Customizing in game view?

rocketalces · Post by **rocketalces** » Wed Jun 11, 2003 4:56 am

Thanks to Phins "preferred view" poll
viewtopic.php?t=1876
I made discovery 1: I am the only one (in this forum) to use the chase near view.
I then tried the other views and made discovery 2: there are a lot of views I didn't knew of (my "v" key is almost worn out, lol), most of them being totally useless.

I guess each view is determined by a couple of parameters, one of them being the position relative to the center of the truck.

I would like to tweak the parameters of one of the unused views (e.g. the "chase very close" , can't remember how it is named in the game) to get something like a hood view.
All it would need is knowing addresses and encoding of the view parameters in the MTM2 executable.

Has anybody tried this? Or is there a simpler way to create a customized view? [I'm sure there is no way by tweaking the ini files]

Drive2Survive · Post by **Drive2Survive** » Wed Jun 11, 2003 12:10 pm

Um... I use Chase Near. But for some reason I've always skipped over the Racing forum here, so up till now I missed the Preferred View post entirely

Anyway, yeah, Chase Near. I use the hat switch on my joystick to bump the camera elevation up a tad, so I can see where I'm going. I agree, most all of the views in the game are completely useless... and unfortunately, I don't think you can tweak them much either (outside of what the game allows normally).

MTM2 gives you control over the camera... but only a minimal amount. You can rotate the camera around the centre of the truck (the focal point) using the normal controls, and the nice thing is that it'll stay there for as long as you don't change the view (and sometimes even if you do). You *can* zoom the camera, but only if you enter GOLD CTRL+Y Z to access MTM2's hidden modes, and then the camera only zooms with respect to the focal point (ie. it always stays pointing at the centre of the truck) so you can't displace it onto the hood, and as soon as you leave the game it resets to the original zoom, so it's not much use apart from taking screenshots.

If you think you can hack the variables in the MTM2 executable, I say all the more power to you, coz I'd love to see that... but as far as I know it's impossible

ZOtm_BigDOGGe · Post by **ZOtm_BigDOGGe** » Wed Jun 11, 2003 3:12 pm

I wouldn't say "impossible" but rather very unlikely without the source code or some kind of key to identify which variables are which.

I always use in-cockpit views, as they allow me to use my natural driving instincts, rather than gaming -methods......it's more fun for me that way (feels more like REAL driving, rather than a GOD'S-EYE view of your own car.....) When I switch to an external view, my sense of timing goes way off-kilter.

I DO turn the cockpit items off, so as to enlarge the width of my field of view to the maximum.....(once in cockpit view, press "D" several times to turn these interior graphics off & on.)

(My FAVORITE view is only found in Viper Racing....SUSPENSION VIEW......in that view, all you see are the front tires and the front suspension arms/shocks......I can put my front tires right on the racing line nearly every time with that view....)

JUST FOR THE RECORD:
I beat Gran Turismo on the PS1 years ago using an external view, but the graphics were very poor and pixally anyway.

rocketalces · Post by **rocketalces** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 11:35 am

Um... I use Chase Near. But for some reason I've always skipped over the Racing forum here, so up till now I missed the Preferred View post entirely

What are you waiting for to vote?

My FAVORITE view is only found in Viper Racing....SUSPENSION VIEW......

Agree 100% on that, and I love the kart feeling it gives.

Now to the real topic:

I wouldn't say "impossible" but rather very unlikely without the source code or some kind of key to identify which variables are which.

The source code wouldn't help unless you have the compiler too. I have no idea in what language MTM2 was written. Anyway, the idea is not to reverse engineer the executable with a debugger (which is illegal in several countries btw) or something like that, but to make a simple patch, provided someone gives the necessary information. I always felt that some people in this forum must have pretty good relationships with TRI [;)]
Am I totally wrong

Post by **Phineus** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 2:57 pm

I always felt that some people in this forum must have pretty good relationships with TRI
Am I totally wrong ?

Good enough to know that kind of information is not forthcoming :-(

Drive2Survive · Post by **Drive2Survive** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 5:03 am

What are you waiting for to vote?

I did vote, for what it's worth, but since the choices in the poll are "Cockpit", "Chase Far" and "Other", it doesn't really show

...

The source code wouldn't help unless you have the compiler too. I have no idea in what language MTM2 was written.

Probably C++ with 3Dfx and DirectX extensions. That (C++) is what's used for nearly everything nowadays, anyway - from PCs to PlayStations. C++ compilers are in abundance, so if it is and if we could get our hands on it, we could have an absolute field day fixing all the game engine limitations and error conditions that we presently have to work around and even adding new stuff, but that's all wishful thinking...

the idea is not to reverse engineer the executable with a debugger (which is illegal in several countries btw) or something like that, but to make a simple patch, provided someone gives the necessary information.

I think you mean decompiler, but yeah, that sort of thing is not a good idea...
You can view (and change) the executable with a hex editor, but again, without knowing the index of the values you need, or knowing what to search for, it's nearly impossible to know what you're changing...

It's a defeatist attitude, but I think your best bet for a patch to effect the changes you want would be TRI, who have (or had) the source code and know (or knew) the structure of the game, but they only ever made one patch (for which we are thankful) to fix documented problems before they stopped supporting the game. If this topic was around four years ago, maybe this would have been incorporated with the other fixes they made... but it's not, and they won't

rocketalces · Post by **rocketalces** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 7:06 am

I did vote, for what it's worth, but since the choices in the poll are "Cockpit", "Chase Far" and "Other", it doesn't really show icon_razz.gif

How does it come that "others" still has only one vote (mine)?

For the patch, I see its hopeless. [uhoh]

Drive2Survive · Post by **Drive2Survive** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 7:28 am

That's odd... I coulda swore I'd voted. Maybe I forgot to hit Submit or something, heh.

Sorted now.

ch_2005 · Post by **ch_2005** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 4:26 pm

When i sat in Ramanator (executioner) i could hardly see anything out the windshield - most of the view is out through the front wheel wells. thats what they should show in the cockpit view.

SLO_Jumper · Post by **SLO_Jumper** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 1:13 pm

(My FAVORITE view is only found in Viper Racing....SUSPENSION VIEW......in that view, all you see are the front tires and the front suspension arms/shocks......I can put my front tires right on the racing line nearly every time with that view....)

When i started that discussion, i knew some interesting things would come out of it.
hehe i didn't know about that view either. will try that sometime for sure. Thx for your inputs.