59 replies to this topic

[tjc]

Hey guys...

First off I have to say I`m a complete noob at doing any sort of Gpl editing (well editing in general I suppose) so please bare with me.

I`d also like to say that I`d very much like to learn about all things editing so I may be back with more threads/questions, I hope that`s cool.



Anyhow, what I`d like to ask is this:

I have an update for Monza 67 that I really like but I`m not overly keen on the asphalt that comes with it... I`ve seen another update for Monza with an asphalt I do really like. Can I use one updates asphalt in the other update or would this cause problems?

IE - can I use the asphalt from update 1 in update 2? If the answer is yes but there`s a process of doing this I`d apprecite it very much if someone would run through that process keeping in mind I`m a noob  

Plus is it possible to use the asphalt from one track on another, different track or is this out of the question?

I look forward to starting the learning process...

Thanks.

tj.

[sky]

tj, this should be possible. unless you intend to release it to the public, in which case it'd be appropriate to ask the editor of the packages whether or not you can include their files.

that aside, combining packages of the same track should be rather straightforward. grab asphalt texture from pack 1, and copy it over asphalt texture of pack 2. done. please note that for most tracks more than one asphalt texture is used. i.e. the verge is re-using bits of the same asphalt plus parts from the dirt or grass texture. also there maybe variations of the asphalt, where some areas are showing shadows, etc. i'm not sure if that has been done in the pits at monza though.
laguna seca for instance has some 3-5 different asphalt textures, one general asphalt, one with shadows from the armco in the pits, some with the shadow from the wiremesh fence (also pits), etc...
reims has 3 different shades of tarmac for areas where they had resurfaced the track etc...

in general replacing textures is quite easy. just give it a shot and build "your" own monza. one thing you should pay attention to is the size of the asphalt textures. for the most part they are square, 512x512, 1024x1024 or even 2048x2048. but some tracks use different formats like 512x1024, and sometimes the texture is used at a 90° angle - that might put a spanner in the works if you put it on your track without rotating the texture , but that is easily fixed within a minute using your painting tool and winmip2.

any other questions, just ask

[tjc]

Hi sky...

Good to know it`s at least possible for one asphalt texture to be used in place of another, all I`ve got to do now is try and do it.

Btw, I`ve no intentions of releasing anything to the public... I have to learn how to do it first and after that it`ll just be for my own use (unless I become a master lol )

Ok so if both tracks/updates use the one asphalt texture it`s a simple as copying one over the other? Sounds good to me...

If there are other asphalt textures used how will I know they are asphalt textures? Will they still contain the actual word "asphalt" or will they have other names? How will I recognise the other asphalt textures?

What happens if there is only one asphalt texture to use from update 1 but there are several asphalt textures used in update 2?

Mmm... I can see I may have to experiment a little and see how I get on with this...

I`ll go and have a little play and look around and see how I get on but... I`ll be back

Thanks.

tj

[ginetto]

Remember that al the original papy tracks have the textures mapped vertically instead of horizontally of all the add on tracks.
So if you want to apply an asphalt of an addon track to the original papy monza, you need to first rotate the texture by 90 degrees
Basically all the asphalt textures are named asphalt.mip or asph.mip
then you have asph1 asph2 asphalt1 and so on
For the verge part the names have a bigger variety.
Just use Datman that can visually list all the files in a dat so you can discover the names too; I think is the easiest way to begin

[tjc]

Hi Ginetto.

Ok, so if I did need to rotate textures how would I go about doing that? Also what program or software is needed for such a task?

Thanks for the asphalt textures names info etc, appreciate that.

I have Datman and have had a very little play around with it but I`ll do as you suggest and see how I go.

Thanks again.

[ginetto]

You need one of the 2 between winmip2 or papybmp
You find both with a search here or at SRMZ.
They open the mip file and convert it to bmp, then do the opposite after the changes.

[tjc]

Ok cool...

I have WinMip2. I take it that any changes needed to be made can be made in photoshop or something similar.

I`ll try it out anyway.

[ginetto]

Yes, I use Photoshop CS5 but any program that manages and saves 24 bits bmp image files is fine

[tjc]

I have CS2 so I`ll be doing some experimenting soon...

[tjc]

Ok... just a little update...

