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This has been brought to you guys from the players and makers of live for speed at www.liveforspeed.net and the people at Blackhole Motorsports www.bhmotorsports.com that have put this together for the players of live for speed to use. *WARNING* live for speed is not a game made for a consol, nor is it in a big production, the physics are slightly different in the game, however i will try to provide everyone that looks here with the best information at possible use.
BRAKES
Balance rear-front
Allows you to distribute the braking force between the front and rear. When braking, weight transfer to the front makes the rear end lighter and easier to lock up. Generally, FWD cars have close to 80% braking on the front, while RWD cars, mainly because of the better weight distribution from the tranny, can stand more rear bias (0.00 = rear, 1.00 = front)
SUSPENSION
Ride height
Remember physics? Remember torque? A car has a roll axis determined by the suspension. The force is the weight, Cg (center of gravity). The Cg naturally wants to turn around the axis making the car roll in turns. The idea behind lowering ride height is mainly to reduce the force by diminishing the distance (lever arm) between the two which reduces body roll. Theoretically, if the Cg is bellow the roll axis, the car will lean into a turn like a motorbike ! Lowering too much has a side effect of limiting suspension travel and therefore decreasing the grip from your tires. A tire is meant to be on the ground, the more time it spends there instead of in the air, the faster and more controllable your car will be. This also applies to body roll as it unloads the inside tires and ultimately lifts them off the ground.
Stiffness
Spring stiffness. Springs are mainly there to control body height in steady situations. They need to be stiff enough to hold the body up, also when other forces are applied like turning (g-force) braking and accelerating. Springs control how MUCH your car rolls, dives (braking) or squats(accelerating). Springs and dampers need to be matched.
Compression damping
Dampers, shock absorbers. This controls the resistance from the shocks when compressed. Raise when lowering ride height. Damping controls how FAST your car rolls, dives or squats. When rolling, the inside shocks are streched while the outside ones are compressed, same with dive & squat, the front compress while the rear strech under dive, etc.. You want them as stiff as they can be while allowing the wheel to follow the road surface, in other words bumps. Springs and dampers need to be
matched.
Rebound damping
Dampers, shock absorbers. Controls the resistance from the shock when it is streched. Controls how FAST your car returns to it's initial state (dictated by springs btw). Usually rebound is higher (often double) than the compression rate, this is mainly because in rebound, the weight is lifted from the car. It keeps the car from jumping back, rebounding which would obviously upset the car balance and throw you into the woods. You want it high to keep the body movement nice and smooth but not too high because it will make the car 'hook' and slower to react, can you say delay!
Anti-roll (or stabalizer)
Ah, anti-roll bars, or anti-sway or stabilizer. They limit body roll. Use them to dial in a bit of understeer (stiffer front) or oversteer (stiffer rear).
WHEELS
Toe:
TOE IN is when the front of the tires are closer than the rear. Look at your feet...Toe-in reduces wandering at high speed with a slight loss of steering when entering a turn. Toe-in slows down the car, increasing tire wear, but can be used to control the car balance. Toe-in at the rear will slow it down and keep it from trying to pass the front. In the front it increasing understeer and at the rear it decreases oversteer.
TOE-OUT is when the rear of the tires are closer than the front. Walk like a penguin ! Toe-out might look ridiculous at first but has a good reason to look that way. When turning, the inner wheels of your car are rolling along a smaller diameter circle than the outer wheels. This means, the inner wheels turn at a greater angle than the outer ones. Using toe-out so that each wheel is traveling along their respective path/circle will feel like riding on rails. Unfortunately, in a straight line, toe-out makes the car wander around and very hard to track straight.
Camber
How much the tires top lean towards the car. Negative camber is TOWARDS the car, and positive is AWAY. 0° means your tire
is perpendicular to the road. In a straight line, you want 0°. When turning though, you want the tire to have a bit of negative (sometimes a lot!) to compensate for the tire's deflection. Camber controls the amount and shape of your tire's contact patches. You want the most traction at all times. You can't, so find a compromise in between
. Strat from 1°-2° in front
and 0.5°-1.5° in rear.
DIFFERENTIAL
Differential(LSD): Back to the idea that, when turning, the inner and outer wheels turn along diferent paths, they also turn at different speeds. The differential allows two wheels to turn at different speeds. 0 means it is 'open'or'loose'. 10 would mean it is 'locked'or'tight'. I'll use tight for now because it is not clear if 10 is the maximum in LFS. Tigher LSD for traction in straight line with loss of steering. I find 9-10 is ideal in most cases as the last thing a spinning wheel needs is MORE power.
4 Wheel Drive: Front and rear should both be set high along with center diff. All at 9-10 is fine. Front-torque Split is the setting you want to play with. (0.00) means it has no power going to the front wheels and is basically RWD. (1.00) is FWD. I suggest (0.60) for a FWD feel and (0.40) for a RWD feel.
TRANSMISSON
Final drive ratio: Higher numerical value is shorter, lower is wider. The age old compromise between acceleration and top
speed. Shorter gearing helps acceleration at the cost of top speed. Set it so you hit top speed (before braking) before redline, then fine tune so the gearing matches the turns.
remember, by the end of the straightaway, you want to be redlining so your getting maximum power out of the car.
if your over redline, you arent creating as much power, so if you are hitting the limiter your only slowing yourself down.
btw, i highly suggest you do NOT use the "sports" or "wide" function at the bottom of the screen, it will reset all of your ratios (or so i have noticed).
if you have any questions, please post or pm me.
