Modding and restoration discussion

[submaniac93]

Would that actually be taken into account? If yes i'm surprised. GMT-5 10pm then, whatever that translates to to your timezones. It doesn't change the fact that the Impreza works fully on my end, even though by now I feel like I could improve it in some ways.

 

[koopatroopa]

Hey folks! Please excuse the kinda' silly username, apparently I created this account forever ago and just recently came back to it.

I'm trying to get into making my own mods for GT2, mainly creating trim levels of cars not originally available in the base game, and I've managed to get as far as extracting the game data, then extracting the TGA and OBJ files from the game's .GZ files. Following this I exported the .TGA as a .BMP with the intentions of modifying the image in Paint, bringing it back into GIMP and saving it again as a .TGA, then zipping everything back up, however I've been stuck at the part of the process where you pack everything back up. Can anyone help me here? I'm open to discussing things over Telegram or Discord if that's more convenient!

Also, sorry for the images here not showing the headlights, for some reason they don't show up in ZModeler, which is what I use to preview how the texture will look on the car.

 

[Epic B]

Hey folks! Please excuse the kinda' silly username, apparently I created this account forever ago and just recently came back to it.

I'm trying to get into making my own mods for GT2, mainly creating trim levels of cars not originally available in the base game, and I've managed to get as far as extracting the game data, then extracting the TGA and OBJ files from the game's .GZ files. Following this I exported the .TGA as a .BMP with the intentions of modifying the image in Paint, bringing it back into GIMP and saving it again as a .TGA, then zipping everything back up, however I've been stuck at the part of the process where you pack everything back up. Can anyone help me here? I'm open to discussing things over Telegram or Discord if that's more convenient!

Also, sorry for the images here not showing the headlights, for some reason they don't show up in ZModeler, which is what I use to preview how the texture will look on the car.

Is that supposed to be the Turbo S model?

 

[koopatroopa]

Is that supposed to be the Turbo S model?

Yep! Always loved 'em, though here it's shown in a color the model was never sold in IRL. The real ones only came in black, reflex silver, red uni and platinum gray, but here is pictured in cybergreen. I personally wish they had sold it in more colors, that's my only gripe with the real ones.

If I manage to get the Turbo S ingame, next step is going to be a Golf IV R32. (And a 2 door GTI to go with it. ) I'd love to add a Jetta GLI to the mix, but from what I can tell model replacement isn't yet possible.

 

[Epic B]

Yep! Always loved 'em, though here it's shown in a color the model was never sold in IRL. The real ones only came in black, reflex silver, red uni and platinum gray, but here is pictured in cybergreen. I personally wish they had sold it in more colors, that's my only gripe with the real ones.

If I manage to get the Turbo S ingame, next step is going to be a Golf IV R32. (And a 2 door GTI to go with it. ) I'd love to add a Jetta GLI to the mix, but from what I can tell model replacement isn't yet possible.

Well, you can always have the in game one in colors is never really offered.

I just hope someone can add the McLaren F1 to the game. Maybe GT2 Plus will eventually become equivalent to TDU Platinum.

 

[koopatroopa]

Well, you can always have the in game one in colors is never really offered.

I just hope someone can add the McLaren F1 to the game. Maybe GT2 Plus will eventually become equivalent to TDU Platinum.

That would be nice! I'm sure once model imports get worked out it shouldn't be all that hard to make a McLaren F1 for GT2, maybe someone could either get a lower LOD model of the F1 GTR featured in GT4 and rework it for use in GT2, or perhaps they could start out with a car that has a vaguely similar shape and then squash and stretch until it looks right. I've considered looking into the possibility of doing the same to create a Mk1 Golf GTI, possibly using one of the Toyota Starlet models as a base.

I'm hoping we can get track editing in as well so we can complete the cut Cote d'Azur track. That was my favorite track to run in GT4, and to have it in GT2, my favorite Gran Turismo, would mean a lot to me!

 

[Epic B]

That would be nice! I'm sure once model imports get worked out it shouldn't be all that hard to make a McLaren F1 for GT2, maybe someone could either get a lower LOD model of the F1 GTR featured in GT4 and rework it for use in GT2, or perhaps they could start out with a car that has a vaguely similar shape and then squash and stretch until it looks right. I've considered looking into the possibility of doing the same to create a Mk1 Golf GTI, possibly using one of the Toyota Starlet models as a base.

I'm hoping we can get track editing in as well so we can complete the cut Cote d'Azur track. That was my favorite track to run in GT4, and to have it in GT2, my favorite Gran Turismo, would mean a lot to me!

Perhaps the Lotus Elise GT1 would be a good base for remodeling into a McLaren F1, unless it's possible to import models from elsewhere.

