MTM2.com

version 1.0.34

I tried it because of your post.

it should work then
your bat looks good.
they way i did it was i went into tools...foldrer options...file types..pod file...added an entry for podzip
then i went into the registry and added a ' PZIP' to the entry for pod_auto_file\podzip cause i wasnt sure how to put it in right in folder options.

Attention CH_MMV

C-POD.INI -- will not analyze my ini, it hangs up with this error message:

"G:\MTM2\c:\desktop\test\ignit_mt.pod Does not exist."

"c:\desktop\test\ignit_mt.pod" is perhaps the 25th entry in my list, but the first with an absolute path. Previous ones include things like "beta\track.pod" or just plain "tpark.pod". Like you, I use notepad to mount my files, 99.473% of the time. G:\MTM2 is my game folder.

I removed these entries so I could proceed. It worked.


As for C-POD, I submit for your consideration the following: Changing the "Track Race Type" to 5 turns an MTM2 track into an Evo1 "bomb tag"' track. Bomb tag is a multiplayer game where you have a large bomb hovering over your truck and you chase others down tryinging to pass it on by tagging them (I only saw it once so I can't describe it in detail). It would be a good fit into your track type changer, but I couldn't gues how much use it would get." Convert to <u>B</u>omb Tag (4x4 Evo)"


As for the Tr?ck "status" changer, I think you should have a confirmation or warning on there or something. I don't like the fact that it immediately edits the file on disk without warning, but that's your call. I also wonder if pod edits such as these render pods incompatible with others for multiplayer purposes. Any idea on that?


More, another day.

coldseasonexecute,

OH! i didnt know u could put absolute paths into the pod.ini. Makes perfect sense but i never thought of it. Thanx for the heads up.
I'll add in that code.

bomb tag sounds like fun I wish i didnt have the special edition of evo.
I could add it pretty easily but woudl it actually be compatible with evo? I know evo runs mtm2 tracks so it should work. nvm. no reason it shouldnt work.
umm
well i dont know how mtm2 checks to see if two tracks are the same version. I assume it does some sort of checksum. If you have it set to rally and someone else has it set to circuit then it will say they are different but if someone changes theirs to the other version then it shouldnt give u the error anymore. mtm2 doesnt take into consideration the date that a file was modified when checking to see if people have the same version.

I'll release a new version soon. Thanx guys

want me to add texture replacing to c-pod? it wont give that pesky file to large bull that mdmre's did.

I've been meaning to add a listing of the textures that a bin uses to c-pod. Maybe i should.

> want me to add texture replacing to c-pod?

How would that work since the bins are in the pod. Maybe a stand alone? That'd be pretty spiffy. Let's see.

List all textures on left, text boxes beside each for replacements on right? Or maybe browse to them to avoid spelling erros?


> I've been meaning to add a listing of the textures that a bin uses to c-pod. Maybe i should.

That couldn't hurt. Question. What if I have a truck.pod that's giving an error in the game. Could you do something to tell what files are missing, are they on the harddrive and an option to merge them in the pod so as to create a fixed pod from the broken one? Building truck pods is probably the toughest challenge for new truck makers. We've seen it since the first days of mtm.

>> coldseasonexecute

hehe, that flew right over my head the first time I read it, sounded like a programming function.


>> OH! i didnt know u could put absolute paths into the pod.ini.

Absolutely.

On a related note, both directory paths and filenames can be truncated to eight-dot-three.
For example: c:\desktop\betatracks\BetaOnTheFly.pod
will work when listed as: c:\desktop\betatr~1\BetaOn~1.pod

This and the send-to bat talk reminds me of something.... I'll have to post a new thread in the utilities forum.


>> would it actually be compatible with evo?

Absolutely, I've done it.


Another error -- I moved the program folder and when I next ran C-POD I saw...

"run-tike error '76': path not found"

The problem is the program's "startup" registry entries of course, having fixed themselves to specific directories the first time the program was run. To fix things I had to delete the program's version specific registry keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\C-POD.1.0.34

Deleting the "startup" sub-key alone worked too. Run tike run.


>> want me to add texture replacing to c-pod?

I'm not one to request much of anything, but my guess is that something that would be easier to use than any other method out there would certainly get used by those who might have trouble with the current techniques (mdmre's replacer, hex editing and binnamer). What Phin just said - right on. Aiming development at truck makers, especially the less expereriences ones, seems a good thing.

For what it's worth, I love WinPOD, and even though I have Evo1 pods around I still have it associated to the POD format. A program would have to do everything Winpod does and more, as cleanly and quickly as it does, before I'd associate pods to it.


