readme - F1 1968 Mod for Grand Prix Legends
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SRMZ release thread:
http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=13138

GPL 1968 F1 Mod website:
http://68f1.gplworld.de/


Release notes:
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-This is the best effort we could do to simulate the 1968 F1 season in Grand Prix Legends.

-It was not possible to do the mod as one carset. The physics set that enabled use of all 51 car folders had a couple of very annoying bugs. Using a physics set that has a limit of 31 car folders removes those bugs but it is then impossible to fit all the car graphics folders in. So I had to split the mod into 2 parts. Part 1-Early 68 covers the Race of Champions through to the French Grand Prix and Part 2-Late 68 covers the British Grand Prix to the Mexican Grand Prix. The real season points were split here as well. This way the mods are bug free and every car can be displayed correctly.

-Kyalami 68 had to be removed from the mod. As a number of older 67 cars were used there it would mean having to add the BRM P115, Cooper T81, Cooper T86, Honda RA300, Matra MS9 and Matra MS7 to the mod as well as other graphics options (green Lotus 49s, Gunston BT20s etc). As Kyalami 68 is available in the Historical 67 mod this would have been a complete waste of time and only removed features from all of the other Early 68 F1 races.

-I use Monacane instead of Monaco and this track should be installed to work with the mod. There is absolutely no way they went through the chicane flat out at Monaco in 68 and any amount of braking in my opinion is better than none. I did try to do an ai set for the original Monaco but it was not a copy and paste job from Monacane. So if anyone wants to race the original papy version in 68 someone else will have to work out a new drve68.ini to go into Monaco. Jarama, Spa67, Brands Hatch, Oulton Park and St Jovite also need to be installed for the 68 season. 

-I have included a Brands68 track in the download for the Race of Champions so it is separated from the British Grand Prix also run at Brands Hatch. There is also a track called nurburg68 that simulates the foggy and wet German Grand Prix while the original dry Nurburgring is also included in the season.ini. The fog at nurburg68 looks a bit weird in places using the Open GL V2 rasterizer on my PC. I do not know what causes this as it works fine on Direct 3d v2.

-This mod will NOT show numbers and might not work properly online. Sorry to everyone that races online but as someone who doesn't I can't find the motivation to do the huge amount of work required to put all of the online skins together. If someone else is willing to do this I will make an online version of the mod.

-The physics have been made unique to 68 F1 and should accurately model how the cars behaved in both Early and Late 68.

-The ai have been set to work normally on Intermediate difficulty (THIS WILL CAUSE TOO MANY RETIREMENTS IN GRAND PRIX MODE) and to give reasonably accurate but not exact results. Each ai driver has been given a retirement chance based on how many races he finished in real life. That does not mean if a driver retired at Spa he will always retire there in the mod. It is calculated over the whole season. I have included the .lp (l68) files that I use for the ai on each of the tracks in the download. These are not my work and they MIGHT not be the best sets available but it is what I use.

-I have set the ai speed compared to my testing times. I aim for my best possible lap to hopefully put me on the front row of the grid but not necessarily the pole.

-For the people that drive full length races there is an alternate gpla68.ini. This will give the ai fewer retirements in Grand prix mode as the ratio does not change when selecting different race lengths.

-Tracks that have long straights (spa67, monza) are more difficult tracks to set the race speeds for the ai as they are very good at slipstreaming to catch the car in front but not passing it. This can cause some weird results at the end of the races at these tracks.

-I have done my best to solve all clipping issues on the car models but the ones that remain I have been unable to fix. I am aware of all of them. As I don't know what I am doing I work by trial and error. This means it is sometimes very hard for me to fix something. 

-For those of you who (like me) it feels wrong to be driving the incorrect car livery at a race there is an option in the-3do Options and Player Skins, folder to copy all of the correct player car skins for a certain race into the carset. All that is needed is to copy/paste the car folders c00, c01 etc and overwrite the ones in the carset. This will give you the correct car skin to drive at all races. There is also a default set of graphics that works best over all the races.

-I had no interest in making these mods work in championship mode. I tried to keep things as simple as possible. It might work but I have NOT tested it.

-4 cars have wings available in the setup menu in the early season mod. The Brabham BT26, Ferrari 312, Lotus 49b and McLaren M7a.

-12 cars have wings available in the setup menu in the late season mod. The Brabham BT20, Honda RA302, BRM P261 V8 and V12 do not have wings.

-Again there are a couple of bugs on some of the car models. I have done my best but couldn't fix all of them.

-I am happy for anyone to modify or improve this mod. If you make an update please post it. 

-I am not claiming any of this mod as my own. I collected everything that was needed to model 68 F1 from other peoples work so that I could race this year in GPL.

-This completes my work on the mod :) It has taken about 7 years to get everything together to race this year in GPL and I will now be enjoying it.


Installation:
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-A manual installation is needed. Just extract all of the files in the downloaded .7z using WinRAR or 7-ZIP then move or copy them in to your GPL install which is usually SIERRA/GPL (the GPL folder in the download is merged with your current GPL game folder) and select the mods through GEM. None of the files should conflict/overwrite anything. It really is that simple and actually quicker than using an installer.


Thanks:
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This mod would not have been possible without and special thanks to Richard Cooke (physics), Tommie (important 3do work), Irridux (general updates), Denis (DB312-ai faces/helmets), Arturo (layout) and G.Spinning (general updates and feedback).


Chris. (pioujd428 at SRMZ-a mash of the keyboard name)
15/12/2019
