Track reordering

[db2000]

Hi all, 

is it possible to change the order of the 16 tracks in a season? (by renaming the track files and by hacking gp.exe)

I tried to rename the tracks, but the first track of the season is always Usa-Phoenix.

Thanks

[F1GP Archive]

Hello,

You can change the track order by renaming the F1CT**.DAT files.

This changes the track that is loaded when you start a session.

However, this doesn't change the info screen for each track. You will still get the info screen for the original track.

Changing this would likely require making some changes to the gp.exe.

But if you simply want to play the championship with the tracks in a different order, renaming the files would be sufficient.

Cheers

[Carlos Sanchez]

Hi everybody. 

I am new to F1GP for PC editing and even I dont want to change the track order, I have a question: When changing tracks order and putting tracks in different slots than they are originally, wouldnt it affect the game or drivers' times in some way?

I remember there was something like speed factor in Amiga version for each track and if you put Interlagos instead of Monte Carlo or Adelaide for instance, even with the exact same drivers performance times would differ due to this speed factor which was editable in Amiga editor. I read something similar on grandprix2.de forum so am curious if there is not something like this in PC version as well. 

[F1GP Archive]

Hello and welcome,

As far as I'm aware, the track order shouldn't have any effect on the lap times. 

All the track data should be contained within the file itself, meaning there is no external "magic data" like with GP2.

Cheers,

Hrvoje

[Carlos Sanchez]

Thank you and thanks for reply! 

That speed factor I was referring to was the speed factor in the editor and not in the game itself as I thought when asking. For anybody interested what it is, you can read here:

https://www.amigaf1.co.uk/F1GP-Ed/index.html

I dont understand how this works and how computer determines player's speed when there is relation to his speed but before Q or R starts computer knows nothing about player's speed. If it worked "the slower the reace, the faster/slower computers' cars are", then it would make sense, but both Monaco and Hungaroring are slow tracks so it doesnt make sense to me at all. If this is just for Amiga version which I doubt, it does not matter then. If it works in similar/same way for PC version, swapping tracks should be done with this in mind maybe? I will definitely test this some day because I am curious about that. 

After swapping tracks it is possible to rename tracks in gp.exe with hex editor and new name appears even in the info screen, just the original map remains, check pics below. 

From threads here I know its very difficult to make new tracks and after checking ArgTrack I would be totally lost even if there was no problem with CC and pitstope lines. But with not much knowledge you can change appearance of the track at least and if you edit every single building and wall in Phoenix by moving them far or making them small/nonexisting or you change the surroundings from city to nature and on positions of building you put trees and bushes, you can make new surroundings and feeling of "new track" is there. I tried it with Phoenix and it looked cool on the places I had made changes. After more experimenting I screw things up and bushes start to appearing on the track :-D But  if people are not picky they can make wonders just by changing values here and there. 

[F1GP Archive]

I'm not familiar with the Amiga version of the game, so it's difficult for me to say what these settings do just by looking at the pictures on the website. Whether this is a global setting or a specific setting for each team.
If it's a global setting, it could be equivalent to the aggression (late braking) setting that can be set as a part of the CC car setup. This can be done either through ArgTrack or the dedicated tools GPCSetup/GPCWinset. Modifying these settings makes the CC cars brake later, but they also become more likely to spin out. It's advisable to use it in combination with increasing the AI grip level.

There are also settings like Power Factor, Grip Factor, Tyre Wear, etc. which determine the characteristics of each track. But all of these are contained within the track file itself.

If you do a qualifying/race simulation with the CC cars, the lap times will be the same regardless of the slot the track is in. You can try this yourself.

Would you mind sharing the GP.exe (packed/unpacked) file offset where you edited the track names in the menus?


Cheers

[Carlos Sanchez]

I am sorry! The website is one link only and no matter what place of the website I was reading, it was stil the same link. This is what I was talking about:

One of the major drawbacks of F1GP is that the computer cars travel at different speeds, in relation to your speed, on each circuit. An example would be that the computer cars are much faster at Hungary than at Monaco. A solution is to provide a separate Speed Factor for each circuit. F1GP doesn't account for this normally, so I've added some extra code to make it happen :) This makes it possible for you to set the speeds of the computer cars to relatively match your personal speed for each circuit.

