rec.autos.simulators

  How do people get the nice videos and screenshots of GPL without the
letterbox?

    OK, one more question.  Has anybody made any "pre-chicane" tracks for F1
Championship?  I really like the older tracks.

You'll have to search the RSC forums.

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=34383

Malc.

  OK, I will have to try that out when I re-install GPL.

  Has anybody got any good mods for this game yet, such as tweaks to the
tire grip?

There is a 1965 mod though which is easier to drive because the cars
dont have quite as much power. http://55and65.speedgeezers.com/gpl65/
Be sure to get some 65 setups as the defaults are for 67 and will
seriously stunt the performance.

If you want to make the black bars as small as possible you'll need to
select a tall (rather than widescreen) resolution & adjust your monitor
to correct the distortion. The end result will be that most of the black
bars will be drawn off the top & bottom of your monitor, but you need to
keep some of it visible so you can see the chat & other information.

There is no way to simply not have the black bars, but you can make the
main viewing area fill more of the screen. There are a few FOV utils you
can use to get the viewing angle you want too.

Personally I don't mind the black bars, I prefer to think of it as
giving me a wider viewing angle rather than restricting the top & bottom
view. All you'd see is more***pit (or road behind the car) and more
sky anyway.

Malc.

Well, that is the way the game is supposed to be, it was intended for a
European flavor..

If you removed the LB areas, you would miss stuff that is displayed in those
areas.  Its not really a 16:9 game, but a 4:3 game with a letterboxed
driving screen.  The black areas are still used for certain things.

Imagine watching LotR with about 40% of the picture missing...

l8er
ronny

It's not like zooming in on a widescreen film, gpl actually draws more
information. You can use a FOV editor to get the car to look like it's
further into the screen, back to where it would be with the black bars
in place.

On the subject of widescreen though, I have a normal (not widescreen)
telly that's capable of displaying widescreen transmissions by adding
black bars top & bottom (like gpl). The thing I really hate is when a
channel (usually the BBC) broadcasts in 'widescreen' mode (ie they send
the signal that makes my telly add the bars top & bottom) but the
broadcast isn't actually in widescreen so I get a thick black border on
ALL FOUR SIDES!!!.

Malc.

Ooooh... that pisses me off no end as well. I applaud the BBC for showing
both British and World Championship SBK races, but whatever happened to full
screen in 4:3 mode?

While we're on the subject, why can't I receive the digital and interactive
channels in Belgium even when I own a DVB receiver? The BBC doesn't run ads
(which disallows us access to Granada and Sky Digital), so what the problem?

Jan.
=---

problem?

If you get a 'proper' Sky digibox you should be able to. I've watched
Sky News & used it's interactive stuff in the South of France using a
British Sky digibox with no viewing card. You get loads of freeview
shopping channels, all the BBC channels (1-4 plus news & a couple of
kiddie channels) plus Sky News even without a Sky subscription.

Malc.

It died a long time ago.

4:3 wouldn't be fullscreen on my (quite old, third) 16:9 set.

:-D

Mark

  LCD monitors usually don't allow this.

  So can I make the black bars smaller?  And where do I get this utility?

  You can change the viewing angle in most other gamse without adding black
bars.