GP4 and Editing

You may know my works for GP3 and I have already done 5 sets of trackgraphics for GP4.
As long as there is no track editor around, advert placement and scenery textures can not be 100 % accurate.

I suspect that the GP4 team did want to hinder gfx editing by purpose. Just remember the troubles Car designers have.
And when it comes to tracks, there are quite a few examples of texture mapping that do not make sense:

At Interlagos, the brigde after start is originally textured with HSBC. This is wrong for any season, including 2001, which the game simulates. It is really no problem of avoiding tabacco sponsorship, as this bridge should have Banco Real (2002) or ABN Amro Bank (2001) textures.
So the track really looks wrong even at the very start of the race. If you replace this HSBC texture with the bank's adverts (which I did) you also turn half of the HSBCs around the track into Banko adverts, even at places where you'd like to keep your HSBCs.
Moreover, there is simply no need to have this wrong advert placement the GP4 team did because Interlagos still has another HSBC texture. It would have been no additional work for then to did it correctly.

Simular problems can be found at several tracks, but I do not want to bore you with all the details.



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Staff of grandprixgames.org 2000 - 2003

Hi Bruno, I am familiar with your work in GP3 and now GP4. Just want to say that I will not use any other tracks except the ones you have edited(I am very fussy when it comes to realism). Keep up the fantastic work! They are a credit to you!

I see the problem you have Bruno, but soon enough an editor will become available to allow you to change the assigned texture for the bridge etc. It shouldn't be too hard to do! If I can remember correctly... wasn't the circuits modelled using 3D Studio Max?! I'm not very familiar with 3D Studio Max, although I will be very soon!... can't you simply import the circuits, and make these changes?!?

I'm probably gonna get hundreds of replies telling me how wrong I am now! Leave me alone!!!!

Hi Bruno,

Yes i know your work for GP3 and 4 as i already use many of your tools.
I'm, as you, concern by realism in GP4 and always want to push it even higher.
I was apart from community for GP3 but decided this year to be active in it, to enhance the game for all players pleasure.
I can't for now bring you some track editor, but i saw that Paul Hoads is in the good way, so we could surely edit tracks soon. Asociate with James Knopp Tex Editor, i think you could make the change you wish at that time.

Since then, we have just to stay and see all defects we will want to change when we could have the good tools for it.

See you.

Lo2k

Look Lo2k, Jon isn't stealing anything from of any version GPmaster, so stop your underhand accusations.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Hmm, but that time has passed, maybe you didn't heard about it but after this event I finally can talk with Jon, of course our first posts were a bit stressed but finally we stay correct and as Gap from SDI forum asked me I finally accepted to help Jon.
Now we are good friends, as I am with Sven and the best proof is that I made all icons for both editors.
Hope it is clarifying the situation...

Friendly,

Lo2k

Oh ! I understand what you mean Morbid.
Sorry about that but I effectively made a big mistake when I wrote my signature...I wished to write GP4Master and CarsetCreator4 because I did icons for both, so I will correct it, even if I also did Carset Creator 2000 icons too (since v2.3 at least)

Yes, it was your sig that lead me to post what I did. I suspected that you had made the icons and you knew how CSC was born, but one can never really be sure. The icons look great btw. Good work on those.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Btw, in continuation of the comment on Simergy having made editing difficult on purpose, this comment from the video interview with Nick Court is a bit interesting (thanks to LS for pointing this out):

Interviewer question: "The gp series is famous for the community and editors like gpxpatch which adds many features to the game that were not included in the retail version, do you know of it and support it?

Nick Court: "Yeah i'm aware of gpxpatch and i thought it was a fantastic piece of work and i'm pretty sure that within a month of gp4 coming out the guys will be to get their brains around the system we now use and have updates for the 2002 season, we have'nt done or are aware of anything that will prevent them from doing any updates"

They have not done or are not aware of anything that will prevent editing?!?


If Nick Court is being honest here, maybe the difficulties you are talking about are just results of clumsy design accidents.

If he is not being honest, why would he try to give the impression that they are not hampering the editing/modding community on purpose. He must have known that these things would be found?

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Agree,

They surelly are aware of these " patches " and I see no reason to put an obstacle to the improving processes,above all because what is touched is not the source code,but only some cosmetic features or parameters.

I'm having some small e-mail exchanges with the author of GPx patch to work on my personal MP crusade ,trying to enable qualification feature in non-champioship races.It's really hard,above all because there are few chances to test it.
Do you have any feedback about MP via ethernet laplink cable?......Or maybe via USB 2.0 480Mbit tecnology?

Mahhhhh.....

Boomer

hmmm...

morbid and lauri, stop fighting over me :P

Lauri has been making the icons for csc 2000 and csc4, they havnt been stolen because he makes them from scratch.


ohhhh the memories :' can we all forget about that horrible month on the SDI forum, that was a stupid post from someone (i dont even remember who now) and its all behind us. but, i would like to say that CSC 2000 and CSC4 is 90% made be me (the other 7% from Lauri, and 3% from Renier)



BTW, check out [carsetcreator.grandprix-x.com] on Friday 19th July 2002 (beta 2 is released between 5pm and 8pm uk time)

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Morbid wrote:

> They have not done or are not aware of anything that will
> prevent editing?!?
>
>
> If he is not being honest, why would he try to give the
> impression that they are not hampering the editing/modding
> community on purpose. He must have known that these things
> would be found?

Moreover this would be just plain silly IMHO.
What the community did since the days of GP2 has GREATLY enanched the value of the game. Only viable ipothesis is they are going to produce a season pack or a new game each new season.
This would make sense since they bought a 5 years FIA license (as I remeber), still clearly they could have problems to release well tested products with such a thight schedule.
At least this is what experience has taught so far.
No I don't think they did it on purpose.
BTW do you remember Court said that in GP4 "Minardis will be more difficult to drive than Ferraris" (looked like something related to the "quality" of the "body" of the cars)?
I never experienced this so far!

P.S. yeah I sometime drive a Minardi with car power team depedant on, and it is often great fun!

hmm dont get your hopes hope, paul Hoad by the looks of it, is half a year away from a track or car editor

Yep, dear Dumbass

When i came on this forum i never though we talked about that story again, but better is to talk about it now and clearify it now than staying with missunderstandings.

No problem, Morbid, I was surprised you remind me that for my first post, that's all.

About Extension, it's sure Infogrames will release some years pack as we can see the structure of the Grand Prix 4 folder and specialy the menu data, containing a pc folder containing himself only one folder called GP2001 (meaning others have to come).
Another thing to note is that tracks have now date on their Name, as Monza2001.wad and not Monza.dat as in GP3.