TeamEditor, originaly named CamEditor was built to edit Grand Prix 4 Onboard Camera Positions.
Due to its success it quickly grew up to also edit some other positions, then carshapes and finally performances.
TeamEditor is now a real GP4 Swiss-knife :) and is now worth its own documentation to help anyone wishing to fully exploit it.
So here are all explanations you always needed to use TeamEditor.
TeamEditor is build around a simple philosophy : Seeing all actual settings at tool's start up, allowing any user changes and applying all of them once user will have hit the "Apply All" button. That's how it works.
At startup, TeamEditor will get your actual GP4 path and import every settings and visual elements from the game. Both will be combined in a 3D game preview on the right side of TeamEditor. This preview can be mouse-controled on the 3 space axes. Just left-click and drag to move the scene on both horizontal axis or right-click and drag to move the scene on vertical axe.
Beware : Changing 3D view will also change current camera.
When editing values that can be graphically displayed, the 3D view will automatically be updated to display the changes.
Then, once all the settings are pleasing you, you can apply all changes using the "Apply All" button. If you close TeamEditor before hitting this button, all changes will be lost.
If you ever applied settings and want to revert them back to original ones, you will see that each panel as its own default button to quickly reset all settings of this panel to game defaults.
A global feature is also present in Edit menu to reset every all settings (but driver images) to their original values.
Most of TeamEditor labels and boxes are sensitive to mouse clic.
Just clic on a Team label to select and display that team, clic a Camera label and display point of view will change to selected camera position.
So don't hesitate to clic on labels :)
TeamEditor, as some other tools can't load textures directly from the cars wad where textures are stored. And this explain why no textures are displayed by default in the 3D View.
Anyhow, once you will start to work with a special mod or a full season carset, you will maybe wish to display textures to get a better sight on what you're changing.
This operation needs to follow two steps :
- First you need to extract all files from the cars.wad file. You can use either EasyWad, GP4Master or WadUpdater.
- Second, you will have to convert all .tex files to .tga files and to save them in CamTextures folder (this folder is given with TeamEditor). The only way I know to do this is to get TexEditor v2 with its batch converter plug-in. With it, you just need to select all source .tex files, camtextures folder as target placeholder and click on a button.
After these operations, you can eventually delete all files you extracted from cars wad at first step and launch TeamEditor to get fully textured cars.
For more details, I described this operation and all the editors I mentioned in my GP4 User guide.
TeamEditor offers control over many settings and I will detail all of them through following sections of this guide.
TeamEditor is compliant with every tool but...GP4Tweaker.
GP4Tweaker is in fact able to change the same settings as TeamEditor but after GP4 has been launched, where TeamEditor change settings before GP4 was launched.
That's the reason why you can see all TeamEditor changes when opening TeamEditor (GP4 is not yet launched) but you will see GP4Tweaker changes in game (after it has been launched).
To avoid any trouble, and if you used GP4Tweaker at least once in the past, you really have to open GP4Tweaker (if you deleted it, please reinstall it) and to disable all features that could overwritte TeamEditor settings (performances, positions).
Only once that done, will you be sure you disabled everything, and could you then delete GP4Tweaker.
TeamEditor have really few menus because most of functions are directly accessible through its interface, here are anyhow features belonging to menus.
File Menu :
- Load Team file : TeamEditor can export all its settings but driver image order and performance data into .car file. You can load one of these .car file with this function. Note that you can also load .cam (past file format for camera settings) and .tyr (old format for tyre brands settings) file formats.
- Save Team File : This function will save all current settings (but driver image order and performance data) into .car file. TeamEditor will give you a full control on which settings will be saved in the file through a first window. Once you decided what saving, you will be asked for the directory where to save the file.
- Load Performance File : Performance files was existing before TeamEditor mainly under 2 file formats: .g4p (GP4 Performance Editor) and .txt (GP3Edit). TeamEditor can read both formats.
- Save Performance File : TeamEditor can also save its current peformance data into a performance file. Just click this menu, select a name and a format and all performances will be saved at once.
- Quit : Exit TeamEditor. It does the same as clicking on the top-right windows cross button.
Edit Menu :
- Default All (but images) : As its name says, it will revert back all settings to their original values. Only driver images won't be automatically resetted.
- Show Cars Wad missing Textures : TeamEditor inspects cars wad at start up and if cars wad is changed to check no car texture is missing. Anyhow, if one or several textures are missing, it will display their names here.
Option Menu :
- Change Cars wad : in GP4, the cars wad (originally named cars.wad) store all shapes (cars, tyres, helmet, cockpit, etc...). Several users have many cars wad storing each a given mod (GT, given F1 year or else...). This function allows them to edit such cars wad.
