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Hi all. For some time I've noticed that replay camera images in GPL can become distorted, with extreme zooming, inverted and reversed images, and even distorted textures in some cases. I've mentioned this in various graphics-related threads before, but few people have noticed the same thing, or appear to be bothered by it. Nobody seemed to have any idea what was causing the problem, or how to fix it. As I rarely watch replays myself I put it down to GPL's old and sometimes quirky behaviour, and mostly forgot about it. However, a recent post about distorted replay images by tjc in a thread about the Reims 1954/55 track update reignited my interest and curiosity about the cause of this problem.
One of the possibilities which crossed my mind about the problem is that it may simply be track makers being reluctant to test their camera positions comprehensively. The distortion only seems to happen when the GPL cars come close to the replay camera. So I just thought that maybe the track authors had placed their cameras a bit too close to the track, to get better "action" shots. However, this was quickly denied by several people, who referred to distortion affects with certain tracks which I had reported, and which they denied seeing at all. This showed that the problem had to be connected with how individual GPL drivers had configured their installation.
Over the past few days I had some time to spare, so I thought I would effectively turn my GPL installation "upside-down" to see if I could affect these camera distortions in some way. I experimented with graphics settings in GEM and GPL directly. I tried deactivating patches which affect graphics. I tried using different rasterisers. Of course I also tried different mods and different cars. After quite a few hours of experiments, I seemed to be getting nowhere.
Then I had a thought. I have GPLShift installed in my GPL setup, to enable me to (sometimes) use my Logitech G25 wheel with the sim. It takes a bit of effort to rearrange my computer desk to set up my G25, so if I'm only going to be driving for a few minutes I usually don't bother, and stick to my trusty old CH Mach2 joystick. I switch between two different GPLShift.ini files to allow me to use either the G25 or the joystick. But GPLShift itself is always running, even when I'm not using my steering wheel. I remembered that GPLShift not only allows players to use a shifter with GPL, but that it can also be used to move the drivers' head position to get a different view from the cockpit. Obviously this is a graphical effect, so even though it shouldn't affect replay cameras, I thought I would remove GPLShift to see if it made any difference. To my surprise, when I unpatched GPL to remove GPLShift, all camera distortions in replays disappeared!
I toyed with the idea of leaving GPL unpatched, and not using GPLShift most of the time. However, when I talked with tjc in the Reims thread and let him know about my findings, he was a little disappointed, because he uses his steering wheel all the time, and relies on GPLShift. So I then started to investigate all the settings in the GPLShift.ini file to see if I could pin down the replay problems to maybe just one or two things.
After much experimentation, I found that it was a single setting in the file which seemed to be causing the problem. GPLShift supports (supported?) a device called the "Matrox TripleHead2Go", which apparently used to be used to connect multiple monitors to a computer. There's a section in the .ini file which has one setting for this. It's somewhere around line 280 to 290 in the file, and in the default GPLShift.ini file it looks like this:
[ TripleHead2Go Adjustment ]---------------------------------------------------
Adjust_InCarView = AUTO ;OPTIONS: OFF AUTO ;EFFECT:
;AUTO = Will move the CAR with Mirror inside Center
; Monitor (Default) - Please notice: The AUTO
; Mode will also Enable the needed [ ZOOM ]
; Function in "Zoom_In_Out_Mode = KA" Mode
; if GPLshift find it Disabled, (OFF) But you
; can always change [ ZOOM ] Mode to using
; POV or BUTTONs, See under here for saving
; changed (TH2G) position, ("UserDefineFOV")
;--------------------------------------------------
Notice the default setting is set to "Adjust_InCarView = AUTO". When I first started using GPLShift, I studied the settings file to see how to set up my G25 shifter and the buttons on the wheel. But there were many sections (such as this one) which I didn't understand, and which seemed irrelevant to me. So I left them alone. But now, I tried changing this "Adjust_InCarView" setting to "OFF", and it seems to work!
When this setting is set to "OFF", I can have GPLShift active, but all the problems with replay cameras appear to be solved. And although I haven't had time to set up my G25 to try it out, tjc has tested this change with his steering wheel and confirms that everything seems to work normally as before, except that the camera distortions are missing.
So, if you're having problems with GPL replay cameras occasionally doing weird things, check if you're running GPLShift. If you are, then try editing this setting in the GPLShift.ini file to see if it improves things. My bet is that your replay problems will disappear.
As I've mentioned, this fix hasn't been tested extensively. If you can try it out, I would be grateful to get some confirmation that it works for everyone, and that me and tjc haven't just been lucky in some way!
I hope it helps!
Edited by Saiph, Oct 10 2018 - 09:56 AM.
I am continuing to investigate...... 
I've had to adjust some other settings in the GPLShift.ini file to get things running again. However, the changes I've made are a little bit convoluted, and seem quite illogical to me. I won't detail them here at the moment in case I end up confusing people. If others can run ok by simply changing the Adjust_InCarView setting, then it's best to leave it there. However, if anyone else still reports problems after changing Adjust_InCarView, especially if GPL starts crashing when they try to go to the track, then I'll give more details of what I've done.
