                     
                       *****MAKING NEW FORMULA FORD STAND ALONE CARS*****
                                by KIT LETHBY a.k.a. Tonto



If you wish to have a larger fleet of cars then follow these instructions (it's VERY easy)

All you have to do is change the no: of the car in the internal files and the mas/veh/bmp.
This tutorial is only meant to renumber cars from #0-9. Of course one can go higher but the names change, so if you wish for higher nos, I suggest you get aid from Mika Hirvonen's excellent little programme SCGTFN.exe available from his website, it'll help give you the new internal filenames/mas/veh and bmp file names. The rest of the procedure is exactly the same though.
Actually that last statement isn't correct. If you what to number the cars above 9 then use car #1 for car #11 and simply rename the files FF01VA/VB/BC/VD/VE/VW to FF11VA etc (not the others) then repack the files etc, it works fine.

You will need the following tools:

Modeller's Garage, Maspruce, A Paint programme and a Word Editor(not Notepad)

THIS FOLLOWING PROCEDURE DOES WORK AS I ONLY MAPPED ONE FORMULA FORD CAR AND DID THE FOLLOWING TO THE REST. ASSUMING THAT I HAVE WRITTEN THIS CORRECTLY AND THE USER HAS FOLLOWED IT CORRECTLY, THEN IT SHOUD WORK FINE AND YOU"LL HAVE A NEW FLEET OF FORMULA FORDS OR ANY OTHER CAR YOU CHOOSE TO CHANGE

This Tutorial assumes that you have a knowledge of how to use Maspruce and Modeller's Garage

N.B. For the purpose of this tutorial, it is explained as though you are going to create a new car from  car #1 - FF01TC.mas and it is going to be called Car #3 FF03TC.mas

When used 'x' refers to the car no: you are going to use.

Part 1

1. Using Maspruce, unpack mas file to a new directory (give it a name and no e.g. FF#3 - call it by the NEW no you wish to give it - also call the 'pck' file by the same name/no (FF03.pck), it'll help confusion if you do quite a few.

2. Rename the FFORDx.bmp to the new no you are going to use. This avoids confusion if you decide to repaint quite a few cars.( e.g. FFord1.bmp to FFORD3.bmp). If you wish to edit your BMP(e.g. add a new number - which I'm sure you do or repaint it, then I suggest you do it now)

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PART 2

BEFORE COMMENCING REMEMBER THAT MODELLER'S GARAGE DOES NOT REMEMBER ALL DIRECTORIES CALLED, SO BE CAREFUL YOU CHOOSE THE CORRECT DIRCTORY WHEN LOADING AND SAVING

3. Open up Modeller's Garage and drop & drag all the vrl's (20 of them) into the programme.

4. Hit 'W' & 'S' to make sure that everything is 'DESELECTED'

5. Make sure that you have a tiled view (1 wireframe and 1 gl) open. In the GL view, you should only see the base of the car(wheels, base, exhaust etc). If you can see the whole car too, then you didn't change the name of the FFORD3.BMP.

6.Hit F2 and a list of the parts will come up, click 'HIDE ALL' and then select, the following VRL's - F1TCVA.vrl, F1TCVB.vrl, F1TCVC.vrl, F1TCVD.vrl, F1TCVE.vrl, F1TCVW.vrl.

7. Double click on all these file names and the car should be highlight in BLUE, in the wireframe view

8. Hit 'TEXTURE / LOAD TEXTURE' and load the newly named FFORD3.BMP

9. Hit 'TEXTURE' and choose' REPLACE TEXTURE'

10. In 'OLD go through the drop down menu and you should find the name of the old BMP which the car USED to use (e.g. nf:FFORD1). Click on this.

11. In 'NEW' find the new BMP that you have just loaded (FFORD3.BMP).

12. Now Hit 'OK' and you should now see the whole car in GL View (only the Car not the Parts as they are not selected, but you can Hit 'SHOW ALL' now if you wish. If not then got back and try again you probably made a mistake somewhere.

13. Assuming all went well, now go to 'PARTS' and Hit 'Save as SCGT VRL'. when the programme asks for a filename, choose the correct directory and just click on ANY file. Hit 'SAVE' and the programe will save the correct files.

14. At this point I go into my directory and reload the files (you can drag them in over the top of the others MG will kick out the old ones). This I do to check that all is well and that I have saved them to the correct directory

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PART 3

14. Open up a word editor, (not Notepad) which has the 'Find/Replace' facility in it and load your 'PCK' file. You now need to edit it, but it's very easy.You can do it manually or use the FIND/REPLACE facility

15. In the 'EDIT/SEARC' menu, choose 'REPLACE' in the 'FIND box, put the old name of the car , but not all of it, only the first part(there are 6 files).

If the car is called 'FF01CVA' then put 'FF01'.

