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I can't find any information on how to import palettes from trucks into Photoshop. I looked at a tutorial that had a link to a place that told how to do it, but the link was broken.

I have the RawAct plugin for photoshop, but i dont get how it works.. All the RAW files i open come in black and white and grayscale... Whats up with that?

All help is appreciated.

When you go to load the Pal file, make sure that at the bottom it has something like this...

http://teamslo.net/repfan/junk/Error.jpg

before you hit OK. If that isn't set to that, it will load black and white.

This page may prove helpful. It talks about several different methods of dealing with act files, including photoshop.

http://cownap.com/~mtmg/trucks/palette.html

One method not on there (yet) is using c-pod to convert them to bmp images first.

Plugin:
http://forum.mtm2.com/viewtopic.php?t=1807


To load an ACT manually make use of MIYH's description:
http://forum.mtm2.com/viewtopic.php?t=1358


...and then there is this description of using PS4:
Load/Open an existing texture into Photoshop

When you load a texture and its palette in Indexed Color Mode, you have the exact colors that are used in the game. To do much editing, you need to convert to RGB mode (16 million colors), then back to Indexed Color ( 256 colors) later to save it.

1. From the menu, select File > Open. Now find your Art folder in Traxx where your .RAW and .ACT files are.

2. Pick out the 64x64 .RAW file you want to edit. MTM2 terrain textures must be 64x64. When you select a file and say Open, you will get the RAW Options dialog box. If you picked a good example, the first two fields will be the Dimensions and should say Width 64 pixels, Height 64 pixels. If that’s right just click OK, if not push Cancel and select the right 64x64 texture.

There are two sizes of .RAW files, 64x64 pixels taking up 4K on your hard drive and 256x256 pixels filling up 64K. The smaller ones are used for terrain textures, the larger ones for painting models.

3. You should then get a little black and white picture displayed. This is your unpainted canvas. Now you must tell Photoshop what palette to use to paint it.

4. From the menu, select Image > Mode submenu. You will see a check by Grayscale, change the Mode to Indexed Color by clicking on it.

5. Now to get the palette. Select Image > Mode, (you should see a check by Indexed Color now) and all the way at the bottom of the Mode Submenu select Color Table. The Color Table dialog box will pop up with Grayscale selected as the current Table.

6. Press the Load button and the Load dialog box pops up. In the Look In box, find your Art folder and select thenameofthefileyou picked.ACT and then press Open. The Load Dialog box goes away and the Color Table is now filled with colors. The texture file you loaded will turn into something that is hopefully recognizable. In the Color Table dialog box, select OK, and it will disappear for now.

7. You now have the texture loaded. You can do limited editing in this mode with the existing palette if you feel you need to maintain the original colors. Filters don’t work in this mode, but you can cut, paste, and paint.

8. To be able to work with the texture any more than that, you need to get out of the Indexed Color mode. Go back to the Image, Mode submenu and select RGB Color. Most of the work you probably want to do will be done in this mode.


A good shortcut to open an existing texture in Photoshop, is to have Traxx up and running and copy a texture from there directly. One big advantage to using Traxx is you get to see the image you are going to work with before it pops up in Photoshop. This does, however, convert the image directly to RGB mode, so if for some reason you need to stay in Indexed Color Mode, and maintain the original Palette colors, stick with the manual instructions above.

Otherwise:
1. In Traxx, open the Textures box and load the textures you want to use.
2. Select the Texture you want to work with, then press the Copy button.
3. In Photoshop, from the menu select Edit then Paste (Ctrl+V for short). Now you have your texture loaded in RGB color mode and you are ready to Edit.

Looks like MIYH's old instructions, no? I should probably repost those for the sake of the info even though it's ps4.


> Otherwise:
> 3. In Photoshop, from the menu select Edit then Paste

I haven't done it in a long time, but I believe you have to paste into an open canvas. PSP will create image and canvas together. Photoshop don't.



And from the little-known world of nifty work arounds....

In traxx, load an ACT file in the palette box. Now 'save as' and select PAL. To convert back, load the new and improved PAL file into the palette box and save as ACT. Seems a bit heavy handed, but it works perfectly well.

Ah, right on guys! Now i can pursue my career in truck making.

I know how to 3D model, and i have an idea for a truck i can use in mtm... Its no muscle truck, its just a chevy S10.

