replayRipper

ABOUT

This program will rip (split or separate out) the individual trucks from a multi-truck replay in monster truck madness 2.  Why?  Ever have a great run or a fastlap you'd like to show others but the computer trucks, or your online pals, are fumbling and bumbling around so a person has to fight with the K key to find the correct truck?  Or maybe you just forgot to turn off the computer trucks but want to keep your race.  Ever have a spectacular crash and wanted to show others just the crash and not what everybody else was doing in the race?  Or maybe you don't mind those things but would rather email a 150 kbs replay instead of one that's 1.5 mbs.  If any of this sounds familiar then the replay ripper is just the ticket.

USE

Place the replayRipper.exe file in your mtm2 replay folder.  Double click to run, click the open button, browse to the replay you want to rip, and click open.  The program will process the replay file, and it will create a new standalone replay for each truck in the original replay.  The original replay file remains unchanged so there is never a chance of damage or corruption.

ISSUES

MTM2 replays are anything but an exact science.  Specifically there is at least one unknown aspect that has yet to be figured out.  This is a thing called the demoRecordPtr.  When you save a replay, the game calculates a value for the demoRecordPtr.  But upon ripping, the game sometimes requires a different value.  Sometimes the same value will work, and other times it will not - in those cases, sometimes setting a different value will work, and other times it won't.  Despite efforts to figure it out, it all seems rather random.  Anyway, when you start the replayRipper program, you will see a "Use demoRecordPtr" checkbox.  If you rip the replays and discover they don't work, then rerun the ripper and check the checkbox before processing the file.  In most cases you'll find that if one doesn't work, the other will.  So, yes, it's true, there can be a bit of trial and error involved when ripping replays.  The good news is that to date, all replays that have been tested did end up with working standalone versions.

A second note is that 'some' replays seemed to be cropped or shortened in comparison to their counterpart in the original replay file.  This is still an unknown phenomenon.

WHAT REPLAY RIPPER DOES NOT DO

There is no provision and no plan at the present time to combine replays.

The program does very little error checking so there is no compensation for or effort to fix corrupt files.  If a replay file is bad, it will stay bad - and there's nothing this program will do to change that.


2004-10-12













