Development Log
26th March 2010 - v3.1.4- Physics: Added weight transfer due to body rolling and pitching
- Physics: Added support for non-wheel driven propulsion by constant thrust (should allow simplistic modelling of jet or rocket propelled vehicles)
- Physics: Added modelling of drivetrain inertia (using fixed engine inertia for now)
- Physics: Improved engine friction torque curve
- Physics: Engine brake reduction now works by applying throttle to counter act engine brake torque, so fuel is burnt
- Physics: Vehicles now get lighter when they burn fuel, and centre of gravity shifts appropriately
- Physics: Vertical load on each tyre now comes from the dampers as well as the springs
- Physics: Added dynamic caster angle that varies with body pitch
- Physics: Fixed damped suspension deflection to include ARB effect
- Physics: Improved clutch logic for fasting pulling away (now limits input torque but adds loss while slipping; used to just scale the input torque)
- Physics: Differential settings now influence engine torque reduction to tyre traction limits (during acceleration simulation only)
- Physics: Improved tyre temperature vs friction curves
- Analysis: Added live damper response graph (shows suspension response from static condition to live state)
- Analysis: Added level ride frequencies to springs analysis
- Analysis: Added level ride form to adjust spring stiffness to create level ride (with three options; stiffen, soften, and average)
- Analysis: Add rebound:bump damping ratio to damping analysis
- Analysis: Added brake and brake balance to list of available deceleration graphs, as well as all graphs previously available for acceleration
- Analysis: Added throttle to list of available acceleration graphs
- Analysis: Added custom searches to deceleration analysis
- Added support for Volkswagen Scirocco in Live for Speed
- Added support for ABS in the setup
- Removed dyno engine button, this now happens automatically, so long as input data is valid
- Switched to using ABS and TC settings from the vehicle setup, removed duplicate options from user preferences, and the live view now respects the TC / ABS settings too
- Deceleration testing can be indepenently configured to use the brakes or engine braking
- Engine data table is now resizable, and displays 1 extra decimal place precision on output figures
- Engine data table now has column for engine torque as percentage of peak (normalised torque)
- Added intermediate time step option to acceleration run (500Hz)
- Added belleville stack calculator
- Added more car data links
- Relaxed some vehicle input parameter limits
- Fixed suspension deflection calculation bug
- Fixed infinite loop bug in wheel inertia calculation, much faster algorithm now too
- Fixed live longitudinal accelerations components not summing to the correct total
- Fixed loaded radius being displayed instead of rolling radius (circumference value was already correct)
- Fixed crash when cancelling the file dialog box in the vehicle auto-loader
- Fixed acceleration loop cutting out prematurely after a gear change
- Fixed crash that would occur if engine data table started at less than the engine redline, and the redline was at less than peak power
- Fixed crash that would occur if engine limit rpm was set to less than engine idle rpm
- Fixed incorrect tyre compound data being used on startup
- Fixed suspension push graph not resizing with window
- Fixed vertical scale lines on distance vs time graph
- Fixed initial spring and tyre loads during first frame of deceleration calculations
- Fixed missing tyre slip ratios in deceleration CSV outputs
- Fixed incorrect loads on the tyre contact patch when spring motion ratios are in use (meant vehicles could decelerate, and potentially accelerate, too fast)
- Fixed incorrect steering analysis when first selecting a vehicle
- Fixed some vehicle data values slowly decreasing due data truncation after internal unit conversion - values are now lightly rounded
- Fixed incorrect longitudinal CoG position displayed in pitch diagrams in drag race window
- Physics - vertical force on tyre now transmitted through springs
- Physics - slip ratio now varies during deceleration/acceleration testing (very simple initial implementation - linear with a fixed peak)
- Physics - tyre rolling radius is now different to the loaded radius
- Added ability to graph either 'drop' or 'push' suspension response under damping analysis tab
- Improvements to the disc brake calculator: added brake torque/leg effort ratio, added separate front and rear disc properties and added brake balance calculation
- Added twist stiffness into the torsion spring calculator
- Added a leaf spring stiffness calculator
- Added damped suspension frequencies (separate for both bump and rebound)
- Added names for the wing types, rather than cryptic numbers, and added extra wing type for the FO8
- Added computation of area under the torque curve
- Added filename to be over-written in the relevant confirmation dialog boxes
- Improved wheel and tyre moment of inertia estimation
- Re-organised LFS setup reader GUI and added CSV output (e.g. for easy opening in a spreadsheet package)
- Added brake bias ratio into deceleration analysis
- Updated all LFS car data to reflect changes introduced with patch Z
- Changed suspension deflection chart and damper drop chart to display wheel travel instead of spring deflection
- Replaced spring deflection and travel remaining (from suspension analysis), with wheel travel remaining and undamped wheel hop frequency.
