Community Patch #3

[Fila]

The kraken has been unleashed!

https://www.mtm2.com/~mtmg/commpatch/do ... Patch3.zip
https://www.mtm2.com/~mtmg/commpatch/do ... Patch3.rar
https://www.mtm2.com/~mtmg/commpatch/do ... _Setup.exe <--- say what?
https://www.mtm2.com/~mtmg/commpatch/do ... deosHD.zip <--- 700mb of upscaled videos (same as the ones during the beta, don't redownload if you already have them)

https://www.mtm2.com/~mtmg/misc/CP3_hotfix2.zip <--- important download, just the monster.exe. it stops the NORMAL MASK texture from corrupting other tracks (you won't see it if you haven't used a mask yet). The links above have been updated with the fix as well.

This is it. Comm Patch 3 is finally out!!!

You can install it the ol' fashioned way but I have also added an installer. You have to point the installer to the right game folder since it cannot find it on its own. Then it asks you if you want to back up the files it is replacing. It also gives you the option to add the registry info, so that the game installation folder shows up in registry and you can add the game to the start menu too.
I have added the game.pod to this (the old MTM1 game.pod) with the updated drags. Since most of you probably have it already it is redundant but it's just better to have everything in one place. I did not add any modified .inis (no pod.ini or monster.ini) so nothing overwrites your current settings.

This includes Ford Chan's latest round of inputs from the beta folder.
The info is all barebones for now. Today I'm working on the website to fix what is broken and will put up the new page for the patch too.

In the meantime, while this thread serves as the release, feel free to keep posting about bugs and whatnot. That work, sadly, never seems to finish. Especially since I keep adding new features, things break.

This is also the last release to feature DirectX9. It's funny how this whole path happened because I wanted the game on a more workable renderer and the starting point was DX9. But once the game successfully moved to DX11 and Vulkan, the DX9 has become cumbersome. Some of the new features in the game already do not work on DX9 anymore and some of my planned features in the future also cannot work on DX9. Plus the performance cannot match 11 and Vulkan. The irony is that while DX9 was what started this whole modernizing thing, it barely lived. Keeping all 3 up to date is becoming too much of a hassle.

- i silently fixed some ugly terrain shadows. An easy example, the terrain shadow in Fila's Holiday, near the housing/water area. The mountains on the other side of the pond have cleaner shadows now.

[KF2416]

The game likes to freeze when starting the game sometimes and switching to other weather as well.



Switching to other weather (like cloudy and night) will cause the game permafroze This one has a big one error.

Sometimes, the game will take lot of time to load and sometimes takes forever to load.

[Fila]

The game has to redo all the existing cache due to various changes and bug fixes in the shadow map. On top of that, it now has additional work it has to do due to the new features. I had to make a choice, either longer load times but keep the FPS or shorter load times and tank the FPS. And it's per weather so if you run a track in clear and then in cloudy, it needs to generate a cache for each weather system.

The load times will be faster again after running the race for the first time because the new cache has been rebuilt for the track. It sounds like you are running on a slow HDD, can't do much about it.

[Kmaster]

Great work so far! The new UI really makes the game feel up to modern standards, and the commentaries, like Cale said, where did you get all of these?

I've seen that a lot of testing has gone into drags, so I went ahead and tried a bunch of rallies. So far, the only real bug I could find is in Castle Nugget by Rocketalces.

rocketalces castle.jpg

The texture on this building flickers. I also noticed that the music/sounds start playing before you can actually start the race. This affects Castle Nugget as well, since it has an alarm at the beginning that represents the moving wall coming down to let the trucks start the race.

The rest of my annoyances have kinda already been discussed. I think the distance fog gradient needs to be toggleable, since it doesn't look great on city tracks or big outdoor rallies (like Enocell's) with a lot of trees or objects (Alphaville comes to mind). It might also be responsible for messing up the backdrop in Zoon Kitchen 2:

zoon kitchen.jpg

Also, I was really hoping to see offline rumbles and proper Z-mode implemented in the release.

Overall, though, it's really impressive to see how far this project has come since exactly ten years ago: viewtopic.php?p=56085#p56085. This third iteration feels like a huge step forward for MTM2, especially with things like Vulkan and modern DirectX support. More than anything, it's great to see the game being brought into the modern era and getting a bit of a revival along the way, with both old players coming back and new people discovering it. Thanks for all the work you've put into keeping this game alive Fila.

Happy CommPatch anniversary. This round is on me.

[KF2416]

Just shorten the load times and tank the FPS.

Plus, I don't have a slow HDD. I had my main decent HDD.

[Fila]

I am not tanking the fps. Next I'm going to have people complain that they cannot run 8 trucks again.

[KF2416]

Anyhow, keep the good work up.

[Fila]

Great work so far! The new UI really makes the game feel up to modern standards, and the commentaries, like Cale said, where did you get all of these?

I've seen that a lot of testing has gone into drags, so I went ahead and tried a bunch of rallies. So far, the only real bug I could find is in Castle Nugget by Rocketalces.

rocketalces castle.jpg

The texture on this building flickers. I also noticed that the music/sounds start playing before you can actually start the race. This affects Castle Nugget as well, since it has an alarm at the beginning that represents the moving wall coming down to let the trucks start the race.