 

[SiriusR]

sorry for the images here not showing the headlights, for some reason they don't show up in ZModeler

The reason for that is quirks of PS1's 3D graphics. Due to PS1 not having a z-buffer, it has a priority thing for drawing polygons on a mesh (as in, it will always draw certain polygons above the others if they have a "flag" thing for it). ZModeler isn't exactly compatible with that.

Perhaps the Lotus Elise GT1 would be a good base for remodeling into a McLaren F1

No. They're way too different shape-wise.
Honestly, I don't think GT2 has anything remotely fitting to be remodeled into McL F1. ZZII comes to mind, but I don't think it'd fit.

 

[koopatroopa]

The reason for that is quirks of PS1's 3D graphics. Due to PS1 not having a z-buffer, it has a priority thing for drawing polygons on a mesh (as in, it will always draw certain polygons above the others if they have a "flag" thing for it). ZModeler isn't exactly compatible with that.

Ah! That makes sense. Kind of like how on ripped N64 models certain textures (especially face textures) show up all corrupty lookin' when you toss 'em into Sketchup or whatever?

 

[pez2k]

I've managed to get as far as extracting the game data, then extracting the TGA and OBJ files from the game's .GZ files. ... I've been stuck at the part of the process where you pack everything back up. Can anyone help me here?

GT2CarViewer's OBJ and TGA exports aren't intended for modding, just ripping. There is no way to convert those formats back into the formats that the game uses.

The mod you've made may not work ingame either as there are very severe restrictions on the number of colours usable. Each face on the model is assigned one of 16 16-colour palettes, meaning that at most 16 colours can be used per face, and most of those palettes are shared, reducing the usable colours further.

There's a rough and ready but not publicly released toolchain for texture editing, however any model edits will involve learning the format and hex-editing the model, including changing which palette each face uses, or changing the texture mapping.

Long story short, it's possible, but a lot more difficult and restrictive than just editing the TGA that GT2CarViewer creates as a dump. If you're still interested though, PM me and I can go into more detail.

 

[koopatroopa]

GT2CarViewer's OBJ and TGA exports aren't intended for modding, just ripping. There is no way to convert those formats back into the formats that the game uses.

The mod you've made may not work ingame either as there are very severe restrictions on the number of colours usable. Each face on the model is assigned one of 16 16-colour palettes, meaning that at most 16 colours can be used per face, and most of those palettes are shared, reducing the usable colours further.

There's a rough and ready but not publicly released toolchain for texture editing, however any model edits will involve learning the format and hex-editing the model, including changing which palette each face uses, or changing the texture mapping.

Long story short, it's possible, but a lot more difficult and restrictive than just editing the TGA that GT2CarViewer creates as a dump. If you're still interested though, PM me and I can go into more detail.

Thanks man! Sent ya' a PM.

 

[submaniac93]

So.... it's been a while, hasn't it? Been awhile since i've made a mod release lol.

But for the past week and a half i've been in a modding binge, making various fixes and improvements, all for my planned GT2 overhaul mod that will come out... probably in 2 years with how much i'm changing x'D

But enough of that. I took it upon myself to "complete" the hidden Mercedes CLK Race Car. A model based on the CLK-DTM 2000 prototype that PD probably didn't have the time to finish before the game release. It's a full mod. Mesh, textures, UVs... the whole way. See the differences with my trademarked GIF

Get the files here.

See my trademarked GIF here (it's also in the archive)

Get your video here:



Oh, I almost forgot: here's what the real car looked like.

 

[Railgun]

Oh, I almost forgot: here's what the real car looked like.
View attachment 832686 View attachment 832687

One of the few Mercedes I like with that design language, its beautiful

 

[LaSupra]

So.... it's been a while, hasn't it? Been awhile since i've made a mod release lol.

But for the past week and a half i've been in a modding binge, making various fixes and improvements, all for my planned GT2 overhaul mod that will come out... probably in 2 years with how much i'm changing x'D

But enough of that. I took it upon myself to "complete" the hidden Mercedes CLK Race Car. A model based on the CLK-DTM 2000 prototype that PD probably didn't have the time to finish before the game release. It's a full mod. Mesh, textures, UVs... the whole way. See the differences with my trademarked GIF

Get the files here.

See my trademarked GIF here (it's also in the archive)

Get your video here:



Oh, I almost forgot: here's what the real car looked like.
View attachment 832686 View attachment 832687

Wow, the difference in detail is phenomenal. And here I was thinking the GT1 & 2 cars were the best detail possible for low poly cars. Very well done!

