Dear LFS Racers,

This update supports stereoscopic 3D devices including TVs, projectors, headsets and the Oculus Rift (more information below). While developing it, we also moved onto DirectX 9 which allows for better graphical effects in future while still allowing LFS to run on older versions of Windows and on Linux (using the Wine compatibility software). This version remains fully compatible with 0.6E with many improvements and fixes (listed at the end of this page).

Three ways to get Version 0.6F

:
1) AUTO UPDATER - If you already have version 0.5V or later :

- Click on "Multiplayer" then "List of Hosts" in LFS and choose a download mirror.

2) MANUAL PATCH (3.8 MB) - If you already have version 0.5Z25 or later :

- Click HERE and save the patch installer.
- You can run the patch installer from its download location or from your LFS folder.

3) FULL VERSION (135 MB) - If you are new to LFS or making a fresh installation.

- Click HERE to visit the download page and get the full version installer.

How to enable stereoscopic 3D

:
1) At the top of the View options screen, select 3D mode.

2) Select your Display type - three options are available :

- TV / monitor / projector
- Conventional 3D headset
- Oculus Rift

Each mode has different characteristics.

- TV / monitor / projector mode - it is important to set your Horizontal screen width measured in mm. Not the diagonal, just the horizontal measurement from one side to the other. This, in conjunction with the interpupillary distance, should set the image up properly if you set the FOV to match the true horizontal view angle between your eyes and the TV edges. The virtual eye positions are affected and the centres of the two images displayed on the screen are offset by the same distance so the horizon appears to be in the distance.

- Conventional 3D headset - also has an interpupillary distance slider but in this case it only affects the virtual eye positions. There is no compensation for the use of wider FOV angles than actually available. So if you use wider FOV than the true horizontal FOV of the device, you will see exaggerated depth.

- Oculus Rift - this will try to load a DLL and connect to your Oculus Rift and from there it will get the interpupillary distance and other values.

3) In TV / monitor / projector or Conventional 3D headset modes, select your Format for 3D output - four options are available :

- side by side (half)
- top and bottom (half)
- side by side (full)
- top and bottom (full)

Choose the setting that works with your device. Many devices can accept different input formats.

- side by side (half) is a commonly used format that causes some loss of resolution in the horizontal direction.

- top and bottom (half) causes loss of resolution in the vertical direction. This is the best choice for passive displays with alternating polarisation horizontal scan lines. This type of display discards half of the lines if supplied with a full height image. When supplied with half height images, no further information needs to be discarded.

- side by side (full) and top and bottom (full) can output 3D at full HD resolution to a device that supports this. However, most devices do not support this output (even if they can accept full HD 3D from a Blu-ray player). In Windows XP it was possible to set your desktop across two screens and then LFS could go full screen on two screens. Then side by side (full) could be used, for example, to send output to a twin projector 3D setup. Unfortunately this possibility seems to have been removed from recent versions of Windows.

4) For Oculus Rift mode some text functions have been included.

/rift reset - reset the orientation
/rift on - switch on 3D with Oculus Rift as the display type
/rift off - return to 2D mode
/rift toggle - switch Oculus Rift mode on or off

The /rift reset command is automatically assigned to ALT+F12
The /rift toggle command is automatically assigned to ALT+F11

You can assign ALT+F11 and ALT+F12 to wheel buttons under the ALT+ tab in the controls options screen.

5) Screen resolutions for your Oculus Rift.

LFS adjusts the render target texture size to suit the output screen size, so you may benefit from downsampling if you select a higher screen resolution than the native resolution of the Rift. This may produce some helpful antialiasing. Try to select a 16:10 resolution (e.g. 1920x1200) because that has the same aspect ratio as the Dev Kit's native resolution (1280x800). If you select a 16:9 resolution (e.g. 1920x1080) you should check carefully that the output image has the correct aspect ratio. This seems to vary between computers. Some have reported that the image looks the same in 1920x1200 and 1920x1080 but others report that 1920x1080 causes the image to be slightly stretched vertically. You need to make sure the dimensions appear the same as when you choose the native resolution of 1280x800. If you find the image is stretched vertically when you use 1920x1080, you can try the Aspect ratio correction option, or look at the GPU scaling setting (in your graphics card driver software).

There is a device selector in LFS which may allow you to put LFS on the Rift without it appearing on your monitor, and to do this without touching any Windows desktop settings. This may be available when your desktop is set to extended mode. Using the device selector may make more modes available to you than when you use cloned mode.

The device selector is at the bottom of the Graphics Options screen, just above the Z-buffer depth option. You should see a button which has the name of your graphics card. If you click that button you may be able to select the Oculus Rift device which will be used the next time you start LFS.

List of changes from 0.6E to 0.6F

:
3D device support :

Select 3D near the top of View Options to select device
Supports Oculus Rift, 3D monitors, projectors, TVs, headsets

Graphics :

LFS now uses DirectX 9 (previously used DirectX 8.1)
Random weather selected by default when loading a track
Mirror antialiasing is now available (in Graphics Options)
Improved transitions when switching between interface screens
Misc option to select CTRL+S screenshot format (bmp / jpg / png)

Various :

Updated translations - thank you translators
Message "Track loaded" now shows which track was loaded
Lateral and longitudinal accelerometer now works realistically
CTRL+ and ALT+ (assign text to F keys) visible in mouse / kb mode

Commands :

/refresh refreshes list of setups / hosts / replays
/setup now works correctly (loads setup) in garage screen
/colour and /setup without a parameter now select default
/join hostname from entry screen now tries to join named host
/exec and /wait can now take filenames with spaces in quotes
/track command (change track) accepts a weather parameter
e.g. /track BL2R 3 selects BL2R with 3rd weather

Fixes :

OOS error after an idle car was hit by objects
OOS error when an car was pushed out of bounds
Some glitches in the movement of vertical sliders
Helmet stayed the same after changing driver in MP replays
Some controllers could make mouse axes unavailable for use
MAX ALPHA (unsorted) message after adding 900 chalk objects
Joining host OOS if host started with invalid /weather value
High frequency changes in acceleration were filtered in OutSim
LFS would crash if more than 8 game controllers were connected
Text entry was not always cleared when entering the meeting room
F key text was delayed if pressed in warning or selection dialog
Stuck in game after Alt+F4 / X button after edit in SHIFT+U mode
Setup could sometimes be corrupted when joining - now spectated
NumConns was set to zero after disconnecting from an online host
Arrow keys in input dialog were re-enabled by code page selector
Joining car could not enter physics when many objects were moving

- LFS Developers