You've got a point there Tristan. Although I think it depends on steering feedback (forcefeedback in lfs) too. Car settings matter too. When I started I was indeed often using that snap to finnish a drift at some point. It also helped me quickly regain grip to avoid a spinning car. But recently I noticed it's better to gradually steer to center on power out. It looks nicer too. It's just a bit uncomfortable with steering that e30 has - 1440 degrees from lock to lock.
But still I am even afraid to say its snappy, because people really take that word seriously. It's snappy in an easy way to control, and it is only making things easier not harder. Let's hope new lfs tire physics adress this issue and several others. And the funniest thing is, drifting in lfs is a bit too hard now, some stability is missing in tires. I really can't wait for this new patch.
p.s.: What I wonder is how slick tires really act on a street alike car. And how much difference in for example snapyness there can be beetwen one slick and another. And if slick is really as snappy as people say. I'd like to hear input from people who tested them in real life and not opinions based on slip angle diagrams though. I would be for example very interested to hear Tristan feedback on slick tires, even if only from open wheeler experience. Tristan please? And maybe opinion from someone who tested slick tires on normal (non formula) car as well.
edit:
using snap back example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTJZK1szuLk 27th second. Simply easier to end drift in that place and requires less effort. But looks not very good.
Indeedily do. In most sims it's relatively easy to unwind the lock at the right time/pace to avoid over correcting.
It's mainly to do with the weight distribution (mid/rear engined), lightweight, polar moments and the characteristics of slick tyres... Yes, open wheeled cars are harder to 'catch' and 'slide' but it's still eminently possible (thought most of time it's not done on purpose, but to save one's skin).
Me neither. rFactor 'feels' (to me) like they tried to bodge it in to the sim, but ended up with snappy loss of grip and soft regaining... But that could be a host of other factors... NetKar is currently closest with it's beta version, although I'm not convinced that the latest version has gone in the right direction (though this is based on about 10 minutes of play time, and I'm not sure what setups I was running, but the FTarget felt very odd now, but it could be a leftover setup from a previous beta where I went a bit mad with my setup experimentation )
'Snappy' must be used within inverted commas to make sure it's a vague description... Tis true that it's something that would appear to make driving harder, but in fact makes it easier (unless you are slow unwinding the lock, in which case you get punished twice as hard!!).
It's a tricky one, because obviously the cars are very different, and I've not driven the single seater on road tyres (cut slick wets don't count, and I've only driven on them in the wet anyway!). However, I would suggest, though I have no way of proving it or validating my opinion, that the CAR has more effect than the TYRE. i.e. the fact that cars with slick tyres are 'snappier' is because cars with slicks are lighter, more powerful, lower CoG, lower polar moment and driven much closer to 'The Limit'. Perhaps the same car on 'road tyres' would be just as snappy (hence your question I suppose!).
In short, who knows. I doubt even the tyre companies really know, as they're understanding of tyres remains woefully inadequate anyway.
Generally I can't decide if it's a missing "effect" from the tire dynamic response or just a result of the slight but inevitable delay of the controllers. What I'm referring to (and I think you are, too, at least in part) is the situation where a starting slide is caught with very small steering input and the car immediately straightens, and does a little "wobble" before it settles. This might well be related to the much more direct feedback on the steering wheel IRL. Should try to find a video I guess..
Oh, one more thing: although the aligning moment of the tires is a relatively small factor, it does add to the straightening of the cars. Once the slip angles of the tires fall down from the full sliding regime, the aligning moment rises to help straighten the car. - But this part is easy to model and actually part of the tire models, so it shouldn't be a factor in the difference from sim and real life..
I'll just trust their abilities on the fact that they have been bata-testing LFS for a while and there have not been many major problems with the physics that are known about since they've been beta testing.
for me quite an interesting info would be if the new tyre physics was developed with future wet weather driving support in mind...
that would mean that introducing wet weather in the future would not require any unwanted changes in car's behaviour on dry surface, just extending the model not changing it again...
but thats pure wishfull thinking combined with speculation
Well it seems to me like this thread has gone to the dogs.
Mould and spat out, orgininally it started as something great and has turned into something terrible.
Get your panties out of a bunch and man up princess!
Good point. I'm sure Scawen and co has it in them to develop truley brilliant wet weather handling and physics but maybe that's a few years away if we're lucky.
I'm sure that the whole reason for this bottom up reprogramming approach is that Scawen has known for a while that the tyre physics won't stand up in the rain, as it where. So rather than mash on through and make a hash up when rain is implimented he has done the honourable thing and taken the engine to bits to make it inifintly better for you and me. Which is kinda what he said anyway when he explained the delays.
From the looks of it that is a video of (as a driver) incompetence. He most likely would not have been able to react quickly enough even if it was dry. This video only show an example of a horrible driver in wet conditions.