- Change GP4 Path : Many settings and cameras positions first are stored in the GP4.exe or the f1gstate.sav files. As some users have installed GP4 several times, this function allows them to choose what installation in particular will be used by TeamEditor to import/export settings.
- Change Images Path: Some users are using several image folders to store drivers images. You will be able to select your given folder with this function.
About Menu : Here are some personnal credits I wished to give to people who greatly helped me :)
Its the original existing reason of TeamEditor.
All cameras settings are displayed at once in the tab. All coordinates values (X,Y,Z) are in centimetres and all rotational values (dir., pitch and roll) in degrees.
If you imagine you are in the cockpit of the car, axis are defined as follow : left is X-, right is X+, back is Y-, front is Y+, bottom is Z- and top is Z+.
Still in the cockpit, rotations are defined as follow : look left is Dir-, look right is Dir+, look up is Pitch-, look down is Pitch+, roll left is roll- and roll right is roll+.
All those space changes can be clearly seen in 3D view anyhow.
You can select a camera using multiple ways: clicking a camera label, clicking in a camera box or clicking a button of the Quickcam Bar.
Once a camera has been selected, you can also edit its settings using mutliple ways: You can simply erase and re-input a value, you can also click and drag any box to mouse increase/decrease the value or you can change camera position only clicking and draging in 3D view (See "The way you can use it every day" chapter).
Camera tab have 3 special cases:
- T-Cam camera have by team individual settings and thus Y and Z position can be changed through Positions Tab.
- Chase cams have only 2 linked fields for Y and Z positions. As they are linked, you can't place position anywhere but it's the way GP4 handles these cameras. You can switch the front and back chase camera with the front/back button.
- Virtual Camera does not exist in GP4, it is only there to be able to look at the car without changing any ingame cameras. Its settings are not saved in .car files either but they are saved in registry for your own further TeamEditor session.
In game, these cameras can be accessed using following keys:
- Cockpit camera is the default one, if you are in T-cam view, hit right arrow key to switch to cockpit again.
- T-Cam camera needs to hit right arrow key once when using cockpit camera.
- 1 to 10 cameras can be used hitting page up key; hitting several time this key will cycle through them.
- Front Chase camera needs to hit Del key.
- Back Chase camera will be used once you clicked page down key.
- Virtual Camera does not exist in game, so don't search for it :)
This tab gives you control over miscellaneous elements positions in the game.
As for cameras, all values are in centimetres.
Axis conventions are the same as for Cameras but you only got two editing ways, direct value editing or mouse clic and drag in box, as mouse use in the 3D View is not used for this tab.
Here are availables panels in that tab:
- Cockpit panel sets positions for internal steering wheel and dashboard. These settings will be used by all cars as GP4 do not provide individual settings for each team.
- T-Cam, Helmet and (external) St wheel positions have only two degrees of liberty but can be defined for each team.
- Tyre positions are also given once for all teams as all teams have to use the same settings in original game. Only GP4Tweaker can set individual tyre settings for each team.
This Tab is dedicated to team settings others than positions:
- Arm and Rims color fields let you change color of these elements which are white by default and tinted later by the game itself. A single click in a color box will select the given team but a double-click will display the usual color picking windows where you will be able to choose any tint.
- Tyre Brands can be chosen for each team too. Note that only McLaren can access third tyre brand type (McLaren) when all other teams can only access two common ones (Michelin and Bridgestone).
All those changes are graphically displayed in the 3D view automatically.
Bottom part of the tab is dedicated to Team Performances :
- Team Names are those used in the game of course but they are also used in TeamEditor for team labels and team swapping box.
- Team engines are only used by game for information
- BHP for Qual. (Qualifications) and Race set performance of the car itself during those events. By default, only CC are using that value as player always use a same default value but this can be changed using GPxPatch's "Car Power Team dependant" checkbox.
- Failure is used as a percentage, meaning higher is the value higher is the failure risk for that team.
- CC (Computer Controled Car) Gear sets how many gears will use cars driven by computer.
This Tab, used as is, gives all Driver performances, anyhow, it can be deployed using the "Show Performance Calculator" to give much more control and informations.
Main part gives following driver data (Note that any value change since TeamEditor startup will be highlighted in red) :
- Nb (Number) is Driver's car number no more no less
- Driver Names are driver names as they will appear in game. These names are also used in TeamEditor in driver swap boxes.
- Ability for Qual. (Qualification) and Race set drivers skills. Higher is that value, better will drive the driver. Note that it only concerns CC and not players who is using his own skills to drive :)
- Var (Variation) for Qual. and Race set CC drivers skills constancy. Driver's Ability is modified at each event, race or quals, in a range centered on Ability and modified by that value. Higher is that value and higher will be driver's skill inconstancy.
