Definitely like the colors better.

I've been trying to figure out all of this setup business. I understand some of it, but one thing in particular has me puzzled... and I'm not sure if it's a product of my bad driving, or of some setting on the car.

The attached image shows the "forces" view of me going round a corner in the MRT5. The red indicator above the front left wheel is the trouble. Does that mean too much weight is shifting to that tire, causing it to lock up/lose grip?

I have watched replays of better drivers, and most times, all of those indicators above the tires stay an orange-ish color and rarely turn red. I believe it generally occurs just after braking -> coasting a bit -> power on into a corner.

So, is it something I'm doing wrong with my driving, or is it a setup issue? I've tried changing the damping settings around and it does seem to affect it, but I have yet to "cure" it.

If anyone has suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

RedBeard, if you're using Photoshop, the bare metal is just a simple "brushed aluminum" effect. I filled the body with a medium-dark gray, then use the Add Noise filter, then do a motion blur on it. Afterwards you may adjust the contrast/brightness, etc. if it doesn't suit you. Funny that we found the same pinup girl.

Thanks for the comments all. I had fun making my first skin and look forward to doing more in the future.


Also, I should give credit to Master Skinnerz for the Pro-Kit template.. it made things a whole lot easier. And to this guy for the stencil font I used on the letters/numbers: http://www.dafont.com/usaaf-stencil.font.

Well, tinkered around with it some more. I decided I'd spent enough time painting the car and not enough driving it, so I'm calling this one finished.

I've never been a huge fan of airplanes, but ever since I saw the show "The Lost Squadron" on the History Channel about the P-38, I've been fascinated by it. In the process of making this skin I looked at a lot of photos and learned a few things as well...

The black & white striping on this and other WW2 planes was a special paint scheme specifically for D-Day, to make it easier for Allies to recognize their own planes and prevent friendly fire. The blue (or other colored) square (or circle, triangle, etc.) on the tail of the plane was an indication of the plane's squadron.

Just some of the reasoning behind my color choices there. Anyways... less typing, more racing. I'm saving this skin for personal use in a league, but I appreciate the comments and hope some of you enjoy it anyways.

Greetings, all. This is my first attempt at a skin. I started just doodling around and it ended up taking on a P-38 Lightning (WW2 fighter plane) theme, so I went with it.

I feel like it's still missing something though, perhaps just some decals, but I'd love to hear some feedback and suggestions.

(P.S. The pinup girl is called "Slightly Dangerous". I felt like it applied (to my driving).) :P

Oh geeze... I've always loved racing games. Growing up, I remember playing the Pole Position arcade game at the local movie theater (it was still there last time I went, too). I'm not sure if Spy Hunter on the NES counts or not, but it was good fun. Top Gear and Top Gear 2 on SNES were favorites of a friend and myself. I've owned several of the earlier Need for Speed games on the PS1, as well as Gran Turismo 1 and 2 (GT1 was just mind blowing at the time -- I remember buying up a Mitsubishi 3000GT and getting it up to 999 horsepower ). I've probably rented or played most other racing games for the PS1 and 2. There's also a a 4-wheeler racing game called ATV Offroad Fury that was particularly good fun to duel with my friends.

I've always been a fan of RPG's as well, and got hooked on EverQuest for a long time (years), so that pretty much dominated my gaming for a while. I also did brief stints in EQ2, WoW, and Vanguard Beta before finally giving those MMORPG's up for good... they're just too time consuming when you're "all grown up" and have to pay the bills and do all that other "important" stuff. I've got LFS now and a nice G25 wheel, so that's been soaking up what little free time I have nowadays (when there's not a real race on).

Oddly enough, though, despite growing up loving racing games, I never was truly interested in motorsports until my high school girlfriend's father took me to the local short track one Saturday night. Being there and taking in all the sounds and smells, I was just sucked right in and hooked for life. Nothing else can really get my blood pumping like the the screaming growl of a race engine, vibrating sheet metal, and noxious exhaust fumes.

I'm fairly new myself, only had LFS for a week or so. I've been playing around on the STCC New & Bronze server and so far haven't had any trouble, even though I'm usually 2-4 seconds slower than the leaders (*sigh*). As long as you obey the blue flags and don't take out the lead lap cars, you'll get along fine and learn a lot, plus the license program gives you something to work towards.

Maybe practice with the UF1000 in single player race/hotlaps for a while to get a feel for it before you go online (try some different setups, too). Once online, if you don't know the track, go into spectator mode and follow along with one of the leaders until you feel comfortable giving it a shot.

Good luck.

Bump. Thanks for pointing this out. I didn't recall seeing this info anywhere in the Wiki (I could've overlooked it). Handy to have nearby until they are memorized.

sequential manual gearbox

Greetings all, new to LFS and my first post here. I've been running through the training missions and got up to the MRT5 lesson and encountered some issues. I'm not sure if it's a bug, hardware problem, or just user error, but I found on the MRT5, the sequential gearing a little wacky. Sometimes I could shift willy-nilly and other times I had to use the clutch. I have a vague understanding of how SMG's work, particularly on a motorcycle, so you probably should be using the clutch, but at higher revs, it's often unnecessary. Anyways... it seemed to be iffy and inconsistent on when it required clutch usage -- for example, at the start of a training mission, I could sometimes shift through the gears, with no clutch useage, before the red lights even went out, but other times the gears would not change. Almost seems like a game bug. Any insight on this issue?


I'm using a Logitech G25 setup and just have two simple questions about it (only had it for 3 days):

Should I unplug the power cord and/or USB cable when the wheel is not in use? I imagine it's only taking enough power to light the LED indicator(s) when not using FFB, but if that's not the case, I'd rather not drain the juice when it's not in use (hey, that rhymed!).

Secondly, are there any "no-no's" for using a FFB wheel, or the G25 in particular? I know the shifter is "flimsy" to put it mildly, but mainly I'm concerned about tearing up the motors in the wheel fighting against the FFB.


That's all for now. Thanks a bunch.