LFS.net News: Progress report

Dear LFS Racers,

We hope you have had a good year.

The stable Z28 has been the latest version for a long time now, while we have been working on things for the long term future of LFS. As many of you know, the tyre physics system is being updated so all the cars will behave that bit closer to reality. It has proved to be a challenging and unpredictable project, involving a lot of studying, mathematics, testing and rewriting.

Sometimes, we had a version that felt good to drive and it seemed that soon we would be able to release it to the community. But then we found situations where the simulation produced incorrect results, leading to further investigations into the way tyres perform in various circumstances and why they do so. One thing tends to lead to another and for a while it seems that the more you learn about tyres, the more you realise that there is so much more to find out! 

Scawen has written a little more about tyre design and simulation in case you would like to get a bit more technical.

The VW Scirocco and Rockingham have seemed quite close to release for some time now, but we decided to wait for the updated tyres because these things from the real world will be best experienced with the most realistic physics system. Eric has been working on some more S3 content but he would like to get nearer to finishing before we show any new pictures.

Victor has recently produced a special program "LFS Record" which can help you to produce smooth movies from Live for Speed, using advanced camera control. It is still in a beta stage at the moment. The program has a lot of features - too much to describe here, so if you do make movies or would like to have a go, take a look at the LFS Record thread on our forum.

- LFS Developers