I've been following the threads regarding the "Deck-Lid Patch" for some
time, both here, and on AJ's, and felt it was time to "clear the air"
about what's possible, and what's not in N2. With what I know about the
internal file-structure of the Papyrus sims, that painting the deck-lid
of the cars in N2 is not likely. It is my opinion that AJ/Alex have
played a terrible hoax on everyone. However, before you jump-out and
flame the ***outta' me, I would like to qualify my argument with a
few points about the N2 3DO and MI4 files:
1) There is absolutely no room on the image-file in the *.CAR-file in
N2. For anyone interested in how much room there actually is, I've
converted a CAR-file to GIF, and it's available for download at:
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
The information used to create this file is courtesy of a friend. ;)
2) Thus far, there is no way to add textures to any non-textured
polygon in any of the Papyrus sims. To do so you would first need to
convert the 3DO back to the original 3D-object format (most likely
3DS), apply the new texture, and then re-convert the file to 3DO.
3) The only possible solution would be to use the N2 damage model, and
then use the hood (renaming it "trunk.3do"), and then using a
separate MI4 image for the "painted" area. There would still need to
be a way of either creating a new MI4-file, or perhaps "piggy-
backing" on an existing image (perhaps the engine.mi4).
The final clue that "something was amiss" with the threads on AJ's
board, is that AJ claims to have received a letter from Sierra saying
they would sue him for $1000...This is the biggest buncha' baloney ever
to be served on a message board!! 1st: Sierra would send no-such note;
it would have originated from Papyrus. 2nd: Even Papyrus does not
threaten litigation unless all channels have been addressed, starting
with a simple phone call (if possible), and then a C&D (cease and
desist) order. If all else fails, then the big-boys come to bat (their
lawyers), and drag all of us sim-no-gooders to court. Sierra/Papyrus
would probably NOT ask for any money, except that the loser pays the
court and lawyer fees (just a guess).
Also mentioned elsewhere was a 44-car field patch. In the past sims
this was not possible, but for N2 I'm not sure. It is my opinion that
not enough of the file-structure has changed to allow this - at least
not on the end-user side. It is possible in NROS, but the clientware
has yet to be distributed, so I would conclude that there's a 90%
chance that the 44-car patch is also a hoax, but I really hope I'm
wrong...I would dearly love to race with more cars!!
Someone else had mentioned about my fiddling with the ICR2 paintkit
interface. If you look at some of the PCX-files in both the N1 and ICR2
paintkit directories, you'll find that Papyrus actually encourages you
to play around, and gives one or two hints on what to do (and what not
to do).
I'll now step-down from my soapbox.
Regards,
Marc J. Nelson
Sim Racing Online / Sim Racing News / The Sim Project