THE F2 MINI MOD

Hi chaps,

After working for a few years on a Formula 2 Mod for GPL, I'm releasing it into the public domain as-is as the 'F2 MiniMod'. We managed to update the old F2 Carset a bit, and made an F2 gpl.exe that is much closer to real-life F2 than the 'Advanced Trainer' in GPL.


Unfortunately, after that point of 'Whew that's the first working version done' - a while ago now - Gilles Maltais, who worked on updating the .exe for F2, basically disappeared from the scene last year and he was the only one in our mod team with access to the gpl physics editor.


So, consider this a preview - a rough version of what Formula 2 cars did in 1967. It's not perfect, it has flaws - but on the track, it is WAY more accurate than GPL's 'Advanced Trainer' as an approximation of F2.
Use it if you like F2, or the 65 Mod (on the track, it drives similar to that, but the F2 cars had a bit more grip and a bit less top speed. The F2 physics were developed from the ground up, we only used the 65 Mod as a reference to what it should kinda-sorta feel like).

An F2 Mod may still be released much later on, but the project was delayed for nearly two years already - and it doesn't look like it would be finished any time soon, if at all.
So in the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy driving this 'first rough working version' of F2 for GPL. It simulates the Brabham BT23, Matra MS5, Lola T100-FVA, McLaren M4A, Lola T100-BMW, Lotus 48 and Ferrari 166 Dino.

Special thanks on behalf of Gilles, Michel Needforspeed and me must go to Charlie 'CJM' Mark, who made a really superb-looking Lotus 48 as a replacement for the one in the old carset.
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The files can be found on Savefile:

EDIT




To use the F2 MiniMod, just swap your old F2 carset for the car folders in the package. Then exchange gpl.exe for the one in the .zip (the same f2.exe is in there twice, btw) and run it directly without GEM (for some reason, it messed with our .exe when we tried it a while ago and the cars drove weirdly). It may be easiest to just make a separate F2 GPL folder with only the tracks used for F2.

Then drive and see if you can get close to the real-life laptimes, which can be found on https://www.formula2.net/F267_Index.htm.

Unfortunately, F2 AI has yet to be developed for this (there only is a rough AI version for Zandy included which works with no more than 5 cars on-track).
Still, in the end I felt it would be better to release this 'preview' F2 mod as-is than let it rot away unused (hey, F2-wise it's still better than the Advanced Trainer). Despite its rough-'n-ready state, we did put two years of research and testing work in it and the relative top speeds of the cars were tuned to the last 1 Kph.


As an added bonus, the updated F2 carset (mainly updated to make the cars' cockpits look much more like their real-life counterparts) can of course also be used with GPL's Advanced Trainer.

Enjoy,

Regards, Rudy
(GPLRank: -32)

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Sounds interesting; let me see if I have this right...we can load it in with our "regular" install of GPL and then just run the F2 selection in the new .exe??? We can still run the F1 mods from the new .EXE???

And while I have nothing against SaveFile, I'm leary of any more registrations...I have 4 1/2 pages of usernames and passwords now, and every day I get emails for Meet Christian Singles, Meet Big Beautiful Women, Get a Platinum VISA Card, You Are Pre-Approved etc...

Would you consider letting GPLMZ host it as well??? ( If the Powers That Be offer, that is)...

I don't think you have to register at Savefile - I've always been able to download directly.

And sure, I'd let MZ host, but the file is a bit big, so if MZ wants it, they can grab it and host at any time, of course.

To use it, you just swap the carset for the new one and (temporarily) swap gpl.exe for the f2.exe. That's all basically...

Regards, Rudy

Ah, yes - I didn't scroll down far enough...now I see the big orange button...



...???...Is that right???...

In any event, thanks for releasing this!!! I look forward to hearing the snarling roar of F2 four bangers!!!

...At least, I think they were four bangers back then...

This has been offline as there was some controversy. I got a response from Gilles and Michel saying they did not want the files released and have therefore edited Rudy's post to take out the link to the files. Should you want to see Rudy's veiwpoint about this you can always read his story at https://groups.google.com/group/rec.autos.s...9914de7e8df8ba4
If you want to carry on with the discussion you can take it over there as we don't want it here.