I appreciate the quick reply.

The "Download 512px / 1024px skins" part was darkened & I completely missed it. If feels good to drive in my skins now. I put too much time into them to resort to the default ones.

My PC was down for 6 months. I was stuck racing on the PS3 & I can't tell you how good it feels to be back in a proper sim.

Thanks again.

Stupid question. My hard drive went out on my PC. I have my skins backed up on a USB somewhere. In the meantime, I was just gonna take my online car skins off of LFS World & load them into my game. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to do it.

I know it can be done because I recovered them that way once before...but that was a few years ago.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I have my G25 mounted to a Bob Earl race seat. I was trying to carry it downstairs but lost my footing. (It was kinda heavy and very awkward to lug downstairs while protecting the cords.) The LEFT PADDLE SHIFTER took the brunt of the impact.

The switch in the paddle still works because I can still downshift, but it won't return automatically. I have to keep a finger behind it and push it forward each time I downshift & it is getting to be very annoying.

The left paddle is not loose and it's just as stiff as the right side.

I don't imagine there is a return spring. Does the switch cause the paddle to rebound/return?

I got my wheel back in 2007 or so. Minus the broken paddle, it still works just as good as when it was brand new. I'm not shy about cracking it open but I figured I ought to check with people who are more knowledgeable than myself.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Quote from Speed Soro :

The most of people I know in LFS took this way to arrive to the game.

My case is similar: I played Toca2, when, in a local forum, read from someone something like: "I consider this the best simulator -> www.lfs.net", than I was surprised for something that until today I cant understand exactly. Maybe I got this "sim gene" too.

The handling was terrible, the graphics were simple, the sound were awful, but something got me.

I see when people knows LFS just two reactions: love or hate. Rarely someone who doesnt like it, will give a try, but if so, these people normaly give up after one week.

I think better graphics, better sounds, more tracks would increase the popularity of the game a lot, and I think the "dumbed" public should be considered, cause, the server population doesnt lie: drift and cruise (a kind of thing made for dumbs) are the big public of the game right now.

When I first found out about LFS, it was purely by accident. I literally stumbled across it. I think I was playing GT Legends at the time and I thought SIMBIN was the king. Once I got into LFS, there was no going back. I can't tell you how many times I have deleted and re-installed rFactor. Just can't get into it and I've really tried.

I totally agree with Sam that sims are a niche market, but there used to be an enormous number of titles to choose from. I understand that back then, if you wanted good graphics, PC was the only way to go. However, now that consoles are putting out the bling, many companies are migrating away from PC altogether.

Sims get almost no mainstream advertising, that the masses would see anyways, and I believe many devs of competing titles feel like they have to make the PC minimum system specs almost too high so their game looks as good as, or at least on par with console titles. Most gamers are gonna have a decent PC, but not always good enough to max out the newest games. This results in poor frame rates for many when they try to get their graphics settings as high as possible. I don't think there are many newer PC's out there today that can't max LFS, and in my opinion, the graphics are good enough to get the job done.

Yeah, I know. It's just kinda disheartening to see where sims in general are going. I understand that devs gotta make a profit and I'm totally, completely cool with that. My beef is that people are getting so dumbed down in what they expect from a title. The masses want graphics and "pick up and play games" and the sim communities will naturally suffer as a result.

People can complain all they want about LFS, but one day it's gonna be gone and all we're gonna be left with is Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Across the Continent 12 HD with awesome DLC that you can pay extra for, so no need to play to unlock cars, just buy em from our super slick website and then next year we'll release NFS Hot Pursuit Edition 13 but 12's cars won't carry over so spend more folks!

People ought to be thankful for what they got imo.When it's gone, it's gone. People need to support the devs and quit whining so much.

Quote from jbirdaspec :

The problem I see is too many people need instant gratification and are not will to put in the work to enjoy self accomplishment. 291 miles is a one night snack for me and a lot of other people around here as well. How can you possibly enjoy one of the most difficult PC games there is and then judge it only putting 291 miles online.. IN a game that is meant for ONLINE racing. I use the word game loosely as I hardly consider it a game. BUT I DO FIND IT EXTREMELY FUN.

Seriously seeing that this guy is from America doesn't surprise me one bit. A whole crap load of the people here can't see past the minute they exist in at that time and are willing to do nothing to better them selfs... This same attitude can be linked back to our current bank crisis. Impatient, lazy people ruin it for everybody. Not just from the rich but all the to the poor. Freakin' Bling, Bling and easy this gotta have in now attitude is that is all that anybody cares about anymore. THIS COMING FROM AN AMERICAN SHOULD MEAN SOMETHING. Not that we are the only guilty group of greedy people in the world because I'm sure there are plenty of others.

