Quote from tristancliffe :

Public servers and pick&play racing = names on (unless I've been there for a while and am used to the crowd)
League races and organised events = names off (and sometimes shift-f too)

+1
They are distracting while racing but the advantage of having them on during public pick and play races is bigger than the distraction. League races or just organised racing you know who your against so off.
I would shift f during leagues as well but i like to know in advance if im going to be lapped (before blue flags)

Names off - always.

I don't care what your name is during a race, and if you've punted me off I care even less.

Names off, all the time - I find names horribly distracting.

Quote from AndroidXP :

I still have them on, probably because I'm used to it

ditto. When I play other sims I don't really even notice that I don't have the names over cars...

I drive whit out names. Sometimes when some backmarker is infront of me i on it, or when i spectate, but usally i remember how someone's skin looks like and i recornize him so no need for names on!

Names off, always when racing.

But it's nice to have them on when watching streams (MOE for example) or replays

Quote from Biohazard :

names on. always.

wanna know who´s pwnin me

oh cmon you know how my car looks like, no need for names
I know you have mercury colored car whit number 90 and lol plate, so no need for name over car!

I'm used to demo servers where having names on is almost mandatory.

On unless they're blocking my view of the track. I'm crap at remembering faces same goes for car colours and skins so need the names to tell whos who.

I always have names on for the first couple of races, then I turn them off once I know who is in the field and what skins they are using.

Amazing poll result (is this one of those reasons why people say LFS is "teh arcade"? ).

Names off for me, I usually know who is who anyway, not that it really matters.

Quote from sinbad :

not that it really matters.

exactly....all i need to know is ,if theres a car in front of me i need to get past it, i couldn't care less who's driving it.
If people race respectfully then you shouldn't have to worry about who is in what car.

Drive in shift-f mode, names on, shift-f and the F menues mapped to steeering wheel. If I need information I quickly press the shift-f button and then turn it off again to concentrate on driving.

off.

most of the nicknames are just too long to be read anyway.

Names on...sorry.

names on, I like to know who I am racing. It personally doesnt influence the immersivity and simulation of LFS for me.

mad

Off most of the time. Normally when I'm racing who's who doesn't matter to me, but the list in the bottom right hand corner tells me enough if I'm having a good race with someone. I sometimes switch them on if I'm going to lap someone so I can see who they are, and after the race though so I can see who I'm talking to.

Names on for me so I can avoid nutjobs who drive badly

Currently and for the last 2 years, I've driven with the names. I can't tell much from skins as I'm on dialup and don't auto download. So about half the field is white. If it's the weekend and I'm on a while, I'll log off, download from the replay, then come back with all skins until the new connections come on.

I'm changing everything about the way I drive though. I've changed my FF sliders in the windows gaming options. Next is I'm going to start shift-F'ing (that sounds funny ) and drive without anything on the screen. Though, I do like to have the map and like to have the position list in the corner to tell me things that someone on the radio would normally do. If I could get LFSCompanion working with all the other stuff I run, I would use it instead of all the onscreen stuff. That and get some different sound bytes for the radio guy so it sounds like someone from where I'm located rather than the UK, hehehe . It was a bit distracting for me hearing the UK accent.

I voted "with names" for now. I think I'm going to try to change that soon though. Just changing the FF on the windows drivers has made me more consistant, and I agree with the comments about using shift-F to get rid of the split times. I always drive better not seeing my splits. But I do like the position list and map, especially the map.

I usually play with the names off.

If anyone punts me off the track then I really can´t be bothered to find out who it was. I just tell everyone to sod off and start a voteban on the person with the funniest name. Try it, it really works for me.
joking btw if anyone was gullible enough to take this seriously :P

I usually race with the text labels off at the start of a race, when there's loads of cars together the labels can reduce visibility. Once the field has spread out a bit, I pop them back on. I don't really need them, I have the position list up, so I know who I'm coming up on unless I'm lapping someone.

heck i would probably drive with forces view if i could keep my own cockpit (yeah i suck when i cant see the track)
so i get rid of them names asap when i join the race (i always spec with names on)
plus the gforce effect on the names is incredibly distracting

Jeff (BBT) says:
I want 3D names over cars with shadows and lighting effects
Anton T says:
aluminium style texture and all?
Jeff (BBT) says:
bump mapped, mipmapped, texturemapped,
Jeff (BBT) says:
mapped out dawg
Anton T says:
+1 yo dawgen

... Names off 95% of the time here, turn on for an instant to see who's who if really necessary and cannot identify the car.

Quote from Bob Smith :

unless I'm lapping someone.

So you've never not known who you're approaching then?



Don't ban me