Modding Whiplash/Fatal Racing

Track (TRK) files

The tracks.

Definition

Header

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Geometry

Signs

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Stunts

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Textures

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Race info

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• // denotes a single line comment
• integer values are 32-bit signed integers
• floating point values are double precision

Header

Geometry length int

0

0

Distance between track and floor int

Geometry

Track geometry.

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29
Left shoulder width int	Left lane width int	Right lane width int	Right shoulder width int	Left shoulder height int	Right shoulder height int	Length int	Yaw rotation, counter-clockwise (°) float	Pitch rotation, upwards (°) float	Roll rotation, counter-clockwise (°) float	AI line int	AI line int	AI line int	AI line int	Track grip int	Left shoulder grip int	Right shoulder grip int	int	int	Audio (above trigger) int	Audio trigger speed int	Audio (below trigger) int
Left surface type int	Center surface type int	Right surface type int	Left wall type int	Right wall type int	Roof type int	Left upper outer wall type int	Left lower outer wall type int	Outer floor type int	Right lower outer wall type int	Right upper outer wall type int	Environment floor type int	Building/Sign type int	Building/Sign horizontal offset int	Building/Sign vertical offset int	Building/Sign yaw, counter-clockwise (°) float	Building/Sign pitch, upwards (°) float	Building/Sign roll, counter-clockwise (°) float
Left upper outer wall horizontal offset int	Left lower outer wall horizontal offset int	Left outer floor horizontal offset int	Right outer floor horizontal offset int	Right lower outer wall horizontal offset int	Right upper outer wall horizontal offset int	Left upper outer wall height int	Left lower outer wall height int	Left outer floor height int	Right outer floor height int	Right lower outer wall height int	Right upper outer wall height int	Wall/roof height int	Draw order? int	Draw order? int	Draw order int	int	int	int	int	int	int	int	int	int	int	int	int	int	int
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...

Surface type bit flags

Least significant bit	31	30	29	28	27	26	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0
Surface type	Wall (cannot be driven on)	Bounce off walls	Echo				Pit	Yellow on track map		Wall (cannot be driven on)	Transparent Requires no texture	Bounce off walls	Non-magnetic	Flip vertically	Non-solid	Texture pair				Flip horizontally	Back	Partial transparency		Apply texture	Texture

• Bit 31
  • Track surface: appears to be same effect as bit 22: solid block that can't be driven on
  • Wall: when unset, walls are outside of the shoulder, when set walls are between shoulder and center
  • Roof: Turns roof vertical and tied to upper outer walls
• Transparent
  • Slightly darker than complete transparency (not the same as a full palette texture index 0 texture would be with the partial transparency bit set)
  • Only works when a texture is not applied
• Back
  • Toggles application of a different texture on the outside face of walls
  • When a BACK is set, texture will be the BACK texture
  • Otherwise, no clue how this texture is determined, changes when wall type changes and not in any consistent way, sometimes is broken
• Partial transparency
  • Toggles transparency on textures that contain transparent sections, e.g. guardrail
  • Turns palette texture index 0 transparent (#000000) (not to be confused with the same color at another index)
  • Only works when a texture is applied
• Texture
  • Transparent
    • Bits correspond to the index within PALETTE.PAL
      • Palette texture index 0 is "normal" transparency
      • Others have some kind of weird inversion effect
  • Single
    • Bits are just texture index
  • Pair
    • Bits are texture index of left, index+1 on right
  • When apply texture not set
    • Bits indicate a solid color corresponding to the index within PALETTE.PAL

These apply for road surface, wall/roof, and outer wall/floor.

Building/Sign type

Value	Name	Description	Requires apply bit?	Texturing
0	TOWER	tall box	Yes	Index
1	TOWER 2	tall box, different texture	No	Fixed (22)
2	SIGN 1	small, back upside down, on one leg	Yes, but not for legs	Index, legs fixed (20)
3	SIGN 2	small, back upside down, on two legs	Yes, but not for legs	Index, legs fixed (21)
4	BUILD	complex building, drawn differently, different texture	No	Fixed (20, 21)
5	BUILD 1	giant tall folded boxes, different texture	No	Fixed (0)
6	BUILD 2	more giant tall folded box, different texture	No	Fixed (20)
7	BUILD 3	WIDE short box	Yes	Index
8	HEELBAR	cube, different texture	No	Fixed (8)
9	BALLOON	flat square, always face camera	Yes	Index
10	TREE	flat skinny rectangle, always face camera	No	Fixed (1)
11	ADVERT	flat small square, fixed, same back	Yes	Index
12	ADVERT 2	fixed flat square, back upside down	Yes	Index
13	QUAD BLD	4 tall skinny boxes	No	Fixed (23, 24, 25, 26)
14	BLD 0	tall box with pyramid top, different texture	No	Fixed (20, 21)
15	BIG BALL	flat square, always face camera, larger than BALLOON	Yes	Index
16	BIG AD	fixed flat square, back upside down, smaller than ADVERT 2	Yes	Index
>=256	no idea

Textures are determined by BLD file.

