Indeed, if you want to go rallying, play a rally sim. LFS is a circuit racing sim, and in circuit racing, you know the entire circuit - that's how it is.
The problem with rFactor is (as I sort of tried to say above) is that it tries to be that rally sim. It also tries to be an offroad sim, a drag sim, rally sim....etc, and only ever comes as close as the mod author wants it to.
The only mods worth playing in my experience are the new F1 1979 mod, and the F1 1955 mod - both of which come with severely hacked about tyre physics by the mod authors. By the looks of things, they've spent an awful lot of time trying to get the tyre physics right - and those 2 mods feel great to drive, head and shoulders above the rest of the stuff that's available for rF.
The 1955 mod is spectacular - and well worth a play, but that was the next big thing a few months back, and nobody's playing it anymore. Which is why LFS is great - it's entirely dev run, there is no "next big thing" and any new releases (Formula BMW for example) can be tweaked, refined, honed, and made to be as good as possible before release.
The problem with rFactor is (as I sort of tried to say above) is that it tries to be that rally sim. It also tries to be an offroad sim, a drag sim, rally sim....etc, and only ever comes as close as the mod author wants it to.
The only mods worth playing in my experience are the new F1 1979 mod, and the F1 1955 mod - both of which come with severely hacked about tyre physics by the mod authors. By the looks of things, they've spent an awful lot of time trying to get the tyre physics right - and those 2 mods feel great to drive, head and shoulders above the rest of the stuff that's available for rF.
The 1955 mod is spectacular - and well worth a play, but that was the next big thing a few months back, and nobody's playing it anymore. Which is why LFS is great - it's entirely dev run, there is no "next big thing" and any new releases (Formula BMW for example) can be tweaked, refined, honed, and made to be as good as possible before release.
I'm a little late to the thread, but I thought I'd chuck in my tuppence worth....
I was a GPL addict back in the day, played nothing else for years. It was amazing, most realistic thing at the time. From 1998 to 2000ish (my most solid GPL years) it was unmodded, as the community hadn't figured it out yet. The community was solid, everyone racing on the same 11 tracks. You could join a league and instantly be competitive, as you knew the tracks inside out already.
I've tried rFactor, and, weirdly enough found it very restricting. There are SO MANY mods, it's unreal. Completely putting aside the "realism" or "general crapness" of many user made mods, the fact that there are so many thousands of track/car combinations means that you can never stay in one place. Excellent mod (a) comes out, and the new track (b) is the perfect setting for it, great. Spend a couple of weeks setting the car up, shaving those last tenths off your lap time, and by then the community has moved on to the next and new "Bestest Mod Ever". So you never end up racing - which, after all is what this is all about.
LFS on the other hand has only a handful of cars, a handful of tracks/layouts, and is IMO the perfect mix. There are enough track and car combinations to keep the interest up, but not so many that the community is fragmented. There's always some server or other racing your current preferred combo at any one time, and you can get some actual racing done!
I was a GPL addict back in the day, played nothing else for years. It was amazing, most realistic thing at the time. From 1998 to 2000ish (my most solid GPL years) it was unmodded, as the community hadn't figured it out yet. The community was solid, everyone racing on the same 11 tracks. You could join a league and instantly be competitive, as you knew the tracks inside out already.
I've tried rFactor, and, weirdly enough found it very restricting. There are SO MANY mods, it's unreal. Completely putting aside the "realism" or "general crapness" of many user made mods, the fact that there are so many thousands of track/car combinations means that you can never stay in one place. Excellent mod (a) comes out, and the new track (b) is the perfect setting for it, great. Spend a couple of weeks setting the car up, shaving those last tenths off your lap time, and by then the community has moved on to the next and new "Bestest Mod Ever". So you never end up racing - which, after all is what this is all about.
LFS on the other hand has only a handful of cars, a handful of tracks/layouts, and is IMO the perfect mix. There are enough track and car combinations to keep the interest up, but not so many that the community is fragmented. There's always some server or other racing your current preferred combo at any one time, and you can get some actual racing done!
Look here, there's a good article expaining the differences between AGP and PCI-E.
Don't worry about going to a store to buy a card, any store will have horrendous markups on their GFX cards - use one of the 4 online shops mentioned.
It depends on what your motherboard can take. Newer motherboards use a PCI-Express slot, which is the new faster standard.
Something like this would be more than up to the job - if your motherboard has a PCI-E slot.
If it doesn't and you're still on AGP, maybe something like this? I'm not up on my AGP cards, so I don't know the ins and outs of that particular model - but anything you can buy new for £100 now will be more than up to the job of LFS.
But, please, whatever you do - don't go to PC World. I picked a random graphics card from that page you linked, found the equivalent on the Overclockers UK site and compared prices. PC World was £79, OCUK was £41 - for the same card. I use OCUK for all my PC bits, and have never had anything but first class service, and prices.
Something like this would be more than up to the job - if your motherboard has a PCI-E slot.
If it doesn't and you're still on AGP, maybe something like this? I'm not up on my AGP cards, so I don't know the ins and outs of that particular model - but anything you can buy new for £100 now will be more than up to the job of LFS.
But, please, whatever you do - don't go to PC World. I picked a random graphics card from that page you linked, found the equivalent on the Overclockers UK site and compared prices. PC World was £79, OCUK was £41 - for the same card. I use OCUK for all my PC bits, and have never had anything but first class service, and prices.
