Quote from FredrikB :

I was all alone on Blackwood yesterday at 22:30 CET...

... until I arrived, and Trulli some time later

Quote from axus :

The driver of an LX4 presses the throttle until 9000rpm is reached and quickly releases it. A particular point's y-coordinate on the exhaust vibrates in such a way that it satisfies the differential equation:

(d^2y/dt^2) - (dy/dt) - 2y = 10 sin t

Where t is in ms after the release of the throttle and y is mm relative to the rest position of the exhaust. Determine the solution for y which remains finite as t -> infinity given that x = 4 when t = 0.

y = -3*sin(t) + cos(t) + k1*e^(2*t) + k2*e^(-t)

with k1 and k2 the two integration constants. (No, I'm not that good at solving differential equations: I just typed it in into Maxima ). Now, I might be wrong but it looks to me like the only way to keep y finite is to lose the term with e^(2*t). Therefore k1 = 0.
Now I'll assume you meant 'y = 4 when t = 0' instead of 'x = 4 when t = 0' (since x is entirely irrelevant anyway). Substituting k1 = 0, y = 4 and t = 0:

4 = -3*sin(0) + cos(0) + k2*e^0

or

k2 = 4 + 3*sin(0) - cos(0) = 3

So:

y = -3*sin(t) + cos(t) + 3*e^(-t)

In addition to that, Gimp has guides: vertical or horizontal lines that the cursor snaps to when you're drawing something.

Enable to rulers on the left and the top of the image window if they weren't already there. For a vertical guide: drag with the mouse from the left ruler to were you want the guide. For a horizontal rule: do the same, but drag from the top ruler. You can have as many rulers as you want.

To move a rule: select the move tool (4-sided arrow) and drag the guide.

To remove a rule: select the move tool and drag the guide to the ruler to the left or top ruler.

Quote from FL!P :

1. When a replay ends, or you stop it, you're sent back to the main menu. I'd expect to be back at the replays menu.

I agree.

Quote :

2. If you save a replay and type a name that already exists, LFS prompts you to replace the old replay. If you agree, though, it doesn't replace it but instead appends a number to the new replay's name. So either the prompt isn't needed, or LFS should replace the file when being told so.

I agree.

Quote :

3. If you try to rename a replay just by changing lowercases to uppercases (and vice versa), you get an alert saying that a file with that name already exists and the renaming is cancelled. I'd expect LFS to silently rename the file.

This is a Windows issue: Windows remembers the case of filenames, but compares filenames case insensitive so it sees two names that only differ in case as the same filename.

You could first rename the file to a temporary filename and then rename it to what you want it to be, but I don't think it's up to LFS to do such things.

If you want to play and study AI in racing, I suggest you check out TORCS (http://torcs.sourceforge.net/s ... p=viewarticle&artid=1) and/or RARS (http://rars.sourceforge.net/). They are not nearly as sophisticated or playable as LFS, but they are specifically designed to test different approaches to programmed robot drivers.

I agree. Being able to sort on track is a huge improvement, but a filter based on the track would be even better.

One possibility I see is a drop-down box at the top of the track column that shows all tracks that are currently in the list.

I may be stating the obvious, but I'm going to say it anyway: to know approximately how long before an ongoing race ends, just spectate the leading car and see in which lap it is. If it says 1/40, you're going to have some patience. If it says 9/10, you only need to wait 1 or 2 laps (depending on if he just started that lap or is at the end of it).

I don't know if it's of any help, but I found some PDFs with specs on the CD that comes with the wheel. Here they are:

I tried LFS in Wine under Linux, but it wasn't exactly playable. Speed was lower than on Windows but still acceptable, but the graphics were incorrect IIRC. You can always try, of course. Maybe you have more luck than me.

Also nice would be a button for temporarily switching to a larger FOV, for use in crowded simulations. It would allow you to have a quick look to your left and right at the same time while still looking straight ahead to have a better overview of other cars in your vicinity.

I sometimes try to shift without using the clutch, just for the fun of it. It doesn't make grinding noises; that only happens when I do use the clutch but in a bad way (but that hasn't happened to me for years).

If the revs don't match, you just can't put the gearbox into the right gear.

In response to some people talking about stopping without using the clutch: that's not hard either. Just push the throttle in a way that the engine isn't putting power on the drivetrain (neither braking nor accelerating); then you can push/pull the gear lever out of gear and into neutral quite easily. It's easier when you still have a certain amount of speed than when you're almost stopped.

Actually I don't think you need a special setup for that. For example, I took those screenshots whit the RACE_S setup.

I didn't really succeed in driving on two wheels though: a fraction of a second after that screenshot the car was upside-down on its roof.



Ik denk eigenlijk dat je daar een speciale setup voor nodig hebt. Ik heb deze screenshots bijvoorbeeld genomen met de RACE_S setup.

Ik ben er wel niet echt in geslaagd op twee wielen te rijden: een fractie van een seconde na de screenshot lag de auto ondersteboven op zijn dak.

Quote from AndroidXP :

I know, I have the same problem, but if you start windows in safe mode it works

Aha, yes, indeed, that works.

That means that I now have a working solution to the problem. Thank you!