-Jay

I don't post much but I couldn't let this one go without a comment. I have to agree with you on so many levels it's unreal, Jay. I'm frequently embarrassed by the posts that many, not all, but many Americans make in these forums. I don't know if it is a cultural difference or what but it gives the impression (to the rest of the world) that so many of us want everything now, now, now...and to Hell with putting forth any effort. That's certainly not always the case, but it constantly rears its ugly head around here and in many other forums involving more complex sims.

I'm a pretty passive guy. I've been in law enforcement for over 9 years and and I spend most of my day putting up with other people's crap. When I get home (and the wife's tucked in) I "play" hardcore flight and racing sims to unwind...and trust me, after dealing with the people I have to deal with on a daily basis, I need to unwind. I recently got into a heated argument with a guy that I've played Rock Band online with off and on for over a year now. This guy, a fellow American I might add, is in his 30's, has kids, and still lives with his mom. (Way to set an example for his kids, not to mention a worrying and increasingly common trend amongst many Americans these days.) The argument started over his claim that Gran Turismo is the greatest driving simulator ever made. Since he has a vastly superior computer to the one I have, I recommended some common PC racing sims. Real sims. I explained the general differences between console and PC racing titles and the benefits sims like LFS offer like more realistic physics, smooth online play, extremely detailed stats, TrackIr support, a very supportive and more mature community, a higher degree of mature racers, etc. I convinced him to try LFS and all he could talk about were the "sorry graphics" and the "crap physics". I replied, "You've got to be kidding me? Right?" His reply, "Need For Speed Pro Street has better physics...and LFS doesn't feel right with my controller." ...silence... "How's your wheel set up?" Reply: "Noobs use wheels. I can beat anyone with a controller. I own."

The result: Instant deletion from friends list / my migration back to PC sims.

The shocking realization: This guy represents the average game consumer and the reason that the sim genre's heyday is going the way of the do-do bird.

I just don't get it. Where do these people come from and since when were graphics the end-all be-all and continous updates demanded more than just expected? What happened to the old addage, "You get out of it what you put into it"? Frankly, I'm often disgusted that so many people (especially my fellow Americans) are missing the point of what a simulation is and why flash and glitz is so far down on the totem pole of importance. It also pains me that they whine so much over the progress of development and then compare it to newer titles of lesser quality and substance. We all paid the devs for LFS as-is. It's been a wonderful title and it's only gotten better. It hasn't cost us a penny more than we originally paid for the license. In my opinion, we need to step back and admit that we've received a heck of a lot more than we paid for and LFS is still truckin' right along. Besides GPL, RBR, and NR2003, most surving racing titles older than LFS, with communities of any respectable size, are few and far between.

I've been dropping in and out of here since I got LFS in 2007. I keep up on the forums but I stay pretty quiet. I don't race online much but I've logged an enormous amount offline laps. For longevity and bang for your buck LFS just can't be beat. Console racers as well as a good number of PC sims fade within a year or two, if not sooner. I've been flying Falcon 4.0 and Allied Force since 1999-2000. I've put weeks of time into IL2. By today's standards, the graphics in those sims absolutley suck. But that doesn't make them bad sim. Like LFS, they're great sims because they do so many things right. It's a crying shame that the hardcore PC flight sim community is dying and it’s not because of the inability of the devs to produce quality titles. It's because of the average consumer's short attention span and lack of patience. It’s also a refusal to actually learn and develop skills to be successful.

Many of my fellow Americans are falling into this category of "pick up and play" and I’ve yet to understand it. Not many people are willing to put forth the effort to understand a sim like Falcon. Having to actually study its 716 page manual that merely scratches the surface of what it has to offer is asking too much for the average Joe. Likewise, take a look at how many people in LFS actually take the time to study the basics of racing or learn how to set up their own car to get the best out of the sim. Logging 291 miles and worrying about how a car's bottom end looks is missing the point of what a sim is. I'm not knocking you jrs_4500. I'm just making a point. Go to almost any dedicated PC sim community and you'll find so of the most helpful people you could ever hope for. Just understand the difference between arcade and sim.

Oh, and if you want to see if a game is aging, check here: http://forums.frugalsworld.com/vbb/

Thousands of people are still supporting many sims developed in the 1990's and they are still going strong. Compared to it's competition, LFS is a testament to the longevity of a racing sim because of it's quality, continued support by the devs, and the great community. NFS-HP2 and the like is never gonna have legs like that.