Anyone know if you can model trucks for MTM2 in ZModeler? (zmodeler.nfscheats.com) - I am not familiar with BinEdit.

> Anyone know if you can model trucks for MTM2 in ZModeler?

Yes you can. With two notes. Watch that the vertex count does not get too high. They can cause problems in the game, and mtm2 uses smoothing routines so you don't need as many anyway. Secondly, mtm2 does not use parts, in the zmod/3dsm/lightwave sense of the term. The truck model is all one piece... which then will need to be imported into binedit to put the final touches on. Eg. sizing, face types, centering, etc.

Just try to keep the body model under 1400 verts, and you should be just peachy, those will run fine in mtm2.

Models higher than that, and you will be looking at some serious lag issues. I've had many in the 2000+ range, and it's just not a good idea.

Well, i've never really known how to use BinEdit, and dont really want to learn another modeler just yet..

Maybe a few of you guys can help me if i ever get this finished, by doing the BinEdit touch-ups? Is anyone willing to? I'd really appreciate it...

Lotsa help when you need it. Probably And just for the sake of sayin', binedit is probably one of the easiest 3d programs ever made. But let's not work ahead of ourselves. I'm sure we can get ya where you want to be.

Actually, z-modeler is very very easy. Point and click 3d modelling.. Great stuff.

Check this out, my first re-paint of a truck!

http://tehacidx.bladestorm.net/img/upl/deantruck.jpg

Dean guitars! It has a vector i made of my guitar on the side. Yeah, its plain, but it was about 1 hours work. Painting = hard when working with pictures, not just a mirrorable design..

By the way, Phineus, do you possibly have AIM or MSN? I'd like someone to talk MTM with.

> Check this out, my first re-paint of a truck! :)

Looks good. Time to upload it, eh? So others can use it too?


> do you possibly have AIM or MSN?

Thanks kindly, for the invitation. But I haven't used messaging programs for about four years. My time is cramped and I'll occassionally reply to emails but I usually find the forum adequate. It also gives others a chance to jump in and participate, or just tag along and hopefully learn.

I doubt anyone would use this truck.. Also, if i was really wanting to make a truck for other people to use, i'd surely put alot more work into it.. I'd want to hollow out the body and stuff if i were going to release it, to give it a more "original" feel.

DOes anyone here know how to use Zmodeler? If so, how do you get the textures imported WITH the truck, so it's still mapped? I always get errors saying it can't find the texture or something, and also, when i go to the material editor it wont let me import .raw files. Any info on this?

I had another question, but i completely forgot what it was....

Oh well. I'll ask it if it comes back to me.

u have to have all the files in the same folder, unlike BE(which has them seperated like the game).
your best bet to veiw the textures is to make a tga or bmp, to go along with the raw/act files. Zmod doesnt like raw/act for some reason.

Hm. i see. Thanks for the info. Will it still load the raw/act files, though?

Don't hold me to this, I haven't done it for a long while now, but I think it depends on which version of zmod you're using. I believe it was 1.05 that wanted everyting in the same folder, but 1.07 actually wants a Models and Art folder (just like mtm2). That is, say you're working in the zmod directory, you'd have to make a Models folder and an Art folder. Put the bins/smf/3ds in the models folder and put the act/raw's in the art folder. But yes, in both cases, the act and raws will open. Saving, however, they get saved as tga format (which can safely be deleted).

Nah. It didnt work for me, Phineus.

Do you play on the zone?

Just thought of this..

When mapping textures to trucks, is it better to use REAL photos, or to try and re-make the designs on the trucks?

Thanks guys!

> It didnt work for me

I just confirmed v1.05 has to be in the same folder. I'll try later with v.107 (I have to install it first)

> Do you play on the zone?

Rarely.


> is it better to use REAL photos, or to try and re-make the designs

Both can be effective. It's really a matter of what you're capable of. Rep Fan and Drive2Surive hand paint almost all their work exclusively... to very good result.

I was thinking about doing Shocker, but that looks ilke it will be very difficult to model due to all the "lightning" fenders and stuff..

Maybe i'll try to find something a little simpler. Haha.

Is there a website where i can find blueprints of monster trucks? Or a good site where i can get perfect front and side views?

All help is really appreciated guys.