The 18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin’ reference guide.

Intro
18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin’ by SCS Software
18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin’ is SCS Software’s latest creation. It is the 5th trucking game
by this company. The first game was a big hit, the 2nd game was vastly better (and vastly
worse in some aspects), and the 3rd was the best until this one came along. 18 Wheels of
Steel: Pedal to the Metal was easy to mod, and relatively easy on the computer. Its
success in large part is a result of the 4th installment in the truck game lineup from this
company, which miserably failed. Nobody caught on, because it was genuinely bad.
However SCS did learn from their mistakes, and released (what I suspect could be their
last trucking game), 18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin’ This game is vastly better in every
aspect than Pedal to the Metal (PttM) was, except for one. It’s a bitch to mod. That is
why I’m trying to create a tutorial to help people start getting into it. Maybe some people
still resent it because they think it resembles “Convoy”, the 4th game. It doesn’t. Not in
any aspect. It is more stable then PttM, and it has more editability to it. I hope this tutorial
gains some interest in modding the game.

Perhaps before you do the next step, read the “Useful Programs” section of this text.
If you cannot get your hands on these essential programs, don’t bother editing the game.
For the rest of this tutorial, Main headings are in green underlined font, and
subheadings are in bold black underlined font.

Getting Started
Running the game
Make sure of course that your computer meets the minimum requirements:
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
Pentium 4 1.4 Ghz or 100% compatible
256 MB RAM
540 MB HD Space
64 MB DirectX/Direct3D and T&L compatible video accelerator card
DirectX 9.0c or later
DirectX compatible sound card
Mouse
CR-Rom drive
This and other useful info is found in the readme.txt in the directory where you installed
the game.
Usually it’s located in C:\Program Files\18 Wheels of Steel Haulin.
The patch
Make sure you have the latest patch for the game installed. Once you install the patch,
make sure to run the game to see if you did it correctly.
“Unzipping the base”
This is the fundamental step everybody needs to do in order to edit the game. You will
need WinZIP, however I would recommend WinRAR.
a. In the directory where you installed the game, you need to find the file called
“base.scs”. It should be about 341Mb. If you cannot see file extensions (the .scs part),
at the top of windows explorer click on the “Tools” menu, and click on “Folder
Options”. At the top of the window that pops up, click on the “View” tab, and scroll
down and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”. Note: from now on you
will see an extension next to every file. When you rename a file, you need to also
write the extension.
b. Rename the “base.scs” file to “base.zip” if you have WinZIP or “base.rar” if you’re
going to be using WinRAR.
c. Open the newly renamed file in WinRAR of WinZIP. Now you need to extract it.
d. Extract the base (there should be a button somewhere in your program saying “extract
to” or something similar. You need to select where to extract it to. You need to
extract it to a folder called “18 WoS Haulin” which you will create within your “My
Documents” directory.
e. If you have done the step correctly, close the archiving program and go to your “My
Documents” folder. You should have a folder called “18 WoS Haulin” which needs to
contain these folders:
automat
def
effect
font
manifest
map
material
model
music
prefab
save
screenshot
script
sound
system
ui
uilab
unit
vehicle

and a few files. If you don’t have these folders you need to make sure you extracted
the base in the correct folder. If you only have some of these folders, try running the
game.
f. Rename the “base.zip” or “base.rar” file back to “base.scs”.
g. If you installed the patch, do the same thing as with the base. The patch contains a
bunch of files which will overwrite a bunch of files in the directory where you
unzipped the base to. This is the point. When prompted choose yes to overwrite
anything it asks for. Then rename it back to patch.scs when you’re done and you’ve
done everything correctly.
 h. Run the game.
i. Back in “My Documents\18 WoS Haulin\” folder make sure you have a folder called
“mod”. If not, create it. This is where you will put all your modded files.
Config.cfg
In the main directory (My Documents\18 WoS Haulin\” you will have a file called
“config.cfg”. Open it with notepad, and change the following lines:
uset g_console "0”
to
uset g_console "1"
and
uset g_developer "0”
to
uset g_developer "1”

Save the file.

When you run the game, you can press the “~” key; it is the key next to the “1” key on
your keyboard. This will open up what is referred to as the “console”. Same button closes
it. The console will display any errors the game comes across in red font, and any
“issues” in yellow font. The console will come in handy later on.
Make sure everything works!
Run your game, make sure it doesn’t crash and check the console for any red or yellow
text.
Prism3d.log
In the main directory (My Documents\18 WoS Haulin\” you will have a file called
“prism3d.log”. Open it with notepad. The first few lines should look like this:
******** : log created on : Friday December 29 2006 @ 08:56:39
08:56:39 : [sys] running on x86 / Windows XP (version 5.1) / Service Pack 2
08:56:39 : [sys] DirectX version : 4.09.00.0904
08:56:39 : [cpu] GenuineIntel [ Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz] at
~3001MHz.
08:56:39 : [cpu] Features utilized: fpu cmov mmx sse sse2.
08:56:39 : [mm] physical memory detected (1047788K/728156K)
08:56:39 : [mm] virtual memory detected (2097024K/2069264K)
08:56:39 : [mm] Trying to allocate memory pool (153600K)
08:56:39 : [zipfs] base.scs successfully mounted [crc_0xb39eb8f]
08:56:39 : [zipfs] patch.scs successfully mounted [crc_0x48ebc600]
08:56:39 : [game] 18 WoS Haulin init ver.1.06 (rev. 19698)
08:56:39 : Home directory: 'C:/Documents and Settings/Home/My Documents/18 WoS
Haulin'
08:56:39 : exec /home/config.cfg
08:56:39 : [cor] executing /home/config.cfg
08:56:39 : uset g_minicon "0"
08:56:39 : uset g_console "1"
etc etc.
 This file displays what the console displayed the last time you ran your game. If you
come across any error, or your game crashes, open this file and you will see it there. This
comes in handy when you are at a forum and you need help. People will ask you for your
“log”. This is it.
You’re set!
You’ve now successfully set up your game for editing.

