Live for Speed: Version 0.6K Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

Rare as rocking horse waste since 2008, Live For Speed have released an update for the impressive little racing simulation title first released in 2006, bringing a laser scanned version of England's Rockingham Motor Speedway and various graphical enhancements.

Originally revealed in 2008, Rockingham Motor Speedway has been a long time coming for LFS fans, and this latest edition does not disappoint. Featuring both Oval and Infield course configurations this laser scanned circuit is an interesting addition to the majority fictional circuits currently found in game.

Live for Speed was one of the first racing sims to properly implement VR support in the form of Oculus Rift compatibility, and this latest V0.6K update recognises the continual growth in popularity of Virtual Reality gaming by adding implementation of HTC Vive headset support through OpenVR, further extending the shelf life of a title now heading into its 11th year since release.

Improvements to the in game graphics (as can be seen by the screenshots in the post) include a new reflection and shaders system giving a pretty impressive boost to the visual experience, one that will surely be popular with fans of the title.

Please note you will need an S3 license to unlock the Rockingham track. S3 licenses are available via the LFS website. If you already have S1 or S2, the price of your existing license will be deducted from the full price of S3. Further S3 content is understood to be in development but currently Rockingham is the only S3 content available.

Changelog:

• Rockingham race track is now included – S3 license required
• Now avoid ramming other cars when in the pit lane or lap of honou
• Max drivers in single player increased to 24 (online max still 40)
• New reflections system and shaders for cars and buildings
• Nearby objects are visible in new dynamic reflections on cars
• Option to set number of dynamic reflections in main view and mirror
• Misc option to enable a programmable post-processing shader
• New command /rsh to reload shaders (e.g. after editing externally)
• Maximum number of controllers increased to 10 (was previously 8)
• HTC Vive headset is now supported through OpenVR
• Oculus Rift support now requires runtime 0.7 or later
• Improved dialog sequence after any error entering VR mode
• SHIFT+T on main entry screen to access lesson editor or list editor
• Layouts for lessons must be copied from layout to training folder
• SHIFT+T on training screen to view and test newly added lessons
• Improved validity check when loading car colour settings
• Alpha sorting issue on bricks at base of a South City building
• AI could go wrong when entering BL pit lane for a pit stop
• AI driver names can no longer be blank
• Rockingham laser scanned environment

TIPS on using Live for Speed with a VR headset :
Note: For Oculus, Runtime 0.7 (or later) is required

How to enter VR mode in LFS :

• Start LFS and click 3D on the View Options Screen
• Select VR headset and click OK

To reset your seating position, the text command /rift reset is assigned by default to the F8 key.

• When a new driver takes over, ask them to look straight ahead then press F8
  Key assignments can be edited in Options – Game – F1 to F8

Accessing your desktop while LFS is in VR mode.

• You will find that your mouse cursor is confined to the LFS window
• Press CTRL+C to free the mouse and now the mouse can go onto the desktop

Do you still play LFS? Tried the new update yet? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[WPxNJ]

Man, time flies.
LFS was my 1st online racing experience-in 2003.
One Christmas, years ago, remember the free car-a little student trainer open wheeler?

 

[Yapci]

S3 is finally here!!! Oh wait...

 

[William Levesque]

I only play LFS to do Death Rally with my team and co... And apparently Rockingham doesn't have sufficient Death Rally capacities

 

[Andy_J]

Is that really a bad thing to be called?

Pirate/thief/scumbag lowlife.......................take your pick.

 

[Terry Rock]

I'll pass on S3 until I see an additional content commitment.
I already own S1 and S2 and am not really a fan of oval tracks.
Paying twelve pounds for one track with no real timeline laid out, is not something I'm interested in.

 

[Ryan Soucy]

I'll pass on S3 until I see an additional content commitment.
I already own S1 and S2 and am not really a fan of oval tracks.
Paying twelve pounds for one track with no real timeline laid out, is not something I'm interested in.

That's the question, what's next? I just paid $3.50 for 5 cars, so I (shockingly to myself) am not totally against paying for content. But with pCars, I know I'll at least have career events to use these new cars.

As for Rockingham, what a great facility! Quirky oval, and so many configurations. BTCC is my favorite. (But I'm not paying 12 pounds for it!)

 

[bozla]

I just bought it and tried it. I love Rockingham (both the lfs and real life track) but LFS is just dead to me. I was hoping that they might have improved the FFB but alas no. The steering wheel feels just as lifeless as it always was. What the hell is the point in laser scanning the track when you can't feel any of the road surface/bumps?

 

[Spinelli]

Live For Speed, as-well as Driver's Republic Alpha (and close behind those two: Netkar Pro) are the only sims that I control/dictate and correct/save oversteer in a pretty-much 1:1 manner with real-life. Every other sim has it's particular way of how oversteer happens/acts/reacts and just gets worse and worse, more "digital" and unnatural, the faster or "hardcore" the car being driven is. It (LFS) does seem a little lifeless in-terms of other aspects of it's physics (not going to get into a detailed analysis here) but in-terms of pure oversteer behaviour, LFS (along with DR Alpha) still blows every current sim away.

I don't get the S3 thing though. I thought S3 was supposed to represent some huge update - the next stage/evolution of LFS. Isn't that what S1 to S2 was?? All I see is a minor update and a "OK guys, let's randomly decide to start calling it S3 from now on" sort of thing...

 

[TzZyO]

Live For Speed, as-well as Driver's Republic Alpha (and close behind those two: Netkar Pro) are the only sims that I control/dictate and correct/save oversteer in a pretty-much 1:1 manner with real-life. Every other sim has it's particular way of how oversteer happens/acts/reacts and just gets worse and worse, more "digital" and unnatural, the faster or "hardcore" the car being driven is. It (LFS) does seem a little lifeless in-terms of other aspects of it's physics (not going to get into a detailed analysis here) but in-terms of pure oversteer behaviour, LFS (along with DR Alpha) still blows every current sim away.

