Drag Track Making Tutorial

Intro

There's been lots of people coming in and trying track making to only be discouraged by Traxx School. While it is very helpful for making circuits and rallies, it does nothing for drag tracks. I've prepared this tutorial for those of you that REALLY want to get into track making but really don't know how. This won't end up being a massive track, but it's a good starter track.

What You Need

Traxx (Name = TRAXX, Key = ATOVBOGR)
FlyRawGui
World Finals 6
Minneapolis Metrodome 3/13/04
2005 Texas Stadium Monster Jam
Podmate
Podini
WinRar
And some patience and brains.

The Beginning

Alright, have Traxx, FlyRawGui, and PSP 4 all open. Make sure WorldFinals6.pod, 31304Metrodome.pod, and 05TexasJam.pod are in the directory you put all other add-on trucks and tracks at. First, you need to set Traxx's preferences. Go to View>Options and click the folders tab. Those two folders should be in your MTM2 directory. So for example, the first one should say C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Monster Truck Madness 2\Art and the other one *MTM2 Directory*\Models. Go back to the general tab and check 800x600 on the left so you have a good viewing area. Your window should look similar to this:

Now, you need to get the Models and Art ready to start your track, and this is the most important step and cannot be skipped. Go to File>View POD File... and open the WorldFinals6.pod and double click on WF6 Freestyle. You should now see the World Finals 6 Freestyle track in Traxx. Now go to Edit>Extract Models and Art. DO NOT SKIP THIS!!! And click yes to the prompt that comes up. Do the same with the Minny track and Texas Stadium track.. Then go to File>New.

Laying Textures

Now, first, you have to lay textures. You need to go into texture mode, so click the 2nd box from the left on the very last 5 boxes at the top. (As Seen Below, the one selected is the one you click)

Now go to View>Textures. Then click Load >> and type WF6 in the box and press refresh. At the bottom, click the > arrow to go to the next page. Double click WF6A51.raw (2nd row, all the way on the right.) Congrats, you now have your dirt texture! In the box where it just appeared, click on it. Go down to the bottom where it says "Type" and make that from Default to Dirt. Click the < Arrow to go back to the first page. We need a good line texture. The very first one on that page looks nice, so double click it in the top left-hand corner. Do the same thing you did to that one that you did to the other one. We want to have a turning track, of course, so let's make a nice J-Hook. I see a good texture, 4th row, 2nd from the left. Double click it and make it Dirt as well. Now we need to put the textures on the track. Select the straight-line texture first. On the side of the window, make sure Paint Mode is checked, Width is set to 1 and Height is set to 8. Hold down the A key for a short while to zoom out until you can see all of the little squares your curser is selecting. Find a good place and click.

And that should be your result. Now we need to create the turn. Select your third texture and set paint mode to Width 1 and Height 1. Go to the bottom end of the long line in the open dirt and click once. Then go to the square just to the right of it and click once more. With that square outlined in red, press M once then R twice and you should have a curve! Now let's finish off the rest of the lane. Select the straight line, set Width to 1 and Height to 4. Set the line above the end of the curve. Now set width 1 height 1. Outline each square in red and press R twice on each of the 4 lines. You now have one lane of a J Hook!

We need another lane, though, don't we? Do the exact same thing 3 squares over, only mirroring it to bring it together. It should look like this once you're done:

You will need to rotate individual lines on one side and mirror a piece of the curve, but you remember how to do that, don't you? Well, now we need a start and finish line. Easy enough, right? Just make it look like the next picture and you'll be fine.

It's looking like a real drag track now, eh?

Making The Stadium

This part is a little tricky, but is easy once you understand it. Normally, you'd want to use a model for a dome, but for an outside stadium, this method gets the job done without creating unneeded lag. First, go to Terraforming mode, the box just to the left of texture mode. On the right, there are 8 boxes. We need the one on the first row, 3rd one. Click it, set width to 5, height to 14 and altitude to 50. Position the yellow outline 2 squares to the right of the far right J Hook with 2 squares showing on bottom and on top and click. That was easy for one side, but the others aren't going to be as easy. Let's do the bottom first. Go to the box with 4 red squares. Set width to 15, height to 1, and altitude to 105. Move around using the arrow keys, A, Z, and Numpad 9 and 3 to position yourself well. Click EXACTLY where i'm clicking to get the effect we want.

Do the same thing 3 more times. 1st time setting altitude to 114, 2nd time 124, 3rd time 137. It should look like this

Don't worry about that open space in the right corner... It doesn't have to be filled. Now create the final side using width 1, height 14, altitudes 105, 114, 124, and 137. You should get this, if you did it right:

We need to create the final side. Using what you know, create the final side to the stadium to close it up.

Now, we need to cut a hole in here somewhere for later use. Let's do it on the side you just made to make it easy. Set width to 2, height 5, altitude 100 and click somewhere on your bottom side to make a hole, here's how i did it.

Now then, we need to make it look like a crowd! Go back to texture editing, and open up your textures box, and type in MADC and click refresh and double click on that texture (if it's not there, go back and reextract texas stadium 2005). width 4, height 13, and paint the SIDES of the stadium, like so.

Then set width 14, height 4 and paint the front of the stadium (opposite the side you put your hole at). Now go and paint the backside, but leaving the squares as dirt for the hole, like so:

Congrats, you have a stadium!!!

