Way back when everyone was first learning how to make tracks for MCM 1 there was an MCM racer named ThroughPut. He figured out how to use the free rendering software called POVRay to render textures instead of using 3DStudio. It is really easy to use, especially since he did all the hard work for us. To use it all you have to do is download POVRay from www.povray.org and then use the MCM.POV file.
POV-Ray is located here
HOW TO USE:
To use it there are a few things that you need to do. Open the MCM.POV file in POVRay and replace the
"mcm_displacement_map.tga"
with the name of your displacement map tga file. You then need to replace the
"mcm_texture_map.tga"
with the name of your unrendered texture tga file.
Below is the place in MCM.POV that contains the two things that need to be replaced.
object {
height_field {
/*
* CHANGE the next line to point to your displacement map.
*/
tga "mcm_displacement_map.tga"
scale < SCALE_FACTOR, 25.0, SCALE_FACTOR>
smooth
}
texture {
pigment {
image_map {
/*
* CHANGE the next line to point to your texture map.
*/
tga "mcm_texture_map.tga"
}
scale SCALE_FACTOR
rotate <90, 0, 0>
}
If you have a tall track you should also adjust the scale by changing the 25.0 on the scale line below the displacement map line. It is MCM scale so you can divide your MCM 2 strength by 3.0. The 25.0 should be good enough until you have an MCM 2 track with a strength greater then 75.0. The bigger the number the stronger and more distinct the shadows.
It's important to read all the comments in the MCM.POV file. ThroughPut added several comments that tell you what to do. There are places to change the color of the light, and the direction of the light.
When you have it all set you click on the Run button and the result will be a rendered texture.
Depending on your dispmap some of the shadows may be have a hard edge or be really dark. You can adjust the really dark places by changing the line that contains "diffuse 2.0". This adjust the amount of light that is bouncing around and is present in the dark places. Increasing it will make the shadows lighter. If you have sharp edged shadows that you don't want you can fix them by bluring/smudging them with a paint program.
SOME TIPS FOR USING POVRAY WITH MCM/MCM2
Be sure to edit the QuickRes.INI to add the resolution that you want your rendered texture to be. I added a 960x960 AA section like this.
[960x960, AA]
Width=960
Height=960
Antialias=On
You can edit it under the Edit Render/Settings option under the Render menu.
There is also a command line section on the edit dialog. I have two options there. The first is +AM2, which selects a different type of rendering. The default causes POVRay to abort when using the AntiAlias options under Windows and you want to use AntiAlias.
The other command line option that I use, is +FT. This changes the default output from BMP to TGA.
This should get you started on rendering your own textures without 3D Studio. If you have any questions just e-mail me or post a message on the Twisted Forums.