>> [legwon] CH!!!!!!!!!!! u gave a bloody heart attack! lol.

I saw that too, I had to laugh.

Is that what's causing that? I have to go check. I've been driving myself crazy over this one.




hehe, I like his 'untranspartize' message too.

what unntransparatize message?

why didnt u put c-pod where u wanted it in the first place?
arugh - i'll have to add more code for such fickle people

I am now planning on making c-pod do everything that winpod does and i'm going to make it do it better - like it will support drag+drop (it supports drag to the program now to add files but dragging out to extract files i havent quite figured out yet)

I fixed the absolute path problem fixed in c-pod.ini. I'll release it when i have gotten c-pod up to date.

for texture replacing when u hit details on the small wireframe of a bin there will be a new listing on the details page - it shows the textures in a file. I will probably make it so you can double click to rename one or somthing like that.
I already got the code for showing the texture names - i just need to write the code for replacing.

>> why didnt u put c-pod where u wanted it in the first place?

I did, but then...

>> arugh - i'll have to add more code for such fickle people

Here's quick fix, a version specific "uninstall" reg file: <a href=http://mtm2.com/~trackville/tmp/Uninstall%20C-POD.1.0.34.zip>Uninstall C-POD.1.0.34.reg (zip)</a>

It simply removes the proper registry key using a hyphen (<a href=http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310516>tech info</a>).

Ok i have added quite a few things like extract all. save lst. texture replacing. probably a few other that i cant remember here.
I still need to:

1. add making a pod from a lst
2. add BMP -> ACT + RAW
3. modify podzipping to utilize item 1 in this list
4. viewing an ACT pallete
5. untransparatizing an ACT
6. making a pod from dragging a bunch of files to it
7. add default name for extracting a file (dont know why i left this out the first time around)

Then C-POD will replace these programs:

pod Comment Master
Podzip
FlyRawGui (And you can do batch conversions )
Winpod (and it wont have that pesky smaller-file-leaves-end-of-bigger-file error)
Untransparatize
MDMRE's Bin Texture Replacer / Hex Editor
probably some other programs i cant think of

That sound good so far?

want me to add obj file collapsed face removal?

What else? Any ideas/suggestions?
Please tell me anything no mater how small it may seem.

Hokey Smokes ! I can't imagine how you're going to work all that into a single program. However, since the goal is to do everything, then I might as well put it in here.

• Build a pod from a TRK file.

What I'm thinking is open a trk file, read through it to see what files are needed, find those files and read the files they require, open everything in a winpod/c-pod interface ready for building the pod. Click make to give it a name. I don't know if that can be done from c-pod but I'd bet if it was a stand alone, it would soon be the number one downloaded mtm utility. This is the most over-due but never made program.

I can do that.

Let me think. Whats needed for a truck?

