MTM2 Truck Making Tutorial

Public server (FortuneCity): http://members.fortunecity.com/drive2survive
Ad-free mirror (courtesy of Phineus): http://mtm2.com/~d2s/mtm2tute/
-= Best viewed at 800x600 resolution or higher =-

Welcome to the MTM2 Truck Making Tutorial website! I'm Drive2Survive and I've put this site together for all those people who would like to make their own addon vehicles for MTM2 but don't have the faintest idea where to start.

Use the menu buttons on the left to navigate. Here's a rundown of what you'll find in this site:
Home - the page you're viewing now.
Files - descriptions of the file types used in MTM2 trucks.
Programs - descriptions of some of the main programs used by editors making their own MTM2 trucks.
BINedit - this is the major program used by editors for editing .BIN models. This page contains links to BINedit tutorials and other helpful sites dedicated to BINedit.
Tracked2 - Tracked2 is the official Track and Truck editor released by TRI. Although it leaves a lot to be desired in comparison to some of the user-created programs, it is still a very powerful tool with some invaluable abilities.
Tutorial - click this button to dive straight into a step-by-step documentation of a replica truck I built.
Download - from this page you can download many of the programs essential to making MTM2 trucks and a few more things besides.
Tips - a page of tips for making MTM2 trucks.
FAQ - a page of Frequently Asked Questions about making MTM2 trucks.
Contact - how to get in touch with the author of this site.
D2S Site - a direct link to my other website of MTM2 addon trucks: Drive2Survive's MTM2 Custom Workshop.

Update 17-Jul-2002:
I've given the downloads page a much-needed sorting through, fixing the broken links that have accrued over the years (the folly of linking to external files...) and adding some new entries, most notably the latest version of BINedit (v1.03). I've also re-written my Tracked2 page and added its link to the main menu.

10-Dec-2002:
Server changes: the address for this site's ad-free mirror has changed to http://mtm2.com/~d2s/mtm2tute/. The old address should still work, but will be phased out in time, so make sure you update your links. :)

1-Jan-2002:
To kick off 2002 I've made updates to a few pages and done a 'clean' re-upload of the entire website - Phineus has also given me space on his new home server, if only to test it out.
I have also zipped up the entire website so you can download it to your desktop for offline viewing (please note that program downloads are not included in this file). Since this zip file contains all the html in a 'clean' state, this version of the site would also be suitable for inclusion in CD compendiums etc.

17-Jul-2001
Went through these pages doing random updates and typo fixes. Some time ago I also updated the BINedit page of this site to include links that point to other good BINedit tutorials and dedicated sites :)

7-Nov-2000
Added a note about the "Noah Phenomenon" on both the FAQ page and the Vertex Notes page of the Walk-Through Tutorial. My thanks go to Malibu350 for letting me use his screenshots to further ilustrate this bug caused by having unused vertices on a truck model.

3-Nov-2000
It's been a long time between drinks, but I'm finally getting back into the swing of things now that my Higher School Certificate exams are winding down. I've reviewed and refined the tutorial (this is version 3 now, and probably the final version) plus made a number of amendments to other parts of the site. The BINedit section still isn't up yet, but it's about all that's left.

22-May-2000
Stupid me, I forgot to upload the new version of the first page of the tutorial. The first page that was there was actually pointing to a old page that doesn't exist anymore. Heh, after uploading the entirety of the tutorial (including images and downloads) I just didn't think of it. Anyway, it's ben sorted out now, so give it another try.

20-May-2000
I finally got the Walk-Through Tutorial rewritten and uploaded (big job... REALLY big job). Check it out.

17-May-2000
The folks running Fortunecity have been busy. They've now sorted out the URLs for accounts to make them shorter, more convient and easier to remember. It works like this:
The old URL for this site was http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/pacific/145/
The new URL (a la xoom.com) is http://members.fortunecity.com/drive2survive
Have no worries though, the old URL will continue to work for as long as this site remains on FC servers.

14-May-2000
New sections up! The Download and Files sections have been typed up and uploaded for your viewing pleasure. Eventually I will include links to other sites where you can download even more truck-making stuff on the Download page.
As a sidenote, I notice that FortuneCity are redecorating again. Normally I'd complain about the disruption this causes (do they HAVE to do this every year?!) but the old look was, quite simply, UG-LY!, so I'll welcome any changes for the moment.

10-May-2000
I have finally composed pages for the remaining half of the site, so there should be no more 404 errors when clicking a link that points to a page that does not exist. Some of the pages don't have anything on them yet, but they're there! The new pages with actual content are:
PODMate and PodZip program pages.
FAQ page
The Tutorial is currently being re-written, to make it easier to navigate and digest.

7-May-2000
I finally got the walk-through Tutorial completed. This documents the construction of my Devil's Dodge replica, and hopefully people will be able to pick up at least a few tips and tricks and get some idea of the process I go through to create a truck. I need feedback on this though, so please e-mail me with your thoughts after looking it over (although a little more information than "It's crap!" would be appreciated!).
Now that the major component of this site is completed, I now consider it open for people to check out, hence no more redirect page for my truck site. You can still reach Drive2Survive's MTM2 Custom Workshop by clicking on the D2S Site button and following the link.

25-Mar-2000
Finally uploaded an amended version of the Tracked2 section... it has the keyboard commands neatly tabulated for easy reference. I have been working hard on the Tutorial Walk-Through, expect it to be completed soon.

9-Mar-2000
Added the Tracked2 section to the Programs section of the site.

5-Mar-2000
I finally did some updates. The MDMRE section of the Programs section of the site is completed and uploaded. I hope soon to have some explanatory images made to go with the new section.

12-Feb-2000
Howdy!
A lot of people have asked me to explain the process for making their own MTM2 addon trucks, so I've decided to knock together this website to show how it's done (well, how I do it anyway). At the moment there isn't a great deal done yet, but stick around, and one day I may get it finished...
This site will contain several sections explaining the different aspects of making trucks and advanced techniques you can learn to make your skill better. My hope is that one day it will become THE site for newbies to learn how to build, which is probably aiming a little high, but until then, take a gander at what is yet to come...
The Programs section will detail all the truck making programs that I myself use, including the MDMRE progs, Tracked2, WinPod etc.
BINedit is so complicated it gets a section all of its own. The BINedit section will detail this most powerful tool and show you how to do some basic and advanced binediting.
The Tutorial section will take you through the steps I go through in making a truck. I will actually be building a truck for this section and including work-in-progress pics of it, so this section will take a while to complete.
The Contact section allows you to contact me if you have any questions or ideas of what I should add to my site.
The D2S Site section will take you to my other website of MTM2 addon trucks, Drive2Survive's MTM2 Custom Workshop.

--D2S