I`ve managed to experiment with swapping a few asphalt textures and hey presto!

It worked...

I`ve now experimented with Datman and opened up the files to have a look and also been using winmip2 too.

Quite enjoyed the tiny bit of "editing" I`ve manage so far but I`ve realised it takes up quite a bit of time too... I don`t know where you guys find the time to do all this editing etc you do and still manage to get behind the wheel for some laps.

Respect.

[tjc]

Hey guys...

I`m back with another question.

As I`ve said, I`ve now managed to swap asphalts over etc but I`ve come across a little problem.

I`ve found an asphalt (although it`s still maybe a little too light) that I`d like to use for Monza but I`m still getting the first Monza trackside textures showing through at the sides of the track... the white lines:



So how would I go about either:

1 - Having the whole track in the new asphalt texture without the white lines at the side?

Or...

2 -  Use the new asphalt, keeping the white lines but have the track the same colour?

I hope this makes some kind of sense

Cheers.

tj.

[ginetto]

If you notice in the screen attached (taken in 3dsimed with loaded the track), Monza has a texture for the border of the asphalt, where it melt with the grass. ( the name aspgrs says it all.... )
A lot of tracks have this kind of construction so when you want to change the asphalt using different shades, you need to tweak also the borders that can eventually be more than one (sometimes 10 or more different textures)

Attached Files

•  monza.jpg   175.53K   32 downloads

Edited by Ginetto, 12 October 2011 - 01:21 PM.

[tjc]

Yeh I know that Monza has two textures for the sides/border Ginetto...

aspgrs.mip and aspgrsr.mip - one for the left and one for the right.

I tried to edit them and make them a lighter colour to match the asphalt I`d like to use for Monza but I must have been doing something wrong as I could not get them to work for me.

Would you mind saying how you would go about this? That`ll maybe give me some idea as to where I went wrong.

[ginetto]

For what I see in your screenie, you already did that.
I have the "default" monza installed with the GPL installer 1.02 (is the little update for monza pack) and, as you see, there is no white line on dark asphalt there

Edited by Ginetto, 13 October 2011 - 07:14 AM.

[tjc]

Ginetto, on 13 October 2011 - 07:12 AM, said:

For what I see in your screenie, you already did that.
I have the "default" monza installed with the GPL installer 1.02 (is the little update for monza pack) and, as you see, there is no white line on dark asphalt there

No Ginetto...

The sides of the track are not edited in my above screenie, they are still dark but the actual track is very light. I need to know how to alter the sides to match the rest of the track.

I`ll have to go back and look at this "default" Monza from the installer I think...

[ginetto]

OK I take your word
BTW I've tried the texture replacement and it works here; I've put a weird Stoned file with the name of aspgrs.mip in the monza folder and this is what I see in GPL; both sides.Are you sure that the file name of your border is correct?

Attached Files

•  monza.jpg   169.25K   38 downloads

Edited by Ginetto, 13 October 2011 - 12:53 PM.

[tjc]

Ok... I`m back resurrecting this 7 year old (almost to the day) thread...

Boy... time flies.

I would still like to "build" my own Monza. Maybe other tracks too in the future so I`m back with questions.

Iirc the Monza that`s in my install is the one that gets installed from the installer (v1.08) I think?

What I`d like to get started with is... yes... you guessed it... change the asphalt!

The asphalt I`d "like" to use would be from the new Sap67 unless I find a more suitable one somewhere else. As this will only be for my own personal use I think using this should be ok. If not, I`m sure one of you chaps will let me know.

The first question:

In Monza, the asphalt.mip is in the .DAT file not just placed in the track folder so how would I use the asphalt from Spa67 and get it into the Monza .DAT file? Can this even be done?

Second question:

The Spa67 asphalt I`d like to use is named Asph.mip so is it simply a case of renaming that file to asphalt.mip and then somehow getting it into the Monza.DAT file?

That will do for starters.

As always, any help, tips, or information on this would be very much appreciated.

[Border Reiver]

It should be pretty simple. You have obviously already identified which file is which and so yes, what you suggest should work fine.

The way GPL works is that it first uses any loose files in the track folder with higher priority and it then uses the files from the DAT file if it cannot find a loose file of that name. Put simply, loose files take priority over anything contained within the DAT file.