As my friends across the pond say,
Cheers

5.0 Mustang. I know. It'll never happen. But they would be a heck of a lot of fun to drive in LFS.

http://www.mustang50magazine.c ... an_iron_racing/index.html

http://www.mustang50magazine.c ... iron_racing/photo_60.html

This is my current one but it is constantly changing.

Last edited by PlusP, Mon 2 Feb 2009, 08:10.

I'm definitely in.

Because of a schedule change at work, I have been away from the PC since late last year and was forced to tool around with all the knobs (who are quite satisfied with what they think is a sim) in Gran Turismo 5 in my limited free time....

I installed patch Y over the weekend without reading up on the changes. I was in for a real shock. Once I got all my setups sorted out, I could not have been more pleased with the way things are going.

It will take some time getting used to the H-shifter because I have primarily used the paddles in the past. It won't take long to get it down and I like the idea of lifting to change gears anyways. Now I will get more use out of the clutch.

Overall...great update...

You might want to move Mexico into North America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America

Thank you. I'll give it a shot.

*****************************

Tried it and it worked great. Your a lifesaver. Now I have a bunch of skins to edit a bit.

Last edited by PlusP, Wed 5 Sep 2007, 12:35.

Dumb question here...my knowledge of Photoshop and Paintshop is pretty limited.

I might have to go back through and change the colors a bit. I was just trying to keep a strictly "2 color scheme". Is there any easy way to make a "black border" without tracing it out? I find that often times, when I am able to use the magic wand, it makes the black border look sort of jagged regardless of the tolerance percentage.



Any information/tips on making borders would be much appreciated because I am finally starting to get the hang of skinning.

I can't seem to keep .jpg's from washing out. Any ideas?

I thought the spoiler came out pretty good though.

Just went from WIP to "tired of fiddling with it". I got the idea one day when I was playing IL2 and thought I would make something similar to the P-40 Warhawk.

Graphics looked a lot better in the viewer, but washed out some 'in-game" after I re-sized it to 1024.

All I can say here is...don't ask.

Good mods can bring a lot to the game. However, there is a downside. Imagine finding 6 versions of Laguna Seca or 3 versions of Nordschleife, or any popular track or car for that matter. Which one do you choose? Which tracks/cars are going to be run by the most people at any given time? Which ones are crap and how can you judge other people's opinions? Then try to connect online and try to find a populated server where everyone has all the files necessary to race.

Offline is a different story. Compatibility would not be as big of an issue and you could do as you please.

The great thing about LFS at present is that anyone can connect at any given time of day (or night) and find a race on some really good tracks. Try that with mods and it will be a whole lot harder unless there is some kind of mod organization system. It would be critical for many people to be on the same page to get it to work. rFactor is a good example here. There are some really great mods and tracks, but good luck finding as many populated servers as we enjoy. rFactor also has a lot of crummy mods and then there are the "incompatible file" woes.

You just have to weigh whether mods would actually benefit LFS or hurt it in the end. My opinion is, that while I like the idea of mods, it might actually hurt LFS in the end. The is such a thing as having too many choices. I don't want to see LFS turn into the jumbled mess that rFactor became. The only way it could be pulled off is with the blessing and support of the devs and the implementation of a good mod organization system and a lot of people willing to use them. I doubt it will ever happen and that is probably a good thing. My two cents.

As for offline modding, I would say yes. Online modding, you would need a very strong arguement for me to change my mind from a big no.

I entered the GFC race this weekend and I'll be putting in 54 laps around South City Rev. That should make for a decent stress test. I just hope it holds out.

As for heating up, I know that is normal. It always did warm up pretty good after a few hours...but never emitted a burning smell. Since February, I have always run LFS FFB at 200% and "Overall Effects" at 105% and never had a hitch. It just seems that rFactor's FFB felt so strong and sloppy that it seemed like the motors in the wheel were doing triple duty and might have cooked something.

If it starts up with the burning smell again, I'll phone Logitech on Monday and see what they have to say. I cannot take it back to the store because I bought it from GoGamer. I will check my receipt. Ten bucks says I bought an extended warranty if it was offered. My biggest thing is that I absolutely need it to at least last the weekend with all the practicing I've been putting in. It's never let me down so I expect that it will do alright.

*****************************************************

I was just thinking...my wife sometimes leaves the computer room door open and her cat occasionally gets in. I am tempted to open it up and see if it might have some cat hair inside. That might be the culprit. Before I do, though, I'll check with Logitech first.

Thanks for the replies fellas.

