All cars genericised?

[kilésengati]

Looking at the store images: Have you genericised all original cars and official DLCs?

If so:
Have the models been extensively reworked or just enough to avoid licensing issues?
Have cockpit views been added? (I'm not mad if not, cv doesn't look good in Synetic's games anyway.)
Have the EditCars been changed? If so, how?
But most importantly: If I own an original copy, can I use its vehicle files as drop-in replacements?

I wish you all the best with getting this game on Steam. Cheers!

[Silent]

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Have the models been extensively reworked or just enough to avoid licensing issues?

That depends on the car. Some are bound to be easily recognizable, some received more substantial changes.

Have cockpit views been added?

They haven't.

Have the EditCars been changed? If so, how?

Aside from name changes and occassional bug fixes, they are left as-is. The database however received changes due to Workshop and other systems changing, so dropping WR2.ds from the retail version is likely going to cause major breakage.

But most importantly: If I own an original copy, can I use its vehicle files as drop-in replacements?

That hasn't been verified but no harm in trying once the game is out.

[kilésengati]

Wasn't notified about your response. Thanks for responding. Can't wait for the release!

[crabzero]

yes, you can replace models easily. replacing car names and manufacturer logos to original ones is a bit more difficult, but i've done that as well. game works flawelssly so far (with exception of new camera mode, had to replace .exe and it doesn't show new options), atm i'm trying to complete the game so if i run into any problems i'll update this reply.

[kilésengati]

Originally posted by crabzero:

yes, you can replace models easily. replacing car names and manufacturer logos to original ones is a bit more difficult, but i've done that as well. game works flawelssly so far (with exception of new camera mode, had to replace .exe and it doesn't show new options), atm i'm trying to complete the game so if i run into any problems i'll update this reply.

Cool. How'd you restore original names and logos?

[Tropixx_XLR]

Nothing about the cars look "Genericized" to me, they still look good with the exception of one or two cars, there's always a way to carry on the good looking car models of that game without licensing, and it still works well. There's always mods if you are yearning for the "Back-in-the-day" licensing.

[crabzero]

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Originally posted by crabzero:

yes, you can replace models easily. replacing car names and manufacturer logos to original ones is a bit more difficult, but i've done that as well. game works flawelssly so far (with exception of new camera mode, had to replace .exe and it doesn't show new options), atm i'm trying to complete the game so if i run into any problems i'll update this reply.

Cool. How'd you restore original names and logos?

Besides Autos, which contains 3D models, I've replaced the following folders:
FrontEnd
Logos

And the following files:
WR2_PC.exe (works also with exe in "x64" folder)
WR2_Setup.exe

If you were to replace only folders without .exes game would launch, but you couldn't play any race (I've tried joyride mode) because of collision of files in "FrontEnd" folder with the modern exe: replacing runtime.fxp causes infinite loads (and a bug upon purchasing a car) and WR2.ds doesn't even allow level to launch.

Both of these files seem to be editable in notepad - but WR2.ds, which apparently has car and manufacturer names stored has a lot of unrecognized characters, which seems risky to edit. I'll try editing it one day, maybe someone would do it before me.

I forgot to edit my previous post: also steam achievements and their tracking doesn't work. I think i'll stick to replacing only the models to original ones

[Silent]

Originally posted by crabzero:

Besides Autos, which contains 3D models, I've replaced the following folders:
FrontEnd
Logos

And the following files:
WR2_PC.exe (works also with exe in "x64" folder)
WR2_Setup.exe

By replacing even the binary files, you are effectively... reverting to the retail version.

[crabzero]

ok and?

[kilésengati]

Originally posted by crabzero:

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Cool. How'd you restore original names and logos?

Besides Autos, which contains 3D models, I've replaced the following folders:
FrontEnd
Logos

And the following files:
WR2_PC.exe (works also with exe in "x64" folder)
WR2_Setup.exe

If you were to replace only folders without .exes game would launch, but you couldn't play any race (I've tried joyride mode) because of collision of files in "FrontEnd" folder with the modern exe: replacing runtime.fxp causes infinite loads (and a bug upon purchasing a car) and WR2.ds doesn't even allow level to launch.

Both of these files seem to be editable in notepad - but WR2.ds, which apparently has car and manufacturer names stored has a lot of unrecognized characters, which seems risky to edit. I'll try editing it one day, maybe someone would do it before me.

