MTM2.com

hi all, i'm new to truck making and i've been making my first scratch-built for the Expo; problem is i keep getting the 'Noah effect' every time i run my truck! i had one guy helping me out on my truck, and he says it won't even load on his PC, due to it's high vertice and face count. well i managed to get it working on my PC by using the normal MTM face property, but now i can't get the darn noah effect to go away! can someone please help me? i really want to be able to submit this!

Welcome!

Turn off "reflections" in the game's hardware options, or... don't drive on a track with water in it.






>> i managed to get it working on my PC by using the normal MTM face property

Turning off "truck reflections" prevents the "can't environment map model" error.

Turning off "reflections" prevents the Noah Effect (as does avoiding tracks with water).

Both errors are triggered by vehicles that are more complex than the game engine was designed to handle.

http://rhinoseros.com/~mtmg/errors.cgi?e=15
http://rhinoseros.com/~mtmg/errors.cgi?e=37

ok, so if i submit my truck the way it is with the instructions to turn off reflections, will it still be eligible for the contest?

also, i have another problem; whenever i load my truck into different tracks, it's always a different color. for example, it's deep blue on the zoon spring track, light green on the heights, and sky blue on zs rally. and on some tracks, it completely messes up the gradient on my truck. it's as if it's using the tracks pallete files rather than it's own. is there a way to fix this or is that normal with pretty much every truck?

>will it still be eligible for the contest?

IF that is the only error, then no problem.

>whenever i load my truck into different tracks, it's always a different color.

That has to do with track palettes. All trucks have this to a certain extent but some colors are more problematic than others. You can either live with it or try using slightly different colors. A good test palette is metalcr2.act

>> ok, so if i submit my truck the way it is with the instructions to turn off reflections, will it still be eligible for the contest?

Certainly, this is a known issue. As for writing the 'readme', please include as much info as you can, proper credits, etc.


>> it's always a different color

Another known issue:

http://forum.mtm2.com/viewtopic.php?t=1149
http://forum.mtm2.com/viewtopic.php?t=1041

How many faces does it have, that it causes the Noah Effect?

Anything over 1000 will do it, but how does yours have?

With the Expo, people should just assume that all the truck entries are gonna high vert jobs, it is an Expo entry correct? We know how to compinsate for that, by turning off all reflections, which is a good rule of thumb anyway. Unless you're running all stcok repaints, then by all means... turn them on.

Like said above, your truck will look perfect on some tracks paintwise, and on others it will make some colors look funny, it can't be helped. Only way to fix it, is to make all track makers use the same color palettes, which is just silly, so we have to deal with it.

my truck has a bit more than 10 times as much as 1000 faces, so in other words, my truck likes to go scuba diving.

just my luck that the paint scheme of the truck i'm replicating consists completely of blues and oranges.

1. It's recommended that trucks in MTM2 not exceed 3000 vertices (wheels not included)


2. Models made for other reasons (such as high-detail Autocad models) are not really acceptable for the Expo....no conversions from other games such as Need4Speed cars neither. .....the item has to be made specifically for the Expo...

it was made specifically for the expo; it's just that i didn't know when to stop.

>It's recommended that trucks in MTM2 not exceed 3000 vertices (wheels not included)

so far i've had no problem running the model (without reflections, that is). even on a 450 mhz processor, the lag it causes is very minimal.

> so far i've had no problem running the model (without reflections, that is). even on a 450 mhz processor, the lag it causes is very minimal.

minimal in comparrison to what lol, dude a truck with 10,000 plus poly's in this game will cause some serious lag on any track if it doesn't produce a access violation first... MTM2 is geared towards relatively simple models, it has to be otherwise it's simply unplayable.

I do look forward to seeing your truck as I'm sure it looks magnificent but on a play-ability scale? that's a whole 'nother thing that must be taken into consideration.

honest , it was completely playable on my old system. it has a 450 mhz pentium iii, 128 meg ram, and a 16 meg vid card (nvidia tnt i think), and the framerate running on voodoo island averaged around 30 fps (went down to 20 with 7 other stock trucks). and that's with all graphics options, except for reflections, set to max.

I'd say if it's done, submit it.

Then the judges can all run it, and see if they have any problems running it. If they can all run it, then it should be ok, but I have a feeling it's gonna make a few computers, spout some mushroom clouds out the top of their monitors.

Jqoc, it is apparent to me that your modeling skills exceed your mtm experience, which is fine - you are free to do as you want. But please understand you are flouting sound advice.

Everybody else, you've met all obligations. It's time to let this play itself out.

um, my intentions weren't to insult anybody, although since you pointed it out, i realized that i was showing a little contempt towards BigDOGGe's advice, and i apologize for that. i guess i'm just being extremely hopeful that, miracle of miracles, my truck would work flawlessly on every system. once again, i apologize if i happened to insult anybody.