GP4 tweaker & slipstream: A tribute :) !!

This is a tribute to gp4tweakers slipstream effect which I managed to install this week, see my other post! For those who doesn’t know what this tweak does, it simulates the dirty air behind a car, which results in lost of downforce when you follow a car close. This makes overtaking very difficult, and very realistic. Overtaking really is an art when you use this slipstreameffect!

So, after a few races I think this is one of the best tweaks for GP4. For me, it makes GP4 much more realistic! You really have to think about the strategy because overtaking is very difficult!

Yesterday I did a 100% race at the Hungaroring, 77 laps. I qualified 5th in the 2nd McLaren, Massa, Raikonnen, Alonso and Heidfeld were on P1 to P4. Because I knew that overtaking would be very difficult I came up with this strategy fore the race: I wanted to do a two stop race. I planned to start with a very heavy car, with fuel for 40 laps. My target was to try to keep up with the cars in front of me. After they would pit (I expected them to pit between lap 23 and lap 35), I still had to do about ten laps. If everything should go as planned, I would be leading the race after they made their pitstop. So I would be able to drive my own pace. The target was to try to keep up my pace and to lose as little time as possible. I know that I would lose some time these last 10 laps before my first pitstop because I was on old tires and they had new tires, although they would have more fuel. The plan was that after my first pitstop I would be again behind the leaders BUT I would have a faster car. With this faster car I should be able to gain a lot of time and would try to be back a the tail of the leaders by closing the gap. I expected the other cars to make their 2nd pitstop round lap 50-55. So they would need fuel for about 25 laps in their last stint. This would take more time for them during their pitstop and they would have heavier cars than me. So I planned to push very hard after their 2nd pitstop and before my 2nd pitstop. This would be for about 10 laps, between race lap 50 and 60. During these 10 laps I should be leading the race again (because at that point they should have made two stops, I did just one stop). The key to this strategy would be my 2nd pitstop in lap 60, this stop should be a lot quicker than the other cars because I would only need fuel for 17 laps! Also I should be able to build op a “virtual” gap during the 10 laps before 2nd my pitstop! After my second and last stop in lap 60 I should be leading the race because of the faster 2nd pitstop and the 10 laps before the 2nd pitstop. So this was the plan….. what happened???

After the start I gain one place by overtaking Heidfeld. I was on fourth place. The first 20 laps were very hard, I had a heavy car (as planned) and it was very difficult to keep up with the two Ferrari’s and the my teammate in the first McLaren. But I managed to keep the gap very small, about 1-2 sec’s. On some laps I fell that I was faster (I knew this because GPxPatch showed me the nr 1-2-3 drivers laptimes, and I was fastest on a few laps) but overtaking was just impossible! In lap 25 and 26 the two Ferrari’s went to the pit, I was now 2nd! A few laps later Alonso also made his first planned pitstop and I was leading the race. But I struggled with my old tyres…. In lap 34 I spun and lost 5 secs  , in lap 37, 3 laps before my first pitstop, I saw a Spyker before me. I figured that lapping this car would take to much time. The Spyker already pitted once, so he had better tyres than me, my tires were horrible! Lapping would be difficult and would certainly cost me at least a few seconds. So after realising this in the last corner of the track I decided to call my pitcrew (hit enter-key) and make my first stop a few laps earlier than planned. When I drove in the pitlane I realised I made a mistake: My pitcrew hadn’t expect me so soon…. They weren’t ready at all! When I stopped, they just came running out of the box with the tires…. This cost me another 5 secs! When I left the pitlane, and got back on the track I was 16 seconds behind 3rd driver Alonso 
When I planned the strategy for the race I knew that I wouldn’t be in front but I just hopped that I would be 5 sec behind them. My spin and my stupid pitstop cost me 10 more secs. The good news was that Alonso was on the tail of the Ferrari’s, so the gap to the leading car was not much more than those 15 sec’s.

I now started pushing the car. I had new tires and fuel for 22 laps, so I had to be quicker than them and I was: I set the fastest laptime of the race. The gap to Alonso was reducing each lap…. When it was less than 5 sec, I had to lap a Honda (Barrichello), I thought he had seen me, but he didn’t…. We both spun off the track. Luckily we both didn’t damage our cars, so we could continue our race! But the bad news was this cost me again about 10 secs…. I was again back where I started out: A gap of 15 seconds!

