Frame rate is probably a major factor in the "lack" of scene detail.

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

.

lol, a laconic reply--with a can of whoopass.

Wireless is a lossy medium by nature. Wired links developed to the point where errors are minimal (especially optimal fiber), though the twisted-pair copper in typical Ethernet cables that form the local loop aren't really very high quality, but it is still orders of magnitude more reliable than wireless media (air). Unfortunately, the TCP/IP stacks most folks are currently using on the internet (that would be TCP New Reno) are tuned for wired links, and so some of the TCP congestion control mechanisms (like slow-start threshold, exponential backoff) lead to suboptimal throughput. The conclusion: wired links give more optimal throughput (for now).

Yeah, there is not much you can do about this. However, if you are hotlapping, you can slide the ride side more heavily than the left to get a higher temperature, then when the right side cools down, it will be optimal for the lap.

Yeah, but I believe the developers are working on adding this feature in the near future. There was mention of a replay overhaul, including more replay views and replay management features.

I do remember reading about folks who race FWD cars who use locked diffs. I remember reading about a Mini racer who welded the diffs on this forum.

Okay, here's the original post:
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=305139#post305139

Quote from Glenn67 :

My old man used to race a mini at several speedways (often on hard dry clay with rubber laid down so not unlike asphalt), and used to win regularly against much more powerful cars.

He told me that the modifications he had done were: weld the diff (so locked diff) rear antisway bar and increased camber by modifying the suspension. So somewhat similar to the fast setups in LFS

He used to win simply because he was able to keep the power down longer and get on it earlier than his RWD competitors, again alot like LFS is now In more wet conditions on the track the RWD cars gave him alot tougher competition but on a drying track he was unstopable even with what seemed like large unfair handicaps

Last edited by kernelpanic, Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:01.

I don't have my FXR setup with me at the moment, but here is the setup I use, which is a typical "fast" FXR setup.

Brakes:
power: 1600
distrib: 70

Suspension:
F ride height: 70
R right height: 70
F springs: 120
R springs: 110
F dampers (comp/reb): 12/9
R dampers (comp/reb): 10/8
F rollbar: 40
R rollbar: 120

Steering:
Parallel steer: 0
Caster: 6
F toe: 0
R toe: 0

Final Drive:
F/R differential: locked/locked
Center diff: viscous
Center diff lock amount: 20 (can't remember, whatever max is)
F/R torque split: 45

Gear ratios:
1st: 4.5
2nd: 2.0
3rd: 1.5
4th: 1.2
5th: 1.0
6th: 0.9
final drive ratio: 3.8

Tires:
F pressure: 26 psi
R pressure: 22 psi
F camber: 3.0 deg (for hotlaps), 2.0 (for races)
R camber 3.0 deg (for hotlaps), 2.0 (for races)

Downforce:
F/R: 8/1 (fast track), 11/2 (moderate), 14/3 (fast but twisty), 15/4 (very twisty)

I think that covers most of the variables.

The basic mantra of the FXR is to use very tight front and rear diffs, which with the AWD, generates massive understeer. Then to counter this, use low-front/high-rear antiroll for low speeds and high-front/low-rear wings for high speeds to generate oversteer to neutralize the chassis. This in turn makes the tail very twichy at high speeds, which is countered by the relatively high forward torque split to pull the tail back in.

Last edited by kernelpanic, Mon, 5 Mar 2007 20:17.

I've been using this homebrew close-ratio gear setup for the 6-speed gearboxes with much satisfaction, which I hereby call the Provably-Optimal-Gear-Ratio-Set.


1st: 3.0-4.0
2nd: 2.0
3rd: 1.5
4th: 1.2
5th: 1.0
6th: 0.9
final drive ratio: variable

So, as mentioned by the others, adjust the final drive ratio so that you hit max velocity at around redline in top gear (e.g. 3.8 for FXR, 3.7 for XRR). Adjust the 1st gear according to the starting characteristics of the car (e.g. 4.0-5.0 for FXR, 4.0 for XRR).

