Modding tips be here! Got any good tips yourself? Post them below!
Overview:
1: Changing gameplay settings
2: Changing the soundtrack
3: Adding sun rays to your track
4: High Dynamic Range Lighting
5: Free camera view around your track
6: Changing the gameplay of the original tracks
7: Getting a mesh with for your cable in 3D Studio MAX
8: Starting with the cable
Hint #1: Changing gameplay settingsYou can change all the gameplay settings of Proun! Like make a super slow mode, or give away boosts every two seconds, or a mode in which you build up to infinite speed really slowly...
The simplest way to do so, is to open the file
Proun\Data\Settings.dat in Notepad and edit the settings. However, you cannot submit highscores anymore if you do, so be sure to backup the original file first to reset settings after playing around!
To permanently change settings without loosing the right to submit highscores, you can also copy existing tracks and edit the settings there (in the
Settings.txt file in the track's folder). There are not as many settings there as in
Data\Settings.dat, but you can just copy settings to the track's settings to use them anyway!
Hint #2: Changing the soundtrackYou can add your own songs to the soundtrack! Just put them in the folder
Proun\Soundtrack and Proun will use them automatically! Proun can only read .ogg and .wav files.
In the Championship, each track has a fixed song, so your new songs won't be used there. To hear your own songs in the Championship mode, you will need to overwrite the original soundtrack files.
If you have made a custom level and want to set your own song for it, then you should put the song in your track's folder and set it in the Settings.txt of your track using a line like this:
music_songToPlay = MySong.oggHint #3: Adding sun rays to your trackTo put a sun rays effect in your track, like there is in Proun's third track, create a mesh in your level with this exact name:
LightShaftsSource, and make sure it is pure white. Note that this effect works best if the background is a bit dark. (In case you happen to be interested in how these sun rays work on a technical level: there is a blogpost about it
here.)
Hint #4: High Dynamic Range LightingYou can use HDRI in 3D Studio MAX. This makes the entire screen a lot brighter or darker when you are in a certain area, as happens
inside the big planet in Composition #1: Through. You can use this to make certain parts of your track very dark when looking at them from a distance, but make them brighten up when you are actually racing through them. Check chapter 7 (
Gameplay objects) in the
Proun level editing tutorial.pdf that comes with the game for how to get these custom HDRI objects in 3D Studio MAX.
Hint #5: Free camera view around your trackBy editing the file
Proun\Data\FreelyEditableSettings.dat and setting
showDebugWindow to
true, you get an extra view in-game where you can look around your map using the mouse and the numpad. This can be very handy to check whether things look the same in-game as they do in 3D Studio MAX.
Hint #6: Changing the gameplay of the original tracksIf you want to create additional modes for the original tracks, you can simply copy the existing tracks and give them new names, since you can edit all the properties per map. You can then just upload your modified track as a ZIP and link it on this forum, so that people can download it and add it to their game. Please don't distribute modified versions of
Track05, though, since that track is for paying players only.
A couple of specific hints for how to do some fun things:
-You can make a mode without cable by opening the track's file
Scene.txt in Notepad and removing the line that has
Cable.mesh or
CableMesh.mesh. This keeps the mesh for the cable from being loaded. Beware of line wrapping, though: you need to remove the entire line, even if it is too wide for Notepad to show it on a single line.
-You can change the texture of the cable by opening the track's file
Materials.material in Notepad and searching for
CableMaterial.png. Just change that to some other image. Be sure to put the file you change it to in the folder of your track, though!
-You can modify all speed settings and create new, ultra fast modes by simply making the current ones a lot faster. To do so, open the track's file
Settings.txt in Notepad. It doesn't contain all that many settings, but you can simply copy settings from
Data\Settings.dat to the track's own
Settings.txt, and the game will then use those instead. Specific settings you would be looking for are things like
acceleration,
maxSpeed,
rotationAcceleration and
maxRotationSpeed. There are also lots of other settings, I'd love to see if you can make a really different experience from what Proun already is!
Hint #7: Getting a mesh with for your cable in 3D Studio MAXYou can create a mesh for the cable to see it's exact thickness in 3dsmax as well. This is very useful to see whether your objects align with the cable. To do so, create a
Circle with radius 0.4. Then select the main line, and go to the
Compound objects object category (in the panel on the right of the screen, this can be found in the left-most tab, where you can also create Boxes and such). With the line selected, click
Loft. Now click
Get shape and select the circle you just made.
Note that the loft object will also be exported with the game, which is pretty slow and kind of inconvenient. Once the track is finished, you can delete your loft object, or turn the standard cable off in Proun, so that you can use your own cable mesh instead. Just set
cable_generateMesh to
false in the Settings.txt in your track's folder.
Hint #8: Starting with the cableYou can approach designing your tracks in many ways, of course, but I found that you get the smoothest gameplay if you first lay out the cable, then play/tweak a couple of times to make it a smooth ride, and only then place the obstacles along the spline. It is pretty difficult to get a smooth cable if you first lay out your obstacles and then try to move your line towards them, so going the other way around is easier to get right, in my experience.