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DaveN
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Posts: 9
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 Posted: Fri Dec 15, 02:56 |
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Hi
I used to play GPL a long time ago (I recognize a few of the posters from my old days on Vroc). I was looking into getting a new racing game for my new computer and I ran across this site. It looks like GPL is still a viable game after all this time. I think rather than spending the money on a new game I'll take a crack at loading up GPL again. If I have it right I need to
1. Download the 2004 Demo (this will contain all the recent patches including the one for fast computers?).
2. Load up my tracks from the original game
3. Update the tracks from the original game.
4. Start up my wheel and begin to crash all over again.
Any issues with Core2Duo's and this?
David B. Harrison...if you read this...remember Strudel?
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2re
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 1238
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DaveN
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Fri Dec 15, 08:04 |
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Thanks 2re.
Online for GPL is still alive too? Mind you I won't be ready for a while.
And 500+tracks....I never learned all of the original tracks , especially the RING and Monaco  |
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2re
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 1238
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| Posted: Fri Dec 15, 11:46 |
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Online racing is the most fun. And Its not about how fast you are. Never has been.
Just go in your own tempo and be a good sport and let people pass you if they are faster.
If you decide to give it ago, start with the shorttracks like Mosport - Kyalmi - Zandvoort etc.
They are the once that give you the best online racing action because there's people around you all the time.
Stay on track  finish the race  and you'll never be last 
Oh.. Remember to set your wheel to split axis.
Meaning throttle and Brake will be fully seperated on their own axis.
If you haven't allready bought your self a christmas present? Consider the Logitech G25 wheel.
Here's a few pictures of the G25:
https://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=106094
Tallyho Strudel
_________________
Rack'em Up
**********
My Projects
GPL 2004 Demo.
https://bhms.racesimcentral.net/download/6447
RBR Audio v2.3
https://bhms.racesimcentral.net/download/8479
Norwegian Pacenotes for RBR.
https://bhms.racesimcentral.net/download/7516 |
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DaveN
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Fri Dec 15, 19:16 |
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I spent a couple of years racing with the likes of David on Vroc around the turn of the century . So I know that is the most fun and the most challenge. Racing with others made me faster and better.
I have a logitech(?) Momo FF wheel that I both a number of years ago. I think it is still good.
I plan to download the 04 demo and load things up this weekend. Hopefully all will go well.
Otherwise I'll be posting some more |
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David Harrison
BHMS Team
Joined: 25 Jan 2002
Posts: 1754
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| Posted: Fri Dec 15, 21:26 |
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NEWBERRY !!!..
Where the heck have you been.. ??? Man I miss those days on VROC.. it's a ghost town now days.. Man we used to have some fun well into the night.
But.. if you're getting back into Simming.. GPL is still as good as it ever was and honestly there's still nothing that races or runs online any better.
Let me know if you want to run some hotlaps.. I'd even settle for helping you do some of the new tracks.
_________________
Take care,
DBH  |
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Christopher Snow
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 31
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 05:34 |
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 Hehe...we did indeed have fun back then.
Hullo Dave(s).
I certainly remember you too Strudel--those were good times, and I miss 'em as much as Mr. Harrison does, I imagine. The whole scene is somehow just not the same any more...but I suppose even '67 eventually rolled on over into 1968.
<Sigh>
As for me, I do most of my online racing these days over in rFactor land--most recently in the "60's GT Challenge," but I'm also looking forward (like a lot of others) to release of the "F1-79 final." I expect I'll be wearing out "virtual skirts" on my own ground-effect car pretty steadily, in fact, over these next few months.
Say hullo if you see me over there, and I'll do the same.
And if you crash again at Masta anytime soon, DO raise a toast to the old days (while those lovely nurses are bandaging you up).
Christopher Snow |
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DaveN
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 09:41 |
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Hi Dave and Chris.
Good to see some familiar names around still. Is F1-79 another mod of GPL or a new game? I'm drawn back to GPL because, a) it rocked and online was so much fun and b) I like the open wheel cars so the other racing games as good as they look just don't pull me like GPL does.
I just downloaded the 2004 demo and I'll get it running tomorrow, I hope. Is the '65 a separate season or does it overwrite the '67 cars?
Not surprising that vroc has died out hard to keep a game fresh after so many years, its amazing that GPL still is going. And life changes too, my work takes up a lot of my time as so some other hobbies so I probably will not be as dedicated as I was back in our good old days. But I feel the need for speed again.
