Message to Beam-Monsters.com Members (You!) *IMPORTANT INFORMATION*

[Mike Bev]

It is imperative (very, very important) that EVERYONE reads this first section through!  THERE IS NO TL;DR!  There will be content creator specific sections later in this post.

Greetings, Beam-Monsters.com user!

     I am here with a message to all Beam-Monsters members in regards to the future of content.  The CRD 2.0 update is big, and I mean really big.  15 new bodies will be implemented with this update, as can be seen in the CRD Development Thread (including the very commonly asked for Max-D!).  This is roughly double the amount of official bodies currently downloadable.  A brand new CRD 3.0 chassis (real life version number, not update number) chassis has been implemented, along with a brand new version of it's Custom counterpart for Son-uva Digger.  Various texture upgrades, jbeam corrections, overall performance improvements, many new props, new skins, all to be a part of this massive update.

     Another major part of this update is that we are merging the CRD and CRD_AddonPack files into one CRD file.  It is an absolute MUST to DELETE your old files and to Clear Cache before using the new update; a tutorial for clearing cache can be found on the Beam-Monsters YouTube page and in the Tutorials section of the website.  The CRD file will still be available in it's usual spot on Beam-Monsters.com.  You should NOT have the CRD_AddonPack in your mods folder anymore.  The repo-friendly skins and Grip-All tires included in the main CRD mod have also been removed, and will be uploaded separately as CRD_Classics.

     With the merging of files, the entire file structure has changed.  All skins and parts can be found in their respective folders in the "Textures" folder.  All Common materials can be found in the Common folder.  This will be broken down further in a later part of this post.  The point to this is that ALL skin packs require either materials or speculars (shine textures) from a folder in the main mod that does not exist anymore.

IT IS REQUIRED THAT YOU REMOVE ALL SKIN PACKS FROM YOUR MODS FOLDER, ONLY DOWNLOAD PACKS UPLOADED/UPDATED AFTER THE RELEASE OF 2.0!!!

Many parts of trucks included in skin packs will have a shiny orange hue to them.  They might even contain content that will break the new update with how much has changed.  We ask this of you all to ensure your mod functions properly.  Most, if not all, packs will be updated after 2.0 is released.  All of the packs that I manage will receive an update almost immediately, as well as the Mjam Pack.  As for others, that's up to them.

Thank you all for your continued support of what we do!

~Mike Bev, on behalf of the Beam-Monsters Development Team

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The following sections are for the Content Creators of Beam-Monsters.com, if you do not upload downloadable content to the website, you can disregard this message.

Beam-Monsters Skin/Pack Creators,

     With 2.0 having files restructured, it is important that you know exactly what changed so you can fix your packs and get them updated as quickly as possible.  All packs will be hidden upon the release of the update due to the amount of breakage that will be occurring.  When you're ready to update your pack, contact a moderator and they will unhide it for you as soon as they are available to, and will assist you if there are still issues.

