Idea for GPL add-on pack

I think it would be cool if Sierra released an ADD-ON pack where it would include: - Other tracks (ovals would be cool don't you think), - Other cars, - A set-up tool kit (where you can interact with the software and tell it that 'the car is a bit loose at the rear, and the software would suggest the relevant tweaks to your setup, etc.), - others? What do you think??

IMHO, it's very hard to add anything to the existing '67 season package. But if they added a mid-sixties 1.5 litre season with some extra tracks or even early-winged machines of the early seventies... There is always the converter. Personally, I think Formula1:s at anywhere else than maybe Indy is a disgrace to the sport. Which cars? The Matra? Yeah, this would be great. I remember using such a program on N2. - "If the meaning of life was printed in a book, someone would use it to keep the window open."

>>I think it would be cool if Sierra released an ADD-ON pack where it >>would include: My one and only wish for the patch / add-on whatsoever: - online racing from behind an ip-masquerading firewall - a native linux port of GPL ok, make that two. ;-) Uwe

Sounds more like patch material to me. And how much would it sell? - "If the meaning of life was printed in a book, someone would use it to keep the window open."

> I think it would be cool if Sierra released an ADD-ON pack where it > would include: > - Other tracks (ovals would be cool don't you think), The Add-on pack That I would like to see would include the ability to use other cars. Such cars as the VW Bug. Then we can have a series with nothing but Bugs. Or even Bugs, Geo Storms, Honda CXRs, Then we could have class races with cars of all types but with the engine size being the equal factor.. Example; SCCA H-production, G-production, F-production, all running in the same race. All running for the Class win as well as the overall win. See above, This would be a help to those with slow computers. As it stands now, If you can't tell what's happening to your GPL car then it's obvious that you're very much "Overdriving" and this "set-up-tool" wont help at all. My $0.02 worth, Mike Barlow -- ========================================= Mike Barlow of Barlow Racing? MikeBa on the TEN network. Member of R.O.R. 1999 http://w3.ime.net/~marknjess/noflame.html ========================================= Racing online with the help of...... Race Communications Association http://members.xoom.com/RCA/toc.html Holodyne Engineering Mystic Music mikeba.vcf < 1K Download

>> - a native linux port of GPL >And how much would it sell? Well, I'd buy it again, and believe me, being one of the few commercial grade games out there for Linux it would sell like hotcakes. A native Linux server version would be great success, let alone a ported client. Anyone have some sales figures of the windows version of GPL? Uwe

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>>> - a native linux port of GPL >>And how much would it sell? >Well, I'd buy it again, and believe me, being one of the >few commercial grade games out there for Linux it would sell like >hotcakes. A native Linux server version would be great success, let >alone a ported client.

While every indication I've ever seen is that it's pointless to even discuss, add my vote for a Linux version of the sim, as well as a text- only stand-alone server (either Linux or Windows). To make it simple on Papy, even if the stand-alone server only allowed you to setup one track at a time, or even a rolling selection of tracks (one race would start right after the first one ends), that would be fine. Along the lines of things that are more achievable in a reasonable timeframe (in order of importance to me) ... 1) Support for online leagues where everyone always gets the same car number based on login name (can that really be *SO* hard to do?). They'd also have to allow for car numbers up to "99", including "01" through "09". That would give us 108 possible car numbers - many more than enough for a manageable league. 2) Joining a remote race through a Linux ipmasq gateway -- ========================================================= John Simmons - Redneck Techno-Biker (Zerex12) http://www.members.home.net/jms1/index.html John Simmons - Barbarian Diecast Collector http://members.home.net/jsimm/diecast_index.html IGPS (Season 2) Director http://207.104.111.77/igps2/igps2.html If you want to send me email, go to either of the URL's shown above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame. =========================================================

