Wednesday, 29 May 2024

GP4: ICYMI May 2024

Firstly, let me apologise that there hasn't been many blog posts lately. Don't think I'm any less busy cooking up some GP4 updates for you. I'll share it with you when its ready. 

Anyway, it's been about a month and a half since the last one of these ICYMI (in case you missed it) updates, and wow, there have been a lot of great mods being added to the community. Much of what you find here is also available in my blog here, as I try and keep this resouce updated.

So without much further ado, here's a list of updates...

2024 Updates

Don't forget to check out the 2024 download sources page for the current season downloads created by various members of the GP4 modding scene. 

https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/p/gp4-2024-download-sources.html

We've had more Ferrari liveries up to and including the Monaco GP, a fix to the Sauber, and a McLaren and Mercedes released by Isaint along with some other bits and bobs. 

I try my best to keep this page updated, like I did for the last few seasons. Without a mod available, this is probably the best place to keep track of the latest content to build your own. 

Mods updated

1997 Mod v2.0 by MSchumi24

MSchumi24 is back and has done a great update including the HD cars originally created by VRC of the Williams FW19 and the Ferrari F310B. Soulbringer's excellent McLaren MP4/10 and the Arrows originally by Kefla, (both of these are available in Assetto Corsa thanks to our friends at ASR Formula) have also been added. SkaningeN's updates to the original F1C conversions have also been updated, which means its a fantastic upgrade to the original mod. 


Info  

Download part 1

Download part 2


2000 Mod by Kedy89 

It's also great to have Kedy89 back and active in the GP4 community once more. He was working closely with Coldblood during the first round of updates to EnzoJZ's brilliant car shapes. Thanks to Hega, the content was finished and Kedy89 has done a great job compiling these into his mod. 


Info 

 Download part 1 Download part 2

 Download part 3 Download part 4


2007 Mod by Kedy89 updated 

The 2007 mod has also received some attention: 

Adds petrus' GPaedia, Zifox' generic internal & external StWheel.
Fixes stwheel.ini, no CD on startup, Ferrari cars.ini, tyre textures.
Minor graphical updates 


Info  

 


2015 Mod by Kedy89 updated

This update simply adds Prblanco's weightfix cap. This basically fixes the cars going off at turn 1 at Monza due to a weight mismatch in the physics update.  


Info 

Download part 1

Download part 2


2018 Mod by Kedy89 updated 

Similar to the 2015 update, this updated mod adds Prblanco's weightfix cap. 


Info 

Download part 1Download part 2


Add on Packs

2009 Add-ons by SkaningeN

 

SkaningeN has been creating a decade worth of track specific updates, and now he's shared the results of his work on 2009. Here are three packs, track specific updates to cars, a helmet set update with textures corrected to fit their corresponding shape, and a nice update to the 2D rims correct for each team. 


 

Cars

Info 

 

Helmet Set

Info

2D Tyres & Rims Set v1.1

Info

 

Tracks

2001 9 new HD Tracks by Hega 

Info  

Hega had already done some fantastic work on updating 2001 tracks to amazing quality. Carl_gpgames had also done some AI upscaling working seperately and now the two have been combined to form some unbelievably stunning tracks for GP4. There are 9 tracks shared to date, incredible stuff. 

 

A1 Ring, Austria


Hockenheim, Germany 

 

Imola, San Marino

 

Interlagos, Brazil

 

Monte Carlo, Monaco

 

Monza, Italy

 

Silverstone, GB

 

Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

 

Suzuka, Japan

 


Fictional Tracks by Viking75 

 

Viking75 has been releasing so many fictional tracks recently it's hard to keep up with them all. Each has their own flavour and theme, a mix of high speed blasts and sweeping curves. 

 

The Nardo Ring, Italy

Info

 

Puy de Dôme, France

Info

 

Eastwood Valley, New Mexico, USA

Info

 

Duel California,  USA

Info

 

Navajo Tribal Park, USA

Info

 

Rollercoaster

Info

Montreal Special

Info


MISCTSO Trucks updated by Xandy

Xandy has been doing great work on these trucks, a valuable tool for track makers to include in their own work. These incredibly low poly work mixed with beautiful HD textures are just perfect for GP4.  


Info


Utilities

GP4 Mesh Tools for Blender [V2.20]  by Öggo

I had to get a new laptop earlier this year and installing Blender v4.0 I noticed that the Mesh Tools add on was not compatible. Thankfully Öggo was kind enough to update his add on to make it compatible and has taken the opportunity to add new alpha channel blending functionality as well as other improvements. 

I'm still a dinosaur and I still use GP4 Builder and Zmodeler 1.07B (a tool last updated in July 2003!). However, the benefits of more modern tools like Blender give access to a whole new world of tools to help create better quality mods in a much quicker and efficient way. Essentially, this tool is future proofing GP4 modding and I can't emphasise enough its importance to the GP4 modding community. 


Info 

 


GP4 D3D8dll Zfighting Stencil Buffer Fix Test by gplaps 


Thanks to gplaps for dropping into the GP4 community to drop this little gem of an update. For a long time, GP4 users have had to put up with flickering in the distance on objects and cars. It was always well known it was to do with Z buffer, but now we have a fix that improves it greatly. 

If you have no idea what I'm on about, there's a nice little video below. 

 

Info |  Video

 

GP4 Vanilla

Original cockpit & steering wheel remastered (incl. 2001 textures) by Carl_gpgames

I loved the idea when Whills created the cars from the original Grand Prix, GP2 and GP3 into modern games. I liked it so much that I included the GP2 cars in my nostalgia driven 1994 mod. 

Carl_gpgames has been on his own mission to update the original GP4, staying faithful to its looks and feel, whilst being able to run it at stupidly high resolutions and look good at the same time. So I've dedicated a page to this work here: GP4 Vanilla 

Previously, we had the arcade HUD upgraded by 32bobo32, and as mentioned earlier, Carl_gpgames had AI upscaled all the tracks. Now its the internal cockpit and steering wheels that receive some love. The cockpit has been recreated in Blender and remapped and fitted with new textures, a vast improvement on the original. The steering wheel is now faithfully recreated in 3D, and supplemented with HD textures.

To see the results have a look at the video below in glorious 4K. 


info | YouTube Preview 

 


Well, I need a break and a new hard drive. 

Credits and kudos to the authors who love this game and share their talents and their work for something that's over 20 years old and is still being enjoyed and played by people all over this terrestrial ball. 

Long live Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 4!