The Ultimate (Newbie) GP4 Guide v1.21

 

Revision date: 11/29/09.

 

 

Introduction

 

So you just discovered GP4 and you're wondering what can be done to make it even better?
That's a nice idea but there's a quite long way from the newbie state using original game to the amateur one using more customized files than original ones.
I will try in that as short as I can file to explain you everything I know...huh, no, it would be too long to stand in less than a hundred pages so I will only try to explain everything YOU have to know (would be better :)).

OK, so here we go.

 

PS: No, the author of this guide is not self-centered. Style of this guide was voluntary cool to keep it as pleasing to read as possible. Anyhow, if you think that a neutral flat (boring ?) style would better fit, don't hesitate to mail me and I will see for changes :)

PPS: If I really had to explain every technical aspect of GP4, this files would surely be a hundred pages long :)

 

 

Getting started

 

1-Installing the game from the CD
Everything starts by a fresh install. There's only one way to do it : Put the CD and follow the steps. Fast and easy.
Well done, you installed GP4 v1.00.

 

2-Installing official Patch
OK but there are some bugs in original game, some controllers are not handled correctly, car is floating above some tracks so you have to install the official Patch.
This patch is named Official patch or Patch v9.6 and you will find it on every main GP4 sites.
You never searched for a GP4 site on the net and don't know what sites are really main ones? Well, there are many GP4 sites but I will recommend you to go on gpgames (http://www.grandprixgames.org) where you will find every essential downloads.

Once you grabbed the patch, just run the SETUP.EXE file and follow the steps.
After installation, your gamewill then be GP4 v1.02.
If you had a past shortcut on your desktop to launch GP4, you should delete it and rebuild it as some troubles were reported with shortcuts after having installed GP4 Patch.

 

3-Installing Decrypted-nocd exe
Installing what?
The decrypted-nocd exe.
This file has 2 advantages: first you can play GP4 at anytime without needing to insert the CD and second it enables game editing. If you don't install this file, most of editors won't work at all.
So this file is really needed. You will find it under the name GP4 Decrypt nocd but be sure to download version for GP4 v1.02 (patch 9.6) as you have already installed the patch.
This file is a single file called GP4.exe (or rename it like that) that just needs to be copied over your original GP4.exe. Where is it? Well, you should just search by yourself on your computer because you will surely need to go to this place many times later :)

That's all, you installed the game in its latest version correctly and everything is ready for later editing. Later? Why later? You're right, let's start with editing but before this, it would be better to start by trying what others have made so far to see what's possible to do on GP4.

 

 

Updates and Mods

 

Are you now ready for editing? That's fine. But some guys did this since GP4's release date (somewhere in 2002, depending on country) and many updates and mods have already been released to update or enhance GP4.
But what did they do and what kind of modifications can you find on the net? A quite extensive list follows but first you should read the lines that follow :

 

1-Before anything: BACKUP
if you won't change tracks or download new tracks:
Then just backup the file named Cars.wad from the GP4 directory.
This file is one of the most important one in GP4 as it stores many important usual files, as cars files.
In case you will want to get back to original cars later, you will need it as no copy are stored on the CD anymore and without that backup, you would need to reinstall the whole game.

 

If you will change tracks :
I will give you my own method here. The best thing to do is to create a new folder named “backup” and to copy every .wad files and the “Circuits” folder in that new folder.
It's the best backup you can do even if it uses some hard disk space (around 232Mb).

 

Another important file is the GP4.exe one but you already have a backup with the decrypted-nocd file you grabbed sooner.

 

2-Grand Prix series heritage: the gp4form.txt file
Inherited from past Grand Prix games mods, all mods are now containing a file named gp4form.txt.
It's the readme.txt file for GP4 and it brings as much information as the author wished.
The most important reason why you should read this file for every mod is because this file gives installation procedure and even sometimes troubleshooting tips.
As every mod is different, the gp4form.txt is the main way to know how to install each particular mod.

 

 

3-What can be found on the net

 

Game changes
Only 2 programs are affording direct game changes: GPxPatch and GP4Tweaker.
GPxPatch is almost necessary, it affords real timing (split times, gaps, positions, speed traps and more) and is a real base for many major changes when you will want to edit GP4 further.
GP4Tweaker offers many game changes too on many aspects of the game : disabling black flags, activating aids, but also using new 2003 qualify rules or simulating driver's head real moves.
These 2 programs are complementary and can be used together.

