Since this has become a sub-off topic thread in the iRacing
pricing thread, I thought I start a separate thread.
GPL was the first racing sim I ever owned. Prior to that,
the only racing games I had for PC's were the NFS series,
from NFS2 to NFS5 - Porsch Unleashed. Hearing that GPL was
a challenge, I dediced to buy it and try it out.
Even though NFS games are arcade games, they still helped in
that I had learned how to drive without the sensory feedback
of a real car. The only hint of realism was the fact that some
of the games incorporated some form of oversteer. In High
Stakes (1999), the Mercedes CLK required a bit of early turn in
to allow it time to settle into an oversteer state. In Porsche
Unleashed (2000), the physics prevented power oversteer, but
the cars could be setup with lift throttle oversteer. Which
eventually lead to me using an 85/45/4 differential in GPL
with the Lotus.
I started with the Lotus at Kyalami, and after the typcial few
spintouts, started to get the hang of it. The main thing for me
on a new game is getting a sense of the relative speed based
on the in game view, and motor sounds (combined with what gear
I was in). I stayed with the Lotus for my GPL Rank (jeffr).
I started working on my GPL rank, back in August 2002, getting
it down to a +35 in about 6 weeks, then took a break for about
4 months (probably due to other games, like TombRaider or some
first person shooter, plus it was the holiday season). I went
back to working on my GPL rank in Feb 2003, and it took about
9 weeks to go negative.
So it took me about 4 months of active game play to go negative,
which I was told was relatively fast, but I honestly thing my
experience with all the varying physics in the NFS games helped,
especially the usage of lift throttle oversteer to control
speed and turn in while approaching a corner apex. Unfortunately
I now want to be able to use lift throttle oversteer on every
racing game I play now, since I really liked the effect in GPL.
The other thing I liked about GPL was the fact that driver induced
understeer (steer inwards to wash out the front end to prevent
or recover from oversteer) worked. This works in real life as well,
but it's really only useful on only a few types of racing cars
combined with the setup.
When in between other games, and when I had the time, I would
occasionally spend time with GPL again. The last goal was to join
the sub 500 second (8:20) club at Nordshcleife, which I finally
did with an 8:15.32 (500 seconds is 8:20), back in Sep 2005.
Even though I rarely play GPL anymore, I'll always be a fan of
the game.
The fact it too 7 years before I finally stopped racing GPL in favour of
GT Legends say it all for me.
7 years is a remarkably long time for a title to remain perceived as the
best road racing sim.
In fact way too long. Sure if gave the likes of ISI, Simbin, Blimey etc.
time to catch up and supersede it but the rapid development of racing
sims hit a plateau with GPL for many years as Papyrus concentrated on
Nascar before closing down and Crammond didn't follow up GP2 with any
real substance.
This gave the smaller studios a "free go" but it took a long time to get
sim racing back on a development track.
Which is why I am keen to see if iRacing can recreate that kind of pace
or the plateau is based on technical limitation rather than development
resources.
Cheers
Tony
For me, GPL was always the mountain I could never scale. I never went
negative overall (did manage to get a few of the individual tracks)
and the Ring frustrated me to no end. But, despite all that, I keep it
installed and run it for old times sake. The challenge is still there
if I ever want to resume it.
Whilst sim racing has definitely moved on since GPL, I will always have
fond memories of it....
All those years ago I remember eagerly awaiting the first demo, and was
blown away by it. Compared to every other racing game or sim that came
before it, GPL was a new standard.
Since then I have raced GPL on my own, I raced it against the AI, I
raced it aginst my friends and family (I have two pcs set up on a home
LAN), and I raced it on-line (both casual pick up races and in a league).
I was never that good or very quick, but I always extracted a huge
amount of enjoyment from GPL. I have had it installed on every one of my
(many) pc's since it was launched, and still race it to this day.
Install GPL today, with all the patches and updates, car skins, add on
tracks, the 65 and 69 mods, etc, and it looks and drives great (on a
decent modern pc) and is still an awesome challenge to drive.
That is the sign of a truly great sim, people keep coming back to it.....
8-)
A large part of my love for GPL had little to do with the sim, but
rather the cars and tracks involved.
And yes, there were flaws. I'd like to see a better sim run on a
166MHz machine. ;)
But like any sim since NASCAR 1, if you drove realistically, it was
realistic. I remember a while back I installed N1 and gave it a run, I
found that obviously I could drive unrealistically and not even brake
until I was deep inside the turns - which was much faster - or I could
brake where I should... When I drove that way, it didn't feel all that
far off... lol
On Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:03:42 +0000, PG wrote:
> That is the sign of a truly great sim, people keep coming back to
> it.....Agreed :)
I believe GPL was the biggest advance in sim racing. Comparatively to
then best GP2 GPL was a huge step forward. There wasn't such a big step
since then. RBR might have come close to making a huge step, but that's
more due to different kind of driving (learning to pay attention to your
co-driver and plan ahead while concentrating on entering the current
corner takes some time :>). Other than that, only uneven surface
behaviour was much better than in GPL. Oh, and, of course, RBR has raised
the plank as far as difficulty is concerned :)
Alex.
i am installing it just now on my latest computer, just as i have done
with each of the past 5-6. the program has been supported by a
terrific community, so it doesn't look like an old game with the
excellent hi-rez graphics and new cars/tracks/etc. sure, i have all of
the newer games, but GPL is still king in my books.
i have gone with vista this time around, so my trusty act labs force
RS wheel/shifter/pedals no longer work. i had to go get a logitech G25
system. i am struggling trying to get it up and running correctly at
present, as far as the shifter and clutch go.
i didn't realize getting the '500 seconds' at the Ring was a goal, so
i will go about attempting to reach that. i've got all makes of car
under 8:53 now, with my cooper time of 8:30.61 being the best. not too
far off.
if anyone knows about how to get the clutch working with a G25, please
let me know.
> if anyone knows about how to get the clutch working with a G25,
> please
> let me know.
The clutch works fine on my G25, I presume you mean that you cannot get
it working in GPL.
When you go through the controller calibration screen in GPL, the clutch
is on another screen connected to the steering and brake and accelerator
screen, just press the arrow at the bottom of this screen to see the
clutch pedal calibration bit.
Whilst sim racing has moved on since GPL, I will always have fond
memories of it....
All those years ago I remember eagerly awaiting the first demo, and was
blown away by it. Compared to every other racing game or sim that came
before it, GPL was a new standard.
Since then I have raced GPL on my own, I raced it against the AI, I
raced it aginst my friends and family (I have two pcs set up on a home
LAN), and I raced it on-line (both casual pick up races and in a league).
I was never that good or very quick, but I always extracted a huge
amount of enjoyment from GPL. I have had it installed on every one of my
(many) pc's since it was launched, and still race it to this day.
Install
