]Files section
Dukester's Carmageddon section
How to make a new track for Carmageddon 2, by Dukester.
Special Thanks to Mangohead and Stainless.
*** In response to DUKESTER ; "Can you make tracks in Plaything2 ?" *** ' I asked one of the blokes at Stainless about making new levels... and this is his reply... if you are interested:- "To get a custom level into the game would be reasonably simple, and I doubt it'll be long before someone susses it out for themselves. The limitation to this would come when trying to add powerups and moveable accessories - although there may be cunning ways round it, currently this is handled by the level designer 'shitting' the accessories into the environment whilst driving/flying round it in-game. All that facility is still there in the game (it becomes available when the full cheat mode is accessed) but the processes involved are pretty complicated - it must be said that Carma was never designed with a view to being customisable in the way Quake is. Creation of the paths that opponent cars follow round a track would also be a problem. But to get a new network level in the game would simply involve building it in Max, texturing it up in the Plaything, saving it out as Newtrack.SDF (for instance), and slinging it into the game in the 'Races' directory. The track must be in a directory that bears it's name, and in that directory would sit the track .act, .dat and .mat files, a TIFFRGB directory containing all the track .TIFs, and a text file with the same name as the track which contains the information about the track co-ordinates at which the race starts, the direction the cars face at the start, etc. The Arena network track is a good template race text file as it contains no spurious information about accessories, no special funking and grooving information, and no opponent/drone path information. All the track builder would need to do to edit this file so it worked would be to enter relevent grid co-ordinates for the race start points, plus a set of grid start points for network games (in the enclosed sample file, I've set the initial grid start at 0,0,0, which means there's a good chance anyone who's using the template from scratch will actually start on the track, and not out in space somewhere) and they'd need to rename it to the name of their track, plus edit the last line of the file so it too had the new track name. Having untwatted the Data.twt file gives access to the Races.txt file. Editing the first race-related chunk in that so it refers to the new track name: // Race 0 NICE BEAVER NEWTRACK.TXT // Text file name NotDoneYet // Name of interface element -1 // Number of opponents (-1 = use default) 0 // Number of explicit opponents -1 // Opponent nastiness level (-1 = use default) -1 // Powerup exclusions 0 // Disable time awards 0 // Boundary race (mission) 0 // Race type (0 = Carma1, 1 = Cars, 2 = Peds, 3 = Checkpoints, 4 = Smash) 120,90,60 // Initial timer count for each skill level 4 // # laps 20000,10000,5000 // Race completed bonus (all laps raced) for each skill level 75000,50000,30000 // Race completed bonus (all peds killed) for each skill level 20000,10000,5000 // Race completed bonus (all oppos wasted) for each skill level // Race description LOCATION: BEAVER CITY @R LAPS: @L @R CHECKPOINTS: 4 @R OPPONENTS: @O @R RACE, WRECK OR WREAK HAVOC AMONGST THE POPULACE... THE CHOICE IS YOURS. 0 // Expansion And hey presto! The first track in the game is yours! Obviously this bit of info merely scratches the surface of the processes, but hopefully it might come in useful as a way of getting the ball rolling on new level design. If I get time, I'll add some further information in the future." There we go... I hope that helps anyone interested! MangoHead '