Tuesday 28 February 2023

GP4: 2022/23 Red Bull RB18 download

As the new 2023 season rolls in, I'm happy to share with you a new car, it's the Red Bull RB18. 

2022 Red Bull RB18 by Fongu
 
This car was the class of the field for 2022, earning the team's first Constructors Championship since 2013, and with Max earning his second successive Drivers title. This of course was the first year of the new rules with ground effect aerodynamics returning to the cars. Whilst many teams struggled with bouncing and porpoising, Red Bull's car didn't suffer as much as its rivals did. Whilst Ferrari seemed to be the car to beat in the early rounds, it was Newey's Red Bull that would prove to be a better all round solution, and by mid-season was well ahead. This was no more evident than at the Belgian GP, where Max started the race in 14th place and still came home to a comfortable victory. 

This is quite a basic car compared to my other releases, but still looks great ingame to me. 

For the 2023 season, Red Bull tried to pass off the RB18 as their new car as they launched their new livery. Most people saw through that but hte RB19 that showed up in testing was a clear evolution from its successful predecessor. So with this release, you get the option to run the 2023 livery on this car as well.

2023 Red Bull livery by Fongu

At the launch, Red Bull announced a new partnership with Ford for the 2026 season, as it's own Red Bull Power Trains operation comes online, after much help from Honda in setting it all up. Until then, we see the return of the Honda name on the car, who can't help but put their name with all the success the team are achieving right now, and rightly so. 


You'll notice I have 2023 helmets for the Red Bull drivers completed in these screenshots, I am making good progress on that front and expect some releases on that front soon. 


Until then, I hope you enjoy this car. Happy racing. 

Saturday 11 February 2023

GP4: 2011 Ferrari 150º Italia - download

 




I proudly present to you my scratch made version of the 2011 Ferrari 150º Italia. This was a car I started from when the car was originally launched, way back in 2011. Ferrari brought some updates to the Spanish GP in Barcelona, and I updated my car shape to match. The project was a slow one, and eventually the Codemasters cars were being released and converted to GP4. I was pleased that when measuring my car up against the Codemasters car, there was good correlation of shapes, angles and proportions. 

At the time, I was winding down my GP4 activities, whilst completing some of the 1996 car shapes. In fact this was the first contemporary F1 car I had at attempted since 2008 (I did start a 2009 car, but that project was never finished). I took my time over this car, as many authors released their version of the car. The car was mapped but at the time I really only wanted to concentrate on shaping cars, so I released it prior to my hiatus to see if anyone would paint it. 


It's been nearly 11 years now, so I thought I'd come back to it. I did add some 3D bodylines and bolts similar to the method I've been using on my current contemporary cars and has under 35,000 polygons, which, again, is a similar standard to my 2022 models. 

Anyway, I hope you like it. 


After a strong end to the 2010 season, where Alonso predicted and delivered on a strong end to the season, Ferrari were hoping to build on a strong debut season with the Spaniard. Well it didn't, it managed only one victory at Silverstone and that was more because of a temporary ban on off-throttle blown diffusers before the ban was rescinded. That rule majorly hampered Red Bull, and Alonso made the most of it. The season didn't get off to a great start because the name F150 was disputed by Ford who have an iconic pick-up truck of the same name. Ferrari claimed it to be short hand for Ferrari 150º Italia and that was that. The car was a podium contender at best, and Alonso managed fourth place overall and Massa a distant sixth in the Drivers' Championship. 

The car is available to download with tweaker settings included in the read me. 

But what mod can you play it in? 

I hope to have more news for you on that front soon, but until then, here's the download link to this car.

Friday 10 February 2023

GP4: 2004 Track Pack

As I've been going through the depths of my GP4 archives, I've compiled a 2004 trackpack for you to download and enjoy. 

Credit once more has to go to Ricardo Lampert, who by this stage was working alongside Erwin Maliepaard (erwin_78), Mark Beijer (mariob), and Laurent Rousseau (Lo2k). Lo2K would develop 3DEditor which would soon become GP4Builder, which would give the community the ability to edit and create our own tracks, around 3 years after the game was first released. Dave Hagenaars, Mario B and Shutt1e (from GP4 Italia) would be among the first to produce tracks, with the first proper tracks being released in and around 2005.