The rest of my annoyances have kinda already been discussed. I think the distance fog gradient needs to be toggleable, since it doesn't look great on city tracks or big outdoor rallies (like Enocell's) with a lot of trees or objects (Alphaville comes to mind). It might also be responsible for messing up the backdrop in Zoon Kitchen 2:

zoon kitchen.jpg

Also, I was really hoping to see offline rumbles and proper Z-mode implemented in the release.

Overall, though, it's really impressive to see how far this project has come since exactly ten years ago: viewtopic.php?p=56085#p56085. This third iteration feels like a huge step forward for MTM2, especially with things like Vulkan and modern DirectX support. More than anything, it's great to see the game being brought into the modern era and getting a bit of a revival along the way, with both old players coming back and new people discovering it. Thanks for all the work you've put into keeping this game alive Fila.

Happy CommPatch anniversary. This round is on me.

You know... this whole time i never took my max visibility down to see if the fog actually works. i always thought it was broken because in the far distance you can't tell where it is. Turns out 80 ish is a magic number where it disappears.

[Ford-chan]

I've been practically waiting for this day to come, now it's finally here, after the most horrendous 8 year hiatus over a real bugger of a code to rewrite (thanks TRI ), had such things like Claude or whatever AI agent hadn't come to rescue, I wouldn't be writing this right now, and my famous saying of "turning into a grumpy old man in like 50 or so years" would've been more precarious.

Next thing I need to do now, is spread the word as much as possible, the like of which in certain modern day communities like the Beam and Rigs communities, and wherever else such fanatic Monster Truck communities exist on the internet, cause both MTM2 and CP3-onwards is going to need it, now more than ever.

Side note: Feel like CP3 could also use some fan made promotional trailer on YouTube, I can't really do it with my own basic video editing skills, so someone else here will have to chime in and do it.

[Kmaster]

You know... this whole time i never took my max visibility down to see if the fog actually works. i always thought it was broken because in the far distance you can't tell where it is. Turns out 80 ish is a magic number where it disappears.

Great, I dislike the fog enough that 80 might just become my permanent visibility setting lol.

by the way, HDD are way past due. they are all incredible slow by today standards. SSD are the way to go

I like Ford-chan's idea, I noticed that on the Discord server someone uploads very nice MTM2 videos to youtube.

[Fila]

https://www.mtm2.com/~mtmg/misc/CP3_hotfix2.zip

Pretty big one, the normal mask (if you use one) will leak to other tracks when playing. If you don't use a mask then you won't see it.

[Ford-chan]

These hotfixes in particular, do I need them right now, or is it more for Cale, RuDeE, and Kmaster at this point?

[Fila]

More Rudee and maybe Kmaster.

[Fila]

https://mtm2.com/~mtmg/commpatch/info/m ... atches.php

The page for it is finally live!

[OG_RuDeE]

Ok, I'm gonna double down. After testing the stock tracks with 128 grey masks, I think the normal mask is so good that it should be a toggle for all tracks. 128 grey or a bit lighter (slider if you want to get fancy with the toggle). If a track has a mask in the pod or in MaskArt, that overrules the default flat grey and the toggle (ie.e it shows whether the toggle is on or not). If the toggle is on, all tracks get basic flat mask normal. If toggle off, old behavior (overruled by the existence of a mask in pod or MaskArt folder). This way, we can get a kind of default normal mask on all tracks without having to make a mask for all individually. It adds so much richness in my opinion. Very nice feature!

For anyone who wants to weigh in, here is my MaskArt folder. It has flat 128 grey masks for all stock tracks (the _MASK.png files inside); note, sidewinder has a special mask for comparison. All _ref.png files can be deleted, or you can make them greyscale and experiment with different strengths of the normal in the stock tracks (dark (black) = less strength, light (white) = more normal strength). Just remove the _ref and save as trackname_MASK.png.

Just copy the MaskArt folder into your MTM2 directory, and check it out.

[Fila]

Can probably hardcode something like _STCK.png which would be read for everything. (should be stock but it's better to keep that at 4 characters)

[OG_RuDeE]

One other thing I noticed, Chevy TT SUV displays weird in check in window. Looks fine in game. I think same pod as you have Fila.

[Fila]

Doesn't look like that over here but it's probably video card related. Either way, there is a bug in there and it looks like preview window is not too happy with the truck window. Is it mesh or just regular glass material with a separate mesh on top? On mine the texture looks normal but it is see through (through the solid part). (also i see you are somehow using the old menu buttons :p)

[OG_RuDeE]

I made custom partially transparent buttons a while ago. I'll have to figure out where they are and delete them and make fresh ones from your new art.

Window section is the window preset with alpha test transparency instead of blend. The back of the truck also has some z fighting. So as it spins a bunch of black shows through flickering on and off.

[Kmaster]

hey Rudee, please check how your chevy suv looks in JSTruckViewer and let me know if anything is wrong.