I've rediscovered the joy of GP2 over the last few weeks thanks to x86GP2, and there's so much to love about it. I used to play GP2 way back, and it holds a pretty special place as the first racing game I wanted to learn absolutely everything about. Even got involved in some of the online series (LFRS anyone?) and as well as having a lot of fun I also discovered there were people who were on another level in terms of speed!
I also have a lot of memories of using various utilities and add-ons, and I'm pretty certain that the main one was 'GP2Lap'. I've seen people talking about it on this forum, and so I was wondering what other people think about going with either GP2Lap or x86GP2?
I know they're not compatible, and offer different things. I remember really enjoying the extended timing options and details which I think GP2Lap offers, but on the other hand I am blown away by how amazing it is to have force feedback working via GPLaps' GP2FFB on x86GP2. I also don't have any experience of using 'dosbox' and from what I've read it sounds like that can be a bit of a pain to get working?
I'm interested in what other people's experiences are of using either one, and how to make the most of going either route.
I'm using Linux and I can't make x86gp2 run properly on there, so I can't comment much about it. Luckily I race with the keyboard so a lot of the x86 features aren't that crucial for me.
Honestly the gp2lap/gp2-dos combination is still a very enjoyable experience, its basically the exact classic traditional experience that we all remember.
You should try it out theres nothing to lose. If you have an original gp2 CD or a gp2 iso its pretty straightforward to set up. DOSBOX is not as hard as people claim. There are a few caveats though:
1. MS-DOS was a command line interface and DOSBOX is no different. Many people see a command line and get scared off. You can technically install windows on the top of it (windows was just glorified graphical frontend for DOS), but its a bad idea because you want all the available headroom for gp2. Even the original gp2 manual advises you to boot directly into dos to free up precious CPU load. You can automate all of the commands in the conf file. Its actually very simple, command line fear is not a valid reason to not use dosbox. If you absolutely must have a GUI you can maybe try windows 1 or windows 2 on top of dosbox. I wouldn't recommend it because they are half baked and barely any easier than using dos. in my opinion already windows 3.1 will be too bloated and windows 95 will be way too bloated. I'd stick with the command line and automate everything in the Conf file (its not hard)
2. You need to use the correct DOSBOX version. This can be tricky because the standard dosbox 0.74 runs the game too fast. Dosbox-X (a popular and frequently recommended fork) runs it too slow. At least 3 known variants were known to run the game at proper speed, 2 of those are no longer maintained and might be hard to find. Dosbox-ece (the old de facto standard) got discontinued and the source code is impossible to find. In my opinion this is the big problem with dosbox, already we went from dosbox svn-daum, to dosbox-ece, now to dosbox staging. The latest version of dosbox staging is unstable and they don't make that clear on their Dev site. It made my processor occupancy go too high and wasn't as smooth. I recommend using dosbox staging 0.82.2 (the one before the latest version), it will run the game at proper speed and keep the CPU down.
3. Correct configuration of dosbox is important. The dosbox staging default configuration is not ideal for gp2 in my opinion. I recommend changing these default setting for best CPU performance, picture and graphics quality. I can explain what to change if you decide to try it out. (Be aware that this might be specific to the x11 display server, maybe the rendering is better on windows, but for x11 I definitely recommend making some tweaks especially for clean graphics rendering)
Overall there's pros and cons
Some of the advantages:
- stability (at least for me, in Linux, x86 is not stable. Wine in general is not stable and not easy to use or configure. That's a big plus for dosbox if you want to use Linux)
- traditional experience
- can mount original ISO to preserve the game music (excellent!)
- arguably simpler in some ways
- classic tools and utilities (gp2lap so on)
- original tyre and engine sound (x86 subtly different?)
- physics (x86 subtly different? This could be a Linux problem on my end)
- telemetry (is this working in x86? I haven't seen anyone use it)
- also play GP1, stunt car racer, and the sentinel... or any of your other favorite dos games
The disadvantages are probably obvious:
- arguably higher processor occupancy. From what I understand, x86 is using the CPU directly whereas dosbox use emulation. I've noticed dosbox is even hard on the physical CPU. Gp2 relies heavily on the CPU, the physics engine is locked with the frame rate and graphics engine so the CPU is working hard at all times. X86 is probably using the CPU in a much more 'native' way.
