A SimHQ "Second Look" Feature
New Developments in Grand Prix Legends

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Maturity

By the time the GPLEA (Grand Prix Legends Editor’s Association) with the incredible talent of Gustavo, the Michelangelo of GPL, had completed their project of updating all the cars in GPLs 1967 season, the community had fostered new talent and apart from extremely nice looking car sets for other seasons, astounding progress was being achieved in modding the physics and other aspects of the GPL code.

Mods

We now have a 1965 mod with corresponding physics. There is also the 1969 mod with not only modded physics but also with aero downforce and lift included in the physics model, and the latest, greatest mod is the 1966 mod which features not only the developments in physics, and aero, you can even choose between more than the 7 cars that the original GPL allowed the player to choose from. There is even a fun mod with huge slick tires and beefed up engine power called the Thundercars.

Monaco - 1966 Mod

Your best laps screen can be modified so that if you wish to drive the 1966 season, the tracks in that season will appear on your best laps screen. All these features come in fully packaged downloads so you won’t have to search the net for bits and bobs (links at the end of this article).

You can have different versions of the tracks, so if you race Zandvoort in 1965 it is a 1965 version, and if you race the same track in the 1969 season it will be a representation based on how Zandvoort looked in 1969.

NaturalPoint® TrackIR™

TrackIR technology is supported through the JSJ GPLShift.

Rasterizers

New rasterizers for D3D and OpenGL have been released to address some of the graphical glitches that were beginning to appear in conjunction with newer DX versions and newer graphics cards and their associated drivers. For example you will no longer see half-drawn cars, or you car missing the cockpit when at the back of a full grid of cars, even with the drawing distance set to 100%. The text corruption that occurred in 3D while in replay mode has also been eliminated, making the rasterizers a must download. In OGL the visible polygon lines in the sky experienced with some drivers has been eliminated.

Widescreen resolutions are supported and it is as simple as just selecting your desired screen resolution within GPL’s menus; you no longer have to search for the hacks and implement them yourself, it is all there once you download the new rasterizers.

I also believe that the new rasterizers generally offer better performance while at the same time drawing a much nicer looking image. A setting for inducing foggy track conditions has also been added. To enable the fog you need to add the following lines to your track.ini file. I’m sure someone will soon come up with an automated procedure for this, meanwhile the rest of us will enjoy the nostalgia of opening notepad once again to hack the track.ini, strictly old school...

[ fog ]
type = 1
density = 1.0  < increase this value to add fog
fog_r = 150
fog_g = 175
fog_b = 200

A work-in-progress: Fog in the Eiffel - 1937 Mod

60 Frames Per Second

The 60 fps mod is an astounding achievement. Just released, it increases the frame rate from the until very recently unbreakable maximum of 36 fps. This mod results in an overall increased smoothness to the visuals, the controls, and thus to the entire driving experience. Currently the patch supports online racing and single player racing, with or without AI. Once it has been documented that there are no unwanted side-effects associated with running the patch, I’ll be switching over to it.

Force Feedback Updates

At the moment, updates are being tested for an improved force feed back, but should be used with caution, and only after reading and understanding the readme supplied with the update. The forces are being taken directly from the physics engine with all forms of damping and latency removed, which can result in very strong and sudden forces acting upon your wheel and arms.

This brings us fairly up to date with what is available for Grand Prix Legends today. Let us now take a look into the future.

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