PC/CD Gamer UK 41/PCGAMER41.bin/games/mtmedit/tracked.exe/data.z/tracked.txt

Text File | 1997-01-22 | 21.1 KB | 491 lines

                             TRI TRACKED
                A Track Editor from Terminal Reality Inc.
                            Version 1.00

                          Created: 12-21-96
                        Last Revised: 01-22-97


WHAT IS TRACKED?
================
TRACKED is a track editor developed by Terminal Reality Inc. for use
with Microsoft MONSTER TRUCK MADNESS (MTM).  This track editor will
allow you to create new tracks that can be added to and used in the
full version of MTM.  Tracks created and edited with TRACKED only
work with the full retail version of MTM.  This track editor is
provided as is.  Technical Support for this product can be obtained
via email only.  To contact TRI for support address your email to:

    [e-mail]

DO NOT contact Microsoft for technical support for this editor.


FIRST TIME SETUP AND OUTLINE
============================
Make sure that you have a "Typical" or "Full Install" of Monster
Truck Madness (MTM) loaded on to your computer.   Make sure that
TRACKED.EXE, TRACKED.INI, and TRACKED.POD are installed in your
MTM directory.

Launch the TRACKED program.

Select File Manager.   Select option A - First Time Setup.  This will
expand the files from the MTM GAME.POD file out into the DOS file
system.  Once the files are in the DOS file system, you will be able
to look at, and change them.

To create a new level, you need to clone an existing MTM level.
Levels are typically called "situations" in the editor, but levels is
an easier term to follow.  To clone a level, select option C under
the File Manager.  Choose a level to clone from the list of levels
already created in MTM.  Give it a new unique name, up to 7 characters
long (i.e. MYTRACK).  Next, you can give your level a description, up
to 31 characters long. This description will appear on the pull down
menus for circuit and rally races within MTM.  Once you have cloned a
level, you can safely make changes to it.

It is a good idea to move your level/situation into a .POD file
frequently.  If nothing else, this serves as a backup for the work
that you have done.  This .POD file can then be used in MTM, and it
can also be traded with your friends.


GENERAL PROCEDURE FOR CREATING A NEW TRACK
==========================================
The following sections describe the general process that a level
designer at TRI uses to create a track.   You may find that the best
way to start learning how tracks are put together, is to start
taking them apart.  Start with the tracks that are shipped with the
game, and go on from there.

There is an detailed listing of the keys which are used in each option
of the Editor.  You will find this under the "KEYBOARD GUIDE" section
of this document.  If you want to jump there right now and blaze on
ahead, do so, but if you want a little more in-depth background on
how we do level design, read on.


TRACK REFERENCE LIST
====================
This is a listing of the situations/levels that are available in both
the retail and on-line versions of MTM.  You can use this list when it
comes time to clone a level for any new tracks that you would like to
create.  If you want to create a Circuit track, you would clone one
of the Circuit tracks in the list below, the same if you want to
create a Rally track.


Situation    Track Type    Track Name
---------    ----------    ----------
CASTLE.Sit    Rally        Highlands Rally
CIRC1.Sit    Circuit        A Crazy Eight
CIRC2.Sit    Circuit        Canyon Adventure
CIRC3.Sit    Circuit        Round and Round
CIRC4.Sit    Circuit        Winding Way
CIRC5.Sit    Circuit        Mud Pies
DEMO.Sit    Rally        Arizona
DRAG.Sit    Drag Strip    Indiana State Fairgrounds
DRAG2.Sit    Drag Strip    RCA Dome
DRAG3.Sit    Drag Strip    B.C. Place
DRAG4.Sit    Drag Strip    Tacoma Dome (J)
DRAG5.Sit    Drag Strip    Trans World Dome (J)
ISLAND.Sit    Rally        Yucatan Adventure

Available On-Line
-----------------
CRAZR8.Sit    Circuit        A Crazier Eight (Add-On)
SNOWY.Sit    Rally        Snowy Canyon (Add-On)
SIERRA.Sit    Circuit        Sierra Logging Run (Add-On)


DISTRIBUTING NEW TRACKS
=======================
To use a new track with the MTM game, the .POD file (self contained
track file) must be mounted.  If you do not mount the POD file, the
game will not add it into the list of tracks that you can race on.
The POD.INI file is used to tell the game which tracks to load, but
you must follow the example below and include at least the first 4
POD references or the program may not function properly.

There is a utility that we have included along with the Track Editor,
PODMAN.EXE.  This program will allow you to mount or unmount PODs.
Just start the program and it will bring up the list of PODs that
you currently have available to add into MTM.  The standard PODs and
the TRACKED.POD file will not show up in this list, we ignore those
since you HAVE to have those ones to run the game and editor properly.
You just double-click on a POD file in the currently available area
and it will now appear in the mounted PODs area.  To remove it, just
double-click on the POD in the mounted area and it will be moved back
into the list of available tracks.