• The CRD file is now broken down into 8 folders, but there's only 5 you need to focus on: Common, DAE, Engine, Textures, Tires.
  • Common is as the name suggests - textures that are common to all trucks.  90% of the defaulted textures and materials exist in this folder.  The main materials called from this folder are CRD_polishedsteel.png and CRD_chassis_specular.png, and the new pathway to call textures from this folder is "vehicles/CRD/Common/Textures/textureName.png".
  • DAE is a folder that is just as the name suggests - filled with .dae files.  This is for organization's sake, but if you're looking for a body or chassis model, it will be in there.
  • Engine is also as the name suggests - default textures and materials for the engine options.  By now you should be seeing a pattern.  Here is where all base grey engine header textures are located.  If you need to call a texture from here, the pathway is "vehicles/CRD/Engine/Textures/textureName.png".
  • Textures is a folder with the skin materials for all 150+ trucks in the main mod.  It branches off into two folders, "Parts" and "Skins".  Skins is for all of the skin textures used in the mod, with the pathway "vehicles/CRD/Textures/Skins/textureName.png".  You shouldn't need to call anything from this folder, and if you want you you must ask permission from the original skin author first!  What you will most likely need is the Parts folder, where all parts textures for the mod are located.  This pathway is "vehicles/CRD/Textures/Parts/textureName.extensionName", and I say extension name because there are the .png files for pretty much everything, then the .dds files for rims.  If you plan on making a huge pack, I would use that pathway to your advantage and pull textures from the main mod whenever you can instead of having a duplicate in your zip and helps reduce your file size which is always a good thing.
  • Tires is a folder full of default tire materials and the tire .dae's.  If for some reason you need to call textures from the Tires folder, the pathway is "vehicles/CRD/Tires/Textures/textureName.png".
• To make life easier on yourself for fixing most speculars, find and replace "Textures/Common" (the original main mod Common folder) with "Common/Textures" (the current Common folder).  I would go back through and manually check to make sure everything is pointing to the correct folders and textures.
• The fuel cell guard is now a selectable part!  If you have a skin with one, it is important that you remove the code for it from the .jbeam file.
  • If you only have the CRD_fuelcellguard in flexbodies, you can remove this whole block of code:
    •     "flexbodies":[
              ["mesh","[group]:","nonFlexMaterials"],
              ["CRD_fuelcellguard",["FloorPan"]],
              ],
  • If you have multiple parts in flexbodies, you only need to remove ["CRD_fuelcellguard",["FloorPan"]], from it.  Below is an example of having multiple flexbodies, most commonly it is the engine cover but here is an example with the Bad Habit rim inserts:
    •     "flexbodies":[
              ["mesh","[group]:","nonFlexMaterials"],
              ["CRD_fuelcellguard",["FloorPan"]],
              ["mesh","[group]:","nonFlexMaterials"],
              ["CRD_hubcap_FL",["wheel_FL","WheelHubFL_A","WheelHubFL_B"],[],{"pos":{"x":-0.1,"y":0,"z":0}}],
              ["CRD_hubcap_FR",["wheel_FR","WheelHubFR_A","WheelHubFR_B"],[],{"pos":{"x":0.1,"y":0,"z":0}}],
              ["CRD_hubcap_RL",["wheel_RL","WheelHubRL_A","WheelHubRL_B"],[],{"pos":{"x":-0.1,"y":0,"z":0}}],
              ["CRD_hubcap_RR",["wheel_RR","WheelHubRR_A","WheelHubRR_B"],[],{"pos":{"x":0.1,"y":0,"z":0}}],
              ],
  • We have made the "FELD Sponsor Plates" for the standard CRD default.  You no longer need to have them coded if you want these sponsor plates.  The Bigfoot plates are in the Textures/Parts folder and the BeamNG sponsor plates are in the Classics pack.

     This should be all the information you need to bring your files up to the 2.0 standard.  Double check your tunes to make sure everything is up to date as well as the selected parts.  I will be working with @guardblast3to update the Ez Skins pack to be 2.0 compatible as I am very, very familiar with this structure.  Please hold off on updating 2.0 fixes until after 2.0 is released.

Thank you for your contributions!

~Mike Bev, on behalf of the Beam-Monsters Development Team

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Beam-Monsters Track Creators,

     Bet you didn't think there'd be new information for tracks with all this 2.0 stuff.  But there is.  I have been working with Flying 2 Your Soul for years, and I always remember him saying that the monster truck tracks had too high of an ambient temperature and that it is unnatural for the trucks to run in.  This is why trucks always overheat quickly on tracks.  I recently decided to research how to change the ambient temperature of BeamNG maps and figured it out.  Below will be a tutorial video on how to cool down tracks from 93.2 degrees to 59.0 degrees.  You will instantly notice a difference in performance.  It is not required to update your tracks to this, but it is better to do it than not to.  Blank3 will be updated to have this new temperature, it is highly suggested that you download this new file and use it as a base for any and all new tracks.  I have a few of my tracks ready to roll out with this update and will be doing this for all further tracks.

 

     This set of values is what you will need to change the temperature, keep this available when you're going to do it:

• 0 15 0.3 15 0.5 15 0.8 15 1 15

The issue with track lighting still remains with the new version of BeamNG, I unfortunately do not know how to fix this issue but once a fix is found this post will be updated.

Thank you for your contributions!

~Mike Bev, on behalf of the Beam-Monsters Development Team