Community Patch #3

[OG_RuDeE]

Kmaster, last time I looked, it was good, but I will check again today after work and get back to you.

[OG_RuDeE]

Fila, I haven't been able to do much testing over the past few days, but my feeling for the auto normal mask is that the strength should be related / determined by the average value of the textures in the _ref.png. 128 grey looks too strong on lighter textures, e.g. sidewinder, tumbleweed, deadman's gultch, while it looks fine on darker textures, e.g. crazy 98, voodoo island, etc... If something like that is possible it would be cool.

[JerOutlaw]

I cannot believe that:
1) I actually remembered my account log in
2) There are still significant updates being made to this game.

Tip of the hat to you diehards!

[Ford-chan]

I cannot believe that:
1) I actually remembered my account log in
2) There are still significant updates being made to this game.

Tip of the hat to you diehards!

We ain't done yet mate, not even from two decades ago!

Heck, some of those Drag tracks you've made back then, I even made MTM1 Drag functionality out of them, with my own track editing work. It's relatively easy to do, especially now.

[OG_RuDeE]

Now that Kmaster has released his tool and allowed for tracks with 1000's of trees, I was curious, does the game use any type of object instancing, so that one particular .bin is loaded only once and then "instanced" all over the map wherever that particular bin shows up?

I think Traxx does not have this type of behavior yet, as I notice definite lag when viewing these newly converted tracks. It would be a good resource saving feature to add there, if possible.

Also, I'm getting a massive fps hit on these new tracks, so optimizations of the engine (e.g. LOD models, instancing, etc...) will be good to add as time allows.

Since I know how much you enjoyed working on the normal mask, I'm dreaming of a clutter mask that can control little ground foliage like blades of grass, rocks, weeds, etc... as time and interest allows. The track creator makes the clutter objects, a text file telling what rgb each are, and an rgb mask telling the game where all of the different clutter goes. I guess the alpha channel of the clutter mask can be used to control size, if we want to get fancy. A man can dream!

[Fila]

They already are instanced but I have to check them, if the converter doesn't do it properly, they are not going to be recognized as something that can be instanced and will be thrown out. One thing I noticed is that headlights/breaks/reverse lights can be seen through the trees which might be connected.

[OG_RuDeE]

I also noticed that the finder has colors specific to the track on Kmaster's tool's conversions, which is cool. Is that something special for the .si2 format?

[Fila]

No. No idea what's going on there.

.si2 exists to allow you to make HD only tracks without breaking the original compatibility. MTM2 would throw a hissy fit if you made HD tracks with no .raw/act files in the track and would crash. Basically this is in a way to ensure you are not crashing pre-CP3 game, as the original game ignores extensions it doesn't know, so it wouldn't even look at the pod.
If you make a track with both HD and legacy .raw/act it's going to be read as .sit (or at least traxx does that, i don't know what the conversion does).

[Kmaster]

I also noticed that the finder has colors specific to the track on Kmaster's tool's conversions, which is cool. Is that something special for the .si2 format?

my first guess was it was palette related.

[Fila]

Has to be. I'll have to re-check how the finder gets made. Some small stuff still takes a palette when created as backup and the finder is probably one of them as it doesn't have a "main HD way" of being created.

Now, if only I could figure out the AI logic so i can move ahead with fixing stuff

[KF2416]

I still hope a new beta patch where it has offline rumble comes out, otherwise we would have wait forever.

[Fila]

Offline rumbles won't work if the AI doesn't. lol

[OG_RuDeE]

What are the current max numbers of allowed checkpoints and course segments?

[OG_RuDeE]

Ok,found it. Was 20 two year ago. I guess it hasn't changed yet.

[OG_RuDeE]

Just uploaded OOPS's Deja Voodoo conversion to the tracks page. There is an issue where the AI fall through the collision boxes for the bridges. I'm guessing it's because the collision box overlaps with the non-collision bridge and the game is prioritizing them incorrectly for the AI. I have not fallen through the bridges on any test lap.

Seeing this issue on the track above, it made me realize that it also happens on Malibu's conversion of Deadman's Gultch and probably other older tracks. Hopefully it can be fixed and that it isn't a known glitch that a bunch of old tracks exploit.

[Fila]

This is a long standing issue where the collision only becomes collideable if you are in the vicinity of it it. If the trucks are trying to hit it and you are at a certain distance away, it becomes uncollidable for them.

My whole of Arizona Dreaming track is built on this feature

Malibu built a whole workaround in Orient Express due to this very issue. That's why the trucks end up flying across the lake in the middle

This is gonna end up becoming a moot point whenever I get to release the next beta as the objects will now be collideable based on geometry instead of 1997 era invisible squares.

[OG_RuDeE]

Aha! I thought watching the the AI on Malibu's conversion tracks that there was a player collide option for objects because the AI just drove through so many of the models on the track. I guess he was using this glitch a lot. The Orient Express bridge is hilarious and genius.

[Ford-chan]

Or even Malibu's Tibet Cliffside bridge glitch, in which you drive underneath it, your truck does the kangaroo jump upon passing through.

[Ford-chan]

Just uploaded OOPS's Deja Voodoo conversion to the tracks page. There is an issue where the AI fall through the collision boxes for the bridges. I'm guessing it's because the collision box overlaps with the non-collision bridge and the game is prioritizing them incorrectly for the AI. I have not fallen through the bridges on any test lap.

Seeing this issue on the track above, it made me realize that it also happens on Malibu's conversion of Deadman's Gultch and probably other older tracks. Hopefully it can be fixed and that it isn't a known glitch that a bunch of old tracks exploit.

Upon reading the txt.file with the mentioning of "enjoy the deja vu!", is when I decided to play this as BGM whilst driving this track.

https://youtu.be/dv13gl0a-FA?si=ISs2ButtTdq396Gf

[Fila]

Or even Malibu's Tibet Cliffside bridge glitch, in which you drive underneath it, your truck does the kangaroo jump upon passing through.

Yeah and that's something that I cannot fix because SO MANY rumbles rely on it. lol