I forgot to edit my previous post: also steam achievements and their tracking doesn't work. I think i'll stick to replacing only the models to original ones

WR2.ds contains menu and UI texts and should be partially human readable with Notepad++, Notepadqq or similar programs. Russian language is human readable using Windows-1251 character encoding, but the game doesn't appear to be fully translated into Russian.
Mission texts have all references to licenced cars removed.
Car names seem to start at line 1625 for the Steam version and line 1697 for the retail version. This difference could be the cause for the game to hang when using the retail WR2.ds with the Steam release executable - the game simply can no longer find what it's looking for.
Manufacturer names start at line 1755 with the Steam version and line 1828 with the retail version.
But if Unique Games really wanted us to prevent editing licenced car names back in, they could also have the executable test the checksum of WR2.ds - which would be a major ♥♥♥♥ move - but I don't think they did as there's no good reason to do so.
Comparing the two files, the Steam version is 77 lines shorter. At a quick glance likely due to having altered credits, lacking car manufacturer licence acknowledgements and some refractoring.

Car names themselves shouldn't be too much work. However, restoring mission texts could prove a bit tedious.

Forget about everything I just said. Even changing a single character in the mission text leads to the game not loading. I have no other explanation but them actually having introduced checksum tests to prevent us from re-introducing licenced cars into the vanilla game.
Very anti-consumer move!

Does reverting to the retail version (1.4.3. I assume) cause issues with achievement, cloud saves and workshop content?

[Silent]

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Forget about everything I just said. Even changing a single character in the mission text leads to the game not loading. I have no other explanation but them actually having introduced checksum tests to prevent us from re-introducing licenced cars into the vanilla game.
Very anti-consumer move!

That is not true - no additional checks have been introduced compared to the original 2005 release.

[kilésengati]

Originally posted by Silent:

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Forget about everything I just said. Even changing a single character in the mission text leads to the game not loading. I have no other explanation but them actually having introduced checksum tests to prevent us from re-introducing licenced cars into the vanilla game.
Very anti-consumer move!

That is not true - no additional checks have been introduced compared to the original 2005 release.

Okay. I'll take that back then, my apologies.

I've thought about this further. And should've checked on the file-type first. It's not just a simple text file or database, but a binary. It has to be hex-edited, and properly so. *nuclear facepalm*

It appears that under any circumstances, the string has to be kept the same length, or else the game won't load.

Again, my apologies.

[crabzero]

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Originally posted by Silent:

That is not true - no additional checks have been introduced compared to the original 2005 release.

Okay. I'll take that back then, my apologies.

I've thought about this further. And should've checked on the file-type first. It's not just a simple text file or database, but a binary. It has to be hex-edited, and properly so. *nuclear facepalm*

It appears that under any circumstances, the string has to be kept the same length, or else the game won't load.

Again, my apologies.

yeah, i've tried editing it in hex editor but neither editing brand names (i.e. tycoon->mercedes) directly or matching the amount of bytes (there are gaps in between each brand name) doesn't seem work - crash upon browsing car list. but i'm still pretty sure hex's the way to edit them...

[kilésengati]

Originally posted by crabzero:

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Okay. I'll take that back then, my apologies.

I've thought about this further. And should've checked on the file-type first. It's not just a simple text file or database, but a binary. It has to be hex-edited, and properly so. *nuclear facepalm*

It appears that under any circumstances, the string has to be kept the same length, or else the game won't load.

Again, my apologies.

yeah, i've tried editing it in hex editor but neither editing brand names (i.e. tycoon->mercedes) directly or matching the amount of bytes (there are gaps in between each brand name) doesn't seem work - crash upon browsing car list. but i'm still pretty sure hex's the way to edit them...

I'm currently in the process of making a guide about this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2901105733

It's not much that a rough draw at the moment, but I'll keep looking into this subject.

Any help is appreciated.

[Dat Zorro]

Originally posted by Silent:

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Have the models been extensively reworked or just enough to avoid licensing issues?

That depends on the car. Some are bound to be easily recognizable, some received more substantial changes.

Hm, that said:

Are all cars just debranded or changed, or are there also made-up ones? I have absolutely no clue what the Sannaro is supposed to be^^

[Crisu]

Can u add ABS because cars is not driving when braking and AI have ABS