Bigger, brighter Shift light with Shift buzzer

[drift_apprentice]

I dono if this has been covered or not...Basicly i recon we need a bigger shift light in cars, coz the ones we have now are way too small and not noticable. Maybe make them brighter and bigger??

Also, a yellow light comes on when u reach 50rpm before the shift point, then the red light comes one when u r 25rpm before the shift piont and the shift buzzer comes on when u reached the shift point?? That way we can be ready for the gear change instead of anticipating for the light to come on all the time?

In the options menu, make them optional if ppl dont like the yellow light or the buzzer and u can alter when they come on, eg. either 10 or 25 or 50rpm or whatever b4 the shift point for the warning light to come on?

[L(Oo)ney]

I dono if this has been covered or not...Basicly i recon we need a bigger shift light in cars, coz the ones we have now are way too small and not noticable. Maybe make them brighter and bigger??

I can see it just fine, maybe all that ham shanking has affected your eye sight? ;P

[Vain]

I think we should remove the shift-light for all racers on the road-cars. Correct shifting is a major key to fast racing.
Anyone with me?
And about the race-cars:
Oh well, I don't need it. An auto-transmission would also come in handy and make driving very relaxing, but well, I like it the manual way.

Vain

[szyszek]

I don't know about removing it, but I'm sure that it doesn't need to be neither bigger nor brighter.

[al heeley]

Don't like the buzzer idea, you should normally be able to tell when to shift by getting used to the sound of the engine revs.

[tristancliffe]

I don't want to ever have a shift 'buzzer'. How annoying would that be, buzzing away 40 times a lap :S

Road cars should have NO shift light (and no option to have it), but more torque curve/tractive effort data should be made available in the pits to counter this.

Sportier cars, such as the XFR, UFR, LX's and perhaps the Raceabout should have the shift light as now.

The RWD GTR cars and the Formula cars should have a 3 light warning, with yellow lights coming on at 100rpm intervals before optimum shift, and after all three are yellow they should turn red at the shift light.

But Mr Heeley is right. LFS is the only car sim in which you can accurately use the engine sound to change gear with, so we might as well take advantage of that. My only other addition would be having the shift light more visisble on the formula cars, simply by not having it on a white background, but on a black one.

[al heeley]

My only other addition would be having the shift light more visisble on the formula cars, simply by not having it on a white background, but on a black one.
That should be a simple little editing job to do that, Mr. Cliffe is right!

[Fonnybone]

Ya, and the whole car should start shaking and flashing it's lights so even
OTHERS know when you should shift. Seriously, i'm not sure i need MORE
help seeing the shift light. Maybe have the option for the buzzer, but let's
not go crazy on the shift light.

I also think they have no place in a road car. Most road cars i've seen with them
don't use them as LFS does anyways. They are generally more economy minded
and light up when the load goes up. Old VWs shift lights was a simple vacuum
from the engine, as the pressure changed, the shift light would light. I remember
i could make it work at 2 places, it first lights up at about 3000-3500rpm, the
economy mode, if you don't shift, it turns off and lights up again in the 4500-
5000rpm range or something, performance mode. I could never make it light up
at the optimal shift point like in LFS though. It was never constant enough.

[Bob Smith]

Perhaps we should give the cars to Microsoft and get them to make an animated virtual gear knob that will pop up and suggest that shifting up now will give the optimal performance, with increase reliability. And new features. But before you shift you'll need to click whether you want shift now, shift later, mis-shift, turn on automatic shifting, turn off the shift adviser, or read more about advanced shifting options.

[JamesF1]

Why don't we just have LFS automatically slap you around the head with a remote-control hand every time you need to change gear. THAT'd get your attention.

[Vain]

If we had such a device it could also press the shifting button by itself instead of slapping us in the face.

Vain

[wheel4hummer]

How about a small device that shocks you when you wreck someone?

[JamesF1]

If we had such a device it could also press the shifting button by itself instead of slapping us in the face.

Vain
Or you could just turn on auto-shifting :p

[Vain]

You got it! That's the whole sense of all my posts here.
When you can't shift using this light, use auto-shifting.

Vain

[tristancliffe]

Hey, it looks like you're on a quick lap. Would you a) like me to activate traction control? b) keep your tyres at optimum temperature? c) distract you by flicking all the switches in the cockpit?

How annoying would that be?!

