Well lads, it's been a tuff'n. Writing this tutorial has been harder than I imagine it looks.
VANdal took me three days to build, but it would have been a lot quicker if I hadn't been documenting it every step of the way at the time. A truck like this I could probably knock out in a half-dozen hours if I put my mind to it. I'm quite pleased with it though; I think it really shows how, with a little work, you can make your repainted trucks look really special and unique.
VANdal is meant to be representative of what a beginning or intermediate user of BINedit might produce when they turn their mind to making their own custom truck, although my years (yes, years) of experience of editing for MTM2 probably show through in the build quality of this truck. You don't have to go to the lengths I did to customise your own trucks if you don't want to - this tutorial was written with the aim of showcasing as many of BINedit's model editing features as possible, so some of what I did here is probably above and beyond what a beginner would be doing - so just work at the level you are comfortable at. The addition of just a few extra custom model pieces can go a long way to personalising your vehicle - if this site has fired your imagination and made learning BINedit a little less daunting a prospect, then I've achieved what I set out to do.
You can download this truck from here (65.3 KB .ZIP file). I have written a .TRK file and put it together as a .POD so it is ready to play with in the game as a drivable vehicle in its own right. You may do with it what you like - in fact I heartily recommend that you un-pod the files and take a look at them, and pull the model apart with BINedit, as it will help you learn how the editing utility works which was the whole idea of the thing. If you have any questions or comments about this truck, the tutorial, or indeed anything else here, why not drop me a line at d2smtm2@email.com.
I hope this has given you a new outlook on life. Or at least gives you some useful cocktail party banter with which to impress members of the opposite sex. Well, okay, I hope you learned something.
- Drive2Survive