- potential input lag. I use a keyboard and don't notice any lag, maybe a wheel or joystick is a different story. Its been reported that x86 removed input lag entirely.
- the peripherals like wheel and pedals will probably be harder to set up and you might need some time to find what setting works best for you.
- no force feedback that I'm aware of, would be great to get this working in dos.
- lacking other x86 features.
I can speak even more about it but the post will be too long. Let me know if there's anything more specific you want to know about it
Gp2lap is overall interesting because we can improve a lot of things since the source code is released. I am agree with enzo27 because the physics seems a little bit different. Maybe caused by the wheels but it seems not just a visual feeling.
I made a ffb for gp2lap and dosbox version based on the fantastic work of Jack (gplaps) and the help of Hatcher. For instance it is a beta version but if you would like test it I can put it here.
samsepi0l wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2026 8:00 am
Wait- you can't look at the log telemetry with x86GP2?
If so, how do you set up the car correctly?
This would make it impossible for me to use X86 if that's the case.
It crashed for me. I only speculated it because hatcher implemented his own long replay which normally in gp2v and also gp3v breaks the data logging. Hatcher made his own replay totally different from gp2video, so maybe hatcher managed a way around it, but I'm using Linux and it doesn't work properly. I didn't see any of the youtubers mentioning telemetry, but we can wait for someone who uses windows to confirm it. If you want I can delete that part of my post to avoid spreading potentially false information? Its better for windows users to comment on it to get 100% confirmation.
In DOS a simple trick to have both telemetry and long replay is to place a clean non gp2video patched exe into your main gp2 directory (rename it to something other than gp2), then simply launch the clean exe from the DOS shell, do practice session, set up the car, save setup, exit into the dos shell and launch gp2lap/gp2video, the setup file will be cross compatible you can apply it and conduct qualy/race. Only downside is you'll lose access to your qualy and race data but you'll gain the long replay
Thanks enzo for such a thorough and informative reply!
When I have some time I may well give dosbox a try, your instructions look like they'll be very helpful. I used to use MS-Dos back in the day so that would add to the nostalgia rather than scare me off! I don't have the original gp2 CD anymore (unfortunately), do you know if the version from 'myabandonware' would work just as well?
- the peripherals like wheel and pedals will probably be harder to set up and you might need some time to find what setting works best for you.
Ah I didn't think about this, but that's a good point. x86GP2 has it's own in-game method of setting up and calibrating wheel and pedals, I guess people have managed to get this working when using dosbox?
Also I can confirm that telemetry works in x86GP2 (on windows). It's actually something I've spoken to hatcher about because there are a couple of slight bugs: for example if you use the experimental higher fps mode then it only displays less than half a lap of telemetry. Sticking to normal fps is fine though, except for one very strange crash which can be avoided by not scrolling too far left.... I spent too much time trying to figure that one out!
Michael82 wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2026 4:03 am
Gp2lap is overall interesting because we can improve a lot of things since the source code is released. I am agree with enzo27 because the physics seems a little bit different. Maybe caused by the wheels but it seems not just a visual feeling.
I made a ffb for gp2lap and dosbox version based on the fantastic work of Jack (gplaps) and the help of Hatcher. For instance it is a beta version but if you would like test it I can put it here.
That would be amazing if FFB is possible for GP2lap/dosbox too! It's honestly the single best thing about x86GP2, using a direct drive wheel and having pretty decent ffb is kind of mind blowing really. I'd be much more likely to experiment with GP2lap if that doesn't mean giving up on ffb.
I can't comment on whether the physics in x86GP2 is different as I last played original GP2 maybe 20years ago on a very different system, however I have found it surprisingly easy to be fastest on ace level quite quickly. Like you say Michael this could be at least something to do with the advantage of having widescreen and seeing the wheels, as well as having a far better ffb wheel and pedals set up now of course!
