Well I read about people asking for official real-life tracks
meaning with that real life circuits..
ok to do that probably u have to pay royalties, and no one likes to PAY
so I thought, why the LFS programmers don't let community give a helping hand to them?
I mean, we have great skins homemade, old games as GPL has found new life thanks to fans all over the world..

I planned to build a 3D environment with 3DStudioMAx for a work for my university,a free theme 3D excercise and the location had to be ROME.
I choose to simulate a GranPrix track layout in Rome wit reallife texture etc. and I am starting to work on it.

SO I THOUGHT:
Does anyone know if could be considered by programmers or simply a waste of time?
I mean, I am not looking for a working collaboration just would give my help to a really nice game.. so no money, only fun and satisfaction!
Which would be the right 3d format usefull for the Staff and easy to use for them? (3d Studio, Autocad...???)

ok may be I am crazy and thi thing is impossibleillepall
but any feedback from u all would be good!

I don't mean to be mean, but this idea has been discussed before. Third party tracks aren't going to be considered for sometime.

Not mean..
I'm sorry to hear that, it would have been great

Just to give you an idea on why:
* The track formats are LFS' own format. They can and probably will change as more features are added.
* The business model is to do with content (tracks, cars, etc.) and service (LFSW). The devs would shoot themselves in the foot if they allowed non official content right now.
* If they accepted your track (and it was similar to a previous race track (in terms of layout)), and you allowed them to sell it, they may be liable.

I've long since been toying with the idea of modelling a track and just giving it to the devs to do with as they will, just for the joy of making a track, but I never have found the time for something that they may not even load up into a model viewer with.

I did write to them asking if there where any technical constraints on the way the model should be assembled but got no response, it'd be an instant write off if the way I laid out my surfaces wasn't compatable with the LOD system, or the collision system...

Making 3d media is as much about the final result as it is about technical suiteability for the 3d engine it is being used in, and this is something of a barrier without any official tools to make things with.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I've long since been toying with the idea of modelling a track and just giving it to the devs to do with as they will, just for the joy of making a track, but I never have found the time for something that they may not even load up into a model viewer with.

What sort of track?

IMO the devs should allow the community to submit track models for fantasy tracks and street layouts that are not used by any real life league (they don't need any licencing, maybe change the shop fronts to all say generic stuff like SO). BUT only put really good ones in. The same with cars.

Quote from duke_toaster :

What sort of track?

IMO the devs should allow the community to submit track models

i got a better idea, how about we (the community) design a track, like draw it out etc. show what we want and where, and once we agree on it all, eric* models it? just an idea


* i refer to eric, because there would be no point in having the community model it, because then obviously it wouldn't be comparable to our current tracks, and it probably wouldn't be nearly as optimized if we were to have someone else do it

just a thought for the future

Well, do you really think Eric is out of ideas and/or work? Just handing in some blueprints won't make "more tracks" appear faster...

i dont want real life tracks but use every possibilities of tracks...

for example
why isnt use that hairpin???

I can agree on that! I'd like to use that hairpin, too. Or at least remove the cones and let custom layouts drive on that area without resetting the car.

Maybe it could be added to FE Black

Quote from AndroidXP :

Well, do you really think Eric is out of ideas and/or work? Just handing in some blueprints won't make "more tracks" appear faster...

My problem is that most of his tracks are very similar. They are all very smooth and very flowing. Even in Rev-configs there is always just one or two interesting turns a minute.
Surely a nice flowing track is fun to drive the first 3 times. But the 800th lap is only fun when it's a really wicked track.

And yes, I looked at all tracks. As National Rev, Fe Black Rev, Bl GP Rev, it needs to get a lot more challanging than that.
At least in my opinion.

Vain

Quote from Vain :

My problem is that most of his tracks are very similar. They are all very smooth and very flowing. Even in Rev-configs there is always just one or two interesting turns a minute.
Surely a nice flowing track is fun to drive the first 3 times. But the 800th lap is only fun when it's a really wicked track.

And yes, I looked at all tracks. As National Rev, Fe Black Rev, Bl GP Rev, it needs to get a lot more challanging than that.
At least in my opinion.