In lap 50-53 the Ferrari’s made their 2nd stop and Alonso followed a lap later. Before their stop I reduced the gap to about 7 sec’s. After their stops I was back in the lead again  But I knew I really, really had to push to be still in the lead after my 2nd stop. Unfortunately, lapping slower cars and my tires didn’t help. I also saw that Raikkonen did some very fast laps…. It wasn’t looking good.

In lap 60 I did my last pitstop, it went very quick, as I planned. When I got back on track, and left the pitlane, three cars passed me, two Ferrari’s (Raikonen first, Massa 2nd) followed by my teammate… I had mixed feelings about this. I knew my strategy worked in theory, if I hadn’t spun and hadn’t had trouble with the backmarkers, I would have been first. The only solution was to overtake the cars in front of me, but this is almost impossible on the Hungaroring! Two laps later I saw why Alonso is a two times worldchampion, he overtook Massa, who was struggling. After following Massa a few laps, I knew where I was faster. In lap 67 I was able to outbrake him in turn one. It was very close, we did some wheel banging, but I passed him! Alonso was already on Kimi’s tail. Both of them had build up a gap of about 4 secs. So I know had 10 laps to close the gap and try to overtake them both. This seemed impossible, and it was! I think I asked too much from my tires when I was fighting with Massa, I wasn’t able to close the gap….. After 77 laps I finished 3rd  I must say this was my best racesim experience ever!! Everything just felt right!

It taught me that I really have to think about strategy, that overtaking is very difficult and that lapping cars can be very difficult. I now also understand that the fast drivers in real life get “angry” when they have to lap another car. You loose a lot of time if they don’t move over fast when they get a blue flag. I have read that these guys that get lapped usually say something like: “Well, he was two secs behind me, so I felt that I didn’t have to move over yet”. Well, guess what, due to the lost of downforce, it’s very difficult to close the gap and overtaking (even a backmarker) is almost impossible! So that’s why the fast guys get so angry 

Anyway, great sim, great community and great util! If you haven’t installed it and you want some realistic races, just try it!

Cheers, JeDa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2007 04:32PM by JeDa.

btw I won yesterday also a race...

nice race
Jeda, what number you user for slipstream?

[SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_FRONT]
[SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_REAR]
[SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_DRAG]

November 2, 2008
My heart stop beating two laps for the end. I back alive on last turn.

Yeah, the slipstream tweak is one of the best things in GP4 indeed

Just look at other racing sims...even EA's F1 sims feel like arcarde...you can overtake at every corner, no matter if on the inside or on the outside...that's so boring and unrealistic.
In GP4 you really have to push and make no mistakes...and if your tires are worn it is just impossile to overtake...like in real-life.

Good post, Jeda

@magicsenna,
Great job, winning a GP! Did you also do a 100% race with the slipstream effect on? It makes it much more difficult but also much more realistic and more fun!

@McLeo,
I use the default values of 50 and 3. I'm think of lowering them a little bit because now it's very hard to lap other cars.... Which value do you use?

@Ruboy,
Yes, it's the best thing of GP4! People who don't use this are realy missing something! I never liked the ISI-sims where you could overtake where ever you want. On the otherhand, these sims also have great things which GP4 misses.
Which values do you use for the slipstreameffect?

mate, i don't use this tweak but i love to try, the options here is:

[SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_FRONT]
20

[SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_REAR]
20

[SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_DRAG]
03

November 2, 2008
My heart stop beating two laps for the end. I back alive on last turn.

I am using 30 for both. I think 50 is extremely difficult.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2007 09:56PM by Ruboy.

Is 50 easier to overtake than 20 or harder?

dentistTubster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is 50 easier to overtake than 20 or harder?


Harder.

50 is harder, if I remember well, 50 means you have only 50% of the grip without slipstream, and 20 means you have 80% of the default grip.

---

My workthread here

How does the drag relationship work? (the default is 3)?
I am slightly confused as to how to make my GP4 settings perfectly realistic in this situation.

I'll link this thread to the GP4FAQ, please post the how to enable etc. in GP4 Tweaker. Great post

---

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

Hi,
I use the default 50 value, it's extremely difficult but very realistic. This is a quote from an interview with Ferrari's Ross Brawn, last year July:

"It's a tragedy of these cars, and it's interesting that Kimi [Raikkonen] commented at Silverstone, that they cannot follow each other. These cars seem to be even worse than the cars we had last year. Lifting the front wing and limiting the amount of downforce we generate from under the car has made the cars extremely difficult."