Tools Of The Trade

Z-Modeler 2.0.8
Z-Modeler is the essential tool for editing any 3d model in the game. Extremely easy to
use, compared to other 3d software.
WinRAR/WinZIP
WinRAR or WinZIP are absolutely necessary for creating the SCS files which will hold
your mods! Get your hands on either one of these programs one way or another.
DXT BMP
DXT BMP is the best tool for importing and exporting DDS files, which are the textures.
DXT BMP is freeware.
HEX Workshop
HEX Workshop is very useful for editing TOBJ files and PMD files, which you will have
to do if you want to edit this game successfully to any noticeable degree. Get your hands
on it by whatever means. Any HEX editor will also work!
VLC Player
VLC Player is a fantastic player and it plays OGG files. As does I think Windows Media
Player, but VLC is nice and simple. I got mine from a friend, but I believe its freeware
aswell.
Paint Shop Pro
Paint Shop Pro is what I would recommend to anyone who wants to do graphics for this
game. It is relatively simple to use, and it WILL do what you need to do. I have version 5
BETA which is historic, and I do better graphics then 99.9% of people out there in the
virtual trucking community who have expensive programs such as Photoshop or later
versions of Paint Shop Pro. Highly recommended.
Photoshop
Photoshop is another graphics editing program, very expensive and very unnecessarily
complicated. I genuinely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, but try it if you’re curious.
Audio Converters
Audio converters will come in handy if you plan on changing any sounds. You need a
converter from MP3 to OGG, or something which can record directly into OGG. It is a
pain in the ass to find a good one, but enough Googling should yield decent results. I use
DMC converter, it’s free with the exception of a 30-day trial on mp3 encoding.
Other
There are other tools you can use! This list is simply what I use and what I find very easy
to use. Don’t restrict yourself to this list!
A Note About Illegally Downloaded Software
I am in no way encouraging you to download illegally or pirate any of the programs in
the list above. However I’d like to point out to you a fact. The game cost you 20 dollars (I
 hope you bought it) and some of these programs cost at least 100. I suspect most people
who edit this game aren’t adults, and they don’t have unlimited money supply to throw at
some company selling software for 500 bucks. And the companies know this…
Their software is designed to be bought by small businesses, or big businesses if you will,
and even home users who seek to make financial profit by using them. The companies
who make graphics editing software, or archiving utilities have more then enough
customers. You might make 2 mods for 18 Wheels of Steel, and then decide you’ve had
enough. What are you going to use your expensive software you spent a grand on for
now? It certainly hasn’t paid off. The truth is, some of us don’t even have the 30 dollars
to spare on relatively cheap software made by companies who, actually need your few
dollars to survive. Some of us don’t have or can’t set up Pay-Pal accounts (and if we did
we’d spend the money on porno websites isn’t that right). So what I mean when I write
“get your hands on it by any means”, that is what I mean. However I am only endorsing
legal transactions.

Common File Types

.atifs
The ATIFS files are effect files. Don’t worry about them.
.bak
The BAK file extension is created once you save something in Z-Modeler. It is a backup
file. In case something goes wrong with your original file, you can use the backup by
changing the .bak extension back to .z3d.
.btf
The BTF files are stamp files. It is unknown how to edit them.
.cfg (autoexec.cfg, config.cfg)
The CFG files can be opened in notepad.
.dds
The DDS files are very common. They are texture image files used by Haulin’. They
open with DXTBmp, or apparently also with a special plug-in for Photoshop. The two
common formats to save in are DDS DXT1 and DDS DXT5.
.def
The DEF files are found in the “def” folder. DEF files define various locations of data in
the main game directory and also store various information, such as the colours of AI
cars. They can be opened with notepad.
.esc
The ESC files can be opened using notepad. They contain the code for game menu
layouts, console layouts, etc. Generally no need to worry about them unless you’re
redesigning the look of your menus, etc.
.fgl
The FGL files are effect files. Don’t worry about them.
.font
The FONT files are found in the “font” folder, and you guessed it, they deal with fonts.
No need to worry about them.
.fp
The FP files are effect files. Don’t worry about them.
.png
 The PNG file is a common picture file that can be opened with any image editing
software.
.mbd
The MBD file contains the map. It stores the coordinates of every object, road, etc. in the
map. It should be called “america3.mbd”. MBD files can be edited using the map editor
built into the game.
.mat
The MAT files are very common, they are mostly located in the “automat” folder,
however they are found elsewhere in the game directory as well. The information they
house greatly varies, however they tell the game what kind of an effect should be used for
the particular texture it points to. Open them in notepad.
.nvfp & .nvrc
The NVFP and NVRC files are effect files. Don’t worry about them.
.ogg
The OGG files are sound files. If you want to add music to the game, it needs to be in this
format, as does any sound that you want this game to recognize. An increasing number of
applications are now supporting .ogg file extensions, and a simple Google search should
turn up many .mp3 to .ogg sound converters with lengthy free trial periods.
.tga
The TGA files are also images used by Haulin’. Most image editing programs will open
them.
.pdd
The PDD files are used for prefabs. As of yet we do not know how to edit them, and we
likely never will.
.pmc
The PMC files contain some sort of collision data. They can be created using Z-Modeler,
and also edited using a HEX editor.
.pmd
The PMD files can be created using Z-Modeler, or edited using a HEX editor. These files
are essential to the game. They assign MAT files to models. I think of them as a go-
between PMGs and MATs.
.pmg
The PMG files are the 3d model files. They can be edited with a later-version Z-Modeler
that supports their importing/exporting. Version 2.0.8 is recommended.
.rar
The RAR archive files can be created and modified using WinRAR.
.rfx
The RFX files are effect files. Don’t worry about them.
.rs
The RS files are effect files. Don’t worry about them.
.scs
The SCS files are simply uncompressed RAR files with a changed file extension. (SCS)
.sii
The SII files can be edited in notepad, they provide similar information to DEF files.
.tobj
 The TOBJ files assign (usually) a DDS texture file. They are called upon through MAT
files, which in turn are called upon by PMD files, which are needed by PMGs. Edit them
using a HEX editor ONLY.
.vgl
The VGL files are effect files. Don’t worry about them.
.vp
The VP files are effect files. Don’t worry about them.