And maybe I need to "bang" into some of those nurses at Masta |
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Christopher Snow
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 31
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 11:06 |
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F1-79 (or GP79) is a mod, yes...but it's not for GPL. It's for "rFactor," which is a very mod friendly sim put out by ISI (the same guys who authored the Formula one Championship series of sims).
rfactor.net for info on buying it ($40 via direct download, or on CD from "gogamer.com").
rfactor is very, very good online...perhaps quite a bit better in some ways than GPL was, although there are so many mods and tracks (and so many versions of the tracks in particular) that it can be rather hard to keep it up to date too.
Two big advantages it has over GPL for online competition are: 1) the cars can make contact without always seeing that "billiard-ball" effect we remember back in GPL and; 2) You can have much bigger fields for online racing--not terribly uncommon to see 30 or more cars when a hot new mod comes out. Or a hot new track....
Or for some of the bigger leagues.
The downside might be that there are SOOoo many tracks and mods for rFactor these days that the online community is rather fractured too on any given day--it's much more likely you'd see thirty servers running with 2-5 guys each than just 3 or 4 servers with 30....
rfactorcentral.com is a big clearing house for all rFactor related stuff.
We have a racing sim-magazine these days too, Dave: AutoSimSport (A.S.S.)...and the current issue has a writeup on the '79 mod--free for the downloading. There has been a small "demo" version (with only 4 cars) out for a few months now, and it was quite popular--we've had some big races online. Some people have even called the '79 mod "GPL2"...but I wouldn't go that far myself just yet.
We'll find out soon enough though I suspect--the final version mod could be released at any moment.
Then everyone can be "Gilles Villeneuve," "Alan Jones," and "Rene Arnoux." All at once.
autosimsport.net
==========
"Simbin" (which started out as a mod group, but which evolved later into a full-fledged production company) has put out several of their own sims, all based (to some degree) on the same ISI graphics/physics engines. GTR, GTL, and the current hot one, GTR2 (this last one is probably available for $20 at Best Buy or Walmart right now).
I have HEARD that GTR2 is reasonably good online, although probably not on par with rFactor...but it will have a restriction (I think?) of only 16 cars.
==========
As far as GPL itself goes, I really can't tell you anything about those mods--I've never downloaded any of them, nor IGOR (the online racelist alternative to VROC). Nor do I drive GPL online any more at all--just too frustrating hosting it for hour after hour without ever getting up a race.
I finally gave VROC up for good about two years ago, and while I got GPL working again a few months back, I very rarely drive it--I might run a few laps around Dundrod once in a while just for old times sake, but I can't take it very seriously any more. Not like I did back then anyway.
==========
As I recall, Dave, you attended a Jim Russell School at Infineon (Fomula Fords?) about five years back...and if those sort of cars still interest you, you might see a couple of other sim-racing alternatives pop up next year--"Drivers Republic" and "iRacing" (David Kaemmer's current foray into sim-racing) are both showing sims based on the Formula Ford genre (at least initially).
iracing.com and driversrepublic.net, respectively.
There are some other sims out there too("NetKarPro" and "Live for Speed")...but I can't tell you anything about the online experience with either--NKP had some serious teething troubles early on, so I never did buy it or go online with it...and I don't know much of anything about LFS.
Pinch a nurse for me.
Christopher Snow |
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DaveN
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Sun Dec 17, 02:44 |
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Wow Chris...lots of information.
I went and checked out rfactor last night and saw that it was a new(?) game. My plan right now is to judge my interest in racing period (based on my available time etc) first which is why reloading GPL makes the most sense (no cost). If I'm drawn back in I'll probably get something more uptodate since it sounds like there is less of an online community for GPL than there used to be.
If I find the time and the interest is still there (I really haven't raced more than probably a dozen times since 2004), I'll download the 79 demo to check it out. That was a great year too so it would be a lot of fun.
Oh and it was Skip Barber and Laguna Seca in Formula Dodges (pretty much the same). I have never gone and done any more after that one 3 day stint. Apparently my wife, though she let me go, was terrified something would happen to me. So for her sake (plus my wallets since it was expensive) I've never gone any further with it. |
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Christopher Snow
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 31
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| Posted: Sun Dec 17, 03:58 |
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That makes perfect sense, Dave, that plan--get back to your old "GPL baseline," see if it still interests you at all, and then decide if you want to follow the crowd over into the newer stuff (or not).