I think the Amiga guy figured out something similar what is happening in GP2 but it can be figured out if its in the PC version of F1GP as well. By swapping tracks and letting computer do its thing and then compare times. But if you already know times are the same, then its useless and its cool tracks can be swapped like users want to unlike with GP2. 

Packed/original exe: Offset 156320 its where all names of GPs are located. 

[F1GP Archive]

Thanks for sharing this information.

From what I can tell, I'd say that the Risk Factor is similar to the Aggression (Late Braking) setting I mentioned earlier. 

This is something that can be set for each circuit individually, and also for the race and qualifying separately. The settings are stored in the track file itself.

While there is isn't an equivalent to the speed factor, there is the AI Grip setting instead.

The AI Grip setting changes the speed of the CC cars through the corners, making them faster. It doesn't affect their speed on the straights. 

The AI Grip setting is opposite to the Qualifying/Race Skill setting, that can be set for each driver individually. The Skill levels can be viewed as "Negative Grip", making the drivers slower and more likely to spin out.

To modify the CC car behavior to match the player's performance, it is necessary to increase the CC HP levels, and the overall AI Grip level. This makes them faster on the straights and through the corners. This combination should be equivalent to what the Speed Factor does. 

It's possible to find global settings that work well on all circuits (except for Monaco). My preference is to set the AI Grip level to 10 and increase the CC HP by 100. 

Of course, you could find the HP and Grip settings that work the best for each individual circuit. But in that case you would need to exit the game to modify the values, and then start it up again to play at a different circuit. 

You can try using the LapCalc lap time calculator to see how different settings affect the CC lap times around different circuits.

Please note that increasing the AI Grip doesn't have the same effect on the player's car. Instead it messes up the handling. For that reason it's recommended to use the GPLap patch when changing the AI Grip level, as it will keep the player's Grip level at 1. 

The game editors for the PC version of F1GP work by making permanent changes to the GP.EXE and related files. The TSR patches change settings in memory during runtime, and don't affect the game files.

Theoretically, with a lot of skill, it would be possible to make all modifications to the game during runtime. E.g. you wouldn't change the carsets and HP setting in the executable. Instead, the modified values would be changed in the memory while the game is running. I assume this is what's being done with some of the Amiga Editors, to be able to change the values during runtime.

GP2 also had the issue of not running properly on all versions of DOSBox. On the stock version of DOSBox, the time inside the game would run too fast (faster than in real life). Most SVN versions fixed that issue.

We haven't noticed the same problem with F1GP.

Cheers

[Carlos Sanchez]

Saw these things like aggresion and risk factor in editors. Thanks for explaining! I prefer to keep these things like they are in the original game and correct things when they obviously ruin the game. But with F1GP its sometimes difficult due to horrible AI and those options you are talking about can make drivers less dumb and suicidal. Was playing Phoenix few days ago and was shocked when computer's car drove the wrong way back to the pits! :-D I immediately realized this happened to me on Amiga as well and IIRC it was mostly in Phoenix where computer cars crashed the most. Making them less agressive with better grip might make Phoenix less suicidal for computer cars. 

Its interesting how games and editors are same for both PC and Amiga versions in some areas. There are also "memory patches" in Amiga editor. Plus few things I didnt see in PC editor so I am gonna to make some changes in Amiga version and then comparing edited files with the original ones hoping to find edited areas and values and then find them in gp.exe of PC version. There is also possibility to make "high nose" for cockpits in Amiga editor, would be great to find location with this in PC version. But both games work differently in some ways and its not sure finding something in Amiga version would lead to same in PC version. Its worth trying though even PC guys probably have figured everything out already. 

I was using DosBox Staging (you can set frame rate there to match it with the GP2) for GP2 and timing was ok. But I had weird feeling about controlling the car, it was too heavy, like a truck or a hovecraft. Then I saw some TedMeat's video with him playing GP2 on the real thing with Windows under DOS and he was talking about lag with controls under DosBox. I remember GP2 playing in DOS on very very fast PC (fast for those days :-D) and never liked that much either. I think GP2 has the heaviest car of all games in the series and DosBox make the things worse due to lag, even minimal. When trying x86GP2 I loved controlling the car for the first time in GP2, not talking about widescreen and all the added stuff. Its interesting I spent so much time with Amiga version of F1GP and GP2 in the past  and I abandoned both games completely for playing games I played in 2025 for the first time. I feel like a betrayer. :-D