****************************************************************************
**
PAINTING CARS IN DTR
****************************************************************************
**
The most common use of this feature of DTR will be to create your own skin
(paintjob) for a car. This section of this readme will go through all of the
steps to do this.
First, we need to unpack the original data files. We will begin by copying
them all to a directory. From an MSDOS prompt:
C:
cd\
md dtr_test
cd dtr_test
copy D:\Data\data.pf
copy D:\Data\min.pf
copy D:\Data\store.pf
Where D: is your CDROM drive. Make sure you have enough space on your C:
drive (or whichever drive you use) first. The above commands copy the data
files from the DTR CD - you could instead copy them from the installation
directory on your hard drive. Note that store.pf on the CD will be in the
original condition, whereas store.pf on your hard drive will be modified
with your preferences and other data.
Now to unpack the data files. Since the data is spread across all 3 of the
.pf files, you need to unpack all 3 to get a complete set of data. Unpacking
the files will take up roughly the same amount of disk space as the original
packed files, so make sure you have enough disk space for this before
continuing. First copy the extractpf.exe utility into your working
directory:
copy "C:\Program Files\Ratbag\Dirt Track Racing\mods\extractpf.exe"
Where "C:\Program Files\Ratbag\Dirt Track Racing\" is the directory in which
you installed DTR (this is the default). Now run it:
extractpf data.pf
extractpf min.pf
extractpf store.pf
(This will take some time).
The easiest way to create any new entity in DTR is to copy one from the
existing data, then modify it. All of the original DTR skins will now be
in the C:\dtr_test\data\skins\ directory, each in their own subdirectory.
Select one you'd like to modify (eg 'mars GT red').
Create a 'skins' subdirectory in your DTR install data directory
(eg C:\Program Files\Ratbag\Dirt Track Racing\data\skins\), then copy the
whole 'mars GT red' directory in there. All skins must be in a different
directory, therefore your own 'mars GT red' directory will be ignored unless
you change its name. Change it to something unique like 'my own car'.
Now go into the 'my own car' directory, and open the skin.str file (it is
just a text file, so use notepad, or DOS edit). Look for the section of this
file which looks something like:
[display names]
english = Flaming Mars GT
Change the name under which you would like your new skin to appear in the
game interface, eg:
[display names]
english = My Modified Mars GT
Now go into the 'textures' subdirectory. This directory contains a file
called 'texture.tga' (it may be different if you selected a different car
to modify initially). This is an image file which is used as the paintwork
for the car, which you can modify using a paint programme.
Once you have done all of this, you should be able to run DTR and have the
new car skin appear for you to select, and race with.