Vain

yah I mean compared to real life, its pretty easy to play, nothing at all as hard.

Well, I guess the only thing good enough for you would be the Nordschleife

I'm not too sure if real tracks in LFS would be any more interesting or challenging, but at the same time I also don't think that LFS tracks in reality would be considered boring and unchallenging. It's just too easy to sit in an office chair behind a FF wheel and say a track is not hard, but sitting in a real car and having to deal with much more things is a completely different situation - and this probably makes those real tracks feel much more interesting.

IMO the only proper way to model a RL track is to do it the way iRacing is doing it. I can't think of any reason why I'd want to see RL tracks in LFS. More from Eric in S3 and I'm completely satisfied.

LFS tracks lack completely:
- rapid elevation changes
- technical corner sections
- slow chicanes
- off camber corners
- hairpins (we have only one, dammit )

See this topic (don't read the 1st page, also ignore the thread name): linky

Quote from Tomas Stiborek :

i dont want real life tracks but use every possibilities of tracks...

for example
why isnt use that hairpin???

i made a thread on it here

Quote from AndroidXP :

Well, I guess the only thing good enough for you would be the Nordschleife

I'm not too sure if real tracks in LFS would be any more interesting or challenging, but at the same time I also don't think that LFS tracks in reality would be considered boring and unchallenging. It's just too easy to sit in an office chair behind a FF wheel and say a track is not hard, but sitting in a real car and having to deal with much more things is a completely different situation - and this probably makes those real tracks feel much more interesting.

In real life you don't go within 1% of the best time ever driven with that car after fewer than 30 laps.
You are considered to 'have an idea' about the Nordschleife after 500 laps.
And that's not because of the sheer lenght. I know exactly which corner follows which one. It's just so difficult to get the line spot on. On Eric's tracks I drive two laps and know the ideal line. After 10 laps I can drive it. And after said 30 laps my time is usually around 1% behind the WR.

Vain

IMO the FE stadium section (that hairpin) should be put in the new FE Emerald (Green with the stadium section) and FE Platinum (black with the stadium section).

I think he means something like Sears point, or one of those UK tracks we saw in a caterham racing video on these forums (lots of bumps, dips, and crests before, during, and after corners).

The problem with SC's corners are the walls, not the lines.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

South City has nearly all, if not all, of these things. It's also my favourite place to race, probably for the same reason.

- rapid elevation changes : Not really
- technical corner sections : SO long has 2. At the end of the 1st plit and the beginning of the 2nd split and the other is before the straight, coming out from the hairpin. The others are just 90 degree turns or flautout stuff. Not that a city track should be something totally different, I think that SO tracks are defenately one of the best in LFS. It's a great drive in anything that is slower than the FO8.
- slow chicanes: maybe one
- off camber corners : not really
- hairpins : 1

I know it sounds hard when I say this but for me the tracks in LFs seem like they were harder at first but then Eric had few laps and just removed the hard parts. There are hardly any corners that connect, the elevation changes and non-existent on all tracks.

The Fe tracks is the most typical example of this. Bunch of totally uninteresting corners, only 2 that are connected and the whole track is just flat. And only the Gold rev version is the realistic one because the slow chicane can't be taken flat out.

Quote from Hyperactive :

- rapid elevation changes : Not really

Well, if South City doesn't have rapid elevation changes, then I fear the only ones good enough for you can be found on a rally track
I mean, how do you classify "rapid"?

Dipper? Sprunghügel (+Fuchsröhre, Kallenhard, Ex-Mühle, Brünnchen, etc.)? Corkscrew? Eau Rouge?

Interestingly, all tracks with those corners are referred to as extremely good. And the mini Eau Rouge is said to be one of LFS's most interesting turns (though a bit castrated, because it only has two apexes).

Vain

Quote from Hyperactive :

...the 23nd split

wth? illepall

@Vain: Heh, from these I just knew the Eau Rouge, and also only because I've driven through it back in the GTR demo. And I absolutely loathe our mini Eau Rouge

But I now understand what Hyperactive meant.