Test Patches - Y Series

[Duke]

The problem with allowing modding through opening the source code is that many more mediocre mods get released compared to really good (Hall of Fame type) mods. It can be time consuming finding the ones worth downloading and more importantly fractures the racing community for that sim.
Have you tried to find a server full of races that have the combo you have the mods for or want to drive...think rFactor.

[NeilPearson]

what shits me flinty, is that in the HOF at rFC half the mods are shit anyway. cart 06 made it in there! sure the models are awesome, but the physics blows chunks. Cart 98 baby. if they ever get the sounds done that is....

[iMAXIBON]

all this talk of disrespecting the "modders" out there pretty much comes from counter-strike, doesn't it?

after it became more popular than shitting, every new game had to be "modding-friendly" otherwise it was be "boring" and "people would get sick of it eventually and go make a sandwich"

half-life was modding-UNFREINDLY and still is. the hammer editor is a DOG and the source engine is a PIG and counter-strike source is offensive. the 'age of the mod' and eternal life via eternal modification just never happened. nothing came close to cs and its ilk after modding became an end in itself, instead of a means.

Unreal saw its fair share of mods, but likewise the core game, that survives today for both '99 and '04 is superfast deathmatch as supplied by epic / DE at the very dawn of time. the wheel is still round, it doesnt turn as fast as it did in its release quarter, but its still rolling.

modding wont "save" LFS or anything else. popularity moves with hype and hype moves with new releases. some people will still play it long after COD 12: the rape of the rape of nanking has become old and shoddy looking, probably more so because of its nature. but modding as a development paradigm has been disproven - like neil posted, most modders are shit at it, just look at Wikipedia, the biggest mod project ever. and widely known to be inaccurate, patchy, generally useful but usually full of nerds and sometimes outright false - more of a scrapbook than an encyclopedia.
scawen has proven he can code, hes not an idiot, and is trustworthy. so why not just leave him alone to do what he does, and be assured that whatever he produces will be good, instead of disappointing? what is the point of pronouncing his work "dead" before hes even pronounced it finished? maybe if you find a nice deep puddle and lay face-down in it, you will be pronounced "dead" yourself, then people will talk of you fondly too.

the thing itself doesnt "die", only the popularity of it. the thing remains the same. the "death" of the space race just proves that people can get bored of ANYTHING. that doesnt mean it ceases to exist - they still launch probes, develop motors and have a jolly good time even when you have decided its boring and the sound isnt good enough. not to the same scale or in the same way of course - the spotlight takes a lot of its energy with it when it moves on, but things can exist outside of it.

which is where lfs should exist, with UT and RBR and acid house and moon missions and all that great stuff we forgot about.

[Quincy]

hey, I haven't forgotten about acid house....!


some good points maxi.

funny how those that don't drive LFS, are the one's dealing out the most dirt....pffft.

show me an rFactor league or GPL league in Australia that gets 50 drivers racing on one night, week in week out?

I love that it isn't modded to hell and back. I love that it's been developed by a 3 man team. I love that it is continually being worked on, hence all the small patches. I love that one day, you'll all have to come and race iRacing, because that is where the shits at!! *hangon, did i say that last bit out loud?*

[richo]

I don't want it modded, there's very few mods for anything that are as good as the original (except Desert Combat and CS).

Maybe i,m shallow but i cant get excited about LFS's sound and how old a lot of the cars are. I cant get excited about driving 80's road cars on race tracks no matter how good they are to drive.Personally i want to simulate race cars as there something i wont be driving in my life time,not an 82 Golf knock off or early 90's celica ,90's supra and a starion ffs

To me that's where LFS really shows its age, GPL and to a lesser extent GTL do there job well at recreating cars of a period , a mustang is horny as is a Lotus but an 80's Golf?

There's heaps of things to like with LFS and still feels to me (as retarded as i might be behind the wheel) the best of the lot.

[Quincy]

too me, the big appeal is racing with others. big grids, diverse talent. not so much what car i'm driving. LFS UF1, the slowest piece of metal, just finished an 8 week series at MNR, and it was some of the most exciting racing to date! With two full divisions from start to finish.

it should be about the driving, learning how to race, learning how to squeeze that extra 0.50 during qualifying. It wouldn't matter to me which sim I drive, as long as I can race others , numerous others, and learn from them.

[richo]

True Q man , the uf1 is a fun car to race , when i get a chance to have a bash i normally go to the CTRA server with the uf1 or gti,s .

I used to love MNR but with new missus and new business i just dont find the time atm.

I guess i just want what i cant have, i want the pretty new cars and surroundings of GT5P but under the bonnet its all LFS.

[Sarsippius]

I think S3 has been off the cards for a couple of years now, at least what people think of when they think of S3. At most S2 will be finished and then we might get something more like an S2A, S2B etc. Still substantial but more incremental releases. Say a couple cars, a couple tracks and something like weather or variable track grip levels.
I think I've said it here in this thread or maybe another similar but the core of LFS is finished already, we won't see a leap like we did from S1 to S2. There's really only further polishing of things like tyre and other physics, extra content and introducing more variables like the one's I just mentioned. Just my opinion of course.

[Scottie]

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=44905

Hello LFS Racers.

I'd just like to make a small announcement about some updates in a test patch that is planned for release today, and also a few words about progress and future updates.

Today's test patch will include updated interiors for the XF and XR (GTR and road) cars.

These caused some hotlaps to go out of sync due to things like the driver being in a slightly different position, so we took the opportunity to move (and lower) the centre of gravity of all the GTR cars and the XRT and RB4 to improve handling and hopefully improve class balancing. The XRT and RB4 have also had some small improvements to the rear suspension that make them nicer to drive. When Patch Z is released, the existing hotlaps for eight of the cars (XFG / UFR / XFR / XRT / RB4 / XRR / FXR / FZR) will need to be deleted.