 

Cars
Many new cars have been created, meaning their 3D shape and their textures (livery). Most are real F1 cars through the ages, some are just fantasy cars made for their author's pleasure and some are anything else, from GT Cars to Motos (early work in progress), passing by CART.
These cars might use original Cockpits or use their own (rarely).
Each car needs a special installation because every car was made by different people, using a different way to install it. The only way to know how to install it is to read the gp4form.txt file.
Once a car has been attempted to be installed, you can't uninstall it and you will need to restore the Cars.wad file (that’s why i told you to make a backup sooner).
Most cars are released separately but in some rare occasion, you can find complete package with all cars of a season, just follow the steps given in the gp4form.txt file.

 

Tracks
Many Tracks have been released so far, either real or fictionnal. Guys like B-Tone, Gildoorf, or TTM have done a lot to recreate living tracks. Tracks are usualy made of 2 files : a .dat file to copy in the circuits game folder and a wad file to copy in the game root folder. Beware not overwritting original tracks you havn't backup first or you might need to reinstall the full game to get them back later.

 

Tyres
Better tyres have been designed by many users. We can differentiate 2 types of tyres: 3D Tyres and full 3D Tyres :) What's the difference?
Well, 3D Tyres are using a texture for rims where full 3D tyres are using real 3D Mesh.
You have to know that both have pro and cons because 3D ones are less detailed (especially on rims) but have a motion blur effect where full 3D ones are very detailed but has no motion blur effect and can slow down the game slightly.

Latest tyres have been released, combining both aspects: nice motion blur effect and detailed rims but due to the high level of detail, they are still consuming some CPU ressources.
Just try the different types and make your own opinion about them.

 

Performance
Cars are too slow for some peoples or don't have the right power (as with cars from other seasons), so performance files have been released to fix this.
These files usually need a tool to be installed and I will describe them in next chapter.

 

Sounds
Very few updates have been done in that area but you can find new sounds for GP4.

 

Other
There are many other updates for GP4 on every area: New tarmac, new helmets, new onboard cameras, new track cameras, and much more...
Be sure to check the gp4form.txt file for every mod you will download to understand how to install them.

 

And now?
You tried everything, some updates were so great! and some not so great, but something can be done, you feel it, you could do it yourself if you would know what tools are needed to make them.
That's right and that's why so many people took their time to build new tools.

 

 

Tools (or the beginning of really serious things)

 

OK, you want to change something in the game but what?
Many tools have been released but each tool has been designed for a special task.
There are so many tools that I can't build an extensive list but I will try anyhow in order you know what is currently existing to answer your purpose.

 

Updating GP4: Wadupdater / EasyWad / WadInstaller / GP4Master
GP4's files can exist under two forms, usual ones and packaged ones. These packages have for extension .wad in the case of GP4. Mods are often providing new files to override original ones. If the original files can be read, no problem, but if they are packaged in a .wad you will need one of these tools.
There are 2 sorts of tools for 2 ways to update a file in a .wad:
- extracting all files from a wad, manually replacing the file, recreating the whole wad
- updating the file directly in the wad
As far as I know, only WadUpdater can use both methods and it can also update all track wads at once or extract only one file from a wad.
EasyWad uses first method but through the context menu, which is very handy.
WadInstaller uses second method but needs to build scripts to tell what file go where. Even if it is a powerful tool, it has to be reserved for advanced modders.
GP4Master was the first tool to provide .wad access but it doesn't support GP4 v1.02 (with patch 9.6) by default. Anyhow it can extract a single file from a wad or use the first method for other operations.

 

Teams: TeamEditor / Carset Creator
Simplest editing operations you can do on GP4 are changing Teams or Driver's names or tyre brands used by cars. All these changes can be done with these two tools that are covering most of the team settings a user can change.
TeamEditor is specialized in 3D changes, rim colors, onboard camera positions and have a realtime display of near every change.
Carset Creator is specialized in Texture changes, car livery, helmets, and drivers with Texture displays.
The only matter with Carset Creator is that it does not support GP4 v1.02 natively. You can make it v1.02 compliant using a tool called GP4 Util Patcher but be sure to only change textures once you made it compliant because every changes on teams data is hazardous and can even corrupt your GP4.exe file!