You do not have to put your new file into the monza.dat, just putting an appropriately named copy of that file loose within the monza track folder should do the trick. This is also really handy for trying stuff out and making quick changes as you can simply swap loose files in and out until you are happy with the result.

Very simple answer: make a copy of the asph.mip from the Spa67 folder. Paste it to the Monza folder and then rename it to asphalt.mip and you should be good to go. When you fire up GPL and go for a drive or view a replay from Monza then you should see the change in asphalt.

Rob

EDIT: Oh, yes, also remember the point that Ginetto made in post 4 of this thread: http://gplr.srmz.net...742 - you will probably need to rotate the texture by 90 degrees as he describes or otherwise what you will see is an odd striped effect along the track!

Edited by Border Reiver, 03 October 2018 - 11:01 AM.

[tjc]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the reply.

Good to hear it should be relatively simple to do and that I don`t need to put anything in the Monza.DAT. I never knew that GPL worked like that, using the loose files first as long as they`re found in the folder. As you say this will definitely make testing things out much easier.

Yes, I`ll rotate the texture if needed. I`ll maybe try putting the Spa67 asphalt in Monza first though just to check. On that note, is there a way of knowing if a texture needs rotating without trying it out first?

tj

[Border Reiver]

tjc, on 03 October 2018 - 11:36 AM, said:

....

Yes, I`ll rotate the texture if needed. I`ll maybe try putting the Spa67 asphalt in Monza first though just to check. On that note, is there a way of knowing if a texture needs rotating without trying it out first?

tj

If you look at the mip file in some sort of viewer you'd see which way around it looks. Off the top of my head I don't remember if "add on" tracks have textures that run top to bottom or left to right, all that I remember is that add on tracks go one way and original Papy tracks go the other. Looking at one from each track type in a viewer would tell you which way around they go and then you'd know. What it means is that it is trivial to swap around ground textures between any add on tracks or between any original tracks but to swap from addon to original or vice versa you have to do this extra step of converting mip to bmp, rotating 90 degrees in a pixel editing program then converting back to mip before it will work properly.

Rob

[tjc]

The Spa67 asphalt texture is horizontal (left to right) and is 2048x2048 when opened in winmip. Pity I can`t see the Monza asphalt but a little trial and error will sort it out I`m sure.

I take it I`d have to use DATman or another similar program to extract the Spa67 Asph.mip to convert to bmp - edit - then convert back to mip... or have I got that wrong.

Strange... I just tried opening the Sap67 dat in DATman and it won`t open for some reason.

[Border Reiver]

tjc, on 03 October 2018 - 12:17 PM, said:

The Spa67 asphalt texture is horizontal (left to right) and is 2048x2048 when opened in winmip. Pity I can`t see the Monza asphalt but a little trial and error will sort it out I`m sure.

I take it I`d have to use DATman or another similar program to extract the Spa67 Asph.mip to convert to bmp - edit - then convert back to mip... or have I got that wrong.

Strange... I just tried opening the Sap67 dat in DATman and it won`t open for some reason.

No, if you opened it in Winmip then just change the type to bmp and save it, open that bmp in paint or similar, rotate by 90 degrees and save. Then open the edited bmp file in Winmip and change the type back to mip and resave and you should be good. Before doing that though you could just try putting the file into the Monza folder and see what happens as you might find it useful for the future to be able to spot that sort of problem I'd expect you'll see. I'd expect you'll see stripes across the track.

If you then do this to and fro with Winmip on that file things should then sort themselves out when you go back into GPL and check again.

Rob

Edited by Border Reiver, 03 October 2018 - 01:37 PM.

[tjc]

Ok cheers Rob. Will give this a shot tomorrow and see how it goes.

[tjc]

I tried the texture in Monza before rotating it but it did have the stripes going across the track. So I did as above (changed the type etc) and rotated it in CS2 (PS) but it still didn`t work for some reason.

 spa67 asphalt - monza 1.png   1.04MB   14 downloads

 spa67 asphalt - monza 2.png   862.46K   15 downloads

On the rotating, is it just as simple as rotating the canvas/image by 90 degrees? That`s what I did so I`m just wondering if there`s something I`m not doing correctly.

[ginetto]

You need to use mapp. 0 (tile both vertical and horizontal) in winmip when you save the MIP