BRAKES
Balance rear-front
Allows you to distribute the braking force between the front and rear. When braking, weight transfer to the front makes the rear end lighter and easier to lock up. Generally, FWD cars have close to 80% braking on the front, while RWD cars, mainly because of the better weight distribution from the tranny, can stand more rear bias (0.00 = rear, 1.00 = front)
SUSPENSION
Ride height
Remember physics? Remember torque? A car has a roll axis determined by the suspension. The force is the weight, Cg (center of gravity). The Cg naturally wants to turn around the axis making the car roll in turns. The idea behind lowering ride height is mainly to reduce the force by diminishing the distance (lever arm) between the two which reduces body roll. Theoretically, if the Cg is bellow the roll axis, the car will lean into a turn like a motorbike ! Lowering too much has a side effect of limiting suspension travel and therefore decreasing the grip from your tires. A tire is meant to be on the ground, the more time it spends there instead of in the air, the faster and more controllable your car will be. This also applies to body roll as it unloads the inside tires and ultimately lifts them off the ground.
Stiffness
Spring stiffness. Springs are mainly there to control body height in steady situations. They need to be stiff enough to hold the body up, also when other forces are applied like turning (g-force) braking and accelerating. Springs control how MUCH your car rolls, dives (braking) or squats(accelerating). Springs and dampers need to be matched.
Compression damping
Dampers, shock absorbers. This controls the resistance from the shocks when compressed. Raise when lowering ride height. Damping controls how FAST your car rolls, dives or squats. When rolling, the inside shocks are streched while the outside ones are compressed, same with dive & squat, the front compress while the rear strech under dive, etc.. You want them as stiff as they can be while allowing the wheel to follow the road surface, in other words bumps. Springs and dampers need to be
matched.
Rebound damping
Dampers, shock absorbers. Controls the resistance from the shock when it is streched. Controls how FAST your car returns to it's initial state (dictated by springs btw). Usually rebound is higher (often double) than the compression rate, this is mainly because in rebound, the weight is lifted from the car. It keeps the car from jumping back, rebounding which would obviously upset the car balance and throw you into the woods. You want it high to keep the body movement nice and smooth but not too high because it will make the car 'hook' and slower to react, can you say delay!
Anti-roll (or stabalizer)
Ah, anti-roll bars, or anti-sway or stabilizer. They limit body roll. Use them to dial in a bit of understeer (stiffer front) or oversteer (stiffer rear).
WHEELS
Toe:
TOE IN is when the front of the tires are closer than the rear. Look at your feet...Toe-in reduces wandering at high speed with a slight loss of steering when entering a turn. Toe-in slows down the car, increasing tire wear, but can be used to control the car balance. Toe-in at the rear will slow it down and keep it from trying to pass the front. In the front it increasing understeer and at the rear it decreases oversteer.
TOE-OUT is when the rear of the tires are closer than the front. Walk like a penguin ! Toe-out might look ridiculous at first but has a good reason to look that way. When turning, the inner wheels of your car are rolling along a smaller diameter circle than the outer wheels. This means, the inner wheels turn at a greater angle than the outer ones. Using toe-out so that each wheel is traveling along their respective path/circle will feel like riding on rails. Unfortunately, in a straight line, toe-out makes the car wander around and very hard to track straight.
Camber
How much the tires top lean towards the car. Negative camber is TOWARDS the car, and positive is AWAY. 0° means your tire
is perpendicular to the road. In a straight line, you want 0°. When turning though, you want the tire to have a bit of negative (sometimes a lot!) to compensate for the tire's deflection. Camber controls the amount and shape of your tire's contact patches. You want the most traction at all times. You can't, so find a compromise in between
. Strat from 1°-2° in front and 0.5°-1.5° in rear.
DIFFERENTIAL
Differential(LSD): Back to the idea that, when turning, the inner and outer wheels turn along diferent paths, they also turn at different speeds. The differential allows two wheels to turn at different speeds. 0 means it is 'open'or'loose'. 10 would mean it is 'locked'or'tight'. I'll use tight for now because it is not clear if 10 is the maximum in LFS. Tigher LSD for traction in straight line with loss of steering. I find 9-10 is ideal in most cases as the last thing a spinning wheel needs is MORE power.
4 Wheel Drive: Front and rear should both be set high along with center diff. All at 9-10 is fine. Front-torque Split is the setting you want to play with. (0.00) means it has no power going to the front wheels and is basically RWD. (1.00) is FWD. I suggest (0.60) for a FWD feel and (0.40) for a RWD feel.
TRANSMISSON
Final drive ratio: Higher numerical value is shorter, lower is wider. The age old compromise between acceleration and top
speed. Shorter gearing helps acceleration at the cost of top speed. Set it so you hit top speed (before braking) before redline, then fine tune so the gearing matches the turns.
remember, by the end of the straightaway, you want to be redlining so your getting maximum power out of the car.
if your over redline, you arent creating as much power, so if you are hitting the limiter your only slowing yourself down.
btw, i highly suggest you do NOT use the "sports" or "wide" function at the bottom of the screen, it will reset all of your ratios (or so i have noticed).
if you have any questions, please post or pm me.