Oooh yes please I was 16 in 1967 and I was just getting into racing. Starting from "Scalextrix" we built our own 4 lane figure 8 track in the garden with automatic lap counting and my and my friend had our own hand built cars. I had Dan Guerney's eagle but the Cooper and Ferrari were what my friends drove. We used to hand rewire, rebuild and all sorts of things to the motors to improve performance. I remember building a new motor with the segments of commutator araldited to new bigger longer shaft to build a 4 wheel drive Ford GT40. We never managed a 24 hour race - but we did do a 12 hour with this car. (Also remember building a lotus cortina) My friend who was a year older than me had a motorbike (Bantum 125!) and he and I went down to Brands Hatch for the BOAC 6 hour race. Jacki Icx (spelling all wrong but you know who I mean) won in the Gulf Oil GT40. The same race had a gas turbine powered Lola whose thottle stuck open just before Druids. I'll never forget all the photographers just on the inside before Druids jumping for dear life whilst us spectators on the outside watched with amazement. Fortunately no-one was hurt. So I would love those cars and Le Mans - but also Brands Hatch (long circuit) Alan http://www.chandler.u-net.com

I'd like to have early 70's sports car racing using the GPL game engine. Say around 1971, with Porsche 917's, Ferrari 512's, GT40's etc. With some suitable extra tracks like Le Mans. Derek.

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>I think it would be cool if Sierra released an ADD-ON pack where it >would include: >- Other tracks (ovals would be cool don't you think), >- Other cars, >- A set-up tool kit (where you can interact with the software and tell >it that 'the car is a bit loose at the rear, and the software would >suggest the relevant tweaks to your setup, etc.), >- others? What do you think??

I disagree, in 1967 there were quite a few non-championship F1 races, like Brands Hatch (which has SOOO much more atmosphere than Silverstone - trust me, I live 3 miles from Brands). If some of the other classic tracks of the era were added, and possibly some of the other formulae vehicles, Sierra would have a guaranteed hit on their hands. Of all the GPL players I know (apart from the few arcade fanatics who didn't like the fact that they couldn't win the game first time) pretty much all of them would jump at the chance to buy an add-on like this, especially if it was only about 20. Just my tuppence worth..... Mike West 3DNow! UK: www.3dnow.freeserve.co.uk

Drool...... That would be so cool. In 71 you could drive the old Porsche 917 "pig" car. Or if it was in 67 you could have the Carerra 6 Coupe (best looking sports car ever IMO). Plus the Ford GT 40s when they won LeMans (with AJ Foyt no less). And theres also the Ferrari 512 (as mentioned). Plus tracks like LeMans (with its 210+MPH Mulsanne Straight), Sebring, Daytona, the Ring, Brands Hatch.... I could just go on forever about sports cars then because the first slotcars i ever ran were old LeMans style cars on a track my grandfather and father built from scratch. I have always loved that period of racing be it Indycars, GP cars, Sports cars, Can Am, Stock Cars...anything from 65-80 i love it. I only wish i was alive to see it in person (only downside to being young). Chris

I forgot the F2s, sure they would be a nice addition since the hotshot drivers drove them regularly. - "If the meaning of life was printed in a book, someone would use it to keep the window open."

two ideas, that I would apreciate : - a variable weather (most of the races in SPA or MONACO are under a dense rain...). I'm not an expert in this domain, but I don't think it's easy to do, because, I and (I suppose) other GPL racers, would'nt be satisfied with just a wet track and a car with just a less gripp... what I would expect is a real simulation of how rain could affect a track... for instance, I know that most of the trajectories must be changed (it's the first thing that I see, but if some of you could give me more informations about real rainny drive, I would apreciate). ... Perhaps is it not possible to do it yet in a sim, and it could explain why there is no weather in GPL... - a GPL server that allow a thin client which could just watch the races (or a secondary server, dedicated to broadcast a race, being client of the main server)... I'm sure that a lot of amateurs (like me), would apreciate to see the duels between the "pros"... I know, there is a lot of problems due to network, and this must not affect the performances for the drivers... but just let me dream that one day, the bandwith would be large enought (and the server strong enought too), to see 20 pro drivers in a virtual races with many people watching it... live ! a good idea GPL under Linux... I'll buy !

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> On Thu, 01 Apr 1999 11:10:32 +0100, Stphane Litard > <snip> > The danger for anyone who seriously considered this would be that by the > time they iron out the technicalities we'd all have moved on to the next > latest and greatest sim! > -- > Derek James

It's true that sims themselves move on, but the viewer wouldn't have to if a standard interface for representing the 3-d world had been defined. Rather in the way that the technology behind the TV coverage develops separately from the technology for the racing out there in the "real" world. Andy