While most people will be happy to see these improvements, we predict that some will be disappointed that the other GTR cars are not yet done. But don't worry, the FZ updates are near complete and we are keen to get that released along with the FXO updates as soon as possible - but not in time for Patch Z which will look very much like today's test patch and should be released next week.

The remaining GTR updates are part of the needed updates for LFS S2 to lose the ALPHA tag. Some other updates that should mostly be done to get out of ALPHA are :

- Improve collision physics
- Break off wings instead of bending
- Finish and release Westhill updates
- Improve track shadow rendering
- RB4 / UF1 / UFR interiors

I've noticed some discontent about the rate of progress and all I can do is assure you that no-one wants LFS out of ALPHA more than we do! Of course, by updating and releasing the clearly unfinished things mentioned here.

We are also working on and considering other things that we can't talk about, partly due to confidentiality and partly because it's not a good idea to raise expectations. Sometimes, things that are planned end up not happening so we keep them to ourselves until things become definite.

Well that's it, I hope you enjoy today's test patch. There are plenty more improvements to come!

- Scawen

Originally Posted by Dajmin
S2 losing the ALPHA tag? That means cleaning up the bugs from this round (S2 BETA) then on to S3 alpha, right? RIGHT?

Exciting times!

Well it's not losing the ALPHA tag yet. It will take quite a long time to do all those needed updates to get it out of ALPHA.

So when we wake up, we'll have a new test patch to try!!!

[r8response]

Is this all in response to the release of iRacing? Seeing it as a threat they've decided to push things along more quickly!

[Duke]

As Scottie eluded to here is the new Test Patch Y30
Beware this is an incompatible test patch, that requires an unlock. I suggest you make a backup of LFS if you intend to use it.
It might also pay to backup any custom interiors you already use.

Hello Racers.

Here is a new INCOMPATIBLE Test Patch, Y30.

You cannot connect to any older versions!
You cannot upload hotlaps until next week!
You need to unlock again and I've made sure everyone has two unlocks available

New updates :
- updated XF and XR interiors
- some other small interior updates
- some physics updates

All changes in Y30 are listed below.
NOTE - XFR / XRR MIRROR SKIN MAPPINGS :

The XFR and XRR have new mirrors and the old mappings could not be used.
I need to release an updated viewer for the new models.
For now, I have attached skin templates to this post so you can update your skins.
Changes in TEST PATCH Y30 :

Updated interiors in XF and XR (GTR and road) cars
Formula XR and Formula V8 also have updated interiors
Wind speeds and variations are now more moderate / less wild
Moved and lowered centre of gravity in GTR cars for better handling
Lowered centre of gravity and updated rear suspension of XRT and RB4
FIX : FPS display could overlap editor keys in SHIFT+U mode
FIX : RB4 dashboard went wrong in left hand drive mode
FIX : User could spam TCP requests causing overload

Known issues :
Stray pixels at texture edges increased by AA / AF
Dedicated host does not display double byte characters
Name of active Chinese input method is not shown in Vista

[DUcK]

yay.

[wabbit]

Yay, but then again not really. I think my issue is the lack of new content. Interiors changed/update? Yes but id still be driving the same cars & tracks. Looks like i'll keep waiting

[ReppohC]

At least the interiors now look pretty mint. Gtrs especially. Heck even the open wheelers... And they changed the wheels on some of the cars? AND some of the cars now have transparent headlights. Night racing anyone?

[Sambo]

[Hz-Lab]

i thought some of the cars had transparent headlights before.

[Duke]

i thought some of the cars had transparent headlights before.

Yeah I am sure they did too, however the XRR now has its main lights showing rather than covered, the XRG/T still have them covered so I doubt night racing is on the cards just yet.

Got to say the new GTR interiors are pretty sweet, it's pleasing to finally get some proper GTR interiors & as well they are finally different to their standard road car interior. Also the new MOTEC/PSI looking dash is a great addition to
However with the changes made to the XRR & XFR wing mirrors all existing skins need modifying (slightly) using the new default skin template. The mirrors will look pretty cool skinned in Carbon effect. Speaking of which does anyone else think the mirror stems look a bit to thin & flimsy?

[Mr.Ferret]

pics please

[r8response]

pics please

Check this post http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php? ... post842966

[wabbit]

however the XRR now has its main lights showing rather than covered

Should have been pop-up headlights! Then again maybe not for a GTR version... eh i'd love to see them anyways while racing.

[Enforcer-J]

I really couldnt give a damn about all theses small "unfinished" areas of LFS. Is my LFS gaming experience really going to change much if a wing breaks off instead of bending? No! I think its safe to assume that most people would rather new content, especially some new tracks already! I've raced the same circuits over and over for over 3 years and now I'm bored and looking for new challenges.

[Duke]

I really couldnt give a damn about all theses small "unfinished" areas of LFS. Is my LFS gaming experience really going to change much if a wing breaks off instead of bending? No! I think its safe to assume that most people would rather new content, especially some new tracks already! I've raced the same circuits over and over for over 3 years and now I'm bored and looking for new challenges.

Yep, no argument from me on this En-J. by the way love the monkey

[wabbit]

... by the way love the monkey

Isn't that used from Super Troopers?

[Enforcer-J]

Lol I just changed my avi then! Yeah it was Johnny Chimpo from super troopers meow

[Rots]

... Is my LFS gaming experience really going to change much if a wing breaks off instead of bending? ...

Well it should. If they do it right, then I'd expect that making the wings break off would mean it no longer offers any downforce once gone greatly affecting the cars handling.

Other than that, the changes don't seam all that great.. at least some new tracks (not layout on an existing track) would be nice when S2 is realised, or sooner.