RSC isn't running too well atm, so I'll cut and paste it here: Grand Prix Legends 1965 When GPL was born in 1998, it revolutionised the racing simulation scene – un-surpassed realism, a challenging race sim like no other. Over 5 years later and die-hard GPL’ers bring you the sequel that never was – Grand Prix Legends of 1965. Remember the first time you started up GPL? Here it comes again.
A brief introduction to the history of the sim, the year and the mod: The sim - Grand Prix Legends, brought to you by Papyrus and Sierra in 1998 was a ground-breaking racing simulation with the most realistic racing physics the world had seen. A simulation of a by-gone age of motor racing – before wings, slicks and motorsport as many of us know it – “When sex was safe and motor racing was dangerous”. The 1967 Grand Prix season in all it’s glory.
Seven cars, sleek, beautiful and dangerous – Lotus-Ford 49, Eagle-Weslake, Ferrari 312. Twenty drivers, legends with skill, bravery and charisma – Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jack Brabham to name just three. 11 tracks – daunting, challenging – designed with safety firmly out of mind. The year – Grand Prix Legends of 1965 goes back in time a further two years – taking you right back to the final year of the 1500cc Formula One regulations. The key differences between the cars of this year and those of 1967 are that the engines had half the capacity and approximately half the power in 1965 and the tires were considerably thinner and offered slightly less grip.
Top speeds were lower but lap times at most circuits were not as greatly affected as one might suspect with a doubling in engine capacity. The cars were every bit as beautiful as their 1967 counter-parts and epitomised the cigar-tube era – BRM P261, Lotus 33 and Ferrari 1512.
The drivers’ names are more than likely familiar to those who have played Grand Prix Legends, as are the circuits which, differ slightly from those used in 1967. There was no Canadian Grand Prix in 1965 and the South African and French Grand Prixs were held at East London and Clermont Ferrand instead of Kyalami and Le Mans Circuit du Bugatti respectively. The GPL 1965 mod – The mod is the final product of years of hard work by dedicated individuals to produce a complete new season for Grand Prix Legends.
All-new physics, complete car graphics, sounds and layouts for the 1965 season. Further work done by the team includes a new and improved program for hosting and joining races with security features to prevent cheating involved with the new mod and the standard simulated season. This, like the previous software enables players to chat and share setups and will allow online racing to continue to be a strong point of the GPL community. Having been able to see and experience something of the full picture of the work put in by the team, it really is an incredible effort that has been put in here. Now you know a bit about the background, it’s onto the review. First impressions: Neat.
Everything works, it’s all nice and simple to install. You run the self-extracting.exe installer which copies all the files you need for the mod to the desired place. Find your GPLSecrets directory where-ever it was you put it in the mad rush to get the thing running as quickly as possible. Run GEM+, which does what it does best – everything for you. You just need to load it, close it and let it create your brand spanking new.exe files for the mod and all the little GEM+ related goodies. Nothing’s changed, nothing’s gone, overwritten or lost.
The module is not GPL, but they use debugfs in their modified version of it. Debugfs is only usable with MODULE_LICENSE('GPL') so their modified module must be GPL. I have tried contacting them to ask for the source code but not had any success.
The mod is installed. I was very impressed with all this – nothing’s been left to chance, nothing over-looked.
It was a very pleasant surprised that the first beta version I had access to worked so well – this was a few months ago before the release. Click on the new gplc65.exe and away you go. I was so keen to get going, I forgot to make a new player name – went haring off to the track and when I returned and looked at the best laps screen – blank. A small panic took over as I quickly went to check my player.ini and noticed that GEM+ had handily automatically created a gplc65.ini for my player to be used with the new.exe. Returning to my first on track laps – having headed off on to where-ever the green button took me – which happened to be Kyalami in the Lotus 33.
Loaded a setup I had for the cars and set off out of the pits. As with any new car, sim or mod, you never know exactly what is going to happen. First gear engaged – accelerate off smoothly, building the revs you immediately come to the conclusion that they weren’t sparing the revs with those little engines and the sounds are absolute screamers. Up through the gears to reach fourth before braking for my first corner at the wheel. Braked at the usual point for my out lap which, as was to become evident, no longer applied.
I wasn’t pushing the car too hard on the out lap but, as it progressed I realised that the car I was driving could be driven harder and with more confidence than it’s younger brother. At first you might think that makes it easier and that was my initial impression – one of my few impressions that has come to change over time. My next few laps were very enjoyable – driving these cars in the corners is fantastic. Slower corners already felt far better than before with GPL – a responsive front end and the possibility of a true powerslide, controllable without a dog-fight at the exit. One first impression from this session is that the car is tremendously flexible to the driving style of the user. I say user because, the car really feels a lot more like a tool that you control and use in the way you wish – unlike GPL which, to a certain extent, the car always governs the way you are driving it.
The Lotus I was driving felt brilliant, being in control of it’s every move and with the ability to provoke the action I wanted from it. Neutral steering through a corner, a four-wheel drift, powerslide – all can be provoked with use of the throttle and steering for more predictably than I had ever felt with GPL before in the first 10-20 laps. First impressions – incredibly well put together, phenomenally enjoyable and refreshing.
One area I haven’t yet commented upon is the graphics. Those of you reading this who perhaps haven’t played GPL in a while – check back on it today, the level of progress in graphical quality has continued to increase and, the 1965 mod has 7 all new cars, each with a sleek, elegant shape. I feel that graphical quality and attention to detail may have gone up another notch in GPL’s ever-increasing levels with this mod. A word of warning here however – when first running this mod, I would advise against running the Ferrari 1512, especially in cockpit view. One simple reason, you may find that you don’t actually drive for a good half an hour and one might experience some jaw related pain as it clouts the desk on it’s way down.
Alternatively, if you wish to see this masterpiece – recommended that you do at some point – move away from the desk beforehand. You were warned. My first impressions confirmed it to be something special. Quite how special, I was yet to discover. I am going to extend this section to write this review based on my confirmed thoughts after driving this mod extensively. As an avid GPL player for a few years now, I couldn’t really imagine anything causing me to stop playing it – I didn’t predict that Grand Prix Legends of 1965 would, I will be honest. There are a lot of things I want to say here – reasons why, but there is one that is very important.
The driving experience – perhaps easier to drive the cars, just to drive them but, to race them – lap after lap, trying harder than was safely possible for most people with GPL is certainly a challenge. Each and every lap with these cars is driven on or near the limit – and the limit you are reaching is a far more committed limit than any previous one. This creates a thrill and a challenge all of it’s own that, GPL doesn’t deliver for the average player. The racing experience is greatly improved. The performance gap is far less; the time difference found between drivers has closed considerable which means that racing is far closer.
![Gpl 65 Mod Patch Gpl 65 Mod Patch](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125412644/880391666.png)
This is also made possible by the slightly more forgiving and drivable handling of the cars. Racing side-by-side in places you never dreamed possible is now a reality. Moving onto the actual review now then. This is what I think of the mod after quite some time playing it. Physics: GPL was, and for many remains the benchmark by which all other simulations are measured.
So, topping the original physics by Papyrus wasn’t going to be easy but that’s exactly what I think this team has done. Many have talked for a long time of the low speed slip of GPL’s tire model being a flaw and, since driving this mod I have come to the point of total agreement. The low speed grip is one of the revelations of this mod in my opinion. The cars are so much more responsive in the low speed corners and as a driver, you feel more in control of the front end, cornering speeds are a little higher and there is a sensation of greater levels of grip. Considering the tires of 1965 had less rubber in contact with the race track and that rubber afforded the drivers less mechanical grip and that the cars weigh in very similarly, then this would not be what one might expect should GPL’s original tire model be correct in this area. In general terms the cars are more communicative and the driving more involving. The driver gets a far greater indication of the limit under acceleration, cornering or braking – and should you step over it, it’s easy to come back down under the line and stay on the track.
That said, you will certainly find yourself driving at the limit more often and that limit will be far higher than previously in GPL. This poses it’s own challenge, driving harder and faster for longer isn’t easy by any means. The key point when comparing the relative difficulty, should you choose to, is that these cars are easier to drive under the limit but, with similar challenges whilst at the limit and pushing it further.
The cars and physics enable closer, more exciting racing with a variety of skill levels in drivers. Narrower cars, better and more forgiving handling once you’ve passed the limit or explored alternate lines too far make for very exciting racing.
The cars being so close, with less power means exit speed and slipstreaming are even more critical than before and all this adds a new edge to racing with more tactics involved and a greater emphasis on the challenger to overtake. Overtaking in GPL is all too often a brutally primitive exercise – sit in the mirrors of the man in front and wait until he falls off is often all it takes. Close racing and overtaking does happen but it is more possible, more often in this mod. One thing worth noting is, although slipstream is more important – overtaking isn’t limited to the straight sections, far from it. Braking distances are shorter because of reduced top speeds and more even between drivers as everyone is able to try harder but, there’s ample possibility for a banzai move down the inside, eyes closed, brakes locked and a greater possibility of getting away with it. All this ties neatly into playability, very important area and often a very hard one to get right in a simulation but, 1965 mod has this perfectly balanced.
Improved realism even over the standard Grand Prix Legends sees this mod right up at the top end of the realism tree. But, all of the characteristics of the cars mentioned make it incredibly playable, whether going for that perfect lap at the Nurburgring or racing online or off at Monza. Overall – tremendously realistic and highly enjoyable physics created from all the data available and delicately fine tuned over many, many months to be as close to perfect as possible. Graphics: Grand Prix Legends is an old game. Anyone who predicted it would still be as strong over 5 years after the release and looking as good as it does today, would have been laughed at and perhaps rightly so.
But, thanks to endless work by the community to overhaul the game, from top to toe, it really does look terrific – especially if one considers it’s age. This mod is no exception and many well known contributors have again pulled out all the stops to make sure this lives up to the standards now being achieved with GPL. It does just that. The 7 cars are sleek and beautiful from the exterior views.
The shapes are perfectly recreated and as aesthetically appealing as they always were which fully represents an era where styling was a very important part of the design process and style certainly rode alongside substance. The cockpits have also been lovingly and faithfully recreated to incredible standards. Consider if you will the comparatively limited polygonal structure of the cockpit of a GPL car compared to, say, the WIP screenshots from GTR. The fact that these cockpits are still able to make the jaw of the beholder alter it’s centre of gravity to a considerably lower point does not quite pay enough point to the incredible work of those responsible for ensuing this action.
One thing I feel I must raise is that, the guys making this mod do not have access to accurate, high resolution photos of the interiors of the cars – period photos are often blurry, likely black and white and very scarce. Using photographs taken at historic race meetings isn’t always the solution because cars have often been re-built and in almost all cases have some things that weren’t always there, for safety reasons. To create what is seen in this mod has taken months of staring at a blotchy black and white image, peering in for little details, in the spare time of the creators.
I don’t think I can overstate the amount of work, time and passion that has gone into producing the cars here. Another aspect to the graphical package included with the mod, also subject to a lot of work, care and attention is the Superlight carset. The team felt that everyone should have the chance to use the mod with authentic cars and thus, a reduced detail carset was produced. The Superlight carset is only slightly more taxing on hardware than the original Papyrus cars but, no doubt considerably better looking. This allows absolutely everyone who isn’t running on a pen and paper-based system to enjoy the mod with authentic cars, and also removes any problems with collision boxes and another problems with running the standard or updated GPL cars with a changed set of cars online. I’ll include another area into this – the layouts.
No total overhaul here but, the main menu backgrounds created are very appealing. The photographs used are brilliant and all of the layouts I have seen are worth using. Retains an original GPL main menu style flavour but, like everything else, improves it.
There are new pictures for both cars and drivers in the information screens – again in the original GPL format. All the new layouts are patched in by GEM+ if they are present and your gplc65.exe will use the automatically. Again, very smoothly done. The rest of the interface (track selection, options etc.) remains as it was but, there wasn’t really much to change or improve there – GPL’s interface has always done exactly what it says on the tin.
Overall – Top notch car graphics, authentic and aesthetically pleasing. Interface has been changed and improved where necessary but, remains the same underneath as well as on the surface in places. Some may feel that the GPL graphics engine is dated but, there’s no doubt in my mind the graphics created in this mod are top notch. Sounds: Included with the mod, as you would expect are new car sounds for all of the 7 included cars to match the high-revving little screamers that are the engines.
Automatically installed and used by the GEM+ created.exe as usual. (It is a requirement that the user has patched the standard gpl.exe with the ‘Carsound’ patch.) The sounds are all different and each with it’s own character and unique scream. Sitting on the start line revving the engine is a joy, as is motoring along at top speed at over 12000rpm with that glorious engine note erupting. Having seen some period video (and sound) the scream and noise created certainly feels right and from trackside what you hear is very realistic. With very little in the way of sound samples from the cars, the fact that the sounds are highly comparable is another point of credit to the work of the team.
The sounds give a far greater sensation of speed than that created by sounds used in GPL. Perhaps a product of the high-revving engines but this certainly adds an edge to the audio and the driving experience. The sounds create an impression of travelling far faster than you are and really sells the illusion well, at times you feel like you are driving faster than with the original carset which, on a long straight you are never going to be.
Perhaps the only draw back is sadly no increase in the number of sounds to add more detail to things like gear changes and braking but GPL Sound Overlay should cater for that. Not really a lot more for me to say on another very impressive area of the mod which again shows great care and attention to realism and again creates an enjoyable driving experience. From the low pitch sound of the BRM to the whine of the Brabham BT7 it all sounds fantastic sounds fantastic.
Conclusion: I feel I have tried to highlight any area that could even slightly be improved upon in this mod and I’ve come up with maybe 2 points – and there isn’t a lot that can be done in these areas within the confines of the base of GPL. All together this is brilliant mod and an incredible achievement which truly adds to and improves the experience offered by a remarkable simulation – for it’s community, by it’s community.
Thanks to everyone who made a contribution to this mod and community. As a closing sentence: A long time coming but, definitely worth the wait.
SRMZ 60 fps patch. Is in the 'Grand Prix Legends Files' section. Look for 'Tools/Utilities', you will find the fps patch. Still a work in progress but brr wanted to get something out there so you can see what its like to have 60 fps with gpl. Not only looks great but I feel so much more control behind the wheel. New 65 mod patch. Is in the 'I just want to talk about all things GPL' section.
Teaser track is coming soon. And I know it will set a new standard for racing simulation tracks. Belive me, your jaw will drop open.
This is years and years worth of work. I am very happy with a low 40:XX min lap. I have run one 39. It has been a privlage to help out 'TheTeam' in what small ways I could with this track. You think that Ford looks good?
There is a whole set of GT Sport cars coming. And wait till you see the 71 Can Am mod were working on!
All with correct physics. And they will run with 60 fps. GPL still has a long life ahead of it. Great editors, and a strong, loyal community! The simulations cd does not cost much. And the simulations physics have always set the standard for other simulations.
I think a certain track will bring a few back into the community. Along with great mods and coming mods. 1951 F1 mod is VERY COOL. More information coming soon about Targa Florio!!!!!
44.732 miles, 567 turns! Breath taking graphics!!!! For those just wanting to do a install to check out the new patch go here and get the installer put your cd in run installer and your done It will update 10 tracks to a great standard but there are still some nicer addons for the tracks out there but those in the installer are a great start. Monaco you will have to get the monaco rocks update for that The installer updateds the cars to the latest gpea standards and all needed patch to run gpl. For the mods and online clients the last link will get you to all the needed places.
'I ran that GPL installer thing, and everything seemed to work fine, but when I actually go in to race I only get a small square in the upper left of the screen where I can see anything.' Very common problem with NVidia graphic cards and GPL. Should be very easy to fix. I know I fixed mine with one small change in one of the ini files. But right off the top of my head, I don't remember the fix.
Shame RSC is still down, I know the fix was posted there. I will ask around for you and be back when I find out.
Sorry I don't remember right now. But don't worry, there is a very simple fix for that! Ok, I'm back with your fix. GPL runs as only a small square in the top corner of the screen 1- The line in the core.ini: Direct3D7 DirectMirrorRendering = 1 Change it to DirectMirrorRendering = 0 Since RSC is down, being rebuilt! And has been down for over a month. Best place for you to get problems fix and to find updates would be SMRZ for now.?
3d7 are the old rasterizers. You are going to want the new ones. There is a thread over at SMRZ to get the files and instructions. Nigel's new rasterizers Look for Grand Prix Legends Files/ Tools/Utilities /Sticky: Nigel's new rasterizers Sounds like you have some work ahead of you still. Go to SMRZ web site and save yourself some time.