An introduction to the GPL 1969mod by Paul Skingley


This is how the 69mod came to be, as I saw it.

Charles Mark ( CJM ) had been creating parts for the 68 Carset over the years, Marco Medici ( Irridux ) joined Charlie and pulled all the parts together adding graphics where needed and posted the 68 carset. The carset looked good but the seven teams limitation of GPL meant Lotus, Matra and Mclaren all running in the Lotus slot. When Charlie moved Matra and Mclaren into the old Honda and Eagle slots for 1969 ( Honda and Eagle had pulled out for 69 ) we had the possibility of physics for individual cars and a full blown mod instead of just a carset.

Around this time ( beginning of 04 ) I became a firm supporter of a 69mod and did all I could to promote it. This consisted of numerous posts at RSC and badgering Richard Cooke with the pros of a mod for GPL with " wings " something which many in the community saw as a no no.
Richard agreed to develop physics for the 1969 cars and so I started a small group to test results and start improving the 69carset already posted by Marco.
Charlie and Marco helped and encouraged me all they could at this stage, without which I doubt I could have started the project. Editing cars in GPL is very difficult and Charlie spent many many hours trying to bring me up to speed, but still doing the bulk of the tricky 3do editing himself.

The physics testing went well but the downforce generated by the wings could not be simulated so we settled on a compromise grip factor allowing the cars to achieve the lap times.
Then everything changed when Gene Fryman ( Codehound ) announced he had found a way for the gpl exe to have working downforce/drag related to speed. Gene produced a demo and from then on it became clear we had to have this as part of the 69mod physics. This meant virtually starting again for Richard as well as trying to integrate the new code into a useable format for the team.
Paul Thurston extensively developed his gpl interface Gem+2 allowing 69 mod to be used easily by the test team.

The car graphics were also going well. Dave Wright had supplied an abundance of info on the real cars which showed us where our models had to be changed. So the work began to transform our cars to the standards required, and gradually they came together.
The Matra, and Mclaren which started life as GPLEA Lotus49 has extensive work to the 3do and parts added, whilst the Ferrari had even more extensive work as the engine and nose of the car were completely wrong for 1969. The Brabham already had end of 68 season components added by Charlie so was one of the easier cars, as was the early season BRM 126. Luc Van Gossum produced new skins for the 1969 Ferrari and Brabham, Dave had updated the Lotus49b cockpit and was working with Richard ( Fireeyes2 ) to produce a new Mclaren cockpit. Jorge Cerezo had made new driver suits for the teams.
So for the early season cars we had a Matra MS80, Lotus49b, Mclaren M7A, Brabham B26a, Ferrari 312/69, BRM P126, and an empty slot.
The empty slot caused much discussion but we decided to fill it with the Lotus63 4wd car. This car was hailed as a break through in technology at the time, as well as its 4wd system it had a totally different shape to the other cars. I made a first attempt at creating this car from a GPLEA Lotus49, the dimensions and wheel mountings had to be stretched and pulled severely which inevitably made a ton of work ( clipping etc ) for Charlie to sort out that I could not.
Charlie persevered with the car until we had a usable model.

By now the 69mod team had moved from its old Yahoo base to a new home at RSC. The team had grown and we had enough testers to run online events, I also asked MARA league to help test which they did and we set-up a shadow test forum to compare results. We also recruited some new graphics talent.

Scott Przyblyski joined us and improved the wing shapes as well as making the visor helmet and full face helmet you see in game. The cars got " objects in mirrors " from Scott Stark and Gary Tall improved Charlie's wide wheels so they were 3d in mirrors.�
Andi Schremser joined us having just finished working on my ThunderCars mod. Andi made a new Matra skin and cockpit, followed by a BRM skin and textures. He then worked on to make new Mclaren, Lotus63 and Lotus49b skins. So now with the Ferrari and Brabham from Luc Van Gossum we now had all the cars in splendid new historically accurate new liveries.
Klaus was working on a new BRM cockpit to his usual high standards, and Do0g kindly supplied dials for the new high res Ferrari dash which was improved still further by the talent of Sam Dobie. Now the cars were looking extremely good inside and out.
Luc made an excellent new mainback and hcopy screens, giving the 69mod environment its finishing touches.

Paul Jackson kindly allowed us to host carsets and other needed files too big for RSC at his SPEEDGEEZERS site making it easier to update carsets etc as well as being a base for our home page.

Nigel Pattinson joined the boffins and started working with Richard Cooke and Paul Thurston to improve the 69mod exe even more. He made it possible to adjust the wings " in game " and added the downforce characteristics to the ai cars making them a real challenge to race with.
The 69mod physics has the ability to demount the wing completely as well as adjustments of various angles front and rear allowing it to simulate the whole of the 1969 season. Downforce increases as speed builds but so does drag, bringing a new element into GPL.

