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Congratulations! Wish you a long and fruitful partnership with Lotus Carts

Looking forward to a similar announcement for GP Bikes, too

How about adding the option to make the bike + rider spin? Something like this without the initial fade-in/zoom-out effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUdcQT8ukZw

I think a bit slower spin would look better.

Could be a button on the bar at the bottom which activates/deactivates it. I imagine it wouldn't take long to implement and would add a nice feel to the Viewer.

Or alternatively, maybe the bike could spin next to the stationary rider who's a bit further away. This would be even cooler as the shadows on/from the bike would change constantly.

All this wouldn't improve the sim side of GP Bikes but I'd definitely use it instead of a screensaver

After reading a bit earlier the posts about addition of flags and why it's not a good idea I'd like to point out something similar.

I think the steering section in profile.ini is not well named. The "hardcore" label is divisive and goes hand in hand with too many silly assumptions and associations.

The only difference between default steering and direct steering is about input preference method, what the player finds more enjoyable. Throwing people in the "hardcore crowd" because of their input preference is no good. It's like labelling keyboard or wheel users as "hardcore" because of the way they play.

[It's like riding using only one hand to reach both grips and only being able to push on the grips (no pulling).]

Seems like DST operates in a "one hand only" manner. You push on the left or right grip, never on both. I'm not sure if that's the case or whether there is a different model but that's how it feels. It works great for realism, except for in one case - when starting to move. In that situation it's both unrealistic and problematic.

Here's the problem in detail:

When you are set on the track almost immediately the front tyre turns left or right without any input (I'm guessing because of gravity, rider position and other factors).

The current physics model appears to work like this when standing in one place (physics, not animation) - say you have the tyre pointing left (because of gravity), you have both hands off the grips. You give input "left" from your controller to get the tyre to turn a bit towards right to the "straight ahead" position. The rider pushes the left grip and tyre swivels (turns? rotates?) towards right. As soon as you stop giving input the rider takes his hand off the grip. You either undershoot and have to repeat or you overshoot. In either case hands are off the grips and physics calculations turn the wheel fully left or fully right.
You are in the same situation as in the start, just maybe with the wheel position reversed. You start trying to give left-right-left-right input to try to make the wheel be going straight ahead and you constantly undershoot / overshoot. What the rider does is (again, physics, not animation) hands off the grips in the beginning, then left hand on the grip, push left grip forward, take left hand off the grip, put right hand on the right grip, push grip forward, take right hand off, then left starts again. There is only one directional input at a time. It's like riding using only one hand to reach both grips and only being able to push on the grips (no pulling).

Solution:

On a real bike, when you are about to start moving you use both hands to push equally on the grips (or both hands to pull equally, if that's your way). You balance the front by applying the same force on both grips.

If this is simulated the physics would be more correct and starting the bike with DST would be way easier and more realistic.

It imagine it should be a separate Push Both Grips button and work only when not moving and at very low speed.

Edit: added "confusing" to the title

[ONLY]

Hi PiBoSo, I was wondering whether you have considered looking for a partnership with a motorcycle manufacturer? Maybe swapping the demo bike with a branded one? It should be quite beneficial for both parties. More details:

I saw some time ago stuff about BMW and Auto Club Revolution - here is a good video on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuvuqj_jk3I . Quote from the video: "BMW is always looking just for partners who have the same high standard quality like we do..."

Auto Club Revolution is another sales channel (meaning brand exposure) for BMW, and ACR is just one among many other racing sims. So I was thinking, wouldn't BMW be interested in licensing/collaborating to have their bike (S1000RR) as the first official bike in the ONLY current generation high quality race bike simulator?

Say you swap the demo bike with a licensed, "collaborated" S1000RR (or just add it). They get crazy exposure to a very desirable target audience - all race bike enthusiasts who are looking for a serious simulator. That would be the first thing all players would see and play. Not a Honda, or Yamaha, or Ducati but their own bike.

What you'd get is a more solid AAA game feel from the demo. I do love the demo bike and it's amazingly fun to ride! However, the lack of a recognisable name in the only bike in the demo decreases the positive impression quite a bit. People would be way more pumped up if they download the demo and start a bike they already know and admire (also more happiness = more licences sold). It would give the game a face, like the CBR for Tourist Trophy.

But what's way more important, having one licensed bike in the game would very likely attract competing manufacturers for the full game. Auto manufacturers are getting big time into games as a sales channel (brand exposure) - if you play Gran Turizmo 6 you can see all the jazz about Vision GT cars. You can see "KAZ: Pushing the Virtual Divide" and the Corvette story. Now even Mini is making a supercar.

As for the community and mods - I don't think official bikes would hurt that. 20-30 official bikes could be just the tip of the iceberg, the community could add hundreds more. Historic bikes, paints, mods for official bikes, different year models, totally different bikes and so on.

One potential problem - "Ride" is already trying to do that - acting as a sales channel for the motorcycling industry. And they already have the support of the manufacturers, too. However, it is very likely that Ride will be more like simcade or even arcade rather than a solid simulator (because Milestone). They have the manufacturers on their side but Milestone's target audience is any gamer who would buy a "cool bike game" - very few of the total Ride's players would buy a motorcycle. For GP Bikes the percentage of riders would be much higher (solid simulation experience). GP Bikes would be an additional, much more focused sales channel for the manufacturers. All you'd need to do is convince them in the validity of these arguments. I kept mentioning BMW as they seem the most obvious choice to me but it could be any other manufacturer.

Random thoughts (good and bad) for convincing the first manufacturer - "Manufacturer races" where only their bike(s) are ridden with separate ranking; maybe you're willing to include a track of their design ("The BMW track" - that ought to light them up); game promotional materials with the bike (PiBoSo/GP Bikes websites, in-game art (not ads!), wallpapers); forum board about the bike; using the bike in paint making/modding tutorials; running a competition about best paint mods for the bike, etc.

I just love GP Bikes and want it to get all the possible support it possibly can. This seems like a good way to transition from a smaller-scale, amazing simulator with a great community to a fully licensed amazing simulator with a great community.

What do you think?

Would be great if there is a slider for the volume of the whistling of the wind or it is made louder by default. For me noisier whistling that gets louder at higher speeds gives a lot more realistic feeling.

I can hear it in the game but I think it is much quieter than it should be at high speeds. Or maybe that's normal and I just have a crappy helmet?