Twisted DIRT Forums

Computers behind the router are using a non routing IP address (192.168.x.x).  The default router setup uses something called an SPI firewall.  What this means is that people can't establish connections from the internet side of the firewall unless you do something to allow it.  Anyone attempting to hack your IP address will be just banging their head on your router.  All the computers on the non-internet side of the router will not be impacted.  To route over the internet you have to go through the router.  The router is smart enough to know who asked for the transaction and will send the return packets to the requesting computer. 

If you setup a firewall on your computer you are consuming resources needlessly on your computer,  adding another level of administration on your computer, and possibly impacting your interaction with other computers on your personal network.  In my case I have 3 servers, 5 workstations and 5 laptops at my house.  Non of them run firewalls. 

Bruce

But with the Euro it's probably cheaper for you to fly there than me.   I went to a class in California in October and there three guys from England in it.  It was cheaper for them to fly to California, stay a week, pay for the class, and rent a car then to pay for the class in England.

Bruce

It's possible to replace the sounds, we haven't created anything yet, but I am working on a tool that would make that relatively easy.

If you want no sound you can just turn the volume down.  You can't selectively eliminate sounds.

Bruce

I'm not nitpicking.  I'm trying to help you.  You posted that your processor was "(running at 2.4 ghz)".  If it was that could be your problem. It isn't running at 2.4 Ghz, it isn't running at 2.2 Ghz either, so that isn't your problem.  The actual speed your processor is running can be a very important fact when trying to diagnose issues like the one that you are having.

Next time when someone is trying to help you maybe you will answer the questions without the "negative" comments.

Bruce

So your not talking about what's it's running.  Your saying it's some comparison rating to a P4.

Bruce

Show what?  If you have an 1800+ running at 2.4Ghz, it's overclocked.  The AMD 3200+ only runs at 2.2 Ghz.

Bruce

When I run Sandra on my system it says that I have an AMD XP 2600+ running at 1.91 Ghz.  An 1800+ would be slower than 1.91 Ghz unless it's overclocked.

Bruce

I would suspect running the 1800+ at 2.4 ghz could be your problem.  Doesn't a 1800 run at 1.3 or 1.4?

When MCM 2 exits to the desktop immediately it is usually an alert that detects some undesired condition.  I would always be suspicious of a driver problem or a hardware problem.  Overclocking can push other support components harder than they are capable of.

A simple test is to just slow it down and try it.

Bruce

There is actually some pretty good racing going on for several laps.  At one point Reed would triple and RC wouldn't or couldn't and then the reverse would happen.  The mud made them really choose their lines.

SX may be in the US, but it might as well be in England for me.  I live in NH and the closest SX to me is in Pontiac, Michigan.

Bruce

I hate to say it but I think you may need to recreate your profile and start over.

First I would download my BikeSwitcher.  http://dirtwister.com/mcm2/bikeswitcher.html

Install it, run it, and click on "Enable Special Items".  This will enable tracks like Chanos.  Try running Chanos outside of the Pro Circuit.  Maybe your PC can't handle it for some reason. 

I don't know anything about your system, but make sure you have the latest  directx and video drivers for your system.

You have two options.  Fix your PC so it will play chanos (may require reinstalling MCM 2) or start over with a new profile.

Bruce

For some reason in the newer versions of POVRay they eliminated the smooth command.  You can work around it, but it doesn't work as well as the older versions.  There may be a better way than this but I don't know it.

Just delete the smooth command.  That command blurred your dispmap.  When you render your large texture I would recommend 1600x1600 or larger your 257x257 dispmap is going to get blown up to that size without any smoothing.  Your one pixel is going to blow up to a pixel that is 6x6.  Your shadow will look like junk.

Do one of the following options:

Option 1: Make a copy of your dispmap to use for rendering.  Blow it up to at least the size of your texture and blur it slightly to smooth out any rough edges. 

