How to make new paintjobs for basic cars in MM2 ?

LigneVD12 · Postby **LigneVD12** » Wed May 08, 2013 6:20 pm

Hello,

I don't know, maybe there is the answer of my question in an old subject in the forum, but I prefer create a new one because I don't speak very well English (I am French) and I don't understand all old subjects in the forum... :

So, I want to create one or maybe several paintjobs for the US bus (which one have "Angel" in grey, the other "Motocross Madness" in orange, etc.) on Midtown Madness 2. I have some pictures of real buses so if it isn't very hard, I think can do this, or at least try to.

What software will I need ? (I have no ones now)
How to proceed with these software ?

I have already made some reskins for Microsoft Train Simulator with TgaTool2. (You can see them here on my -little- website : https://www.lignevd12.sitew.fr Section "Simulation : T

Diatosta · Postby **Diatosta** » Wed May 08, 2013 6:37 pm

First, you decompile mm2core.ar and mm2tex.ar with Dear2 (in Files>Programs). Then you convert the car texture already existant from .tex to .tga with texmanager (in HTQM Team Website (example, the cop file is vpcop* (* is top, ft, bk, etc)). Then you edit then with Photoshop keeping for example windows and such in the right place. Then you save. Now I only know how to replace, not add (that's in Zmodeler, but someone more experienced can explain you). Convert again to .tex with same name and make a .ar of it.

LigneVD12 · Postby **LigneVD12** » Wed May 08, 2013 7:00 pm

Thank you, I will test it with your solutions, and if something doesn't work, I'll told you here.
Otherwise, I'll show you the result.

LigneVD12 · Postby **LigneVD12** » Wed May 08, 2013 7:17 pm

A little question , which you havn't answered : how to put my modified ".tex" files on the big "mm2tex.ar" file at the end ?
Thanks.

e-cobra · Postby **e-cobra** » Wed May 08, 2013 7:45 pm

A little question , which you havn't answered : how to put my modified ".tex" files on the big "mm2tex.ar" file at the end ?
Thanks.

You need to make a separate .ar file for that, as a add-on. For example, if you have made additional colours for the default City Bus, place those .tex files into a folder named 'texture'. Now where this texture folder is located, in that directory, make another folder called 'tune'. leave this 'tune' folder empty. Then select both the folders (texture and tune) and then right click on them > Add to archive (this is done by WinZip). Then select type as .zip (nor .rar). In the box that specifies file name, name it whatever you like (like !!colour_mod) and make sure that it ends with .ar and NOT .zip. Now make the archive. Make sure to add some ' ! ' exclamatory marks in front of the name so that MM2 reads this file before the default .AR files (since this is a mod). Now copy this .ar file that you created into the main MM2 folder and it should work.

LigneVD12 · Postby **LigneVD12** » Wed May 08, 2013 10:37 pm

Thanks for the last message.
I have a new problem : my ".tga" files don't appears in TexManager, so I can't reconvert them to ".tex" files...
I have make a backup of my job in image files (".bmp"), so fortunately I haven't lost all !
Can someone again help me ?

Luc

aaro4130 · Postby **aaro4130** » Wed May 08, 2013 11:06 pm

Is your filter set to *.tex? if so change it to *.* or *.tga, Preferably *.*

LigneVD12 · Postby **LigneVD12** » Wed May 08, 2013 11:19 pm

The filter is *.*, but I have tested with *.tga, without success...
You can see here : https://img109.imageshack.us/img109/874/vpbus.png but i don't know if this will help you...

Edit : I have finally found these files, but with just * in filter and this makes an error... Mmh... why is that ?
Here : https://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9034/vpbus2.png

Postby **Franch88** » Wed May 08, 2013 11:54 pm

Maybe this is a particular problem caused by the use of GIMP program to make the TGA files... Better use Paint.Net, another very good freeware photo editing program. Open the .tga files with it and re-save them, and make sure that the RLE compression is disabled.
You would also need to extract the edited vehicle's .info file from the mm2core.ar file using DeAR 2 program. Then, open and edit this file using Windows Notepad. From it you can change the paintjobs names showed in the vehicle selection menu. However, seems that you've already done that by looking at the "tune" folder visible in your screenshots.

In the forum can be found topics about the paintjobs replacing or adding for the MM2 default cars thing. There's also a project about this, almost finished but without news since some months.

LigneVD12 · Postby **LigneVD12** » Thu May 09, 2013 12:14 am

Thank you for this summary of solutions...

From it you can change the paintjobs names showed in the vehicle selection menu.

That was a question I asked myself, excellent.

In the forum can be found topics about the paintjobs replacing or adding for the MM2 default cars thing.

Of course, it is a big (Maybe the last) MM2 website, I know that there is a lot of answers in it... but as I said, I use a bit (too much) google translate to understand all, and I would have trouble to find the answers I want... But I'll still look tomorrow.

There's also a project about this, almost finished but without news since some months.

Interesting. I can may be able to send you my bus. No...this is a joke, it will surely be ugly.

Luc.

aaro4130 · Postby **aaro4130** » Thu May 09, 2013 1:51 am

Maybe you havent refreshed the folder? Press F5 and see what the result is

Also have you used compression in the images at all?

LigneVD12 · Postby **LigneVD12** » Thu May 09, 2013 11:11 am

Hello,

I have retrying only with Paint.NET, and again the same problem.
-> I have refreshed the folder several times.
-> I have used compression ("RLE") in Paint.NET.

I send you my files, not to finish them als a drivable car, but if you can look it with your knowledge...

You can download files here : https://mega.co.nz/#!MBlnwZ4D!PQRmaSh3i ... GYr4_Bfk0c

...and tell me if it is correct or not...

Thank you again. Luc.

e-cobra · Postby **e-cobra** » Thu May 09, 2013 1:09 pm

You shouldn't use RLE compression, this could be the cause of TEX Manager unable to read TGA files. Re-place all TGA files by saving them again without RLE compression from Paint.NET. Well I couldn't download sound-transit bus.rar from that site, download does not begin. Better use https://www.mediafire.com for uploading files.

LigneVD12 · Postby **LigneVD12** » Thu May 09, 2013 1:29 pm

Ok I'll save my files without "RLE".

Well I couldn't download sound-transit bus.rar from that site, download does not begin.

Explorer doesn't work with 'my' uploader, only Firefox or Chrome. So, I think you are using Explorer ?

e-cobra · Postby **e-cobra** » Thu May 09, 2013 1:32 pm

No, I'm using Chrome, it got stuck at 75%.