| Live for Speed S2 Facts : | ||
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INTRODUCTION As promised, here is our interview with Live for Speed developers (Scawen Roberts, Eric Bailey and Victor van Vlaardingen). Before we start, we would like to thank all the visitors, who submited their questions. We received over 100 of them, but had to cut the number of them to around 35. We will be posting new parts every day. There will be total of 6 parts (misculanelous, multiplayer, cars & tracks, gameplay, hardware, graphics & sound). TABLE OF CONTENT MISCELLANEOUS BHMS: Who are you (previous work, education, other professions etc.)? Eric Bailey: I started my working life in 1988 as a messenger in the Advertising industry. I was "promoted" to a Visualizer Artist before I left the industry about three years later. I started in the Computer Games industry in late 1992. My first game was the Incredible Hulk. Its all been downhill ever since! :-) Scawen Roberts: Haha :) I must add that Eric's games industry experience before this has been as a talented animator and he was responsible for nearly every animation in Lionhead's Black and White. My own history is - after leaving half way through a computer science degree course which was only partly interesting, my first full-time occupation was as a motorbike courier in London which was great and taught me a lot about life and bikes. I left that to work as a programmer in the business sector for 6 months before moving to Digital Integration, and after a gap then to Lionhead Studios. Victor van Vlaardingen: I got interested in making music around 12 years ago. First being a drummer in several little bands that never got anywhere, later on I started to make music on computers only in the so called demo-scene. This is where people come together and compete in groups with each other to make the best looking and sounding 'demo', which should be seen as a show-off video clip, played (calculated) in real time. During these demo years I met some very talented people who got jobs in the gaming industry and later on hooked me up with Scawen and Eric to work on Live for Speed. In the meantime I had moved from pure computer music to using real synths and instruments and have been doing music for commercials, little game projects and released some mixes of dance tracks as well as some tracks of my own. I have learned a lot during this 12 year period, by 'doing it yourself' and following sound engineering courses. I have been chief of sound in a big club here in Rotterdam and worked on big festivals around Holland. But working on this game has been the best thing yet! BHMS: I read that you worked on Hind and B&W. Did that have anything to do with the incredible physics model you built for LFS? In other words, is this your first physics engine. Scawen Roberts: On Digital Integration's Hind helicopter simulator my main work was the AI and animation system for the articulated foot-soldiers. In Lionhead's Black and White my main responsibilities were the morphing, animation and route planning for the creatures, along with the physics and destruction systems, so that was my first physics system. BHMS: How could 3 guys come up with such a good game, and the major players can not with their army of people? Eric Bailey: We dont have a hierarchy of people to make decisions and we dont have long meetings to discuss little details. We are free to just get on with our work. If we have an idea about anything, we are free to experiment with it to see what results we can achieve. Scawen Roberts: From a programmer's point of view it's much quicker to add new features as a single programmer, for example one new feature may need a small update to the physics system, the AI, the editors, the graphics, the data files and the interface. In a large company where there is a separate programmer on each of these modules this will take meetings and discussions and then trying to get all people available at the same time when they are already probably being pressurised from some other direction. BHMS: How long has the game been in development? Is the core design finalized? LFS Team: We've been developing the game for over a year and a half. The core design of the game was decided on very early. At the moment we are concentrating on the HARD aspects of the game. :) BHMS: How much time does the team devote to this title per day and what keeps you motivated? LFS Team: We are motivated by results. We spend alot of time developing all parts the game, whether it's Scawen sorting out a difficult bit of Multiplayer code, or Vic tuning the sound effect of a cars engine, or Eric tweaking the camber angles of a bit of track, we just keep working all hours until we feel we've acheived a decent result. Even when not making notes or working at the computer our minds are often occupied with the game. BHMS: What is the most difficult aspect of developing LFS? Eric Bailey: For me, it has to be the tracks. When we started development on LFS, I was hoping that we would be able to just use real life tracks. Unfortunately things aren't that simple. I had to build my own fantasy tracks to speed up the production of LFS. Our philosophy is to keep things as real as possible and I tried to apply that to the LFS racing circuits. Scawen Roberts: For me it's possibly the multiplayer code which gets very complicated when trying to make computers communicate through packets while one computer can join