Problems with CMagic and GP4Tweaker

Hi everyone,

Today I installed GP4 on my laptop (Windows 7, 64 bits). Of course I wanted to update/enhance the game, so I followed the normal procedure: run GP4Patch, replace the .exe file with the decrypted file and then run GPxPatch. The game works fine, but for some reason I cannot use GP4Tweaker and CMagic, two tools which are essential for a realistic racing-simulation. GP4Tweaker does nothing (it cannot find the right directory) and CMagic keeps telling me "file access denied", and it fails to produce magic data. If someone can help me, please let me know. Feel free to ask more information.

In short, I would like to change:
Pitstop times (GP4Tweaker)
The slipstream effect and the dirty-air effect (according to some people this is also featured in GP4Tweaker)
Tyre wear (I'd like to test the mysterious cc shuffler value in the magic data)
Other track-data, like AI errors and failure rates.

There are probably better editors than the two I mentioned. If so, please tell me. I have read there is another magic-data editor, the trackset manager, which is probably more user-friendly. Unfortunately, only a part of the magic data can be edited in this way. Even worse, I cannot find an existing link to download it (linkrot is a major problem in the world of GP4, many useful tools are not available for download anymore). Hopefully someone can shed some light on the matter.

Thanks!

P.S. I'm no computer or software expert.

Download Zaz Tools (CSM) and get a mod and a track pack. After installation you'll see a tracks folder in GP4. Open TSM, part of CSM and you'll see the tracks listed, select a track and there in the right pane will be the magic data which you can edit. If my memory serves me correctly there may be some info on this in the FAQ. Turn off the update function in CSM as the server is down. Try gp4db.com or my sig for download. Also gp4db and gp4central for mods etc.

EDIT: Check the Magic Data Tutorial using TSM in the FAQ.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2013 12:39AM by mortal.

Which version of GP4 Tweaker are you using? Where did you download it? There's a lot of different versions floating around...

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Intel NUC 8i3, 8GB RAM, MS Sidewinder Wheel

Hi
You have to open the GP4 tweaker as administrator for Win 7 and then edit it as I also have win 7 and had the same problem and it worked when I opened the tweaker as administrator and edted the data.

Hi,

Thank you all for your quick responses! I do not have time now to check everything, so first things first. I downloaded GP4Tweaker from simracingworld. I know it is not the most recent version (it is from April 2005), but I could not find anything better. Unfortunately, I cannot find for example the September 2005 version, let alone the "personal edition" version (the GP4Tweaker site appears to be dead). Anyway, when I re-install GP4Tweaker, I will try to run the program as administrator. Possibly it is the same with CMagic.
Three questions: can GP4Tweaker and CSM work together? TSM looks awesome, but is the number of editable magic-data variables confined to the screen shown in an earlier post on this forum? Or is GP4Builder more suitable for me?

Thanks again!

GP4Tweaker is integrated into CSM.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

You can get the Reloaded version of GP4 Tweaker v1.045 at GP4 Central.

The Reloaded version does not use a GUI. Instead, you patch your GP4.exe file using the patcher that is included in the download. Then you place these files/folders in your GP4 directory:

gp4tweak.ini
gp4tweak.dll
gp4tweak_data <-- this is a folder

Then you edit the config files in the gp4tweak_data folder.

Note: you only need to install GP4 Tweaker if you are not using a CSM mod. Almost all CSM mods have GP4 Tweaker built in to them so you do not need to install it separately.

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Intel NUC 8i3, 8GB RAM, MS Sidewinder Wheel

The GP4Tweaker download has failed. My computer claims it has detected a virus. Probably GP4Tweaker looks like some kind of virus, but I guess the download itself is harmless. Or maybe not? Anyway, how could I download the program without putting my computer at risk?

Could you not close your anti-virus program for a very short period and download the file again?

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My Grand Prix 4 Files
I'm a total dick. How many people can say that?

GP4 Tweaker is harmless but often mistaken by Antivirus programs as a malicious file. Turn off your Antivirus and download it again.

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Intel NUC 8i3, 8GB RAM, MS Sidewinder Wheel

Thanks for the support! Unfortunately, I cannot unzip the GP4Tweaker folder and CSM is "unable to retrieve list". I just don't know why - I even tried to run GP4 as administrator, but nothing seems to help.

CSM still works, it just can't auto-update because the server is down (there's many threads about it on here). Turn off auto-updating in the Options.

If you are using CSM then you dont need to install Tweaker anyway, because almost all CSM mods have Tweaker integrated into them.

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Intel NUC 8i3, 8GB RAM, MS Sidewinder Wheel

Still no good news. The game is slow and crashes a lot. Still I cannot edit any game data. It is very frustrating. I think these problems are related to Windows 7, as the game runs fine on my old computer. I cannot find out why GP4 is so inaccessible. Changing the compatibility mode of GP4 and related programs does not seem to make any difference.

Two questions: does CSM need the decrypted exe or the normal exe? Can I use the original game carset with CSM, or do I need to download another carset?

Decrypted exe.

Don't understand the second question. Just install GP4 (+patch +decrypted exe) and then install CSM and whatever mods you want.

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Intel NUC 8i3, 8GB RAM, MS Sidewinder Wheel

Thanks! This topic was confusing me.

About my second question: can CSM edit the original track files? I think the 2001 season is alright, so I would like to start editing the original game.

OK it sounds like you want to build a 2001 CSM mod.

With regards to tracks, I guess you have two main options:

1) you can put a new .dat and .wad (and other files such as .bmp loading screen, .gpi trackmap, etc) into the CSM mod and swap the files over the top of an original track. The files you would need to edit are Settings\Swap.ini and Data\GPxPatch\tracks.set.

2) you can inject files, or entire folders, into an existing .wad (some mods use this feature to insert new pitstands and garage textures into the original tracks, for example). This is best done from Settings\Swap.ini. The syntax is like this:

[AddFilesToWad1]
Targetfile	=cars.wad
File1		=StWheels\redbull\stwheel.tex,cars\stwheel.tex

[AddDirectoriesToWad1] 
TargetFile	=cars.wad
Directory1	=StWheels\redbull\Cockpits,cars\cockpits

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Intel NUC 8i3, 8GB RAM, MS Sidewinder Wheel

That's sophisticated! But does CSM allow us to edit the original game-data? If yes, that would be great! (My main target is to edit the "magic data" first and only then I might be interested in another carset.)

No, CSM doesn't contain any way to insert new magic data into .dat files as far as I know.

You would need to use CMagic to edit the data in the .dat file, and then put that .dat file into your CSM mod.

One quirk since you talking about the original tracks - the original 17 .dat files don't contain Magic Data themselves, because for them it was stored in the GP4.exe file, not the .dat (reading the magic data from the .dat file is a feature of GPxPatch created by Rene). So if you want to edit the magic data in the original .dat files, first you have to pull it from GP4.exe using CMagic, then insert it into the .dat file.

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Intel NUC 8i3, 8GB RAM, MS Sidewinder Wheel

GP4 and GP4Tweaker are running fine on my laptop. The only thing is: I cannot download the newest GP4Tweaker version because my anti-virus program keeps telling me that it is a Trojan horse/Trojan downloader. Should I simply "recover" and run the program?