Game Runs Very Slow

Hi.

There're so many threads that this might've been asked before, but I can't find what I'm looking for. So apologies in advance if this has already been covered at some point.

I bought GP4 when it came out yonks ago, but even with nearly everything turned off it ran very slowly. I sort of wasn't surprised. It had taken years to get GP2 to run at a decent speed (I loved GP2 once I got it going at full speed, but sadly the Win98 machine I had that ran it has since broken), and GP3 ignores my steering wheel calibration (brakes locked up at EVERY corner), so I put GP4 away and gave it up as a bad job too. It was a real disappointment.

But I reckon that hard-core sim racers now have a good handle on GP4, with various patches etc., so I'm hoping there might be a solution other than just pumping my PC full of RAM just to get one game working.

I'm running an XP machine with an Athelon 1.9Ghz CPU, with 512mb of RAM with an nVidia GeForce FX5200 (v6.14) graphics card. Okay, pretty ancient by recent standards, but I remember checking PC Gamer mag at the time for the recommended specs before purchase, so I wasn't expecting to have problems with this set-up.

Any help would be warmly received.

Kif

512 mb of RAM is a bit short but yes, it should run correctly with the original game.



First, make sure you've got the lastest driver for your graphic card: Nvidia drivers

Then, you have to make a fresh install of your game in this order:

- Install the original gp4 game.
- Apply the official patch 9.6
- Apply the decrypted GP4.exe
- Launch the game once, save and quit.
- Install the GPxPatch

You'll have to launch the game with GPxPatch.

Here are the link for the files needed: GP4 faq - essentials downloads

Into the game: options/ graphic settings/ advanced: do a test and modify your settings depending of the frame per image.

Finally, maybe you'll have to modify your f1graphics.cfg file (the file is into your main GP4 folder and you can edit it with notepad). Or I suggest you to look at this thread GP4 F1graphics files and to select one closer from your PC configuration.

Try to use the search function of the site to look for more informations,too and look into the GP4 faq..maybe you'll find usefull informations.

Cheers.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2009 04:42PM by Excalibur.

Thanks for all that, Excalibur - I'll definitely give it a go!

I checked the FAQs before posting, of course, but most of it seemed to be related to modding, whereas I'm just want to get the thing going in the first place!

I'm not desperately technical when it comes to messing with code, and with all the hundred of threads here, many containing rather specific terms I'm not familiar with, I could easily have found what I wanted but not known it! Getting an old game to run through ScummVM or VDMS is about my limit, I'm afraid. I did tinker with my copy of GP Legends once so I could import and learn some extra circuits before competing on them, but I had to have really easy step-by-step instructions, and still wasn't terribly confident!

Anyway, thanks again. When I get some time to go through and implement all your recommendations I'll let folks know how I got on.

Cheers!

Kif

Early feedback.

Broken links, I'm afraid.

1/ "The Ultimate Newbie Guide to GP4 by lo2k" (I tried to go there when I first came to this site) - DNS error

2/ Essential Downloads
a) Official Patch - Alert: 550 Failed to change directory.
b) Decrypted GP4.exe (Non-Patched Version) - Load Error
b) Decrypted GP4.exe (Patched Version) - Load Error

I'm using Firefox 3.0.6 if that makes a difference.

However, I managed to get a decrypted GP4.exe from another link on the site, though it doesn't say if it's patched or non-patched (file name downloaded: GP4_1.02_nocd.zip), and the v9.6 I found already had within an other zip file.

Getting new nVidia drivers, too, but the download takes forever!

Thanks again,

Kif

Turn off EVERYTHING you have running in the backround in Windows, just in case you haven't done this already.

That 512 RAM is a problem though.

@ Kif: Firefox shouldn't be a problem because I use it but you're right: Links are broken and the ultimate newbie guide gives me a DNS error, too...

Here are the links for the file needed (links work): [gp4facile.xooit.com]

You need the files of the points:
2: Official patch
3: Decrypted exe
4: Gpxpatch


.... I don't understand what you mean with the Nvidia driver downloads. Is it too long?

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The GP4FAQ has been updated with that link, Thanks.

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