http://www.gp2.unprofessional.info/

Oli's GP2 stuff

+++ 19441 visitors since 15/07/2005 +++ last update 20/03/2006 23:03:32 (GMT +02:00) +++

http://www.gp2.unprofessional.info

Microprose's GrandPrix 2 - is there really someone out there still playing this game? I do, and I may be the last idiot still creating tracks and stuff for it, but it's fun :) If you are also still enjoying GP2 you can download some things I made here, as I decided to share my "creations" with other people. Unfortunately I lost almost everything I had made some years ago when the HD of my old PC crashed :( So you just find some of my newer works here and the two tracks avaiable at gprix2.com. This big resource for GP2 addons, tracks, carsets, ... can be found on Marc Aarts' http://www.gprix2.com (formally known as gprandprix2.com). Another great (and still regulary updated) site for GP2-things is Andreas Schulz' http://www.grandprix2.de. You should visit (one of) those sites when you are looking for "real" collections of GP2-addons, I only collected "my" stuff here :)

[ Top ]

News

20/03/2006 : Sources
Today I put the source codes of GP2TrackBrowser and GP2TrackColorTool on the website. The codes are hardly documented and rather chaotic, but I didn't find the time to clean it up the way I would have liked to do. I wrote the programs some months ago and learned some more within the last time, so I'd do many things different now.
However - If you like, download it, look at it, change it, use it. Maybe you can do some more with it than I can do at the moment...
I used Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 to create it. The code is published under the GNU General Public License. You find the links to the sources in the same place you find the program.

28/02/2006 : Only the server changed...
It's been a long time since I last updated this site. The reason is, that I hardly have any time to work on GP2-related projects at the moment. This is why I decided to make the tools I wrote "Open Source". I'll probably distribute it licensed under the GPL. So I'm currently making the code a bit more "organized" - adding comments and cleaning up some chaotic constructions - hoping that it will be understandable to those who are interested ;-) I hope I'll be able to publish the code within the next few weeks - depending on the time I have and the time I need for the code-review.
A little "update"-note: The site has moved to a new server. Nothing but the server should have changed.

12/09/2005 : Lack of time...
Not much has changed within the last month... I'm really sorry for this but the reason for the few things happening here is, that I'm really busy working for the tests for university at the moment. So, as long as there's noone willing to give me my diploma for GP2 patching, I will have to learn :-(
Another four weeks of work and I'm finished with my tests for this semester, I hope to be able to finish some things lonely waiting on my computer ;-)

10/08/2005 : New: News & "Development Section"
I just decided to add this "news" category to the website, so you can easily see what has changed...
I updated the site and made a "Development" section where you can find unfinished stuff for testing, suggesting etc. I added my latest "under construction" work there, the GP2TrackColorPreview Tool. Read more below :)
Oli

[ Top ]

Overview


[ Top ]

Development Versions

GP2TrackColorPreview v0.231 10/08/2005 | Download (33 KB)
GP2TrackColorPreview v0.231 My intention was writing a tool that uses screenshot images (taken with GP2Lap or so) to preview the effect of the 0xC9-Command ("change colors in GP2 palette"). The job didn't sound too hard, but was more difficult than expected. However I made a first "development" version to be published here as I hope for some feedback that could help to improve :)
As you may have guessed, you will need the Microsoft .Net Framework to run this software, avaiable here. You might also need a file called 'mscoree.dll', you can find it here.

Download the source code here.

[ Top ]

Teams

Kirsch-Opel (2000) 12/09/2005 | Download (9,2 KB)
Kirsch-Opel (2000) I found this on a HD again... A team I once made with my brother and me driving

Kirsch-Rover (2001) 12/09/2005 | Download (10,2 KB)
Kirsch-Rover (2001) I found this on a HD again... A team I once made with my brother and me driving

Kirsch-Rover (2005) 12/09/2005 | Download (10,4 KB)
Kirsch-Rover (2005) I found this on a HD again... A team I once made with my brother and me driving.
I made this in 2000/2001 but as this team is used for Np's GP2 RL I called it the "2005"-version :)

[ Top ]

Tools

GP2TrackBrowser v1.1 28/07/2005 | Download (133 KB)
GP2TrackBrowser v1.1 With this tool you can browse folder for GP2-Trackfiles and view some of the GP2Info and a track preview image. You can select tracks for a set and export it into a gp2lap.cfg file to use these tracks in GP2(Lap). IMHO it is useful if you have lots of tracks on your HD, I wrote it because I was sick of the chaos and I was annoyed by the fact, that I always forgot the filenames of the tracks I wanted to drive on :)
This package includes German and English language file.