 

Textures: TexEditor / Gp4Master / TexResizer
Almost all GP4 textures are in .tex file format which basically stores 4 sizes of the same texture.
As .tex files can't be open by any known picture editor, you have to convert them first to closest universal file format, .tga, and to do this you have the choice between three tools: TexResizer, TexEditor or GP4Master.
GP4Master was the more used but it's still not compatible with GP4 v1.02 by default. you can fix it using a tool called GP4 Util Patcher but like Carset Creator, be sure to only use fixed GP4Master for textures and wad operations, any team modification is hazardous and can even corrupt your GP4.exe file!
TexEditor can do the same things as GP4Master but can also converts any number of .tex files in their tga counterparts at once or the reverse, which is more than useful.

Latest TexResizer revision offers all features from GP4Master and Texeditor, covering both conversion from .tex to .tga and .tga to .tex, downsampling, lod replacement, but also brings new features as high quality downsampling or DXT format conversion.

TexResizer is also the only tool able to change internal texture sizes that will let you use higher resolution textures than original ones.

 

Sounds: SampleEditor
GP4 uses the same kind of packages for sounds than for files, but instead of .wad files, it uses .bnk files.
SampleEditor can open .bnk files, preview every sounds and replace them one by one or all at once.
It is simple but effective.

 

Cars: Z-Modeler / GP4Builder
Cars as most of GP4 3D objects are in .gp4 format. Even if they can be previewed and even edited in some ways through GP4Builder, Zanoza Z-Modeler is handier for this job. In both cases, textures will need to be converted as said above before you can see them in these tools.
Z-Modeler is a 3D modeller and is thus a somewhat complex program needing some experience from user with it before he can fully exploit it. And 3D Modelling is maybe not as easy as you think.

 

Tracks : GP4Builder
Track editing is possible thanks to GP4Builder. It offers real-time preview and many features to build complete new tracks, from physical layout conception to tiniest objects importation.
About tracks themselves, they are spread amongst many files but basically 2 files are predominant: .gp4 files that store 3D mesh and .dat files storing the ghost of the 3D mesh, the physical structure of the track as it will be “feel” in the game.

 

Car physics : GP4Phys
Car physics are very finely described in GP4 and can be edited through this unique editor: GP4Phys.
With this tool, you will be able to change Inertia, torque, tyre grip and many more car technical data.

 

Season : Carset Manager
Once you started to download season packages, you might want to swap from one season to another quickly without needing to fulfil a whole installation each time. Carset Manager (also known as CSM) has been made to do that and does it perfectly.

 

Others
There are of course many other tools, covering a lot of small areas, as changing championship point system, computer car (CC) setups, force feedback intensity and many more…Just search for them when you will need them or take a look on main GP4 sites tools download sections.

Once you started to edit GP4, it becomes an endless game and you might need advices, critics or reports about your changes. Be sure to find support on specialized GP4 forum where many experienced users will answer you if they can ;)
To end this guide, I added a first troubleshooting guide you could check in your first GP4 editing attempts.

 

Have a good time playing GP4 and a good time editing it ;)

 

Laurent Rousseau aka Lo2k

(Creator of TeamEditor and GP4Builder amongst many other GP4 tools)

 

 

 

Troubleshooting

And here comes the great time when something runs bad, where GP4 looks bad, is crashing back to desktop or is even restarting Windows.
How strange! But what can I do? Well, so many things in fact but I doubt any file will ever cover every problems whatever the tries of their authors.
I will anyhow try to answer most of the (so) common troubles you should or will encounter with GP4.
Anyhow, be sure to search for the Official GP4 FAQ on the net as this file will give you official answers to many game troubles and especially with controllers.

 

 

GP4 in general

 

GP4 shortcut on my desktop is not launching GP4
- This usually happens after having installed official GP4 Patch v9.6. Delete current shortcut and recreate it and it will be solved.
- The other explication could be you displaced the gp4 folder on your hard drive (bad idea), in that case, you have also to recreate the shortcut or at least change the path to the GP4.exe file.

