rec.autos.simulators

David G Fisher

I have been getting back into GPL tho, and it has so many
good tracks (e.g. those classic long German circuits like
Solitude and Schottenring) that it puts what I've seen from
NR track makers to shame.  But nobody seems intent on
converting any of them to NR... <sigh>

        John DiFool

The D3D or OpenGL patches will run without the core.ini stuff, it just
won't look as pretty.

Apart from this odd resolution problem does gpl run okay?

When you start gpl if it detects a corrupted player.ini (or an odd
setting it doesn't understand) it will default back to 640x480. There
are plenty of things that can cause this (read-only files, corrupted ini
following a previous crash etc) but from your original post I gather
that when you start gpl & go into the options screen, it is already set
to D3D7 and 1024x768.

If that's the case there are only really two things that could cause the
problem, but I would have thought either would create problems elsewhere
too.

If your rendd3d7.dll file is corrupt or missing gpl should just crash,
but try grabbing another version & putting that in instead. There's a
thread on RSC where Guru made up a whole load of dlls to support
different resolutions, and the OpenGL ones were based on the 'fixed'
rasteriser. There were two releases of the D3D rasteriser, and getting a
new one would ensure you have the latest one (both were released years
ago though).

The other potential cause is your graphics card setup as I suggested
before. If your monitor/gf3 doesn't offer 1024x768 for some odd reason,
gpl will default back to 640x480. Try a few other resolutions to see if
you can get one of them to work.

What 'fix' do you use for the refresh rate? I use rivatuner which
automatically runs my monitor at the highest possible refresh rate for
that resolution, much like Win9x did. Could you be trying to run gpl at
too high a refresh rate?

There have been a couple of nVidia driver releases that don't like gpl,
including a recent one that ***ed up the mirrors in OpenGL. Try a
different graphics driver to see if it helps, but tbh I doubt this is
the problem.

Have you tried the OpenGL rasteriser instead btw?

Malc.

I have 120-130 tracks in my N2003 installation, and none of them are
ovals.  By comparison, the only addon tracks for GPL I've really cared
for were Lime Rock, Adelaide, Isle of Man, and the East German tracks,
and I've tried damn near every one of them.  It's great that there are
400-500 tracks for GPL, it's not so good that 450 of them are tiny
club circuits and fictional tracks.

I dunno, take a CTS or PTA physics-based mod for a spin around Spa.
Doing under 3 minutes at Spa while you're on the limit and fighting
for traction in every corner is pretty damn exciting to me.  If GPL
modelled the mid 50's or something maybe I'd still go back to it once
in awhile, despite the crude engine and technical obsolescence.  I
just don't find point-and-gas mid-engined cars anywhere near as
thilling anymore.

Jason

I would definitely love to have Solitude, Schottenring, and the Andre
Streu tracks in N2003.  The version of Leipzig that is out isn't bad,
but it's not as good as Andre's.

Jason

Malc.

Track designers and converters have had 5 years of practice now...<g>

Eldred
--
http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
Screamers League
IICC League
GPLRank -6.0    MoGPL rank +267.80
Ch.Rank +52.58   MoC +741.71
Hist. +82.34  MoH:na
N2k3 rank:in progress
Slayer Spektera lvl 72 assassin
Slayer Spectral_K lvl 38 Necro
US East

  Like to say I'm surprised by that attitude, but I'm not.  Typical; so
called "enlightened ones" are more close minded than those they make fun of.

Damn, gotta find it now...

Interesting.  I have a supposedly better card(TI4600), 1024X768 res(same as my
desktop), no AA, no FSAA, and struggle to maintain 36 FPS even in D3D.  OGL is
a joke on this system.  I wonder what's going on here?

Eldred
--
http://www.umich.edu/~epickett
Screamers League
IICC League
GPLRank -6.0    MoGPL rank +267.80
Ch.Rank +52.58   MoC +741.71
Hist. +82.34  MoH:na
N2k3 rank:in progress
Slayer Spektera lvl 72 assassin
Slayer Spectral_K lvl 38 Necro
US East

So far I don't get that impression in the 65 mod, but I'm waiting for
the final release tonight to really dig into it.

As far as ramp angles go, that's the absolute least important
component of a setup in GPL.  It's funny how much people jack
themselves off over differentials in GPL when their handling problems
are being caused by the rest of the setup.

Jason

A well set up chassis will allow the car to make the most of it's tyres
at a given track, but the diff changes the way the chassis responds to
throttle input & to a lesser degree braking forces. Once you find a diff
setting that suits your driving style the rest of the chassis can just
be tweaked for the particular track.

The effect of the diff is reduced with less power (compared to the
available grip), and apparently it makes much less difference to the
behaviour of the car with the 65 mod for this reason, but in a high
power/low grip car the way it responds to the power is very important
for consistency & ultimately better race results.

In reality teams didn't change the diff settings much in 65 or 67, but
then they didn't change much else on the car either ;-)

Malc.

--
GPLRank -61
Monster GPLRank -294

Whoa, I had no idea, thanks.

Jason