Quote from Speed Soro :

iRacing side views are not so good as LFS, but now it has spotter that works fine.
I don't like to use TrackIR, and I do not know if I would get used to it someday if I insist.

I've been using TrackIR for years in flight sims. I couldn't race in LFS or iRacing without it.

The ability to have 40 - 50 FOV and be able to move your view just a little to the left and right I feel is a great advantage. Also, the ability to look into the apex and through the corner. Much more freedom than just a simple push button look left and right option.

I find the physics of LFS and iRacing to be very similar. I wish iRacing had the LFS clutch operation. I wish LFS had the centering quality of he steering especially the way the the steering wants to center itself the faster you go and the higher the resistance is at speed to turning the wheel compared to low speed.

I wish both LFS and iRacing had better net code however, what can you do when the data packets from us in Australia are arriving at the server almost a quarter of a second (250ms) after we have turned the wheel or hit the brakes. From what I have read on the iRacing forums, they are looking into using Arkami which would help heaps. This simply isn't an option for hosting LFS servers, unless something like CTRA did and charged a monthly subscription to pay for it. Which, by the way, I would sign up for if it did happen.

I very much like the license system in iRacing. Again, imagine the CTRA system but with automated wrecker punishment without having to file reports. It doesn't matter if you are fast around a track. If the only way you can pass someone is by bash passing, you'll be stuck at Rookie for ever in iRacing. It rewards clean racing. It very harshly punishes rough and overly aggesive racing.

iRacing is expensive. LFS is cheap. Too cheap if you ask me. It has grown so big now it's becomming to much work for one developer to fix bugs and add new content. And the more that gets added to LFS, the more bugs there will be to fix, and the slower the developement will happen until it stagnates. The LFS team really do need to start looking at adding more people or else it simply wont improve much more than it already is. Even if it means paying the cost of LFS as a yearly subscription. It would still be very cheap and the extra money could pay for heaps more development. Unlike iRacing, as it impoves, they'll get more subscribers and thus, more money to keep hiring more developers to improve it even more which will attract more subcribers...etc.

When CTRA closed down, there were many posts saying they would be happy to pay a subscription fee to keep it running. I would have been quite happy to pay a subscription fee to keep CTRA alive. I liked CTRA. I had a Gold license and the quality of racing in the restricted servers was excellent. The racing quality of iRacing is much the same once you are passed the Rookie stage.

Bottom line is, LFS is great for league racing. If you were a CTRA fan, iRacing has a lot to offer if you can afford it. You can't get online with a few mates and have some fun with iRacing. In fact, iRacing isn't fun at all. It's damn serious racing. Even your practise sessions are monitored and recorded for all to see. iRacing isn't for everyone. LFS can be enjoyed no matter what level of racer you are especially for the casual racer using just a keyboard. iRacing pretty much requires a minimum of a G25. A Momo just isn't up to it (I have both). iRacing requires dedication. iRacing requires lots and lots of practice. You wouldn't dare jump in a race on a track you are unfamiliar with in iRacing (unless you are The Stig) and risk the penalties to your license.

For me, I spent almost all my LFS time on CTRA servers. Now I spend my time (and money) on iRacing servers. I play with LFS. I race with iRacing.

Quote from Bladerunner :

You _CAN_ use the red/cyan glasses that come with 3D movies and stuff, but TBH, I tried LFS in 3D..and it sux.

No, this isn't the reb/blue system of 3d. The glass shut of the view through each lens in turn and the screen renders a separate image for each eye. The glass and the screen are in sync. That's also why the glasses use a battery.

This method is far superior to the old red/blue system. I have tried it with the flight sim IL2 and it was fantastic.

Quote from Danke :

I'm interested in the new version, although I still haven't managed to break the old one yet.

How did you get it to stop crashing with the error you posted above? I'm getting the same error after a half a dozen restarts, then the program crashes with the error you mentioned.

Or you can just look for a server called Street Racers in the list of on line servers!

How about this for something different.

South City Long, set in Cruise Mode, with two way traffic. So, the keep left rule applies. People driving sensible cars at the speed limit (60kph) have right of way. So now you can race your mates in amongst traffic where if you have a bad accident, you may get kicked, but you won't get hurt.

Now you can do this dangerous practice where it's safe to do so.

If you cause to many accidents, you may be restricted to a sensible car, be kicked, suspended or banned. You must avoid having an accident at all costs. Even a minor scratch on another's car could see you in trouble.

