Returning to GP4 after long absence. [Fixed]

I have GP4 installed already, but I'll download it from gp4 central and give some instructions.

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Tahitian GP Circuit
[www.grandprixgames.org]
Easter Island Circuit
[www.grandprixgames.org]

So...

TomMK at GP4 central has made it very simple to play the vanilla version of the game. Download the "170 MB "Grand Prix 4 v 1.02" archive". Extract it. Open the folder. Inside you'll see a folder called Grand Prix 4.
Open it. Right click on the GP4.exe file and set compatibility to XP SP2, and check the box for run as administrator. Now double click on GPxPatch.exe. Click on Start GPx.
Sit back and enjoy vanilla GP4.

Be sure to start the game through GPxPatch.exe and not GP4.exe, as it contains many bugfixes, patches and enhancements.

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Tahitian GP Circuit
[www.grandprixgames.org]
Easter Island Circuit
[www.grandprixgames.org]

Edit the first post in the topic to change the forum view header.

To clean the registry, download CCleaner (free) and use it regularly to clean your system.

I do not know what is in any of the downloads available on GP4Central.

As said before. Uninstall GP4, clean the registry with CCleaner. Reboot. Get the 177mb download.
Extract to C:/GP4/

Set gp4.exe to the required compatibility. This requires testing to see which mode works best on your system. Could be XPSP2 or Win98. As I said, test.
Set the cpu tab in gpx to either all, 1 or 0, test to see which setting works best on your system. Try a setting, run it, if it crashes, try another.

Start GP4 from gpx.

I am unable to make a simpler explanation. GP4 is an older game, you have to work at it to make it run.

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

@salvasirignano: Thank you for the clear advice!

@mortal: I'm stunned by this admission: "I do not know what is in any of the downloads available on GP4Central." Then why, in your April 15 post did you state: "The game link on GP4 Central is a ready to play iso, that might be easier as it contains required patches"?

Can anyone explain to me what's in that 566 MB iso archive that's not in the 170 MB archive I'm now being told is the one I want to use?

I'll change the header of the FIRST post later today, after I've had the chance to follow the steps you outline and know better the status of my GP4 situation!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2017 04:20PM by Wee_Scot.

Hello Wee_Scot,

Welcome back to GP4!

This post explains the right steps and what the 170MB archive contains: [www.grandprixgames.org]

You can either follow the steps under "The hard way" (I don't think it's that hard, it's just running some setups and extracting archives), OR you can skip the setups and extract the 170MB archive as explained under "The easy way". The result will be the same, except the easy way is more like a so called "portable" version of GP4: it runs without any changes to the registry so won't add any applications to the "Programs and features" to uninstall in the control panel, etc.

The 566 MB iso is the original GP4 1.00 CD image.
Patch 9.6 is the official GP4 1.02 update. It requires GP4 1.00 to be installed first.
The decrypted GP4.exe 1.02 is a 'crack' that disables the copy protection and allows several tools (excluding GPxPatch) to work with GP4.

The 170MB archive is the same as installation of the GP4 566MB iso + GP4 patch 9.6 + decrypted GP4.exe 1.02 + GPxPatch 4.44. This archive is smaller than the big one due to compression.

GPxPatch 4.44 (of which I'm the author) is required to run GP4 on Windows 10 as it fixes several problems in GP4 that caused crashes and freezes on Windows 7 and higher, particularly Windows 10. Additionally, running GP4 through GPxPatch won't require you to run GP4.exe in (Windows XP) compatibility mode or as administrator. You can still try that as a last resort, but initially you should try not to fiddle with compatibility mode (contrary to what is said in the post I linked, which was written before GPxPatch fixed the Windows 10 related GP4 bugs).

GPxPatch is also required to run a lot of GP4 mods and custom tracks.

Running GP4 through GPxPatch means you start GPxPatch.exe instead of GP4.exe. This shows a dialog in which you can change all kinds of settings, and also contains a button "Start GPx". Pressing this button will start GP4.exe. Right after launching GP4.exe, GPxPatch will patch the GP4 process in memory and hook into it to apply the fixes and patches and add all the extra features. So the executable itself is not changed by GPxPatch.

I hope this clears things up and you can get the game to work.

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



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2017 01:05PM by SDI.

THANK YOU, SDI!

I wish your clear, informative post had been the FIRST one I'd read after experiencing problems (which turned out to be related to failing HARDWARE and had NOTHING to do with GP4 SOFTWARE).

First, when I started this topic, I wasn't familiar with GPxPatch. In my second post (April 14), I wrote that i'd "got GP4 running well for the most part, after installing the 9.6 patch and replacing GP4.exe with the NoCD version." Nobody reading that picked up on the fact that I hadn't even mentioned GPxPatch, even though I'd written that I was experiencing game freezes when I pressed the Esc key, and asked, "...is there another patch or tweak I've overlooked?".

Then, what set me down the wrong path just a few days ago was mortal's advice that, after uninstalling the game, I use the "iso" package at gp4central for my reinstallation, instead of using my original game CD and then applying the separate patches, as i had the first time. The "ready to play iso", he wrote, "contains required patches". That sounded good to me! I interpreted that to mean that that one iso package contained everything I needed to install an up-to-date GP4. Not...

The other thing that confused me was the size of the iso archive compared to the size of the 7z archive you're now telling me is the one I want to use. Having no previous experience with iso archives, I had no idea a 170 MB 7z archive contained MORE data than a 566 MB iso archive!

So, my questions now are:

1) Should I really uninstall my current installation (which was accomplished by running the Setup app in the 566 MB iso archive) and clean the registry, then start over with the 170 MB archive?

