Live for Speed – Update V0.6V Released

Live for Speed might be old, but it is very much alive and kicking, as the small development team has released a new major update for the online racing game.

Update V0.6v features a good list of new features, fixes, and improvements, and introduces an expanded range of setup options for some of the LFS cars, allowing more possibilities for rallycross and drifting. Furthermore, the update includes improvements for force feedback, improved controls including steering wheels and handbrake, more layout objects, VR improvements, better views, and more.

Check out the full changelog below, for more details.

LFS Quote:

We were able to implement these changes by making a new version that could not connect online with the old version. Wider steering angles and a wide range of tyres are now possible on the GTR cars by selecting a new ALTERNATE configuration in the setup screen. This also allows some interesting possibilities for hard track racing as narrower tyres can be selected, which can help when creating lower-powered racing classes for some events.

As we were making an incompatible version, it was a good opportunity to improve the prediction system that allows you to see remote cars driving on your screen. Every car’s position, velocity, fuel load, damage and so on are transmitted frequently to all the other racers on a server. We have used various methods to make this information more accurate so the cars appear to move more smoothly. We were also able to improve some things about pit stops. For example you can now change tyres without being forced to repair body or suspension damage.

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Official Webpage – www.lfs.net

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Changelog – V0.6U to V0.6V:

Multiplayer:

• Maximum packets per second (/pps) has been increased to 12
• Rolling resistance included in catch-up phase of prediction
• Wear and temperature packet is more frequent and more accurate
• Position packet now includes contact patch offset for each tyre
• Reduced steering glitch each time a position packet is received
• More accurate transmission of fuel load from local to remote car
• Position packets are sent more frequently in response to steering
• You can now add up to 32 local drivers (real + ai) in multiplayer
• Easier to set up LAN race: local IP address is shown on host screen
• You can enter the local network computer name instead of IP address
• FIX: Remote cars with worn tread could wrongly get a puncture
• FIX: Car on pit speed limiter sent maximum packets per second
• FIX: Stop-go penalty caused car to get stuck in custom pit stop
• FIX: Remote car’s tyre temperature over 200 appeared black (cold)
• FIX: Remote tyre temperatures increased too slowly in skid or spin

New ALTERNATE setup configuration for the five GTR cars:

• Selecting the new config in XRR/FZR/FXR decreases tyre width a bit
• With ALTERNATE config, narrower tyres may be selected (adds offset)
• Also ROAD_SUPER, ROAD_NORMAL, HYBRID, KNOBBLY tyres may be selected
• High “Maximum Lock” is possible in XRR/FZR with narrower wheels
• XR GTR in ALTERNATE config has H-pattern shifter

Tyre choices and steering lock:

• XFR and UFR maximum steering lock increased to 30 degrees
• LX4 and LX6 maximum steering lock increased to 45 degrees
• Single seater racing cars can now use ROAD_SUPER tyres

Steering:

• Steering wheel turn amount changes with maximum lock
• Road cars now have 900 degrees steering range with default setup
• XF and UF GTR have 540 degrees steering range with default setup
• Updated and fixed steering animations to cover new steering range
• Removed option “Move view with animation” which had little effect

Commands:

• Command /canrefuel (no/yes) to set refuelling allowed in pit stops
• Command /showfuel (no/yes) allows remote car fuel load to be seen
• Most admin commands with parameter omitted now report current value
• Command /block (0/1/2) to block user messages (like the minus key)
• Command /spectv (no/yes) prevents selecting TV camera on spectate
• /press and /shift commands now support ‘minus’ as parameter
• /mprlag X simulates online packet delay of X ms (+ no smoothing)
• /mprsmooth X (0 or 1) to disable or enable input smoothing

Interface:

• Pit speed limit is shown when car speed is below 2/3 of limit
• Yellow and blue flags now alternate with RCM or penalty message
• Virtual steering gauge hidden if live settings or pit instructions
• Blocked messages remain blocked when returning from game to lobby
• Prevented auto-repeat on block message and light switching keys
• Momentary flick to rear view after SHIFT+R is now avoided
• Avoided downshift after pressing SHIFT+X to exit free view
• In fact any ‘key held’ function after SHIFT+key is prevented
• Saving replay name now shown beside option in Game Options
• Minus key (block messages) now works in all screens
• Many updated translations – thank you, translators

Garage:

• Tyre size displayed in Tyres tab in Garage
• Brakes / TC tab in garage separated into two columns (e.g. FZ50)
• FIX: Heat in garage car’s tyres was not updated when tyre changed

F12 pit instructions:

• Damage repair not required when changing pressure or compound
• Pressure change with new tyre no longer counts as SETUP CHANGES
• When alternative config is selected F12 display shows tyre size
• A new ‘cancel’ option beside the ‘setup changes requested’ line
• Settings that will be adjusted are now shown in light red colour
• FIX: rear tyre pressure was limited by front tyre pressure limits
• FIX: symmetric pressure/camber request remained after pit stop

Skin downloads:

• Faster skin downloads when joining server (and auto updater)
• Slightly faster skin downloads when driver joins race in-game
• FIX: Skin downloading could get stuck after a large header

CPU usage display:

• In Graphics or Misc options (in-game) click car icon then ‘P’
• You can now see CPU usage for Physics, Draw, Prediction, etc.
• The “Pred” line shows CPU usage for prediction of remote cars
• Prediction time also shows up in an MPR if /mprlag is set

Support for live multiplayer replays:

• Replay identified as live when starting to watch an unfinished MPR
• Does not exit replay after fast forwarding to current time
• Catch up to live position by clicking >| button
• Skins can be downloaded while watching a live replay
• Save replay while temp_mpr is being viewed – copy instead of rename
• Start new mpr while temp_mpr is in use – tries temp_mpr_1 (up to 9)
• /mprflush X to flush mpr to file every X seconds (0 = disable)
• MPR / SPR are prevented from being named temp_mpr / temp_spr

VR:

• Updated OpenVR to version 1.10.30
• Improved timing of obtaining view each frame
• New “Antialiasing” option to select 4x or 8x multisampling
• New “Resolution adjustment” slider (also known as supersampling)
• Names over cars could fade differently in each eye in Pimax headset
• Virtual keyboard is shown at dialog height if no dialog is visible
• Space bar VR click auto disabled when you type with real keyboard
• FIX: Head tracking / mirrors wrong if car leaned with horizon lock
• FIX: Free view FOV was wrong after entering VR in free view
• FIX: Names above cars looked wrong in Pimax headsets
• FIX: Some trees looked wrong in Pimax headsets

Views:

• Horizon lock now has a strength slider option
• View filter time maximum value increased to 1 second
• Improved key control (4/5/6/7) of free view field of view
• Three screens are now assumed when aspect ratio is 4:1 (was 3:1)
• Free view mode minimum field of view reduced from 10 to 2 degrees
• FIX: Filtered view went wrong with low filter time + replay speedup

Graphics:

• Avoid upward lighting related to ground colour in internal views
• Car shadows now use anisotropic filtering to reduce shimmering
• Increased distance for car subobjects to become invisible

Controls:

• Handbrake strength is now separately adjustable
• Gearshift debounce setting now applies to all controller buttons
• Mouse X and Y sensitivity (in Axes tab) lower limit reduced to 0.5
• FIX: Rare manual shift at high speed to 1st/rev during auto shift

Force Feedback:

• New settings are available under Axes / FF in Options – Controls
• FF Steps maximum value is now 10000 (the maximum in DirectInput)
• FF Rate is now controlled by a user setting (25 / 50 / 100 Hz)

New handling for ‘CAR.lfs’ and ‘shift_type.lfs’ scripts:

• LFS runs ‘road.lfs’ / ‘sequential.lfs’ / ‘paddle.lfs’ directly
• (previously these scripts were called from a CAR.lfs script)
• This is done after loading a car and immediately before CAR.lfs
• Commands to run these scripts from another script are ignored

Training:

• FIX: AI changed to low fuel load if overtaking lesson restarted
• FIX: AI skill / admin commands no longer processed during training
• FIX: Training lesson did not end if replay saving was interrupted
• FIX: Logo was visible under title during lesson replay

InSim (for programmers):

• Config byte added to IS_NPL packet indicates setup configuration
• IS_CPP Pos is now relative to “Centre view” not the user setting
• IS_NPL RWAdj / FWAdj indicate rear / front tyre width reduction
• New bytes set if /showfuel=yes: IS_NPL Fuel / IS_PIT FuelAdd
• IS_SPX and IS_LAP new byte Fuel200 indicates fuel remaining
• IS_RES: TTime in qualifying now indicates time in session
• IS_RES: PLID is now zero if the player has left the race
• IS_CPP: FOV can now be used in-car but not smoothed (0 = no change)
• InSim NLP / MCI minimum time interval reduced to 10 ms (was 40 ms)
• FIX: It was possible to miss IS_PSF packet after taking over car
• FIX: STime in IS_PSF packet was wrong after car was taken over
• FIX: Free view roll is now reported in InSim IS_CPP packet

More telemetry data for OutSim:

• New data fields documented in docs\OutSimPack.txt
• Enable by setting the OutSim Opts value in cfg.txt
• All data options can be switched on with OutSim Opts 1ff

Misc:

• Maximum number of layout objects increased to 2400
• When LFS is set to close the reason is logged to deb.log file
• Added a little more logging about D3D initialisation to deb.log
• CAR.lfs scripts are reliably run when user car is spawned or reset
• Restored code preventing 2 cars joining autocross within 3 seconds
• FIX: Wrong warning “Road tyres on rallycross track” in hotlapping
• FIX: Memory leak related to threads (most often for skin download)
• FIX: Replays from old Westhill before 2015 now marked as obsolete
• FIX: Driver names ending with a lead byte could corrupt text
• FIX: Issues with driver names ending with caret character