 

GP4 is SO slow
Arrggg ! Not this question, please :)
Well, this can be due to so many factors that I can't count them; here is a short list of reasons and solutions:
- Check you have latest drivers (especially graphical card ones), this is not limited to GP4 so you'd better check this.
- After each driver update (or after graphical card replacement), delete the file F1graphics.cfg. This way GP4 will rebuild its graphical settings according to new graphical card performances at next launch.
- New high quality cars and tyres are quite CPU consuming so be sure to have a strong computer to be able to run GP4 with 22 high quality cars and 88 ( ! ) high quality tyres.
- Be careful with AA (Anti-aliasing) settings, even if GP4 runs perfectly well with latest video cards with AA activated, AA is also ressources consuming and each level of AA will consume a little more resources on your computer.
- Some sound cards (integrated or not) can cause important slow down. To fix this, or check if your sound card is doing this, open the Sounds and Audio Devices configuration panel then Advanced Settings, Performance tab and reduce Hardware Accelerated slider.
- In the game itself, some settings are very CPU consuming as mirrors (though they are very useful), heat haze, dynamic video walls or dynamic car reflections. Be sure that your CPU/graphical cards can handle them.

 

GP4 slows down or freezes every X minutes
I observed this effect using Norton Anti-virus and whatever the tries to deactivate it, nothing will sort this bug else than completely uninstalling it, what is not advisable : /

 

I can only see a black screen with Windows Vista / Seven
For some unknown reason, GP4 doesn't run straight away with Windows 7 but a simple trick will fix this. Simply locate your GP4.exe file and do a right click on top of it. Click Properties then choose Compatibility Tab and check "Execute in Compatibility mode for" checkbox and leave Windows XP SP3 selection as is. Hit the apply button and you're done.

 

GP4 only shows me a black screen and come back to desktop at starting

This trouble has been experimented by several users and is related to printer drivers that has been installed.

So if you have useless printer drivers, remove them and if the matter is still not solved, reinstall your current drivers (there's also maybe an updated version on the net).

 

GP4 suddenly shutdown after a random number of laps

This problem is often due to driver names changes (made by a mod or by yourself maybe) where one of the driver's name does not include a space character.

In that case, GP4 will run fine as long as it does not display this name but when he needs to display this name finally, he can't and shut down (I know, it's a bit harsh). So the solution is simple : edit driver's name with adequate tool and add a space in them all (you can end the name with a space with no character after like in "Schumi ").

 

GP4 asks me to calibrate my graphics at every launch

In some case, GP4 seems to not properly detect your graphical card.

To fix this, open the gconfig.txt file in your GP4 folder. You should see something like this :

;gp4 generated file - do not edit

 

[NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT] good 128

[NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT] untested 128
[] untested 128

The second line is the matter here, so just delete the [NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT] untested 128 line and save the gconfig.txt file changes.

 

 

Hardware problems

 

I have a P4 (Pentium4) and...
OK, you said enough :) P4 processors use a new technology called Hyper-Threading. Even if it can increase some application execution speed, it can also cause troubles to others and GP4 is in the others. What you could experiment is freezes when pausing game or during replay and freeze to crash when trying to switch from onboard to Track TV cameras.
In such cases, you can try to use GpxPatch and change CPU value onto “0” or “1” instead of “all”.
If you don’t use GpxPatch or if first tip don’t work, you can also try to use GP4 in Windows 98 compatibilty mode.
If nothing worked so far, you should reboot your computer and disable hyper-threading in the BIOS of your motherboard (check your motherboard booklet or ask on a forum on how doing this).

 

I have a quite recent graphical card...

It seems GP4 have troubles with recent graphical cards and if you are in such case, all your graphics settings are lost each time you left GP4 (even if you checked the save settings checkbox) and if you go back to graphics menu, resolution will come back to 640*480 automatically.

This has already been experimented with GeForce5900XT and GeForce6600GT and surely with ATI hardware too.

You haven't much choices here, you have to force GP4 to use a fixed graphical configuration.

Go to GP4 folder, open f1graphics.cfg file and replace

0 ; f1graphics.cfg controls all settings (default 0)

by

1 ; f1graphics.cfg controls all settings (default 0)

This way GP4 will use all the settings from this file instead of GP4 ingame settings.

Beware : do not go and change any settings from the game graphics menu else settings from the file could be overridden by your new ingame settings for the time of your current GP4 session.

 

I have a Thrustmaster Force Feedback wheel...

You can experiment throttle split axis trouble with this wheel.

First, be sure to use patched version of the game if you want to use split axis, because original version of GP4 do not handle split axis with this wheel.

Second, try several drivers if you experiment some troubles. Latest drivers are not always the best for GP4 and I personally kept the 2.6.3 version to play GP4.