2) Or should I just apply the 9.6 patch, replace the GP4.exe with the cracked version, and apply your GPxPatch (v 4.44 from the 170 MB archive?) to my CURRENT installation, then uncheck the "Run as administrator" and "compatibility mode" I'd applied to my GP4.exe, then test the different compatibility "settings" under the CPU tab in GPx to decide which one works best for my system?



@mortal: "Edit the first post in the topic to change the forum view header." When I look at the first post in this topic, I see no way to edit it! Reply, Quote, Report...yes. But no icon to edit. So how, pray tell, do I edit the first post???

I'm sorry to hear about your frustration earlier in this thread. I believe it was due to the fact that it was not clear that there were two problems: installation of GP4 and hardware issues. For people trying to help this can be very confusing.

Please bear in mind that the people who are helping are volunteers who do this in their free time. Mortal and others have helped countless people over the years and they deserve a lot of respect. Without them this community would not exist at all.

As for your remaining questions: I advise not to use the 170MB archive. So keep your GP4 1.00 installation and just apply 9.6 patch, replace the exe with the decrypted one. Don't use GPxPatch from the 170MB archive though. Just download GPxPatch from my site (https://rsdi.home.xs4all.nl/download.html) and install it. The compatibility settings are not needed when running through GPxPatch. This can always be done later when you run into problems.

If it doesn't work yet, make sure to "Enable debug mode" in the GPxPatch dialog. In case GP4 crashes, this will produce a log file with lots of information with which I can help you further.

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



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2017 08:35PM by SDI.

As I said, I don't really know what is in the archives, reason being I've never downloaded them. Also, FYI, I do not have GP4 installed on this system. Since I sold my simulator, I no longer race.
Meanwhile, I have been the maintainer and moderator of this site, considered the number one English speaking and multi-language site for the Geoff Crammond series coming up to 11 years, call me your benevolent dictator. All donations to assist with the bandwidth costs will be gratefully accepted

I will edit your post when you advise that you are sorted.

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

SUCCESS!

I ran the 9.6 patch, then replaced the GP4.exe with the NoCD version, then downloaded and ran GPxPatch v 4.44 from your website, SDI. A "Windows Features" box came up, telling me that "Grand Prix 4 on your PC needs the following Windows feature: Direct Play". So I allowed installation of that.

Then the GPxPatch box opened. I did a quick check of each tab, then went back to the first tab, checked the boxes for "Skip intro" and "Skip startup menu," then clicked the "Start GPx" button and in seconds I was looking at the very familiar Main Menu!

I went to Options/Controls and pointed to the G25.con file, made other settings choices, and did a Quick Race. Happy memories came flooding back! Thank you again for helping me reach this point.

Just a few more questions tonight:

1) The game selected 1024x768 for my screen resolution. There was no 1920x1080 option, and I'm assuming there is no way to get a wide screen display of GP4. Correct?

2) There were no driver names listed. Pictures, yes, but no names. Why is that? I can fill them in from the season records, but just wondering...

3) I'm not a fan of the big blue speedometer (and tachometer?) in the lower left corner. With my preferred cockpit viewing angle, it blocks the left side mirror. How do I get rid of that?

I see there is a very detailed Help for GPxPatch, and I'll spend some time familiarizing myself with that before I ask any MORE questions.

Thanks again!

@mortal: Please change the topic header to "Returning to GP4 after a LONG absence, and all hardware and software issues now sorted out!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2017 03:01AM by Wee_Scot.

1) For changing to higher resolutions, see here: Screen resolutions & f1graphics.cfg

2) Problem related to gpaedia or performance files, not sure about that one.

3) Check that in the ingame options the "arcade" or something similar are disabled, and in GPxPatch check at the gpxcinfo, if there´s any reference to "Lo2kTheme"

Just in case someone else asks... the iso file is an image (a copy) of the original CD, meanwhile the 170MB archive is a compressed installation (ready to uninstall and play).

Thanks, Foreverk! Just wanted to post this quick thank you before I head off to work. I'll do more exploring later!

Congratulations

I've never seen the "Direct Play" Windows Features popup. Interesting fact if GPxPatch caused that.

I don't know why the names have gone, but you can reset them by deleting or renaming the f1gstate.sav and f1gstate.bak files in the GP4 directory, since they are stored in there alongside the rest of the settings.
EDIT: I've been able to reproduce this problem. This might be a bug in GPxPatch, but I'll have to investigate. A workaround is to disable GPxSet in the GPxPatch tab OR to specify a performance file in the GPxSet tab. You can create a performance file with Team Editor.

You can remove the speedometer by unchecking the 2 Lo2KTheme panels in the GPxCInfo tab of GPxPatch.

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



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2017 12:36PM by SDI.

Well, I'm very happily playing in 1920x1080 now! Looks fantastic! Thanks again, Foreverk!

Thanks again to both of you for pointing out how to get rid of the Lo2kTheme.

Haven't tried to restore the driver's names, yet.

Had an issue with the "G25.con" file: Couldn't get the brakes to work. Tried everything I could think of in settings, recalibrated, still no joy. It took me a few minutes to even realize that I had no brakes! I would accelerate from a standing start at Spa, then smack into the cars in front of me at La Source. At first, I thought it was just that my brake pedal was "too long." So I re-calibrated it using less than the full range. No better. Then I took it really slow from my grid position, rounded the hairpin well behind the rest, and tried the brake pedal coming down the hill. That's when I finally realized the brake pedal was completely useless! So I switched to Greg's G25 configuration file, and it's perfect. I'm sure there was an easy fix to use the first G25 configuration settings, but I wasn't smart enough to find it.

As soon as I started using Greg's G25 settings, I was reminded how effective F1 carbon brakes are. It's going to take me a while again to get used to how late I can leave my braking. But I'm having a blast!

Later today I hope to explore some of the other season mods!