Live for Speed - Impressive New Graphic Shader Previews

[Paul Jeffrey]

Live for Speed is a game that refuses to lay down and retire - the developers now showcasing some rather impressive graphical updates currently in the works...

One of the better sim racing games some 14 + years ago, Live for Speed should by all rights have been relegated to the back of the sim racer memory, something that would be of no surprise to those who followed the game back in the day as much of the development support around it from the three man team slowed to a crawl following stage 2 release in 2005.

However like a phoenix from the flames, recent years have seen something of a resurgence for the title, where a steady stream of rather impressive looking updates have been released and done much to breathe new life into the simulation. In the theme of pushing the current game engine to its maximum potential, the Live for Speed development team have a rather tasty looking shader update in the works... aimed at bringing a much improved graphical appearance to a title that continues to defy its grand old age.

In the latest blog posting from the team, we see a selection of images from the virtual rendition of the Rockingham Speedway in England - really showing off the excellent work that has been undertaken by the small group of dedicated developers.

Live for Speed is available exclusively to PC.

Check out the Live for Speed sub forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest Live for Speed news and discussions.

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Do you still play LFS? Do you like the look of the new shader update in the pipeline? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!​

 

[Dr. Death]

Why this isn't on steam after all these years blows my mind....

I assume because of their pricing model and the small revenue lost from Steam?

I confess I no longer play it, because the online racing died (the basic graphics never bothered me, despite really annoying some people) but I'll always love this sim.

Mark my words, one day that tyre physics model is gonna arrive, non-believers!!!

Dead online? Have you even tried it? I still find full servers from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, USA, UK, and Poland sometimes. Granted, just on demo content, but still.

 

[aka2k]

Whoa, it looks just as good as any 2007 game now! Grid still beats it.

The worst part is: it looks miles better than rF2 even without the shaders. Still a rather pleasant looking game with very good physics, but too bad it's way back in the past now.

 

[arniesan]

Yep, I used to play it a lot, but now to be honest, I just forget about it.
Maybe it needs to be pushed on Steam, look what happened to Reiza studios.

 

[Alex72]

That is VERY realistic looking. Sweet.

 

[Dan Costa]

LFS was the prom queen from 2005-2008. 14 years later, I see her sometimes in a bar across the street, stuck in the past still wearing the same dress hair and makeup. I still ogle its tyre model and can imagine it still drives great.
But the competition got modern and fierce to unbelievable levels. I can't let go the easy gratification of real cars, sound and life-like graphics that also drives great (if not better, today).

 

[AccAkut]

It's actually kinda impressive, if you think about it. They first announced the car in 2008, the same year the Scirocco started production, and now they've delayed for longer than the car has been in production. The unfulfilled promise of a car has outlived the actual car

actually the "LFS Scirocco" ended production in 2014, and the facelift that came after it also ceased production in 2017.

I can't get over Scawen still defending Eric's work load. A senior 3D artist who manages to make one car and maybe two updates for existing tracks in ten years? I even posted a CM render of my evolved RAC there on the forum with a cynic text basically mocking Eric, sorta expecting it get deleted maybe get me banned, but its still there...

Sure the pics look nice. Its all just 8 years too late, @Dan Costa formulates it well. I'd add that at its peak LFS was as great as it was due to free community involvement, CTRA/STCC and similar server systems based on volunteer work, and it wasn't ever really acknowledged by the Devs

 

[Fred E Jay]

Believe it or not, this "good'ol'game" is compatible with VR !

 

[JackCY]

Why this isn't on steam after all these years blows my mind....

Why would it be when they have their own online distribution system before even Steam existed

Many even latest games are not on Steam, are Blizzard games on Steam? Nope. How about EA? Nope. How about Activision? Nope. Steam isn't free to use either for developers.