The Folders You’ll Use

Automat
The AUTOMAT folder contains 241 folders with hexadecimal names, each containing
about 5 MAT files with hexadecimal names. The only way you will find the MAT file
you’re looking for in here, is by looking at the PMD file of the object to which the MAT
file belongs using a HEX editor. Some objects have multiple MAT files!
Def
The DEF folder contains mostly DEF files, BTF files, and some SII files. Edit the DEFs
and SIIs using notepad. They contain information on AI car colours, environment
lighting, fog, ground effects, cities, cargos, etc. Most of these are pretty self explanatory
once you open them. The “world” folder in particular is very important when doing map
editing and adding objects, etc.
Effect
The EFFECT folder isn’t of much use to us because we don’t know how to edit effects
yet. You might see some of the effects’ names at the very top of MAT files in notepad.
Disregard this folder for the most part.
Font
The FONT folder deals with game fonts. If you wanted to change a style of font, you
would have to edit the DDS files in a image editor program. Disregard this folder unless
you’re doing something special.
Manifest
The MANIFEST folder contains some text documents which seem to be logs for some
sort of programs used by SCS. This might be worth looking at because maybe these
programs are embedded in the game. Deal with this only if you “know what you’re
doing” I guess.
Map
The MAP folder contains the map file, however to edit the map file, read the section in
this tutorial that deals with it. Disregard this folder.
Material
The MATERIAL folder contains materials, or textures for various things. Everything
from roads, terrains, and city shadows to menu items and notebook parts. Very useful
folder.
Model
The MODEL folder contains all the map models, and their corresponding PMD, DDS,
and TOBJ files. Very useful folder. Note that apparently Building strings, and models
which use alpha mapping for the texture cannot be edited. Z-Modeler doesn’t recognize
all of their data.
Music
Use the MUSIC folder to add your own tunes to 18 Wheels of Steel. Copy and paste any
amount of songs in OGG format into this folder and they will play as part of your radio.
Prefab
The PREFAB folder contains all the intersections and “forks”. They cannot be edited as
of yet, but the PMD files come in handy when you need to swap the terrain texture of
your particular prefab to match a texture you manually added to the game.
Save
The SAVE folder contains all the saved games.
Screenshot
The SCREENSHOT folder contains all the screenshots in PNG format. Each time you hit
F10 while playing the game, a new PNG file is created in this folder.
Script
The SCRIPT folder contains mostly SII files covering things such as voice commands.
Sound
The SOUND folder contains all the game’s sounds. They must all be OGG format.
Sounds ARE editable.
System
The SYSTEM folder deals with some usually unneeded things such as the console’s
texture, etc. Disregard this folder.
Ui
The Ui folder deals again with some of the menus, popup boxes, etc. Disregard this folder
for the most part.
Uilab
The Uilab folder contains some files that are generally disregarded when modding.
Unit
The Unit folder contains data for things like sirens, smoke, blinkers, brake lights,
fluttering leaves, etc. They are mostly SII files editable in notepad.
Vehicle
The Vehicle folder contains all the trucks, trailers, wheels, AI cars, interiors, and the
model of the driver.

The Concept Of “.SCS” Files

What are they used for?
Any modifications you make to the game need to be inside what are called “SCS” files.
These can have any name you like, and must have a “.scs” extension. They typically
contain folders inside them, which contain your files. You create them using archiving
programs such as WinZIP or WinRAR. They are simply archive files with no
compression and a “.scs” file extension. You first “zip-up” your work using either
WinZIP or WinRAR, making sure you select a method which doesn’t use any
compression. Sometimes it’s called “0 compression” or “store” compression, depending
on the software you use. I recommend WinZIP, where you select “None” from a
dropdown box under a “Compression” heading. For WinZIP, right click on the directory
you want to create a SCS out of, mouse over to WinZIP, and another menu will appear to
the right. Select “Add to Zip file…”. However, this is different with almost every
 person’s computer setup. Just make sure you don’t create a compressed archive, that is
the point.

The archived file needs to retain the EXACT file structure of the main base directory
that’s in your documents. However, add ONLY the files and folders that you have
modified!
For example, if I edited the file “lod.pmd” located in:
My Documents\18 WoS Haulin\vehicle\truck\w4900ex\
and another file called “0c1afb.mat” located in:
My Documents\18 WoS Haulin\automat\3e\
The archived file would need to have 2 folders inside it:
vehicle and automat
The “vehicle” folder would have another folder inside it called “truck” which would
contain the folder “w4900ex” which would contain the FILE “lod.pmd”.
The “automat” folder would contain a folder inside it called “3e” which would contain
the FILE “0c1afb.mat”.

Remember, ONLY add the files to the archive that you have modified! It doesn’t do the
game any good if it has to load a bunch of files which it already has.

Once you have created your archive, which is really a lot simpler then this text is
probably making it look, rename the extension to “.scs” instead of “.rar” or “.zip”.
The actuall file name can be anything: it can be called “flowers” or “horseshit”, it doesn’t
matter.

Now make sure this file is inside the “mod” folder you created in your main game
directory.
For example:
My Documents\18 WoS Haulin\mod\landing-plane.scs

Fire up your game, check the console to make sure there are no errors (displayed in red
letters) and then go check to see how your modification looks. This task takes me about 5
seconds, once you create yourself a routine and get into it. Remember, any changes you
make to your mod, you have to re-do this whole process. As I said before, it takes about
5 seconds once you figure out a routine.

Also, the above wasn’t designed to teach you how to master either WinZIP or WinRAR,
it merely explains the theory behind SCS files. If you still can’t figure it out, Google it or
ask on a forum.

