After reading about the graphic improvements, it made me think of something. You know from time to time we get posts where somebody wants some real car modeled in the game. Not just the scirocco. (can we call it "The Car That Can't Be Named"?) But other cars here and there. Personally, I like the made up cars just fine. I like that they represent different types of cars in general. If they did make new cars, I'd prefer various wheel bases and handling characteristics more than some car brand. Well what about making different powered cars? Like electric cars, diesel... I dunno. Solar powered? Something that's alternative, but still competitive within the existing classes? I imagine electric cars would handle quite a bit differently than a conventional car. How hard would it be to make something like that as opposed to modeling a real car? Is that something that's been considered?

It's not too hard and time consuming if you want to do it.. something you can do in your free time



just a question of making a concept, developing a drivetrain & suspension setup according to it and then build the rest upon it

That's nice. It really is. The car looks cool. Did you do that?
Unfortunately, that's not what I'm getting at. My point is when and if the developers decide to add more cars, to consider modeling alternative powered cars.
Most LFS cars are specifically modeled after a certain drive type. Like with the turbos, you have FWD, AWD and RWD car models. With the road cars the varieties are based on where the motor sits in the car - front engine, rear engine and mid engine cars. Why not keep going with that and include electric cars and so forth?

Interesting wish. As long as fantasy cars/tracks are this interesting in LFS I say a big NO to real cars or real tracks (though Rockingham is great AND FBM, MRT, BF1, RAC are great). We can see real stuff enough in Assetto Corsa or Project Cars (but we still choose LFS).

Quote from Racer Y :

That's nice. It really is. The car looks cool. Did you do that?
Unfortunately, that's not what I'm getting at. My point is when and if the developers decide to add more cars, to consider modeling alternative powered cars.
Most LFS cars are specifically modeled after a certain drive type. Like with the turbos, you have FWD, AWD and RWD car models. With the road cars the varieties are based on where the motor sits in the car - front engine, rear engine and mid engine cars. Why not keep going with that and include electric cars and so forth?

Yes that's one of mine (https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/glas-gt-exo-rod.21779/), but the only car that is "100% fantasy". My point was that yes, especially if you'be got no real vehicle to copy, it's actually rather easy to make new cars from scratch and it does not take a PhD or ten years. I mean I don't know how exactly cars are defined in LFS, but at its core every engine it will be just a torque curve over an rpm curve, with a number of other parameters influencing it (turbo, inertias etc). Suspension is the same as with every existing car, tire physics are in the works. Its no witchcraft.
Scawen has at some point stated that he does not want any diesel cars in LFS. We have no idea what Eric wants as he does not interact with the community. I personally would welcome something electric.

A Car Editor would be great.

Imagine a Create-a-Car tab in the garage that would act like akin to LFS-tweak where you could customize the specs any way you want. Whether it's some 3L NA or some 1.3L turbo lightweight, electric you name it. We would need to enter the values, pick a car model from the LFS roster and save it. Users wouldn't have to download any mod as only the data for the vehicle would be needed when joining a server.

This would make the possibilities almost endless and that would be an easy way to race with electric cars among other things.

The game Automation did something similar at a grander scale recently by joining force with BeamNG so you can create you car and export it to drive afterwards.

before anyone says multiplayer would be unfair, just do some server side checks to make sure the power to weight and such are similar to the allowed specs. Maybe it could be something like:

cars=XFG+XRG+FBM
power-to-weight-max=500
wing-allowed=yes/no
front-wing-allowed=yes/no

And of course, car editor would be licensed only... Maybe an S3 specific feature?

Quote from ACCAkut :

Yes that's one of mine (https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/glas-gt-exo-rod.21779/), but the only car that is "100% fantasy". My point was that yes, especially if you'be got no real vehicle to copy, it's actually rather easy to make new cars from scratch and it does not take a PhD or ten years. I mean I don't know how exactly cars are defined in LFS, but at its core every engine it will be just a torque curve over an rpm curve, with a number of other parameters influencing it (turbo, inertias etc). Suspension is the same as with every existing car, tire physics are in the works. Its no witchcraft.
Scawen has at some point stated that he does not want any diesel cars in LFS. We have no idea what Eric wants as he does not interact with the community. I personally would welcome something electric.

I really like that car. It reminds me of something George Barris would've made.
Yeah as far as the parameters goes, what about the weight distribution with electric cars? They accelerate like crazy, but diving into corners with all that weight and motors on each wheel would have effects that wouldn't happen with regular gas cars. I think it would be nice to have those type cars modeled as I think it be a whole new dynamic. Already against Diesels? I'm guessing that maybe the similarities would be so similar in a game setting, why bother?