To summarize, for the record:

1. Install the MS Sidewinder FF drivers 4.0 (I put them at http://ipxroel.dyndns.info/sid ... ack_wheel_drivers_4.0.zip, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep them there forever).
   The drivers are actually written for Windows 98, so if you try to install them in Windows 2000 or Windows XP, the installation procedure complains about it. Just click yes to install them anyway. Note that the drivers are not guaranteed to work in Windows 2000 or XP; some people have luck, some don't. If you have Windows XP, I suggest that you create a system restore point before trying to install the drivers.
   
2. Go to the Recorder in the wheel's properties (in Windows' control panel). If it crashes, try again in another user account or in safe mode (I had to use safe mode). Changes you make in safe mode will still work if you start Windows normally. Or, even better, adjust Windows' Data Execution Prevention settings according to the instruction in AndroidXP's post above this one.
   
3. Assign macro's to the left and right shift paddle; each macro just executes the corresponding paddle action followed by a small delay. I used 150 (I guess those are milliseconds?). Maybe that's a bit slow: if you try to shift very fast, it skips some shifts, but in practice that doesn't seem to be a problem.
   Also don't forget to check the option 'prevent other macros from executing' (or similar, I don't know the exact wording).

Last edited by vrt3, Sun, 17 Sep 2006 14:36. Reason : wrong url

Quote from Hyperactive :

Hmm, I just tried this but the SW software just crashes when I try to access the Recorder... googling me goes...

Exactly...

Up till now I hadn't bothered to install 4.0 MS SW FF drivers; I just used the XP ones. Now I finally installed the 4.0 drivers (so now I finally have separate axes for throttle and brake; yeah!), but the software crashes when accessing the recorder, as Hyperactive says.

Quote from GFresh :

I have that wheel and i had the exact same problem, it just started to happen out of the blue one day, with no changes to other hardware or software.
I couldn't find the cause of the problem so i went for a radical fix. Basically i opened up the wheel, took out the original paddle switches and glue gunned in some new ones, which are connected to my PC using a Plasma-Lite v2.
Obviously this is a last resort fix, but i thought i'd share it with you so you know the options there if all else fails.

Interesting, but I'm afraid that kind of hardware mod is a bit over my head. I haven't the faintest idea where to get a Plasma-Lite to begin with (I looked at the website -- seems to be a cool device).

Hi,

I have a rather old MS Sidewinder FF wheel (USB version) and a brand new computer. When I used the wheel on my previous computer everything went fine (except for the low framerates), but now the wheel has developed a problem.

Sometimes when I shift, the gearbox shifts two gears up instead of one. It mostly seems to happen when I want to shift from 3rd to 4th; then it shifts to 5th instead. I think it also happens when downshifting, but I'm not sure; that happens only exceptionally. This doesn't happen every time; more about once each one or two laps. It's enough to get irritating...

The computer has an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ CPU, 1 GB RAM, an NVidia Geforce 7900 GT and runs Windows XP Home.

I'm guessing it's a timing problem in the driver (I'm using the driver that's builtin in Windows XP), maybe because my CPU is dual core or maybe because the CPU is faster than the driver writers envisioned, but that's just a shot in the dark.

Does anybody have a similar experience, and perhaps even a solution?

Quote from Jakg :

is the .dll in the right place? im sure i remeber saying NOT to put it in widows

Yes, I put it in the same dir as LFS.exe. I think the message "Load DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\d3d8.dll" means that the mod is loading the real (i.e. non-proxy) dll at that time.

I posted this in an existing Ghostcar thread too, but since it doesn't seem to be active anymore I thought it best to start a new one.

The problem is that I can't get Ghostcar to work with LFS (not even /ghost help), so I set debugOutput=1 and used DebugView from Sysinternals to view the debug output. This is what it says:

I'm running LFS S2 0.5U; is Ghostcar incompatible with that version? Or could anything else be wrong?

I can't get Ghostcar to work with LFS (not even /ghost help), so I set debugOutput=1 and used DebugView from Sysinternals to view the debug output. This is what it says:

I'm running LFS S2 0.5U; is Ghostcar incompatible with that version? Or could anything else be wrong?

I'm trying to write a simple script to add all songs in the ogg directory to a channel in the radio.rad file. I think I've figured out the correct file format; it works as long as I add only a few files (up to 70, it seems). Whenever I put more than 70 songs in radio.rad, LFS doesn't want to go past the intro screen; after that it generates an error.

Is there a limit, or am I just doing something wrong?

LFS is one of a few modern games that still run on my oldish laptop (with a Mobile Radeon 7500) with an acceptable framerate. That makes me believe that LFS's 3D engine is pretty good.

Quote from Peptis :

Really? What store and how much?

When I was looking for a wheel the MOMO was cheaper. I ended up getting it for $131 (+ approx $20 shipping) from an online store.

Over here in Belgium, according to http://www.logitech.com/index. ... oductlist/BE/NL,crid=2215 the MOMO costs € 149.99 and according to http://www.logitech.com/index. ... oductlist/BE/NL,crid=2249 the DFP costs € 129.99. So in Belgium the DFP is cheaper too.

I strongly doubt that it's caused by your dual boot system: I have that too, also with GRUB as the bootloader, and it causes no problems. I just tried booting into Linux and back into Windows, and I still have my license.

Unfortunately I can't help you any further than that, not knowing ow the licensing process works behind the scenes.