For 2004, we had to settle for texture updates and minor tweaks to the 3D side of the tracks. Caelen and Mini Maestro were among those who release hi-res texture packs to be installed on top of Ricardo and co's tracks. I managed to find an early list of what was updated at the time: https://www.grandprixgames.org

There were two new tracks for the 2004 calendar, Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, and Shanghai International Circuit in China. Hockenheim saw a major change to its track back in 2003, whilst Magny Cours, Barcelona and Spa-Francorchamps all made layout changes for 2004. 

I had to make a choice for this track pack, to stick with the original Ricardo Lampert editions or to go for the tracks with higher resolution textures. I went for the later, simply because they do look better. 

The second decision was which layouts to go for. I decided to include 2005 versions of the new tracks for Sakhir and Shanghai. I've also decided to include the 2005 Hockenheim, as that was quite a major layout change. It's a shame that, to my knowledge, these tracks weren't retro-fitted with 2004 sponsors and garages. The only exception was this Shanghai version included in this mod. The other track changes were less significant in comparison, so I've decided to stick with the texture updates on the older layouts in this pack. Remember, my goal here is to share what was available, but you're obviously welcome to use other versions of the tracks for your own game. 


I have to thank SchueyFan for sharing some of Caelen's updates that I didn't previously have (mentioned in the thread above). Here's a list of what I've included in my TSM pack - you'll need Zaz Tools to install them. The track pack comes in two packs, the first 17 races are contained in the first pack, whilst the final race at Interlagos is in the second pack.

2004

Authors

Melbourne

Alex Cason

Sepang

Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Sakhir - (2005)

Erwin_78, Dave Hagenaars, Ruboy, Lo2k, Ricardo Lampert, MarioB, 32bobo32

Imola

Caelen, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Barcelona - (old layout)

Caelen, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Monaco

Caelen, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Nurburgring

Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Montreal

Caelen, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Indianapolis

Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Magny Cours - (Old layout)

Mini Maestro, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Silverstone

Mini Maestro, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Hockenheim - (2005)

MarioB

Hungaroring

Caelen, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Spa - (Old layout)

Mini Maestro, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Monza

Caelen, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Shanghai

Shuttle/Ruboy

Suzuka

Caelen, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k

Interlagos

Caelen, Ricardo Lampert, Erwin_78, MarioB, Lo2k


Full credit goes to the original authors, I've merely compiled it together and sharing it with you. 

Download part 1          part 2 

Alternative Versions (updated July 2023):

Correct Magny Cours layout (2005 version)
by gpgeneration team, mark "mariob" beijer , martin "ruboy" schubert, vesuvius

Correct Spa Francorchamps layout (2005 version)
by mark "mariob" beijer, ricardo lampert and erwin "erwin_78" maliepaard

Correct Barcelona layout (2005 version)
by Edu13

Correct Suzuka layout (2006 version)
by KTC (Kimi-The-Champ)

Download add on pack 

Wednesday 8 February 2023

GP4: 2003 Trackpack

Hey guys, welcome back to my blog. 

I'm really glad that you guys have been appreciating the download links to various GP4 mods I've been sharing recently. Some of you will have noticed that I've started a similar page for track packs: 

GP4 Track pack downloads page

Whilst the list of mods (though not exhaustive) is a good size, what's sad is that there's a real lack of track packs available. Most GP4 users have been left to fend for themselves to find our own tracks and compile them individually. This also makes it hard to integrate CSM mods with track packs as I'm sure everyone has their own installation style. 

There have been so many tracks created for GP4, it's not possible to list them all, let alone find them any more. So I'm going to concentrate on track packs for now. I'm hoping to be able to share compile and upload some track packs that have been lost, most of them from gp4db.com. 

Back in the early days of GP4, Ricardo Lampert was THE name in track modding. Granted it was only graphical updates back then, he'd faithfully produce track updates for every track. Amazingly, you can still visit his blog today, though the download links no longer work. 


Quickslick has already compiled a 2001 pack, and NickJW compiled a 2002 pack, both of which are available on my page above. I've gone through my archive and I've compiled a quick 2003 track pack together. This includes tracks from Ricardo Lampert, but where they exist (what was considered 'hi-res' at the time) track updates by Caelen are included. This also includes the Austran GP track from Ed (Schueyfan). 

Keep you eyes out, I may upload more track packs in the near future.