For PODMAN to work efficiently, all of the user tracks should be
placed in the root directory of MTM.  You do not have to follow that
rule if you want to edit the POD.INI file manually.  If you wanted
to create a folder to place all of your user tracks in and then point
the POD.INI file to load those, it will work, but PODMAN will not.

To Create (or modify) your POD.INI file manually, follow this example:

    6
    SYSTEM\STARTUP.POD
    SYSTEM\GAME.POD
    SYSTEM\UI.POD
    SYSTEM\TRUCK.POD
    TRACKED.POD
    MYTRACK.POD

In this example, MYTRACK.POD is the .POD file that you have created.
If this INI file is in the same directory with the MONSTER.EXE
program, this will tell MONSTER.EXE which tracks to load and include
on its menus.  This list can keep growing as you create and download
more and more user created tracks.  It would be a good practice to
always include PODMAN.EXE along with the tracks that you create.


CREATING THE TERRAIN
====================
To see a list of all the keys which are used under this option, jump
to the section titled "ALTITUDE EDITOR".

The first thing to do is to create a fractal landscape for the level,
which will create a general smooth terrain for your use.  To create
this you select the Altitude Editor option and select the Generate
Fractal Landscape option.  Use these setting to get a smooth terrain:

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

Save off your selection before making any other changes once you have
created a terrain that you like.  It is always a good practice to save
your progress after making dramatic changes to your track.

Next, while still in the Altitude Editor, jump to the center of the
map by pressing "J" and type in 128,128 for the coordinates.  Our
whole world is a 256 by 256 square grid that you can manipulate.
Raise the center point up dramatically so that you will always know
where the center of your map is at.  All levels must be in the center
of the map or the course following system will not work properly.
The course following system does not deal with wrapping around the
world, so you always need to start your course layout from the center
of the map.

As you raise altitude points up, keep this scale in mind. One Altitude
point is a distance of 2 feet high and one squares length is 16 feet.
Raise something up 5 units and it is now up 10 feet higher.  Don't
raise the terrain up too high or the computer controlled trucks may
have difficulty navigating the race course, but for sheer fun, go
crazy.

You should probably design your course on paper before jumping into
track design (this will really make things go much easier).  But if
not, start creating your terrain (mountains, roads, bridges, tunnels,
etc.) although you may want to clear the current textures off of this
level first.   See the next section on how to normalize the terrain.
It is a lot easier to work on if you do this but it is not required.
Move around the environment and layout your course or create daunting
mountain ranges to drive through or over.

If you want to create tunnels or bridges, you will use the Ground Box
system.  Jump to that layer by pressing "Tab".  You can now move
around the Box layer and create whatever you need for your course.
If you want to go back you can press "Tab" or "Shift+Tab".


CREATING TEXTURES ON THE TERRAIN
================================
To see a list of all the keys which are used under this option, jump
to the section titled "TEXTURE EDITOR".

After designing what your course should look like on paper (this will
really make things go much easier), you can now layout the textures
for your track.  Go into the Texture Editor and jump to the center
of your map.

If you want to start off a level with a clean slate, you should
normalize the textures for a layer.  There are two layers to our
world, the Ground layer and the Ground Box layer.  The Ground layer
is the normal terrain which you drive over and the Ground Box layer
is used for special terrain such as bridges, tunnels, or buildings.
To normalize, you would type in "N" and select a generic texture
such as GOLFGRAS and let the editor replace all of the textures on
that layer.  You can repeat the process for the Ground Box layer
and now you are ready to roll.

To place a texture on the ground, just scroll through the list of
textures and once you find the one you want press "SPACE" to plop
that texture down on the grid.  If you want to texture a whole area
with one texture, expand the grid selection with the F6, F7,or F8
function keys and then press the Spacebar.  You can also lay down
patterns and copy those around the track using the F9 and F10
function keys.  This is the main way that we create and place our
turns and straight sections around the track.

Here is a habit that we follow. Select from the multitude of track
styles that are already available and begin laying out the turn
patterns for those textures.  Many of them are five by five grid
textures and there will only be one turn defined in each style.  We
do not duplicate textures, but use the rotate texture function to
create the other turns that we will use.  We create a circle of the
turn patterns in an area and then do a copy and paste around the
design of our track to fit them all together.  Once you layout a turn
pattern, you can copy row by row or column by column around the
general area there and use the Rotate Texture mode (toggle through
modes by using "BACKSPACE") and then use "R" to rotate clockwise or
"Shift+R" to rotate counter clock-wise.

