Twisted D.I.R.T. Archive

Tool documentation

Practical guides for preserved track-making and game-modification tools.

ASC to POV/TGA Converter

Download: ASCToPOVTGA.Zip
Game: Motocross Madness 2
Purpose: Convert 3ds Max ASCII terrain into a POV-Ray-style TGA with 65,536 height values.

The extra precision is most useful for tall terrain, where an ordinary 8-bit displacement map can produce visible stepping.

Terrain sizes

Track type Faces Vertices / height samples
National or Supercross 256×256 257×257
Enduro, Baja, or Stunt Quarry 512×512 513×513

Workflow

  1. Create the correctly sized terrain plane/grid in 3ds Max.
  2. Use the ASC utility on Max's Utility panel. Do not use File → Export for this workflow.
  3. Run ASCtoPOVTGA.exe and open the generated .asc.
  4. Convert it to a POV TGA.
  5. Import that TGA into Armadillo as the displacement map.

Matching adjoining terrain pieces

When several ASC pieces have different local minimum and maximum heights, enable Use Preset Height Ranges and convert every piece with the same range. Choose a minimum below the lowest terrain and a maximum above the highest. This maps equal real elevations to equal encoded heights and preserves seams.

The packaged example uses terrain spanning 10–92 feet and an edge piece spanning 30–80 feet, with both sharing an edge at 62.5 feet. Converting both with a preset range of 0–100 preserves the shared height. In Armadillo, setting Edge Distance to zero is a useful seam test.

Sources