or leave or disconnect at any time, or perhaps the AI drivers as it's very hard trying to make them drive a physics car against real people using ONLY the same inputs that the real player has. They have two advantages over real players - they can feel the forces in the seat of their pants and have lightning fast reactions - but they are disadvantaged by having no brain. :) BHMS: How open is the project (retail/community) (set/expandable)? Will the game be upgradable and modifiable as GPL/Nascar Heat is? In other words, will the code be opened up to the public to be able to add tracks and other cars to the game. LFS Team: We can't discuss this now as we don't yet have any solid plans about how the game will be going out, all in one piece or as separate modules. BHMS: What makes LFS unique? We all know it has great physics and multiplayer but will there be more innovations? LFS Team: Yes there will be much more to LFS! There are more features we can add but just in case time restrictions dont allow us, we'd best not say anything at this time. :-) BHMS: Are you (or have you been) active in the GPL community? How do you view LFS in comparison to GPL and Racing Legends? Eric Bailey: I've been playing GPL a bit, but I got to admit, I didnt really start appreciating the handling of the cars until recently. I was a bit put off by the the whole old 1967 era actually and I really dont know why! :) We cant really compare LFS to RL yet because there is no demo for RL yet. I'm certainly looking forward to playing it. I guess the main comparison with the three games is that we all try to keep the physics as real as possible. Scawen Roberts: I haven't personally played any modern sims or racing games for any long periods of time. I want to be influenced only by the real world rather than having my judgement clouded by other games in the same genre. But of course I do recognise that there are things to be learned from other games so I always take a look, just not for too long. Victor van Vlaardingen: To be honest, the last games I ever drove were carmageddon 1 and wipeout! Meaning I am (was?) not at all familiar with any racing simulation at all! But when S. and E. approached me for this game, I got me a wheel and started to open up for racing sims and got to know them a bit more. But I have never been active in any community in any way and cannot really compare the inner details of the 2 games mentioned with LFS. BHMS: What is the purpose of this demo. Do you want to develop an open racing engine for which we all can make add-on tracks, cars and mods? Or did you only want to hear a reaction on your developing game and are you planning to get a license for a racing series and will you have it published by a game company. LFS Team: We mainly wanted to test it over the internet and see what type of reaction we can expect from the sim racing community. It has no real-life tracks or cars and we weren't sure if people would accept that. We don't know if we will publish it with another company, we haven't looked for that yet and our general impression is that the longer we stay independent the more control we will have over the content. We are likely to market the game in such a way that we can remain 100% independent. BHMS: Do you have a set date for a final release (sorry, had to ask this)? LFS Team: Possibly about 6 months to a year from now for a release. But since there will always be more to add, we are doubtful about calling that a "final" release. :) CARS AND TRACKS BHMS:Will there be real life circuits in the game or only fictional? How many tracks are you planning for the final product? LFS Team: If we can get a license for popular real-life circuits than we will use them. At the moment we dont have a lot of time or money to spend. There are 12-16 tracks planned to be finished by the end of the initial development period. BHMS: Are you planning to add a track editor? LFS Team: We can't discuss this yet as we don't yet have any solid plans about how the game will be going out, all in one piece or as separate modules. BHMS: What other types of cars will the game feature and what is the aprox. number of them? LFS Team: We are planning to have buggies, karts, road cars, single seaters, rallycross and GT racing cars. Road, rallycross and GT cars will have in the region of 4-8 cars in each category but we don't have exact numbers yet. BHMS: Will you be able to add extra things to your car, ie. racing body kits, weight reduction, mufflers etc? LFS Team: It's more than likely there will be interchangeable parts for visibly separate objects like rear spoilers, wheels and mufflers but overall body kits will probably be whole pre-built models that the player can choose. There will be engine components and other invisible mods available which affect performance or handling as well. MULTIPLAYER BHMS: What will the maximum number of drivers be in a race online, and off-line ? LFS Team: We don't yet know, and the answer will depend on the CPU speed, graphics cards and the internet bandwidth. With later optimisations we will be able to raise the current 8-car limit. BHMS: Are you planning on expanding the multiplayer client? GPL's VROC is a perfect multiplayer client in that they have a playerspy/buddy list type feature where you can see who is actually playing and in what server etc before you join a game? LFS Team: Yes we will be adding and supporting more features and systems. The master server is