Happy Birthday GP4! and 1994 v4.0 Released

According to Wikipedia, the fount of all knowledge of course, it's GP4's 20th birthday today! 

The longevity of this game is quite staggering, and whilst it's diminished in popularity from its hey day, it still attracts some of its most valuable contributors. Whilst some have departed, many can't help but return. Whether you enjoy playing the game, watching races, playing your favourite seasons recreated to incredible detail, time trialling, offline leagues or youtube content creation, this game continues to live on. The influence, nostalgia, and content and legacy of this game continues to influence more modern games to this day, a testament to the committed users and modders of Geoff Crammond's game. 

To celebrate this momentous occasion, it seems like the perfect time to launch the 4th version of the 1994 Mod. 

Much has been written about this mod already, so I won't repeat myself here, but it brings me great joy to have the GP2 sub-mod included in this release. 

The only thing to say is that this is not the finished product, there's things in there that I wish were better, and there's more WIP content, but time has defeated me. Having said that, the mod is now over 7GB big, and comes in 5 updates. The Mod will install a new instance of the 1994 Mod using CSM by Zaz, so you can still keep v3.0 and earlier if you wished. I also recommend that you use the 1994 trackpack by Cleberpister and Plodekk. 

I'm indebted to the many authors who have been working on 1994 content for well over a decade. 

Konstantin (Mckey415) - 3D models, menu art and lots more...

Diego (Öggo) - Car textures, 3d models, individual tyres tweak and lots more...

Tony (btone) - Pitcrews, perfs, PLUS, loading screens and lots more...

Kev (fongu) - CSM update, 3D cars and more...

Loren (Loren) - 3D models and car textures

Manuel (Hagi)  - Helmet textures

Ulf (Alesi_Fan) & Ruben (Turbo_Lover)  - Rims & tyres, and Ruben for mod v3.0

(Gecko) - Cockpit shape

Douglas (AusDoug) - Helmet alpha layers

Carl (Carl_gpgames) - GP2 menu data, 1993 3D steering wheel

(Alesanchez) - Track specific liveries, Cockpits, some rims

Matteo (MSchumi24)    - CSM coding fixes

Andriy (Mituro_Sano)   - Sounds

(RF900R)  - Lotus early season model

(Jdaddle)  - Sauber Tissot livery

Peter (Petrus) - Some GPaedia and previews

Jurgen (quickslick) - Pitboard fix, logo finder and more...

David Marques  - F1C content sources

Kerley (KerleyF1) - Jordan helmets at Brazil and testing. 

crosire - DX8 to DX9 converter

Frank (Whills) - GP2 shape conversion and remastered

Zaz for CSM, TSM and all the rest of it :)

All the helpers, supporters and testers along the way.

Download link  

Download update 1
Download update 2
Download update 3

Download GP2 update

GP4: 1994 Mod v4.0 - Coming Soon - part 4

I mentioned briefly a third mod without giving too much away before now. I also mentioned that there were alternative menu options available for those who want a bit of nostalgia with GP2 menus, music and loading screens. 

I came across the Grand Prix Evolution mods for rFactor and Automoblista by Whills, where he basically recreated and remastered F1GP, Grand Prix 2 and Grand Prix 3 cars and made them playable in modern sims. So I got in touch with him and I'm grateful he shared with me his source files for the GP2 cars, helmets, tyres, cockpits and helped me out extracting some more stuff from the old game. 

The third mod option is GP2 in GP4. Yes, this is the nostalgia version of the basic mod. I've brought the original GP2 car and liveries, helmets and tyres into the game, and also semi-converted/semi-created a hybrid cockpit shape in the spirit of GP2. This goes great with the menu styles, and I'm working to get the sounds into the game in the near future.

I've also got GP2 performances (which are different from the main mods), which in terms of spread of BHP values, I personally prefer. I'd like to find a way of extracting some of the physics, but actually it feels pretty similar to GP2 as it is. 

This was a fun little endeavour, and Whills put lots of great effort into his mods, but for GP4, this is just a bit of fun. GP2 was the first of the Geoff Crammond series that I ever played, and though I am able to fire up the old game using DOSBox, this alternative gives me all the nostalgia I crave from the old game. 

GP4: 1994 Mod v4.0 - Coming Soon - part 3

1994 Mod preview - action from Australian GP

Helmets

As mentioned in my last post, I wanted to respect the original works. However, I wanted to convert Hagi and Aus_Doug's helmets to Oggo's new Arai GP3 helmet shape, which I've done with minimal changes. 

