An older MTM2 build

[PhFoxy]

So while I was looking through the Internet archive I found an older MTM2 beta build than the one in MTMG
Not sure if any of you know about this but here it is https://archive.org/details/monster-tru ... ess-2-beta

[Kmaster]

Nice find!
Indeed it seems like a new version, we currently have Beta 18 (the most common one) and Beta 29. So it must be the oldest we have ever seen. I'll take a look

[Kmaster]

Ok, hold on to your seats. This beta (version 10) is very limited but very interesting UI-wise. The monster executable is the same as in MTM1. there's no proper version info on the EXE and the music and sounds are from MTM1, except the main engine sound. I'm unable to run this on Directx, everytime I try i get the "unable to switch to fullscreen mode" error, so I didn't take ingame screenshots. Tracks looks similar to beta 18.


This is the splash screen. When you start the game you land directly into the races screen, this is only accessible thru the view menu. Looks like this is a leftover from an earlier MTM2 build. I might have a look at the UI.POD file and see if I can find anything else. The "driver registration" button looks very MTM1.


Driver check in looks done. Those are the only available trucks.


you got all those tracks plus tumbleweed flats (the only rally) and the three unnamed summit rumbles, the last three have no track image and are not playable directly from the UI. I tried using GOLD mode with no luck. Control+Y doesn't work. Notice how the weather combo is sitting on the middle of the screen.


Different tire selection buttons


Different checkbox controls, PowerVR?? That's new.


The "about mtm2" screen. So yeah, they used CART UI as base, no surprise there, the CPR font stuck to the retail version.


Junkyards billboard


There's two versions of Crazy 8 in this build. This one is not mounted and it seems like MTM1s crazy eight with Crazy 98 textures.



This is interesting. pseudo-3d trees. Never seen those in MTM2 or CPR. The tree texture is from CPR I think. And they actually don't look bad at all! at least in software rendering mode. But I the 2D trees was a cheaper solution and it might look better in some cases.

Edit: some other stuff that I missed
*No Army Armstrong commentary
*Overlay map has MTM1 pointers
*Same tires as in Beta 18-29.
*No monster manual yet
*Hall of fame, replay and results screen are working
*Has a lot of MTM1-CPR leftovers. UI.POD has some CPR demo sounds

[PhFoxy]

Nice find!
Indeed it seems like a new version, we currently have Beta 18 (the most common one) and Beta 29. So it must be the oldest we have ever seen. I'll take a look

Thanks! It would be interesting to see how the summit rumbles look like, I know that Hypercube was quite different early on.

[Kmaster]

heres a comparison




they're not that different except for the textures.

[PhFoxy]

Interesting! Those were probably placeholder textures, Until proper textures were made, I have a screenshot of HyperCube from another beta, I'm sure I still have that beta somewhere, I think I first found it in an old forum post, I'll try to look for it

https://imgur.com/a/KpsLtBI

[Kmaster]

Interesting! Those were probably placeholder textures, Until proper textures were made, I have a screenshot of HyperCube from another beta, I'm sure I still have that beta somewhere, I think I first found it in an old forum post, I'll try to look for it

https://imgur.com/a/KpsLtBI

that's hypercube on beta build 18. It's the beta available on the front page. By then most of the rumbles were finished.

The placeholder textures are still a mistery. They are not present on any MTM1 track, not even the add-on tracks.


By the way, I uploaded to youtube a mtm2 beta10 gameplay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOK7YnsrSng

I also could get fullscreen and directx to work by setting the monster executable in XP SP2 compatibility mode.

[PhFoxy]

[quote=Kmaster]that's hypercube on beta build 18. It's the beta available on the front page. By then most of the rumbles were finished.

The placeholder textures are still a mistery. They are not present on any MTM1 track, not even the add-on tracks.


By the way, I uploaded to youtube a mtm2 beta10 gameplay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOK7YnsrSng

I also could get fullscreen and directx to work by setting the monster executable in XP SP2 compatibility mode[/quote]

Oh! I didn't realize that, I'm gonna try to see if that beta is different from the one in mtmg.

TRI probably made the placeholder textures very quickly until they eventually got replaced.

Nice video! Does DgVoodoo or Nglide work with this beta? It didn't work for me.

[Kmaster]

Nice video! Does DgVoodoo or Nglide work with this beta? It didn't work for me.

Thanks.
I used dgVoodoo 2's directx wrapper. Works fine in Win10... albeit the menu won't disappear on fullscreen

[Mat-Allum]

The placeholder textures are still a mistery. They are not present on any MTM1 track, not even the add-on tracks.

They look familiar to me, but not in an "I saw it in the game" sense. I remember checking out some stock track via Traxx - I want to say one of the MTM1 drags - and finding some textures waaaay out of bounds - and it might have been these intersection textures, if I'm remembering it correctly.

[Kmaster]

The placeholder textures are still a mistery. They are not present on any MTM1 track, not even the add-on tracks.

They look familiar to me, but not in an "I saw it in the game" sense. I remember checking out some stock track via Traxx - I want to say one of the MTM1 drags - and finding some textures waaaay out of bounds - and it might have been these intersection textures, if I'm remembering it correctly.

I have the exact same feeling... for some reason I remember seeing those textures on Traxx. I'll take a look later

[Fila]

The PowerVR graphic renderer is something that is found in the final release code as well but it's been commented out. They were trying out some weird renderers that I've never even heard of. Not even back in the day when I kept up to date with latest technologies.

[Kmaster]

The PowerVR graphic renderer is something that is found in the final release code as well but it's been commented out. They were trying out some weird renderers that I've never even heard of. Not even back in the day when I kept up to date with latest technologies.

Hey Fila. Thanks for the info. What other renderers they were trying? I remember finding online a patch for CPR which enabled PowerVR rendering with an extra dll file.

[Fila]

There's some half arsed code for this as well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendition,_Inc.