> but just let me dream that one day, the bandwith would be large enought > (and the server strong enought too), to see 20 pro drivers in a virtual > races with many people watching it... live ! QuakeWorld probably represents the current state of art in multiplayer *** as spectator sport. For example, there was the famous Clan 9 (Sweden) vs. Deathrow (US) "world championship" match which was broadcast live through a proxy server hierarchy. Based on the number of proxies, I'd say there were hundreds, if not thousands, of spectators watching the games online. There are of course some ping and packet loss issues. I was able to watch the game with very good quality, but then again I live in Finland and we have excellent connections to Sweden, where the match was played. A spectator mode and network protocol specs for GPL or any future racing sim would be most welcome. Watching a game with good players can be just as exciting as playing, and you don't have to suffer from commercial breaks. Ditto. The only thing I need Win98 for is games. Quake runs beautifully on my Linux box, though. - topi -- [link lost in import]

The future of Spectator Online racing is one that every Sim driver hopes to see. However, as far as the "commercial" aspect, Without it we will never know about it to participate in it as a spectator. Case in point.. I didn't know anything about the Quake spectator event. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see some live online racing as a spectator with out commercials taking place during that important pass for the lead. -- ========================================= Mike Barlow of Barlow Racing? MikeBa on the TEN network. Member of R.O.R. 1999 http://w3.ime.net/~marknjess/noflame.html ========================================= Racing online with the help of...... Race Communications Association http://members.xoom.com/RCA/toc.html Holodyne Engineering Mystic Music mikeba.vcf < 1K Download

Topi Paavola a crit : I did'nt know that was existing yet (in another domain), but it was exactly the kind of computer architecture, that I was imagining ... and don't have to suffer from speakers commentaries too... and it would be surely more exciting for drivers ! another point is the interactivity : on a "GPL TV live", spectator could choice camera, which driver he wants to follow, all we cannot do on TV (except cable TV, very expensive in my country).

> The future of Spectator Online racing is one that every Sim driver hopes > to see. However, as far as the "commercial" aspect, Without it we will never > know about it to participate in it as a spectator. Case in point.. I didn't > know anything about the Quake spectator event. I don't mind some commercial involvement. There are at least two professional *** leagues (CPL and PGL), and the demos from Quake finals are always entertaining to watch. The really big events, like the Clan 9 vs Deathrow game, actually draw sponsors like flies and are usually reported on the main Quake sites; www.bluesnews.com, www.shugashack.com and www.planetquake.com are the best ones. www.truegamers.com has information about any major international events. However, that is only a small part of it and the world-wide live broadcasts have been rare so far. The best thing about built-in spectator modes is that you can hop into your favourite server whenever you like, watch from the POV of any player or driver and chat with other spectators. (Gamers have no social life? Not true :) -- [link lost in import]

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> The future of Spectator Online racing is one that every Sim driver hopes > to see. However, as far as the "commercial" aspect, Without it we will never > know about it to participate in it as a spectator. Case in point.. I didn't > know anything about the Quake spectator event. > Don't get me wrong, I would love to see some live online racing as a > spectator with out commercials taking place during that important pass for > the lead.

I think if they had a smaller viewing window with banner ads running throughout the race would be cool. I know that TEN/NROS is difinately wanting to move this way. They feel that this a critical issue that must be addressed for the long term success of that series. Much easier to attract and retain sponsors and advertisers with this type of service. Bill / Amish on TEN

Hey Mike, we're in the same boat :-) Where are you? I'm in Hayes, near Bromley. Not sure of the actual distance but it's about 20 minutes drive. And speaking of Brands, I'm going there for the BOSS formula race on Monday! Should be cool..... -- Cheers! Graeme Nash http://www.karisma1.demon.co.uk ICQ# 11257824 ________________________________________________________________________________ "I liked things better when I didn't understand them" (Calvin & Hobbes)

How about changing the advertising boards in the game..!! A sponsor could position their ads around the track that would be visible to both the spectator and the drivers. You could have multiple sponsorship deals for a race, sponsorship of the drivers, with logo's on their cars, (built into their paintjobs). This could go global, wow....watch out Bernie, here I come... SteveG >> The future of Spectator Online racing is one that every Sim driver hopes >> to see. However, as far as the "commercial" aspect, Without it we will never >> know about it to participate in it as a spectator. Case in point.. I didn't >> know anything about the Quake spectator event. >> Don't get me wrong, I would love to see some live online racing as a >> spectator with out commercials taking place during that important pass for