Why it's not popular anymore? Well very small development team, very small lengthy progress and all you see is teasers for ages. While physics are nice they are not as nice for 2010+ era, has it even updated it's tyre model yet? Tracks are great, car selection OK but no modding definitely killed it off. The API to make apps wasn't exactly user friendly either, nor stable and kept compatible with updates.

It sure has the best so far online web system that no other big or small sim or simcade yet came close to.

 

[delpinsky]

Shaders are impressive!
It's a pity the sim is most of the times behind the scenes.
Hope they can have the chance to be supported by some bigger company to bring further the development. Back in the day I liked to play the demo.

 

[mclaren777]

LFS may be old, but its FFB and physics are far superior to modern sims like PC2.

I'm glad it's still in development.

 

[JackCY]

PC2 isn't a sim, it's renamed NFS from same developers, an arcade or simcade if you want.

 

[Dan Costa]

PC2 isn't a sim, it's renamed NFS from same developers, an arcade or simcade if you want.

beautiful graphics and vr implementation though.

 

[sebduloiret]

so so so many good thing come back to my memories with LFS ....
i remember all this fight on blackwood , rwd vs fwd was so fun

the game who have make me start the simracing with wheel and triple screen ( again thanks for all mister scawen and his team ^^ )

 

[Neilski]

Dead online? Have you even tried it? I still find full servers from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, USA, UK, and Poland sometimes. Granted, just on demo content, but still.

I haven't driven for probably a year or more, but demo is exactly the problem. It's completely free and thus you basically can't ban wreckers/hotheads. Net result: the quality of racing on them was so variable I gave up entirely on demo servers and my server list was set up to not even show them.

 

[electriC82]

Disapponting GAME ever!

We now wait for Scirocco for 10 !!! Years!!!
We now wait for the NEW TYRE PHYSICS 10 !!! YEARS!!!

BOTH have not been released yet!

You call it "impressive new graphics shader" Fine...

Cars in LFS are looking sooo bad, so old. The devs would have to do them from scratch new, that LFS would look nice.

Tracks are OK, but of course not on the same level of similar racing games.

Physics: Have been the best over years imo, BUT this time was 14 !! years ago! Nowadays physics and FFB feels really bad compared to AC, rFactor 2 and even to Project Cars 2.

Some new graphics shader should make that game good? No, it does not!

LFS is dead ! ! !

 

[Dr. Death]

I haven't driven for probably a year or more, but demo is exactly the problem. It's completely free and thus you basically can't ban wreckers/hotheads. Net result: the quality of racing on them was so variable I gave up entirely on demo servers and my server list was set up to not even show them.

Well, yeah, i know that most demo content servers are mostly just drift/**** around modes but live for speed is in a content model and purchase site that begs people not to use it, not to mention that before this, the last update or even communication from the devs was in january 2017, about the blackwood update.

If you want more people on paid content, that's up to the LFS team to fix. But if you do NOT mind the demo content, the online IS still alive, since its together with RRR the only faithful simulators that you can play for free. And you can still find racing some people that you could swear are either aliens, or make you feel really bad about your driving setup.

 

[walken]

PC2 isn't a sim, it's renamed NFS from same developers, an arcade or simcade if you want.

Still here @JackCY !?!?!?! Same developers of gtr2 !?!?

 

[JJ72]

Believe it or not, this "good'ol'game" is compatible with VR !

And in VR your helmet moves with your actual head movement.....crazyyyy

 

[shmafoozius]

Why this isn't on steam after all these years blows my mind....

I assume because of their pricing model and the small revenue lost from Steam?

I believe Scawen stated at some point that they cannot do this due to the company type they have used for registering their company. In the end, I think it's what Dr. Death stated but due to reasons resulting from that.

 

[Dragon60]

I started into Sim Racing maybe half year ago with LFS Demo and R3E Demo and in the meantime I´m a big Autombilista and RaceRoom Fan, but I had great fun with LFS(S2) and I still have. It maybe a bit outdated but it´s somehow special and unique. Thats what I like about it.