 

 

Updates and mods problems

 

Some cars have white parts in game
- This happen every time textures can't be found in the cars.wad. Basically that means the car is not installed as it should. Please check again the gp4form.txt file included in the car package and try to install the car again.

 

Some cars have different aspect after a given distance
- This is due to the fact that some lods (level of detail : cars are displayed with more or less details, based on distance. There are 4 levels of details in GP4) are still using old car shapes and textures. Like above, this could come from an incomplete installation or more barely from mod's creator who missed (or deigned at that way) to create some lods for his new car. It's up to you to create missing lods from existing ones are to choose to use better lods (mod creators always furnish these lods) only thanks to TeamEditor high res forced shapes options but in that case GP4 will use more CPU ressources.

 

 

Tools in general

 

Tool I'm trying crashes at loading (eventually saying me GP4 can't be read)
- Usual Newbie bug :) Be sure you are using a decrypted GP4.exe file.

 

Tool I'm trying is saying me that I have a bad/unknown version of GP4
- Another usual bug: Tool you are trying has not been designed for GP4 1.02 (patch 9.6 has been installed). There are now few tools in that case; the most useful are GP4Master and Carset Creator. You can bypass this limitation using a small tool called GP4 Util Patcher that will fix those tools but be carefull, only textures and wad operations will work after this fix, any change to team datas with such modified tools can corrupt your GP4.exe file!

 

 

Tool Specific Problems

 

I did changes in TeamEditor but nothing changes in the Game
- Are you sure you selected the right GP4.exe and cars.wad files in Team Editor?
- If you installed GP4Tweaker once, then you maybe activated some features in it that will override TeamEditor changes. The only way to fix this is to launch (reinstall it first if needed) GP4Tweaker and to uncheck checkboxes activating the same features as in TeamEditor.

 

I can't see any textures in GP4Builder/TeamEditor/Z-Modeler
- All these tools can't read GP4 texture files, .tex files. To be able to preview textures in such editors, you first need to convert all textures needed to .tga file format (see Texture Tools section upper).

 

I can’t save my .tex file in GP4Master
Here is a well known bug due to properties of the .tex file you try to update. Open the .tex file properties (right clic on the file then clic on “Properties”) and uncheck Read-only attribute. Hit OK Button and Gp4Master will accept your changes now.

 

Some parts of the Graphical interface in GP4Builder/TeamEditor are unreachable

It's due to the fact that in some countries, Windows is preset to run with a 120dpi resolution whereas this tools has been designed for 96dpi only.

To fix this, go to Configuration panel\Display\Parameters Tab\Advanced button\General Tab

You should see a combobox with your actual dpi setting. just pick the 96dpi instead of 120 and you're done.

 

 

GUIDE’S REVISION HISTORY

 

V1.21 (11/29/09)

General GP4 troubleshooting : I can only see a black screen with Windows Vista / Seven

Lots of minor updates in the whole guide.

 

V1.19 (12/29/05)

General GP4 troubleshooting : GP4 asks me to calibrate my graphics at every launch

Tools specific problems : Some parts of the Graphical interface in GP4Builder/TeamEditor are unreachable

 

V1.17 (06/13/05)

General GP4 troubleshooting : GP4 suddenly shutdown after a random number of laps

Updates and mods problems : precisions on what you can do to fix cars having different aspect after a given distance

 

V1.15 (05/30/05)

Tracks Mods : Updated to reflect actual track editing state

Textures Tools : Updated TexResizer description

Tracks Tools : Updated GP4Builder description

General GP4 troubleshooting : GP4 only shows me a black screen and come back to desktop

Hardware problems : I have a Thrustmaster Force Feedback wheel...

Hardware problems : I have a quite recent graphical card...

Many minor corrections

 

V1.08 (11/30/04)

Fisrt french version of the guide

PS of the author in introduction :)
Update and mods problems : Some cars have different colors after a give distance

Minor corrections

 

V1.07 (10/01/04)
This file is now in htm format.

 

V1.06 (9/14/04)
Minor corrections

 

V1.05 (8/18/04)
Hardware troubleshooting : I have a P4 and...: another solution with GPxPatch

 

V1.04 (8/8/04)
Tools specific problem : I can’t save my .tex file in GP4Master
Tools to update GP4 : Updated WadUpdater description
Hardware troubleshooting : I have a P4 and...

 

V1.01
General GP4 troubleshooting : GP4 slows down or freezes every X minutes