Guide to modifying cars for Demolition Derby and Figure Eight
BMELM 3/24/04 1.3
1 Downloading cars and installing them
2 Selecting your car and modifying the VEH file
3 Using MAStudio to UNPAK and PAK the MAS files
4 Painting and reassembly
5 A few hints to painting and icons
6 Performance
7 Changing Chassis and a few other tricks
8 A few other cheats
new as of 3/24/04
9 Notes on using the tools
new as of 3/24/04
10 Troubleshooting Q & A
Click here to view
the Class Notes page
1 Downloading cars and installing them
Find the car you want to download from the cars page and click on the download
link. Save the car someplace you will remember. Once the download is
complete, find the .ZIP file you just downloaded. Use WINZIP or a similar
program to extract the car folder from the .ZIP archive. You should now
have a FOLDER with between 3 and 4 files inside. Now locate your game's
Vehicles folder. The default location is at C:/Program
Files/Auxiliary Power/DemoDerby/GameData/Vehicles If you aren't
familiar with using windows explorer, you can click on the Windows start button,
select Run from the start menu. Copy and paste the above location into the
dialogue box and hit enter. If that doesn't work, your game was not
installed in the default location and you will have to search for the Vehicles
folder. Once it is found simply move or copy the car FOLDER to the
Vehicles folder. For special cars that include a new Class file, you must
MOVE the folder from within the car folder to the Vehicles folder as well (up
one level). The cars should be ready to go now. Remember, if you
have not completed three of each derbies you may not be able to drive all cars.
For example: If you have not won three local events, you will not
yet be able to drive the wagons and hearses yet.
 Locate where you saved the ZIP file and
use Winzip to extract the car folder. Notice the Mopower ZIP file at
the top left, and
the Mopower FOLDER at the bottom right. |
 Find the Vehicles folder and move the
car FOLDER here. |
 If the car has a class file like this
one above (Class101), move it to the Vehicles folder as well.
The class file should
be in the Vehicles folder with the other original
class files, not remain inside the car folder that is in the vehicles
folder. |
2 Selecting your car and modifying the VEH file
The folder for Demolition Derby and Figure 8 cars are located by default in
C:\Program Files\Auxiliary Power\DemoDerby\GameData\Vehicles. Decide which
body style
you want to paint and locate the folder inside of the Vehicles folder that has
contains a car of that style. Now make a copy of the car folder and rename
the copied folder to the name of your car. I suggest something short. The
game may crash or not work properly if it is too long. Now double
click your new car folder. There you should see 3 files. First open the
file LXXGPXA.VEH with NOTEPAD. The L is a letter and the two Xs are
numbers. Each 'Chassis' has its own letter-number combination (LXX).
Once you open the .VEH file with notepad, you can change the Car Name to
what you want, and the number as well. Again keep it short! The game
only shows
numbers up to 3 digits long, and does not show letters. So if you entered
X01 it would display as just 1. Also take note that this is where you can
change the car classes and wheels. A 1 in the custom tire will show the
car with a custom wheel that is within each cars .MAS file. A 0 will be
the standard wheel. Stock car classes are
as follows: 1=Compact 2=small sedan 4=large sedans 8=Wagons 16=Hearse Any other
number=AI car. Classes can be change if you want to create a car that
PERFORMS different, (more on that later) or if you want to, drive an AI
car. For example: Say you like the Derby Dog car. You can copy the folder
named DerbyDog-MF, then rename the folder, open the .VEH file with notepad and
change the name to your new car name and change the car class to 4 (sedan).
Now you will be able to drive that car in the game! Also, after you modify
things in the .VEH files, close the Notepad window and select SAVE CHANGES!
Otherwise modifying it is pointless.
3 Using MAStudio to UNPAK and PAK the MAS files
Now to extract the Bitmaps! (paint) First open MAStudio. Click on tools
and select UNPAK MAS. Now beside the input browse for the .MAS file named
Team WITHIN your copied new car folder, and select it. Check the box 'Use
same filename for decompression. Now hit UNPACK. When it is cone
select CLOSE. Now on the main MAStudio window select FILE then OPEN MAS.
