GTR2

GTR 2 - FIA GT Racing Game

This article is currently a work in progress as it is being ported over from my Secrets of GTR2 page.

GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game is a sports car racing simulator developed by Blimey! Games and SimBin Studios (later Sector3 Studios) for the x86 PC and is a sequel to GTR. Since its release in September 2006, it has received widespread acclaim. The game simulates the 2003 and 2004 FIA GT Championship racing series. (Wikipedia)

Why a game from 2006?

GTR2 was/is one of those rare occasions when a game developer is given the opportunity to produce a game as it was meant to be. All the features you see in one game or another but never all in one game these days was actually included in one game: GTR2. And it's still being updated by modders to this day!

Still Beloved and Critically Acclaimed

Here's some links that may give you a better understanding of why a game from 2006 still holds its own:

• GTR2: Why are Modern Sims Still Not as Good? [Article]
• Still The Greatest Racing Sim Ever, Here is Why [Video] - EmptyBox
• Thoughts on GTR2, And Why I Look At Sims Differently Now [Video] - SimRacing604
• GTR2 Still Rocks [Video] - GPLaps
• GTR 2 - The Sim That Keeps On Giving [Video] - Jimmy Broadbent
• GTR 2 - This is what immersion feels like [Video] - Jimmy Broadbent
• GTR2 At Its Best Looking 2023 [Video] - Shovas
• Vanilla GTR2 At Its Best Looking 2024 [Video] - Shovas
• GTR 2 - How Does It Feel With A Direct Drive Wheel? [Video] - Jimmy Broadbent
• GTR2 in VR is AMAZING (Thanks Crew Chief) [Video] - Rampski

Getting Started

Getting the Game

Steam is probably your best bet. Head over to the GTR2 store page and pick up the game. It's pretty cheap but offers amazing bang for buck.

Windows XP/Vista/7/10/11+ Compatibility

Try GTR2 first. If GTR2 is running fine for you, no need to worry about this section.

Follow this GTR2 and Windows 11 thread for more comments from other people including generic tips for 'how to run older software on newer windows'.

Compatibility Modes:

• Steam
  • GTR2Config.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Check "Run as Administrator"
  • Do NOT set a Windows Compatibility mode on either GTR2Config.exe or GTR2.exe
• Steam with Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin
  • Do NOT set either Run As Administrator or Windows Compatibility modes on GTR2.exe or GTR2Config.exe
  • If using DXVK: GTR2Config.exe functionality can be replaced by new GTR2.exe command-line switches and dxvk.conf
  • If you're having any issues check the manual for more details
• Disc
  • GTR2Config.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Check "Run as Administrator"
  • GTR2.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Check "Run as Administrator"
  • GTR2.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Set "Windows XP SP3" Compatibility mode

GTR2 and Windows 10/11+

You may need to install additional DirectX 9 June 2010 Redistributables (direct link).

If you're really stuck

There's some registry changes for GTR2.exe that may help.

This DXVK Integration > Troubleshooting section may also help in the Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin manual.

StarForce Disc Protection DRM

The following applies for Disc versions:

• StarForce Disc Protection was used at least for the Disc version of GT Legends but it is no longer compatible with Windows 7/8/10+ (see comments here)
• Never install Official SimBin 1.1: Use No-CD and EXEs from GTR2 and GTL HQ Anniversary Patches
• Never run EXEs from Disc or Demo downloads
• You can still use the Disc version after GTR2 HQ Anniversary Patch is installed (May also apply to GTL/GT Legends)

Minimum GTR2

This section outlines what I feel are the minimum tweaks to create the best vanilla GTR2 experience possible.

These are not strictly necessary to enjoy a vanilla GTR2. You can try vanilla GTR2 and come back to this later.

Skip Intro Videos

These are always annoying, here’s how to stop them (from PC Gaming Wiki.com GTR2 article):

1. Open Windows Explorer and find your Steam Library folder for the game: steamapps\common\GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game\MovieFiles
2. Rename (or delete) these files: Intro.bik, GameIntro.bik, SimBin.bik

NVIDIA Profile Settings

tl;dr

• Antialiasing compatibility: 0x004412C1 (Diablo III)
• Antialiasing – Setting: 8xS [Combined: 1×2 SS + 4x MS]
• Antialiasing – Transparency Supersampling: 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling
• Anisotropic filtering mode: User-defined / Off
• Anisotropic filtering setting: 16x
• Texture filtering – Negative LOD bias: Clamp(*)
• Texture filtering – Quality: High quality(*)

Considerations

• I run in Windowed mode, not Fullscreen mode, that may matter I’m not sure.
  • The Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin enables perfect Borderless Windowed mode. Highly recommended.
• Ensure GTR2’s Video Options (GTR2Config.exe) has Full-Screen Antialiasing -> Disabled (Unchecked)

NVIDIA Control Panel

• 3D Settings > Manage 3D Setting > Global Settings:
  • Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance

NVIDIA Profile Inspector

Download NVIDIA Inspector, virus scan at virustotal.com, and install.

