Lesson 5 - Track Components
(The SIT & LVL Files)

Tracked2 does not allow direct access to several things you might want to change. For these things we must close tracked2 and edit the SIT file (in the world folder) and/or the LVL file (in the level folder) with a text editor (eg. Notepad or Editpad). And always remember and never forget to make a back up copy of any files you edit. If something goes wrong or doesn't work, you can restore the back up file and try again.

Backdrop. Open the SIT file for your track, and scroll down to the very bottom where you'll see these lines:

*** Backdrop ***
backdropType,backdropCount
0,1
backdropModelName
ee4drop.bin

Make sure the backdrop count is set to 1, and you type "ee4drop.bin" as the very last line. Other backdrop choices are the following.

Save when you're done.

Sound theme. This determines ambient sounds. Ambient sounds are things like tweety birds (or barking dogs or hooting owls) that you hear in the background of the track. You can select from any of the themes from the stock tracks. Open the SIT file for your track, and scroll down until you see these lines:

!ambient sound,track length,weather mask
14,5879.458984,65535

This example is from crazy 98 and uses sound theme number 14. You can change the number 14 to any number between 0 and 14. The following list will help you decide which sound theme you want for your track.

Type the number you want and save when you're done.

Icon and Browse bitmaps. These are the graphics you see in the races screen. The Browse (or logo) bitmap is a 256-color (8-bit) bitmap image that's 257x210 pixels in size. You must make this in a paint program like PSP. And you should give it the same name as your track files. For instance, for this tutorial, we'd call it: mytrack.bmp. Save it in the /UI/ sub-directory of the mtm2 folder. Then, open the SIT file for your track, and scroll down until you see these lines:

Track Logo .BMP file
UI\Crazy98.bmp

Change "UI\Crazy98.bmp" to UI\mytrack.bmp. Also, you can use any of the stock bmps too (you'll just have too look up the name of the one you want in the ui.pod).

The Icon (or track map) bitmap is much easier to do. A custom image should be 32x24 pixels in size and saved as a 256-color (8-bit) bitmap in the /UI/ sub-directory of the mtm2 folder. However, a much easier way is to use the stock images (there are many to choose from). Open the SIT file for your track, and scroll down until you see these lines:

Track Map .BMP file
UI\tn-98.bmp

Change "UI\tn-98.bmp" to one of the following:

UI\TN-98.BMP
UI\TN-BNECK.BMP
UI\TNCIRCIT.BMP
UI\TNDRAG.BMP
UI\TN-EXCAV.BMP
UI\TN-FM29.BMP
UI\TN-GRAVE.BMP
UI\TN-HIGHT.BMP
UI\TN-JUNK.BMP
UI\TNKING.BMP
UI\TN-NEW.BMP
UI\TNNONE.BMP
UI\TNRALLY.BMP
UI\TN-SWNDR.BMP
UI\TN-THORN.BMP
UI\TN-TORT.BMP
UI\TN-TWED.BMP
UI\TN-VOODO.BMP

Type the icon name you want. Save when done.

Music. For those people who care what music they hear when they race, open the LVL file and scroll down to line 15. It should be a name that ends with WAV. For crazy 98 it is break.wav. You can change this to the name for any of the stock tracks.

aztec.wavExcavation
break.wavB'neck, C98, Torture, Arena, H'cube
farm.wavFarm Road
gravex.wavGraveyard
rockx.wavHeights, Outback, Pyramid
scrap.wavScrapyard
splash.wavPre-race
surf.wavTumbleweed, Sidewinder
voodoo.wavVoodoo Island

Just replace "break.wav" (for example) with "aztec.wav" (for example, again).

For custom music, record some music (using windows sound recorder or a program like cool edit) and save it as an 8-bit, 11khz, mono wav file. Name it the same as your track base file name (eg. mytrack.wav) and copy it to the /sound/ sub-directory of the mtm2 folder. Then replace the name of the stock.wav file with your custom wav file in the LVL file.

Don't forget to save the LVL file when you're done.

Note. This can also be done using the Level Details Editor.

Water Level. There will be times when you don't want the water level of the track you started with. This is easy to solve but can be tricky to get right. Open the LVL file and the very last line should look something like this:

!waterHeight
190

Change the number to something more suitable to your needs. Higher numbers mean the water level is higher (deeper water); a lower value means the water level is lower (shallower water). The water level uses an unusual scale. A good rule of thumb is 4:1. Another way to think about it is to multiply the level you want by 4 (eg. for 50 feet of water, set the level value to 200). It may take some trial and error to get it the way you want.

Remember to save your work.

Note. Make backup copies of the SIT and LVL file before you make changes. It is a good idea to make a back up after making successful changes too.

Check your changes: take your track for a test drive.

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