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FCE Tweaker v0.1
By Chris Barnard
December 28th, 1999
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New versions available from: www.nfscheats.com/editor
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This is a VERY QUICK readme about FCETweak. Hopefully, it should be fairly
straightforward to use the program. Please read the whole document carefully.
I will not reply to any questions which are answered in this readme.

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Please note you USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK. I will not be held
responsible for any damage it causes. By using the program you agree to these
terms.
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Ok, if you're a regular CarCAD user, you'll know of some of it's wonderful
'features'. Most of the CarCAD bugs should be fixed with the next release,
but other problems with the program should be fixed with this program.

First of all, some of you may be familiar with problems NFS has with loading
some FCE files that were created with CarCAD. Sometimes CarCAD creates files
which are not as neat and tidy as NFS4 would like, and the program crashes.
If this happens, load the FCE file up in FCE Tweak and then resave it with
the program - this *should* sort out any bugs in the file.
Another problem with CarCAD is that it can't edit Smoothing Groups. I should
fix this soon, but in the meantime, FCE Tweak will perform this job.
FCETweak can also create normals - you can't edit them directly (at least
not at the moment) - but FCETweak can generate a set of normals which might
make the model look a bit better.
Finally, FCETweak can fuse parts together!

THE KEYS
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The keys you can use in the program are listed in the top-left corner of the
window.
They are as follows:

S - Save FCE. This rebuilds the FCE file from it's parts and saves the FCE to
    disk. Please note that this SAVES OVER THE FCE FILE YOU LOADED! Make sure
    you have a backup before you start pressing the S key.

F - Fuse selected parts. Yep, you've been asking most of the year for this,
    and I FINALLY did it! Sorry about the wait.
    Basically, just select all the parts you want to fuse together from the
    list of parts in the side bar (put a check in the box next to the part
    name) - then press 'f'. All the selected parts will then fuse into one
    part.

N - Generate Normals. Another thing that's been on the wish list for a while.
    Basically, normals are used to tell the 3D renderer how light should
    bounce off the car (for shading purposes) and also how the chrome effects
    used in NFS4 reflect from the car. If the normals aren't right, your car
    can look a bit weird when everything reflects off at the wrong angles.
    This normals calculator does a rough job of making the normals look OK,
    but it doesn't get them perfect.
    Pressing 'N' will generate normals for the currently selected part.

M - Generate Normals 2. If you're not happy with the normals created by
    pressing 'N', you can try this calculator instead. This function generates
    normals by using Direct3D built-in normals calculator. However, I've found
    that the results aren't exactly very convincing when you get in-game.
    If anyone knows of an algorithm that could be used to create more
    convincing normals, please email me about it (normals creation isn't
    exactly my strong-point).

Hold down the mouse button in the main rendering window and move the mouse to
rotate the car.

+/- keys zoom in/out.

OTHER STUFF
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The FCETweak.ini file contains renderer settings information. For
compatability, the default setting is Software, RGB mode. If you have a
3D accelerator, you can try the Hardware setting, although this doesn't
always work.
If the program doesn't work (ie, out of memory or something like that),
you can try selecting the Software, Mono mode, which is the simplest
display setting available.
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To select a triangle:
    Hold down CTRL and move the mouse over the mesh. The selected triangle
    will turn red.

With a triangle selected, you can change it's smoothing group properties from
the list on the left. Smoothing groups are as follows:

1: Don't Chrome - This turns off any chrome effects on the triangle.
2: High Chrome - Use this for windows. It gives the triangle a
                 highly-reflective look (the chroming is more visible).
3: No Cull - This is useful when you've got a triangle which you want to be
             visible from both sides. Select 'No Cull' to set the triangle to
             do this. However, your triangle will not appear to be visible
             from both sides in FCETweak - you'll have to go into NFS to see
             the change.
4: Semi-transparent - This just makes the triangle a partially see-through.
5: Unknown - Don't know what this does (Somebody tell me!)
6: All Windows - If the triangle is part of a window, select this.
7: Front Window - If it's the front window select this as well.
8: Left Window - Select if it's the left window.
9: Back Window - etc.
10: Right Window - etc.
11: Broken Window - When a window gets smashed, polygons WITHOUT this item
                    selected will disappear - use this to leave a few polygons
                    behind, giving the impression that the window has
                    shattered.

The rest of the items in the list (numbers 12 - 31) do not appear to serve
any function (as far as I know).


FINAL NOTES
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You might notice that when FCETweak creates a temp directory which
contains loads of .PRT files - one for each part in the FCE file.
These are NOT the same format as CarCAD .PRT files, so you can't
copy them around. Sorry about that.

Ok well, thanks for trying out this program.
Hope it's useful!

Chris.
email: bitsandpieces@btinternet.com
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