Trucks
The purpose of the following:
The purpose of this section is not to teach you how to become a good 3d modeler.
Although I will cover some tips, this section will show you how to import and export
truck models, and some of the necessary things that come with that.
Lets get right into it – truck related files:
 To start off, all trucks are contained in the /vehicle/truck directory. Each truck has its own
folder (IE. “m613”), each truck is mentioned in the files “traffic_storage.sii” and
“truck_storage.sii” and each truck has (usually) 2 definition files found in the
/vehicle/truck/definition directory (IE. “m613.sii” and “m613_traffic.sii”).
Inside the specific truck’s folder, each truck has a PMG file with the trucks name (IE
“m613.pmg”) and a PMG file called “lod.pmg”, and a PMG file called “wips.pmg”. The
“m613.pmg” file is the up-close model, the “lod.pmg” file is the lower poly far away
model, and if the truck is a conventional, it will also have a file called “hood.pmg”, which
is used to display the truck’s hood in the in-cab view. Each truck has a “gloss.png” file,
and collision files with the same names as the two truck models (IE “m613.pmc” and
“lod.pmc”). There will be (usually) 4 TGA files, named “ui_paint0”, “ui_paint1”, etc.
These are the files used to display the paintjob thumbnail next to each truck in the
showroom. There will also be a “wips.pma” file, which we will disregard. This is the
animation file for the wipers, which we cannot edit as of yet.

Now bear in mind: Every DDS file gets referenced by a TOBJ file, which gets referenced
by a MAT file, which gets referenced by a PMD file, which gets referenced by a PMG
file. Every PMG file NEEDS a PMD. However, a single PMD file can reference multiple
MAT files. Every MAT file NEEDS a TOBJ file, which by definition references a DDS
file (that is its purpose).

The MAT files are located in the automat directory. To find the MAT file, open the PMD
file of the corresponding PMG file (model file) using a HEX editor. You will see
instantly what I am talking about.

For example:
....................................@...H...P...h...X...l...p......s.......s..............q.................p.../automat/
d0/29309e.mat.

This will be displayed in the HEX editor. Only worry about the file paths.
Each truck also has a snapshot of it used in the showroom located in “material\ui\truck\”
folder

Skinning
Skinning is a rather lame word for painting. If you want to re-paint a truck, simply open
up any one of the DDS files in the specific truck’s directory. (IE. “paint1.dds”). At the
top of the window in DXT BMP, click on “Image” and go down to “Send to editor”. If
you haven’t assigned an editing program to which DXT BMP can send the DDS files, at
the top of DXT BMP click on “Prefs” and go down to “Select editor” and locate your
editing software of choice.

In the top right-hand corner you’ll see a black and white image. If this is a paintjob, this
image corresponds to the level of shinyness on a truck. (Reflectivity map or whatever).
Double click it and it’ll open in your graphics editor. Black means flat, white means
100% shiny. Shades of grey inbetween mix the level of reflectivity. If the DDS file has
the same name as the truck (IE. “m613.dds”) then it is the truck’s basic color. The one
 which you can change when you’re playing the game to anything on the palette. For this
image, the black and white image at the top right hand corner in DXT BMP represents
where the color is to change when you’re playing the game and selecting a color, and
where it’s to stay the same. Black means no change, white means change. Don’t use
shades of grey, it won’t look right.

When you have the main picture file opened in your graphics editor, it should be pretty
plain to see what parts of the image correspond to what parts of the truck model. DO
NOT CLOSE DXT BMP. Paint whatever you want on it, and then just click on “File”
and go down to “save”. You can now close your graphics editing software, and back in
DXT BMP at the top click on “Image” and select “Reload after edit” or if you were
editing the black and white image (called the Alpha) click on “Alpha” and go down to
“Refresh alpha”.

Next, in DXT BMP click on “File” and go down to “save”. In the popup box, make sure
that if your image HAS an alpha map, you have DDS DXT5 selected. Otherwise select
DDS DXT1, but this is very rarely used.

TIP!
I don’t like to save overtop of the files in let’s say,
”My Documents\18 WoS Haulin\vehicle\” or any other folder besides the “mod”
folder. What I like to do is inside the mod folder, create a folder with some name
relating to my work (IE. Mack613). This acts as my main directory for everything
that has to do with my mod, in this case my Mack truck. Inside there, create a
folder called “vehicle” and in there a folder called “truck” and in there a folder
called “m613” and save your paintjob file in there. I don’t know how to quite
explain it but you need to have the exact same setup as the main directory does,
but ONLY create folders which house files that you have edited. If I wanted to
edit a MAT file in the automat folder, I would maybe create a folder in the “mod”
folder called “MyMat”. In there I would create a directory called “automat” and in
there I’d create a directory called “c3” or wherever the MAT file is supposed to
be. This makes it easy when you’re making the SCS files, which we already
covered.

By not saving overtop of the existing files in the “18 WoS Haulin\”whatever directory,
you won’t have to re-extract them from the “base.scs” each time you need the original
copy.

Once you have saved the paintjob, make the SCS file and test it in the game. I’m
assuming you overwrote an existing paintjob. To add paintjobs requires editing of the
stored values inside the PMG using Z-Modeler. This is covered next.
Editing the 3d mesh
This is where it starts to get complicated and I quickly lose any interest in finishing this
tutorial. Keeping in mind that I am pretty much “running out of gas” try to read between
the lines and assume some things which I might and probably will forget.
As with the skinning, and the SCS file making, I am not going to teach you how to
become an expert at using Z-Modeler. I taught myself, and as of right now I think I know
pretty much everything about it, but I’ve asked people for help and have been messing
with it on and off for about 2 years now. Its as simple as a 3d editing program is going to
get, if that makes you feel any better.

So to get this started. This will teach you how to edit an existing truck in the game and
overwrite it. DON’T WORRY if you fuck up, just delete the SCS file with your mod and
the original truck will reappear. It is possible to add standalone trucks, but I’ll leave that
up to you to figure out. (It has to do with the SII files).

Go to the “material” folder, and in there go to the “environment” folder. Create a copy of
the “generic_s.dds” file and rename it to “generic.dds”.

