Friday 26 May 2023

GP4: 2011 Mod & Trackpack compiled by fongu

I'm pleased to present to you a new 2011 mod for GP4. 


At the beginning of the year, I began compiling a list of mods and trying to make it easy to download them again. I was also looking at some of my unfinished work, and saw some gaps that I could potentially fill. I had a base 2011 mod, I had a 2011 Ferrari that needed to be painted, and with various 2011 mods now unavailable, why not create one myself? How hard can it be, I thought? Most of the work is already done, right?

If you've played with my 1994 mod, you will know I don't do mods by halves. Whilst the 1994 mod has many complexities found in the 11th Team coding, this mod is bursting at its seams with content and choices. 2011 saw so much content released for GP4, for better or for worse, that I wanted to include as much of it as I can, but even I couldn't possibly include everything. 

It's a great loss to the community since Kedy89 took his decision to remove his mods from the downloads section, and I can fully sympathise with his decision. However, I had an empty base mod that I created and released back in 2011, and I've decided to start filling it. Whilst there will inevitably be some crossover with Kedy89's work, I've tried my best to create my work from scratch or from other sources where possible. 



I wanted to thank MailsonTeles, SergioNG and KerleyF1 for sharing their archives with me. I also had access to TomMK's Gp4 Central mod made for low resolution computers, littleone90's mod that wasn't released to the public which included mostly 2010 Codemaster cars updated by NickJW and Tiko. BigBrother, a long time moderator at Grandprixgames.org, also created an unreleased mod. SergioNG's Megapacks are a fantastic compilation, but only comes in Spanish and it is missing a list of authors, and can be obtained via GP4Forever. I believe mods existed by Josekast, leomp10 and brudu92, but looking at the contents, I don't believe I've missed anything. I wanted to thank NickJW and mclarenaustralia for their 2011 download lists that helped my find content I was missing. It's sad only one of those mods survived and is available on my downloads page, however I hope to honour their work in this mod by including some elements of their work in my own. I also wanted to thank F1Virtual, Josekast and Jcaranti for allowing me to include much of their varied content into this mod. 


Tracks

The trackpack is integrated with the CSM side of the mod itself, with only empty TSM profiles in place for it to load. 

One reason for doing it this way is to get the pitbox integration working properly. So whether you pick HRT or Virgin as your 11th Team, it should patch the pitboxes and muppets with the team of your choice. The limitation with this is that you have to load the CSM mod one track at a time, you can't load all the tracks in one. 



Included are tracks from the guys at F1Virtual, Prblanco, Gildoorf, Schueyfan and others, who continue to create premium quality tracks. 

KTC also created a number of new tracks around that time and Yeongam, New Delhi/Buddh, and Yas Marina are included in this pack.

Other great track creators drt01, Jcaranti, Josekast, Tumyeto, Tojepo, Plodekk and Neil Caine's work are also featured. Let's not forget some of the foundations laid by guys such as TTM, Ricardo Lampert, MarioB, Erwin_78, btone, Lo2k and Cleberpister. I've likely missed some guys out, but it can't be underestimated how much work goes on to create these tracks and updates, it requires a true collaborative effort and they have my utmost respect and admiration. 



Cars

With the Codemasters series of F1 games beginning in 2010, it was the popular thing to take content from them and stick it into GP4. 2011 was filled with 2010 cars updated to 2011, until the 2011 game was released and then those cars were converted. In this mod you'll find Josekast's conversions with lots of track specific variations added with help from a few of his friends. These cars were the ones 
You'll also find conversions from Jucksman. I offer these alternatives because, in his words 'all cars follow true-to-life dimensions, ride height, rake and wheel base. I tried to position the drivers body as realistically as possible'.

There are some alternative conversions done by the RSCT guys, Gezere, Excalibur, Isaint and others. 
There are some conversions from the F1MG mod from rFactor, which offer a nice alternative. 
There are scratch made cars, particularly many versions of the Ferrari, my own included. Mpad, Michael Sandae (Dutch_Can), The Dark Listener (Saloman) all have their cars included to varying degrees of accuracy.So in the CSM menu, there's a significant section given over to selecting which one you prefer, and you can swap and mix between the version your choice of car. 


Because of the large number of carshapes and textures to include, I've not provided lods and I've not given the option of lower resolution textures. This is purely a space saving decision, so sorry low spec computer users - the GP4 Central mod available on my downloads page caters for you. 

As you can imagine, this was a lot of work, whittling through what cars to include and which to exclude, finding what cars are still available from what is sadly lost, and each car needs individual GP4 Tweaker position files. Where possible, I've included readme files for the cars that I could find, but not all of them had them but I've tried to credit all the original authors. 

Hopefully this mod will satisfy the purists who prefer scratch made content, whilst those who don't mind using items from the Codemasters game will receive the quality they bring. 


Fongu's updates

Other than sourcing and compiling what already exists, there's new things that I've contributed to this mod too. 