Once you create the pattern area for your track, with all of the turns
and any of the different transitions for the straight lengths, you can
then start laying out your basic track design.  Later on when you need
to setup the Ground Typing, the type of ground (Dirt, Water, Grass)
and the depth that the truck will sink in, you can return to your
pattern area and do all of your ground typing here.  That way you will
not miss any of the textures that you use on your track.

Once you have laid down the texture design of the track you can go
back in and fine tune the altitude of the course for this track.


LAYING OUT A COURSE
===================
To see a list of all the keys which are used under this option, jump
to the section titled "COURSE EDITOR".

With the track textures laid out, we need to create the courses which
the computer controlled trucks will follow.  There are three courses
that we need to define:

Course 0 - The centerline race course
Course 1 - The standard racing line
Course 2 - The professional racing line (includes shortcuts)

The simplest way is to lay down all three courses as the exact same.
This will be used when you have a track design that does not have any
shortcuts and no area where the computer truck can cheat in on turns.

Course 0 and 1 can be the same, but don't have to.  You can pull
course 1 in a little more to create a tighter turn that the computer
controlled trucks can follow.

Course 1 and 2 will always be the same if you do not have any
shortcuts on your track, so only change Course 2 when you want
the computer controlled trucks to take those shortcuts.

You can toggle through the courses by pressing the "~" key.  The
information display will show you which course your are currently
editing and there are a few extra courses that we do not use so skip
over those.  You always start out with the Add Starting Segment option
and to go through your course segments for a particular course, press
"[" to move forward or "]" to move backwards.  If you ever want to
delete a course point, you press "X".  Locate your starting point
while you are at the Add Starting Segment and then press "Space" to
place a point down.  The Editor will now move on to Add Ending Segment
and you move to the end of your straight section of track and press
"Space" again.  Repeat this process for the rest of your straight
course sections and press "~" when you are done to go on to the
next course. When you exit the courses will automatically be saved.

You create line segments on all of the straight sections of your
track.  You lay out a course in straight line segments and the game
automatically interprets the turns for you so you do not have to
worry about that.  The closer that you move these points towards
each other, the tighter and slower the computer trucks will take a
turn.  Speed and how a track is driven are also affected by the
ground typing that you do for your textures, i.e. dirt textures and
grass textures, so you will need to revisit your course to make
adjustments later on.

Never put two segments together to form a straight line.  You only
need one straight segment for a course to work properly.

DON'T DO THIS    o---------o   o---------o

The whole idea for the course segments was to make it easy for the
levels designers.  Place straight course segments down and let the
game compute the curves for the truck to follow.


CREATING CHECKPOINTS
====================
To see a list of all the keys which are used under this option, jump
to the section titled "MODEL EDITOR".

After you lay out the course, you need to create the checkpoints that
you will race through.  You always lay down the checkpoints in order
from 1 to XX and you place the starting light last.  This one is
always your last checkpoint when you are racing.  The checkpoints
are setup by first placing the banner model (CKBAN1.BIN, CKBAN2.BIN)
or the CKBOX.BIN model along the course.  The CKBOX.BIN file is an
invisible checkpoint model that we use, usually only for the starting
light.

Select the appropriate model from the list of models when you type in
"Ctrl+F".  Move around the world and press "Space" when you want to
place the specific checkpoint model.  After placing the models, go
back to each one and set its attributes by pressing "B" and setting
its Model Type to Checkpoint. That's it.  The only problems that you
can encounter is that the direction that a checkpoint and which you
have to drive through is facing the wrong direction.  There is no
visual clue for checkpoints without banners, so what you do is race
to a checkpoint and if it is not resolved by driving through it,
spin it around 180 degrees and try again.  Your finder will always
show you the direction that it thinks the next checkpoint is.


TRUCK STARTING POSITIONS
========================
With the basic design and courses laid out, we want to race our new
track and see what we have created.  We need to create our starting
line area and move our trucks to it.  Select a place to start and
let's move the trucks over to face the direction that we want them to
race on this track.  There are eight default trucks already placed on
a track and you just need to move these over to the starting line.

Move them over and place each one in their own square grid so that
they do not bump into each other when we start a race.  The basic
course is now setup and we can see if our track is fun to drive.


ADDITIONAL INFO
===============
Situation files are text files.   You can edit them with a standard
text editor program, provided that you preserve the formatting.
The EDIT.COM program is a good one for this.  Situation files are
stored in the WORLD sub-directory.  Many of the files are in plain
text format and you can make modifications there, BUT if any mistake
with the format is made, your track may not work at all.  Be very
careful if you decide to edit files manually and also be aware that
support will be very hard to provide when these types of problems
occur.