Extensive part of the tab gives further controls on driver performance data:
- Change line allows multiple drivers editing at once. Choose Item (Ability or range), event(Qual, Race or both) and the amount of change and clicking on "Apply" will update all performance data according to your choices.
- Swap line will give you the ability to swap two drivers in a click. Simple and handy.
Biggest part of this tab is dedicated to Performance Calculator.
This calculator uses same formula as old GP3Edit and gives relatives times compared to best driver.
Results are computed for both Race and Qualify but you can order drivers by race or by Qual. depending on your wish using right radio buttons (or clicking on list header).
Basically, all results are computed using a ratio between Team Car BHP and Individual Driver Ability.
Ratio BHP/Ability gives you opportunity to edit this ratio to give more weight to driver (ratio<1) or to the car (ration>1) in final results. Note that this ratio only change the way TeamEditor compute results, it doesn't change the way GP4 compute CC performances.
This tab can help to fix some troubles to get team pictures matching latest names changes.
You can browse teams clicking on any team label to check drivers' and cars' images.
If some images are wrongly swapped, you can then fix them, choosing a way :
- By Team : both drivers and car will be swapped between two teams
- By Driver : 2 drivers images will be swapped whatever the teams their are belonging to.
These operations should only be used at last, when every other performance changes have been done and if some images are still messed up.
This Tab named Carshapes bring important features.
First panel gives you a complete control other whole teams data, covering :
- T-Cam, Helmet and External steering wheel positions
- Arms, Rims Color and Tyre Brand
- Complete Team Performance data raw
- Both Drivers Performance data raw
- Both Driver images and Team Car Image
Once "Apply" button will be clicked, all those data will be swapped or copy (depending on your choice).
Needless to say that it will cause major changes and usage of this feature should be reserved; to simulate real exchange of two teams between 2 championship seasons for example.
Main part of the Tab is dedicated to Carshapes :
- First column is only showing team order.
- Second column shows you real names for a given year (In that version, only years from 2001 to 2004 can be displayed). Just change combobox on top of the column to see year's team order. Changing this column won't change anything in game, it's only for reference.
- Third column offers you to select a carshape for every team, amongst the list of carshapes really installed in your cars wad. Once you selected a carshape, it will be used for that team in the Game and will be displayed in TeamEditor's 3D View too.
- Latest line offers you the choice to delete all main files for a given carshape. Beware : This is the only action that will act immediately in TeamEditor and that you can't revert later by any other way than by a backup of deleted files/cars.wad. Anyhow, if you're sure you do not need a carshape anymore, you can delete it and all files in the wad related to carshape's name will be deleted, that means team.gp4 (carshapes), hi_team.tex and team.tex files (textures). All additional textures will be keep in case other carshapes were sharing them.
This way to change carshapes is a pretty new way but it is very reliable as long as modders are following very simple conditions. Annex of this document has been built in order to explain what would be the best way for modders to release simple but effective car mods.
Note: As some carshapes are released without cockpit texture (cp_team.tex file), TeamEditor could create a copy of original team texture to replace missing texture. All you need to do is to click on "Apply all" button and all missing cockpit textures will be created.
Bottom panel offers High Quality settings, forcing Game to always display best quality shapes.
Beware: using such settings can cause important framerate or PO (Processor Occupancy) drops !
Shapes that can be forced that way are Carshapes, Helmets, front and rear tyres.
Even if it does not cover every aspect of the game, TeamEditor already covers a great part of GP4 settings and I hope you will find in it a solution to your editing needs. So have a good time with TeamEditor and have an even nicer time playing GP4 :)
Laurent Rousseau (Lo2k)
Many cars updates have been released since GP4 own release.
Even if most of car updates are working with more or less pain, each of them needs a special install procedure.
What I will explain here is a way to prepare your mods in order to build auto-install files very simple to create for modders and to use by final players.
First : Harmony
Every release used its own files, mostly destinated to rewritte original ones, some creating new ones.
TeamEditor afford a new easy carshape access for players that can now select cars really present in their cars.wad.
This feature is handy and pretty intuitive for players but it lays on carshape names.
Even if we can use benetton .gp4 files containing in fact Renault shapes, it won't be that clear for players even if there won't be any harm to their GP4 install else than having carshape names wrong.
So what I could advice here is to use a simple naming convention for .gp4 files and related textures.
The idea is to replace "team" name by "realteamYYvssCC" with :
YY will be replaced by 2 digits real carshape year of apparition in F1 (so if you built a 1988 carshape, YY would be 88)
v would be version if many carshapes where released during season (a,b,c). It's facultative.
ss could be used for special notes, as "nt" for non-tobacco car. It's also facultative. This part can also be extended if it is really needed as whole team name can be up to 32 characters, but a 32 chars filename is foolish and it should not be displayed correctly in TeamEditor either.
finally, CC would be creator initials to quickly differentiate carshapes if for example you downloaded 2 carshapes of the same team and the same year but made by two different modders.