I don't get the S3 thing though. I thought S3 was supposed to represent some huge update - the next stage/evolution of LFS. Isn't that what S1 to S2 was?? All I see is a minor update and a "OK guys, let's randomly decide to start calling it S3 from now on" sort of thing...

Have you really tried any recent builds of rF2?

 

[yusupov]

Have you really tried any recent builds of rF2?

now youve done it...

 

[Spinelli]

Have you really tried any recent builds of rF2?

95% of all my simracing in my life has been from ISI engine and I'd say 75% of all my simracing in the past 3 years has been with RF2.

 

[William Levesque]

Live For Speed, as-well as Driver's Republic Alpha (and close behind those two: Netkar Pro) are the only sims that I control/dictate and correct/save oversteer in a pretty-much 1:1 manner with real-life. Every other sim has it's particular way of how oversteer happens/acts/reacts and just gets worse and worse, more "digital" and unnatural, the faster or "hardcore" the car being driven is. It (LFS) does seem a little lifeless in-terms of other aspects of it's physics (not going to get into a detailed analysis here) but in-terms of pure oversteer behaviour, LFS (along with DR Alpha) still blows every current sim away.

Eh, LFS is way too easy over the limit, not snappy enough. Sure, getting there it feels pretty good, but you can get so far over without the car giving up it's a bit weird really.

 

[TzZyO]

95% of all my simracing in my life has been from ISI engine and I'd say 75% of all my simracing in the past 3 years has been with RF2.

Despite its being "blown away" by LFS? What's the point of not using a sim which blows away all the competition most of the time? Sounds counterintuitive to me.

 

[Spinelli]

Eh, LFS is way too easy over the limit, not snappy enough. Sure, getting there it feels pretty good, but you can get so far over without the car giving up it's a bit weird really.

The open-wheel cars can definitely be snappy and can be lost if you don't correct very fast. And they behave naturally (even if technically not snappy enough).

 

[Spinelli]

Despite its being "blown away" by LFS? What's the point of not using a sim which blows away all the competition most of the time? Sounds counterintuitive to me.

Hmmm....I'm not sure what you mean...I never said LFS blows away RF2 (or any sim) most of the time. I only said regarding a specific scenario.

 

[William Levesque]

The open-wheel cars can definitely be snappy and can be lost if you don't correct very fast. And they behave naturally (even if technically not snappy enough).

It's been a while since I drove the open wheels, but yeah, I think those were ok... (I usually do Death Rally )

However on LFS having a locked diff in everything is faster, which seems incredibly strange. Overall fast setups seem to take advantage of physics flaws a lot (I'm in a team that used to win a lot on LFS back in the days, before I joined).

 

[TzZyO]

Hmmm....I'm not sure what you mean...I never said LFS blows away RF2 (or any sim) most of the time. I only said regarding a specific scenario.

Ah, yes, missed that. But I still disagree Not to mention that nKP despite being a good sim had terrible oversteer issues.
When it comes to controlling oversteer it's in my book rF2 that blows everything else away. Broken mods can make things look really ugly, but it's the good ones that count.

 

[Spinelli]

William, I wouldn't doubt you, it's by no means perfect. I never got into it to the point where I really took much notice in lap times, in-fact, I've never even tried any track other than the main one (Blackwood?) Although the street one and it's different configs look good.

I believe LFS's driving experience gets better and more natural the quicker and "harder" the car is unlike most, if not every other, sim which is sort of the opposite as thet get more "digital" and unnatural the quicker/"harder" the car becomes.

The road cars in LFS always felt weird to me in the sense that they always felt like they were setup for drifting even when using a regular setup. I agree with you in that the drifting of the road cars seemed a little too serene and "gingerly" even compared to real life. I feel there's also this weirdness somewhere between the entry and midcorner of medium speed corners - with even some of LFS's racecars - where it feels like you have to keep adding more and more steering lock (an overly amount) when trying to extract the most out of the front tyres' limits. Sometimes the overal behaviour just seems a little too serene. For these reasons, I never could get much into LFS. The "raw" driving and "laptime driving" aspect never grabbed me. In LFSs defense though, I've only tried 5 or so cars ever, and haven't played with setups much at all GP2-type car.

 

[Spinelli]

Ah, yes, missed that. But I still disagree Not to mention that nKP despite being a good sim had terrible oversteer issues.
When it comes to controlling oversteer it's in my book rF2 that blows everything else away. Broken mods can make things look really ugly, but it's the good ones that count.

If you think NKP has terrible oversteer issues then I'm literally trying not to rip my own face off trying to figure out how you could then go on to say that RF2 (or anything ISI physics engine based) blows everything else away with regards to oversteer behaviour (and control of that oversteer), lol.

 

[TzZyO]

If you think NKP has terrible oversteer issues then I'm literally trying not to rip my own face off trying to figure out how you could then go on to say that RF2 (or anything ISI physics engine based) blows everything else away with regards to oversteer behaviour (and control of that oversteer), lol.

I wouldn't generalize isiMotor engines. rF2 is miles ahead even from GSCE. And there is currently no other isiMotor 2.5 title that I know of.
As for nKP, well, it was quite a time ago. The only thing that really caught my attention in the sim was it's transmission modelling.

Maybe it's just that I started driving open-wheelers much more often with the latest rF2 builds. Before that I mostly preferred street/classic GT cars, so that could be the reason for the discrepancies between our views of the simulations.