MTM2.com

Hi,

You may have heard rumors that a fixmore3.pod is on the drawing board, and this is a short note to let you know it's true. The primary focus for this update will be performance issues. Malibu350 and I have been gathering a list of common 256x256 texture names that are used in places where 64x64 textures will do perfectly well. The goal, then, is to remove as many large textures from memory as possible, potentially up to a dozen in a race, and so cut down on in-game chugging. Well, ideally, that's the plan.

Secondly, and this is where you can help, new models sometimes appear in tracks that shine through the terrain. We've all seen this. The most recent example would be the sign in Desert1 by Yves_B which doesn't look like it'll be updated, so it's a good candidate for the fixmore pod. Another is the mtm1 track called Jump which has a couple problem models not yet covered by previous fixes.

How can you help? Easy, if you've noticed, discovered or found texture or model oddities in your game (billboards with wrong web addresses?), let us know so we can look into the cause, and maybe fix it. Not everything is fixable, but a lot of things are. For example, wk mentions



While I still have to find out which model exactly he's referring to, you don't have to be so precise. Just say the track and the problem, and we'll see about hunting it down. If it's fixable, we'll do it. If it's not, we'll let you know the reason why.

Thanks for the tips, if you have any.

So will you guys fix the "old and not true billboards" of mine in some of my tracks?

The ones that point to the stas.net web and DMS_Fila One of them is in that SLO Motion track.

ok, i was racing pepsi500 the other day and i was really bugged by the ferns that were stopping a 10000lb truck. Same with the c98 style checkpoint banners. i made both of those no collde and i put boxes at the check point bases to make it more realistic. I also put in new checkpoint scase somtime u could slip thru between the cp markers w/out going thru the cp box.
I did this all in tracked2 and i was quite proud of myself
lol
http://ch.zrecon.net/misc/1.sit
should compress quite nicely
i have still yet to ask the autor if he doesnt mind this.
so er dont put in in the fixall just yet

> So will you guys fix the "old and not true billboards" of mine

This track ? http://mtm2.com/~tracks/tracks.cgi?s=slo+motion

I'll have a look.


> pepsi sit

Please keep it there for a couple days, thanks. I don't know if sit files are exactly fair game, but let's try it and see how it goes.

it's small

Yup, that one. I'll too have a look since i have that board in a few other tracks too.

Here's a test pod <a href="http://mtm2.com/~tracks/beta/FIXMORE3.zip">FixMore3.pod</a>

What's new
- About a dozen truck related fixes
- Half dozen models fixes
- Two texture fixes

What wasn't done
- Pepsi500 sit because it shows up twice in the races list (and would likely error out if the track is not mounted - didn't try but makes sense)
- Updated extras.ini because the game doesn't read it inside a pod.

Please let me know if you discover any oddities, thanks.



PS. Interestingly, texture names are case sensitive in some bins. CH, you might consider forcing upper case when adding files to cpod. Now that I type this out, I think we might have talked about this before but don't recall the conclusions we came to.

oh yea silly me about that sit thing. lol. wasnt thinking, of corse it wont work cause thats actually an important file not just a data file. ha. brain fart on my part here.

ok enough laughing at myself now

umm, people arent forced to have all ucase texture names so they should be able to put in both cases in a replacer. They just have to be consistent. somtimes caps are helpful to decern betwen words like:
ingodwetrust
could be read
in god wet rust
but InGodWeTrust
can only be read
in god we trust
c?

> can only be read
> in god we trust
> c?

Actually, I had Fila in mind, lol.

I ran into this problem once before where I used lower case in a TRK file and frustrated myself for a few days before I finally figured it out. Okay, so maybe forcing upper case isn't the perfect solution, but reminders like this never hurt anything either.

You say you have a problem with one of my "wanna-be" textures?

> You say you have a problem with one of my "wanna-be" textures?

Not anymore. But I had used raw instead of RAW and the new textures didn't show up. I fixed that and it's fine now. Drive the track to see.

Patients my good man. After replying yesterday (it's morning now) i left home and went to my brother and came only late night. Will do that today... as in today.... don't ask me why i did that (the today thing).

Here's one for ya. It's Nrrivas' "Crazy 2000", and as you can see in the pic, cp 6 is visible thru the bridge. Actually you can see it thru the road before you get to the bridge. I mounted Fixmore3 to verify that it wasn't already addressed with the update, but uh...no.

Here's the new test pod <a href="http://mtm2.com/~tracks/beta/FIXMORE3.zip">FixMore3.pod</a>

I also fixed the mod music for it.

will u be podding the other fixalls as well???

some of the mtm1 backdrops have gaps in them where they havent been mapped right i could fix that. also ive got a better looking water texture if you want to put that in

> will u be podding the other fixalls as well???

The fix "more" pods combine all previous fixes, so yes, that's all covered.

> mtm1 backdrops

I believe the mtm1 backdrops are in here. However, it's been a long time and I don't recall off hand what was done to them. Fixing the gaps is certainly within reach. I'll have a look. Or you could send what you have, if you have anything yet, and we can go from there.

> a better looking water texture

There have been a few water sets made. The one that is currently included was made by oops and has been generally accepted as the better color tone. If you have something else, by all mens let's have a look. We'll see what others think, and even if it's not elected for inclusion, we can still make it available as an alternative. Be glad to have it.

here is the water texture

ill make the raw files if ya want. it seems more realistic to me

i cant seem to find which mtm1 backdrop it was but ill check again

I hope that one's used. (the one in the pictture) I like the looks of it.

heres another

I think I like the second one better than the first. However. A couple water notes.

One. MTM2 water is made up of eight 64x64 art files (act and raws). Each has to tile, and each has to blend with the others in the series. And, each file must have a specific name.

• RIPPL100.ACT
• RIPPL100.RAW
• RIPPL200.ACT
• RIPPL200.RAW
• RIPPL300.ACT
• RIPPL300.RAW
• RIPPL400.ACT
• RIPPL400.RAW
• RIPPL500.ACT
• RIPPL500.RAW
• RIPPL600.ACT
• RIPPL600.RAW
• RIPPL700.ACT
• RIPPL700.RAW
• RIPPL800.ACT
• RIPPL800.RAW

One water texture is not enough to make up a replacement.

Two. The samples that have been shown are hosted on a nfs site. Now, please don't take this the wrong way, but it is my opinion, and the opinion of many others, that nfs is an inferior game to mtm2. Furthermore, the nfs community leaves a lot to be desired. What this translates into is that I'm extremely reluctant to import anything from there into mtm2. The quality is dubious, and the benefits are questionable. At the same time, it's only a water texture so I don't think I'd offer too much opposition if the set were an improvement. So, if you can come up with a working set, I'll do up pictures and start a poll so everybody can have their say. Then we could go from there.