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>> the lead. >I think if they had a smaller viewing window with banner ads running >throughout the race would be cool. I know that TEN/NROS is difinately >wanting to move this way. They feel that this a critical issue that >must be addressed for the long term success of that series. Much easier >to attract and retain sponsors and advertisers with this type of >service. >Bill / Amish on TEN

Yepo Bill. The NROS is at the research of plans on this side to attract sponsors. They are thinking about developing tools for that, but at the moment the only really deal would be car advertising. If you look at per example the TEN Family games (Java thingy), you will note that Pepsi is a big sponsor of this, with a Pepsi lounge, and a deck of card with Pepsi logo on it (and be sure that it works, I buy Pepsi and not Coke just because they support TEN (ok well "ALSO" because there will be Star Wars Pepsi can, but that's another thing heheh)). I like the idea about changing the billboard, but something you need to think is that billboards would be made only to target the people watching and the driver. You don't have any fans in the stands, but fans watching the TV cameras. Thus you need to TV camera angle where you can see the best those billboards. Well maybe at first they could do it the easy way but after expand with better camera angle (easy to edit). The future of this is big... very very big (just imagine in 4-5years). -- -- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard/Nas-Frank> -- NROS Nascar sanctioned Guide http://www.nros.com/ -- SimRacing Online http://www.simracing.com/ -- Official mentally retarded guy of r.a.s. -- May the Downforce be with you... "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

If I could add one thing to GPL it would be the ability to race against a ghost of a saved lap. I find this is the best way to learn where you can improve and better your times while adding unlimited single-player replay value. Ultimate Race Pro and Pod had nice "ghost racer" features. Even something like built-in split-time reports would be nice. (Similar to the utility that someone created recently...I forget the name of it) I've been able to improve on some times that have stood for quite a while once I used this utility and examined lap "sections".

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>> I think if they had a smaller viewing window with banner ads running >> throughout the race would be cool. I know that TEN/NROS is difinately >> wanting to move this way. They feel that this a critical issue that >> must be addressed for the long term success of that series. Much easier >> to attract and retain sponsors and advertisers with this type of >> service. >Yepo Bill. The NROS is at the research of plans on this side to attract >sponsors. They are thinking about developing tools for that, but at the >moment the only really deal would be car advertising. If you look at per >example the TEN Family games (Java thingy), you will note that Pepsi is a >big sponsor of this, with a Pepsi lounge, and a deck of card with Pepsi

logo >on it (and be sure that it works, I buy Pepsi and not Coke just because they >support TEN (ok well "ALSO" because there will be Star Wars Pepsi can, but >that's another thing heheh)). >I like the idea about changing the billboard, but something you need to >think is that billboards would be made only to target the people watching >and the driver. You don't have any fans in the stands, but fans watching the

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>TV cameras. Thus you need to TV camera angle where you can see the best >those billboards. Well maybe at first they could do it the easy way but >after expand with better camera angle (easy to edit). >The future of this is big... very very big (just imagine in 4-5years). >-- >-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard/Nas-Frank> >-- NROS Nascar sanctioned Guide http://www.nros.com/ >-- SimRacing Online http://www.simracing.com/ >-- Official mentally retarded guy of r.a.s. >-- May the Downforce be with you... >"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise >how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

The add on pack could allow sponsors to put their adverts on the Various boards about thye track and even the drivers cars. This could be acheived outside the "time space" of the race and thus not incurs any bandwidth issues. Cheers, Paul

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> > The future of Spectator Online racing is one that every Sim driver hopes > > to see. However, as far as the "commercial" aspect, Without it we will never > > know about it to participate in it as a spectator. Case in point.. I didn't > > know anything about the Quake spectator event. > I don't mind some commercial involvement. There are at least two > professional *** leagues (CPL and PGL), and the demos from Quake > finals are always entertaining to watch. The really big events, like > the Clan 9 vs Deathrow game, actually draw sponsors like flies and are > usually reported on the main Quake sites; www.bluesnews.com, > www.shugashack.com and www.planetquake.com are the best ones. > www.truegamers.com has information about any major international > events. > However, that is only a small part of it and the world-wide live > broadcasts have been rare so far. The best thing about built-in > spectator modes is that you can hop into your favourite server > whenever you like, watch from the POV of any player or driver and chat > with other spectators. (Gamers have no social life? Not true :) > -- > [link lost in import]