"I remember talking to Michael in the race at Silverstone. He was trapped behind [Jarno] Trulli, and I said, 'can you go any faster?' He said: 'I'm going as quick as I can go'. As soon as Trulli came into the pits, he went 1.5 seconds faster. He didn't think that performance was in the car, because the car was behaving so badly behind Trulli. As soon as he got clean air the car was well-balanced and he was happy with it. I think Kimi commented the same. Following Michael, he didn't have any opportunity to overtake. That's the difficulty they have with these cars now."

So to be realistic it has to be difficult, even to overtake a car that is 1,5 sec slower!

The slipstream tweak in GP4


I) What does this tweak simulate?

With the tool GP4Tweaker you can simulate the effect of dirty air when driving behind another car. As in reallife the car loses downforce and it makes following and overtaking the car in front of you much more difficult.
The tweak allows you to adjust the slipstream effect according to one's personal taste. The strategy and driving style becomes more important because worn tires makes overtaking even more difficult.
This tweak contributes a lot to the realism GP4 provides compared to other racing sims.


II) Where to get the slipstream tweak?

As this is part of the famous tool GP4Tweaker by Madman you first have to install the latest version of GP4Tweaker (v1.0.4.5). This tweak is not included in the standard version, but in the 'personal edition' which was released seperately.
Official site: [www.gp4tweaker.co.nr]
GP4Tweaker 1.0.4.5 (direct download link): [gp4tweaker.vadertrophy.com]
GP4Tweaker personal edition (direct download link): [gp4tweaker.vadertrophy.com]


III) How to install the tweak?

1) Install GP4Tweaker 1.0.4.5.
2) Install GP4Tweaker personal edition.

The installation is very simple - just follow the instructions in the readme files.


IV) How to enable the slipstream tweak?

The tweak is not available in the interface of GP4Tweaker but in an .ini file.
Go to your GP4 main directory and open the 'gp4tweak.ini'.
Make sure that the value 1 is set for following two lines in the section [SYSTEM_TWEAKS_ENABLE]:

SlipStream = 1 ; enable/disable slipstream effect tweak
SlipPlayer = 1 ; enable/disable slipstream affect to player car only (SlipStream must activated)

By setting it to 0 you can disable the tweak.


V) How does the tweak work?

In your GP4 main directory you will find another .ini file named 'gp4tweak_data.ini'.
This file is responsible for two tweaks: car removal tweak and slipstream emulation.

The slipstream tweak consits of three parts:
[SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_FRONT]
[SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_REAR]
[SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_DRAG]

You can find detailed information about these values in the .ini file. The values for [SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_FRONT] and [SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_REAR] are most important for us.

This are the default settings for [SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_FRONT]:
Melbourne = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Sepang = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Interlagos = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Imola = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Barcelona = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
A1Ring = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Monaco = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Montreal = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Nurburgring = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
MagnyCours = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Silverstone = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Hockenheim = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Hungaroring = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Spa = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Monza = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Indianapolis = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50
Suzuka = 50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50

There are 17 lines containing 22 values each, that means you can emulate the slipstream effect for each car and each track specifically.
Each value (here 50) shows how much the car is affected by dirty air in the slipstream area of another car. All these values are in percentage and ranged from 0-100.
The lower the value the less the car is affected by dirty air which makes it easier to follow and overtake other cars.
A higher value will increase the dirty air effect and makes following the car in front of you very difficult.


VI) How to adjust the values?

As said, the important values are in the sections [SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_FRONT] and [SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_REAR]. I don't know exactly how the values in the section [SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_DRAG] work but it's not that important.

To change the slipstream effect you just have to change the values (from 0-100) and save the changes. The default value is 50.
It is recommended to use the same values for [SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_FRONT] and [SLIPSTREAM_GRIPS_REAR]. Value differences greater than 10 percent may causing your car to spin or have an extremely unstable balance especially in high speed curves.
If you like you can also set different values for different cars as in reallife. It might be realitsic if a Williams loses more downforce in dirty air than a McLaren, depending also on the circuit. But that's just extra realism...it's sufficient if you set the same value for all cars and tracks.

Using the value 50 makes overtaking really hard because it causes high dirt effect. You should not use values higher than 50 as it will make overtaking impossible.
Most people use values between 20 and 30 to simulate the drag effect. I think that's quite ok - it makes overtaking possible but it is still not easy.
I personally use 25 or 30, depending on the mod and physics.



