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The Rendition-accelerated
version of ICR2 (ICR2-3D)
was a special 3D-accelerated edition of the sim designed to show
off the capabilities of the now-extinct Rendition Vérité
V1000 chipset. By far the most graphically stunning and best-performing
racing sim to that time, it included five graphically enhanced
tracks featuring clouds and beautiful high-color textures; the
rest of the circuits were straight from the original version.
Nevertheless, a colleague and I discovered that the rest of the
tracks, including converted ones, could be similarly enhanced
quite easily. What began with our discovery of how to import
"enhanced" textures into "regular" tracks
soon opened up a sophisticated and limitless new dimension of
the sim that culminated in a host of new tracks for both this
and other Papyrus/Sierra titles, as well as a host of new tools
to aid in the endeavor. The shots below are from versions of
Indianapolis and Toronto which have been thus enhanced (click
on them for larger pictures). Quite an improvement, wouldn't
you say?
 
My involvement with The
Sim Project (formerly at simracing.com) began here, but the progress
made by that incredible group of individuals quickly overcame
the limitations of the methods presented here, especially with
the arrival of Klaus Hörbrand's WinMip utility. In any case, the information
provided here, while pretty basic, will give you a good start;
it will also familiarize you with the essentials, which is necessary
if you care to try some of the more advanced procedures. I'll
also talk briefly about WinMip and the added possibilities it
allows. Note that track enhancement (and other forms of DAT file
modification) goes far beyond what appears in this section, and
I myself am not familiar with many of the complexities associated
with it.
Note also that most of
the information in this section applies only to the Rendition
version of the sim, though some is applicable to the non-accelerated
DOS or Windows versions as well.
You can choose your topic
below:
• Basic
texture-swapping information
• Best
matches between new textures and base colors
• Advanced
techniques: using WinMip
• How
to rename track directories
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