deliberately simple at the moment to keep it reliable at this early stage. BHMS: As a server administrator and LFS LEAGUE administrator, what tools/options will you include in the game to my life easier and the online league racing experience better then anything else out there? LFS Team: The first thing that will be done for this is multiplayer replays. Later, we have an idea for an unlimited number of special spectators in a chain or tree of connections. Regarding tools and options, we have some thoughts about automatic and manual systems to group players into races on dedicated hosts, for example regrouping for each round of a tournament. These ideas are not yet finalised or designed and we will talk more to people who want to supervise and administrate leagues and tournaments. BHMS: Will LFS have any type of dedicated linux server port? Many ISP's refuse to install any kind of Win32 boxes and I believe having a linux port will greatly increase the number of online races and quality of connections. LFS Team: We've had a lot of requests concerning Linux and have not yet looked into this. We will be checking out various forms of Linux support but we have a lot of other very high priority things that we will be sorting out for a while. GAMEPLAY BHMS: What do you guys have planned in damage department? Will there be crash damage to cars & will it affect the cars driving characteristic? LFS Team: We are planning to have a very good damage system and this will affect the driving characteristics and sometimes make the cars break down completely. BHMS: What about tire wear & fuel usage needing pitstops? LFS Team: Yes, and we may leave non-wearing cars in as a host option as well. BHMS: What kind of weather can we expect? Will there be rain in the final product - rain drops on visor/window and a good quality spray from behind cars? What about night racing? LFS Team: Yes these things are planned. It's also possible that to save time we may release a version without all these features, which could then be added in later updates. BHMS: Working dials for the car dashboards? LFS Team: Yes - and there will be an option to use superimposed screen dials similar to those we have right now as many players will prefer that clarity. BHMS: What can you tell us about the artificial inteligence in this game? Will computer controled cars learn while racing. How will they react in different situations? LFS Team: They already improve their racing lines but as with most things, that is not finished yet. Scawen has some plans for some interesting ways for them to attempt strategic overtaking and learn from their mistakes as well. This is distinct from the system that allows them to learn the best racing line. HARDWARE BHMS: Will LFS utilize a multiple controller setup and will it be possible to use a clutch pedal? LFS Team: Yes multiple controller support will be added soon and will be followed up by clutch support soon after that. We can hardly wait for that but some things have come up which we considered to be more important in the short term. BHMS: Will there be voicechatting? LFS Team: Probably yes. But we think that also fits into the category of an excellent feature that can be added in future updates after the initial release. BHMS: Does the power of your pc affect lap times. LFS Team: The physics model runs at the same rate regardless of your CPU speed - on a slower computer it just ends up taking a higher percentage of the time. So the answer is theoretically no, but if you are at a lower frame rate you are likely to get worse lap times simply because things aren't happening so immediately or smoothly. BHMS: Is DirectX8 fully supported, how about DX9? LFS Team: We haven't yet used all the features available in DirectX8 and we have not yet looked at DirectX9. BHMS: Will there be native support for the Act Labs Shifter? LFS Team: We have information about shifters and they will be fully supported. BHMS: Is a linux version/conversion on the cards? LFS Team: Conversions are a very good idea for obvious reasons but we are almost certain to release a first version on the pc before working on any conversions. Any conversions would then be aimed at the markets with the greatest number of sim players. BHMS: Is the demo already optimized for high framerates, because it does not run well with all cars on the track on my p4 1,7 geforce 4 mx400. LFS Team: No - at this stage there is a lot left to be done in general optimisations and hardware-specific optimisations as well. GRAPHICS & SOUND BHMS: Are samples used for the engine-sounds, or are they calculated in realtime? If you use samples, will we be able to change them later? LFS Team: The engines use our own native morphing samples some of which are played once per cylinder firing - so you could say it's a combination of samples and simulation. We don't know yet how much these will be editable by the user, but using different mufflers would of course make a different sound. We will be working on the engine sounds a lot and specially looking for ways to get a real roar on the power at high revs.. BHMS: Will you use all the new graphical effects (like pixel shaders, motion blur, bumpmaping...) for the gold product? LFS Team: Again we will try to do as many as possible for the first release, but we want to support Live for Speed for a long time to come and will always be adding more features and options for high end pcs and cards... Thanks for the interview Jure, we hope we've answered most things ok! :) The LFS Team - Scawen Roberts, Eric Bailey and Victor van Vlaardingen |