- Resizeable graph window can now display tyre deformation diagram independently of GUI setting
- Changed tyre view selection from radio buttons to a drop down list
- Altered roll stiffness/mass diagram; colours from green and red to blue and green, and spring only stiffness now drawn on top
- Fixed crashes when saving setups or vehicles when the vehicle name includes characters that are illegal in Windows filenames
- Fixed Save As not saving when used with the default filename on an open file (i.e. using it like the Save feature)
- Fixed gear ratios slowly reducing upon loading and subsequent saving (forced rounding to occur before truncation)
- Fixed CSV export heading units having extra spaces and some incorrect units, plus added tyre slip ratios
- Fixed broken manual options.ini loading
- Fixed crash that could occur when manually loading a vehicle when no vehicles had been auto-loaded
- Fixed not being able to edit car data if no vehicles were auto-loaded
- Fixed tyre compound and differential type selections getting lost (due to list regeneration)
- Fixed minor balance diagram scaling inconsistency
- Fixed various minor GUI issues
- Double click any graph to display it in the resizable graph window
- Added engine torque/power data table for comparisons when creating engine torque curves
- Added recently used file-list (up to 8 items)
- Added custom searches to acceleration analysis
- Added multiple instances of the resizable graph window
- Added seven new graph types for acceleration analysis
- Added customisable units for volume and frequency
- Added conversion of vehicle data to user selected units when creating/editing a vehicle
- Added licence code entry for commercial users; current licence is displayed in the about box
- Added separate small and large distance units, added units of Nm/deg for roll stiffnesses
- Will now attempt to load a photo using parts of the vehicle name, allowing shared photos
- Changed rotating mass being entered for the pair of wheels, to the mass of an individual wheel
- Changed lower shape of torque curve to be set relative, rather than absolute (e.g. 10 is always a straight line now), will give a sensible range for any engine now but will likely require presets to be updated to reflect this change
- Re-ordered the front and rear columns for vehicle wheel and tyre data
- Changed how brake bias alters wheel brake torque; now uses the same method as LFS
- Swapped gasohol (90% petrol / 10% ethanol) for E85 (15% petrol / 85% ethanol) in the vehicle fuel list
- Minor revision to clutch logic when pulling away
- Improved accuracy of acceleration and deceleration statistics
- Refined some vehicle data field and setup slider bounds
- Fixed crash due to resizing the resizeable graph window too small
- Fixed inverted setup links
- Fixed reversed forces bug
- Fixed inverse tyre diagram scaling in resizable graph window
- Fixed setup being reloaded when editing a vehicle (and thus losing any unsaved changes)
- Fixed crash upon starting when first vehicle in list did not have a default setup
- Fixed crash upon creating a vehicle with front or rear wings inside the wheelbase
- Prevented crazy damper overflow crash (doesn't fix underlying problem)
- Fixed unrounded fuel percentages being displayed
- Fixed body pitch lines in the real time acceleration viewer (they now move again)
- Fixed many possible crashes when starting VHPA with no vehicles
- Fixed setup filtering showing vehicles starting with the name of the current vehicle
- Fixed diff analysis calling bug
- Fixed springs not compressing with negative loads when anti-roll bars are used
- Fixed live info not updating when tyre compound changed
- Fixed slider position not updating in realtime acceleration viewer when changing playback speed while paused