Open Z-Modeler 2.0.8, and find the import button. Navigate to where the file you want to
import is, and click on it ONCE. Near the bottom of the dialog box is a blue bar that
should say “18 Wheels of Steel : Convoy”. Click on it. A little thing should appear in the
space underneath the bar. Next to where it says “base.scs:” click on the big bar. Another
little box comes up, and pick the folder where you extracted the “base.scs” (My
Documents). If you done it correctly, the bar should display for example
C:\Documents and Settings\Home\My Documents\18 WoS Haulin.

The 4 stacked checkboxes saying “Read/Write .PMC” etc. should only be checked if you
want Z-Modeler to read the information from the PMC file, the PMD file, the MAT file
or the TOBJ file. When editing trucks, check all four.

Once you imported your truck, you’ll notice it is rather shiny and has a plain white
paintjob.

Open the Material viewer. It is at the top of Z-Modeler, displayed as a red ball. If you
cant see it, click on “View” at the top, go down to “Toolbars” and select “Main Toolbar”.

In the material editor you set up the materials that are required. They should actually
already be set up, with one small problem. The first one, called “Default Material”. What
you need to do is get rid of it, however Z-Modeler doesn’t allow you to delete it.

But I should mention which ones you should see (if there are less, doesn’t matter)
I’m going to use the 613 Mack as an example:

Default Material
m613.chromic
m613.wos.dif.fx <- RENAME THE “.wos.dif.fx” to “.generic” !!
m613.chromic
m613.glass

Deleting the “Default Material”

What you need to do is set up the “Default Material” exactly like one of the other
materials (IE. M613.glass). While in the “Default Material” you need to click on the bar
with the checkbox next to it (under the “Texture Layers” blue bar) that says “…”. The
texture viewer will open, and pick the same texture that the material you are copying has
in the first slot. Then click on the one below, and again select the same texture that the
material you are trying to copy has in the 2nd slot. And so on. The first big horizontal blue
bar right under the big round ball and under the names of the textures in the material
editor should be called “Basic Parameters”. Click on the big square with the 4 radio
buttons next to it. A color picker window will appear. Select the same color the material
you are copying has. Then go down to the next big horizontal blue bar which says “Alpha
Parameters”. I won’t get into detail, but just make sure that everything is exactly the same
way as it is for the material you are trying to copy. (IE. you might be trying to copy
“m613.glass” or whatever). I actually never noticed the Extensions bar until now, so
disregard it I guess. Then back in the “Texture Layers” bar. Next to each of your textures
will be an “Edit…” button. This part has to be EXACTLY the same as the texture you are
trying to copy. Make sure every setting is exactly the same as the one you are copying.
Make damn sure of this. Notice the scroll bar on the side of the little window, and look at
every dropdown box. Once you have an exact copy of another material, click on the name
“Default Material” once and rename it to the material you’re copying. Then delete the
material you were copying, and now the “Default Material” will effectively be gone, or
should I say renamed to something relevant. Don’t let this step scare or confuse you, its
really simple and takes all of one minute to do.

At the top of Z-Modeler click on “View” and go down to “Floaters” and enable “Scene
nodes browser”. The Scene nodes browser is just like a folder tree. Open them by
clicking the “+” signs, etc. Clicking on something once will let you rename it. You can
grab the top of the Scene nodes browser and drag it into the same pane as the “Command
Bar” and you’ll have a bigger work area. The main object should have the same name in
the Scene nodes browser as the PMG file, just without the “.pmg”. So if you’re going to
be saving it as a “lod” rename the very top thing (root of the tree) to “lod”. You get the
point I hope. In the Scene nodes browser you will also see all the names of all the green
squares and the polygon objects and stuff like that.

As I said before I’m not going to explain how to use Z-Modeler, there is a tutorial on
their official site, and other tutorials exist also. The fundamentals of 3d modeling are the
same no matter what program you use.

However notice the red outlined rectangles surrounding your truck’s model. This is the
collision model. The collision model is just a bunch of boxes. It isn’t the precise shape of
the truck, because it’s pointless for this game. When something elses collision model
touches those red boxes of your truck you “crash”.
There is also a shitload of little green boxes. Those represent trailer hook-up points,
wheel points, light nodes, exhaust smoke points, etc.

There is also a small blue box somewhere under your truck in the middle. You can right
click on this with your mouse, and select “properties”. Open the bar that reads “Dummy
Node(s)” and check the box next to “Stored Values…” to see some additional important
info. The field next to “Origin” should say something like this for example for the Mack
613
/vehicle/truck/m613
The fact that there is no slash at the end of the line and there is one at the beginning is
apparently important. Just use that syntax.
In the field next to “PaintJobs” is a number representing the number of paintjobs a truck
can have. Gangsterly.

So now do your 3d editing. If you’re new, don’t pretend you’ll have a truck built in a
couple of hours. It takes a long time.

Now, to export. This is the part where things usually crash and burn. Eat shit if you will.
However I will try to get you through it.

Make sure in the Scene nodes browser you have your truck named correctly. IE. the
Mack 613 would be called “m613”. And remember you also need to export it twice, once
as “m613” into a file called “m613.pmg” and once as “lod” to a file called “lod.pmg”.
Hit the export button at the top of Z-Modeler (it’s a little red arrow thing next to the red
ball). Make sure all 4 checkboxes are checked. Check the bottom of Z-Modeler in the
Messaging bar and make sure you have no yellow exclamation mark signs. Those tell you
that there is an error. They should be self explanatory.
Once you have your file exported, navigate in Windows Explorer to the folder in which
you have your truck. You will see that it created a bunch of MAT and TOBJ files called
“bodypaint” and “bodybasic”. For each paintjob, you need to create a file called
“bodypaint01.dds” and “bodypaint02.dds” etc. Remember each TOBJ file needs a DDS
file to go with it. “bodybasic.dds” is the solid changeable color, and the “bodypaint” files
are the paintjobs. Then navigate to

/vehicle/truck/share/

and copy the file “glass01.dds” into the folder where you exported your truck (IE.
“m613”). DON’T fire up your game until you have read the RED text farther down this
page. No rush getting to see your results.

