I just read a thread over at RSC (http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=247848&page=2) discussing SimBin's recent acquisition of the FIA WTCC license in which someone mentioned that SimBin/Blimey! Games wanted to use the LFS engine. See post #39 in that thread: "And I just learned that Simbin/Blimey tried to get the engine from the LFS-team, but they wanted to create their own game before selling the engine..."
Fiar play to the guys for not selling out if it's true.
Good business sense too. Why give your competators your engine to make a fully licensed game, when you have the best thing out there and would like the best thing out there when you release your game . . .
Hey you never know, maybe someone can give them some licences's.
I would've done the same (read: not sell the engine).
Selling it when it is finished is another story, but until then the competitors have to do the thinking by themselves. When super awsome S3 is finished, then sell it for a few million so you never *have* to work again, but not earlier.
I once heard SimBin/Blimey was asking SEGA permission for their "Sonic The Hedgehog" character to be spinning around on the race tracks.... not sure how that ended up
I might quote Ian Bell from 2004 GamesConvention here (chief of Blimey, former head of studio of SimBin): "Yeah, I wanted to have Scawen, Eric and Vic in the team, but their game is simply to succesful, I cant pay them"
Here we go, another excuse for the LFS zealot clan to slam the ISI engine, wayhay illepall , thought people would have got bored with doing that already
Psst! I heard that EA wanted to use the ISI engine in their NFS: GTR drifting dud exzhibizion(zxzx) kewl simultron. The ISI didn't want to sell their best benefit to their worst competitor
This kind of rumour is typically the responsibility of sexually frustrated journalists who, having no opportunity for real-life procreation, are naturally drawn to give birth to something/anything and watch it take on a life of its own.
The LFS engine must be highly desirable to any company interested in creating a sim that is based entirely on real-life physics/mathematics. It exists already, and it works extraordinarily well. It's also the creation of just three extraordinarily talented people. From the outside in, I'm sure it must look extremely attractive and, to any project manager, a sound purchase and fast-track to an ultra-realistic sim.
Against that, you have the natural belief that exists in programmers' minds that THEIR simulation model is the best. I have little doubt that SimBin's perception of their own model, at programmers' level, is the way forward.
We will probably never know if SimBin have approached the LFS guys and for the same reasons, I think it's safe to say that the source of the RUMOUR that they have is absolutely false.
[EDIT] to:
Oooer!!
If that's a genuine quote (and I trust Vykos implicitly!) that is a heck of a thing.
Not that it's a surprise, just really that it's a big concession from Bell. Perhaps from a user's level, we perceive a friction or conflict between the sim companies that, at development/company level just doesn't exist. Games/sims aren't in as direct competition as many other products, like car manufacturers for example. If I go about buying a car for my family, I'm out to buy ONE family car. If I want a driving sim, the likelihood is that I'll buy them all. Which I ultimately CHOOSE to play is very much after the fact.
The problem is that LFS would quickly stop being LFS, if LFS is entirely physics-based.
The pressure would be on to create "hacks" to emulate the physics, rather than the longer way around which is to get to the bottom of the physics and apply them.
The difference between LFS and everyone else's sim is essentially Prescriptive versus Goal:
LFS is entirely prescriptive based. You prescribe the application of physics to achieve a result. Everyone else sets out with that intention, but when they get bogged down in those physics and can't get a realistic result QUICKLY, they switch to Goal-based development. They hack, in other words, to achieve the APPEARANCE of physics.. but they're not real physics, and we (the critical public) can tell.
Design-time pressure, which doesn't exist for LFS, forces the hacks. Programmers who are EMPLOYED by a company don't feel they can be meticulous and take their time to get things right. They're burdened with an overwhelming need/desire to come up with results. Soon. Lots of them. Quickquickbusybusyworkworkbangbang, to quote an old Penguins ad on ITV.
[EDIT] Why do I always have to write a feckin essay on every feckin thing? :-\
Usually that would be true but as Simbin did not develop the engine themselves they will take no pride in it.....if they feel the engine is not sufficient, swapping it would not be like giving away a baby.....
On the other hand the consideration alone would express quite some unhappiness of SimBin with ISI and/or their engine.....SimBin knows the ISI-Engine and is by far the best developer when it comes to exploiting it to the limit.....swapping the engine would cost lots of money and time as they would not only have to buy the engine, but also take their time to get used to it.....
But I have to admitt.....as an owner of GTR, GTL and rFactor.....I can fully understand the wish to swap the engine.....
Yes. ISI and Simbin are two different things. Or are they?
LFS is a very attractive product. It has huge amount of dedicated players, servers and the forum is quite "live" as well. It's a working concept which produces money every time you blink your eyes. Just make it a monthly fee -based and keep the updates coming (updates ) and people will love it. With no problems with mods being made the devs have total control of the product and its features. This is a golden piece of product.
I could also see that the devs might be more willing to make a such deal as they probably aren't that dedicated to LFS alone as they might have been some time ago.
It is just the fact that bigger corporations aren't interested in making simulations. They are making software to make profit to their share owners. If share owners are not happy the product is bad.
) and people will love it. With no problems with mods being made the devs have total control of the product and its features. This is a golden piece of product.