Note for Truck Makers and Beta 0.46 (and onwards)

[Fila]

To get the trucks to look as good as possible, make sure you use Shiny Textures on anything that you want to reflect (like the body) and Normal Textures for anything you don't want to reflect (struts, flags, the backside of the truck that is supposed to be cloth etc). For flags... PLEASE use normal, flags do not reflect correctly!!!

[OG_RuDeE]

I took the liberty of updating Cale's TRUCK2.POD for the new dx9 and dx11 betas by changing the model face types so that the tires are now matte and the metal wheels remain shiny (up close): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EHvj7- ... drive_link

From the readme:

This is nothing more than Cale's HD truck2.pod from the MTM2 Community Patch 2 with the wheels updated for Beta 0.46 onward. The purpose is to make the tires matte and the metal wheels shiny.

The faces of LOD wheels 08-10 have all been converted to 0x18 normal MTM1 face type (matte). The 16 level wheels have shiny 0x29 face type, while the tire part uses 0x18 matte.

Replace truck2.pod in your MTM2 folder with this if you want matte wheels in Fila's dx9 and dx11 updates.

Cale, I hope it's ok.

-RuDeE

[Ford-chan]

I took the liberty of updating Cale's TRUCK2.POD for the new dx9 and dx11 betas by changing the model face types so that the tires are now matte and the metal wheels remain shiny (up close): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EHvj7- ... drive_link

From the readme:

This is nothing more than Cale's HD truck2.pod from the MTM2 Community Patch 2 with the wheels updated for Beta 0.46 onward. The purpose is to make the tires matte and the metal wheels shiny.

The faces of LOD wheels 08-10 have all been converted to 0x18 normal MTM1 face type (matte). The 16 level wheels have shiny 0x29 face type, while the tire part uses 0x18 matte.

Replace truck2.pod in your MTM2 folder with this if you want matte wheels in Fila's dx9 and dx11 updates.

Cale, I hope it's ok.

-RuDeE

Umm... You might want to use this particular TRUCK2.POD from Cale's HD Truck Pack (2.1) Final Release download, since that he has it set up so that the TRI stock trucks don't show up in the Truck menu, and the inconvenience upon myself of having to manually setup the Computer Opponents before jumping on to a race, which isn't really all that convenient if you ask me. Sorry to be a pain about it.

[OG_RuDeE]

Thanks for letting me know about that. Cale made quite a big update to his HD trucks pack! I added in what I've done so far, and he has added more wheels than I fixed. So, there is still some work to do. I'm doing it by hand in BinEdit, so I won't be able to finish until later on today.

Edit: Looking through the new tires in BinEdit 2.2.8 (was working in an older BinEdit MS yesterday), I see I might have made a mistake on the lower lod tires. So, I'm just going to start over and do all the tires from Cale's 2.1 update when I have some time later today. BE 2.2.8 should make things go a bit faster.

[OG_RuDeE]

Ok, for Ford-chan and everyone else, here is Cale's latest 2.1 HD Trucks Pack with updated wheels and tires for Fila's betas 0.46 and up: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15xnc7b ... sp=sharing

Only took about an hour using RBIII's BinEdit 2.2.8. Not bad! Enjoy!

From the readme:

This is nothing more than Cale's HD 2.1 truck2.pod from his HD 2.1 Trucks pack with the wheels updated for Beta 0.46 onward. The purpose is to make the tires matte and the metal wheels shiny.

The faces of LOD wheels 08-10 have all been converted to 0x18 normal MTM1 face type (matte). The level 16 wheels have shiny 0x29 face type, while the tire part uses 0x18 matte.

Replace Cale's truck2.pod in your MTM2 folder with this if you want matte wheels in Fila's dx9 and dx11 updates.

Note: In this pod only HD trucks appear and stock trucks have been removed.

Cale, I hope it's ok.

-RuDeE

[Ford-chan]

Looking good mate!

Cale, I hope it's ok.

Honestly, I'm willing to bet money at this stage, that this all within doing Cale a huge favor, considering that he's all out and about attending motorsport events around the states, and having to put family matters (especially his daughter, I hope I've got that correct?) first and foremost throughout most of this year onwards.

In this case, give his other HD trucks the same treatment when you can.

HD Customs Pack

Liquidator

Gunkster

Bear Foot 1998

Bigfoot XI '98

Anita Go Fast

Leanne's Lament

[KF2416]

What about my HD trucks tho?

[OG_RuDeE]

I think I'm going to leave it at what I've done, as I'm happy with using these trucks myself.

Kimiko, I imagine you can handle your own trucks. ;) Assuming you have time, of course.

Ford-chan, sounds like it might be time for you to learn a little BinEdit. I made a little video yesterday of the process, just for whoever might stumble on it on youtube: https://youtu.be/zrPVciqPWVA?si=auiqn5SxyvEdqLxg

But if making some of these updates is something you think you'd want to try, I'd be happy to help answer any questions. Message me and discord if you want.

[Ford-chan]

Ford-chan, sounds like it might be time for you to learn a little BinEdit. I made a little video yesterday of the process, just for whoever might stumble on it on youtube: https://youtu.be/zrPVciqPWVA?si=auiqn5SxyvEdqLxg

But if making some of these updates is something you think you'd want to try, I'd be happy to help answer any questions. Message me and discord if you want.