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Comments : |
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| Author: Jure Zagoricnik | 11-09-2002 |
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I would just like to thank the LFS Team for doing the interview with us and our visitors. LFS is the game, that forced me to keep the wheel on my desk, and not put it on the shelf like I used to. |
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| Author: Bnito | 11-09-2002 |
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These guys are doing great work and i will personally stay in this community for a long time, keep up the good work guys...also a big thank for bhmotorsport for giving us this interview, can't wait for the other parts! |
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| Author: Marko Aaltonen | 11-09-2002 |
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Interesting reading. |
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| Author: Andreas Nystrom | 11-09-2002 |
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Lol, i loved the part about the ai having no brain :) Nice interview, and yes i will stay tuned for part 2! |
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| Author: [A+R]VicViPER | 11-09-2002 |
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Great job guys! I see a good Community and the game is very good, interesting, cooooool damn! And this "step by step" public release(demo and patch) is important for u and for us. Great job again and tnx! Best Regards P.S: damn.. now i need a real wheel looooooool! |
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| Author: michel benchaya | 12-09-2002 |
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very good games,as fun aS gpl |
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| Author: Ratman | 12-09-2002 |
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Very interesting article. I have played many Racing-Sims �til now, but no one has such a realism like LFS. I can even "feel" the physics of the cars! |
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| Author: 2re | 12-09-2002 |
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I just love it. Game and dev's Tnx for sharing whit us. U know u got my mony ;-) |
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| Author: jeff | 13-09-2002 |
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yay! No more wishing for vaporware! |
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| Author: Ola | 13-09-2002 |
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Hi, I'm a big racing sim fan and this is about the best sim i've ever tried. If and when it's released, i'm buying it... nice article too... ;) |
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| Author: Patrick Swisher | 13-09-2002 |
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Real cars too? |
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| Author: LUDWIG | 14-09-2002 |
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Lovely,lovely arab racing for westerners |
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| Author: SDager34 | 17-09-2002 |
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Interesting, I do not see a great vision for this as it is just some programmers playing around trying to get a publisher to buy them out. Do some really good work on there own, then sell out. Thats what I would do too! :) |
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| Author: big D | 17-09-2002 |
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interesting article. as an illeterate computor user, i found some discussion over my head, yet i better apperciate the work involved in developing a game |
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| Author: -=[Cobra]=- | 17-09-2002 |
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i love it give me more sure sounds promising cant wait to get my hand on the full version |
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| Author: UTZ|VOiD | 17-09-2002 |
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OT : "Nice to see some a+r here" LFS is a VERY promising product, even in this "beta" stage it's VERY funny to drive, quite realistic and with a nice multiplayer support! I spread it to my friends and we are all having A LOT of fun with it... keep up the good work! |
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| Author: Roggan | 20-09-2002 |
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Really enjoying LFS, GREAT SIM!! Cant wait for shifter support and clutch! And specially better enginesounds with "real roar" =) Good review, very intresting reading! |
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| Author: SlamDunk | 01-10-2002 |
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OMG! LFS v0.1E is already an amazing carsim and after reading this interview I am in heaven =) |
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| Author: Tiresmoke | 05-10-2002 |
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Thanks for the great info and I will certainly be looking forward to future developments on this platform. |
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| Author: Dave | 22-10-2002 |