In your case, I suspect you will not maintain enough interest longterm WITHOUT finding a good online community to race with, so, while IGOR (and the GPL mods) might fufill that desire, I rather suspect VROC will not any more. As DH already pointed out, VROC is a virtual ghost-town these days.
I can vouch for that at least a tiny bit myself--I did reload VROC about six months back and wandered in just to take a quick look. I found only seven guys, and didn't recognize even one of them. And as I recall, the racelist only had about a dozen servers, with no one driving on any of them.
So I closed that little box and put it in the back of my garage...along with the other memorabilia....
=====
If you DO decide to try rFactor at some point, check carefully the demo purchase/use terms--I recall you could download and run it indefinitely offline, or you could buy it (credit card) and get a full refund for about two or three days after that if it didn't suit you online...but double check me before buying in.
If I'm right, it would give you time to download the 79 demo, certainly, but I imagine by the time you got around to trying any of that, the full version of F1-79 will have been released anyway...so you'd really want to go for that instead.
As I said before, rFactor central is the best place to check out the various mods (I think there are more than 50 mods already, and a whole slew of tracks), but the REAL question will be "what mods are people racing when I'm racing?"
So by way of example there, I just scanned the rFactor racelist: 50 servers with at least one driver each in them (most are single digit crowds, three to eight guys), and there are about three or four bigger groups too (I'd guess that'd be about 200 guys online all told). The largest two groups are in the "ETCC2003" mod (European Touring Car Championship I think), with 18 of the 40 spots filled, and "SCE" (Stockcar Evolution), with 16 of the 35 spots taken.
That's as of ~7:45 PM CST [Saturday evening US time].
Some of the more popular mods (on a consistent basis) would be "Meganes" (Renault Megane tintops), V8 Supercars (the Aussie chaps love those of course), and maybe CTDP 2006 (which is an unofficial version of modern F1, I think)--supposed to be pretty good, although I've not tried this last one myself.
Of the number of online servers at a given moment, probably 3 out of 5 are passworded, but that'll still leave quite a few choices--I didn't count them, but there would be 150 or more servers up right now I suspect.
==========
Dave Harrison would be able to give you a better idea of what GPL is like online tonight, but he'd have to fire up IGOR for that--maybe we can get some numbers from him for comparison....
==========
Apologies for remembering your race school a bit wrong there...but probably no big surprise--I've got my own eye on those two for myself at some point (Laguna and Infineon). In terms of logistics, I'd be more likely to end up at Laguna myself too...but we'll see.
I had wondered if maybe you'd left sim-racing behind because you HAD moved on into "real iron," but it sounds like you were rather more practical in the end--and sim-racing is certainly cheaper than real-racing. Even cheaper than karting.
In any case, it's good to see you back again, and I hope you do stick with it.
CS
Last edited by Christopher Snow on Sun Dec 17, 04:04; edited 2 times in total |
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DaveN
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Sun Dec 17, 03:59 |
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Update
I got it installed and it runs. WG looks great as do the cars. The bad news the sound on my computer is horrid. If I drop down to 1st gear from 5th, the sounds goes to an extremely high pitch and stays there...almost painful. I tried to remove the sound files but then the game would not run.
I'm using the onboard sound of a Gigabyte DS3 card which seems to work great for everything else. |
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Christopher Snow
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 31
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| Posted: Sun Dec 17, 04:11 |
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Hehe...I might have the answer there (happens to me too every time I fire up GPL to lap Dundrod).
I run Win 2000 Pro, so I can't tell you exactly where to look in XP...but what might be causing it is "hardware audio acceleration"
I have to turn my hardware acceleration down to "basic" to get it sounding right again--in Win2K its the "hardware acceleration" slider in my system settings: Control Panel/Sound and Multimedia/Audio/Advanced/Performance. For whatever stupid Microsoft reason, the thing resets itself to "full acceleration" every time I boot up Windows...and only "basic" (2nd from left) sounds any good in GPL.
Mine is AC '97 sound btw.
I do know the GPL forum at RSC is still pretty active, so if you continue to struggle, ask for help in there--they'll be glad to help anyone who wants to "come back to the fold" I'm quite sure.
GL
CS |
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DaveN
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Sun Dec 17, 20:36 |
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Thanks Chris I'll give that a shot.
Oddly I had 2000 on my old PC and never had a problem on the odd time I ran it. But that was with the stock sounds.
Dave |
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2re
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 1238
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