You should have files similar to this, in your truck’s directory, if your truck has 1
paintjob:

bodybasic.dds
bodybasic.mat
bodybasic.tobj
bodypaint01.dds
bodypaint01.mat
bodypaint01.tobj
chromic.mat
frame.dds
 frame.tobj
generic.mat
glass.mat
glass01.dds
glass01.tobj
gloss.tobj
lod.pmg
lod.pmd
lod.pmc
m613.pmg
m613.pmd
m613.pmc
parts.dds
parts.tobj

You’ll have other files too but these are the ones that are relevant to what we have done.

Always remember to also “Save As” into the standard “.z3d” format, so that you can
come back to and edit your work with greater ease. If you run the game in fullscreen
mode, and you have Z-Modeler running, chances are when you turn off the game and try
to go back into Z-Modeler, you won’t see anything, the 3d windows will be all fucked up
for lack of a better word. So always save the file as a “.z3d” before you run the game!!
And don’t forget to delete the “.bak” files before you send your file out on the internet.

This way each time you go back to edit your truck, or trailer, or anything, just re-open the
“.z3d” file instead of the “.pmg”.

You might have some problems in the showroom with a grille not displaying, etc. But
hopefully by now you understand enough what’s going on that you can get around it. I
would attach the mask to the main truck’s model. Either way.

If you still encounter errors. What can I say, check the “prism3d.log” file however many
times when editing trucks that isn’t much help. I haven’t by any means tried everything in
this game, and there is probably a lot of this I don’t know yet. If some bizarre problem
pops up with your truck, make sure you thoroughly check over every MAT, TOBJ, and
PMD file against a truck that works, and then if you can’t find the problem post at a
forum. There is also a chance that your problem is unique and nobody has encountered it
before, and might even be unfixable, in which case I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes. I
shouldn’t say that. You’ll have to find a way around it which probably won’t yield your
initial intended results, but that’s life. There’s only so many places you can check when
dealing with these types of problems. The material viewer, the MAT, TOBJ, and PMD
files, and your other Z-Modeler settings I guess. This is the reason I said this game will
be a bitch to mod, at the beginning of this tutorial.

Trailers
Same shit, different pile.
So now you got your truck working, make a trailer. It is really the same process, however
apparently there is a problem with adding trailers and still keeping the chrome. I wouldn’t
worry about adding a standalone trailer, since there is so many lame looking trailers
supplied with the game that are perfect targets to overwrite. At least you’ll never come
across them. Basically yea, I’m not say much on this besides this. I only ever created one
trailer for this game so far, and when I exported it, I kept all four checkboxes unchecked.
Maybe I should have checked the “pmc” checkbox so that the collision model gets
updated. If you can get the trucks working, the trailer becomes very easy.

You also might have a problem with the way the texture on your trailer displays. It might
be very bright looking. DON’T make the DDS darker to compensate. Instead, open you
the trailer’s PMD file and locate where the MAT file is, and change it to this:

material : "wos.dif_spec.add.env.fx" {
texture[0] : "/vehicle/trailer/reefer/frozenfood.tobj"
texture[1] : "/material/environment/vehicle_reflection.tobj"
ambient : { 0.300000 , 0.300000 , 0.300000 }
specular : { 1.000000 , 1.000000 , 1.000000 }
diffuse : { 0.800000 , 0.800000 , 0.800000 }
tint : { 0.900000 , 0.900000 , 0.900000 }
shininess : 100
}
Thanks to Kevin aka. Luder for the fixed MAT file.
Just make sure to change the line that mentions the trailer’s specific TOBJ file to what
your trailer uses. (Change where it says “frozenfood.tobj”).
Then add the MAT file(s) to your trailer mod’s SCS file and voila.

Wheels
Finally, something easy
Modeling wheels is hard, but adding them to your game is easy. It’s the same process as
the trucks and trailers, just with very few files. I would say just replace wheels for now
instead of adding standalone wheels. To find out what type of wheels your truck uses,
navigate to:
vehicle\truck\definition\
and find your truck’s definition SII file. Let’s look at the 613 Mack; this is just an exerpt:

#--------
# models
#--------
model: "/vehicle/truck/m613/m613.pmd"
collision: "/vehicle/truck/m613/m613.pmc"

fwheel_model: "/vehicle/wheel/5/wheel.pmd"
rwheel_model: "/vehicle/wheel/10/wheel.pmd"

wiper_model: "/vehicle/truck/m613/wips.pmd"
 fwheel model means front wheels, and rwheel model means rear wheels. Simple as that.

For trailers, open your trailer’s definition file in the

vehicle\trailer\definition\
folder, and the process is the same as above.

Don’t bother checking the 4 boxes when exporting wheels, there’s no point.

Basic Map Editing

Opening the Map Editor
The map editor is built into the game when you run it. To run the map editor, make sure
that in your “config.cfg” file located in the game’s main directory, you have the line:

uset g_developer "0”

changed to
uset g_developer "1"

Run the game, and make sure you are running 1024x768 resolution and you are NOT
in fullscreen mode.

Type into the console

edit america3

“america3” is the file name (america3.mbd) and “edit” is the command that opens the
map editor. Wait a little bit, and you should see the game map from a top down
perspective. However, quit the game and go to the directory where you installed the game
(IE. C:\Program Files\18 Wheels of Steel Haulin\).

Create a folder called “base” and in that folder create another called “map”. Copy the file
“america3.mbd” from the “map” folder in your main game directory in your “My
Documents” folder into the “map” folder you just created. For whatever bizarre reason
this is how it needs to be set up.

Back in your “mod” folder, create a shortcut to the “base” folder you created. (IE. a
shortcut to “C:\Program Files\18 Wheels of Steel Haulin\base”)

That way you can access the folder easier, because you’ll be spending most of your time
in the “mod” folder anyway.

