I've been on the fence with LMU, being a VR user I didn't want to buy. One reason for not wanting it was I got a rennsport key a while back and driving using a monitor bored the hell out of me. I had no interest in driving it. Missing a lot of features like hosting own servers and the MSG issues with money were putting me off buying. Earlier today I watched a few first try videos / reviews of LMU and Dave Cams video kind of convinced me to buy it. The logic being if you love rF2 (I do) you'll like LMU and you'd no hesitation buy a few of the the cars and tracks for rF2 if they were DLC's. I like Dave's vids of hardware testing and trust his opinion so I bought it. To my surprise I found myself drawn into the driving even on the flat screen. I've only driven the Porsche GTE so far at Spa a combo I know well in rF2. Looking forward to more testing tomorrow. Loading times are well slow but the UI wasn't to bad and new options like auto pit limiter and a few others I liked. FFB settings in the controls allow for setting how much torque your wheel has and once I set this my Moza R9 felt good. Lacking in a bit of detail compared to rF2 but I'm sure I'll find that after a bit of tweaking. I hope this short post helps a few other VR no buyers take the plunge and save some money before the price goes up down the road. Also think back to what rF2 was when it first released all those years ago, LMU is way better already and half the price rF2 was with the online. It can only get better.... Thanks S397...
I am on the edge too so like your feedback I am a R9 owner as well so do I read it correctly that wheel was recognized as MOZA device? some people complained about FFB and you are mentioning lack of detail so can you be more specific? thanks in advance
Some impressions in no particular order (after 20 min test): 1. Loading times way too long 2. FFB not on par with rf2 (simucube, tested using same profile as in rf2, but maybe should adjust?) 3. Lower fps than in rf2 (ultra settings, 4K monitor, RTX 3090, not reaching my ussual 120 fps) 4. Missing camera view buttons in replay mode 5. Missing open wheel style cars ;-) 6. Weird particles in grass/dirt
No, but if the view is centered before you launch the game and you put the headset before launch LMU, the view is centered ingame. I've been almost 2 hours testing it and the view hasn't decentered.
The more I play with LMU, the more I see rFactor 2 is far better, graphics, physics, FFB, features, cars and tracks, mods, we can do what we want in rFactor 2. I don't see any reason to play with LMU if like me you don't care about Fuji or Portimao, or WEC . The BTCC, the porsche cup 992 are so glorious in rF2, nordschleife, brands hatch... we just have needed a WEC DLC and more tracks into rF2, no need to waste time with a standalone clone, when the original is far better. Instead of LMU, rFactor 3 should have been better. rFactor 2 is still the best simulation today, and for a long time. Thanks me later.
OK but I will keep it just to support sim racing and hopefully it will do well and encourage other dev teams to make more simulations.
It's in the Car Selection already. On the below Screenshot you can see 3 different Liveries, within the same Team, with the Number 56.
I think MSG is obligated to make a standalone game. As for graphics etc, let's see how it goes as it progresses from v0.1.
It is the same graphics engine with the same quirks as in rF2 with the running shadows, slow first loading of track and wonky performance if you exceed VRAM limits etc. Also the settings are mostly identical. The only distinct difference I noticed after playing a couple of minutes now was the particle effects which look weird. So I wouldn't call it worse than rF2 because it's mostly the same with better looking tracks etc. Physics I can't comment much on yet, but seems more similar than different to rF2 as well.
I think that is nothing specially related to rF2. I have seen that in other Games too, like Far Cry 6 for Example. And i think that @Marcel Offermans did mention and explain the Reason for this common Problem here already. But i can not find it anymore.
Some quick feedback: - First loading of the track is very slow, might be a good idea to include a message like "rebuilding shaders" to inform the user it's not as slow every time - Some of the default settings are off. AA was off at least on my GPU and makes the game look totally horrible. Needs to be on by default. Anisotropic filtering should be higher than 4X default on today's GPU's. - The performance tanks when the game hits the GPU VRAM limit just like in rF2 except now cars and tracks are more detailed, so you are more likely to run into this. FPS goes down by 70% when that happens. Would be nice to have a VRAM usage measurement for the settings to know when you exceed it. Especially important when you have large multi-class fields that consume a lot of VRAM. - Graphics look otherwise nice to me, especially the clouds. The shadow system seems the same to me with the running shadows as in rF2 though. - I can't bind keyboard keys unless I switch from wheel to keyboard tab and vice versa. Is this a bug or limitation for now? - I can't hear the tire sounds very well unless I literally spin the car. I don't know if this is realistic, but most sim drivers use tire sound as an important indicator to know when they are running over the limit with the grip. Same problem as in rF2 with some newer cars. - The new HUD looks very nice and has information presented in a more sensible way than rF2 IMO. - Where can I toggle number of AI drivers? Couldn't find it in session settings. Need to drive more to comment on the physics. Had one crash so far when exiting the session, but the game seems pretty stable for an early access.
The tire scrub sound is very low frequency. The good news is that it provides great contrast from tire squeal and seems quite realistic but, the lack of a separate tire Volume setting makes it a one-size-fits all solution. I prefer this low-pitch scrub sound over the old style.
Its a bit rough-cut as expected maybe a rougher. It will take me a week to get into a real comfort zone with controls configs and driving/setup impressions. I think its got good potential as a standalone with specific hybrid functions that won't be transferred to rF2, smart move.
The common way to render shadows in (almost) all game engines is a technique involving several "shadow cascades" that move with the camera. Once you start looking for it, you will see those cascades and their transitions in all games and it's hard to "unsee". I did post about this before and a more in depth set of articles are mentioned in that post, and a similar comment earlier in that same topic. A typical "worst case scenario" is a long straight with either a fence or trees near the road side and the sun at a relatively low angle casting shadows onto the road ahead. Try that in your favorite racing simulation. Especially in motion (you can drive slowly) you will easily recognize the transitions and probably even the point in the distance where the shadows completely disappear.
Yeah. Could be an attempt to simulate power steering? The problem here is the same as with the lack of tire rub sounds. It may be more realistic to a certain degree, but gives less detail. In iRacing for example you can adjust the level of power steering assistance on certain cars and that makes quite a big difference. I know from real racing that elite F1 drivers like Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen had issues with the power steering feedback. It took almost a year for Lotus to perfect their power steering to Kimi's liking and Alonso reported he needed more of a specific type of feedback when he joined Alpine.
