Hello, everyone!

I've been trying to tweak some performance files to suit my preferences, and I've nailed both the Skill Numbers themselves and the Failure Rate. But I'm having doubts regarding the Variation Numbers. I was wondering how you guys decide which values go there, and if you have unique values for each track or one value for the whole season.

I have taken a look at many mods and noted down their choices, but I am very much interested in your philosophy, how you do these things, etc.

Any help will be immensely appreciated!

Thanks!

Years ago SDI who is the most skilled modder when it comes to the operating with the code itself gave this answer covering how exactly the variance works. Cheers
Mostly if you have a driver who is unpredictable but capable of good results sometimes should get a little lower than usual overall perf value, but a high variance. Also higher variance to the qualy ones adds more inconstant results whether driver can improve their time, while low variance makes results to be like they're nailing their lap like robots carrying more or less the same laptimes (if don't have mistakes aka driving error, which are quite rare during the short sessions). Also you may be wondering how to emulate the cars that are good with the max speed but troubled at the corners and vise versa. The game actually is good in simulating this as can be seen there

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For a list of EVERY download for GP4, look here:[docs.google.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2021 08:04PM by Soutsen.

I thank you very much for this speedy and thorough reply.

I've looked closely at a lot of SDI's considerations (and the thoughts of the players and modders here, all very useful and enlightening). I also thank you for showing me that last bit, I had not found it before and will be very useful to me.

You have confirmed me what I was led to believe by reading a lot here in these last few months: a higher variance is linked to mistakes, as well as to the consistency of a driver. My question is: is there a more practical/numerical/easier/reliable approach to choosing a variance number for a driver than "knowing their reputation" and "reading season/grand prix reports"?

To give you a notion of how I've been doing it, with the 1991 season: for qualifying, I take the position of the driver over every grand prix and use the standard deviation of these postions to use (multiplied by 100) to use as the variance. My problem is: I don't know if these numbers are too low, too high, on the spot.

I thank you very very much for your reply!!

The variance has nothing to do with the driver errors/mistakes at all, they are set by the value in magic data for each track (so called 'desc65' in the magic data). They are usually high for the default circuits, sometimes around 64 or so. I use values such as 15 for the troubled circuits that are known for having certain points where drivers are likely to slam into the wall, or 30 at the tracks with the wide run-off areas. With the latest version of GPX_Patch by SDI it is also possible to have the certain different driving error values for every driver. Still, there is some (yet undefined) correlation between these, I've posted some information about it there. If you need a program to operate with magic data, here you may download a CMagic 4 v1.02 with the 'desc' values renamed by me for the easier editing with notepad:
[www.mediafire.com]

As for testing how the variance works I use the Carset Creator Beta 4 by John Walton, link is here. To make it work you have to copy your cars.wad and anim.wad and f1gstate.sav from the folder with the game into another one and place the gp4.exe version 1.0 (I'll send you this one via PM), and then you can easily simulate which perf values can brings to the drivers in terms of their possible position. I think GP4Team Editor by Laurent Lo2k is also capable of doing this simulation but I simply prefer the CC Beta 4. I have no clue if they are coded similarly or different from each other while doing this work of simulating the perf values. Cheers and you are welcome, mate

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For a list of EVERY download for GP4, look here:[docs.google.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2021 11:06PM by Soutsen.

Thanks very much for all the info and the tips, I'll make good use of them!

Cheers!

Hello guys, I just wanted to tell you that I experienced that when the car powers are getting higher you need to decrease the driver powers. Otherwise you cannot fight for the win anymore on most tracks.