<table><tr><td>
MTM2 truckName
Bigfoot</td></tr><tr>
<td>truckModelBaseName
bigfoot </td><td>From this we get Bigfoot.bin (and bigfoot0.bin and bigfoot1.bin if they exist.) Then we need to open them to find the the raw names. And we need to get the act names too if they exist.</td></tr><tr><td>
tireModelBaseName
bfc</td><td>From this we get bfc08l.bin bfc08r.bin bfc10l.bin bfc10r.bin bfc16l.bin bfc16r.bin and they are all mandatory. And of corsee their raws and their acts if they exist.</td></tr><tr>
<td>axleModelName
axle3.bin</td><td>Obviously we need this model and it's textures</td></tr><tr><td>
shockTextureName
shock2.raw</td><td>Need this raw and matching act.</td></tr><tr><td>
barTextureName
axlebar2.raw
</td><td>This raw and act</td></tr><tr><td>
axlebarOffset
1.281250,-3.156250,-0.113281
driveshaftPos
0.000000,-2.456250,-0.113281
faxle.rtire.static_bpos.x
4.291666
faxle.ltire.static_bpos.x
-4.291666
raxle.rtire.static_bpos.x
4.291666
raxle.ltire.static_bpos.x
-4.291666
faxle.rtire.static_bpos.y
-3.800000
faxle.ltire.static_bpos.y
-3.800000
raxle.rtire.static_bpos.y
-3.800000
raxle.ltire.static_bpos.y
-3.800000
faxle.rtire.static_bpos.z
6.100000
faxle.ltire.static_bpos.z
6.100000
raxle.rtire.static_bpos.z
-5.500000
raxle.ltire.static_bpos.z
-5.500000
Scrape point 1 body axis x,y,z
-3.671875,0.000000,9.195312
Scrape point 2 body axis x,y,z
3.667969,0.000000,9.195312
Scrape point 3 body axis x,y,z
-3.671875,2.562500,9.195312
Scrape point 4 body axis x,y,z
3.667969,2.562500,9.195312
Scrape point 5 body axis x,y,z
-2.605469,5.230469,1.894531
Scrape point 6 body axis x,y,z
2.605469,5.230469,1.894531
Scrape point 7 body axis x,y,z
-2.144531,5.230469,-0.796875
Scrape point 8 body axis x,y,z
2.097656,5.230469,-0.796875
Scrape point 9 body axis x,y,z
-3.671875,2.816406,-9.199219
Scrape point 10 body axis x,y,z
3.667969,2.816406,-9.199219
Scrape point 11 body axis x,y,z
-3.671875,0.000000,-9.199219
Scrape point 12 body axis x,y,z
3.667969,0.000000,-9.199219
</td></tr><tr><td>
Instrument Cluster
powerbig</td><td>Technically we should include this but no one makes new ones so i dont have to </td></tr><tr><td>
Wave File
bfootf.wav
bfootu.wav
bfootd.wav</td><td>Need these 3 files</td>
</tr><tr><td>
Number of Lights
11
Light 0 type
0
Light 0 body axis pos x,y,z (ft), bitmap radius (ft)
-2.421875,1.862500,8.695312,1.250000
Light 0 heading (rad), pitch (rad), heading spin speed (rad/sec)
0.000000,-0.174533,0.000000</td></tr><tr><td>
Light 0 cone: length (ft), base radius (ft), rim radius (ft), texture name
75.000000,0.700000,11.000000,litefuzz.raw
Light 0 source: bitmap name
headlite.raw</td><td>Need these raws and acts</td></tr><tr><td>
Light 0 ms on, ms off (0 if light doesn't blink)
0,0</td></tr></table>

That look right?

<pre>Instrument Cluster --> Technically we should include this<br>powerbig but no one makes new ones so i dont have to
</pre>If the instrument cluster is side-stepped, then there should at least be a warning to build a lst file if powerbig is not indicated.

Also, I think scrape points would be an added bonus/challenge. Tracked2 automatically calculates them when you load a trk, so we have something to use as a bench mark. And an option to not calculate them could be handy.

> That look right?

Yep. Of course something else will always come up, but that looks like a good start, yep yep yeppers.


ps. nice screenshot mal ;-)

C-POD2417.zip
C-POD 1.0.39
C-POD.INI 1.0.33

C-POD added features:

Make a pod from a LST
Make a pod from dragging a bunch of files to the C-POD File list
Make a pod from a TRK
Extract all files from a pod
Make a LST from a pod
View a list of the textures in a BIN
Change the Textures in a BIN
View all the colors in an ACT File
Conversion of BMP to RAW
To open files in C-pod drag them to the word "C-POD"
Batch conversion of BMP to RAW
Batch conversion of RAW to BMP
Double click comment to edit it
Probably more that I can't remember

Please give comments.

Could someone go thru this thread and remove all the stuff not relevent to C-POD? Thanx.

It's going to take a bit to check all this out. But wow wee yowza man this looks great!

http://badassrebels.net/ch_2005/downloa ... /C-POD.asp

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When trying to use <Open With>
Run-time error '52':
Bad file name or number

When I said no to load anyway when there was a missing bin
Run-time error '13':
Type mismatch

And I couldn't podzip for some reason. Everything went through the motions, but no file was saved.

-----------

I used cpod to extract the truck pod, renamed a trk, gave it a new truck name, and opened it up. It prompted for litefuzz.raw. No problem. But no podzipping. The truck ran fine in the game.

I deleted the folders and extracted jamnjim's carm pack. Opened LILJEEP, and made a pod. No problem, but no podzipping. I podzipped manually and tried in game. No problem.

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What I'd like to see.

Extract options on the menu instead of context pop up. On both is okay.

The stock pod prompt for podzipping should auto detect and not need a prompt.

I'd like to see lst and trk files just open into cpod before making a pod. Then if everything looks good, have the option to save on the menu. (it can be grayed out for normal pods). I realize a 'save' on the menu might get confusing with the real time writing you're doing, so I'm open to suggestion.

I'd like to see stock files auto excluded when opening trk files. Light and fuzzes don't extract with the stock truck pod. This would confuse noobs. We'd need to tell them to ignore the prompt, which can lead to ignoring other important things.

I didn't check sound files (yet). Didn't drag and drop either.

I'd like to see raws and acts viewed in the details window.