Have fun with GP4 and the slipstream tweak
Ruboy





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2007 12:49PM by Ruboy.

Great post Ruboy!

I fist had some trouble installing it, so when I did found out how it worked I wrote this post a couple of days ago. I thought it might be handy here, so I post it again for other people who have trouble installing it:

I found out how it works, it's not complicated if you know what to do:

1) Install GP4Tweaker V1045_reloaded (date 6 sept 2005), you can get it here: [gp4tweaker.vadertrophy.com]
2) Run GP4 tweaker, make sure that if you have multiple installs of GP4 it points to the right install (see also the readme file), make a change to one of the options and hit "apply" I changed option 22, headmovement because it's easy to check if it works You HAVE to do this to "activate" GP4tweaker. It doesnt matter which option you pick, you will/van disable it again in step 5.
3) Run GP4 from within GP4tweaker (button "run gp4"
4) Quit GP4, check the GP4 main folder to see if there's a file called "gp4tweak.txt", this is a log file from gp4tweaker. Open it and check if GP4tweaker has run.
5) Run GP4 tweaker again and disable the option you have enabled in step 2, quit GP4 tweaker
6) Run GP4 from GPxPatch and check if the headmovement is gone, quit GP4 and check the "gp4tweak.txt" file again
7) Download GP4tweak_PE.zip (date 27 june 2004) from here [gp4tweaker.vadertrophy.com]
8) Unzip the file and read the readme and follow the instruction to install it. You have to overwrite some files.
9) Open the "gp4tweak.ini" file which is stored in the main GP4 folder. In this file you can disable or enable some options including the slipstreameffect. I disabled the FFB, dirt and visor option because I dont like them. I enabled the slipstream effect!
10) Run GP4 from GPxpatch. Quit GP4 and once again check the "gp4tweak.txt" file. You should see these lines:
01-08-2007 14:21 [ ] Patching successfull [slipstream->SlipFrontWing()]
01-08-2007 14:21 [ ] Patching successfull [slipstream->SlipRearWing()]
01-08-2007 14:21 [ ] Patching successfull [slipstream->SlipGripInit()]
01-08-2007 14:21 [ ] Patching successfull [slipstream->SlipGripFinal()]
01-08-2007 14:21 [ ] Patching successfull [slipstream->SlipNoAccel()]
Then you know for sure that the slipstream effect works!
11) Do some testing to see if you like the slipstream values, I like the default which make it very difficult to overtake cars (which has to be difficult!). If you dont like it you can allways lower the effect by changing the values in the "gp4tweak_data.ini" file which is also in your main GP4 folder. You have to reduce the vaule 50 to something like 20-30.

Good luck!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2007 01:18PM by JeDa.

Great posts guys .

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Yep, great thread...

I Remember, I definitively used 25 as default value for all tracks and all cars.

But even if there is an option available I am not sure that this effet is really
enable for CC cars.
IMO It's a great effect but if CC cars don't get it also, it's unfair lol.

@Bernanrd:

I think this can be changed by setting this line to 0.

SlipPlayer = 1 ; enable/disable slipstream affect to player car only (SlipStream must activated)

Hi,

I’m trying to improve the values for the slip streameffect in the ini-file.
The default values are not bad, but can be improved. After some more testing I found out that giving the same slipstream value (50) to the slower cars (Spyker, Honda, STR) as to the faster cars (McLaren, Ferrari, BMW) makes overtaking or lapping a slow car to difficult and not very realistic. I mean, if you drive a fast car (Mclaren) and start a race at the back of the grid, you shouldn’t have much problems getting in the top 15.

So that’s why I gave the faster cars a higher value than the slower cars. It’s now easier to lap or overtake the slow cars and it’s still difficult to overtake the faster cars. I think this is much more realistic.

Another improvement I made is that I increased the effect on some tracks (tracks which are known for difficult overtaking) and decreased the effect for tracks where overtaking is possible. I used this list (track 1 = most difficult to overtake, last = more easier to overtake). What do you think? Is this list correct?

1. Monaco
2. Hungary
3. Imola
4. France
5. Nurburgring
6. Monza
7. Spain
8. Spa
9. Silverstone
10. Melbourne
11. Montreal
12. Suzuka
13. Bahrain
14. Turkey
15. Sepang
16. Indy

What do you think?

JeDa

Very cool idea JeDa, could I possibly have your tweak files to replace mine as mine aren't fully tweaked and these sound great