There's some track specific liveries for my Ferrari F150th Italia included exclusively with this mod. 


Oggo allowed us the opportunity to mod GP4 in ways not possible back in 2011 and many of the changes below are as a result of Oggo's breakthroughs. 

You'll find each team has individual 3D rim shapes. There's a large number of people who worked on the 2011 rims, but the rim shapes themselves I've taken them from Lee who released a 2010 pack of 3D rim shapes. I've amended it to fit it with 2011 textures and tyre shapes by Excalibur, Hega, Vesuvius and Soulbringer (I hope I caught all contributing authors). In truth, I think the tyres and rims are scaled a little too small, but it's too big a job to raise all the cars to cater for it. 


You'll find each driver has their correct helmet shape, as they were originally designed. You'll find Daimon and MDBSnake's great helmet shapes paired with the correct driver in this mod. There's some stunning helmets in this collection made by DaiMOn, Grl48, Nick9320, pummba, Josekast, Jaunental and Kerleyf1. 



There's a great set of in-cockpit visors made by Enrico Neidhardt (madleonix) who released them in the original GP4 format. I've converted these to GP4 Tweaker visors. I really like this set as it's not as intrusive as other versions, so you can see more of the cockpit and steering wheel.

I've made some changes to Josekast, Jcaranti, ramf1v and renault#1fan's cockpit taken from the Codemasters game. I've fixed the mirrors, rearranged some of the object names and I've created a Virgin cockpit texture. I've decided not to include cockpit shape and textures by Guillermo, nor the textures painted on KSor's cockpit, again this was mostly a space saving decision. Coupled with Jcaranti, Josekast and NickJW's steering wheels, I really like the in-cockpit view. For the generic steering wheel option, I've included Zifox's great HD generic wheel. 


I've added a new collision file, meaning collisions with other cars are now more realistic and there should be less clipping when you touch other cars. 


Big thanks to 32bobo32 who created new Marshalls and Event Director textures for this mod, they are truly excellent. This adds to Josekast's work on the pitcrews. I've decided against included new 3D pitprop items, due to team specific pitprop textures already created with the original 3d shapes. What I've done though is replace any low poly versions of the marshalls and pitcrews and replaced them with the standard versions. 


Oggo's work on a CAP converter means much of what used to be in the Patch folder is now included in the Patch.ini file. In real terms it makes no difference, but it's a tidier solution. Included are Prblanco's code changes, such as no refuelling, cars starting with full fuel loads, monaco pit lane tweaks, and car weight patches.


Menu Videos & GPaedia

As these are large files in themselves, I've split my video backgrounds out from the main install as an optional update. 

Alternatively, you can still find NickJW's set here https://www.mediafire.com
Download them and put them in ...2011 Fongu\Data\Menu folder and CSM will do the rest. 
This link is also there if you right click on the mod in CSM. 

If you're a fan of the in-game GPaedia, I've included ones by Jcaranti, Kedy89 and petrus created to bring it up to date with 2011. 


Physics and Performances

Thanks to Gitanes for his track specific performance files and they are made for Cyberracer's physics files. I've included his notes, which can be accessed by right clicking on the CSM mod. 

There were other people working on physics and performance files, TomMK and Phantaman in particular, however Phantaman's data is based off one race, and Tom's can be found in the GP4Central mod, so I've decided not to include them in this one. 


GPXPatch

There's lots of fantastic graphics made to work with GPXPatch. 

Part of the problem at the time was that many of these were made based on a 1024x768 resolution that doesn't stretch properly for larger wide screens commonly used today. 

Josekast and The Dark Listener created a great base HUD, which many others have since worked on. 32bobo32 created his own fantastic versions too. 


Included at b-tone and Ruboy's def panel, present in almost every mod, F1Virtual and mclarenaustralia graphics updates and additional information. 

Young Driver Test

I've included a bonus little test variant. It's based around the Yas Marina Young Driver test. I've included the Williams pre-season, all blue, test livery on the 2010 car, and Ferrari's huge T-camera added to Jucksman's car. Some helmets have been taken from the GP2 mod, and I've added some very quick helmets for the missing drivers. They are just a place holder, I didn't have the time to give it the attention I usually do on my helmets. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little alternative.



Installation notes

This is a stand alone mod, so you don't need any previous installations. 
  1. Download all the files:
    1. CSM mod - main structure and coding
    2. CSM Update 1 - Cars part 1
    3. CSM Update 2 - Cars part 2
    4. CSM Update 3 - Tracks
    5. CSM Update 4 - Menu Backgrounds (optional)
    6. TSM file 1
    7. TSM file 2

  2. Open CSM, and install the first file - CSM Mod. 

  3. Then install the CSM update files. 


  4. Then open TSM and install both files.
    These simply installs two blank .ini files that are essential for the tracks to load and run. 


























Once installed, there are further guides within the mod, which you can access by right clicking the mod in the main CSM menu.  

Happy racing