Find the MAS file you just UNPAKed and select it. Next highlight the .BMP
(Bitmap) you want to
edit on the left and then select SAVE BMP. Save the BMP somewhere you will
remember. All cars have a BMP for the body and only some of them have a
second BMP for the custom wheels. If you want to paint the wheels too you
need to save the wheel BMPs as well. Also, if you want a car with custom
wheels, make sure the .VEH file originally had a 1 for the custom tires.
This way you can replace the wheels later. After you are done saving the BMPs,
go to TOOLS and
select PAK .MAS. Pak the same way you unpaked. Browse for the Mas file,
check the box 'Use same filename for compression and click OK.
4 Painting and reassembly
Now you paint! Find the save BMPs and use whatever program you are comfortable
with to paint them. Just make sure you don't change the size of the BMP or
it wont go back into MAStudio. Note that generally writing on top of the
car from side to side will read backwards, so you will have to cut, flip and
paste text. Also, some colors are transparent. A specific color of pink
and sometimes pure black are this way. The pink color is the standard
bright pink in the color palate of MS Paint. You can use this for interesting
effect on cars. Like a sedagon. Paint the rear half of the roof this
color and it will be gone! It is possible to make an entire car see
through as well. Although painting the wheels and body pink will still show the
tires, driver and interior, If you can hex edit you can change the loaded BMPs
for these items as Trans.bmp. But you are on your own there! I
will go into a bit more on hex editing in a bit though. OK so now you're
done painting! Make sure the bitmap is oriented the
same way as the original and save the BMP. Use MAStudio to UNPAK the MAS file
once again. Highlight the BMP on the left that you want to replace and select
LOAD BMP. You should see the Bitmap preview change from the original to
your new painting. Keep in mind that the BMP you are replacing has to be
highlighted in order to replace it. Now PAK .MAS on final time, and now
your paint will show up on your new car!
5 A few hints to painting and icons
Now for a few hints! Unless you are perfect you will probably have to
UNPAK, SAVE BMP, PAK, Paint, UNPAK, LOAD BMP, PAK MORE than just a few times.
So just take your time! Also, if you UNPAK a mas file twice WITHOUT PAKing
it, it sometimes gets damaged. If this happens you will have to copy an
original MAS file over your new car MAS file. Then go back and reload your
bitmaps back into the newly copied MAS file. If you car doesn't work you
can try shortening your
car name and folder name. Also check for any SMALL details you might have
accidentally changed, like a space in your VEH file, (if you accidentally hit
the space or another key) or a changed file name. Also, if you want an
icon for your car, enter your car into a derby and use the camera view buttons
to get a side view of your car. Once your there hit F12. This will save a
screen shot to C:\Program Files\Auxiliary Power\DemoDerby. Next, take the
'Grab' to MS Paint and crop
the edges as close to the car as you can get. Then resize the image (you
may have to stretch/skew) down to 144X48. This is the size the icon needs
to be. You also might have to open the icon with a photo editor and lighten it.
The pure black areas show up as transparent when the icon is displayed in the
game. When done, replace the icon BMP that is in your new car folder,
making sure you use the same file name as the original icon.
6 Performance
If you wish to change a cars performance you can create a new class! This
is easily done by copying an original ClassX file (where X is number 1,2,4,8, or
16) and renumbering it to a number below 16, and one that is not currently taken. For example: Say you want a car that is faster. It
is originally a Class4 car. Copy the Class4 file and rename it to perhaps Class5
. Also change the car class for the vehicle you want to modify in the VEH
file to a 5. Now, open the Class5 file with notepad. There you will see
all the parameters you can modify. Again, your on your own here! I will
say that changing RPM, torque and gear settings will have the greatest
performance enhancement. I will not tell you what to set it at!