 

[submaniac93]

The classic that no-one but me loved from GT1 returns! xD

This is NOT a port, but a modification of the Chaser Tourer S/V RM body (which is almost the same apart from decal placements).
It's also the first time i've removed and ADDED faces to a model! (though very simple additions, because I don't yet understand how the normal data is made (that's what creates reflections on the body, no normal data on the polygon makes the car unreflective)

Get files here

And as usual for me, the video

 

[dannycybart]

I have a question as I do to replace the car and rearm the gt2 iso and there is someone who explains how to use the program to replace cars because I have literally set my head on fire I do not know where to start

 

[karelpipa]

I loved Chaser LM so much in GT1 Nice addition

 

[submaniac93]

We can't explain that as it goes against the rules of GTP. It's a shame but that's how it is. I've answered what I assume is your comment on my video however.

 

[submaniac93]

Guys i've replaced the download link above with v1.1 of the file. I found out just now that the night model had a little issue in that head and tail lights would dim on night tracks. It's fixed now, so everyone who downloaded before this post's date needs to re-download the mod. thanks~

 

[Gamerjman19]

anyone thought about doing this for the 400r RM? (Pikes Peak 400r)

 

[submaniac93]

Sorry i won't be attempting it for GT2, most likely ever. The livery is too complex with the game's limitations, especially in terms of colors, with many sponsors, most of which cannot have enough detail to be more than a few pixels on the car to be worth it. It'll look like a patchwork mess. I am aware of this car however and it definitely would have been the right choice for a real life counterpart RM.

 

[FRR35H]

That's ALOT of Sponsors!

 

[karelpipa]

Just put the biggest ones on it. PD did the same thing IIRC with many RMs.

 

[Kamikaze496]

Is there any possibility to get all the text files (descriptions, general text)? I'm interested in translating it to Portuguese, since there isn't any availiable ones (its a 90s PS1 game after all).

 

[submaniac93]

Can't do that. Texts aren't dynamic, they're embedded in the images making up the hundreds of screens. And those screens are cut into tiles, like a SNES game would store its screens. pez2k managed to understand basic stuff, that he could copy and paste from other screens, such as the Special button for Mercedes, and the Next arrow for the special car screens, but adding in Vauxhall and Acura to the Opel and PAL South City screens took many days. As far as we know so far, because of the lack of space on the CD, all redundant data when converting images to the tile system were lost, so the chances of "unpacking" those screens is nigh on zero.
I personally hope it could be done in the future to fix the loads of issues some screens have, as well as to properly add new cars (maybe) to manufacturer catalogs. But for now, just hope.

 

[submaniac93]

Small update to say i've found out what was causing the issue with the Celica WRC mod I made months ago. It's now fixed and updated to v1.1 (see the post)~

Moar game format cracking progress yeyyyy

(The "short" of it is that i found out what part of the data making up colors on cars was. We've known for months what it was used for: telling the game what colors to not dim/brighten in the shadows or at night on cars, such as headlamps, brakes, stuff like that. Turns out they are binary flags, 256 of them, condensed into 16 sets of 2byte values, one for each CLUT that make up a car color. And each individual binary value tells the game that "Color ID X from CLUT Y is to not dim in the shadows/brighten at night" )
And so since i modified the Celica's lights in my mod, the wrong colors were made to dim at night. So i've updated the model with the fixed values and now it all works properly~~

 

[TeamVagabundo]

Hmmm,Hello Guys,Sorry if i look a little strange to you,but i'm preparing a discord server for y'all so you can discuss more about this without the AUP Messing with you,so you can explain me too how to mod this beautiful game

UPDATE: Forget it,RandomCarGuy17 told me ya'll already have one,i'm gonna see if he invites me tho

 

[Steel Viper]

hey, long time lurker of GTPlanet here, first time poster! ive always wondered what it would be like if this game became moddable and its starting to sorta happen! i was wondering if the NTSC-U version will get the same treatment anytime soon? id love to try this but unfortunately i live in the USA and id rather not deal with KMPH or the PAL soundtrack.... plus i only own the NTSC-U version.

 

[submaniac93]

So! I'll put this video here~




Now that i've got your attention. Back 1 or 2 years ago, B_rad88! uploaded his edited GT2 with custom soundtracks. However, at the time, he hadn't explained how he had made it and so we were left wondering. BUT! Tonight, i've figured it out, thanks to pez2k once again, because he had a tool saved somewhere on his pc that made this possible. A tool that was able to read and convert MUSIC.DAT into the raw .XA file... which itself is a .STR (don't ask, I don't get it either). All that matters is that I can now edit GT2's OSTs.
The main limit for now is that i'm limited to swapping in tracks of the same length or shorter, and/or lighter in kb.
I'll need further testing to see what can be done.

 

[Gamerjman19]

I've always wanted to play with more music from the late 90's. Hopefully that's doable.