Pits and Sponsor Banners

You gotta have something to stop the fans from getting hurt, don't you? We won't worry about making actual sponsor banners right now, that's another job for another day. But let's close off the stands shall we? (If you haven't saved yet, please do! Name it R*insert name here*.txx) Click the box at the top on the far right that's a box. Open up the textures box, and type in MI04B8. Open up the texture. Over on the right, set the top to 105 and the bottom to 100. Now go around the entire first level of your stadium, right clicking each square and clicking Insert. Well, everywhere except your hole. It'll look like this when you're done:

Now we need to make some pits. Type in VEGAS2 in the textures box and refresh. Load in that texture. Just outside your little hole, make the outlining of some pits... Insert one first, then set the top at 115, bottom at 100 with the new texture selected. Here's mine:

Now we need to make the pit floor. Go back to texture editing, and set that texture to Cement. Now just fill in that area with the cement texture. Here's mine (I added a little bit more to make it look a little better)

:

Now you have pits!

Ramps, Cars, Poles, etc.

Now it's time for the good stuff. You can close the textures box, we won't be needing that anymore. Click the box that has a little tree on it and go to view>models. Click the folder button and find WF6Ramp2.bin and open it. Select the model, right click after the starting line of the track, and click Insert. Then double click on the model in the box where you opened it. Then use Shift+R and Shift+T to rotate it, F, V, D, and C to move it around, or click and drag it to the desired spot. Now double click on it and set it from Default to No Collide... NEVER SET IT TO NO COLLIDE (FACING)!!! Now right click and click insert again, get the ramp on there. Now move it to where it is EXACTLY on top of the other ramp. Then use Shift+F, V, D, or C to move it to the other side in the exact same position and set it to no-collide. Do the same towards the finish line, make it look something like mine.

It doesn't have to be exactly like that, play around and get it how you like it. We need cars now, so go back to the models box and open WF6WCar.bin. Now insert them after the ramps in desired numbers. The first car of each set needs to be set to No Collide, but the rest need to be set to Default. This is how I did mine:

We need a couple turning poles. Open up WF6TPole.bin. Insert em in the turns as many times as need be... Make sure they're set to Default. Here's how I did mine:

Now we need to make the ramps effective. We're going to use the Purple Boxes. Go to a ramp, Right click and click insert. Now double click on that box and set it to 20 x 20 x 2. Move it around, use H and N to tilt it (it helps to get to the side of it to check) and double click on it and use the Above Ground up and down arrows to set it in just the right position. Do this for all the ramps. Right click and copy object, right click and paste object and align it and move around to make them effective.

Now, when staging, the tires might sink into the first car, so we're gonna fix that problem. Insert a box of 20 x 6 x 1 and position it over the car. Now move it up and around to be just below the top of the other purple box so you can still sail over it. Do the same to all of the cars you set to no collide. You just made your first track! There's still somemore things to take care of before we attempt freestyle.

Setting Up RaceCam

This is a pretty quick and easy step. Close the models box, we're done with it for now. Go to the box that looks like a road forking with a red line on it. Go to the center of the pits and right click and click insert segment. Move the triangles around a little bit in the pits so they don't crash. You see that red line with a 0 on it? Click and drag that 0 out of the pits and onto the track somewhere and click insert segment. Do that about 5 more times around the track, kinda make it look like mine.

Now go to the right and go to 1. Right click anywhere on the track and click generate from main. Do that for 2-4. Congrats, you now have RaceCam. Save here PLEASE. Your track is now done. Was that really that hard?

Finishing Up and Making the POD

Go to Edit>Track Components. In the first box, type R *Insert track name here*. Go down to backdrop and click the ... button and open up a backdrop. Click ok and save. Go to File>Write POD File. Just click ok on whatever pops up. Go to your MTM2 Directory and save it as R*insert name here*.POD. Put Podini in your MTM2 directoy. Open it up, and check the pod you just made. The track should now be in the game!

Freestyle

What's a good drag track without freestyle. Go ahead and go to File>Save As... and save it as FS*insert name here*.txx. Now, you know how to open models, move models around, insert, etc. All you gotta do is set the models to no collide and insert the purple boxes, set the proportions, etc. This is your chance to have lots and lots of fun. I can't really push you around here as it's all up to you. Feel free to POD it at any time and test it in game. Trial and error is the best way of learning. All you gotta do is go to track components again and change the R to FS and do the same thing when you pod it.

Merging the PODs and Zipping and Uploading

Open up PodMate. Add both the R and FS versions to the list. Set the output file to *insert name here*.POD in your MTM2 directory. Make sure WinRar is installed. Find the .pod file in your MTM2 directory. Right click and click "Add To Archive". Check .zip and click ok. You need a Readme to go along with it. So right click somewhere in the folder and go to New>Text Document. Rename it *your track name*.txt. Open it up, write a little bit about the track then do
Credits... for this track, it's the following:
Ground Textures, Wall Textures, Ramps, Cars - Slickster
Crowd Texture - TRI

And drag and drop it into the .zip file. Now to get it out to the public. Go to www.mtm2.com and go to tracks. Click upload, type the track name, type in your name for maker, set the type to Drag, and find the zip. Click Upload! and you just got your first track to the public! Also, go HERE to upload it to KC's MTM2 Place. Fill out the info and boom! you're done. Now you can explore more fun and advanced ways to make tracks, congrats!

If you have any questions or comments, contact me at runt9@runt9.com or runt9ab on AIM.