Using OPE:

And you thought that SFE was fun to use ! OPE is used to add TSO's to the track which stands for Track Side Objects. They are in .3do format and are the grandstands, billboards and other objects that make a track look good. You can also add TSD's which stands for Track Side Details. those are textured or untextured polygons on the track that are used to make the dashed pit lines or other lines on the track. You can also place logo's in the grass using textured polygons.

[You need to have the N3 Sandbox installed]

Hardware:

You can take a look at the track and the function of OPE without a joystick but you need one to do all of the object moving and rotating. I bought one recently for OPE alone to make that a little easier.
If you don't have a joystick, you can use your steering device as well, which I'm sure most of  you will have. Be sure to turn off the 'default spring' that most forcefeedback wheels [don't  know about non-forcefeedback wheels] have, it gives odd results in OPE. Also try and look in your driver software screen in the windows system -> gaming devices settings if you can have it behave like a regular joystick [turning off dual axis support]. Changing both things on my wheel's settings made it work beautifully with OPE. Although it feels a bit odd at first it should work just as good as a regular joystick.

Preparation:

Before you start adding objects you need to do the following:

1. Make a new folder in your sandbox folder and name it ope. Copy the following files to the ope folder [where icr2 is the name of your track]:

2. Find all the objects that you want to use in your track. You can just go around looking in tracks for things that you can use. When you have found a nice .3do that you want to use you need to copy it over to your OPE working folder along with the .mip files it uses for textures. Or, when you want to keep things simple for your first time OPE experience, just take all the objects and .mip files from an existing track and copy it to your OPE folder.

3. Now you are ready to start OPE. I have an ope.bat file to do this because you need to set some options. A .bat file is simply a .txt file with one or more DOS commands renamed to .bat. This is how I launch OPE:

OPE.exe icr2 /p=sunny.pcx /n /a=20 /l

There are some more options, if you want to see them just start OPE without any parameters. But if you paste the above line in an ope.bat file it should run correctly.

Getting To Know OPE:

Start OPE by using the ope.bat file you have just created. I only run OPE in low resolution mode and find it more relaxing for my eyes to turn off all object textures. You can toggle these per group just like in the sim by pressing the number on the keyboard associated with that group.

First of all, typing H will bring up a help screen with possible keystrokes. You can write those down for quick reference like me. It will grow on you in time.

When your track loads, be sure to have your joystick in the middle of all its axis. Otherwise you will spin or move insanely. You are now in FLY MODE and you can move around the track freely. The numbers at the top tell you where you are. When you get lost you can return to the S/F line by pressing 5 on your  numpad. When you have a fast computer you will probably find the rate at which you move too fast.
You can decrease it by pressing the < or - keys. If you want to go forward with great steps later on you can increase speed with the > and + keys.

Adding TSO's:

Use the buttons to move to the desired position of  your object or use the joystick. Press L and type the name of the object [with its .3do extension as well]. Depending on where you are [left or right of the track] when you load it, the program will tell you something like 'object # 0 loaded at right / left of track". Your object should now be visible.

Now press M and a screen pops up. Here you can choose from different program modes. Choose one of the object property modifiers by pressing the number assigned to that function.

1. When you choose MOVE OBJECT you can use your joystick to move the object around in x, y and z planes.
2. When you choose ROTATE OBJECT you can use your joystick to rotate the object around its x, y and z axis.
3. You can switch between different object modes or back to the normal FLY mode by pressing M again and choosing a mode.

When you're happy with one object you can load more by repositioning yourself on the track and pressing the L key again. The good thing about OPE is that it shows all the objects and the track exactly like it will look in the game. This means that if you see a drawing problem in OPE you can still take it out before you save the track and build a new .3do. You can press M at any position on the track surface and choose TRACK DRIVE. This puts you in the seat of an invisible car and you can 'drive' around to see how the track will look in the sim. This can be very useful to spot object that might be placed to high or too low or have drawing problem that you did not notice in the FREE FLY or object adding modes.

When you're done adding all the objects press F1 and choose option 1, this should fix all the drawing problems that might have been put into the track when you are randomly adding objects.

Adding TSD's:

When you want to make a TSD press T [you are now in TSD Mode]. Make a choice:

1. Textured TSD

To put a logo on the infield grass for example. Or on the track itself. If you're planning on doing this make sure to have a .mip file with your logo in the OPE folder. Here is a short description of the information you have to then supply:

    - OPE asks for the width of you TSD [in feet]
    - OPE asks for the name of the texture [without the .mip extension]
    - OPE asks for the coordinates of the .mip file. When you want the whole mip to be used that is 128 by 128 pixels you type 0 0 127 127.

Once you have supplied all the info you are back at the track. Go to the point where you want your TSD to start and press the spacebar. Now move to the point where you want the TSD to end and press the spacebar again. Now the TSD should be visible on the track.

2. Regular TSD

This is an untextured TSD. Like the skidmarks in the original ICR2 tracks. Once again, after pressing option 2, OPE asks some questions. Here is a short description of the information you have to then supply:

    - OPE asks for the width of you TSD [in feet]
    - OPE asks for the color of the TSD, this is a pointer to the palette. So just put the number in the palette of the color you want it to be.

Once you have supplied all the info you are back at the track. Go to the point where you want your TSD to start and press the spacebar. Now move to the point where you want the TSD to end and press the spacebar again. Now the TSD should be visible on the track.

3. Dashed TSD

A dashed TSD is used to create for example the lines around Texas World Speedway or the lines in the pits of most tracks. The proces of making these is the same as the Regular TSD's.

When you are done making TSD's, push T again and choose Option 4 - Exit TSD Mode. There are a couple of noteworthy things about TSD's. They all follow the curvature of the track so that's when they look best. Also, when you want to make lines on the track you should go into TRACK DRIVE mode when putting them down on the track. That way you will always be at the same DLAT at the end of the TSD as you were at the beginning.
You can also save your TSD's locations and other info to a file so you can load it into a track. This is handy in case you want to rebuild your track. After the rebuild you can load the .tsd file so you don't have to lay them all again. To save the TSD's to a .tsd, press S and choose Option 3 - "Save TSD's loaded this session in .tsd file". When you want to load a .tsd file, press F1 and pick "Load TSD (skids or paint)". Type in the name of your .tsd file, press enter and if all goes well [OPE can find your textures for example] the TSD's will be on the track.

There are some more options but as with the other tools I have showed you the basics of OPE in this one. Now go and explore the rest of the program.

Saving:

When you are happy with your track press S and another screen will pop up. Choose the number that will save your track to a .3dn file. Exit OPE and you're ready to build a .3do by renaming the .3dn file to .3d and running it through the 3d23do.exe program. You now have a .3do that calls to the objects and when put into a track with those objects they should now show up without problems !