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amazing game that has done the impossible and actually stopped me playing so much Gran Turismo 3 :) Cheers guys. |
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| Author: 69Muscle | 23-10-2002 |
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Just remember what a small game can do for a person as long as they support the community. Look at Cliff from Counter-strike. That whole teams was absorbed by developers because of such a great product. If they short change the game they will only hurt themselves. Make the game open for cars and tracks and be able to keep the cheating to a minimum = sucsess. |
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| Author: Pekka Nivala | 05-11-2002 |
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I think LFS is the best touring car simulation and it's the first game that I have played over the internet. And as my opinion it works great. You can never replase a human opponent with computer. So I'll be looking for new updates as well as the final version. This intervie gave me a picture of what to expect. Thanks |
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| Author: Geoff | 11-11-2002 |
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Good to see that some of the small guys are doing so well. love the demo and looking forward to the release. A real sim is long overdue and Codies and EA could take a lot away from this in real product development instead of offering hyped up crap. |
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| Author: Dr. Who | 19-11-2002 |
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Awesome job irregardless of the short development time. Adding Camel track racing :? |
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| Author: Jeff Spruiel | 03-12-2002 |
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I really appreciate the work you guys are doing. It has been 4 years since I purchased a racing sim. In the past, I purchased a chair with built in speakers and a force feedback wheel as testament to my serious interest. Since then I haven't been satisfied with the audio of most sims. I feel it was always overlooked. I tried your sim and can't wait to finally purchase another sim. (Own Viper Racing, MSCart Precision, Sports Car GT and some others). Finally, thanks for sharing your plans. |
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| Author: John | 03-12-2002 |
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I like the way the game is being developed, marketed and distributed. I think this is a prime example of things to come, gone are the days of CD's and high profile publishers with more and more people with access to high bandwidth internet connections. I for one will be giving these people my money, knowing it is going to the guys that deserve it by their efforts to create a brilliant and entertaining computer game. Keep up the good work. |
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| Author: Manfred Knorr | 21-12-2002 |
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Looks like a great sim once it comes out. Pitty none of your gallery links work. |
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| Author: Lalle | 28-12-2002 |
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GREAT! =) |
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| Author: scarlet | 07-01-2003 |
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Great interview! I hope see the game in Colombia, or maybe see the possibility to buy it through internet! Thanks alot! |
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| Author: Michael | 20-01-2003 |
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For engine sounds, I hope the makers will bear in mind that foremost, the game must be comfortable to play. Sports Cars GT made the mistake of making engine sounds too bright (possibly attempting to make them realistic) and as a result, i had to turn the volume down....a full sound is better, even if it is not as real. |
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| Author: Prophetu$ | 21-03-2003 |
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damn good interview guys .ty lfs team and blackhole ms :D |
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| Author: MadHun | 31-05-2003 |
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Men i tell you. You guys need to be hired by Codemasters.If CMR3 could get this physics engine....Unreal,why cant they do the same! |
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| Author: Smasha_D | 13-10-2003 |
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I Quote a previus post :) Author: John 03-12-2002 I like the way the game is being developed, marketed and distributed. I think this is a prime example of things to come,(snip) --------------------------------------- Cheers Smasha_D (S1 Lic. Racer) =D |
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| Author: capten | 30-11-2003 |
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A very nice interview who let preview a wonderfull game (more than now !) |
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| Author: lukas smith | 08-09-2004 |
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bad arcade racing game |
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| Author: herki | 24-04-2007 |
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Worst arcade racing game ever! Best sim though =) |
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