[Stellios]

Not bothered to be honest, you can usually tell when to change from the engine sound. Ive turned all the lights off and just do it myself, and its made my laptimes a few seconds a lap faster by doing by ear.

[AndroidXP]

So, instead of continuing with the bashing and hidden-flaming, I'll just say that an actual buzzer may be a bit too much, but a yellow pre-shiftlight for the racing cars would be somewhat realistic.

And I also agree that the normal red blobs aren't visible enough, causing someone who uses it to look on the tacho when nearing the shift point (like I do often myself). A bit more "shining" and "glaring" effect would probably solve this and at the same time it would be more realistic IMO.

[JamesF1]

A light/buzzer is never going to be as good as your ear/feel for when to change gear - so maybe the time spent arguing for the reasons for having a buzzer would be better spent learning how to read the engine notes properly ;)

[Huru-aito]

:revs: :smash3d:

[Vain]

"Ahhh, my eyes! I'm blinded! Where is the road?!"
Great idea... The whole screen should become red when you have to shift. You can't miss that!

Vain

[AndroidXP]

:revs: :smash3d:
That would be so awsome :)

Also Vain, your witty sarcasm doesn't help this at all :rolleyes:

[Doorman]

Also Vain, your witty sarcasm doesn't help this at all :rolleyes:
You keep it up Vain. Good job. :D

[masternick]

:revs: :smash3d:
omg i want one, lol

[hrtburnout]

"Ahhh, my eyes! I'm blinded! Where is the road?!"
Great idea... The whole screen should become red when you have to shift. You can't miss that!

Vain

The whole screen should become red when you wreck someone :D
or this: when you wreck someone, it says "you have wrecked someone's car and you're dead, you will not be able to race for 4 weeks" :D

[JamesF1]

Or better yet: "You have wrecked someone's car, you are dead. Your LFS Account has been permanently suspended. You will have to fork out £24, all over again, AND pay compensation of £40,000 before you can race again."

[Doorman]

Or better yet: "You have wrecked someone's car, you are dead. Your LFS Account has been permanently suspended. You will have to fork out £24, all over again, AND pay compensation of £40,000 before you can race again."
Seems fair.

[hrtburnout]

Yep :nod:

[Seahorse]

Shame all the nay-sayers don't watch F1. You should see the amount of LEDs they have for gearchanges...:pillepall

[the_angry_angel]

Isnt that just a linear, LED based rpm counter?

[keiran]

Isnt that just a linear, LED based rpm counter?

yup :nod:

[wheel4hummer]

Or better yet: "You have wrecked someone's car, you are dead. Your LFS Account has been permanently suspended. You will have to fork out £24, all over again, AND pay compensation of £40,000 before you can race again."

I would rather do actual physical pain. The wrecker should have a low-amp 12,000 volt shock.

[Rotary]

I would rather do actual physical pain. The wrecker should have a low-amp 12,000 volt shock.

Now that sounds fair and reasonable. However, wreck an entire field and it should be no mercy. ;) :p

[ajp71]

I see no real need to change the rev limiter as it is although a proper light would add to the feel of the GT cars (as posted in the screenshot). I would however like to see some slightly less flat looking rev counters and instrument panels (although the current system of automatically adapting the dials is very clever).

[tristancliffe]

I agree that the instrument panels are very clever, but perhaps not the ideal solution. All the dashboards look too similar, and I hope that for S3 each car has it's own unique dashboard, perhaps with quirks.

The current RaceAbout shows that the LFS Engine can cope with different styles.

[Michael Miskella]

this is the only suggestion i could really care about tbh. the light to annoying when your trying to learn a car (obviously dont know when its coming, what it sounds like or which gear to take the cornor at), i have to take my eyes off the road to see when to shift. an option to put just the light center right or left would be a big help.

lucky i only play on a 17' moniter at 800x600, would be missing whole cornors if i had to look any further away :P

[PedraumF]

In Sinbin's GTR2 I could see the difference between many models of shift lights. Some instrument panels were great, with visible shift lights and gear indicators. Some were just awful, with important informations far away from the windscreen. Variety would be nice.

Here, my favorite one: Maserati MC12.

http://www.nogripracing.com/images/screenshots/62041.jpg

[G!NhO]

Good job bumping a 4 year old thread. :D

[PedraumF]

WOW haha

Really trying to remember what took me here... f*... I think I've lost my mind reading the Improvement Suggestion Log :x sorry