Grand Prix Legends

[Deleted member 503495]

This and the Sportscar mod. Gems.

 

[RobJLee]

This is why I play sim racing games, and also why I do think that modding is ESSENTIAL to any PC game that wants to be succesful. Not everyone wants to race with the same F1 or GT3 cars over and over. Variety is important.

This. No current gen game can compete on content.

As for Can Am, I love the Can Am cars of the 60s and 70s, especially the Porsche Turbopanzers (I prefer the 917/10 over the 917/30 though). The highlight of the Goodwood Revival is the Can Am race that they put on.

However, whilst there are Can AM mods out there for GPL, GTL, GTR2, rF1 etc. I find them rather aged for want of a better word, especially GPL (if someone wants to point me in the direction of a mod list that drastically improves the visual spectacle of GPL on it's own I'd be more than happy to change my mind). GTL/GTR2 have aged much better, depending on the quality of the mods you use, but even stock look better than GPL does.

As I've modded GTL/GTR2 myself in the past, although never being able to get as far as building a car in 3dsmax (or similar app), just a few conversions and some very basic UVW re-mapping with already available meshes, I appreciate the work that goes into making such mods, however considering the meshes are very dated, the textures are low res, and (in the GTR2 conversion I've tried) there are no cockpits, such mods aren't very playable for me.

Really wish someone would make a more modernised Can Am mod for games such as GTL/GTR2 - I'd even help out if possible.

 

[Kuckoo]

I think it was Jackie Stewart who said GPL was actually much harder than the real thing. This was how the myth of "harder equals more realistic" came into being. I've never played it, but I hope there are good physics mods available.

It's doubtful he or any other professional racer ever said playing GPL is harder than doing the real thing. Likely a gross oversimplification or misunderstanding of something taken out of context. Real world professional motor racing is a physically and mentally strenuous activity. It's virtually impossible to convey that in a desktop computer product, no matter how well it's made. I'm guessing if such a comment was uttered it may have had something to do in relation to that.

Also, designing a racing sim so that it's more realistic will naturally make it more difficult in some respects, compared to easier or simpler products. That, however, is not the same as saying making some parts deliberately more difficult - just for its own sake - results in making things more real. The "harder=real" trope used here is backwards, and misses the point.

 

[Davide Nativo]

This and the Sportscar mod. Gems.

wait for the end of the year then, you are in for a real treat

 

[north]

wait for the end of the year then, you are in for a real treat

Ooooh... I'm gonna wait too.

 

[Durge Driven]

 

[Andrew C. Clegg]

An interesting article Leon. I'm enjoying the Thundercars mod at the moment. I do enjoy the 1971 Can-Am mod and tracks.
Concentrating to get a few more times on GPL Rank.

 

[Andrew C. Clegg]

An interesting article Leon. I enjoy this mod and tracks.
I'm enjoying the Thundercars mod at the moment.
Trying to get a few times on GPL Rank.

 

[ClimaxF1]

wait for the end of the year then, you are in for a real treat

Hi there

A simple request, can you give us a link to the Rfactor mod or conversion.

 

[ChaosZeroJK]

The thing that is rarely discussed, is that up until the early '00s, we didn't have all the fancy tools that the younger kids have nowadays. Often, tools had too be made from scratch just to make mods. Or mods had to be made in such a way that circumvented the lack of said tools.

Nowadays, people that are considered to be the clowns of the community use the abundance of mods of some current games such as AC as a perk or something to be proud of, but the quality of 90% of them is quite bad. Mods badly converted, badly ripped, badly made, all because there are tools that make all the work for you at the pressing of a button. Quality control has gone away and attention to detail is not a priority anymore.

GPL, GP4, SCGT, the early days of rF1/GTR2 were the golden age of modding. Nowadays it's just a cringefest.

 

[Davide Nativo]

Hi there

A simple request, can you give us a link to the Rfactor mod or conversion.

Sorry, not possible. Plus, I don't even have the rFactor conversion myself to be honest

 

[Durge Driven]

Wow just wow

If 90% of them are bad and a cringefest who do you blame for that ?

imho the problem is modding and painting has never had cohesion

Every hobby I can think of has a properly run non profit global organization, even knitting !