Also, please remember, NOBODY LIKES A CHEATER! So be honest with people
you play online. The best policy is to have a policy. Set limits with the
others you play and stick
to them. You will probably have more fun this way anyways. And besides, if
you keep cheating someone's gonna come to derby with a tank and put you in the
stands. Nuff said! For more detailed info on creating new classes above
Class16 for the Derby Kings out there, and modifying
Class files see section 8 below.
7 Changing Chassis and a few other
tricks.
Mas27 and a Hex editor are needed in order to do the following.
Now for people who want to go a step further. You might want to try the
following if you play a lot of people online and you end up driving a different
car than you selected. This happens because the game reads the 'Chassis'
(the LXX (letter number number)) numbers as part of figuring what car to
display. Then the computer will show the both of you driving the same car.
I must make a caution before I tell you this. When hex editing your car,
If you make a slight mistake that
you don't realize, IT WILL NOT WORK! And it will be hell trying to figure
out what went wrong. If you do make a mistake that is not obvious and can
not find, it will be easier to recopy the original MAS file over your new cars
MAS file and reload the BMPs into it.
The first step to making your own 'Chassis' is to make sure no other cars are
using the LXX combination that you are going to use. Decide on a combination,
for example: I will use A13 (yours should be different). Do a search of
your 'Vehicles' folder for a file whose name contains A13. If no matches
are found and you know your online friends are not using the same one, you have
a winner! First you can change the LXX on the two files inside your new
car folder. If they were something like: C01GICON and C01GPXA you will
change to something like: A13GICON and A13GPXA. Next open Mastudio and
UNPAK and OPEN your new cars MAS
file. Now you will have to EXPORT ALL of the files in the MAS file
individually. Once this is done you will need to change the LXX number on
each of those files as well. This INCLUDES THE WHEELS AND BODY Bitmaps!
Once that is done. You will need to open each of those files with a hex editor.
You will scroll to the bottom, past all the mumbo jumbo, and you will see some
file names of bitmaps which that file loads. If you recognize anything
that looks like it has an original LXX, you will need to change it to the new
one. Just remember to click just to the left of the old LXX and write OVER
the old one. Don't try and delete anything! When done with each file
remember to close and save! When you are sure all the file are rid of the
old LXX and the new one is in place, you will need to open Mas27. Make
sure Mas27 has the Compress messed files UNCHECKED! Now, select all of the
modified files (same number of files that was originally in the mas file)
including the bitmaps, and drag them to Mas27. Now select WRITE. You can
either save over the original team.mas or name the new one team and replace the
old one. It's up to you. Replacing might be a better option if you are
unsure if it will be right. That way you will have the new car original to
fall back on. Once the new team MAS file is written and in place, try it
out! Maybe pray a bit that its going to work! If it doesn't work you
either missed one of the LXXs or did something else minor. It has to be PERFECT!
One other note about hex editing the VRL files. The VRL files are the 3d
objects. They are VRML format. When hexediting, the filenames at the end of the
file are the Bitmaps used to wrap that 3D object. The game mostly uses
BMP's from the MAS file CMAPS. You can change which BMP the game loads for
the 3d objects of your car as well as the chassis. And there is one
transparent BMP named TRANS. That's all I will say! Have fun!!!
8 A few other cheats
Unlocking all of the cars and tracks: First find the main PlayerData folder in
the DemoDerby folder. Double click on the folder of the player that you
want to modify. Right click the the file named Settings, and select open or open
with. Now open it with notepad. Once you have the file open, find the line
that says League=n (where n is some number). Change the number to a 7 so that it
looks like League=7 (see picture below) Now close notepad and save the
changes. You are now a Derby King the easy way.
 |
Changing and modifying car classes: If you are already a Derby King,
you can create and use a new class between 17 and 255 for your car. Find a
number that has not already been used, and change the car class of your car in
it's VEH file by opening it with Notepad, editing the CarClass, then
saving it before you close Notepad. Once that is done you can make a copy of another class file
and rename it to the new class name (which would be ClassNNN, where the
NNN would be the number you put in the VEH file). Now start the game
to make sure your car still works and you've done everything right . If it
works, now you're ready to modify the class file. Find the ClassNNN file
you just made and open it with notepad the same way you opened the VEH file.