You will have a lot of fun once you get out of the Demo servers. I was trying to get a few of my buddies to try LFS a while back. Some of them had a bad experience due to some rude Demo racers and I could not get them to change their minds. I guess that will be their loss. If you like the Demo, you'll love the full game. Welcome.

I've had my G-25 since approximately late January/early February. Currently, it is starting to emit a "burning Smell" after a few hours of usage.

Recently, I was on vacation and purchased rFactor and downloaded the highest rated mods and tracks to see what the hype was all about. I should have just tossed my forty-five bucks out the window of my truck and watched people in the street fight over the money because that would have been a whole lot more satisfying than the product I got. I found it extremely hard to get my wheel set up and after reading literally hundreds of forum posts, tinkering with ini. settings, and using the crummy "RealFeel", I never really found a setup as satisfying as the force feedback I get in Live For Speed. I had to set the feedback in rFactor higher than I like just to be able to keep the wheel centered. After I finally got fed up (and I'm a pretty patient guy) I came back home to LFS and now, after a few hours of racing, I can smell burning coming from the vents in the base of the wheel. Furthermore, the base feels sort of warm.

I am thinking that I might have damaged the motors in the wheel by over-working them. Has anyone experienced a burning smell from their G-25 and is it anything I should be concerned over?

I must say that my wheel has got some pretty heavy use in LFS throughout the year, but it was not until just very recently (after rFactor) that it gave me any grief. It might just be coincidence...or maybe I am just being punished for trying that stupid game. I don't know. It's not smoking and it's not getting hot...yet. I figure I'll just have to keep an eye on it and hope I can get a couple of more months out of it before I but a new one.

P.S. Sorry for playing rFactor and I hope yall forgive me. To make amends, I am thinking of starting an rFactor Blows website as a service to the community so that no other race simmers throw their money away like I did.

LFS is more of a hobby for me than a game so the price isn't the main detractor for me.

I rarely need to look at the gear indicator, but I do like the idea of having an external one. This is good because, depending on my chosen field of view in certain cars, the steering wheel covers the shift indicator on the dash and I need to turn off the visible wheel if I need to be able to consistently read it.

My issue with the design of the G-25 gear indicator is in the positioning. I have my monitor set up high...at head level. My wheel is mounted on my desktop. Things happen really fast when racing and it is impractical, for me at least, to look down, away from the screen, verify my gear, and then look up to see that I just ran wide or clipped someone.

I think the product might appeal more to racers who have custom cockpits. Either way, I'll follow up in the near future and see how people are liking it. If it turns out to be a hit, I'll buy one. I'm not too concerned about voiding my warranty. I've had my G-25 since the week they came out and now it's starting to make a burning smell after I use it hard for a few hours so I figure I'll end up buying another one before the year is up. If something costs under $500, I've found from past experience that it is more hassle than it is worth to fret over the warranty. I can't be without it for that long!

Quote from MyBoss :

Noticed this many times. Some times it even happends the other way round. Crashing, looking at the damage tingy where it states that the car is heavily damaged, but I still can drive like nothing happened.

I hope the damage detection gets a work before S2 final.

I agree. I've put at least 48+ hours in the FOX in the past week and a half (my wife hates me ) and I've crashed just about every way imaginable into South City's Armco barriers. I have had instances where I barely clipped a wall and my car was all over the place while the damage was displayed between negligible and non-existent. I have had other instances where I have almost completely trashed one side or smashed the nose as flat as a pancake and the car behaved like nothing happened at all. I guess I just need to use my brakes more and stop clipping walls.

Read this ten times and then read it again. http://en.lfsmanual.net/wiki/Advanced_driving_guide

Read anything and everything you can about your favorite cars and your favorite tracks no matter how basic the information might seem. Soak in all the information and try to apply that information in baby steps on the track. Don't overwhelm yourself.

The best advice I can give is to pick your favorite vehicle (the one you feel the most competent/comfortable with) and practice, practice, practice (mostly off-line in the beginning); hot-lapping. Stick with that car and learn its strengths and weaknesses. To ease any frustration, pick your favorite commonly raced online track and start logging some seat time. Have fun.

Then do a few single-player races on various difficulty levels. The AI is pretty lacking, but just follow them and observe. See if they are taking some faster lines. You might learn a thing or two.

Go back and hot-lap a little bit and see if your times improve. I guarantee they will. (At least a little bit.)

Once you feel comfortable, find a server that is running the track you like and enter a race. Treat the session as an observation session more than a true race. You want to compete here, but don't necessarily "race to win". You won't. You're still gonna get spanked. Have fun. Online racing will be a totally different experience from hot-lapping as you probably already know. Now you have to combine fast lap times with consistency while at the same time maintaining situational awareness and adjusting your racing lines and braking distances. Watch the lines the human racers take. They will be a little different from the lines you've probably been taking. You're still learning here. Have fun.

