Setting up for GPVL FV

 

Step 1:     Create a player.

This is a simple process and if you do things as per the instructions here, you will not affect your original Grand prix car settings. The first steps are common to both vehicle classes.

Fire up your copy of GPL and go to the player info Screen. Create a new player name. I suggest something like 'Your name_FV' or 'Your name_F2'

Exit GPL and from windows explorer or My Computer, go to Sierra/GPL/Players/Your name_Fx , folder - the profile that you have just created.

In this folder you will find a file called player.ini (it might just read player, depending on your Explorer settings). Open this file in any text editor and scroll down to a section called [Personal Information].

In this section you will see a line....... driverRating = 3. Change this setting to read driverRating = 2. Save the file and exit.

To go back to driving F1 cars, simply change back to your original name from within GPL and your original settings will be restored.

Step 2:     Engine change.

To set up for FV, a further step is necessary. Using the GPL Engine Manager, change the engine for F2 to the 2.0l Race engine, normally used for F3 cars. Note that unlike FD and FG, the change affects all F2 chassis in GPL and you therefore need to change it back to 2.5l Race rather than change chassis to revert to normal F2's.

People who use the fast CPU patch (and, let's face it, who hasn't upgraded with all the lovely graphics floating around <g>) will need to use Gem+. This program allows for less flexibility (it changes all the engines at once), so you will have to re-run it to get back to F1 settings. Gem+ is also very picky with regard to GPL's .ini files (especially the gp and 67season ones) so if it crashes back to desktop at start-up chances are there is an error in there somewhere.


As you can see it's a matter of selecting your freshly created FV player from the leftnost drop-down list and setting the appropriate car (Formula Vee - F2/F3) class in the rightmost one. You then need to "Run GPL" (button located bottom right - not shown) to effect the change. Your executable will remain patched until you run the util again, select another player or class and then confirm your changes via the "Run GPL" button again.

Step 3:     Bandwidth patch.

  1. Downloading and applying Bart Westra's "bandwith patch":

    • go here: http://www.xs4all.nl/~westrab/gpl.htm#bw and
      download v3.1 of the patch.
    • unzip the patch to your GPL directory
    • double click the bwpatch.exe executable and enter 1 to
      apply the "morecars" patch, then "x" to exit the program.
    • note: do not apply the "carsbehind" patch. Only the server
      needs this patch.
    • also note you can run the patch again to remove it later.

  2. Adjusting and verifying core.ini parameters:

    • locate the file named core.ini in your GPL directory.
    • make sure it is core.ini by right clicking the file and
      selecting "properties". It should show "MS-DOS name:
      CORE.INI". If this is not the case (e.g. "COREIN~1.SAM")
      you must uncheck "Hide extentions for known filetypes" on
      the "View" tab of the "Folder Options" in Windows
      Explorer ("View" menu) in order to find the file.
    • open this file with a text editor and find the line where
      it says "net_mdm_server_send_size = 84" and change it to
      "net_mdm_server_send_size = 132". Note: don't add the
      quotes to the lines in core.ini.
    • then find the line where it says "net_use_mdm_bandwidth_
      for_tcp_ip =" and verify that it is set to "1". If not,
      change it from "0" to "1".
    • save your changes, making sure that if your editor pops
      up a "Save" dialog the filetype setting (if any) is set
      to "All files" or "*.*" so a .txt or .doc extention
      isn't added to the file. Once saved, exit the editor.

  3. When connecting through VROC:
    • go to the "Advanced" tab on the VROC "Join" screen and
      set the GPL Bandwidth settings to: "Fast - 3/84, 3/132".
    • If you cannot set this option because it is greyed out,
      that's ok. This is because the server is forcing the
      bandwidth.