Old newcomer with lots of basic questions

Hello everybody!

Joined the forum today, as an "old newcomer". I used to be extremely active on GPX (F1GP,GP2...) in the 90's, even had my own hotlap league (HOF2.5 for GP2 keyboard drivers) at the time (96-97), participated in LFRS, wrote the F1GP Wikipedia article... Then shortly after GP4 was released, I stopped playing games for some reason. Was it because my PC wasn't powerful enough to have good performance? Not sure.

Anyways, a couple of weeks ago I think I saw some GP4 video on Youtube, decided to check out some memories and stuff... and suddenly was bitten by the bug again (certainly when seeing how mod-friendly GP4 had turned out to be) and decided to search for my GP4 CD. Turned out that it runs pretty well on this 16GB quadcore I7 laptop, lol. Since I didn't really bother playing games anymore the last 12 (????) years, I was even IMPRESSED by the graphics, haha. I'll make sure not to check any MODERN F1 game graphics so I can keep enjoying these ones. <g>

After a bit of struggling, I managed to get GP4 going with the 1991 mod installed through CSM/TSM and a f1graphics.cfg that looks somewhat optimized. Already had some GREAT fun with F7-free keyboard driving. So satisfyingly challenging when the tires start to wear out. :-p

However, currently I feel extremely overwhelmed by all the modding possibilities, "do's and don'ts" etc. etc. So I was hoping that some problems I'm running into, could be answered here.

Here's two of them already:

- how do I tweak the AI performance, in my case while using the 1991 mod through CSM/TSM? It *looked* obvious: go to the "magic data" via the "manage tracks" option in TSM, and experiment with values for AI grip, AI race performance etc. However, I must be missing something or doing something wrong, because even with extreme values I absolutely didn't feel any AI performance difference in quickraces. I experimented on Interlagos. But I must admit that the CSM/TSM interface can be a bit confusing right now... Quite possibly I'm changing and saving stuff, but confused by "profiles" and stuff and maybe my changes just aren't active...

- I tried to use GP4 camera position editor to put myself a bit higher in the cockpit (I rather trade absolute realism for fun there ), but how can I combine this with using CSM/TSM and the 1991 mod? It immediately recognised that editing the camera angles modifies GP4.exe and refuses to work... I don't see any options in the mod itself...

Hope someone can already help there... I'm sure lots more questions will pop up soon.


Damned, this almost feels like stepping into a time machine :-D

JoH

Welcome to the forums. I'm sure someone will be along to help you out soon enough.

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

Hi JoH - to amend AI performance, try to find the performance files within the mod files. They'll be a simple text file where you can amend BHP and grip values for each driver. The format in the perf file will look like the example below, with my comments as to what value relates to what in red (someone please correct me if I've got it wrong .) You can have race by race specific perf files which means you can make driver changes throughout the season and adjust performance as close as possible to real life.

[Team #00]
Name=McLaren,Honda
Performance=700 race horsepower,730 quali horsepower,4095 failure probability
First Driver=1,Ayrton Senna,16456 race grip,128 race variance - GP4 is awesome by creating a random number to ether add or subtract to the grip value, which means you'll never get the same race twice. 128 means it will either add or subtract somewhere between 1 and 128,16966 qualy grip,250 qualy variance
Second Driver=2,Gerhard Berger,16373,100,16806,200

Cameras are a dark science, however you should be able to adjust via the Tweaker files??

Thanks for the tips!

I found the \Grand Prix 4\GPSAVES\Carsets\1991\data\performance textfiles, and indeed changing them DOES have effect, so that's definitely the way to go to tune the AI performance to have fun races. What's the situation for the player car? Does the GPxSet option "Car Power Team Dependant" have the effect that you get the performance settings from those files depending on which car you choose yourself?So this would be the way to tune player's car performance instead? (choosing a driver, then editing that particular driver's performance in the individual circuit perf files?

As for the camera positions, \Grand Prix 4\GPSAVES\Carsets\1991\data\tweaker does not seem to contain obvious ways to edit camera angles there... Surely there must be a way to combine editing them and using CSM/TSM??


Another question already: in the most recent "screenshots" thread I seem to notice that the cars there have much more detailed textures/reflections and carshapes than what I see in the 1991 mod I'm using. Is this a matter of adjustable settings, and/or a function of the specific mod?

JoH



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2014 11:12PM by JoH.

JoH Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What's the situation for the player car? Does the GPxSet
> option "Car Power Team Dependant" have the effect
> that you get the performance settings from those
> files depending on which car you choose
> yourself? So this would be the way to tune player's
> car performance instead? (choosing a driver, then
> editing that particular driver's performance in
> the individual circuit perf files?

It uses the BHP of the car from the performance file. Without it usually the human player has a bit more BHP.

> As for the camera positions, \Grand Prix
> 4\GPSAVES\Carsets\1991\data\tweaker does not seem
> to contain obvious ways to edit camera angles
> there... Surely there must be a way to combine
> editing them and using CSM/TSM??

Their must be tweaker files in that 1991. Look at the .ini files. Their must be one for camara positions.

> Another question already: in the most recent
> "screenshots" thread I seem to notice that the
> cars there have much more detailed
> textures/reflections and carshapes than what I see
> in the 1991 mod I'm using. Is this a matter of
> adjustable settings, and/or a function of the
> specific mod?

In that topic several users use special f1graphics.cfg files to have better quality.
Then later they edit the screenshot with photoshop to make it look even better.

You also have to notice that in that same topic they post screenshots of other games.
Usually those games have better game textures and better engine games than Gp4, so no surprise here.



By the way i raced in LFRS during 2005 - 2007 with Gp4 in Class C.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2014 12:33AM by jcaranti.