Live For Speed 20th Anniversary & New Tracks!

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On the 18th August 2002, a test demo for Live For Speed was made known publicly for the first time. It featured 3 cars and the famous Blackwood circuit along with limited online capabilities.

Those who tried the demo were highly impressed with the physics at the time, and since then the title has continued to grow and evolve at its own pace.

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of this momentous occasion, and what a journey it has been.

Incredibly, this venerable sim is still going strong today thanks to a dedicated community of fans who are involved in racing, cruising and now modding.

To celebrate this milestone of achievement, the team behind Live For Speed have provided a development update that includes plenty of new screenshots and some interesting news.

Graphical Update​

It is well known that the team have been working on a graphical update for South City for some time. Although there is still work to do on the track model, they have revealed some more impressive images of their updates so far including a number with the new day/night cycle.

Alongside the South City update, they have shared some screenshots of not one, but two new track layouts which are in development:

Bancroft Autodrome a fictional circuit based on a UK WW2 airfield

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Fairfield Test Centre a vehicle proving ground

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Both of these new tracks are yet to be released, but are already looking very good indeed.

Tyre model and Physics system​

Besides new content, the team have also revealed that they are working on the tyre model and a new physics system that aims to improve the accuracy and smoothness of the engine. This will not only improve the quality, especially when running in VR, but will also allow for measuring lap times up to 1/1000th of a second.

Although Live For Speed updates are a rare treat, it is testament to the sim and it’s community that it is still being developed after 20 years, and I am sure possibly for another 20 years more.
About author
Phil Rose
A passionate sim racer with over 20 years of virtual and real world motorsport experience, I am the owner and lead content creator at Sim Racing Bible as well as a writer here at RaceDepartment. I love all forms of motorsport, especially historic motorsport, but when it comes to sim racing, I will drive anything!

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LFS are three letters that as an acronym trigger that nostalgia of discovering a new level of simulation in racing games, back in the early naughties. It was one of the first titles I spent a lot of time in, lapping around or racing against the Ai. Also one of my first online racing experiences. The base of this game is strong and hence not a surprise its engine is still running... can't believe it's two decades old and has outlived triple A competitors from big studios. I think LFS is not just a milestone in the history of our hobby but an example of the essentials simracers expect a simracing title to have at its core. Hopefully it will outlive many more titles to come. Cheerst to 20 years! :coffee:
 
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LFS was one of those first peaks into sim racing for me.
Usually did AI championships because i only had a keyboard.
Still, good times.
 
Ok those two track environments sure come out of nowhere, very pleasant surprise. The tire physics... well, they have been in the works for 15 years now, as work on them started with the first contact with VW due to the Scirocco thing (as with it Scawen found that he needed to overhaul this part of the engine).
Wondering if those tracks can bring more life into the community again, or rather what kind of life, as obviously especially the test centre follows the "vehicle playground" direction LFS has been going in the last decade, with what was left of the community building elaborate "Cruising" servers and systems, and much less about actual competitive racing.
 
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I think I'll buy the S3 upgrade now... I'm in a much better place financially than I was when that came out. I also love the Rockingham complex, so this would be my way to memorialize it until someone puts that place back in action IRL.
 
Well done LFS team! Love to see it still receiving updates :)

I've always enjoyed driving Blackwood on the demo (looked great, fun cars to drive) but never bought the license because I'm an offline racer, and the AI seemed slow and janky. To those who own the s3 license and who've played LFS more... are the AI enough for some fun? Are there other single player things to do in the sim?
I bought S3 license in 2005 (but lost code long time ago... and mail associated was hacked long time ago too so both are lost for ever LOL) : as far as I remember AI and game are same as free demo (go and get it as it really worth the try and can make you buy full content), S3 unlocks more cars and tracks to play with (but no sponsor/brand/license if I recall so cars and tracks have fake names)
It is a good game for such little team... but in 2006 I discovered GTR2 which exploded any sim released so far at this date :)
 
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Thanks for reminding me to fire this up again!


- More polygons per car model than R3E
- More credible physics than iRenting
- More murderous AI than Rf2 (but only just barely)

;)

getting around Fern Bay

getting around Aston
 
Hope to live enough to see new version, and Scirocco, but i'm already sixty so not so much hopes... lol !!! Happy birthday Lfs, spent so many laps on a ms sidewinder pro with you and still on mi hd somewhere ! I'm gonna take a ride at Blackwood tonite!
 
I'm still waiting for the S3, the Scirocco and the new tyre model. I'm sure that I'm going to be mindblown when they finally release it, that new tyre model and car have to be revolutionary, after all they have been working on it since 2008.
 
Wait, what? Seriously? That's really cool :) Anyone know why that is?
That's not been the case for 10+ years though. When Formula BMW was released, in the same update they also made the AI follow a generated line that you can see too by pressing 4 on track.

I don't know how it worked, but before this they did gradually get faster the more laps you let them drive. With some interesting setup choices like setting brake balance to somewhere between 10-15% and give them knobbly tyres, it was even possible to make then drift really nicely through the corners, altough at first they just locked the rears up and kept spinning but after a while they'd take the corners with precise countersteer and throttle control :D

Still one of the best if not the greatest sim, in my opinion. Shame though the racing action is a bit scarce nowadays but there's still the occasional organised events happening almost every day.
 
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If it'd be cheaper I'd get back into it for some quick online fun, but alas.
I got a license key from someone else as a trial years ago but I don't have access to it anymore.
 

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Shifting method

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