Quote from wollschaf :

That's right. Exact distance measurements should be avoided. But perhaps it is possible to create a system that just enhances the sim driver's senses, which does not at all have to be accurate. There are certain things you notice while driving a real car that are not visible in LFS.

Well put.

And talking about realism, why does the cockpit have a steering wheel in it? What about the one you're holding in your hands. Does this mean that the cars actually have two steering wheels?

Heh heh just joking, but think about it.

Just come out of a race which was spoiled for me (for the first time in my life I was P1 !!!) by a bunch of tits who were out of the race by miles. They might have pitted or whatever so they use the rest of the race to practice. That's OK but not if they ignore the blue flags or crash half way up the straight and then collect the leaders. How about if you're a long way behind, say a lap or just under, if you crash into another car or the scenery enough to cause yourself more than trivial damage you get bulldozed off the track. IAFAIK at the moment you have to have a massive shunt to get towed.

Quote from tristancliffe :

I have no visibility problems at all, and I will stop playing LFS is such a rubbish driver aid such as a 'proximity alarm' is added, even if it is optional.

Rather abrupt and with little in the way of reasoning apparently going on there. The sort of person who plays arcade games too much maybe.

I too would HATE LFS to be arcadey. One of the reasons I play it is that I know the dev team are doing everything they can to reproduce the race experience within the limitations that sitting in a stationary chair in front of a screen imposes.

That said, I think the poor FOV is one of the barriers to making this a true sim and I just thought that an (admittedly artificial) way to overcome this might be welcomed by some. And I don't agree you *always* have time to look left or right. Flat thru the Aston Club chicane in a FOX on the first lap I'd like to go wheel to wheel but you can't or somebody will have you into the wall.

We'd all agree that lateral visibility from all the cars is poor. It cannot be anything else unless you have three screens, one in the middle and two facing the left and right sides of your face (and software that can draw your entire field of view on these three screens). An inevitable consequence is that wheel to wheel racing ends in tears too often. I know you can look left and right but hurtling into the braking zone flat out, judging your braking point to the yard, doesn't leave time to find the right button and for the view to slide sideways and back.

I suggest a small graphic somewhere in the corner of the screen that gives you the info your peripheral vision would gather. Just a plan of the car with coloured dots or something that lets you know if you're about to touch and where, or mayber some system that lets you know if you're clear of the guy behing and safe to take the racing entry to a corner or whether you should stay on the overtaking inside line to claim the corner.

Just a suggestion, but it would prevent the needless silly accident that can blight an otherwise good contest.