Truck: <a href="javascript:void(0)"onClick="window.open('http://cownap.com/~mtmg/contests/expo2003/pics/trucks/roxracing478x354.jpg','win','scrollbars=no,left=80,top=80,width=498,height=374')">!~=ROX=Racing=~!</a>
Maker: ONaN
Class: Custom
Verts: <a href="javascript:void(0)"onClick="window.open('http://cownap.com/~mtmg/contests/expo2003/pics/stats/roxracingstats.gif','win','scrollbars=yes,left=20,top=20,width=670,height=600')">910/868/1778</a>
Faces: 1279/812/2091
Txtrs: 3/5/8
Podzip: Yes
Animated Textures: No
Allow Reflections: Yes
Allow Truck Reflections: Yes
Readme: No
Download: <a href="http://mtm2.com/~trucks/dl.cgi?dl=825" target="_self">185</a>k
Straight away this is a truck that looks like it means business: a Dodge Ram painted bold red with black stripes, wearing Dodge Motorsports logos, and kitted out with spoilers and racing slicks, all of which makes for a wicked-looking set of wheels.
Visually, this truck packs a wallop. The body is a converted Evo Ram model, and the textures are based on Evo textures. The front bumper has been replaced with a deep diffuser spoiler, and a sharply-raked Nascar-style winglet sits on the end of the bed. The paint job is simple but striking, blood red with twin black stripes and black edging on the front spoiler, top of the bed, and the sides and rear. It carries Dodge Motorsports and Mopar logos all round, but these have been used sparingly so that the truck doesn't appear cluttered with sponsorship - only on the tailgate do they really appear prominent. ONaN has stuck to a very limited colour palette with this paint job (it pretty much only consists of red, black and white), which makes for a very strong, uniform livery.
Interestingly, most of the details (namely the black stripes and edging, and most logo placement) have been done by mapping whole faces, rather than actual paint work. For example, the black stripes running up the front spoiler, across the hood (dare we say bonnet ;o) and over the roof, are actually formed by a line of faces mapped to black texture. Similarly, the Dodge Motorsports logos on the sides and the top of the windshield represent faces that have been mapped to the same re-used section of texture (which is actually part of the tailgate). Now, we're used to seeing mapped textures that correspond to whole sides of the truck, for ease of re-use; but this truck represents a different method of mapping faces to often unrelated sections of texture. For instance, where most would be inclined to map the entire face structure of the hood to one texture location, and then paint stripes on that, this has some faces making up the stripes mapped to one block of colour and the rest of the faces mapped to another colour. This isn't bad, just different - it would be less easy to repaint, but (generally speaking) it's probably more efficient, and the truck certainly doesn't look any worse for it.
The axles continue to carry the colour scheme of the truck body, being custom units very clearly labelled with ROX, and the wheels are particularly nice with 3D, chrome-textured rims. The body is solid with cut-out wheel wells (the type BigDOGGe has dubbed a 'steel' body) with only a small, token frame underneath; but the whole thing is frugal enough on vertices to be Reflection-friendly.
The only real problem is that the truck doesn't fit the scale of the game. The Evo model has been converted without scaling it down (MTM2 models are proportioned smaller than those in the Evo games), so it appears quite oversized compared to other trucks in the game. Proportionally, it looks like it's sitting on over-sized street wheels rather than monster truck wheels, but it's the large-scale body that's creating the illusion. This isn't a huge blow, but it makes the truck more suited to the wide lane big tracks as opposed to the tighter mx style tracks since its kinda big and cumbersome - tho it's a pretty good <a href="javascript:void(0)"onClick="window.open('http://cownap.com/~mtmg/contests/expo2003/pics/reviews/roxracerwheelie.jpg','win','scrollbars=yes,left=50,top=20,width=663,height=500')">wheelie</a> <a href="http://cownap.com/~mtmg/contests/expo2003/pics/reviews/RoxRacerWheelie.zip" target="_self">truck</a>.
All lights appear to be placed and working properly, although weirdly the truck's reverse lights make conical beams when they come on(!) - beams are normally reserved only for headlights. The in-game truck name seems to be a bit over done, typed as it is in capitals and flanked with extra characters; sure it makes it look bolder, but we have to question the necessity of all caps typing.
Overall, its a very likable truck - the paint scheme is very smart, with the moderated use of motorsports logos to mark it as special without being exhibitionist; another example of the type that could be seen in real-life on a well kitted-out street vehicle.