If modding was a organization it would be called disjointed and fractured

decade ago I imagined a Global Modders and Painters Co-Op
which would have established guidelines, rules and charter of ethics, all the usual stuff
Like any organization it would have yearly dues
There would be perks for members
Modders and painters would have everything they need
real time workshops, software, test severs
For a fee members would be able to take courses on modding and painting and learn from the best the right way down to chronicle file naming across mods and skins
As well a open source section where anyone could sandbox and leave work to be tested
All content released would have Co-Op seal of approval

No reason with all major sims catered for you could not end up with 10,000's of members
happy to pay every year

You could even have Full courses with diplomas and modders getting wages as teachers
crap you can become a minister online and they make millions a year

Silly pipe dream I know

 

[Deleted member 503495]

wait for the end of the year then, you are in for a real treat

Le Mans anywhere from 1967 to 1972?

 

[Bentcam]

The hard work and talents of a multi-talented, dedicated and uncompromising Mod Team are what makes GPL mods special. Attention to detail from every possible angle and unique insights into the physics (operative word - unique) show the love of this classic mod still as challenging and competitive as ever.
" I always think of these things as psychotic axe-murderers. There's always that feeling, even when you're dialled in, that at any moment you're going to get it in the back of the head."
Mark Jones referring to the GPL Can-Am 1971 Mod. I totally agree.
GPL is still very available and the ease of access to mods and tracks and setup time is well more than worth the little effort to get it operating. Also the greatest group of supporters around. Time to jump in.

Dano

 

[Stefan Roess]

Leo, thx for the good article and the GPL promotion!

Manu, the Jops Siffert Circuit was great work of you and Jackseller!
And a very nice way to keep up the memory of Jops.
Thank you for this brilliant fantasy track!


For all who want to reinstall or update GPL this might help.
Thanks to the "GPLPS GPL Installer" it was never so easy than today to install GPL.
And GPL still works fine on Windows 10 64-bit latest build.

Grand Prix Legends (GPL) Easy Installation Guide (English)
http://gplworld.org/easy-installation-guide.html

Grand Prix Legends (GPL) Easy Installation Guide (German)
http://gplworld.de/easy-installation-guide.html

 

[elloLeo Kinnunen]

wait for the end of the year then

Is this deliberately cryptic or did I miss some important detail?

 

[Tbear]

Is there any chance at all that somebody could release a set of 70's vintage CanAm & TransAm cars for Assetto Corsa ... that actually works and races similar in quality to the DRM Revival? AC certainly has the tracks for them.

 

[Pawgy]

GPL CanAnm is great and it is hard but not any harder than the original 67 cars. GPL is and always has been the best racing sim ever created.

 

[Stefan Roess]

It got fixed not long after I posted here, someone probably read my post. I think they went 2 months or so without any new members before they realized.

When no one contacts an admin how shall he know that it is broken?

Anyway, I know of Ginetto (one of the SRMZ admins) that it has got fixed long time ago and is still fully working.
When you register at SRMZ http://srmz.net/ you will get validated manually by and admin. This may take one or two days.

 

[Davide Nativo]

Celebrating with style.

Please note: the pictures are taken from a Beta version of the mod, and as such do not represent final quality of the product. Further work is being done at the moment and the modding team aims for a release by Christmas time.

This year marks a very special milestone for the GPL community. It is in fact the 20th anniversary since the release of this title that introduced so many of us to simracing and shaped an entire generation of virtual drivers. Grand Prix Legends represented a watershed in how sims were developed, and how simracers themselves would approach this genre. It was also the first time that online racing competition really took off, and when many leagues, teams and groups still in the game now were originally born.

To this day, developers still have to acknowledge the heritage that this title left behind, and if some new games, even when not completely focused on the simulation aspects like Forza, feature in their rosters cars like the Lotus 49, Honda RA300, Ferrari 312 and last but not least Eagle Weslake T1G, or historical tracks like Monaco, Monza, Spa and Silverstone, it is because of GPL.

It was important then to celebrate this anniversary properly. At the beginning of the year, Lee Bowden, guru of the title’s code and physics engine, already released the “Legends of GPL” mod. A collection of the best cars in the game, representing the title winner for each category, both from the originals and the various mods later developed for Grand Prix Legends. An eccentric and clever project that required having multiple sets of physics working simultaneously for it to work properly. A showcase of the progress that the sim had made in all these years, either from a technical or of content standpoint. La crème de la crème.

Mercedes, Lola, Lotus, Brabham, Ferrari, McLaren, Matra, all racing together in an unprecendented mod.​

However, that was not all. Behind the stage, the meticulous group of GPL modders was hard at work to prepare another gift to the community.