- Fixed File->Save overwriting a file that you had asked it not to, when previously using File->Save As
- Fixed graphs units labels in options panel not updating when units are changed
- Fixed bug where the optimum shift point could end up slightly over the rev limiter
- Added more suspension analysis related to wheel rates
- Added anti-roll bar motion ratios in vehicle data
- Added mechanical calculators for coil springs, ARBs and disc brakes
- Added inclination as part of vehicle data (no longer a live setting)
- Added camber offset value in vehicle data
- Added more fuel types
- Added drag tyres
- Added rear caster in setup data, for completeness (but it has no effect)
- Added performance option to disable triggering auto-calculation on slider movement - added F5 as a hotkey to manually update the calculations
- Added option to automatically check for program updates on startup
- Added ride height into vehicle data so that static pitch can adjusted to compensate for different diameter tyres front and rear
- Automatically loads a vehicle's default set (if present) when vehicle is selected
- Improved fuel consumption (efficiency is now dynamic with torque curve, base efficiency increased to compensate)
- Updates to the LFS compatability mode
- Changed some hotkeys around
- Longitudinal and lateral acceleration in live view is now limited to the grip of tyres
- Fixed spring vertical movement with deflection, component heights now calculated correctly when wheel:spring motion rations are used
- Fixed pitch and roll calculations when wheel:spring motion ratios are used
- Fixed speedometer settings not being saved to options.ini and some related crash bugs
- Fixed saving/loading of torque peak width value
- Fixed filtering of files in the vehicle auto loader form add button dialog box
- Fixed tab order of edit fields when creating a vehicle
- Fixed incorrect loading of spring travel from setup on LFS cars
- Fixed about box so you can view it more than once, it now uses x to close (rather than close button), website URL fixed
- Fixed electric fuel crash bug
- Fixed pulling away and gear shifting times summation logic
- Feature: Improved torque curve modelling (is now much more configurable and includes engine braking, with throttle scaling between the two values)
- Feature: Acceleration testing now includes fuel usage; current fuel load added to CSV outputs
- Feature: Deceleration testing now includes engine braking
- Feature: Auto-loading of vehicles is now possible, with the default vehicles are now included as separate files (rather than part of the executable)
- Feature: Version update checker (requires an internet connection)
- Feature: New installer interface made using NSIS, allows the program to be a single download again
- Updates to the default LFS cars and to LFS compatibility mode, to reflect changes in Live for Speed Patch Y
- Updates to the dp1 to fix errors and improve estimates
- Fix: Anti-roll bars now reduce spring compression during lateral weight transfer and thus body roll
- Fix: Tyre load sensitivity now takes the tyre contact patch area into account, as well as the vertical load on the tyre (so wider tyres give more grip)
- Fix: Some memory usage improvements
- Fix: Some options have better default values
- Fix: Various other small bugs
- Feature: Two versions of program now available, standard and LFS versions (different default vehicles with each version)
- Feature: Added mass handicap height to the editor GUI
- Feature: Tyre temperatures auto-set to current compound optimums
- Interface: Moved deceleration/acceleration options to options panel, now part of options.ini
- Interface: Added links to several car spec websites
- Interface: Link to program website now points to the new domain
- Fix: Two component height bugs
Development Versions
These were only made available through the Live for Speed forums.