I've also added individual driver faces, trying to add photos of their faces as close to that era as I could reasonably find. I've also tried to match the right balaclava usage as well. 

The mod is setup to allow different helmet shapes for each driver, but they've not been created yet, but the mod is ready to receive them once they do. Indeed the Lotus drivers, particularly Zanardi, used three different helmet suppliers that season. 

In addition, I've started to add more track specific helmet liveries that were previously missed. I've not reviewed every helmet for the whole season yet, but certainly they are updated for Spanish and Canadian GPs. Thanks also to KerleyF1 for updating the Jordan drivers' helmets for the Brazilian GP. 

Arai GP3 helmet by Oggo, texture by Fongu

3D Rims

Alesi_fan and Turbo Lover created an excellent 5 spoke OZ 3D rims and textures that were included in v3.0. Specific rims were created for F1C, and where they were different, namely BBS rims for Benetton and Ferrari, 3 spoke front rims for Tyrrell and 6 spokes for Pacific, these rims were converted or created and added to the tyres for GP4. 

Thanks must go to Oggo once more for enabling us the ability to run team specific 3D rims. 

1994 Mod - Tyrrell at Canadian GP with 3D rims

1994 Mod - Jordan at Australian GP with 3D rims

Cockpits

Unfortunately GP4 is still limited to one cockpit shape, a limited internal steering wheel that for some reason defys all lighting effects, and and even more limited external steering wheel and arms. 

So to keep things simple, I've kept the original cockpit shape, which will allow for one cockpit texture, but I've converted and created many internal dashboards. Again this is not entirely finished, the ones not included in the mod yet are because I'm working on new versions in the background. The Williams, McLaren, Tyrrell and Ferrari are scratch made by me. 

I've also converted a number of 3D steering wheels from F1C, again thanks to David Marques for sharing these with me and allowing me to included them in the mod. As well as each team having a steering wheel, but I've included the original generic 1994 mod steering wheel, the 1993 3D steering wheel by Carl_gpgames, and also an alternative Ferrari steering wheel. With both the dashboards and steering wheel changes, at least there is some difference between which team you choose to race with. I'm still holding out hope that one day we can have individual cockpits and steering wheels per team, as well as 3D external wheels, but it seems a pipe dream currently. 

1994 Mod - Ferrari internal cockpit and wheel

1994 Mod - Lotus internal cockpit and wheel

 

1994 Mod - McLaren internal cockpit and wheel

I'm yet to create external steering wheels yet, but where they are compatible, I've included some 1995 ones. But I've started to pimp up the external cockpits too. 

1994 Mod - Jordan external cockpit

1994 Mod - Tyrrell external cockpit

1994 Mod - Williams external cockpit

Sounds

I'm not an expert on sounds, in fact I'm quite clueless in editing them. I've included Mitsuro Sano's 1997 Ferrari sounds as an alternative for both Basic and Advanced options - I think it's a fair v10 sound that suits that era more than his early 1990s engine sounds do. 

1994 Mod - Minardi M194 at Belgian GP by Loren, textures by Fongu

Miscellaneous

I want to thank Petrus for updating some of the GPaedia and some of the CSM preview graphics. 

Thanks to Quickslick for his beta testing, logo knowledge as well as fixing an issue on the pitboards.

Thanks to crosire for the DX8 to DX9 converter, which may help performance on some older machines.  

1994 Mod - action from Australian GP

And also all the versions of the Ligier, I did a blog post on over a year ago, these will be included in this version. 

https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/2021/01/gp4-1994-ligier-js39b-all-versions.html

GP4: Helmets from 2022 Spanish and Monaco GPs

Spanish GP

Carlos Sainz 2022 Spanish GP helmet

Designed by Dave Designs, Sainz ran this special helmet at his home race. It has a nice blend of shiny and matte with different reds and blues, similar in tones to his normal race helmet, but with a more obvious Spanish influence along the middle and top of the helmet. 

Sebastian Vettel 2022 Spanish GP helmet

This is not really a special helmet as such as it's reverting back to his normal helmet. "Back to basics" was the word from Jens Munser Designs, as he wore this helmet at both Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix. 

Monaco GP

Sergio Perez 2022 Monaco GP helmet

Sergio Perez catapulted himself into championship contention with a win at the Principality and a nice contract extension to go with it. A nod to Mexican racing legend, Pedro Rodriguez, nicely put together by MDM Designs and painted by Uffe designs, it was nice to see a special helmet do well. 