We now prove the Provably-Optimal-Gear-Ratio-Set theorem.

Proof:
Observe that presented gear ratios between adjacent gears become progressively "tighter" as we move up through the gears. This is in accord to the relative decrease in torque multiplication as the gear number goes up. Hence, we have harnessed the power characteristics of the engine in such a way as to exploit the diminishing torque multiplication of the higher gears by decreasing the change in the gear ratio loads as we move up through the gears. It is easy to see that the Provably-Optimal-Gear-Ratio-Set presents a sequence of decreasing ratios-of-adjacent-ratios. That is,

1st/2nd: 3.0 / 2.0 = 1.66
2nd/3rd: 2.0 / 1.5 = 1.33
3rd/4th: 1.5 / 1.2 = 1.25
4th/5th: 1.2 / 1.0 = 1.2
5th/6th: 1.0 / 0.9 = 1.11

Hence, we have demonstrated our claim. QED

Why are locked diffs overused? Isn't it quite normal for race cars to used locked diffs?

Yeah, maybe a 180° option would be nice. One can dream...

Last edited by kernelpanic, Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:20.

This is a good thread to wake up to.
:moped: :smash3d: :banana: :bannana_g :bump: :dogrun: :drugs:

Quote from axus :

Durr. Well, we know Eric is. Victor never contributed much to LFS itself but mostly LFS world, liveforspeed.net, lfsforum.net etc, which he has done a fantastic job with.

Actually, Victor also created the music for LFS, notably the S1/S2 musicpack, which a lot of people enjoy. Also, he is quite active in responding to the community.

While is it true that mouse does not give your analogue throttle and braking, you have to take into consideration the inherent limitations of wheels, as well. If you switch to a wide-steer-range wheel like the DFP, you will be steering much, much slower versus the mouse. Definitely, if you switch to wheel, you will not see laptime improvements (you'll probably see slower times) initially. I went from mouse to DFP a while back, had some fun with it, then realized that I didn't want to bother with plugging in and setting up the wheel every time, so I'm back to mouse. Besides, with a slow ("2.0" in the options menu) mouse button rate, you can emulate the most of the progressive throttle control of wheel/pedals.

Looking back, I don't really miss the wheel. I am one of the few who eventually upgraded from wheel to mouse :twirl:

66% skill, 33% setup, 1% luck

Yes, while skill, which includes learning the car and track from practice, is the significant factor, setups are no less than 1/2 as important as skill. Thus, I give a 2:1 ratio between skill:setup, and leave the last percentage point as luck

A good setup will not help a unskilled racer, but a bad setup will hinder a skilled racer. The racer has to build the skill, then find the suitable setup on which to exploit that skill.

120° fov, cockpit view, 20" 2007WFP 16:10 LCD, 1680x1050. I'm not sure how people are driving with lower than 90° fov; it's kind of dizzying for me with a low fov. Back when I was using a 4:3 CRT, I was even using 105° fov. Frankly, I wonder why it's not possible to up the max fox to over 120° in-game.

Having left the LFS online racing scene for a few (months) and coming back now, I am wondering if there is a way to reset my personal lap counts (for all tracks) in LFSWorld, so that I can count my laps for 2007.

Is this possible? Is is possible to add a button to LFSWorld to allow users to reset lap counts? Users can reset clear PB's, so why not lap counts?

Also, if I remember correctly, there was an official lap count/time reset when S2 Alpha P came out, so this has been done before, I guess.

Last edited by kernelpanic, Thu, 1 Feb 2007 05:10.