Remember, each time you modify and save the map, you need to go to the “map” folder
you created and make a SCS file. Otherwise, next time you fire up your game, there
won’t be any changes to the map.
Using the Map Editor
At the bottom you’ll have 9 buttons on the left hand side.
“New Map” – creates new map
“Load Map” – prompts you to load a map
“Save Map” – saves whatever map you are working on
“Set Defaults” – does, I’m not sure.
“Build Map” – don’t use this.. I don’t know its purpose. It used to be a necessary step in
PttM, but not anymore.
“Quit” – is the same as typing in “quit” in the console. Quits the game without prompt
“Help” – does shit all, that’s why you’re reading this
“Settings” – lets you change what time of day it is in the map editor, etc.

Now. These are the keys you will use. Don’t click on buttons, get used to pressing keys,
it is a lot faster:
P – item properties
E – new object / place object
D – delete
R – rotate: pressing once rotates object on x axis, press it again to rotate along y axis (the
most commonly used) and again to rotate along z axis. Click and drag item
I – import
S – place start. The start doesn’t really do shit like it used to in PttM.
A – displays the background map
F – find: I never use this one
G – sign add: I never use this one either, although I admit I never noticed it until today.
H – click and drag object to change its height
C – cycle camera views. For 3d-cam, use arrow keys to get around.
B – select stamp. Stamps are terrain colors you can brush on so to speak. Don’t overuse
them.
N – node properties: rarely used, but helpful at times
M – click and drag something to move it.
Page Up – zooms out
Page Down – zooms in
1 – roads (road strings)
2 – prefab (intersections, forks, etc)
3 – buildings (strings of houses, trees, etc)
4 – models (independent models)
5 – company
6 – services point (those whirling piles of shit that tell you where you can sleep, fuel up,
etc)
7 – cut plane (I have yet to find out what this does)
8 – mover (things that move… trains, balloons, etc.)
9 – city (a location thing that defines a city)
0 – parking (a location thing that defines parking slots)
spacebar – displays item properties before you place something

So for example, if I wanted to place a single building, I would hit “E” followed by “4”
followed by “spacebar” which would open a little box where I could select my building,
and also the distance at which the game displays it (far means the game loads things
 when you’re far away from them. Good for things you’re supposed to see from a
distance, but impacts computer performance if overused.
Then I would click, and the object is placed. Then I might hit “H” and click and drag the
model to change the height (which also gets displayed at the very bottom of your screen
in the middle). Then I might hit “M” and click and drag my newly placed model to move
it. Then I might decide to change it, so I hit “P” and click on the model. The properties
box appears, and I can change it to a different building in the drop-down list. I can also
manually change the scale and rotation of it in the properties box. If you want it bigger,
change all the properties fields to lets say 2. 2 means its twice as big. 1 means it’s the
same size as when you open it in Z-Modeler. Changing only some of the scale boxes will
stretch the object.
If you check the properties of a road, you will see a very different screen. Most of the
options are self explanatory. Cracks means there will be cracks in the road. You can pick
a railing, and you can pick a string of models to be displayed next to the road (such as
lamp posts) and change their offsets by typing in a number into the Shift Models or
Railing Offset fields.
Quad Count means how many visible terrain tiles will be displayed on each side of the
road.
Terrain Shader lets you choose the texture of the terrain for each side of the road.
Vegetation lets you choose some vegetation sprites (trees, shrubs, etc.)
At the top right:
Road – plain road with no sidewalks
City road – road with sidewalks
Terrain – no road, just terrain. This is how you build fancy terrain.
Down near the bottom you’ll see “Noise power”. Whatever this means, doesn’t matter.
100% makes the terrain really rough with lots of bumps and shit. 0% makes the tiles
completely flat.
Clicking the “Reset Stamps” button undoes any stamps you placed on that particular road
section.
Clicking “Edit Signs” lets you add signs to the road segment. You can later move them
like any object.
Clicking “Use as Defaults” means that the next time you go and place a road, it will have
the same settings as this road you just set up. This comes in very handy.

Some things you need to place before you can check the properties. That’s just the way it
is. Services points and Movers are like that, among others.

That being said, now it’s just a matter of placing roads and intersections and terrain
strings and objects. It should be pretty hard to do something in the map editor that would
crash your game. However, it takes a lot of work to create a half-decent map that doesn’t
kill computer performance. Most people start one, and never finish it. Don’t say I didn’t
warn you.

Adding Textures
How to add a terrain/road texture
To add a terrain texture is fairly simple. Most of the terrain textures are in
material\terrain
and the road textures are found in
material\road

If you want to add a standalone texture, create a copy of any one texture’s TOBJ, MAT,
and DDS file. Then re-name the file to a name you like.

TO MAKE THIS EASY choose a name for them that is the same length as the name of
the file you copied.
Now open the TOBJ file in your HEX editor and change the name of the MAT it’s
referencing.

For example:

...p..................................9........./material/terrain/asphalt.dds

You need to change aslphalt.dds to the name you chose. The reason why I said to keep
the name the same length is due to a thing called a checksum number that is part of every
TOBJ file. The checksum number is a hexadecimal number representing the number of
fields in the file name. You can see the hexadecimal values on the left hand side of the
HEX editor.

For example:

010AB170000000000000000000000000000000000000000002000303030000000000000
0008439001D000000000000002F6D6174657269616C2F7465727261696E2F617370686
16C742E646473

One of these numbers is the checksum number. It is a lot easier to see in the HEX editor,
it’s usually in the same place. But in this case it would be “1D”. “1D” in hexadecimal is
the number 29 in base 10 notation. (What we’re used to). You can read up on
hexadecimal numbers on the internet. The hexadecimal characters are as follows:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, e, f.
To convert a number from decimal to hex, open the windows calculator found in
Start->All Programs->Accessories->Calculator
Click on “View” and select “Scientific”. Then type your decimal number in, and click on
the “Hex” radio button and you’ll see the value in hexadecimal. So whenever you’re
making the TOBJ file you need to count up all the characters of the file path, for
/material/terrain/asphalt.dds
it adds up to 29. Then convert 29 to hexadecimal notation, and find the matching
hexadecimal number in the TOBJ while you have it opened in your HEX editor. Then, if
you change the file name or path or whatever inside the TOBJ to something of a different
length, you have to count up your new length, convert it to hex notation and overwrite the
old checksum number. It’s very simple, just hard for people to grasp the concept at first.
 Once you have changed the MAT file, TOBJ file, and retextured your DDS file, there’s
one last thing you need to do before making your SCS package. Navigate to:
def\world
and open the file called “terrain.def” if you’re adding a terrain texture, or “road.def” if
you’re adding a road texture.
At the top of the file you’ll need to change this line:
def terrains {

material_count:31

material0:"/material/terrain/sand.mat"
You need to change the number “31” one higher for every texture you add. The number
will always be one higher than the last line of materials.
Now go down to the end of the materials list and make a copy of the last line right under
the last line.

material30:"/material/terrain/water/water_ocean.mat"
material30:"/material/terrain/water/water_ocean.mat"

Then, change the number to one higher (IE. in this case “31”) and change the path to
where your texture is located.