Valterri Bottas 2022 Monaco GP helmet

Valterri has been having quite a season, quickly shedding his wingman reputation and freely showing the world his bottom, his girlfriend Tiffany has turned his regular helmet red and white, a nod to the Monaco flag, as well as having all the corner names underneath and a picture of a secret wine cellar on the back. All that and it's topped off with Casino based graphics. Thankfully, I had the base helmet down, so it wasn't too much trouble to put this one together. 

Pierre Gasly 2022 Monaco GP helmet

Pierre Gasly likes to go gold for Monaco, this year with an exceptionally shiny version. As with the management of reflections in GP4 handled by the alpha layer, it does tend to work better with a dark base texture and a lighter alpha layer. Together, they shine nicely in game, and in the tunnel. 

Charles Leclerc 2022 Monaco GP helmet

I'm grateful for Charles' simple but effective helmets this season, designed by Adrien Paviot and this takes the normal helmet and it's turned red and white like the Monaco flag. A promising weekend unravelled on race day, the luckless Monagasque will have to wait another year to try and win his home race. 

Kevin Magnussen 2022 Monaco GP helmet

Magnussen, emergency replacement at Haas this year, essentially ran his old 2020 helmet at the beginning of the season. He had been gearing up for some IMSA racing and there were designs for that helmet by Adrien Paviot showing the design. That design has now made it onto his F1 lid, and Paviot says the Dane will be running this helmet for the rest of the year. 

Lewis Hamilton 2022 Monaco GP helmet

There were jokes going around about Hamilton's white helmet bringing back memories of the Stig from Top Gear. I'm sure the sponsors were not best pleased by their logos almost camouflaged. Hamilton invited artist Daniel Arsham to apply his amethyst on an eroded helmet effect onto his helmet design. Unfortunately there arent' particularly good photos to go off, particularly on the right side of the helmet, so I've done what I can. 

Lando Norris 2022 Monaco GP helmet

Finally, we have Lando Norris' helmet. I like a good asymmetric design, and this is trying to mesh vintage with modern. The old Bruce McLaren style simple helmet design on the right, with a sparkly edition of his standard helmet on the left, separated by the Monaco flag. In reality, it meant I had to design two helmet really, but thankfully there are good resources from MDM Designs that really helped me to recreate it accurately. 

Sorry for the delay in this blog post, the helmets have actually been available for some time, but I hadn't had time to create the previews and write up about them. In addition to the helmets above, I have amended Schumacher's Miami GP helmet, which he's worn ever since, now that I have better photos of it. 

Thanks as ever to Jvinu for his helmets, and of course these are compatible with ACSPRH helmets in other games. 

Download Link | (mirror)

GP4: 1994 Mod v4.0 - Coming Soon - part 2

What else is new in 1994 v4.0?

New Cars

Track Specific Liveries

As the GP4 cars were converted to other games, some track specific liveries were added. Now those new liveries have been converted back to GP4 and available for the first time in this mod. The main author was Alesanchez and Jdaddle who did the Tissot livery on the Sauber. 

1994 Mod - Sauber by McKey, Textures by Oggo, updated by Jdaddle

I'm grateful for Oggo who was able to share with me his original templates and I was able to use these to create some more track specific liveries on existing cars, including the Ferrari, Jordan, Pacific, Lotus, Tyrrell and Williams so far. I plan to do more liveries and updates in subsequent releases. 

New Cars

My return to GP4 started with the Ferrari 412T1B based on the Australian GP. Since then I've gone on to add the Williams FW16B, Ligier JS39B and the McLaren MP4/9. I've also just completed the Lotus 109 and a few liveries of this car are also included in the mod. My initial idea was that I create scratch made cars for the Australian GP and work my way backwards. That plan has altered to include some hybrid versions, like the Williams that merges elements of both cars together in the mid-season as rule changes came in. 

1994 Mod - Williams FW16B by Fongu

1994 Mod - Lotus 109 by Fongu

To date, the only fully track specific versions are of the Ligier which are included in this mod. 

1994 Mod - Minardi by Loren, Textures by Fongu (Australian GP)

I've also included an old car, the Minardi M194 by Loren in the mod. He created two versions, the French GP and the Hungarian GP versions. He created some fantasticly accurate yet amazing low poly cars back in the day. I've remastered the textures and added track specific liveries for now until such a time as I've created my own M194 shape. 

