When you make a track and give it a name, traxx saves the base track files using the first eight letters of the track's name.
So, for example, suppose your new track will be called "World Finals 4". When you write the pod, traxx will automatically create all the necessary files to make it work using "WORLDFIN" as the base file name. That is, all the files in the data folder will be WORLDFIN.CLR, WORLDFIN.LTE, WORLDFIN.RAW, WORLDFIN.TXT etc. And, of course, the sit file will be WORLDFIN.SIT. There are other files that use the same name but you should be getting the idea by now.
The same thing would be true if the track was called "World Finals 3" or "World Finals 5" or "World Finals Anything You like". The point is only the first eight characters are used for the name, and any track sharing the same eight characters will conflict in the game and cause problems for anybody who wants to mount both at the same time.
Fortunately, there is a way to use any name you want and it will not conflict with other tracks. And this can be done in at least two different but easy ways.
Method one.
- Finish your track
- Give it a unique track name in the same way you would for a texture or model; use up to eight characters for the name; this will look weird in the game but we won't leave it like this
- Save the traxx txx file (this is important)
- Write the pod
- Close Traxx
- Use winpod and extract all files AND save a response file
<center>
</center>
- Look in the world folder for the sit file that has the same name you just gave your track; open it in notepad (or your favorite text editor).
- Line 3 will be the same as the name you gave the track in traxx. For example, crazy 98 looks like this:
<blockquote>
crazy98.lvl
!Race Track Name
Crazy '98</blockquote>
- Change line three to the name you want for your track. Eg.
<blockquote>
crazy98.lvl
!Race Track Name
World Finals 4</blockquote>
- Save.
- Close notepad.
- In winpod, open the response file you made when you extracted everything. The file will be your track name plus an LST extenstion.
- Click make, and repod your track.
- Close winpod, you're done. Your track now has the name you want but since the base file name is unique there are no more conflicts.
Method two.
- Finish your track
- Call it anything you like, save the txx and write the pod. Exit traxx.
- Open Tracked2, goto the file manager
- Press 2 extract files from pod and type your pod name when asked
- Check the world folder to find the sit name
- Press B create a new level (clone) and type the sit name when asked and give it a unique name for the base file names and then finally type the name you want the track to have
- Press C create a pod file of your level and follow the prompts using the new base name you gave.
- Close tracked2, you're done.
Both methods work equally well. The main thing to remember is that conflicts are caused by the base file names and not the actual track name itself. Theoretically, I could call one track "PHIN1" and another "PHIN2" and so on, and as long as nobody else uses this naming scheme, then I'll never have a track name conflict regardless of what I call my tracks. I think this is especially helpful for track makers using similar names (eg. Minneapolis ...) or for makers creating things in series (eg. Alpine's crazy, Alpine's extremely, Alpine's certifiably, etc.).
I hope this helps.
Update:
Other POD creation utilities
-
C-POD
-
POD Tool
