Replay issue caused by... graphics ?!?

Hi guys,

Some are already aware of my problem, but I'm having a serious issue with graphics settings vs replay. As some may know, my PC is old and can't run smoothly with hi-quality graphics, so I play with minimum quality. I drove a few laps around Hockenheim 2006 with the 2004 Ferrari and I set a lap 0.019s slower than Schumacher's pole lap from 2004. I'm happy yay ! So I save the replay (as unlimited practice, not hotlap, as usual) and I exit the game to change graphics to maximum quality before recording the lap. So I turn on the game again and load the .upl file. I then rewind to the beginning of the 3 minute replay and fast forward until the end of the lap before the one I want to record. I actually spun in the middle of the double right-hander at the exit of the Stadium, so I went back on track facing the wrong way to spin myself in order to get an optimum speed exiting the last corner.

Now is the tricky part : when I drove the laps, all went well and I could finish my laps perfectly. But this time, on max graphics replay, the car veers offline on the inside of the penultimate corner and it keeps receiving steering, throttle and braking inputs as if it was still on track. You can make out Turn 1, Turn 2 and Turn 3 from the HUD. And then, WOOF!, the replay goes back to normal after Turn 3 on the back straight. Just for fun, I revert to low quality graphics and everything is normal again ! As a matter of fact, I didn't change the car wad, track wad, physics and performance. Neither do I use car restore state.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a million !




And since I've been using my 2004 car wad, I get this error message with no debug report and no debug pop-up window when I exit the game :
0x7c91120e -> <unknown assertion>

Anyone else ever had that problem ? It's so frustrating, I don't want to drive that perfect lap again lol Also, the same thing happened with my Barcelona lap from yesterday and it was caused by a sudden disabling of the pitstop bug fix (car would sit in the pits in the replay instead of leaving right away). Also, my lastest 3 replay files don't show laps at the bottom in hofxlap.

Example :

Quote
GP4 1.00 Saved game for track 12: Hockenheim
Level: Semi-Pro / Frame rate: 30.0 FPS
Race type: Practise Session: Unlimited practise
Weather type: Custom Probability of rain: 0%
Car #1, driven by Michael Schumacher (Ferrari - Ferrari)
Power: 874 BHP, weight 603 kg, fuel laps: 1.2
Fastest lap time: 1:13.324 pos 1 (split1 0:16.272, split2 0:50.579)
F1 Auto Brake : --- Clutch dev/mode: digital / switched
F2 Auto Gear : off
F3 Spin Recovery : off Brake dev/mode: analog / analog
F4 Indestructible: on lsz: 10%
F5 Best Line : --- Throttle dev/mode: analog / analog
F6 Best Gear : on lsz: 10%
F7 Throttle Help : off Steering dev/mode: analog / analog
F8 Steering Help : off lsz: 0%
SH percentage : 10% max lock: 20 rwcs: 0%
Setup:
18,14 R43.875:56.125F 28,35,41,46,52,57,62 3/4,6/6
ARB: F 01500 R 0150 Tyre type: Soft Drys
00/4/4/22/21/1300/38.5 [0.80] 00/4/4/22/21/1300/38.5 [0.93]
00/4/4/08/10/1000/57.0 [0.03] 00/4/4/08/10/1000/57.0 [0.04]

The weird thing is that my exe is actually 1.02 (so says GPxPatch in fact) and I've been using it since forever with all V10 years.

Thanks !

Maybe check if the dat-file is linked correctly or maybe faulty, but it seems to me that in the replay GP4 is using the CC-line of Old Hockenheim. Do you drive New Hockenheim in slot 12 as well?

The way replays are stored in GPx is by storing memory snapshots. It doesn't store them each frame though. In between snapshots it only records the input. This works because the random number generator state is restored from the memory snapshot. The fact that it breaks with different graphics settings indicates a bug in GP4, in which it calls the RNG more or less times than witih other graphics settings.

Since the replay says it was recorded with 1.00 I suspect that you're using GP4 1.00, not 1.02. What does gpxpload.txt say about it?

René Smit, Independent Software Developer.
Download my GPx tools here.

A bit off topic but this reminds me of the GP2/GP3 bug where a replay would sometimes change the course of the race. Maybe this is in some way related or has not been completely fixed in GP4.

---

used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld

1.02 René, I don't have a 1.00 exe in my folder. Many 1.02s though lol Yesterday, I started a brand new session, and everything went fine. The upl file is ok and the replay played exactly the way I drove in my run.

So GPxPatch says 1.02 and HOFxLap says 1.00?

René Smit, Independent Software Developer.
Download my GPx tools here.