Back in 2010, the 1967 Sportscars mod was released. Fruit of the hard work and experimentation conducted by Rory Gibson since 2002, it was the proof that closed wheel cars could be modelled and implemented successfully into Grand Prix Legends, a feat deemed otherwise simply impossible. Gibson would work alone for four years, before having some people in 2006 jumping in to help him out in his ambitious project. Many obstacles had to be overcome for this mod to be. The new models, as we said, but also the seven cars slots limitations, broken by Nigel Pattinson, the physics, not originally suited for these heavy machines, and the AI, that had to be trained by Lee Bowden to cope with these new cars. “Give things a good beginning, and they will proceed accordingly”. The aphorism that signifies this mod’s development. All of the above-mentioned impediments were successfully won, and the Sportscars mod was finally released, much for the community enjoyment.

Besides, it was the mean to open the way to other new and exciting mods like the Can Am ’66 and ’71, and more that are still being worked on.

The good people back at the GPL Repository were then pretty much all agreeing that a renovation of this set of cars was indeed the best way to celebrate the 20th anniversary, an indication of all the road that this sim had run across in its time. Works have been underway for months now under the good lead of 'Ginetto', and have brought a good number of improvements to it.

What does this marvellous update brings then? Well, there is a long list, but I do not think anyone is going to complain about it.

First, the update includes the beautiful looking and sounding Alfa Romeo T33. Not a very reliable car back then that still had to iron out some issues derived from the novelty of the project, but the Italian lightweight prototype will give drivers the chance to experience a truly fun and enjoyable chassis, giving well-deserved competition to the Porsche 910 already running in the mod. You will be grinning from ear to ear when mastering the winding corners of ‘La Cursa’, the Targa Florio.

Then we have new physics for all of the cars. Their characteristics have been revisited, thanks to code knowledge gained in these last eight years, for better accuracy and to provide players a more on point representation of every vehicle strong and weak points. Bob Berman, who actually drove a Ford GT40 MkI back in the day, gave his incredibly precious feedback to the team and collaborated in the development of the driving model for the cars. Moreover, the Chaparral 2F now has a moveable rear wing, just as it was in the real car, providing extra downforce in corners. The mechanism is controlled by a specific bindable button, which can be also controlled by your clutch pedal if you prefer so. “Out for wing down and more downforce in the corners and in for levelling the wing for less drag and more speed on the straights”, as explained by Lee Bowden who implemented this interesting feature.

Cars are also no longer limited by the absence in GPL of a refuelling option. Before, all vehicles had to be modelled with a bigger tank. Not realistic, but much needed for drivers to complete the race, which would have been impossible otherwise. Now, always thanks to Lee Bowden, you can actually pit to refuel! Tanks have been then resized to match their real dimensions. This undoubtedly adds another level to the simulation, immersing the player more into the driving.

All of the models have been receiving new textures and some further refinement. The Lola T70 has a new nose cone, and bugs and glitches for all cars have been solved removing any flickering, corruption or distortion that the players might have experienced in the past. Drivers’ models also have been improved and the AI now has full 3D faces and helmets, textured accordingly. Skins for the vehicles have been reworked, and meet their real life counterparts in every detail, for every race (needless to say, this was a monumental task). Engine sounds were redone and further improved by Wolfgang Buthe.

The mod’s layout has been too redone from scratch to give a fresh change of air to its look. Now the primary and secondary colours are red and gold, matching those of the title winner, the Ferrari P4, and all menus, dialog boxes and dropdown lists have been set accordingly. All screens feature new quality, coloured pictures, balanced to seamlessly integrate into one another creating a joyful context for the end user to navigate.

Lastly, drivers’ entries match those of every championship and non-championship race, giving to the AI unique behaviour so to have different results in their on-track conduct. Their driving has also been improved, mastering the cars better, and new setups fixes have been included for both their vehicle and the player’s.

As a final note, while not shipped with the mod, I would strongly suggest to download the “Night Patch” developed by Lee Bowden. It makes transitions from day to night in a single session possible, virtually making 24 hours races (lighting wise) feasible into the sim (mind you, the time limit is still restricted however to maximum 2 hours due to hardcode limitations). Every track needed is available for download at the GPL Track Database.

I believe that there is nothing really more to say from my side. The “1967 Sportscars Extra” mod does the job of well presenting itself without the need of any sweet words. I would just love to leave you with its video preview, highlighting everything and more there is to say and see about it. I will conclude by stating that this mod is a testament to Grand Prix Legends longevity, and to the hard work and dedication of its modders. Nothing of this would be possible without these people giving their free time for the enjoyment of the community, and without the community itself supporting their labour and the sim itself. We, as simracers, often complain about the lack of a complete set of cars and tracks from a specific season, and then there is who actually provides both.

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