The XRR's front wheel/tire is 335/30 R19 and rear is 335/35 R18 (if you look carefully in-game, you can also see the front/rear wheel diameter difference). I believe it is the only LFS car with a larger front wheel than rear (though the tire widths are the same). This type of wheel setup seems to appear occasionally in real life, too. Is there a performance reason for this difference in wheel size? Any setup/physics experts care to elucidate? :juggle:

Here is the original post that listed wheel/tire sizes for LFS cars: (message body posted below)
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=45278#post45278

Quote from StewartFisher :

I did all the cars a while ago after Bob told me where to find the numbers...here's what I got:

UF1000: 160/50 R12
XF GTi: 185/50 R15
XR GT: 185/55 R16 front, 220/50 R16 rear.
XR GT Turbo: 225/45 R17 front, 245/40 R17 rear
RB4 GT: 215/40 R17
FXO Turbo: 240/35 R17
LX 4: 195/60 R13 front, 215/55 R13 rear
LX 6: 205/50 R15 front, 245/40 R15 rear
RaceAbout: 205/45 R17 front, 225/45 R17 rear
FZ50: 235/40 R18 front, 295/30 R18 rear
MRT5: 165/55 R13
XF GTR: 215/35 R16
UF GTR: 215/45 R11
Formula XR: 225/50 R13 front, 285/45 R13 rear
Formula V8: 275/55 R13 front, 390/40 R13 rear
FXO GTR: 335/35 R18
XR GTR: 335/30 R19 front, 335/35 R18 rear
FZ50 GTR: 300/35 R18 front, 370/30 R18 rear

Sizes are given as width/profile and rim diameter in millimetres percent of section and inches respectively.

I'm also out of unlocks. I changed my video card and monitor, reinstalled OS today, and now I'm locked out

I PM'd Victor, too, and haven't heard back, yet. Keep us updated on your unlock status

Thanks for the new feature! :thumb3d:

Also, is it possible to add a button to delete all lap counts? (Or individual ones, for that matter)

I'm pretty sure I checked all my settings, but with mouse steering, the BF1 (and only this car) does not heed the "throttle cut on upshift" option. In other words, it will lift on upshifts even with "throttle cut on upshift" set to "no." This is with auto clutch on. Apparently this behavior doesn't appear in any other car.

However, in multiplayer I see the wheel users' "throttle cut on upshift" work (their throttle stays planted on upshift).

Any other mousers experiencing this?

Last edited by kernelpanic, Sat, 22 Apr 2006 00:19.

First, the new Patch S/T car/track content is great :thumb3d:

However, the change to digital fonts for both dashboard and screeninfo makes it really hard to read, especially during the heat of racing. In fact, I think the new digital fonts are ugly . Since they are on screen all the time, they are an important part of the look-and-feel of the game.

Perhaps an option to switch between digital fonts and "old" fonts would be nice.

Somebody else commented on the new digital fonts, too, here http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=109773#post109773

Last edited by kernelpanic, Fri, 21 Apr 2006 21:06.

Chensta, this sounds like a pretty good idea.

To the community, remember that LFS 0.1 started out as a mouse sim, and the mouse support in this game has evolved to the point where it can rival FPS precision. In fact, I have always wondered why racing game developers eschew mouse as input and instead only offer KB or wheel. I mean, the mouse is used extensively in FPS, RTS, RPG games. Why not racing? I can't even name any other PC racing games that have ever offered mouse steering. Are developers this monolithic? Well, I have used both mouse and wheel in LFS and here's my take:

Wheel (Driving Force Pro):

Good:

+ Analog pedal input (instead of digital on/off)
+ Precise steering control
+ FF improves experience (though not necessarily laptimes)

Bad:

- Very hard to countersteer (especially if you don't have a sturdy desk like I do)
- Also, I bought the DFP for the 900 degrees feature, but it's basically useless, because it takes ages to go lock to lock, or to countersteer. Essentially any wheel setting above 180 to 270 degrees is pretty useless, unless the wheel is *really* loose (glides fast), which the Logitic FF wheels aren't (they are clunky).
- Forces a fixed driving position (my backsides sweats a lot)
- Probably the No. 1 reason not to use wheel: You have to mount/dismount every time of use, if you don't have a permanent table setup.

