MTM2.com

<a href="http://www.freewareweb.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?ID=1711" target="_none">Here</a> is a pretty nice , free , jpg optimizer . Easy to use too . Just open your image , hit f4 to bring up the optimized view (side by side) , and start sliding the bar .

I took a tutorial from 1.34 MB (all jpgs saved with Paint Shop Pro 7) down to 523 KB using it . You get a realtime view of the optimized shot so you know how far you can go and still keep enough quality in the shot .

This is a keeper for me .

Thank you once again Warrior. I couldn't resist trying it since the realtime view of the results is a brilliant concept. I've spent a lot time in the past saving multiple copies of jpegs just to compare size versus quality. I'm not sure if I'll use the program much but I like the idea.

I went to the product's home page to get my copy but I see that download link on the freeware site linked above goes directly there too, linking to the latest version (7.01) despite what it says.

I'd certainly recommend it to anyone interested in it's specialized feature. I monitored the installation and it installs very cleanly indeed. Good stuff.

Hey Wint . Thanx bud , glad to know it installs cleanly too . I like the fact that you can zoom too , like on a certain detail of the pic that want to keep the quality of .

BTW , while I have you here , do you still have the track conversion pages that you did ? I tried the search and came up dry (even DLed the "Trackville" iso through ftp on cownap) . That was the best conversion research that I have seen . I even converted Quarry Lake from Evo2 to Evo1 using your "rebuilding the "boxes" section of the .sit file" method . Takes some time , bit still faster than hand placing the models .

If you still have them , I would like to host them on my site if that's OK with you , of course .

Also , Crankshaft was asking (at Vales) about converting Evo2 tracks to Evo1 . That is what got me looking for them .

Downloaded trackville, eh? Hehe, what a waste.

As for the conversion pages, I have to assume you mean these two oldies: evo2to1.htm and evo2traxx.htm

They'd probably make it to Trackville some day but no time soon. If you want to host the info it's fine with me, but I think I'd need to update them first, being full of dead links and some unnecessary references. Plus, the evo2to1 one (containing pure speculation and crude research) is old and kind of obsolete.

I'm not sure how aware you are of the fact that I use TrackEd3 (the 4x4evo editor) for placing models in my mtm2 tracks, then use the evo1 to mtm 'box converter' to convert (all info related to those techniques are scattered around this forum). But there is another box converter now, you can feed it a whole Evo2 .sit file and it will spit out the boxes data in mtm format. I've really never used it, but I was thinking that if you wished to convert Evo2 to Evo1 you could probably convert the boxes data, then replace .bin references in the text with .smf, then simply load it in TrackEd3. Try that if you're ever bored, and thank Phin for the slick technology. ;-)

For the record, I've never played or owned Evo2.

Yep Wint , those are the ones (very good stuff) . Thanx bud !!

I will redo them before posting them .

Phin's new box converter .

Good stuff here too . Great job Phin !!
I can't build an .sit by hand that Ted3 will load . Adding the new box section into an MTM2 style .sit , then changing .bin to .smf errors out .

I did however find an end around that will work (easier than building a new box section by hand) . Here is what I did .

After converting the Evo2 track to MTM2 (using your method) , take the old .sit (with all models) and feed it to the converter . Add the new info to your working file (make backups!!! , and be sure to have a backdrop or you will get an error) .

Then , leaving all the file names .bin , find a good , small .bin that you know Ted3 will load . Make copies of this file and rename (exact names and be sure art files are in the folder) them to replace every .smf in the models folder (XX12.smf becomes XX12.bin) .

Now , with all the .bins in a "MODELS" folder (rename or move the one with the .smf files in it) , load it into Ted3 . The track will have the 1 .bin everywhere in the track . Add a new backdrop to get rid of that .bin and save it . This will put the .sit in pure Evo1 format .

Now , assuming all other things have been fixed ( no .tifs or new , Evo2 style .smfs) , just Search and Repalce .bin with .smf . It should now load into Ted3 (after putting the "MODELS" folder with .smfs back in) with all models in the proper place .

I only did 2 files (.bins for .smfs) which (including 2 checkpoints) covered 9 models and this method worked . I used an unfinished Evo2 track that I am building . Here is a pic of 2 bridges an 5 animated water panels that are where they should be .



Still not a 2 click gig , but renaming 60 some files is much easier than rebuilding an .sit's box section with 268 models .

Cool stuff Warrior, good work. I follow you.

Here's an automation tip you may or may not be aware of, which you can use when you need to make many dummy .bin copies.

At a command prompt browse to your smf folder and type :
dir/b *.smf > bincopy.bat

That should give you a plain (bare) text file named 'bincopy.bat' that looks something like this:

CZ3FNS.SMF
CZ3CMPR.SMF
CZ3START.SMF
CZ3STRT1.SMF
CZ3TREE2.SMF
CZ3TREE3.SMF
FR3TREE1.SMF
OL2OFF.SMF


Then search and replace all instances of .smf with .bin:

CZ3FNS.BIN
CZ3CMPR.BIN
CZ3START.BIN
CZ3STRT1.BIN
CZ3TREE2.BIN
CZ3TREE3.BIN
FR3TREE1.BIN
OL2OFF.BIN

Now type a line like this: "copy temp.bin "
Then paste it (Ctrl-V) at the beginning of each line

copy temp.bin CZ3FNS.BIN
copy temp.bin CZ3CMPR.BIN
copy temp.bin CZ3START.BIN
copy temp.bin CZ3STRT1.BIN
copy temp.bin CZ3TREE2.BIN
copy temp.bin CZ3TREE3.BIN
copy temp.bin FR3TREE1.BIN
copy temp.bin OL2OFF.BIN

Then save the .bat and run it, assuming temp.bin is in the same folder it will create all of your dummy copies in a blink or two. They don't call 'em batch files for nothin'.

Thanx Wint .

DOS makes me sneeze as a rule . Path Copy works great here too with no DOS . I tried it with Desert Run and the .bat worked great (I did not know this neither). I am going to complete this conversion and I will keep you posted .

After that , I will document everything and do a whole new tut using your old stuff and this new stuff too .

Here are couple of shots of Desert Run with the tempbin in place . I just have to check the .smfs and make sure they are Evo1 format (or convert them).





Between Phin's box converter and your .bat file , they make this pretty quick .

> and make sure they are Evo1 format (or convert them)


Do you use <a href="http://mtm2.com/~mtmg/downloads/evo/Smurf.zip">Smurf</a> for that ?

Yea Phin , great program , I use it for animation too . This one was already in E1 and act/raw format .

Phin , I looked and searched but I can't seem to find it . Could you give me those numbers that you used on evo altitude files for Hue/Saturation/Lightness ?

I tried them once and they seemed to work well . I even have (or had) them in a .txt file which also can't be found .

Thanx bud.

Evo 2 terrain file ?


>> I will document everything and do a whole new tut using your old stuff and this new stuff too .

Sounds great Warrior. Things are looking good. Please do feel free to incorporate anything of mine in any way you like.


>> Smurf

Oh yeah, Smurf.

Yep Wint , those were the numbers . Thanx bud !!