Messages

Bienvenido Julio! (that's the only decent piece of Spanish I can write without having to spend half an hour looking at a dictionary... )

OK, my curiosity was heightened enough and I'm about to start the download of TM Nations Forever. Only little problem is that I'll need a few days to finish the download at this connection...

Is it possible now to create new scenery elements ?
Will we be forced to replace elements (Joe's bar, windmill, ...) by the new ones or can we add them to existing ones ?
In case we can add them, is there a limit of scenery elements we can add ?
And finally, how to place them in the tracks without hex-editing the track file ? In case we have to replace original elements then it could be possible to add them throught in-game editor or Track Blaster Pro, but if they are added to original ones I think that hex-editing the track file is the only way to put them on the track. But maybe I'm wrong...

Summing up the answers according to current knowledge:

1. We can create new graphics for scenery elements, but we can't change the collision models. So, if you replace Joe's graphics by a (mini) Triumph arc you won't be ever able to drive under it...

2. Adding new elements is not viable at the moment because we don't really understand what are the inner mechanisms that Stunts uses to identify a byte value in the .TRK and use the info to load the correct shape and physics for the element, and as a consequence we have no idea where we should put data for new elements. The closest thing that seems to be possible (haven't fully tested it, though) would be making new combos with the current elements by messing up with TEDIT.RES (among other stuff, that file defines which elements are available in which F1..F10 panel of the editor), but I doubt that would be of much use anyway.

3. Therefore, at the current state-of-the-art we are limited to replacing graphics for current elements without changing the underlying collision model. Creation of new track elements is pretty limited for purposes other than making alternative visual environments by playing with texture sets. Of course, the same is valid for cars, but since all cars seem to have nearly the same physical shapes/collision model the issue is not that critical. That probably explains why sometimes, when trying RH-heavy tricks (narrowly jumping over bridge walls, for instance) the car seems to crash into the air: the collision and graphical models do not match exactly...

4. Now, let's suppose that one day we actually get to introduce new track elements without replacing existing ones. When that day comes, we will know enough about the track-construction code for assigning unused byte codes in the .TRK and TEDIT.RES files for the new elements, thus allowing for normal manipulation of them within the editor. That will be another nice day for the Wiki chronology...

Wow, "Yours is no disgrace"! It seems you have begun to listen the YES almost starting from their origin. If I remember, this song is part of "The Yes Album", third album of their career (1971, if I'm not wrong). It's really great. I like so much many songs of it, and particularly the final of "Starship trooper". What I appreciate so much is the multifomity of styles and rithms that YES succeed to put in an album and, above all, in a single song. Even if "songs" maybe it's not the correct term talking about YES. I prefer call them compositions. "Your is no disgrace" is one of the first example (you can find some of them in the previous two very first album, with some pieces really fantastic), but afterward they reach more and more higher levels. An album I like really so much is the next one, Fragile (1972, this time I'm sure about the year) that includes one of my favourite "song" in absolute: "Close to the edge", 19 minutes of pure art... But how forgetting "Heart of the sunrise" or "South side of the sky"... OK, I've already bored you too much... 

Well, what I can tell you is that I already listened to the Close to the Edge album (1972, Fragile would be the one with Roundabout if I remember correctly), and it's amazing. The title track makes for a wonderful music-driven trip, and Siberian Khatru is a perfect blend of soundscapes and harder rock. Which reminds me that lately I'm finding quite interesting to contrast Yes with the other prog heroes, King Crimson: While Yes sounds so spiritual and even light-hearted, Crimson is dark, sometimes even doomy, with all those crazed improvisations...

BTW: Did we ever had a Music topic around here?

Well, Flying is a bit random even if nice for casual fun (as intended... ). There are some well known bugs to be used, the only issue is finding where to pull them off... Jumping, however, is very engaging and strategical - my favourite game so far!

Now I'll do a shameless imitation of BJ and Zak and use last.fm data for a sig, at least for a while. Since I do not have that many songs and do not listen to them that often, it won't be very dynamic. But it looks cool nevertheless...