Run nvidiaInspector.exe, click the Start Profile Inspector button (right-middle), find GTR 2 in the Profiles drop-down, and then set and apply these settings:

• Reset to NVIDIA Profile Defaults
• Compatibility
  • Antialiasing compatibility: 0x004412C1 (Diablo III)
• Sync and Refresh
  • Maximum pre-rendered frames: 1
• Antialiasing
  • Antialiasing – Mode: Override any application setting
    • Disable in-game Antialiasing using GTR2Config.exe
  • Antialiasing – Setting: 8xS [Combined: 1×2 SS + 4x MS]
  • Antialiasing – Transparency Supersampling: 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling
• Texture Filtering
  • Anisotropic filtering mode: User-defined / Off
  • Anisotropic filtering setting: 16x
  • Texture filtering – Negative LOD bias: Clamp(*)
  • Texture filtering – Quality: High quality(*)
• Common
  • Ambient Occlusion setting: High quality(*)
  • Ambient Occlusion usage: Enabled(*)

(*)I couldn’t quickly visually confirm these were actually doing what they should be doing but left them enabled anyway

Caution: Antialiasing can decrease performance. Reduce the setting if it slows down GTR2 too much for you.

Force Feedback Settings

I highly recommend the SHO Competition FFB mod which crowd-sources wheel-specific FFB parameters and provides PLR files for popular wheels.

Click here to download SHO Competition FFB

This is a little bit obvious, we all go pretty quickly for setting up force feedback, but I felt the need to emphasize this because the default force feedback options are, I feel, not enough to bring GTR2’s force feedback closer to modern standards.

You will most likely have to edit your UserData PLR file to get the right feel of your force feedback.

The HQ Anniversary Patch provides new UI menus that give you access to more FFB tuning parameters than the default screens provided. They don’t provide access to the most important FFB tuning parameters, unfortunately. The only other method is, unfortunately, to edit the GTR2\UserData\User.PLR file.

So, for those reasons, see the SHO Competition FFB mod linked above.

4GB Patch

You can allow GTR2 to use up to 4GB of memory (it was developed with a 2GB limit). You may find this necessary as you add more and more mods with new assets that take up more and more memory. So you might as well just do it now.

Simply download the 4GB Patch tool, run it, find your GTR2.exe file, and press OK. You’re done!

The 4GB patch appears to have successfully applied on the GTR2 NO CD patch GTR2.exe file I discussed above under the “Fixing Missing Original Content” heading.

Note: If you happen to overwrite your GTR2.exe file then you will need to run this again. For example, if you rerun the US/EU or NoCD patches mentioned earlier.

Defviews.cam Tweaks (Draw Distance, Level of Detail, etc.)

Increase Draw Distance

You can increase the Draw Distance by editing UserData\defviews.cam and changing the second parameter of ClipPlanes to a larger value. I use 100000.000000. For comparison, the original values vary from 500 to 2500, and HQ Anniversary Patch uses 33000.

Caution: On old hardware, this may lower FPS, but on any kind of modern hardware I don’t think you’ll notice.

Increase Level of Detail

Increasing LODMultiplier can increase the Level of Detail. I use a value of 8.00000. In my experience, the original LODMultiplier values (1.0) causes visually noticeable and jarring loading in of high or low detail car models depending on how far away they are from you.

Caution: On old hardware, this may lower FPS, but on any kind of modern hardware I don’t think you’ll notice.

High Resolution Mirrors

Mirrors are low resolution in GTR2 with no way to fix in-game. No worries, just download High Resolution Mirrors by Speed1 and drop MIRROR.BMP in your GameData\Teams folder. That’s it.

You can also extract MIRROR.BMP from the HQ Anniversary Patch by GTR233. It’s a bit more work but they might be newer, and there’s a 1K and 2K version, but honestly I can’t see much of a difference.

Original Tracks Updates

• DirectX 9 Converted Original Tracks Updates
• Invisible Collision Barriers Fixes for AI Tracks Updates

Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin

I consider Crew Chief and the GTR2 Enhancements Plugin that it comes with to be part of the minimum tweaks to bring GTR2 up to a more modern and enjoyable experience.