- Manual updated
- A few bug fixes and a couple of usability improvements
- Adjustable scales for every graph
- New options for some graphs (notably gearing torque graph)
- New rpm selection method for top gear
- Replaced "Hide useless controls" and "Enable reverse gear adjustment" with a new "LFS Compatibility mode" that does both of those plus a lot more, and is more intelligent
- Wheel:spring motion ratio support
- Low-res controls updated, should be more practical to use and configurable
- Some internal improvements and optimisations
- Name chosen and logo created (see about box)
- Support for Patch X setup format
- Support for clutch pack pre-load (although no analysis is performed on the setting... yet)
- Support for mass handicaps
- Support for passengers
- More robust loading and saving of files (no more crashes or deleted set files, hopefully*), prompts for over-writing of existing files
- Separate unsprung and rolling mass figures, the wheel moment of inertia values now match with LFS (thus hopefully more accurate acceleration modelling of the LFS cars)
- Ability to use a different fuel type (affects fuel density)
- Test controls for users who cannot fit the main window on screen (turn on from users preferences)
- .vd3 format is now binary for size efficiency and reduced coding complexity - DP1 vehicle has been temporarily removed for this reason
- Other internal improvements and misc changes
- Some bug fixes to the program and some minor updates to the manual
- Added steering analysis
- Added manual
- A few small things, like updating about box, the odd bug fix, etc
- Added analysis of dampers, springs no longer instantly deform during the acceleration run, actually oscillate now (until dampers stop the movement)
- Add real time acceleration viewer, still more work planned for this later but you should get the idea, accessible from the acceleration tab
- Added dynamic wing angles (with body pitch, from both springs and tyres)
- Reworked all the graphs, now lots of shared code, should look a touch neater too (some graph types have changed more than others)
- Added resizeable graph window which can display any graph from the program (balance diagrams excluded) and updates live, press Ctrl G or use the menus
- Fixed bugs to do with springs inside the acceleration/deceleration loops
- Other small changes dotted all around
- Springs analysis added: spring deflection, frequency, stiffness balance, roll and pitch angles, component height change and more calculated, plus cascade effects to all other analysis sections
- Unit preferences grouped
- DP1 vehicle added
- Missing GUI settings controls added, this allows setups to now be saved
- More detailed tyre drawing
- Minor bug fixes and small GUI improvements
- Substantial GUI revisions; most notably Live Settings separated from Vehicle Settings, these are now viewable one at a time, along with the Vehicle Data section
- Physical analysis: live info added
- Tyres analysis: maximum acceleration per tyre calculated
An almost complete re-write of Gear Ratio Calculator with a heavily modified GUI and many added features:
- Heavily improved tyre physics: deformation formulae updated, dynamic coefficients of friction (effected by load, inflation pressure and temperature), dynamic rolling resistance coefficients
- Where applicable, all calculations are now performed per tyre, instead of per tyre pair (front and rear)
- Physical analysis added
- Drive-train analysis updated: 7 speed gearbox support, engine angular velocity drops and vehicle speed increase calculated, differential TBR calculated
- Gearing auto-spacer added
- Aerodynamics analysis updated: more information calculated, balance diagram drawn, drag and lift graphs drawn
- Acceleration analysis updated: wheel spin prevention method selectable, more statistics recorded, simulation sample frequency increased from 20Hz to 100Hz or 2kHz (user selectable), full data table now exportable to CSV
- Deceleration analysis added: can simulate braking and coast down situations, has most of the features present for acceleration analysis
- New Live Settings tab, adds tyre temperatures, tyre wear, fuel load and lateral and longitudinal weight transfer settings
- LFS vehicle binary data output file reader added
- LFS Setup file reader added
- User created vehicles are now created/edited through the main window (rather than a separate window)
- Graphs now have axis labels
- Added units presets in user preferences
- Can open LFS setups (but not save); own settings format removed
- About box added
- Missing springs, dampers and steering analysis; these are to be added later
- Text translation ability temporarily removed, thus lack of multi-language support
That log tracks development from February 2004 through to May 2006.
Copyright © 2004-2024 Ben Ponsford