TIP!
Keep all your textures in one SCS file. You’ll want to only have one “terrain.def”
or “road.def” in your mod folder. For each texture you add, you need to update
the single “terrain.def” or “road.def”.

Now create a SCS file, fire up your game, go to the map editor and you should have
another texture available from the dropdown box in the road properties. Changing the
textures is absolutely key to creating a good looking, unique looking map. Just don’t
make ugly textures…

Adding Models
Adding Models
Adding models is the same process as adding textures, except you need to create a model
PMG file, and a PMD file. It is best to copy and paste from another model, and then
simply edit it to make it unique. You need to create a unique MAT file (I would
recommend somewhere in the “automat” folder, but it’s up to you), keeping in mind the
checksum number, and instead of editing the “terrain.def” you will edit the “model.def”
found in the same place and edited the same way as the “terrain.def” or “road.def”.

From what I have found, it isn’t possible to edit building strings. In your MAT file, tweak
the settings to suit your needs. The following is an example of a MAT file designed for a
 building that lights its windows at night. (Night lighting is defined by the alpha map
image part of the main model’s DDS. Light areas light up, dark areas light up less. You
can use this for buildings without “night lighting” as well, just make the whole alpha
image black… And remember to save it as DDS DXT5.

material : "wos.building.day.fx" {
texture[0] : "/model/misc/warehouse/warehousex1.tobj"
ambient : { 0.5 , 0.5 , 0.5 }
diffuse : { 0.75 , 0.75 , 0.75 }
specular : { 0 , 0 , 0 }
shininess : 100
tint : { 0.7 , 0.7 , 0.7 }
}

Change it of course according to your needs.

When dealing with models, I don’t create collision models (I’m not sure if you can
anyway) and I don’t check any of the boxes when I’m exporting. Rather, I manually edit
the PMD, TOBJ, and MAT files. It probably wouldn’t work any other way anyhow.

One thing to keep in mind: models which use an alpha map texture to simulate
transparency (such as the Hollywood sign) cannot be edited. I should say, they can be
edited, but you won’t be able to use the “alpha” type of material in the MAT file or else
the whole object will be transparent. It’s an odd error which bugs me. Not many people
will come across it anyway.

Adding Sprites
Sprites
Sprites are the trees and stuff that you can choose to have or not to have on the terrain
pieces in the map editor. They aren’t modeled trees, rather they are just a flat pane with a
tree drawn on it with transparent edges, that always faces the camera (giving the effect of
a full tree)

You cannot edit their models, but if you need to have more, just create standalone copies
of the original sprites and assign your new textures to them and make sure you provide
them an entry in the “vegetation.def” found in
\def\world
This is one of the easier things to do, it just takes a while. The hardest part is finding a
PMG already there which suits the shape of your tree. They outermost shape of the PMG
is invisible right, so it’s hard to tell what it looks like. They are NOT rectangles or
squares. They have bizarre shapes unfortunately. If this doesn’t quite sound like enough
info, make sure you’ve read and understand the concepts of adding textures and models.
New tree sprites are very rewarding once you add them to your game.

A Final Note
This tutorial…
Assumes that you have at least some skill in using a computer.
Assumes that you can figure out how to learn how to use the programs needed to mod
this game.
Assumes that you have heard of Google and know how to help yourself by using it.
Assumes that you won’t use this information to take credit for other people’s work.

If you still have any questions DO NOT e-mail me them, I don’t have the time. Rather,
ask on a forum related to these games, such as
http://truckpol.proboards35.com
or…
http://www.trucksims.pralinenschachtel.de/

If you do want to contact me, my MSN address is

[email protected]
and my AIM address is
hardtrucksithebe

For the record, here are my mods:

California/Rig’n’Roll/Desert map for 18 Wheels of Steel: PttM
Peterbilt 387 with new interior that reads “Cali-Peno” on the glove box for PttM
Light blue stretched Peterbilt 379 with stainless fenders and a fancy blue stripe down the
side with a mermaid at the front, that comes with openable doors and hood featuring
3406E caterpillar engine for PttM
Freightliner Century Class S/T with new interior for PttM
2004 Peterbilt 379 with fully modeled new cab and sleeper interior, detailed frame and
engine (Thanks to Polarexpress17) with openable hood and doors for PttM
Newest-style Thermo-King reefer unit and detailed Great Dane trailer with opening doors
for PttM (Chris1 had the idea first!)
The PttM addon B.C. map from Kelowna to Vancouver. Loaded and empty flatbeds,
dryvans, reefers, and container trailers come supplied For PttM
Detailed MCI greyhound bus with new (although shitty) interior for PttM (unsuccessfully
tampered with by Jose aka. XxXxx)
Peterbilt 352 COE White with red and orange stripes and a maroon red frame. I believe it
says “Paket Bomber” on the side, (or Red Express) for PttM
Highly detailed Kenworth W900L with sleeper interior and detailed frame and scratch
built body for Haulin’
Rig’n’Roll style map from Fresno to Mojave for Haulin’ (coming soon).

These are the modifications I made, anyone who tries to take credit for them won’t be
hard to spot.

-Ivan

Legal: I will not be held responsible for anything that happens to your computer as a result of this tutorial.