In the 'REPLACE' Box put 'FF03' (a no: you have chosen, between #0-9)

Hit 'REPLACE ALL' and you should get a message saying '6 replacements made'

NEXT

16.  In the 'EDIT' menu, choose 'REPLACE' in the 'FIND box, put the old name of the basic parts, but not all of it, only the first part.(there are 14 files)

If the part is called 'F1TCxxxx.vrl' then put 'F1'.

In the 'REPLACE' Box put 'F3' (a no: you have chosen, between #0-9)

Hit 'REPLACE' and you should get a message saying 14 replacements made. If you get more than 14 then chaeck the files, because it has changed a file you don't want changed. e.g.F1SSHAD.BMP

17. Now scroll thought the list of files until you find 'FFORD1.BMP'

18. Rename this file to the file no you have chosen (e.g. FFORD3.BMP)

19. Save the 'PCK' file back to its directory

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PART 4

At this point the files you have unpacked and remapped to the new BMP file need to be renamed to exactly the same names as in the PCK file. You can do this manually or I write a little bat file in my word editor. Like the following:

rename FF01*.vrl FF03*.vrl

rename F1*.vrl F3*.vrl
 
I call it renamecar1_3.bat

and put it in the directory with everything else

Double click on it and all your files should be renamed. Close the DOS window

PART 5

20. Go back to Maspruce. Hit 'RESET' if there are files showing in the window

21. Click on 'CREATE MAS FROM PCK FILE" and go into your folder and find the PCK file (FF03.pck)

22. Click on it and all the files you are about to pack should show up (31 in all). If not then they are either wrongly named in the directory or the PCK file, so go and check them.

REMEMBER:

NOTHING SHOULD BE DIFFERENT TO THE OLD FILES EXCEPT THE NEW NUMBER THAT YOU HAVE CHOSEN

At this point check that the FFORD3.BMP file is correctly named in the PCK and directory files.

23. Hit 'EXECUTE' and Maspruce will ask for a file name. Again it is named in exactly the same as the original file you unpacked, you simply change the no. (e.g. FF01TC.mas to FF05TC.mas)

24. Hit 'SAVE' and it's almost ALL done.

25. Make a copy of the old VEH file and rename to the same as the mas file. (e.g. FF01TC.VEH to FF03TC.VEH).Load it into your word editor and edit the name no: etc. or you won't recognise it in SCGT

26. Copy these 2 files into you patch folder and start SCGT to see if it is working ok. Remember to go into 'Career Mode' and buy it and don't forget to select it before you race. Test it WITHOUT Opponents first

I fthe game crashes OR the car doesn't show up, but you can see the wheels and base then go to common faults to see how to sort it out.

PART 6

To make a picture for your new creation.

27. Go into the game and Hit 'PAUSE' and using the camera keys, choose your angle.

28. Hit F12 and the screen should be saved.

29. Get out of the Racetrack and Hit 'ALT & TAB' to get out of SCGT

30. Go to the SCGT directory and you should find a file called 'GRAB000.BMP'

31. Load this into your Paint programme and crop it to a smaller size. it needs to be approximately 256x188 pixels. Highlight the BMP and use your 'Resize/Dimensions' tool to do this. It depends on your paint programme.

32. Save it as the 1st 4 letters of your mas/veh files(e.g FF03) and add a 'b' after it so that it is called FF03b.BMP

33. Copy this into your SCGT patch folder and go back into SCGT and you should see the picture of your new car.

THAT'S IT ALL DONE...........HOPE YOU ENJOY IT

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Common Faults

If the game crashes, it is most likely that you get a message, similar to as follows

Error finding file        DB/trackname/FF05TC

You probably haven't correctly associated the files with the VRL's or the file is wrongly named in the directory, or PCK file.

Don't worry, go back and retrace you steps and try again. It's nearly always a simple thing which got overlooked

N.B. Windows ME likes to automatically add file extensions to certain files it recognises. So if you rename a BMP file to say FF05TC.BMP and DON'T delete '.BMP' before you Hit 'RETURN' then the file will name itself 'FF05TC.BMP.BMP'. 

This is often the cause of the problem.

IF the car doesn't show up, but you can see the wheels etc then you need to use Anthony Hirst's programme VRL2VRML.exe and edit the BMP's.

You do this by open in gup the 'Explorer' section and loading in the file F1TCVA.VRL. load it in and open up all the subdirectories and check the value of each BMP. As you highlight each on it will show up and give you a value at the top. Usually 0000018 or 00000811 or 0000034, everything needs to be set to 0000034. To do this enter the new value  0000034 and Hit 'SAVE' at the bottom of the scene. Do this for each BMP and then go to 'THINGS TO DO'. Find your directory and resave it. Don't re-edit all the other files F1TCVB.VRL etc, just re save the first file you edited as F1TCVB, F1TCVC etc till you've done all 6. Then repack the Mas files. Remember to put it into your SCGT Patch folder and all should be OK



DISCLAIMER


ALL THE USUAL...........BLAH, BLAH, BLAH..........................!!  







