Having a shifter has benefits beyond just adding realism. For one thing it uses muscle memory you already have stored up, assuming you have driven a real car with a manual transmission. And you can skip gears; I frequently go from sixth to fourth, or fifth to third, just to name a couple variations. And then there is the coolness factor.
I have a Thrustmaster Speedshifter which does away with any concerns about build quality and longevity.

The CH HOTAS has a lot of axes. Even if I shut the HOTAS off (I can do that in the CH control software) the clutch still doesn’t work.
I tried inverting the axes; I have tried everything imaginable, including reinstalling the clutch repeatedly. Like I said, it works flawlessly in a number of other games; it’s the software, not the hardware. I may be done with LFS for now. Thanks for trying.

It shows up here, the red arrow points at the partially depressed clutch axes.

The red circle shows where the clutch should show, but doesn’t.

If I hit escape while driving and then select options I can see the clutch axes slider at the bottom right of the screen but it is fully extended and jumping up and down. The car, any car, is impossible to drive.

The clutch on my ECCI pedals (black Logitech wheel) is no longer recognized by LFS. This is a deal breaker for me considering the cost of the pedals; if they don’t work in the game, I don’t play the game. It shows up in the “Available axes” list, and the horizontal slider moves back and forth when I work the clutch. The clutch does not show up in the very bottom right hand corner, the brake and throttle does show (the vertical sliders). I have tried everything I can thing of, I have recalibrated in the game, and of course I have tried to assign an axes to the clutch. The game sort of recognizes the clutch, just not fully. It naturally works fine in all the other racing games I currently have loaded; rFactor, GTR, NASCAR SimRacing. I do have a number of other controllers plugged in, including a full CH HOTAS. LFS doesn’t seem to like a large number of controllers plugged in at the same time.

I think LFS is a bit too sensitive when it comes to clutchless shifting. It’s a heck of a lot easier in real life. I drove a turbo charged sports car half way across the LA basin with no clutch cable and never stalled it, up shift or down. In LFS it is a whole different matter.

Quote from Cue-Ball :

Feedback through the wheel affects my driving style and car control more than any other thing.

Try driving with the monitor turned off and see if you don't rethink that.

In my experience you get what you pay for. True ECCI doesn’t have force feedback, but that is only one aspect among many. I have flown flight simulators for years and started with a force feedback stick. When the time came I made the move to a high-end HOTAS that didn’t have force feedback and I never looked back once. What I gained in functionality, precision and fidelity far made up for the fact that the stick didn’t wiggle in my hand. From what I have read the ECCI fluid dampened wheel does a good job of approximating rubber on asphalt. It’s about precision and control regardless of cost. I currently have their pedals and it changed the whole driving experience more than I can express. I got faster. I have FAR more control over the car and I am only talking about my feet at this point. Next royalty check I can easily see dropping the cash on a matching ECCI wheel. The only force feedback wheel in this league isn’t available yet (Speed 7) and will end up costing more than the ECCI wheel and pedal set combined. Spend $150 on a plastic wheel and that’s what you get. It all boils down to what is important to you and how much you are willing to spend to get it.

Quote from Fordman :

Well thats 2 stories I have heard from ACT then. Obviously now the one from RSC and also a direct reply from ACT. Last I spoke to them, they was NOT going into the market for shifter's and pedals and wheels. They did explain why ( saying there was no nich market for these types of pedals and shifters ) I said rubbish, but thats the answer I got.

Basically they said, not now or never

Guess they changed their minds

Seems like a HUGE niche market to me; I just spent over $500 on pedals alone. I have been tempted to get the TSW shifter too. As far as high end hardware goes only the flight simulator community has the sim racer community beat.
If the Act Labs new shifter sounds like a solid piece of hardware, I’ll buy one.

Quote from Cue-Ball :

I thought that they originally said this would be out by Christmas?

I’m not sure really. The info I saw said 90 days. Now 90 days from when is another question (there is a Act Labs forum now at RSC). It looks like they beefed up the old version, which I never owned to begin with. I have been looking at the Frex H shifter, and the new TSW shifter as well. Both are expensive, but that really doesn’t bother me much. The Act Labs looks like it might be a viable alternative now that they have improved it a bit.

Act Labs is apparently getting back in the shifter business with a redesign of their original shifter. Look for it in about 3 months for around $100.

Even though I am not fast enough to justify them (you all know me, I am the guy you just passed), I have ECCI pedals with PMBII and clutch pedal. They are so much better than the stock Momo pedals it feels like cheating. If you stay out of the second spring while braking you can brake through the corner without risk of rotating the car. Overall they didn’t make me too much faster, but I am better looking now.

Quote from Batterypark :

Really?

Yeah that doesn't sound right to me either.

I gave up and used PayPal.

Edit: And got an immediate response I might add. Downloading now.

Last edited by Holliday, Mon, 10 Oct 2005 23:55.

Quote from Victor :

Hmm,

Would you mind saying what type of cards they were? Visa? Mastercard? The regular ones should be accepted without a problem. A bit different cards like Visa Electron can be problematic, in which case PayPal can be used. Paypal always is an alternative btw, if you don't mind using it.

Victor

I tried both Visa and Mastercard, both platinum, both regular cards, both failed.

I have been throwing platinum credit cards at the “buy a license” screen for the last half hour and it won’t take any of them. Is it possible to buy this game with a US credit card?

This is the response I get, not that this was cut and pasted so the misspelling was not mine (boy that’s a confidence builder):



Authorisation on that Payment Method has been refused by the Bank

If you don’t take American credit cards, what can I pay with, assuming I still want to do this?