The 1969mod Part1 was released at Christmas 05 containing 69mod physics and the High winged early season cars.
Part 2 has continued the development of the 69mod which includes all new physics from Richard Cooke with Nigel Patinson's "in game" wing adjustment supported by a new version of Gem+ by Paul Thurston. CIGPL Italian gpl league provided some useful input for developing the Part 2 physics.
The early season High wing cars ( 69Hwng) have been improved and the later season Low wing cars ( 69Lwng ) are included in Part 2.
Also included are all new driver faces and helmet designs by Marc Ostermann for the ai drivers and all the online cars.�These new Helmets are in various styles from open faced with goggles, open faced with visor and full faced helmets .
Joroen Goedhart had worked on the engine sounds to give us individual sounds for each Cosworth powered car by taking into account exhaust placement and materials, he has also made the BRM engine sound.
Charles Mark has worked tirelessly on the carsets throughout and for Part 2 we also have all new wheels which have been modified from Gary Tall's 65mod wheels. The new wheels and tires have a more authentic shape.

For Part 3 and the final release we had some more goodies.
Gene Fryman had discovered how to include a more realistic slipstreaming effect which we included with Nigel's help.
Lee Bowden and Nigel worked extensively on the AI to help them perform with realistic and accurate characteristics to make the mod more fun for those that like to race offline.
But things didn't stop there because thanks to Nigel we also had mod specific program covers ( supplied by Andrea ), tracks inis, record inis, and mod specific track graphics.
Nigel also fixed the newspapers at the end of the race so they now have corrected team names and 1969 pictures. 
As well as a third carset " 69Mwng " to represent Monaco and Monza where some teams removed wings, we also had new cars. Charlie and I had been working away to model the Mclaren M7b as an alternative to the M7a, a new MatraMS80 with enclosed rear bodywork as an alternative to the existing MS80, and the BRM P138 with side tanks to compliment the P139 and P126.
Remy made new livery for the P138 high wing, low wing and "no" wing versions,while Tommie made a new livery for the low winged P139.
The BT26a Brabham also got a new cockpit courtesy of Remy.
With these latest additions we were ready to release the third and final part of the 1969 mod for Grand Prix Legends.

 

The latest chapter in the long history of the 1969 mod for GPL is 69 X'TRA which brings more models, greater historical accuracy, improved physics and much more. We think this may be the final conclusion to this great mod but who knows what is around the corner in GPL world.


1969mod was made easier by the breakthroughs and tools made by the 65mod team. Our cars are based on work already done by the GPLEA. Thanks to Sim Racing Mirror Zone for their services to the GPL community.
A big thanks to
Dave Kaemmer and Papyrus for our beloved GPL.

Many thanks to all in the 69mod team, but especially to :-

Charles Mark ( CJM )
Richard Cooke
Nigel Pattinson
Paul Thurston
Marco Medici ( Irridux )
Lee Bowden
Dave Wright
Andi Schremser ( ChiefWiggum )
Gene Fryman ( Codehound )
Remy Roesz ( remy67 )
Tommie van Ostade ( TvO )
Richard Delong ( Fireeyes2 )
Klaus Thon ( Citytea )
Paul Jackson ( Speedgeezers )
Scott Przyblyski
Phil Flack ( Guru )
Scott Stark
Jorge Cerezo
Doug Hardy ( Do0g )
Gary Tall
Joroen Goedhart
Andrea Carlisi ( yDNA )
Luc Van Gossum
Marc Ostermann
Sam Dobie


test pilots :-

Michele Sprovieri ( ayrtonsp )
John King
Tom Johnson
Syd Drake
Arturo Pereira
Stefan Roess
John Smith
Paul Jackson
Paul Smith
John Roberts
Bernd Nowak
Remy Roesz ( remy67 )
Stuart Bartosiak ( Sbart_UK )
Pete Gaimari
David Fletcher
Meinrad Duepre
Rob Massa ( Rob81 )
Bob Berman ( Royale )
Dan Archey ( Bentcam )
Pekka ( niepri )
Fulvio Policardi
Alessio Pacini
Denis Pampagnin
Andrew J
Paulo Pacini
Sergio Blesio
Claudio Gandolfi
Bart Westra
Ihsan Gin ( Genie )
Rolf Farrell
Hristo ( Avartar7 )�
Jeroen Goedhart
Asgeir Nesoen
Peter Stadtmueller
Urich Pilz-Volmerding ( Uli )
Petr Hlavac
Maik Hennel
John Basara
Joseph Mudrak ( Kardum31 )
Dave Milne ( Hippo )
Barry West ( Baz )
Neil Stratton ( Glyn )
Henrik ( Von S )
Welf Mandelkow
Rik ( lotus7 )
Mike B
Jens C Lindblad ( McGonicle )
Bo Bruce

promo screens ( at RSC ) :- Martin Huiskes ( MECH )

home page design :- Tony Rickard

Installer compiled by :- Bernd Nowak

Files and Site hosted by SPEEDGEEZERS Network and BC Sims

1969 mod for GPL is produced/directed by :- Paul Skingley

 

 

 
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