If you do crash your car, leave it on the track until the tow trucks come and take it away automatically. Passing cars are allowed to ridicule you until the tow trucks remove your wreck.

Come see how good a street racer you are! Can you and your mates race through traffic at high speed without causing an accident?

Street Racers

Quote from Hotdogxx60 :

When I first come on the LFS scene there was at least 10 or so servers, now I'll be lucky to get 2 or 3 for racing. I'll still love the game but it would be nice to have more home grown racing.

It's the expense. I host a dedicated server in the states that costs me $49USD per month. To host the same server here in Australia would cost me $1000AUD per month.

Unless you can talk you ISP into hosting an LFS server in amongst their other game servers, it's simply to expensive to setup a private server out here due to the high cost of Data transfer thanks to Telstra's near monopoly of back haul data in Australia.

Quote from racer hero :

Is 60kg really make it even? Isnt that a lot?

I found the FXO is still faster than the XRT with 60kg, only just though. The tyres will wear even quicker to so if you don't back off just a little to match the XRT's speed, the tyres won't last till then end of the race.

The racers are 10 laps or less long. If they were 30 laps I would remove the handicap.

Seeing as Fusion-Gaming's TBO server as died because of a hard drive failure, I've setup a TBO server.

The server is hosted in the USA so it's pretty central to everyone around the globe.

Tracks are user selectable. I've added Lapper as well.

Also, I've added a 60kg weight handicap to the FXO to even the field up a bit.

Have fun!

The server's name is TinTops

I spend a lot of time with the IL2 flight sim family. Supposedly, the average age of the flyer's is 35. I'm one of the youngest of those I fly with, and I'm 47. The oldest is 73. So far, I've talked at least half a dozen of them to invest in LFs.

In LFS, the average age seems to be about 16.

I've setup a server called [url="lfs://%7CStreet%20Racers%7C0%7CS2%7C/"]Street Racers[/url] which is a balanced race server featuring the UFR, the 3 TBO's, the RAC and FZ5 and LX4. I've used a handicap system so all the cars can race at the same time with an equal chance of winning.

There is some very close racing with many drivers using the UFR. Organize a few people to join you and you'll get all the footage you could want.

I'm in the process of creating a website for the server as well which you can find at: [url="http://www.street-racers.info"]www.street-racers.info[/url]

Quote from Gai-Luron :

Try to reinstall mono!

Gai-Luron

Yum update was upgrading mono to the latest version. I've now excluded mono from Yum update so mono will stay at the version I know works with Lapper.

Have a new problem:

LFSLapper Version=5.5.2.35222 on GNU license
2005-2008 Janez Cufer and Robert BRACCAGNI ( Gai-Luron )
LFSLapper comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions. Read LICENSE for details.

Intercept don't work
Loading WR...Ok
Mode Sync = False
Connecting
Connection OK
ProductEMO Version:0.5Y InSim Version:4

** (LFSLapper.exe:3009): WARNING **: Missing method System.Net.WebRequest::set_CachePolicy(RequestCachePolicy) in assembly /usr/lib/mono/gac/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll, referenced in assembly /home/badc/lfslapper/bin/LFSLapper.exe

Unhandled Exception: System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'System.Net.WebRequest.set_CachePolicy'.
at <0x00000> <unknown method>
at (wrapper delegate-invoke) System.MulticastDelegate:invoke_void ()
Register Web Thread Started...
LFSLapper is running...

I also agree with the posters above, we need more tracks. The number of cars is ok.

We should have a system like the Skin download system. You can upload your 10 favorite tracks. If you host a race, you can choose any of the 10 tracks which is then downloaded by those that race on the server.

Maybe even make this track download system available as premium service like the high resolution skins.

I'm not interested is paying for hi res skins, but I would happily pay to download tracks to race on.

And like other games with user created tracks, the developers wouldn't be held responsible for the licensing of the tracks ah la rfactor or GTR2.

I'm actually about to buy rfactor just so I can race V8 Supercars around Bathurst. I'd be happy to race the GTR cars in LFS around Bathurst, or Imola, or Suzuka etc., but that simply isn't going to be happening in the near future.

I'm quite happy to put up with the inferior physics of rfactor, to get access to the greater range of tracks.

Quote from J@tko :

Around 7-7.30 pm GMT, :

so that's 5am Sunday for Australia, Asia, Pacific

What about 10pm GMT?