Mouse:

Good:

+ No setup required
+ Easy to master if you come from the FPS/RTS universe like Quake3, WC3 (like me)
+ Actually, surprisingly precise (the key is to turn down lock-to-lock steering value in setups)
+ *Extremely* quick countersteer. Basically, you will not loose the tail end (even in GTRs or Formulas) ever because you couldn't countersteer fast enough (which happened often when I used wheel)
+ Free ($0), assuming every computer comes with a mouse.

Bad:
- Wrist pain after long LFS sessions
- Digital (on/off) throttle (this can be partially mitigated by setting "button control rate" to a low value, like 2.0)
- Sometimes, mouse skips due to unclean surfaces.

I think somebody mentioned this before (BobSmith?), but it is pretty important to have cockpit view with wheel on, so that you can receive visual feedback to your mouse inputs, unlike wheel where you may want to turn off the virtual wheel because it turns at a different rate as your RL one.

Mouse control is the a major reason keeping me coming back to LFS these days. If any other driving games offer mouse control, I would jump aboard to try them out. For example, why doesn't the NFS series offer mouse as an *additional* control option? Beats me.

Based on my online races, mouse is competitive. I don't race much anymore, but my last AS National XRR mouse PB is 1:45.3x. I have raced a handful of mousers in FXRs that hit the 1:44.xx mark in AS National.

My current mouse setup:

Button control rate: 2.0
X-axis: Mouse steering
Throttle: Right mouse button
Brake: Left mouse button
Downshift: Z
Clutch: X
Upshift: C
Auto clutch: On
Auto Upshift lift: On
Auto Downshift blip: On
View: Cockpit view, wheel on, driver on
View angle: 106 degrees

Have fun.

-KernelPanic

Perhaps a possible feature (that has not appeared in any racing games, to the best of my knowledge) is tunable exhaust sounds. The exhaust changes may or may not cause hp/torque changes.

I've never been big on the tuner subculture. However, after driving my friend's turbo'd Civic EX Coupe w/ i/h/e (intake, header, exhaust) mods, it was a blast. He had this exhaust that was not too loud, but had a very good BMW-esque raspy sound. :lovies3d: Also, the blowoff valve was pretty loud (cool). :thumb3d: Unfortunately, the car was an auto. :smash3d:

Perhaps this feature may add to a more custimizable feel for racers?

I just raced the bot (name: "RACER") on MCPOLICE's server (servername currently: "UF1 ONLY - GOT SKILL?" on KY National) and had an interesting conversation with it. The bot appeared blue on the minimap (is this correct? ), and his name didn't appear in the name list. I don't have the chat log but here is a sample of some of the dialog from memory:

kernelpanic: are you a bot?
RACER: Yes I am a bot
kernelpanic: are you not a bot?
RACER: I really am a bot
RACER: : )
...
kernelpanic: where are you located?
RACER: I am located on MCPOLICE's hard drive
kernelpanic: what language were you coded in?
RACER: C++
...
kernelpanic: what is your name?
RACER: RACER
kernelpanic: what is your goal in life?
RACER: I was created by MCPOLICE to win races
kernelpanic: what are you?
RACER: I am a bot racer
...

Anyway, I was wondering if there has been efforts to create CHATTING bot racers for LFS before? If not, is MCPOLICE pushing a new area? What about the implementation, how is the chat interfaced exposed in LFS? Is there a public API?

The talking bot added some realism to the races, as it would reply back when you commented or would talk when it was unhappy from a mistake or happy from passing you.

Any further insight/comments are appreciated.

Quote from Tweaker :

Are you using the enhanced Full WYSIWYG editor?? Put your settings on the Standard Editor. That might help.

In your options http://www.lfsforum.net/profile.php?do=editoptions

That fixed it. I guess Firefox is not happy with the WYSIWYG edit box. Thanks a bunch!