You make modeling a car sound simpler than what it really is. I've been a graphic artist for too long to not know that. You have to have a knack for doing what you're doing. It's not just a bunch of polygons with wheels coded to interact within a set of parameters. It's gotta look cool too.

Quote from Racer Y :

You make modeling a car sound simpler than what it really is. I've been a graphic artist for too long to not know that. You have to have a knack for doing what you're doing. It's not just a bunch of polygons with wheels coded to interact within a set of parameters. It's gotta look cool too.

Nah I'm aware of that, it was more like seeing the perspective of the LFS Devs. We know that they can do this, that they "threw out" a great bunch of cars in a relatively short time frame (S1 and S2 releases), and that they just decided against doing it after that. Threads like this emerge every few months, people post their hopes and dreams, but for no reason really. The Devs had cars and licenses handed to them on a silver plate but they were ignored. I absolutely respect Scawen for what he created, but at the same time he lost a lot of that from me for "recently" stating that LFS is still his 100% day job and passion.
I was one to defend Eric's work, but now that I went from not having ever opened a poly modelling tool to making these in four years I just can't, it's no magic to me anymore. I'm not bragging, I'm just one of many guys doing this due to a platform that welcomed this type of involvement with open arms instead of barricading against it.


... I think I drifted a little with this post... stupid nostalgia.

Electric cars would be... Interesting, only thing electric I'd even near consider driving in any racing game would be the:

UCM 2016 - Electric S-S Style car made by UCMotorsport ( http://www.ucmotorsport.com/ )

Driven off of 4 x AMK Motors (AWD) giving off about 80 Kw competition spec (can go to 120 Kw)with a total weight of 225kg.

Definitely a beautiful build IMO and one that is already a mod in Assetto Corsa definitely worth trying.

Image:

Quote from Huskii :

...only thing electric I'd even near consider driving in any racing game would be...

Have you not seen the Nike One concept from GT4?

reminds of good old F1 days, when after crash you either got out of the car, or it was game over. (/sarcasm of course, I don't miss the dying part)

In all honesty, I'm not seriously demanding electric cars as I'm simply proposing to the devs that when they do ever focus on making new cars, instead of trying so much for real models to just making some up with alternate sources of power. But.... If they did and went electric, I was thinking of something along the lines of a Tesla for the road cars. Only with out the tendency to catch fire. I hadn't realized there is something in the open wheel categories too.

Reading about users liking alternative powered cars. We once had the raceabout a turbo petrol concept turned production this was never updated or followed up on. The last incarnation was indeed electric and capable of 140 + mph at Nürburgring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzZAiSG95uk


Only Scawen knows why the LFS team did not update this car and the other "real life" cars to their latest incarnations.

Like I always wonder when the tyre physic updates etc are totally complete and we get the long awaited Scirocco, it will be discontinued. so are we going to get a vintage 10 year old Scirocco or the latest equivalent VW roadcar?

The team seems very vague and unclear on this question

Quote from ShannonN :

Reading about users liking alternative powered cars. We once had the raceabout a turbo petrol concept turned production this was never updated or followed up on. The last incarnation was indeed electric and capable of 140 + mph at Nürburgring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzZAiSG95uk


Only Scawen knows why the LFS team did not update this car and the other "real life" cars to their latest incarnations.

Like I always wonder when the tyre physic updates etc are totally complete and we get the long awaited Scirocco, it will be discontinued. so are we going to get a vintage 10 year old Scirocco or the latest equivalent VW roadcar?

The team seems very vague and unclear on this question

I don't think Scawen can update the real life cars. I believe he has the license to recreate only that specific (2008?) Scirocco, that specific RaceAbout and so on.

Quote from Sobis :

I don't think Scawen can update the real life cars. I believe he has the license to recreate only that specific (2008?) Scirocco, that specific RaceAbout and so on.

I think you're right about that. I imagine the contracts make sure to specify certain year models only. And then there's only so much money available and space to model so many cars. What cars do you decide to get the licenses for even if you did have the funding?
I would also think that developers of racing games in general would avoid getting into deals where they HAD to make specific car models whenever they updated their game versions. That could really suck for the developers of the game if the cars they had to model were to become unpopular and the devs are stuck modeling them on the sequel anyways. Or worse, the manufacturers want to market other cars by having them put in the game also as part of the deal. Like "Sure, you can model the 911 turbo, but you have to model the four door also". Who the hell wants to play with the four door? Now the developers don't have enough space for the Ferrari Portafino!
Yeah. I'm under the impression modeling real cars is more of a pain than it's really worth. Leave that stuff up to the modders out there once its all done.
But still just cause the car modeled is electric, it doesn't mean it has to be a model of an actual car.
Especially one that's prone to fire and has a whacky corporate leadership.