picture. IRL you keep your eyes focused on one point, regardless of how you head moves (some exceptions, but as a generalisation).
That being said, with the latest patch the new GTR interiors got me driving in the cockpit view again (had previously been using a custom roof cam) and I started mucking about with those settings. Having a total static cockpit didn't feel right. A little bit of movement is barely noticeable, but definitely makes me feel so much more connected to the car. I really wish the FXR interior would come soon
Can we get some more realistic head movement settings ??
started playing with this myself the other day.. my setting is ok with some of teh road cars seems a bit off with open wheelers though. some advice/settings would be much appreciated
Neatest idea I had seen was an insim app someone had made recently. Something about "realistic head movement" IIRC. Check it out - has some limitations, sadly.
Oooo never saw that option. Well, using 1g vertical shift at 0.020 and 'Mode view with animation' makes the whole thing look much better now. Thanks for posting that here, I never knew what that option was for.
If you are using one of the higher end racing cars in LFS, then surely the tight/stiff head movement is in fact very realistic, as in real life you would be wearing a helmet, neck collar, and 5 point harnesses that are as tight as they can be so your head wouldnt be able to move a lot. In a real car, if you are loose in your belts or don't use a neck collar then it will nearly always be whiplash city. I do banger racing in real life and i have hardly any movement when belted in.
I do not know if there is such a thing as banger racing in your part of the world (It is done in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Germany and there was once a meeting in northern spain) i will enclose a picture of what we do and why tight, restricted head movemant in a real life situation is best for us.
Neck collars are horrible things that have been shown to generally make injuries worse by jacking the head up rather than allowing some movement.
With a six point belt in my car, done up on the grid so it hurts (you 'rattle' lose a bit on the first lap, so it needs to be far too tight beforehand), using a HANS device I can move my head just fine until the tethers stop me (and I'm going to get one of the upgrades to the HANS that reduces that by allowing the tethers to slide a bit).
But banger racing isn't exactly a science anyway. Just a bit too 'rough and ready' in the [lack of] engineering department for my liking.
That is a very good point mate, although "built" engines and "sticky" tyres are now slowly becoming the norm around the uk so its now somewhat less of a low budget sport that it was in years gone by. Despite it being a sport where crashing is the name of the game, you need to spend £XX on tyres and engines to be competive these days, thus more drivers that can afford it are buying these bits to be competitive in an attempt to level the playing field.. and so it goes on. Every time someone finds a way to be faster everyone tends to follow suit to try and keep up, because if you cant catch them, you cant hit them or stop them. Plus with the soaring prices of scrap metal, ie cars in the uk, something like a volvo estate will fetch upto £200 whereas you used to be able to pick cars up for £30 a few years back, and a lot of free cars that people wanted out of the way. With every man and his dog knowing how much money can be made by simply taking his or her car to a scrap yard and coming back with a few hundred pounds then banger drivers are either having to splash the cash or give up altogether. sad times for us.
About GTR cars i totally agree you, but i was thinking about real cars. Because most of time i'm racing on daily cars and all the time that head shacking in LFS is so strange. And comparing head movement in LFS with other sims... One of the things what should be improved or remade.
I think we should start comparing the head movement of other sims, rate how real they feel, and see how they compare to LFS. Then we can see if there's anything, and what that thing is, that should be brought to LFS.
I was just racing the Mini Cooper in GT Legends and I really super enjoy the G-force effects on the camera. Seems very genuine. But it never stutters around like it does in LFS. The things I note about it is that:
Most movement seems to have a springing/bouncy effect to them, taking a second or so to 'settle', reducing their sharpness. I believe rFactor has the same thing (and I do find rFactors camera movement more convincing that LFS).
In real life you tend to look through the corner to where you want to go, and so in LFS I really like the option of turning the head/view with the steeringwheel.
It also gives me the feeling of sitting IN a car instead of BEING the car that you get when you solidly face forward like in most sims. It enhances the feel of realism, atleast for me. (can take a few minutes of getting used to, though)
This is true in most racing, and most certianly the way to find a decent line, Especially with LFS but with the bangers in real life, it isnt the same due to the full contact aspect.i look at where i want to be going, feel a big bang and a jolt behind me and think, someone is pushing..... and get distracted from looking at my "gap" only to see the fence looming which i am being pushed towards at approximately the speed of light, its time to hold tight and $h!t yourself!!!!!!!!!!
I turned that stuff off a long time ago. While i do know that its actually part of realism, i do believe that it is not realistic at all to adjust some sliders for the G-forces just the simulate effects that are not even helpful at all in real life. Im sorry but im stering at a screen already (limited fov) and so i dont need such effects to make things even worse. Infact, it feels much more natural without those "effects". Fun to watch replays with it afterwards but for race conditions? No thanks.
Currently head movements come directly from acceleration. For a given acceleration, head is moving X centimeters.
IRL this is a different. There are many biomechanical models of human upper body. One can find very simple models where head-torso link is simulated with springs and dampers, and head is a 5kg mass.
This is not too difficult to implement, and gives very realistic head movement. One can easily find spring and dampers value for average human body in literacy. Such spring/damper model is used in ISI engine, parameters are in the HeadPhysics.ini.
It would be great to have something like that, and a head which tries to fight lateral acceleration and to stay level when the car tilts (there was an unofficial addon script to do that and it looks very good).
This is exactly what the spring/damper/mass model brings...smooth and more natural movement, no stuttering. If you take into account that the acceleration is transmitted to torso through a rather soft layer of foam and a flexing seat back, it adds another spring/damper. Usually, it takes 0.2 seconds for a car movement to go through seat->torso->head, and tiny movements are filtered out.
) F3 so he probably knows what he's doing...
