Live For Speed 20th Anniversary & New Tracks!

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On the 18th August 2002, a test demo for Live For Speed was made known publicly for the first time. It featured 3 cars and the famous Blackwood circuit along with limited online capabilities.

Those who tried the demo were highly impressed with the physics at the time, and since then the title has continued to grow and evolve at its own pace.

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of this momentous occasion, and what a journey it has been.

Incredibly, this venerable sim is still going strong today thanks to a dedicated community of fans who are involved in racing, cruising and now modding.

To celebrate this milestone of achievement, the team behind Live For Speed have provided a development update that includes plenty of new screenshots and some interesting news.

Graphical Update​

It is well known that the team have been working on a graphical update for South City for some time. Although there is still work to do on the track model, they have revealed some more impressive images of their updates so far including a number with the new day/night cycle.

Alongside the South City update, they have shared some screenshots of not one, but two new track layouts which are in development:

Bancroft Autodrome a fictional circuit based on a UK WW2 airfield

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Fairfield Test Centre a vehicle proving ground

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Both of these new tracks are yet to be released, but are already looking very good indeed.

Tyre model and Physics system​

Besides new content, the team have also revealed that they are working on the tyre model and a new physics system that aims to improve the accuracy and smoothness of the engine. This will not only improve the quality, especially when running in VR, but will also allow for measuring lap times up to 1/1000th of a second.

Although Live For Speed updates are a rare treat, it is testament to the sim and it’s community that it is still being developed after 20 years, and I am sure possibly for another 20 years more.
About author
Phil Rose
A passionate sim racer with over 20 years of virtual and real world motorsport experience, I am the owner and lead content creator at Sim Racing Bible as well as a writer here at RaceDepartment. I love all forms of motorsport, especially historic motorsport, but when it comes to sim racing, I will drive anything!

Comments

Amazing sim. Small, but 110% dedicate team. Congratulation for their work. I really enjoyed driving in LFS, first in demo version, countless of laps on Blackwood, and then I bought the license and had even more fun.
And lfsworld.net it is still up and running and you can find there all the statistics, from the beginning until now. Great work.
Happy anniversary !!!!
P.S. Thanks to lfsworld, those "countless laps" can be ... counted ;-)
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Well done LFS team! Love to see it still receiving updates :)

I've always enjoyed driving Blackwood on the demo (looked great, fun cars to drive) but never bought the license because I'm an offline racer, and the AI seemed slow and janky. To those who own the s3 license and who've played LFS more... are the AI enough for some fun? Are there other single player things to do in the sim?
 
Well done LFS team! Love to see it still receiving updates :)

I've always enjoyed driving Blackwood on the demo (looked great, fun cars to drive) but never bought the license because I'm an offline racer, and the AI seemed slow and janky. To those who own the s3 license and who've played LFS more... are the AI enough for some fun? Are there other single player things to do in the sim?
About as much to do in single player as rF2, which is frickin' embarrassing to rF2. But, I always found the AI to be a good challenge. Its been said they get better the more you drive against them. I always found the cars so immersive that I didn't take note of the jankiness of which you heard. I used LFS to learn to double clutch heel-toe. That's a workout! I'm sure the AI are complaining more about me ramming them from behind on my missed shifts and lockups...
 
Congrats to the LFS team! It has been a long time since I played LFS. Need to try this again, also since I recently switched from a G27 to a Fanatec GT DD Pro with 8nm boost kit.
 
Well done LFS team! Love to see it still receiving updates :)

I've always enjoyed driving Blackwood on the demo (looked great, fun cars to drive) but never bought the license because I'm an offline racer, and the AI seemed slow and janky. To those who own the s3 license and who've played LFS more... are the AI enough for some fun? Are there other single player things to do in the sim?
The Ai can always use help but if you race them enough they get better and better, and you can let them lap over night and they keep improving. It's wild
 
I for o e love this Sim and what they've done, now with car creator available and still getting updates.
It is really good well worth it and the online races were some of the best I ve ever had
 
About as much to do in single player as rF2, which is frickin' embarrassing to rF2. But, I always found the AI to be a good challenge. Its been said they get better the more you drive against them. I always found the cars so immersive that I didn't take note of the jankiness of which you heard. I used LFS to learn to double clutch heel-toe. That's a workout! I'm sure the AI are complaining more about me ramming them from behind on my missed shifts and lockups...
Good to know! Thanks for your thoughts :)
 
Those screenshots look pretty nice actually: have there been lighting upgrades? Has a PBR sort of look to it to me
 
Much respect to dedicated small team of developers.

First time I tried LFS I was blown away by the realism and immersion, I still think it feels great and the graphics never impacted on my addiction for months when I was starting out.

If their goal was to create an immersive and realistic sim experience, they have succeeded and then some.
 
loved it back in the day, started me in league racing and taught me one can do one's own skins. Haven't touched it in years, though, but good to know I could actually get it started again
 
Premium
Talk about flying under the radar, congratulations to LFS for their passionate and dedicated development of their Sim for 20 years.
I personally have always been impressed with the look and feel of their tracks....well done team.
 

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