Option 2: Use a pure white file as a texture. Expand/blur a copy of your dispmap and use that.  You will end up with a white and gray shadow map.  To use the shadow map.  You can blur it if there are any rough edged shadows.  Whether there is or not depends on how big, how strong,  and how smooth the dispmap is that is used.  You then place the shadow map as a layer over your unrendered texture.  Set the properties for that layer to "Multiply".  You will now see your shadows on your texture.  This will make your texture darker, so you may need to brighten your unrendered texture to get the results you want. 

I recommend option two at least while working on your track because you can quickly work on the texture if you aren't changing your dispmap.  You don't have to render your texture every time you work on it.

Bruce

Send me an e-mail on which one's you want.  I don't mind doing a couple.  You guys should burn your stuff to a CD.

When I'm done a track, I zip up all the files I used to created it, and put that in two different places and I archive it to a CD.  I've only lost one Disp Map of all the tracks that I've released and thanks to Laurie I got that back.  Of course I started being super careful after I lost my dispmap.

Bruce

You should have put "%20" in the link instead of the space or renamed the file so it doesn't contain a space.  A space is not valid in a URL.

Both IE and Foxfire will automatically convert it for you, so he must have not been including the space and the flip-trick.exe in the address box.

I fixed the link for you.

Bruce

Canada isn't in the US.

Bruce

The calendar section threads weren't there until yesterday morning.   I have no problem with him posting it here. If we want it moved we'll move it. 

Bruce

Putting the unprotected MCM 2 exe through something like this would create a reasonable assembler file.  You should be able to actually re-assemble MCM 2 back to a working original.

To modify something like the physics.  You would have to use your re-assembled MCM 2 and analyze the game loop.  You could add debug messages and monitor them.   Tools like Softice, which I have, let you stop windows take a look at it and then resume.

To patch it you can make simple contant changes or you can actually replace a routine or add to the routine by appending code to the end.  You can then run your resulting exe through a patch generator which would compare the differences and make a patch for the original unprotected MCM 2 exe.

The typical way of doing it is to insert a subroutine call into the original code and add extra code and the code you replaced into that code that you append.

Figuring out what are the best changes to make and then debugging them are extremely time consuming.  If you are lucky it's worthwhile to do.  If you aren't (the norm) then I think you are better off putting your time into creating your own game engine or modifying one that is documented and designed to be used as a game engine.

Of course disassembling MCM 2 and using Softice to reverse engineer it is illegal, if the end product is something that we are going to distribute or the information we learned was distributed. 

I have done similar things to programs like CCMail.  I actually had to make it where CCMail couldn't send a zero byte write to the mail database (zero byte writes truncate file).  I disassembled their mail engine, proved to them that they had code in it that did a zero byte write (I sent them the disassembled listing), reassembled it without it for testing, and then created a VXD to prevent CCMails ability to do it (just in case their were other ways to send it). We ultimately got IBM to fix it.  So the answer is yes we can, but don't expect to see us doing anything but simple changes to the core of MCM 2.

Everyone is free to try to find interesting values to change in MCM 2.  There are utililties out there that let you look for and replace values in a running program.  Of course doing this could cause damage to your computer/hard disk, so do so at your own risk.

Bruce

You have to paint a texture map that covers your entire dispmap.  It doesn't matter where you put the stuff you just have to enter the full path in the POV file.

I don't know how to use terragen so I can't comment on it.

Bruce

This forum supports an option called quick reply.  Some people know about it and some people don't.  I figured I would post this here so everyone would know about it.

What the quick reply does is add a text box at the bottom of the list of messages where you can enter your reply.  It is a personal option so whether you have it or not is set in your profile.  Here is a picture of what it looks like:



To change your profile to enable this option just follow these steps:

1. Click on the profile button at the top of the screen.
2. On the left side of the profile screen is the "Modify Profile" section.  Click on "Look and Layout Preferences".
3. Change the drop down on the "Use quick reply on topic display" line to "show, on by default"



Bruce

Discuss round 16

Discuss round 15