I did briefly, and it didn't seem to work, but I've just had another play. Leaving the Catalyst AI set to low (off, low, high are the options) LFS seems to keep my settings.
So, hurrah! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction - I'm just off to find out what the AI is, and what I've turned on!
Incidentally, there are threads on the forum reporting exactly the same "losing of settings" problems with nvidia cards too, so it doesn't appear to be purely an ATI issue.
Funny, I never had this issue at all. Then as soon as I patched to version Y, it started happening.
I'll update the thread if I find a fix.
I'll update the thread if I find a fix.
More graphics issues - disappearing AA/AF
I'm quite happy setting up my graphics card to get LFS looking good, and I usually run 4x AA and 4x AF through my ATI control panel thing.
Since the patch though, it seems to be pot luck whether LFS will accept these settings - they can be forced in the ATI panel, I'll load up LFS, enter practice and the spinning car will look all jagged. If I then alt-tab back to windows, the AA/AF settings have been reset to 0 and 0. Even if I reset them back to 4, LFS won't recognise them. It seems to take a random combination of alt-tabs, resetting the AA/AF to 4x and restarting LFS to get the graphics settings to stick - I haven't found a method to make it work yet.
Any ideas?
Since the patch though, it seems to be pot luck whether LFS will accept these settings - they can be forced in the ATI panel, I'll load up LFS, enter practice and the spinning car will look all jagged. If I then alt-tab back to windows, the AA/AF settings have been reset to 0 and 0. Even if I reset them back to 4, LFS won't recognise them. It seems to take a random combination of alt-tabs, resetting the AA/AF to 4x and restarting LFS to get the graphics settings to stick - I haven't found a method to make it work yet.
Any ideas?
Ah-ha! Many thanks dude, I'm getting the hang of it now - not too many mis-shifts in the race!
Left foot braking, gear changing issue
I just updated to the new patch Y today, looking good so far!
One issue though, I left foot brake, and use my right foot for blipping the throttle. It seems now though that about 50% of my downchanges are not recognised by LFS, and after playing around, I'm assuming a change has been made where you can't downchange under more than x amount of throttle?
I've looked through the options list, and can't find a way to alter this behaviour...any ideas?
One issue though, I left foot brake, and use my right foot for blipping the throttle. It seems now though that about 50% of my downchanges are not recognised by LFS, and after playing around, I'm assuming a change has been made where you can't downchange under more than x amount of throttle?
I've looked through the options list, and can't find a way to alter this behaviour...any ideas?
Ok, excellent advice there, thanks!
Next question:
I've analysed my best lap on Aston Historic in the FOX - a 2:28.8ish, against a fairly quick mid 2:25 lap. Some of the stats are comparable (min and max revs and speed for example) but he generally draws away through all the corners.
In the stats list in F1PerfView, it lists him as using racing slick tyres, and me as using racing grooved tyres. Have I got something in my setup wrong? I've got it set to "Slick Tyre R2" in my setup.
Next question:
I've analysed my best lap on Aston Historic in the FOX - a 2:28.8ish, against a fairly quick mid 2:25 lap. Some of the stats are comparable (min and max revs and speed for example) but he generally draws away through all the corners.
In the stats list in F1PerfView, it lists him as using racing slick tyres, and me as using racing grooved tyres. Have I got something in my setup wrong? I've got it set to "Slick Tyre R2" in my setup.
Newbie Tyre Question
I'm playing with setups and tyre temperatures at the moment, getting an understanding of how they work so I can set my FOX up for an endurance race.
My simple question is (and I've searched to see if it's here already) I have 3 differing tyre types - R1, R2 and R3. Which is the "soft" tyre and which is the "hard" tyre?
I seem to see differing opinions in various threads - one post saying "take the softer R2 over the R3" and another saying "R3s are soft and won't last the distance, take the R2s instead".
So which is it?!
My simple question is (and I've searched to see if it's here already) I have 3 differing tyre types - R1, R2 and R3. Which is the "soft" tyre and which is the "hard" tyre?
I seem to see differing opinions in various threads - one post saying "take the softer R2 over the R3" and another saying "R3s are soft and won't last the distance, take the R2s instead".
So which is it?!
My Etnies sponsored FOX skin
I've knocked up a skin for a league I'm gonna be racing in soon in homage to my recently departed favourite pair of trainers. Any constructive criticism welcome
Hello from me!
I bought an S2 license way back in 2005, just before finishing university, getting a job and therefore having no time to play any games. I also remember the sound in the game being a little buzzy and I didn't play a lot of LFS after the initial "honeymoon period".
A change of job, more free time, and finding out that the newest version has sound editing capabilities means I've downloaded S2 once more, dug out my old activation details, had a play, and been **mega** impressed all over again. The sense of immersion and feel from the car is fantastic. I shall be sticking around this time!
I bought an S2 license way back in 2005, just before finishing university, getting a job and therefore having no time to play any games. I also remember the sound in the game being a little buzzy and I didn't play a lot of LFS after the initial "honeymoon period".
A change of job, more free time, and finding out that the newest version has sound editing capabilities means I've downloaded S2 once more, dug out my old activation details, had a play, and been **mega** impressed all over again. The sense of immersion and feel from the car is fantastic. I shall be sticking around this time!
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG