rec.autos.simulators

Scottie

Yes, the correct site is:

http://www.sierra.com/sierrasports/forums/motor/

Peter

Subject:
From:
Host:
Date:  GPL 1.1.0.3 readme11.txt
Eric T. Busch
papy193.papy.com
Mon Jun 7 09:14:09

For those that are curious, here's the readme11.txt from the upcoming
GPL 1.1.0.3 patch.

Eric/Papyrus

Grand Prix Legends PATCH README
Version 1.1
5/5/99

[ To read this file, select Edit/Word Wrap from the menu above ]

                TABLE OF CONTENTS

        1.  NOTES

        2.  GENERAL

        3.  MULTIPLAYER - GENERAL

        4.  MULTIPLAYER - MODEM-TO-MODEM

        5.  MULTIPLAYER - FIREWALLS

        6.  NEW .INI FILE OPTIONS

        7.  NEW .INI FILE

        8.  NEW DEFAULT CAR SETUPS

        9.  FORCE FEEDBACK SUPPORT

1. NOTES
--------

Some of the multiplayer-specific changes included in this patch make
GPL version 1.1.0.3 clients and servers incompatible with version
1.0.0.0 clients and servers.

2. GENERAL
-----------

The minimum ride height has been increased from 1 inch (2.54cm) to
2.5 inches (6.34cm).  Any car setup you load that has a lower ride
height will automatically have the ride height increased to this
value.

The order in which drivers are dropped when you choose less than a
full field of AI  has been changed so that you still get some slow AI
drivers even with small fields.

Joystick axes may now be assigned to shift up/shift down.

There was a bug in our DirectInput joystick code that caused problems
when a device reported more than 8 axes (the Gravis Xterminator (at
least on Win95), and Thrustmaster Force GT, for example).  This has
been fixed.

A new 3Dfx rasterizer (rast3dfx.dll) is included.  The only
difference is a change that allows Voodoo 3 users to change screen
resolutions without corrupting the texture maps.

When calibrating your joystick, the on-screen instructions say to
return your joystick to center before pressing OK.  The intent is to
reset the joystick center position when you hit OK.  GPL 1.0 only set
the center position when you pressed the "Calibrate
Joysticks" button to begin the calibration, and did not reset it
when you hit the OK button.  This has been fixed.

When loading a saved race, the qualifying setup would be applied to
the car, even if the race was the current session.  This has been
fixed.

The pit board at the Nurburgring has been moved to the other side of
Sudkehre so that you now see your most recent lap time.

GPL would sometimes crash the system when saving a large replay.  
This has been fixed.

GPL would sometimes shut down improperly, causing some files to not
be saved, and some system settings to not be restored.  This seemed
to happen more often on slower systems.  This has been fixed.  These
changes also improved game performance by one or two percent.

Activating the Player Info screen would sometimes change the state of
the automatic shifting, braking and traction driving aids.  This has
been fixed.

The Race Setup dropdown list on the car setup screen would extend off
the bottom of the screen, instead of scrolling as the Practice Setup
dropdown list does.  This has been fixed.

GPL will now run on Windows NT with DirectX installed (I believe NT4
with service pack 3, and NT 5 Beta 2).  The Generic joystick driver
is not avaliable on Windows NT.  GPL will also run on dual-processor
NT systems, and take advantage of both processors.  Don't expect any
miracles, though.  GPL is quite memory intensive, and a
dual-processor machine has two processors fighting for memory
bandwidth instead of just one.  Because of GPL's architecture, it is
unlikely that a machine with more than two processors would provide
any benefit.

You are no longer allowed to get into your car while the checkered
flag is out during a qualifying session.  Also, Race Control will
reduce the amount of time the checkered flag is displayed in
qualifying once scoring has been completed for all cars.  

If all cars drop out of a race during the race session, Race Control
will throw the checkered flag and end the race.

Exported race results now contain the race type (novice,
intermediate-short, etc.), as well as the amount of time it took to
run the race, and the number of laps in the race.

It was possible that driving controls (throttle, brake, shifting,
etc.) would not be enabled when you got into your car, even though
all controls were properly calibrated and assigned.  The problem was
most likely to occur while the chat pad was open, but could occur at
any time  This has been fixed.

By default, GPL uses a speed-sensitive steering ratio.  At and above
60MPH, the steering ratio specified by your car setup is used.  Below
that speed, your the steering ratio will be set to somewhere between
7:1 and the ratio defined by your car setup.  GPL does this to make
it possible to exit your pit stall when pit road is crowded, and to
make navigating hairpin turns easier.  You can disable this feature
by adding the following two lines to core.ini

[ Hack ]
steer_ratio = 0       ;

You can now override any of GPL's .ini file options on the command
line.  The command line overrides are not saved to the .ini file, so
there is no need to backup the .ini file.  This facility will
generally be used by programs that launch GPL (VROC, for example (see
http://gpl.gamestats.com/vroc)).  The format of a command line
override is...

        -ko"numeric_id:section_name:key_name:value"

        ...where...

        numeric_id is the ID of the .ini file that contains the value
to be
overridden.  The mapping is:

                0  = core.ini,
                10 = app.ini
                20 = player.ini
                40 = track.ini
                50 = address.ini
                65 = server.ini

        section_name is the name of the section within the .ini file
in
which the key exists.  [Communications], for example.  The brackets
([, and ]) should not be specified.

        key_name is the name of the key.  net_mdm_client_send_every,
for
example.

        For example, to use a value of 3 for net_mdm_client_send_every
from
the Communications section of core.ini, you would use...

        gpl -ko"0:communications:net_mdm_client_send_every:3"

3. MULTIPLAYER - GENERAL
--------------------------

When the host of a multiplayer race started the race weekend,
sometimes a client would not be given the green button that allowed
them to get into their car.  This has been fixed.

Sometimes a client in a multiplayer race would not see their own lap
times, or would see incorrect information on their pit board during
the race.  For the most part, this has been fixed.  If a client has
an exceptionally poor connection to the server, it is still possible
that Race Control will be unable to correctly score this client.

Race control would sometimes disqualify a client for driving the
track in the wrong direction, even when they did not do so.  This has
been fixed.

Race control would sometimes register an impossibly short lap time
for a client if the client "winked out" near the start/finish
line.  We believe this is fixed.

Sometimes the keyboard shortcuts for the replay and camera systems
would be active while typing a message into the chat pad.  These
controls are supposed to be deactivated while chatting.  This has
been fixed.

There was no way to restrict access to a GPL server based on the
communications latency to a client.  When setting up a server, you
may now specify a maximum allowable latency of up to 1 second (though
latencies above 0.5 second are generally undesirable).  A client's
latency is only checked once as they connect to the server.  If their
latency increases while they are connected, the server will not
automatically kick them off.

There was no way to limit the number of clients that could connect to
a server on a particular network connection.  If too many players
connected, the device would become overloaded causing poor
performance for everyone.  There is now a "maximum number of
players" selection for each network connection.

After many people had connected to and then disconnected from a race
server, newly connecting drivers would see a long stream of
"X.Y:Connected"..."X.Y:Disconnected" messages for
drivers that were no longer connected to the server.  This has been
fixed.

After many people had connected to and then disconnected from a race
server, a newly connecting driver would be assigned car number 0, and
would drive around in a car with no car number painted on it.  This
has been fixed.

The rules shown to a client of a multiplayer Grand Prix race
indicated that there were two practice sessions, when there is really
only one.  This has been fixed.

A GPL race server will now broadcast its status, and respond to ping
requests, while a race session is in progress.  Previously, it would
only do this during qualifying sessions, and when it was on the race
setup screen.

A GPL client tries to keep itself synchronized to the server to which
it is connected.  Due to varying communications latencies that are
typical on the Internet, this is an imprecise task.  The method that
GPL 1.0 used to try and stay in synch with its server could cause two
different anomalies that have become known as "frame
stuttering" and "clock smashing."  You could try to trade
off one for the other by changing the value of the
"clock_adj_delay" setting in the [Communications] section of
core.ini.  Lower values would generally cause more frame stuttering
and fewer clock smashes, and higher values would generally cause the
opposite.  The default value for this setting was 12 in GPL 1.0, but
has been changed to 4 in GPL 1.1

GPL 1.1 introduces a second method by which a client can try to stay
in synch with its server.  The new method ignores the clock_adj_delay
setting, since it is not meaningful to the way this new method
operates.  With the new method it is still possible to have clock
smashes, though they should occur less often.  The new method also
replaces ...

read more »

Greetinx Micha?l Hompus

I WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

--
Kirk Lane

ICQ: 28171652

RMRL #119

After having read the readme I am not so sure I'll really need this patch;
I only drive against AI, and I've already learned how to change the .ini
to choose a field suitable to me. (Actually my control of the cars is
still very far from taking part to net races; I just would be one of those,
who by accident spoil other's online races... And I do not want to join
that club...)

But GPaL really is something I wait for... I hope it will work also with
non-patched GPL!

Arto

GPaL will work with both GPL 1.0 and 1.1.

One of the things that I think you and everybody who races the AI will enjoy
is, of course, the point-and-click adjustment of both the AI speed and the
speed *diversity* within the field. As you have discovered, you can manually
adjust the AI speed through an INI file setting change. But, if you limit
your adjustments to that one setting, I'm sure you've discovered that the
guys at the front (Clark, Hill, Brabham, etc.) continue to go like the wind,
while some of the rest of the field slows to accommodate your developing sim
racing skills. Wouldn't it be nice if you could bring the whole field back
(or up) to your speed with point-and-click ease? GPaL makes it a piece of
cake.

Another frustrating thing about manual AI adjustments, apart from the
complexity and the nuisance of editing INI files, is the fact that once you
get them right for one track, they're all wrong when you move to another
track, car, car type, or level (Novice, Intermediate, or Pro). GPaL, in
addition to making it easy to make AI adjustments, remembers your AI
settings for every combination of driver, track, car, level, mode (Single
Race, World Championship, or Multiplayer), and car type (Novice Trainer,
Advanced Trainer, or Grand Prix). So, with GPaL, every time you change
anything, the AI adjust automatically to the settings you prefer.

Jack Rambo

www.RaceLive.com/GPaL