**************
IMPORTANT NOTE
**************
When you go and test your tracks, be aware that this editor is not
designed for intensive game play so we have stripped out support for
all but the keyboard.  The sound has also been turned off.


KEYBOARD GUIDE
==============

GENERAL EDITOR KEYS (ALL OPTIONS)

Arrow Keys - Move around the environment
Arrow Keys+Shift - Move faster around the environment
A - Increase Ambient Light
A+Shift - Decrease Ambient Light
D - Grid outline toggle (off, hatch, boxes)
D+Shift - Grid color cycle
E - Eye movement mode toggle
E+Shift - Return eye to due "north" heading
I - Info panel toggle On/Off
J - Jump to coordinate X, Z (0 to 255, 0 to 255)
M - Follow terrain toggle On/Off (affects eye)
O - Grid selection color cycle
R - Rotate clockwise
R+Shift - Rotate counterclockwise
R+Alt - Set rotation degrees
R+Ctrl - Set rotation functionality (eye, object, texture)
V - View 2D level map
0 - Toggle model placement display On/Off
F1-F4 - Activate custom eye presets
F1-F4+Shift - Save custom eye presets
F6 - Expand X, Z selection
F6+Shift - Collapse X, Z selection
F7 - Expand X (Horizontal) selection
F7+Shift - Collapse X (Horizontal) selection
F8 - Expand Z (Vertical) selection
F8+Shift - Collapse Z (Vertical) selection
Tab - Cycle down through ground layers
Tab+Shift - Cycle up through ground layers
1+Shift - Ground layer display toggle On/Off
2+Shift - Ground Box layer display toggle On/Off
Backspace - Toggle through rotation modes (Rotate Eye, Texture, Object)
            NOTE: Rotate Object is not working right now. Sorry.


TEXTURE BROWSER

Space - Classify texture type
F - Filter by texture type
G - Go to texture by name
G+Shift - Go to texture by number


PATTERN BROWSER (SCRAPBOOK)

S - Slice an external texture file (file must be in \SLICE dir)
F9 - Copy pattern from scrapbook
F10 - Paste new pattern to scrapbook


COURSE EDITOR

[, ] - Move forward/backwards through the course points
~      (Tilde)
     - Cycle through the list of courses from 0 to 4 (0 to 2 only are used)
    * Course 0 - Center racing line
    * Course 1 - Standard racing line
    * Course 2 - Professional racing line  (if you have shortcuts)
C - Set the course section width (feet) and speed limit (feet/sec)


TEXTURE EDITOR

Space - Place texture on ground or box selection
Space+Ctrl - Grab selected texture
[, ] - Move forward/backwards by one (1) in the list of textures
[, ]+Shift - Move forward/backwards by ten (10) in the list of textures
C - Create fractal terrain for entire landscape
C+Shift - Create fractal terrain for selected terrain only
F - Next box face (box layer only)
F+Shift - Previous box face (box layer only)
L - Create fractal terrain with texture mapping
N - Normalize entire layer to a single texture
N+Shift - Normalize entire selection to a single texture
P - Pattern browser
S - Search and replace (affects entire layer)
S+Shift - Search and replace (affects selection only)
T - Texture browser
T+Shift - Texture lookup by name
W - Wrap texture around box (box layer only)
X - Flip texture axis
Y - Set texture terrain type (grass, dirt, etc.) and depth (from 0 to about 100)
    NOTE: We rarely went over 20 on the depth
Z - Zoom in on current texture
F9 - Copy selected texture or texture areas
F10 - Paste selected texture or texture areas


ALTITUDE EDITOR

Space - Enter new altitude for current selection or box
[, ] - Raise/lower selection by one (1) unit
[, ]+Shift - Raise/lower selection by ten (10) units
B - Create new box   (box layer only)
C - Create fractal terrain for entire landscape
C+Shift - Create fractal terrain for selected terrain only
F - Next box face   (box layer only)
F+Shift - Previous box face (box layer only)
L - Create fractal terrain with texture mapping
X - Delete selected boxes   (box layer only)
F9 - Copy selected altitude points
F10 - Paste selected altitude points


MODEL EDITOR (Box/Ramp/Truck placement & editing)

B - Set model attributes  (type, flags, scenery level, mass, sounds)
Space - Place occurrence of model in world
Ctrl + F - Model file list selector
X - Delete model  (only in editing option)
PgDn - Rotate model clockwise
PgDn+Alt - Rotate model slowly clockwise
End - Rotate model counterclockwise
End+Alt - Rotate model slowly counterclockwise