At some point, I was thinking of attempting some ROR to MTM2 convert truck just to see how it works, the problem is, this may require the game itself to support textures from 512 to 1024, which I'm pretty sure that's what most Beam and Rigs trucks are in texture detail. And whether or not the legal department over at Beam and Sim Monsters will allow me to do it regardless of certain amounts of credit I give out to these folks? But ultimately I would love this game to become part of the modern day Monster Truck gaming platform ecosystem where MTM2 will serve as a simcade option, as opposed to both Beam and Rigs being full on sims. The DX11 port is a great step in this time so far.

[Ford-chan]

Also, I'm rather noobish at modelling besides doing paint schemes on pre existing bodies, but ultimately I would love to attempt it if my limited knowledge around that department doesn't let me down big time.

[OG_RuDeE]

Some good news, as far as I can tell, Cale's HD Custom pack uses wheels from his final HD 2.1 pack. So, wheels on the custom trucks are not shiny. I loaded all his HD custom trucks in one race, and the tires look good.

[Cale]

Cale, I hope it's ok.

How dare you save me all this work!

It's all good. I have very little time and motivation right now between work, baby, and other things in life, so there's no issues. The thing I do want to do next is change the tonneau covers and any undercarriage stuff to normal face type on the trucks so the bodies reflect but not the other stuff, but that's a long-term project that would take until the fall at earliest.

If DX9/11 truly unlocks texture and vertex limits, then maybe I'd look into partnering with someone like Jet to go full fiberglass on the truck bodies and use his chassis and accessories (engines, shock models, etc.). I'm cautious about doing this, though, since it would still be a lot of work. Heck, I'd be OK if someone else started that process without me. The trucks are actually deliberately designed to potentially get full interiors, the windows are properly modeled so if someone wanted to go whole hog on it they could.

Also, I think my next truck projects will be back to being customs, they're just more creatively fulfilling than replicas.

[Ford-chan]

If DX9/11 truly unlocks texture and vertex limits, then maybe I'd look into partnering with someone like Jet to go full fiberglass on the truck bodies and use his chassis and accessories (engines, shock models, etc.). I'm cautious about doing this, though, since it would still be a lot of work. Heck, I'd be OK if someone else started that process without me. The trucks are actually deliberately designed to potentially get full interiors, the windows are properly modeled so if someone wanted to go whole hog on it they could.

Jet, Nat Gage, they're the best at their art style of truck making, so definitely!

[OG_RuDeE]

Cale, I hope it's ok.

How dare you save me all this work!

It's all good. I have very little time and motivation right now between work, baby, and other things in life, so there's no issues. The thing I do want to do next is change the tonneau covers and any undercarriage stuff to normal face type on the trucks so the bodies reflect but not the other stuff, but that's a long-term project that would take until the fall at earliest.

If DX9/11 truly unlocks texture and vertex limits, then maybe I'd look into partnering with someone like Jet to go full fiberglass on the truck bodies and use his chassis and accessories (engines, shock models, etc.). I'm cautious about doing this, though, since it would still be a lot of work. Heck, I'd be OK if someone else started that process without me. The trucks are actually deliberately designed to potentially get full interiors, the windows are properly modeled so if someone wanted to go whole hog on it they could.

Also, I think my next truck projects will be back to being customs, they're just more creatively fulfilling than replicas.

Ok, sweet! Happy to help, and glad it wasn't a problem! Only took an hour on my second try.

As far as bed covers and chasis and such goes, that is definitely a bigger project, as one would have to decide what to do with all of the lod models, plus scrolling through a lot more faces. Maybe normal face type for below 16 would be acceptable? This is something I'd be comfortable doing if there is interest.

As far as Dx9 / 11 goes, I think things will be truly unlocked when Fila is able to implement multithreading for the cpu stuff. On my best pc currently, the gpu runs at around 30% while the one core running all the physics is close to maxed out. When that day does come, I will have to leave it to the truck / modelling experts because my skills / knowledge are very basic.

PS. Can someone tell me what fiberglass bodys means in the context of MTM2?

[Fila]

Texture and vertex limits are not a problem anymore. Right now I would say only the texture size is (still capped at 256x256) but that eventually will be bumped up at some point this year.

One thing to note though, right now almost none of the custom trucks have LOD variants. So they are at their best and nothing else. If people do go crazy high on vertex/textures then LOD variants will be absolute must because at some point the engine will be pushed too much for weaker video cards. And if people don't do LOD (which btw, every modern game does so it's not like modern games don't need this) then the only way for that to be fixed is through memory management magic involving Vulkan 1.3 or DX12 and the coding AI is not at the level yet to make that happen.

[OG_RuDeE]

Fila, sorry to post everywhere, but I had to double check for sanity. On the 5600 xt, If I have 7 of Cale's HD trucks in my view, the gpu remains at 20% utilization, but my fps drop from 60fps (normal with less trucks) to 30! I don't seem to have this issue on Dx9, only Dx11. It seems to me though that I am hitting some kind of cpu physics bottleneck.

[Cale]

PS. Can someone tell me what fiberglass bodys means in the context of MTM2?

"Fiberglass" was an early term for hollowing out the MTM2 body models and putting 3d chassis underneath them. They got the name because real monster trucks use fiberglass shells over steel tube chassis - hence why body panels just flake off in crashes. I didn't go this route for my trucks because, with the 1000 vertex limit, I found it difficult to make a chassis that looked the part but stayed under the limit, so I went halfway and kept the textured chassis but with 3d shocks.