New in v1.1:
  • Some bug fixes:
    • In v1.0 the program had problems when the GP2Info contained letters like "Umlauts" (äöü...) and other "non-standard-chars". I noticed that when working on my "Rüsselsheimring" and fixed it. Should work now for the common used characters I guess.
    • Fixed checksum calculation. Something was wrong with it in the last version. Although this had no or hardly any effects on the program, I fixed it as I'm thinking of using the checksum in the future somehow.
    • Removed a bug that occured when you searched a track from your file list in your track list by clicking the "?"-button. The track had not been selected correctly; you noticed that when pressing the up/down keys. This is fixed now.
    • Fixed a bug in the "large track image" window. The image in it is always shown as a square (due to the image's dimensions). So width/height of the image have to be adjusted to the window's size, aswell as the image's position in the window. In some situations the image was not positioned correctly, this bug is fixed in this version.
  • Completely worked the trackmap routines over. The program will now not always read the whole .dat-file if this is not necesary. It will create a .png-image-file in the program's folder when loading a track for the first time (or when the file does not exist for any other reason) and use this file instead in the future.
  • Above all the internal image-handling has been worked over so that the program needs way less memory! All these improvements will (hopefully) make the program and especially scanning track files faster than before.
  • Improved (in my opinion...) the track images by adding some text to it (Track name, country, year, length und file name).
  • The program will now save the current/last used track list in a textfile (tracklist.inf in your program's folder) and will load this list on startup. This will save time (I hope) and makes usage more handy. The program will not (yet?) determine if a file in this saved track list really exists when loading it so it could lead to problems when exporting into a gp2lap.cfg-file. Maybe you could get an error message when you deleted one (or more) of the mentioned .png files or when you copied the program- directory to another location on your HD. If you like to avoid these problems, I recommend not to delete .png files or change the program's folder and if you do, delete tracklist.inf!
  • Added a "Clear List" button to clear the track-list directly
  • Added a startup-window. It doesn't look very nice and it's use is not great, but as loading the program can take some time when you have a big tracklist.inf (=> many files to load to your track list) I thought it would be good to see, that something's happening :-)
  • The file's checksum is now shown in the track list. This information is probably not that useful, but we all want information... Mainly added it for debugging and decided it won't make it worse to leave it as a feature in the program.


Note: you will need the Microsoft .Net Framework to use this software, downloadable here. You might also need a file called 'mscoree.dll', you can find it here.

Download the source code here.

GP2QualifyingLaps 26/07/2005 | Download (9,25KB)
GP2QualifyingLaps This is a little tool to change the number of laps in Friday/Saturday qualifying. To make it a bit more like nowadays, you could e.g. use "2" for Friday (as there is no qualifying) and "3" for Saturday, what makes exactly one "hot lap".
Thanks to Rafael 'Nitr0Mind' Nardi for his tutorial how to change laps.
Note that you will need the Microsoft .Net Framework to run this software, avaiable here. You might also need a file called 'mscoree.dll', you can find it here.

[ Top ]

Tracks

Indianapolis F1 14/08/1999 | Download (230 KB)
Indianapolis F1 The first track I ever finished. It was the circuit they built for the 2000 USA F1 Grandprix in Indianapolis. This track has many bugs and is not very nice, you'll get much better versions somewhere else. Maybe I'll do an update one day...

Small Hockenheimring ("Querspange") 03/07/2000 | Download (23,3 KB)
Small Hockenheimring ("Querspange") The "short" version of the Hockenheimring, also known as "Querspange". It is used for Formula 3 and other races.

Rüsselsheimring 29/07/2005 | Download (117KB)
Rüsselsheimring This circuit is located in my hometown, Rüsselsheim (near Frankfurt/Main). It is not a real circuit, but I built a racing track based on the real existing roads in the city.
Track length: 5,38km

[ Top ]

Links

[ Top ]

Link Me

So if you like to link my website, you can use the following banner:
Oli's GP2 stuff

If you are lazy, just copy & paste the following code ;)

Of course you can change that code or just write your own and of course you can also save the banner image to your own webspace...
If you link me, tell me and your site will probably be linked, too.
[ Top ]

Contact

Oliver Kirsch

E-Mail: oli@unprofessional.info
ICQ: 252756380
[ Top ]

Disclaimer

1. Content
The author reserves the right not to be responsible for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided. Liability claims regarding damage caused by the use of any information provided, including any kind of information which is incomplete or incorrect,will therefore be rejected.
All offers are not-binding and without obligation. Parts of the pages or the complete publication including all offers and information might be extended, changed or partly or completely deleted by the author without separate announcement.

2. Referals, Links and third party content
The author is not responsible for any contents linked or referred to from his pages - unless he has full knowledge of illegal contents. If any damage occurs by the use of information presented there, only the author of the respective pages might be liable, not the one who has linked to these pages. Furthermore the author is not liable for any links in E-Mails, banners and textlinks.

3. Copyright
The author intended not to use any copyrighted material for the publication or, if not possible, to indicatethe copyright of the respective object.
The copyright for any material created by the author is reserved. Any duplication or use of objects such as diagrams, sounds or texts in other electronic or printed publications is not permitted without the author's agreement.

4. Privacy policy
If the opportunity for the input of personal or business data (email addresses, name, addresses) is given, the input of these data takes place voluntarily. The use and payment of all offered services are permitted - if and so far technically possible and reasonable - without specification of any personal data or under specification of anonymized data or an alias. The use of published postal addresses, telephone or fax numbers and email addresses for marketing purposes is prohibited, offenders sending unwanted spam messages will be punished.

German version & "Impressum" can be found here.
[ Top ]

Copyright Notice

© 2005 Oliver Kirsch (oli@unprofessional.info), all rights reserved.