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Saturday Night Speedway Block File Tool
version 0.1
25th March 2004
Ben Ragget (bragger_man_42 [AT] hotmail.com)
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THIS SOFTWARE IS BEING PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTY. IN PARTICULAR, NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR RATBAG MAKES ANY
REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MERCHANTABILITY
OF THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
FURTHERMORE, THIS SOFTWARE WAS DEVELOPED WITHOUT ASSISTANCE OR CONSENT FROM
RATBAG PTY LTD, AND IS IN NO WAY AN OFFICIAL RELEASE FROM RATBAG OR ATARI.
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1. Installation
2. Introduction
3. DDS Files
4. Extracting Files
5. Importing Files
6. Synchronisation
7. Related Restrictions
8. Skin Packs
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1. Installation
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Simply copy SNSBlockTool.exe to datapc (where the BLK files are) under
the directory you installed SNS to.
It is recommended that you back up all BLK files and store them in a
sub-directory in case they become corrupted, or you want to revert to
the original files.
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2. Introduction
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Ratbag block (BLK) files contain textures (images), that the game uses as
artwork in the game. The breakdown for each BLK file is as follows:
LATESKN.BLK - Late Model skin (paint job) textures
MIDGESKN.BLK - Midget skin (paint job) textures
STOCKSKN.BLK - Pro Stock skin (paint job) textures
UICARS.BLK - Images of each skin on each car class model
UITRACK.BLK - Images of each track
TROPHY.BLK - Trophy images
SPONSDCL.BLK - Sponsor decals
With this tool you are able to customise these aspects of the game.
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3. DDS Files
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SNS uses DDS (Direct Draw Surface) files for storage of its images. You
will need to convert to and from this format to be able to customise the
game. Plug-ins for this format for popular image editing programs are
available from nVidia's web site:
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html
There are also tools provided in the DirectX SDK available from Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/
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4. Extracting Files
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You can extract existing textures from the BLK files using the tool.
Simply run the program, select the BLK file and texture from the panel on
the left, and click the Extract selection button. This will put the file
in the same directory as the BLK file, with an automatically generated
name. You may also select the entire BLK file and extract all of the
files in one go. Use these extracted files as templates for your own
customised textures.
WARNING: this operation will overwrite any files in this directory with
the same name.
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5. Importing Files
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To put customised files into the BLK files, select the texture in the BLK
file you wish to overwrite, and then click on the Replace selection
button. select the file you want to use, and then click Open. The BLK
file will be saved with the new texture in place. SNS will now exhibit
the texture where applicable.
Customised textures must be smaller or equal to the size available for
each file in each BLK file. See the byte count next to each texture in
the BLK files. You may use textures that are smaller in resolution than
the existing textures, have textures without mip-maps, or use a different
DXT format, but be aware that this will have a impact on the visual
quality of the game. Including an alpha channel in the texture will not
necessarily make the appropriate object in the game translucent. The
resolutions of the existing textures are:
LATESKN.BLK - 512x512, DXT3 (with 10 mipmaps)
MIDGESKN.BLK - 512x512, DXT3 (with 10 mipmaps)
STOCKSKN.BLK - 512x512, DXT3 (with 10 mipmaps)
UICARS.BLK - 256x128, DXT3 (with alpha channel and 9 mipmaps)
UITRACK.BLK - 512x256, DXT5 (with alpha channel)
TROPHY.BLK - 512x512, DXT5
SPONSDCL.BLK - 128x64, DXT5 (with alpha channel)
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6. Synchronisation
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Synchronisation of different BLK files is your responsibility. For
example, if you overwrite a skin, but not the appropriate textures in
UICARS.BLK, the car shown in the user interface will not reflect the
customised skin. You will have to draw a car, render your own 3D model,
or use a photo for it to look right.
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7. Related Restrictions
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Unfortunately, it's not possible for the names of the skins to be
customised, or for new skins to be added. This tool does not allow you to
customise any textures in the game other than the ones stored in BLK
files.
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8. Skin Packs
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To release a skin pack for people to download and use, zip up LATESKN.BLK,
MIDGESKN.BLK, STOCKSKN.BLK, and UICARS.BLK. Instruct people to back up
the originals of these files and then extract your zip into the datapc
directory under their main install directory. Because the user interface
skin representations have all classes in one file, it is difficult to
distribute a skin pack for an individual class.
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