Tracked2 School
Lesson 9 - Additional Notes
(Tips and FAQs)


Don't start with flat terrain.

Skip last step in lesson 1. Or use these values instead.

Seed: 16384
Corner Alt: 20
Center Alt: 100
Smoothing: 20


Get rid of old roads before beginning.

In the texture editor, press the N key to normalize textures, then follow the prompts. But don't do this if you've already started your track. In that case, just do the area covered by the cursor. You can also select a base texture and just paint over the old roads.


Use textures from more than one track.

Open the track you want textures from. In the texture editor, highlight a texture group (eg. a corner), press F9 to copy it. Press P to open the pattern browser, press F10 to paste it in the pattern browser, give it a name when prompted. Exit the track. Now open your track. In the texture editor, press P to open the pattern browser, use the arrow keys to highlight the texture group you want, press F9 to copy it, you'll be returned to your track, press F10 to paste it. Voila.

Note. The scrapbook entries do not look right, they appear as mere dark ghosts of the original grid of textures, but when pasted they appear normally.


Get rid of unwanted patterns.

Delete the PATTERN.NDX file in the mtm2/tracked2 folder. If you're ambitious, you may edit this file manually.


Use models from more than one track.

Just use file manager to extract the files from a track pod. The models will automatically show up in the Model File List Selector. You can also download models from the mtmg models section on xoom.it or mw-gaming.com and unzip the .act and .raw files to the art folder and the .bin files to the models folder. This is very flexible and very easy.


Place a model above the ground.

The editor snaps all models to ground height. Sorry.


Insert multiple ground boxes simultaneously.

Use F6-8 to size the cursor, press B and enter values. Ground boxes will be inserted into each square the cursor covers.


Inserting ramps.

Place the ramp with the space bar. Shape it using the 1-6 keys.


Inserting top crush.

Not at this time.


Insert trucks.

Rename any bin to "fdx1.bin" and "tire1.bin" and copy into the models folder. You must extract at least one *.trk file to the truck folder. Pressing the space bar will insert bigfoot. If you've extracted the truck2.pod, the 1&2 keys will cycle through the other trucks. If you don't have truck2.pod extracted, the 1&2 keys will crash the editor. (Note. You must have eight trucks exactly. Nine in the editor will crash game. Ten in the editor will crash tracked2). It is okay to use bigfoot for all eight positions.


Test drive features

Gold mode and sub-modes are fully functional.

Pressing Z and holding it for a moment at any time toggles Z-mode, which can also be accomplished the old fashioned way by pressing Ctrl-Y followed by Z.

Ctrl-1 and Ctrl-2 lowers and raises the viewing distance, respectively.

Ctrl-3 and Ctrl-4 reports the current water level, which rises and falls by three units. There has to be a "!waterHeight" flag at the bottom of a LVL of a given track for this to work ("tpark" doesn't have such a flag).

Ctrl-L (load sit) and Ctrl-S (save sit) in Z-mode. (MTM2 in game only does Ctrl-L)


Weather mask.

Open the SIT file and look for these lines:

        !ambient sound,track length,weather mask
        14,22445.509766,65535

Change the right-most number. Use the following guide to determine your choice.

Basic values that allow one weather type only:

        Clear = 1
        Cloudy = 2
        Foggy = 4
        Dense Fog = 8
        Rain = 16
        Snow = 32
        Dusk = 64
        Night = 128
        Pitch Black = 256

Determine the weather you want, add up their individual numbers and use that value. For example:

        Clear + Rain + Dusk = 81
        Dusk + Night + Pitch Black = 448
        Everything except clear = 510
        All weather = 65535 

Don't forget to save.


Change the track type.

Open the SIT file and look for these lines:

        Track Race Type
        2

Change the number to 2 (circuit), 3 (rally), or 4 (rumble). Save.


Change the track name 'after' it's finished.

Open the SIT file and look (near the top) for these lines:

        !Race Track Name
        My First Track

Change "My First Track" (or whatever) to the new name you want. Save and re-pod.


Change the base file name 'after' it's finished.

In the file manager, clone your own track but give it a new, unique base file name. Then pod it.


Level Details

        A. Description         : crazy98.txt
        B. Map altitude        : crazy98.raw
        C. Map color           : crazy98.clr
        D. Map palette         : crazy98.act
        E. Map texture list    : crazy98.tex
        F. Sky texture         : cloudy2.raw
        G. Sky palette         : cloudy2.act
        H. Background music    : break.wav
        I. Fog color           : 255
        J. Light source vector : -46333,-46333,0
        K. Animation file      : crazy98.ani
        L. Ambient light       : 32768

More to come . . .


Minimum requirements for stand alone use.

        SYSTEM\MONSTER.INI
        MONSTER.EXE
        TRACKED2.EXE
        COCKPIT.POD
        STARTUP.POD
        TRUCK2.POD

As well as any one track pod (extracted) plus one TRK file in a "truck" folder.


Can tracked2 work with the demo?

Yes, if you trick it into thinking it's not the demo.


Raising the elevation of the camera's focal target.

Can't be done. Camera can rotate, tilt, and zoom only.


What are chamber (ground, ceiling, box) layers?

These are archaic routines that don't get used anymore.


Reasonable preset camera views:

Copy these lines into the editor.ini file.

        -- Edit View 1 (pitch,heading,radius) --
        16384,32768,65536
        -- Edit View 2 (pitch,heading,radius) --
        11346,39788,61248
        -- Edit View 3 (pitch,heading,radius) --
        11346,23660,61248
        -- Edit View 4 (pitch,heading,radius) --
        7532,32768,89472

You'll get used to the presets, but these will work until you do.


Trivia.

At the main menu, press the Z key to see a tech-info-screen-saver sort of thing. Great for seconds of amusement.


Menus all in one spot


A good resource:

http://forum.mtm2.com/viewtopic.php?t=1832


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