Totalmod
Making Total Conversions of Turbo Sliders
This document explains how you can make total conversions of Turbo Sliders. As explained here, almost everything in the game can be modified. You can add new tracks with custom graphics, add new cars, play PunaBall, missile battles or XBumbz - all within Turbo Sliders. If, however, this is not enough, you can make a total conversion. It means replacing all default cars, tracks, tiles, graphics, sounds and music. In a way, it means you can make your own game based on Turbo Sliders. Turbo Sliders 2.0 supports this without having to overwrite any original files. Original Turbo Sliders and any number of mods can co-exist in the same installation directory. Different mods can even use the master server to advertize their games, even though joining players must be running the same mod.
GENERAL ARCHITECTURE
A total conversion modification installs itself in Turbo Sliders directory by adding a directory named mod_ where is the name of the mod. This directory must contain info file mod.dat and it must at least have directories named data, tracks and cars. Cars, tracks and tile definitions must all be defined inside the mod directory hierarchy. Optionally, mod can also redefine samples, music files, menu images and fonts but if they are not present, original ones are used. Mod is started by running sliders.exe with command line parameter "-mod ". Original Turbo Sliders and all mods share player data, macros, language files, logs and server scripts. Hardware, network and other global options are shared in sliders.ini but mods have their own game specific settings redefined in game.ini.
MOD INFO FILE
Mod root directory must have a text file named mod.dat which contains basic mod properties. It must at least contain lines "Name " and "Version ". The name must be 1-20 case-sensitive letters or numbers without whitespace. The name must also be the same as the directory name after "mod_". The minimum version number is 1 and mods with different version numbers can't join each other's games. These are all supported properties that can be defined in mod.dat:
Name - Name of the mod (required)
Version - Version number of the mod (required)
MinTSVersion - Minimum Turbo Sliders version, minimum is 200 which means 2.0.0. 205 means 2.0.5, 220 means 2.2.0 etc.
URL - URL of the mod home page
TilesFile - If you want the editor to be able to create new files, this file must exist in directory data and it is used as the default include file for all new tracks. Otherwise, new tracks have to be manually created. Editor can still open and edit existing tracks.
MaxTrackSize - Maximum track size, minimum and default is 2000 and maximum is 4000. Note that increasing the size from the default 2000 may seriously affect memory consumption and loading times.
Here is an example mod.dat file. If the name of a mod is mymod and it is in directory mod_mymod, the contents of mod.dat in that directory could be:
Name mymod
Version 1
MinTSVersion 200
URL http://www.turbosliders.com/
TilesFile tiles2.til
MaxTrackSize 4000
REQUIRED DIRECTORIES
The mod directory must contain directories tracks, cars and data. No original Turbo Sliders cars, tracks or tiles are used unless they are also copied in these respective mod directories. There must be at least one car defined and all tracks must only use tiles that are defined either in tracks directory or in mod data directory. Tile graphics and patterns must also be defined in mod directories. The ones that are under data are believed to be present for everyone playing the same mod version. As with original Turbo Sliders, files that are inside tracks directory hierarchy are automatically downloaded by clients if they don't have the files.
When the mod is run, directories ai, records25 and videos are created when needed. If new cars or tracks are downloaded when playing a mod, they are put inside the mod directory hierarchy.
OPTIONAL FILES AND DIRECTORIES
All audio files (sound/* and music/*) can either be redefined in the mod directories or if they are not found, original ones are used. The same applies to font files (data/font11d.png, fontbig.png and fontmed.png) and certain full screen images (info.jpg, menu.jpg, quit.jpg and title.jpg). Note that even if you redefine them, original title and info images are briefly shown when a mod is started. If there are AI players, their AI lines must be defined in the ai directory. File data/aiplayers.dat is used if found, otherwise the original one is used.
Settings are divided in two files, sliders.ini and game.ini. Sliders.ini contains data that is common to all mods and the original game. Game.ini contains game specific data that is saved in the mod directory. When installing a mod, installer may or may not put a default game.ini file in the mod directory.
RUNNING GAME AND EDITOR
To run mod named , both game and editor must have -mod as their first two command line parameters. It is recommended that the mod installer automatically creates shortcuts for these. Note that if you use editor in a command line mode and want to open for example file "mod_tst/tracks/track.trk", the file name is given as relative to the mod directory: "editor -mod tst tracks/track.trk"
MAKING AN INSTALLER
You are free to make your installer any way you want but using NSIS is recommended (http://nsis.sourceforge.net/). The installer should ask where the current Turbo Sliders installation is and then create a new directory under it. The installer MUST NOT change any original Turbo Sliders files - it may only add files under the mod directory. There is an included example NSIS script file named mod.nsi in this directory. Read its comments for more help.