• Index: first 9 bits work just like road textures
• Fixed: Same texture is always applied (index in parentheses)

Shoulder height

• >0: up
• 0: flat
• <0: down

AI line

• >0: left
• 0: center
• <0: right

Grip

• 0: full grip
• 12: ice

Audio

• Index of audio to play when driven over (order in SOUND.INI)
• 0: no audio
• Above plays when over trigger speed
• Below plays when between ~26 mph and trigger speed

Audio trigger speed

• 200 is about 67 mph

Wall type

• Left and right must exist to draw roof

Outer floor type

• -2: outer walls even with shoulder, normal solid wall
• -1: no outer walls, can fall off
• >=0: texture indexing with 9 bits as usual
  • floor height is based on environment depth
  • floor width is based on main track width
  • outer walls are attached to edges of floor
  • can drive partially off shoulder and bounce off

Environment floor type

• Controls color of the bottom of the void
• First 8 bits are palette color index
• Higher bits are used but none seem to have any effect

Building/Sign offset

• >0: left/up
• 0: center
• <0: right/down

Outer lower/upper wall horizontal offset

• >0: outward
• 0: vertical
• <0: inward

Draw order?

These three values seem to combine to determine whether track is visible through other track. For example, given Bonus 4 with a bunch of buildings/signs over transparent track with transparent track on the other side, when the third value is 0, no buildings/signs are visible. When said value is greater than 0, some buildings/signs are visible. Changing the value or the values of the other two may change which buildings/signs are visible.

Third row

These properties only ever have these values over all 11018 geometry segments of the retail tracks.

Property index	Values
16	20,40,60
17	20,40,60,80
18	20,40
19	20
20	20
21	20,40,60,80
22	1
23	20
24	1,20,40
25	20
26	1

Signs

Empty on some tracks.

Signable geometry index int	Texture int
...
-1	-1

• Signable geometry index
  • 0: first geometry section with 0 <= sign type < 256
  • 1: second, etc
• Texture
  • Bits 0-7: index in BLD texture file
  • Bit 8: apply texture
  • Bit 15: invisible
  • No other bits seem to have an effect

Stunts

Controls geometry that moves and potrudes. Empty on some tracks.

Geometry index int	Scale factor? int	Angle? int	? int	Timing group int	Height int	Time bulging int	Time flat int	Smaller expands/larger contracts? int	Bulge? int
...
-1

• Scale factor?
  • Increases the length and height of the "ramp"
  • 1 is a bump, 4 starts breaking textures, 6 is huge vertical wall
• Angle?
  • Lower is flatter, higher becomes trapezoid with longer top
•  ?
  • No clue
• Timing group
  • With otherwise identical config, two bumps with same number move together, with 1 and 2 move oppositely

Textures

Texture file TEX:<DRH file>
Building/Sign texture file BLD:<DRH file>
BACKS:
Geometry index int	Texture int
...
	-1

Backs

The outside texture of walls when there is a wall between the track and the shoulder. Transparent when texture index does not correspond to an actual texture.

Race info

Not present on some tracks.

Track number int
Impossible laps int	Hard laps int	Tricky laps int	Medium laps int	Easy laps int	Girlie laps int
Track map size, smaller is larger float	Track map fidelity, smaller is more accurate int	float

Effects

Bonus 7

• Swapping yaw and pitch: loop
• Swapping yaw and roll: twisting line
• Swapping yaw and pitch, roll 90.00000: vertical ring to the left
• Negative yaw: turnright

Length

Given Pulse at its maximum 193 mph on a modified Bonus 4 where all 494 sectors are 1200 long can complete at lap in 28.36 seconds and on the same track but with 50 flat sectors on each side shortened to 100 can complete a lap in 27.41 seconds, 1000 length units is equivalent to 13.45 ft or 4.10 m. Additionally, the rotated portions of the track contribute approximately 0.20 seconds extra compared to flat.

Palette (PAL) files

Texture color palettes.

PALETTE.PAL

Index 0x00 may be treated as having a fully transparent alpha (RBGA #00000000). All other colors are fully opaque, including the other black at index 0x70 (RBGA #000000FF).

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