There you will see all of the parameters that you can change. Most of the
numbers you might want to change are pretty self explanatorily, and you
might have to play with them a bit to get it just right. But for
those of you that want help, check out the
Class Notes. It is
arranged just like the stock Class4 file on the left, and I've added
comments to the right about what each thing does in particular.
 Mopower is a Class101 car. It has
a Class101 file that will be moved to the Vehicles folder, and the CarClass
is
set to 101 in the VEH file. |
9 Notes on using the tools
MAS27: Make sure to uncheck the Compress meshed files
box when using this tool. It is not supported by this game. You can
click on the info button of MAS27 to get more details on how to use this
program.
VRL2VRML: It mas made for use on SCGT and F1 2000, and when
changing a wrl back to a vrl, you MUST select the F1 2000 type vrl option.
Also, it seems that when you convert the 3d mesh files errors build up, so you
might only be able to convert or edit them once. For example I have found that
if you finish working on a car using 3DS max and you save it, you can not reload
what you saved and edit it again, save it and convert it. When you go to
convert it back to vrl you will get an error a lot of times. (which may be why
it seems the wagons and hearses won't convert either) So it is best to take
your wrl file, completely finish editing it with 3DS max, export it, and convert
it back to vrl. Also, if you edit the mesh of the vehicle and you haven't
figured out how to change the chassis numbers yet, (LXX) make sure you put the
new mesh files back into a mas file with the same chassis numbers you took it
out of. Other wise just put it on a new chassis.
10 Troubleshooting Q & A
Q. Why won't MAStudio open my MAS file?
A. Most likely you need to use the UNPAK utility within MAStudio. Then try to
OPEN the MAS file. UNPAK only once without PAKing or MAS file will be damaged.
Q. MAStudio says 'File size different' and will not allow me to load the new
bitmap.
A. Two things are possible here.
1 You might have changed the physical size of the
bitmap you painted. In this case you will need to go into your paint program and
crop or expand the edges to the original size. If you are not sure what the
original
size was, look at MAStudio and it will tell you the dimensions in pixels.
2 The MAS file got damaged in the painting process. This usually happens if you
UNPAK the MAS file more than once WITHOUT PAKing it. For example: You UNPAKed
the MAS file and extracted your bitmaps and then closed MAStudio. Next time you
went to load you're bitmaps back in, you UNPAKed the MAS file again and damaged
it.
For this reason it is a good habit to always PAK your MAS files before you close
MAStudio. To fix the damaged MAS file you will have to copy the MAS file from
the
original cars folder to you're new car folder and overwrite the damaged one. Now
try loading the bitmaps back into you're MAS file.
Q. The paint on my car is sideways! How can I fix this?
A. The computer places your bitmap on the 3d image in a certain way. You just
need
to make sure that the bitmap you load into your car is oriented the same way as
the
original. Like, making sure the front bumper is on the left or right side of the
bitmap.
If the original bitmap had the front bumper on the right, the front bumper of
you're new
bitmap needs to be on the right side as well.
Q. Why doesn't my car show up when I try to select it or why does my game crash
when selecting
my car?
A. Most likely you have an error with the names of the 3 files that are inside
of your new car
folder. Check to make sure the LXX numbers (letter number number) are the same
for the
icon file and the VEH file. If that doesn't work, try renaming you're car to
something short,
and eliminate any spaces or symbols other than letters and numbers. Rename the
new car
folder AND the name inside of the VEH file to the new name.
Q. My car shows up fine when selecting a car, but when I play it shows another
car. Why?
A. Most likely you just forgot to change the car name and number in the VEH file
within
your new cars folder.
If you have other questions, contact me and I will get back with
and
update this Q&A as well. Thanks