I have some other newly shaped cars in the workshop, all at various stages of completion, so look out for them. 

Updated early-season diffusers

As previously documented on this blog, 1994 was the first season without driver aids, and that made cars extremely quick and as it turned out, extremely dangerous. Massive shunts occurred on multiple occasions early on in the season, some drivers lucky to come out of it alive, but sadly, we all know two of them did not survive. In loving memory of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, this mod is dedicated to their memory. What ensued was the biggest mid-season changes the sport has ever seen and has never seen since.

Now McKey and Oggo did a great job with the remastered 1994 cars, and we have them up to the Monaco GP in previous versions of the mod. However McKey mostly used the original diffusers from the original game, except for the Benetton and Ferrari. The Jordan by Oggo and the Williams by Loren had the correct diffusers and were added to the v3.0 cars, but the rest of the grid looked slightly out of place. So I've gone back and I've updated all the remaining diffusers for the early season cars, whilst making sure I wasn't taking away anything from the original work. The only other thing I added was bargeboards on the Minardi that they ran at the Pacific GP only. In fact since 1994, diffusers have been heavily regulated, so this was the last generation where there was visibly a wide variety of solutions. 

Spanish and Canadian GP

There were a couple of Spanish GP cars in v3.0, including the Sauber with raised head supports, and the Williams which featured barge boards. 

1994 Mod Preview - action from Canadian GP

I've started, but not completed, an upgrade to some of the cars, some of them simply merging parts of my cars to the originals (with full permission from Mckey and Oggo). I've also started merging new cockpits, and adding new diffusers to match the new rules. The Williams, Tyrrell, Jordan, Lotus and Ferrari's have been updated this way so far. 

On the new diffuser rules, some of the larger teams wanted to protest the bringing in of the rules so soon, in that removing such levels of downforce would make the cars more dangerous with little testing and analysis. Indeed Pedro Lamy's was testing for this race and had a horrific accident, penetrating the spectator fence and the monocoque of the car ending up in the Bridge spectator tunnel, he truly was lucky to survive. In practice, Andrea Montermini, filling the seat vacated by Ratzenberger, also had a heavy accident, his feet clearly visible in the aftermath, and obviously broken. The richer teams had come to the Spanish GP primed to argue, bringing both old diffusers and new ones. However the poorer teams had to literally cut their old diffusers up to fit the new regulations, such was the shortage of cash outside of the top teams in those days. There was no going back and so the new diffusers were introduced, as well as new front wing endplates. 

The Canadian GP saw holes being cut in the airbox, with various teams choosing different solutions, some more extreme than others. Ferrari cut tiny holes to the side, to minimise the impact, whilst Tyrrell and Ligier went over the top and ran rollover hoops much like the cars from the 80s. 

1994 Mod - Ferrari 412T1 from Canadian GP

You'll see some cars that I have updated the shapes and textures of, about half of them so far. The rest will have to wait until the next update. 

1994 Mod - Minardi M194 at the Canadian GP

There are also some non-tobacco liveries included in this mod, by Alesanchez and some by me. 

Other Rule Changes

A pit lane speed limit was introduced at the Monaco GP. Yes, it's crazy to think there wasn't one before. This was in response to the often forgotten incident at the San Marino GP involving Alboreto's Minardi and a loose wheel that came off. In GP4, I've simply raised the speed limit for the first three races. It's interesting the AI cars trying to exit the pits at Interlagos. 

The other housekeeping thing is the number of cars entered at the early races. Because Barrichello had his major accident in San Marino in practice, which saw him swallow his tongue amongst other injuries, meant his car did not start the race, so there's only one Jordan in that race (unless you choose to race as him). In Monaco, Williams entered only one car and Simtek did the same. Karl Wendlinger also had a massive accident in practice at Monaco that left him in a coma, which lead to the Sauber team withdrawing from the event altogheter, so you won't see them on the grid around the Principality. Again, they only ran one car at the Spanish GP. 

GP4: 1994 Mod v4.0 - Coming Soon - part 1

1994 Mod v4.0 Preview - French GP action

I'm glad to announce that coming soon, I will release a new version of the 1994 Mod for GP4, this will be version 4.0 and will feature a whole host of new content from previous iterations. I had big plans for this mod, some lofty ambitions, and it's been years in the making. The disappointment is that it's not finished, far from it actually, but it's progressed enough to share a lot of new things with you, and it should be modular so that I can add updates fairly painlessly in the future. 