Save the replays from your online races and watch them from the "in car" views of the faster drivers. Compare the fasters drivers styles to yours and practice, adjust, and improve. (Make sure to "Display Pedals" in the options list so you can see when a driver brakes, applies full throttle, etc.) Learn when they are braking, going full throttle, coasting, up-shifting, down-shifting, etc. Don't copy them. They might have a different setup, driving style, or controller configuration. Just learn from them and try to get faster and, most importantly, more consistent. I am constantly learning something new just by observing replays and chatting in practice sessions. If you aren't in the middle of a race, politely ask one of the faster drivers something that might benefit you. You might learn that they are taking a certain turn in the next gear up or down than what you were trying to run and bingo...you just learned something new. I hardly ever enter a server and find people unwilling to help. That's what seperates LFS from a lot of other "racing sims". Trust me here.

Once you start to get comfortable, you might want to start tinkering with your setup. Setups help, but driving skill and consistency is more important. You can always politely ask someone to send you their setup, or a player might offer to send you their "set". You might want to try it, but take it with a grain of salt. They might have a totally different driving style or might have their setup tuned because they are using an X-Box controller or a mouse and keyboard. You might end up with a jewel, but often times it is a big disappointment. Buyer beware. I often try to make my own, but if I am lazy or I don't drive a particular car much, I might take the best traits from several sets and combine them into one that suits me. I am terrible at setting gear ratios, so normally that's the only part of a setup I usually want. Many setups are track specific and the shift points are optimized for the corners and straights.

You need to sit down and narrow down the reasons you are not making the gains you want and start improving in those areas one step at a time. When you get frustrated, shut it down and go do something else. Come back when you are ready and settle in.

The day will eventually come when you finally "get into the grove" and everything just clicks. That's when the fun begins. LFS has a steep learning curve and you will find that you get what you put into it.

Above all else...have fun.

P.S. Once you are really confident with your favorite car, start branching out and trying different cars and different tracks. You'll find everything getting easier because your skill level has improved. Remember, there are usually 6-20+ cars on the grid in any particular public server. There can only be one winner. Nobody is going to remember that such and such won such and such race on such and such server Thursday morning at 08:54 am GMT. Race within your limits. Enjoy the atmosphere of the race and treat every lap as a learning experience. Don't take that the wrong way. Never stop being competitive. Once you really start to improve...Race to Win! Keep practicing, keep pushing to improve, and you'll get there. Don't let these guys bash you on your grammar. Beat 'em behind the wheel.

Last edited by PlusP, Thu 23 Aug 2007, 15:22.

I've decided to stick to one car for the time being (the FOX) and not jump around to other car types/different classes. Because I used to hate South City, I never drove it much. It seemed like I was hanging on for dear life if I did it right or I had the pavement scraping along the top of my helmet if I did it wrong. Now that I have put more and more laps on it, I am able to take many dangerous corners at respectably fast speeds. It has become much more enjoyable. In real life, there are some very talented drivers who can probably emulate those speeds, but it is highly unlikely that that would because of the risk factors involved.

Real racers get to feel the g's under acceleration, deceleration, laterally, etc. They feel every imperfection in the road. They even get to use their sense of smell. "I smell coolant...Dang!"

Sim racers get safety. We also don't have an operational budget. We don't have to dish out thousands of dollars on fuel, brake pads/rotors, tires, pit crew, mechanics...I could go on forever here. When we tap a wall or scrape with another car, we have the luxury of hitting F10 and saying, "Wow! That's really orange".

...And even though we can see the visual cues that clearly show us that our car's alignment is shot, our steering wheels jerk to one side during acceleration and jerk violently to the other side during braking...we still might just make a crack at taking that corner at or near full speed. If we make it...SWEET!!!...if we don't...we can always SPECTATE. Real life racers would show more caution or simply retire from the race.

Real life racers don't have these luxuries. In my opinion, there is no way they can take "dangerous" corners at the same speeds that sim racers do. To their benefit, they are feeling the speed. We are merely seeing it.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I wouldn't mind if LFS stopped announcing irrelevant PBs too. When I've never driven a combo before I don't really want LFS telling everybody that I'm 5 seconds off the pace, then 4 seconds the next lap, then 3.99 seconds the next lap...

And it's doubly embarrassing on servers like Dead Men Racing, where they are all so polite they congratulate every PB, and take great pleasure in handing out ironic congratulations to people like me who ought to be going faster!

Aint that the truth!