When I copied the picture window, the whole thing copied, not just the raw - like tx raw would do.

-----------

What I liked.

It's getting easier to use with every update.

The actual making of the trk pod was a snap.

Editing the comment is nice now. Best yet.

The raw and bmp converter worked on the tests I did.

The texture list for bin files (handy) - in the big window.

The progress bar is a fine indicator of what's going on.

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CH, I salute you. Great job so far. This is turning into a fantastic program.

finaly someone with comments
keep em coming
oh - and thanx for removing the superfluous posts.

I know thanx for postin that link againOpen with put's "quotes" on the file name. C-POD wasnt removing them. This is possibly the reason the PZIP trick wasnt working earlier for someone. Make sure the path has no quotes. Actually i think it should work now.huh? be more specificoops. I had all the podzip code inside the if block for overwriting. So on v.1.0.39 podzipping only works if u are overwriting pod. I have since fixed this.So you want me to podzip as i go along making a pod from a trk?and from an lst?

be back l8r.

Hydro spiked just as I was clicking submit. Here it is all over again, tho you know it's abbrev...

> 'Open with' adds quotes

Just to be clear, I wasn't using the 'send to' trick.

> Run-time error '13':
> Type mismatch

I deliberately deleted files required by the trk. When a texture was missing, I clicked load anyway and it did. When a bin was missing, I clicked forget about it and got the above massage.

> So you want me to podzip as i go along making a pod from a trk?

I checked mdmre's repaint tutorial and it says to extract truck2 and startup. It would be easier without the startup but it's no big deal. The choice is yours.

> and from a lst?

On the todo list with drag & drop

be back l8r :o)

Drag and drop art folder (complete folder, not just files - the way pod tool works)

Run-time error '13':
Type mismatch

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When drag and dropping individual files, it seems fine. However, when prompting to over write existing files, options to over write "all or none" might be nice. Might save the carpal click click click.

For what it's worth, I've become sensitive to the carpal thing since about a year ago.... after I did a job that required excessive clicking. Never had a problem before but it's never been the same since. This is probably one reason I like right click and menus better than double click. But keep in mind this is a strictly personal thing. I'm not in need of a seeing eye dog yet, so please continue as you see fit.

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After doing this a while, I wonder if prompting is necessary at all. Although, it does make it nice to target a non-standard directory.

On the other hand, prompting to locate files is extremely nice. I really like that part (I've taken to using non-standard locations lately). So, maybe a thing to do would be to have a preference of some sort that lets you use "default locations or prompt individually." By the same token, being able to move files in the pod might be a handy after-thought solution to misdireted files. Of course, default would have to have a place for files that don't fit the norm. You know, if unknown type, then /extras/file.ufo or something like that.

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I love it that long names are possible, but I think it would be wise to do something about spaces in file names. For a text file, it would be fine. But a game file probably won't work.

winpod had the red/gree light idea when files couldn't be found. You have that beat already with your set up - can't load what's not there. However, it might be a thought to do a run check. What I mean is, will this pod work in the game. Maybe only needed for trucks. And of course when loading a trk we already know if files are missing. But, if based on the trk, if there are files missing, then there might be a flag of some sort to say it probably won't go. A bonus would be a way to tell what files are missing and an option to look in the models and art folders to add them if they're there, or browse to load, or create default textures with metalcr2.act file. These are just ideas, mind you. But a run flag might be the trick to loading pods prior to saving... like we talked about before.

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Pod zipping an open pod, over writing an existing pod in the process, worked fine... from what I can tell.

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Extract LST file. I was prompted to over write but nothing was there. Then it kicked out my favorite frustration.

Run-time error '76':
Path not found

Could that be because I was prompted for a directory instead of a file? Or a protected mode ram disk? Winpod doesn't like my ram disks either. Hates them, in fact.

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Texture replacer appeared to work fine. However, when I closed the picture window, the wire frame was left in the details window but no file was listed in the file list. The sit file view on the other hand worked fine; the details window was unaffected by opening.

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Also, I just noticed I'm getting a odd letter U enclosed in curly braces in most title bars and column headings. Anything up with that?

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I wouldn't mind being able to expand to full screen view

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Potential right click (windows context menu) options. Podzip, view map (if pod contains sit file), view map (stand alone sit file), view model (if stand alone bin), build pod (if trk file). Can I make work for a guy or what, eh?

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The columns that scroll together are sooooo cool. I think this is the first program I've seen that does it so perfectly.

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If podzip is like liposuction for your pods, then c-pod is mtm's swiss army knife.

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Are you interested in mtm1 compatibility?