Firstly, I want to thank the original authors. 1994 cars were some of the first cars ever made for GP4, starting with Duffer, and then McKey415, and some cars from Loren. The input widened, with cars updated by McKey415 and Oggo, Hagi on the helmets, btone on the CSM structure, Aus_Doug on various bits and the mod grew from version 1 through to version 3 released by Turbo Lover. 

The legacy of these cars extends beyond GP4, with conversions first to F1C, then to rFactor, GTR2 each version adding new improvements. My thanks goes to David Marques for sharing his source files from him and other contributors. 

Indeed I'm not the only one to have thought of v4.0, but MSchumi24, compiler of many mods in GP4 also had aspirations of releasing a new update. I'm grateful for some of his input on the CSM structure, particularly around helmets. 

The reason I share all this history is because I've tried to contact as many people as I could and try and compile it all back together, to bring some of the add-ons that are available in the conversions and bring them back to GP4 and add to it's legacy. However, I wanted to protect the legacy, so rather than working to replace what's been done, I wanted to concentrate on what's not been done, keeping as much of the original content intact as possible. 

My aim is to write some blog posts of some of the changes that have been made, hopefully not too boring in detail, but enough to appreciate some of the work that's gone into it. I was never meant to have created modern F1 content for GP4, but 2021 saw almost no work go into this mod, and I've got various commitments for 2022 as well. All this means that progress on 1994 has slowed considerably, so it's time to share what I've got and I'll keep chipping away in the background as I find time.  

I'm trying to squeeze in some bug fixes and a few final updates, so there's no fixed date for release, only that it is coming soon. 

I must add the original trackpack by Plodekk and Cleberpister was again one of the first classic trackpacks to be created for GP4, which helps add to the experience. 

CSM structure

The 1994 mod has some of the most complicated coding behind it in previous versions, impressive but buggy as well. This all related to having choices between the choice of 11th team, as well as various options for the Williams drivers, plus all the various driver changes. For this reason, I've chosen to split the mod into two different sets:

Basic Version

The basic version strips out a lot of that complexity mentioned above. Gone are the 'best 2 qualifiers' option, there are no driver changes through the season, and it uses only average performances. It also has a slightly stripped down CSM config menu. 

Also this is designed with the lower PC power in mind. So lods are utilised as standard, the original helmet shape is used, 2D rims instead of the detailed 3D rims are just some of the measures that make it lighter for your machine to run. 

There are more f1graphics.cfg options to fine tune from the CSM menu, as well as lower resolution textures if your machine is really struggling. 

1994 Mod v4.0 - CSM Basic Version

You still get all the new car specific shapes and textures, so it's basically a minorly updated version 3.0. 

Advanced Version

The Advanced Version is designed to be able to try and change every conceivable part of the game possible. With thanks to Oggo and his recent breakthroughs in team-specific 3D rims, to individual helmet shapes and collision editor, I've tried to make use of all of these (or result of these in the case of the collision editor) in this mod. 

1994 Mod v4.0 - CSM Advanced Version

The 'best 2 qualifiers' option is reserved for the Advanced version, which I've recoded from scratch. It's still not 100%, but it's better than it was. There is a note to say if you change the 11th team, you have to change the track to enable all the changes to happen. So if you notice odd things like the wrong car is loaded, or wrong tweaker positions, just change the 11th team, then the track, and it should fix itself. 

Also returning is the option to select your 2nd Williams driver, either have it follow the actual 1994 season, or choose from one of the three drivers who occupied the seat. 

There's an option to go nostalgic with a GP2 themed menu screens and background music. Thanks to Carl_Gpgames for putting these together. 

There's multiple in-cockpit steering wheel options. Either you can go team specific (converted from F1C) - depending on the driver you selected to play as, or you can go for Carl_gpgame's excellent 3D 1993 MOMO steering wheel, the original 1994 mod wheel, or a different Ferrari wheel - as both Berger and Alesi used numerous steering wheels throughout the season. 

Oggo's super detailed Arai GP3 is exclusively used in the Advanced version, and it comes with options to choose between transparent visors (where you can see the driver's face), or reflective visors. 

As with the basic version, there's lots of f1graphics.cfg options to configure here to optimise the level of detail you want to run GP4 in. There are also some GP4Tweaker options available to edit as well. 

There is a third option/sub carset, but I'll reveal that closer to the release.