Requires Steam GTR2 or HQ Anniversary Patch compatibility options

Crew Chief brings a voice spotter which the GTR2 Enhancement Plugin enables but the plugin also provides other great fixes and features like graphics flicker fixes, use-all-cores, borderless windowed mode, various crash case fixes, VR support, gearbox enhancements, and a lot more and a lot more coming from the sounds of it.

Click here for the GTR2 Enhancements Plugin homepage with the latest details.

See the full list of features below.

Download and Install

Click here to download from the Crew Chief homepage and it will come with the latest release of the GTR2 Enhancements Plugin. The download link is in the middle of the page (“Download CrewChief for PC”).

Install Crew Chief, run it, select GTR2 under the “Game” heading, and click Properties:

• Set “GTR 2 install path (text)” to your GTR2 folder path
  • Something like “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game” but yours might be different
• Set “GTR 2 launch exe (text)” to your GTR2.exe path and file name
  • Something like “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game\GTR2.exe” but yours might be different

Then you just click the Start Crew Chief button when you want to use it with GTR2.

You’ll know it’s working if you hear a voice when you get into the cockpit.

Features

As of October 6, 2022, Crew Chief and the GTR2 Enhancement Plugin enable and feature:

• Crew Chief
  • Spotter with real voice call-outs for things like “car left/right”, time remaining, cars gaining from behind, etc. It’s extremely well done. Absolutely recommend downloading Crew Chief.
• GTR2 Enhancements Plugin
  • Spotter Implementation and some Accuracy Customization
  • VR Support
  • Custom Rules
    • Customize various stock rules
    • Add DRS Rules
  • FFB Changes
    • Stationary Tyre Friction
    • Fix for losing FFB
    • Flat Spots
    • Dirt Pickup
  • Gearbox Changes
    • Lift-to-Shift
    • Antistall
    • Damage
    • Gear grinding on mis-shifts
  • Graphics Changes
    • Flicker fix
    • Borderless Windowed Mode (excellent implementation; feels native)
    • UI Squeeze for Triples and Ultrawide Screens
    • Wiper Animation
    • Backfire Effects
    • Improved Rain Reflection Quality
    • Improved Rain Reflection Performance
  • Motec Changes
    • Enhanced Motec (more information)
    • Additional Data Pages
    • Additional Data Page Unit Styles
  • Tire Enhancements
    • Separate Visual Tire Per Compound
  • DXVK Integration
    • “DXVK implements DX9 by using Vulkan. On some hardware, when used with GTR2 it improves framerate (especially in VR), memory usage and image quality.”
    • DXVK “SGSSAA”
      • “GTR2 specific DXVK fork supports AA form that looks similar to SGSSAA”
  • Memory Usage Optimizations
  • Decoupled High Refresh Rate Physics
    • A new physics thread can now run at native rate (tied to fps) or 400hz, 800hz, 1600hz, and 3200hz (real-world performance depends on your cpu)
  • Decoupled High Refresh Rate Inputs/FFB
    • A new Inputs/FFB thread can now run at native rate (tied to fps) or 200hz, 400hz, 800hz, or 1600hz (real-world performance depends on your cpu)
  • Additional Fixes
    • Always-on Fixes
      • Various crash case fixes
      • Optimized Framerate, memory usage, and image quality (on some hardware)
      • Reduce Headlight/Shadow Flicker (introduced with Steam GTR2)
      • Fix Missing rF1 Plugin API Telemetry Data
      • Enable Championship/Driving School Page Icons
      • Disable Use of My Documents for Game User Profile
      • Applies Changeable Weather Patch by Jstn
      • Add New Control Bindings In-Game Under Controls->Extra (scroll to bottom to view them)
    • Automatic Use-All-Cores-or-Some-CPU-Cores Setting for Improved FPS
    • VR Lens Flare Effect adjustment
    • Motion System Mode
    • Per-Car Settings File for Modders (mostly)
    • Per-Track Settings File

Modern GTR2

GTR2 holds up remarkably well in the features department but shows its age in the level of quality we now expect of those features. Some things can be improved like textures, visual effects, sounds, even AI and new and improved cars and tracks, themselves.

HQ Anniversary Patch

HQ Anniverary Patch is the go-to drop-in mod to modernize GTR2 with just one mod.

Click here to download HQ Anniversary Patch and remember there are 2 parts to download (as of June 2022).