When in manual mode, how can you tell when the best time is to shift up (or down, for that matter)? I always seem to be loosing speed/acceleration (compared with auto) because I shift too early or too late.

EDIT - LOL, I never noticed that little light. I guess when you play in auto you try to pay more attention to your surroundings than you do to the meters.

Quote from BlackSheep720 :

When in manual mode, how can you tell when the best time is to shift up (or down, for that matter)? I always seem to be loosing speed/acceleration (compared with auto) because I shift too early or too late.

When the shift light comes on.

A little red light will shine on the rev counter when its a good time to shift.

Edit: DAMN IT!

...When the shift light comes on...?

EDIT - NOES TEH FORUM WHORE IS BEATEN! Noooooooes!

Check in the settings to see if you have, throttle cut on upshift set to YES or NO! No is best!

Sorry - Need to search, why doesn't the shift light correspond to the redline?

Quote from garph :

Check in the settings to see if you have, throttle cut on upshift set to YES or NO! No is best!

Oof, faster, but a totally bastardization of reality. Hopefully will be patched to fix this.

Peak power is not at redline, redline means change or die, for a guess?

Quote from srdsprinter :

Oof, faster, but a totally bastardization of reality. Hopefully will be patched to fix this.

A quickshifter on race cars is basically the same thing!

p.s. Both of my comments might be wrong btw, if someone could tell me if I'm right or wrong?!

Shift light? whats that???
I change gear by feel....when you feel that you have reached the end of the power band..change up

Redline is when your car is starting to max out on its revs, its not when to change gear. Most cars peak power is 1500 revs before redline.

Redline usually means that the engine is going to be damaged when you keep the revs in there for a longer period of time, though I think most if not all newer real cars have a limiter to completely prevent that.

The optimal shiftpoint however is when the next gear yields more power than the current one, which is very likely NOT at the redline. Ingame this is the exact moment the shift light goes on - personally I simply ignore the redline.

At first I look at shift light, but then I have the shift points memorised by track locations and sound of the engine.

Bladerunner how do you feel it? In-sim plugged with mikrovolt impulse generator linked with your perilympha and butt?

Driving without shiftlight is more fun, but slower. I always rev too high.

Quote from pasibrzuch :

Bladerunner how do you feel it?....

He must use the Force!

Quote from garph :

He must use the Force!

Actually, being a replicant I just plug my periperal control lead directly into the usb port, and get the feeling that way


Feel sorry for my team mate Kryten tho...I wont tell you where HIS adapter socket is! :P

The optimum shoft point is when the torque in the next gear, taking into account the torque multiplication of the gearing, is greater than the torque in your current gear. Power doesn't come into it, as power is not multiplied by revs, so you will ALWAYS have less 'power' in the next gear as the revs drop (unless you have very very close gearing). The optimum shift point is indictated by the little red light I so hope gets removed from LFS and replaced by a torque curve shown in game, and a user adjustable shift light. Then learning how to work out the best shift point, either theoretically through the gearing or via the 'seat of your pants' (i.e. the feeling you get whilst driving from noise and movement).

It's all about the torque curve

Heh, I didn't actually mean 'power' in the mechanical way but in the simple being-pushed-forward-more one . Of course if you're scientifically correct then it's the torque you care about.

Quote from garph :

A quickshifter on race cars is basically the same thing!

I don't think that spikes 1000+ rpm beyond redline on every upshift is realistic, even on a quickshifting race car. (DOWN with No Cut Throttle!!)


On the other question, I was always under the belief that IRL, the peak power is a few hundred rpm before redline, and you would always rather run past peak power up to redline, such that the higher gear would put you in a more favorable spot in the power-band. Is this wrong?

Also, does LFS improperly model this? It seems all engines (baring open-wheelers) seem to die out so quickly after the shift light, that coming to redline seems impossible? IRL, again, it seems engines will pull well into the redline and beyond. (with possible engine damage).

edit - tristan, please read my response your DP1 car post.

It would help if torque curve would be more like it is in real car, so you actually could feel torque drop, now it is very narrow area where you are really on power band and harder to feel when you go past it as it feels weak at both ends and you don't get used to good amount of power.

I have tried to set gears so that shift up is right after peak power and rpms drop to max torque rpm, should be best acceleration I think

Quote :

Also, does LFS improperly model this? It seems all engines (baring open-wheelers) seem to die out so quickly after the shift light, that coming to redline seems impossible? IRL, again, it seems engines will pull well into the redline and beyond. (with possible engine damage).

Seeing that redlines are auto-calculated in LFS, they might just be set lower in real cars (or too high in LFS, if you prefer that point of view).

Quote from Bladerunner :

Feel sorry for my team mate Kryten tho...I wont tell you where HIS adapter socket is! :P

Quote from tristancliffe :

The optimum shift point is indictated by the little red light I so hope gets removed from LFS and replaced by a torque curve shown in game, and a user adjustable shift light.

+1 For that.
It would make people harder for a lot of people (including me) but I still want more realism.

Not really, you can tell pretty well when to shift up just from hearing the engine...

Quote from bbman :

Not really, you can tell pretty well when to shift up just from hearing the engine...

Well, I wouldn't call that the easiest thing to do. With LFS' current shift light you know when you are on the best shift always. Even if there are lots of other distractions you know when to shift. Not to mention that not everyone knows when to shift based on the sound.