Mac Carpocalypse:Carmageddon 1 Tutorials

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Mac Carpocalypse: Carmageddon 1 Tutorials
Note: these tutorials demonstrate some basic editing techniques in Carmageddon. Most of the files on the download page demonstrate these techniques also. Download a file or two and you'll see how things work. For basic editing purposes, we recommend using Adobe Photoshop, a text editor, and you're going to need Carmagedit.
Editing car skins is a bit more tricky than ped editing because at this time you cannot view the actual car model while changing the graphics without playing Carmageddon to see your results. To begin with, choose a car to edit and open it in Carmagedit. A list of cars and their text files can be found by opening the OPPONENT.TXT file in your DATA directory. Opening the relevent car text file will reveal the PIX file used to "paint" the model. Open that PIX file with Carmagedit and you'll see something like the image below: This is the FAUST.PIX file for the Heinz Faust Tankcar. Other car PIX files are similar. In each one, you'll see the various parts of the car: the wheel, underside, top, sides, and other accessories such as the screw on Screwie Louie and the shish-kabobs on Otis's Cadillac. Our suggestion is to creat a folder with the PIX file you want to modify, dorp that PIX file in there, and export each frame to that same folder. Note that the Windows version of Carmagedit will automatically assign a name to each piece; Mac users will have to name each one manually. Next, open one of the more colorful pieces in your favorite paint program, and if an option is available, save the color table or palette to the folder you're working in. This will allow you to be sure that you use Carma safe colors, and also if you use Photoshop you can open the saved CLUT as a color swatch, useful in determining which colors to use. Keep in mind that there are two "blacks" - one, 0 black is transparent and can be used for some interesting effects, and the other 240 black is applied as black and not transparent. When you open the images in your paint program, you'll find that 99% of them are 64x64....this is what makes car skin painting hard because some of the 64x64 frames are stretched over contours and other parts of the model, so what appears in Carmagedit or Photoshop won't necessarily appear that way in the game. To help with this problem, it might be helpful for you to play Carmageddon with the particular car you wish to modify with the "textures" option turned off - this will allow you to see the model's true shape. Make a few screensnaps from various angles to help your editing go smoother. Then, make your changes to the exported frames in your paint program, re-save them as 256 color PICT and then import back into Carmagedit. Save the PIX file and quit. Drop the modified PIX file into the PIXELMAP folder after renaming the original, then start Carmageddon and take a look. If you see through areas that you didn't intend to, then you've painted in 0 black instead of 240 black. There is a workaround for this in the works. Most likely, things won't look quite right, so make another screensnap of the edited car to help guide you where to correct problems. With some trial and error, you'll eventually get it. Downloading car skins that others have made can be a help also. We recommend that you look on our skins page to see recommended choices for quality car skins.
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Mac Carpocalypse: Carmageddon 1 Tutorials

Note: these tutorials demonstrate some basic editing techniques in Carmageddon. Most of the files on the download page demonstrate these techniques also. Download a file or two and you'll see how things work. For basic editing purposes, we recommend using Adobe Photoshop, a text editor, and you're going to need Carmagedit.

Editing car skins is a bit more tricky than ped editing because at this time you cannot view the actual car model while changing the graphics without playing Carmageddon to see your results. To begin with, choose a car to edit and open it in Carmagedit. A list of cars and their text files can be found by opening the OPPONENT.TXT file in your DATA directory. Opening the relevent car text file will reveal the PIX file used to "paint" the model. Open that PIX file with Carmagedit and you'll see something like the image below:

This is the FAUST.PIX file for the Heinz Faust Tankcar. Other car PIX files are similar. In each one, you'll see the various parts of the car: the wheel, underside, top, sides, and other accessories such as the screw on Screwie Louie and the shish-kabobs on Otis's Cadillac. Our suggestion is to creat a folder with the PIX file you want to modify, dorp that PIX file in there, and export each frame to that same folder. Note that the Windows version of Carmagedit will automatically assign a name to each piece; Mac users will have to name each one manually. Next, open one of the more colorful pieces in your favorite paint program, and if an option is available, save the color table or palette to the folder you're working in. This will allow you to be sure that you use Carma safe colors, and also if you use Photoshop you can open the saved CLUT as a color swatch, useful in determining which colors to use. Keep in mind that there are two "blacks" - one, 0 black is transparent and can be used for some interesting effects, and the other 240 black is applied as black and not transparent.

When you open the images in your paint program, you'll find that 99% of them are 64x64....this is what makes car skin painting hard because some of the 64x64 frames are stretched over contours and other parts of the model, so what appears in Carmagedit or Photoshop won't necessarily appear that way in the game. To help with this problem, it might be helpful for you to play Carmageddon with the particular car you wish to modify with the "textures" option turned off - this will allow you to see the model's true shape. Make a few screensnaps from various angles to help your editing go smoother.

Then, make your changes to the exported frames in your paint program, re-save them as 256 color PICT and then import back into Carmagedit. Save the PIX file and quit. Drop the modified PIX file into the PIXELMAP folder after renaming the original, then start Carmageddon and take a look.

If you see through areas that you didn't intend to, then you've painted in 0 black instead of 240 black. There is a workaround for this in the works.

Most likely, things won't look quite right, so make another screensnap of the edited car to help guide you where to correct problems. With some trial and error, you'll eventually get it.

Downloading car skins that others have made can be a help also. We recommend that you look on our skins page to see recommended choices for quality car skins.

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