I will take an example all along that annex to be more concrete :
In that example, I just wish to release one single car, a new Renault04.
Instead of using
car_team_carx_lod_x.gp4
and related
hi_team_x.tex and team_x.tex
I will simply use (let's say my car is a standard version and my name is cc :)
car_renault04cc_car1_lod_0.gp4
and related
hi_renault04cc_x.tex and renault04cc_x.tex
.gp4 and .tex files have just to be renamed that way and don't forget to update texture names used in .gp4 files too (You can do it in 3DEditor in a few seconds for each shape).
And all other additional textures could have any name but you should be aware that if someone use the same texture name as yours, yours could be overwritten. To avoid this, you can also add only a "CC" mark to your texture names.
enginecc.tex would be safer than engine.tex as any carshaper could add such texture.
This little convention is near nothing to do but will greatly simplify everything later for players.
In my example, I have renamed my files, and also installed them in my cars.wad to test if everything was working.
Before anything, I have to open TeamEditor and to choose in what slot I will decide to use my new carshape. After installation, user will have your carshape in that slot too.
I chose Team04, original Benetton team and also took the opportunity to set every other settings: t-cam, st-wheel and helmet positions, arms and rims colors and tyre brand names.
Then I save all my changes in a Team File, unselecting all and selecting all team4 settings only. Note that if slot name is not selected, carshape will be installed in user's cars wad after installation, but he will have to select it manually in TeamEditor for the team of his choice if he wants to use it.
I saved my file under name : Renault.car.
Second : Wad Update
Using unique named files, you can use any method to update player's cars.wad without risking to overwritte past shapes he would have downloaded before.
Here you can use any tool able to update wad files but I would advice you to use new TeamPatcher 3.0.
Why ? Simply because TeamPatcher 3.0 can set every TeamEditor settings you saved in a .car file, but can now also install files in cars.wad.
TeamPatcher 3.0 can also set new carshape(s) as default one(s) for team(s) you choosed in the .car file.
All details about TeamPatcher 3.0 and the way it handles files to update is decribed in TeamPatcher User Guide, released with TeamPatcher.
You're anyhow free to use any other tool to update cars wad and to use TeamPatcher just for the installation of additional settings (T-cam and helmet positions for examples).
In my example, I will use TeamPatcher only as I was able to fully test it.
So I created a new folder named 'Renault Install' for my own organisation and opened it.
I then placed in it a copy of TeamPatcher.exe wich is the installation core, my Renault.car file wich will be used to set default installation slot and TeamEditor settings for my car and a folder named Renault as the .car file and where I copied all the files needed to update the wad, meaning all .gp4 and .tex files for my renault shapes.
As it's a personnal installation, I won't choose any preview image nor special text to display in TeamPatcher but for a real release I will of course create such files to enhance quality of the installation as TeamPatcher can handle them.
Third : Auto-Install Compressed file
Once everything is ready, you then only need a compression program to reduce size of your download.
Near every program can make Auto-install (also called make exe or sfx) compressed files.
I personnaly use Winrar wich is fast and can reduce size of files far better than winzip. Anyhow, as final file will be an exe, final user do not have to deal with compression tool at all and you can really use any compressor.
Winrar procedure is simple but needs to follow some steps :
1- Select all the files needed for install. In my example, I opened my "Renault Install" folder and selected all files.
2- Right-clic one of the file and select "Add to archive".
3- Select 'RAR' format with Best compression ratio and click "create sfx archive" in the right panel.
4- Go to advanced tab and click on "sfx options" button
5- Input "TeamPatcher.exe" (without quotes) in "Run after extraction" field.
6- Go to "Mode" Tab and check "unpack to temporary folder" (else user will have to choose a folder where all your files will be extracted too before installation, what can be interesting for advanced users too), and "hide all" silent mode.
7- You can then go back to general tab and click on "save current settings as default" for further auto-installations
8- Click on "ok" to close sfx options windows and "ok" again to start final compression.
9- Your auto-install is ready. In my example, I have a fresh "renault Install.exe" file.
Latest words
This way to install files is pretty straigth away, just needing some little renaming of important files, the use of new TeamPatcher and the use of some compression tool features.
It can install from single cars to full season carshapes with all TeamEditor settings.
Performance files still need a separate install for now because even if performance .txt format can handle it, no tools are yet able to create individual car perfs file and using individual perfs files will also bring new problems for user.
Anyhow, performances should be done for all teams related to a same season and thus have to be installed separately by user if he really wishes to change all cars performances to new levels.
I hope that these new features will help most modders and users in their everyday car updates :)
Thanks for your attention, and I really hope mods will become friendly in future :)