I was about to post something on the lines of "Hey, one week left and only three pipsqueaks?", but I hadn't seen Chulk's entry yet...
Anyway, I had a few very casual attempts over the last week, but with little effect: minor deviations from your planned line can easily cost 2-3 seconds here...

Ha! I have won a double-almost...

Aaargh... Copa Libertadores Quarterfinals, Fluminense v. São Paulo, away leg for us (São Paulo). With 20 minutes to go on the 2nd half Adriano scored the equalizer that would pull us through, as the home leg was 1-0. Then Fluminense reacts immediately and makes 2-1, but that was sort of fine as we would still win on away goals and we were solid enough not to allow Fluminense to make really strong pressure. But no, bloody right sideback Joilson (substituted in at halftime, BTW) makes his most significant contribution to the team in his six month spell by getting two freakin' yellow cards in five minutes and thus screwing up the balance of play and eventually leading to Fluminense's third goal at stoppage time... Oh, screw it! It's way too alike last year when we lost to another Brazilian team (Grêmio) in all too similar circumstances. Now the road seems open - yet again - to Boca, as I do not believe Fluminense (probably the only other remaining club really worth of attention) will stand up to them when the critical hour comes. And that trashing of Atlas sounded powerful...

At least Chelsea eventually lost to MU, so as to not make today's results completely negative...

Nah, trust your ability to bring it out... anyway, out of curiosity, what the subject would be?

One wild idea that crossed my mind on F1 cars: convert a cockpit from some old F1 game... for instance, here is a shot of Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 2 (from 1996):

I'm planning to do both, I think I'll have less problems doing the tunning than the dashboard, as I'm not sure what colour palette the game uses. (Don't worry, I'll find out)

Well, when I open a dashboard .png in GIMP (the open source equivalent to Photoshop) it automatically recognizes the exported bitmap as indexed and attributes the correct palette. But if you want to play on the safe side then you can use this palette, provided by dstien.

Anyway, now I have some more free time, so I think I can work a little bit on the truck. I can promess results soon but I'll do my best. So I need all the files, can someone pass them to me or at least tell me where to find them?

Very nice! Here are your files, Paleke... the truck .3SH and the base CARLM02.RES are already available, so I included all relevant bitmaps from STDALM02.PVS and STDBLM02.PVS. They are to be edited in any usual bitmap graphics program, without adding any colour not included in their "default" palette - changing image size (e.g. to have a taller dashboard) should work in principle as long one adjusts the proper .VSH parameters in stressed, but I have no idea whether Stunts would complain for some reason or misplace the bitmap in that case. If you get everything ready, or just want to check the result in-game, while stressed is not available for Windows, just send me the bitmaps and I can re-insert them back into the .VSH files. The role of each bitmap is briefly described in the Wiki. And please do share all doubts and insights here...

German style GT1... 

Hmm... how about this interpretation of the theme? 

My dream: using Big Foot/Monster Truck cars in Stunts.

Graphically that is not hard to do, but the real fun would be if we got to modify the physics... Just imagine running over slalom blocks!;D
BTW, CTG: Several posts ago you mentioned some NFS Porsche colour scheme you'd enjoy seeing in game. Could you please point me to an image of it, so I can evaluate the feasibility of adapting it to our P962?

---

I performed the downscaling tests mentioned in my previous posts with promising results. Here are two shots comparing the regular car1 Corvette to the downscaled car0 (in the background, really a bad choice of angle for the images ):





The "new" Corvette has quite a number of cool new details... the overall shape is only very slightly different from the original one (a bit lower profile), and the downscaling is perfect, as all car0 coordinates seem to be multiples of 20 - as if the developers originally intended to use downscaled car0 models themselves but later aborted the plan (hardware limitations?). Implementing the downscaling was rather simple - export the shape, open the .OBJ in a text editor, copy the vertex table to Excel/OOCalc, divide all coordinates by 20, paste the table back in the .OBJ and import back in stressed. The only caveat to this procedure is that stressed, as dstien pointed out, exports just one paintjob per .OBJ, and thus the resulting new shape will have only one colour available. I suppose there is a simple workaround to this though, namely repeating the process for all seven paintjobs and importing them all to a single .3SH later on.
And now, I'll display the motivation to those tests: the large benefits to my American Blue colour scheme...