Quote from srdjanmilasinovic :

Can you send me that working version with all set, pls? Then if Gai improve lapper, I will use newer version!

I use Centos which is rpm based. You'll need a Debian version.

Just go to the mono site www.mono-project.com and go to the Older Downloads section. You'll see all the previous versions of mono available for all the different flavors of Linux.

My old server used that particular version of mono so I know it worked. Most others would probably work to, but if you want to be sure, download the same version of mono for your particular flavor of Linux.

Quote from srdjanmilasinovic :

I have problem with laper on Debian Linux 4.0, version laper is 5.52. I added 2.0 library.

When I started laper this is what returns to me:

mambo:~/lapper/bin# mono LFSLapper.exe ../cfg/LFSLapper.cfg

** (LFSLapper.exe:16704): WARNING **: The following assembly referenced
from /root/lapper/bin/LFSLapper.exe could not be loaded:
Assembly: System (assemblyref_index=1)
Version: 2.0.0.0
Public Key: b77a5c561934e089
The assembly was not found in the Global Assembly Cache, a path listed in the
MONO_PATH environment variable, or in the location of the executing assembly
(/root/lapper/bin/).


** (LFSLapper.exe:16704): WARNING **: Could not load file or assembly 'System,
Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of
its dependencies.
Stacktrace:

I had the same problem. I went back to an earlier version of mono that I new worked. mono-core-1.1.10-2 works find for me.

Great software, thanks for your efforts.

I would like to suggest a method of changing tracks. Place a list of tracks in a text file. Use the scheduler to end a session and to randomly select a track from the text file.

The text file could contain the short name of the track, plus the number of laps and a Y/N if a Pitstop is required. e.g: SO6R:15:Y

I was wondering what most host set the PPS setting to.? It's 4 by default, but I have mine set to the maximum of 6 for my server.

My understanding is the higher the setting, the more load on the server but there is less of a problem with lag.

Quote from doox00 :

I try to join that server and it says I must add 60kg and 0 intake restriction on the fxo when I try to join, how do i do this?

When you're in the Pit, click 'Info'. There are settings on the bottom right corner for adding handicaps such as weight and intake restrictions to the car.

I've now added a website with statistics etc.

www.street-racers.info

The stats page: www.street-racers.info/lap-times.html

There isn't a track at Bathurst, it's a street circuit. That is, it's just the normal roads around Bathurst that they rope off for race day. Any other day, it has normal traffic on it.

The track isn't owned by a company or club etc, they are just public roads. The buildings are also on Public land which is administered by the Bathurst city council and then rented out to the different race clubs that use the track.

Legally, you wouldn't need to get their permission to use the track layout, nor to use the name 'Bathurst'.

I run a dedicated server called Street Racers.

When you look in the servers list, it doesn't have a flag showing. It is the only server that doesn't have a flag.

The server is also listed as having a satellite connection.

So, I was wondering if I could have the Space flag for my server?

www.spaceflag.com

I'm thinking of adding 30kg to the FXO as it seems to be a little to good compared to the XRT.

What do you think?

Quote from Roxors :

I just bought this game thinking their would be like heaps of aus servers.

Im disapointed there is a lack of australian servers so please do all you can to add more thank you.

The cost of hosting a server in Australia is way to expensive because of the high cost of Bandwidth. Thanks mainly to the duopoly of Telstra/Optus having the only two major overseas cables out of the country.

I have a dedicated server in a data center in Seattle, Washington that has a 100mb connection and 1TB of data per month for under $100. To host that same server in Australia would cost $5000 per month.

Plus, the data going out of Australia only goes to the USA and from there, to the rest of the world. We have no direct route to Europe which is why playing on European server is near impossible. The data stream travels three quarters of the way around the globe.

However, playing on USA based servers isn't to bad with ping times of around 250ms. Sure it's the upper limit, but it's playable, especially if the server, like mine, has a high speed connection direct to a major US backbone. So servers based in the USA are more centralized for use by everyone around the globe.

If you want to race on a full Aussie race server there is a league that racers on Monday nights. Look here --> www.mondaynightracing.com

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

You're the one running that server? What country is it in? If you look at LFSW in the server browser, the server has no flag beside it, and if you put your mouse over the flag placeholder, it says "Sattelite Provider".

Maybe Victor can answer this one.

I've wondered that myself. The server is in a data center in Seattle, Washington, USA.