jams folder (effects for wet weather, best line, ...)

hello,

first of all: merry christmas to all!
second: i spent hours already trying to understand the jams files which are located in Grand Prix 4\MAPS\RESOURCES\jams and obviously are in control of all surface effects like racing line / dry line and wet weather effects / wet spots on the track.
these texture can best be seen in wet conditions (wet spots). they also appear as a transparent layer on the track in dry conditions.

my goal is to improve these files because i really dislike the pixelated wet weather effects. and apperently, the files are the exact same as in GP3 and GP3 2000.
has anybody ever tried, or even succeeded in doing so?

any editing i tried did have effect on the game but i always made it worse. the game will even run when the files are deleted, but all the effects will be gone then.

any help is much appreciated!
Carl

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GP Files | GP Videos | Discord: Carl_gpgames#2350



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2020 11:13PM by Carl_gpgames.

Merry Christmas!
I have tried in the past, but the results have not been much different to yours. Perhaps should do further studies.

good to see that you guys are exploring this jams area. Hopefully you're successful and find out some improvements...

what i have found out so far:

BESTDRK5.JAM controls the racing line (appears yellow if the other jams are deleted):


DRPD6.JAM is responsible for the large wet parts:


WETFADE.JAM is (probably) responsible for the area between dry and wet parts (may only be seen in combination with DRPD6.JAM and TARGREY3.JAM):


TARGREY3.JAM seems to be a (low-res) tarmac texture with appaears as a second, transparent layer over the tarmac (or bump map) texture. It does also control the small wet spots:


TARBUMP3.JAM seems to be some sort of bump map texture. I haven't found out its use yet, it might be responsible for the light reflections on the track:


All of these texture are spread over large areas of the track, which makes them very pixelated. The different shades of gray stand for different levels of transparency, that's what i have found out so far. Most of the information in the files seems not to have an impact on GP4, they are probably relicts of GP3:


i suceeded to extend the texture height up to 768p, while the width seems to be limited to 256p (and it didn't improve the quality anyway).

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GP Files | GP Videos | Discord: Carl_gpgames#2350



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/25/2020 01:24PM by Carl_gpgames.

Excuse me. but i don´t remember now...

What´s the program i need to edit the .JAM and .JIP files?

superman77m Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Excuse me. but i don´t remember now...
>
> What´s the program i need to edit the .JAM and
> .JIP files?


[www.grandprixgames.org]

Thank you Vesuvius.

spent some more hourse on those files, still no progress. i think the only way would be to tweak the gp4.exe to use other texture instead of the jam files.

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GP Files | GP Videos | Discord: Carl_gpgames#2350

Carl_gpgames Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> spent some more hourse on those files, still no
> progress. i think the only way would be to tweak
> the gp4.exe to use other texture instead of the
> jam files.


Yes, came to same conclusion few years ago after testing pretty much everything I could think of. Also tried to edit original clouds and rain drops etc.

it's probably here, right?

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GP Files | GP Videos | Discord: Carl_gpgames#2350

I'm looking for this kind of thing since many days : is someone can tell me how can i do to darken the tarmac, like by night for instance ? Thanks.

Invert the normals of the track sectors of the bin file?

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