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TABLE OF CONTENT:
 UNPACKING THE FILES

The fisrt thing you need to do is to extract the .pf file with the pfextract utility that comes with DTR. This will open up all the files needed to create and paint new cars. Make sure your data is all moved to you DTR directory (this is available in the Full Version only).

Note : You can skip this step by using one of our painted car to start from.
QUICK STEER

The easiest way to get new paint jobs into DTR is to add new chassis to the list.

1. Find an existing chassis that you would to use to a base for your new chassis. In this case I chose to use the Zues.

2. Go to your ..../Dirt Track Racing/data/cars/ folder and locate the zues folder. Then in this case you would copy and paste the zues folder. Next you rename the copied folder to the name of your new chassis. We will name ours the austin chassis.

3. After renaming your chassis folder, you need to open it. In there you will find a file named car.str.

Right Click on this file and open it with notepad. You need to edit a few lines in this file. The first line you need to edit is the [display names] line. Change the name of the chassis (zues) to whatever the new name is going to be (austin).

The next lines need to be changed only if you don't want DTR to put its #'s on the car. Scroll down and find the [numbers] section. Locate the 3 lines that say height 0, 1, 2. Change the value of these to zero.

Now close it up. Nothing else should be changed in this file. You've just added a new chassis to DTR.
 CREATING NEW SKIN

1. Go to your ..../DTR/data/skins/ folder. In there you should have all your skins folder. Locate the folder of the skin you want to use as a base for yor new one (it should be the same on used to create the chassis). Make a copy of this folder and paste it back into the the main skins folder. Rename this folder with the name of the particular car you want to create.

2. Open this new folder you've created and locate the skin.str file.

3. We need to change 2 lines in this file. First we need to change the car line to the name of our new chassis (austin). Next change the [display names] lines to the name of the car or driver.

    

That's it. Close it up.
 PAINTING

I'm not going to go into detail about how to paint a car. That's something you should teach yourself through you own experience. So for this Step 1 simply added some numbers to our existing zues skin with Paint Shop Pro. The skin is located in the textures folder in our folder we created in Step 3. The main thing you need to do when saving a skin is to make sure your graphics program is saving it correctly. The files need to be saved as 24-bit uncompressed .tga files that are 256x256.

I have found that some programs (Corel Draw 5) save them as 255x255. This leaves the car looking like a dirty marble (if you've seen this you'll know what I'm talking about). Once you've got your skin all painted up you're going to want to see it and maybe trade some fresh paint with the AI cars. Save it and get ready to file up DTR.

 
 INSTALLING XFONT

In the last step we change the car font in the skin.str file to use font "x". Font x (xfont) is simply a 1x1 .tga that DTR will see as a car font (#'s) but will not show up on the cars.
It should be created in C:\Program Files\Ratbag\Dirt Track Racing\data\car fonts\x\ If you don't have these folders, make them.

Download Xfont.exe file right here that will put font x in its directory for you.

 
 LET'S SEE THAT BAD BOY

Fire up DTR. Go to a quick race and scroll thought the models/chassis. You should see your new chassis and car all gassed up and ready to roll.

For permission to distribute or more information contact DirtTrackin.com.