The purpose of this tutorial is to detail how to use the GMT2-Wizard plugin in the way we conceived it.
For the installation of the plugin, please refer to the help file provided with the package. The ISI GMT2 plugins V2 need also to be installed. See rFactor website to download them.
This tutorial is based on the GTM2-Wizard V1.14 so depending of the version you are using, some components can be different.

Last thing before starting this tutorial : behind this tool, the idea isn't to replace the need of learning how ISI materials are working. The purpose is to reduce the amount of tasks to build a proper material and to reuse previously created materials.


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The first step will be to build a GMT2 wizard to be stored in your library. To achieve that, you didn't need any 3D objects or whatever : just to open the material editor and the GMT2-Wizard plugin. In the GMT2-Wizard window, you can note that only the previous used library is selected. In the material editor, the current selected material is a multi/sub-object but it's not needed at all because the GMT2-Wizard will do the job for you.


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In the GMT2-Wizard plugin, first select the same slot of material in the first listbox on [Materials] section. Then click the icon on the right (the yellow sphere with the blue start) to create a GMT2-Material. Then, enter the number of sub-materials (e.g. 10) and press the [ENTER] key. Finally, name this material (e.g. "MyLibary") and press [ENTER] again. You can note that a Multi/sub-object composed of 10 GMT2 sub-materials has been created in the material editor. The name of the material may be not updated depending of refresh latency of 3DSMax. just close and open again the material editor to get the right name.


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Now, we'll create a first material for our library. So, in the material editor, enter in the first sub-material and fill all the fields you need (Specular color, blend modes, mips settings, animation settings, ...) except the bitmaps fields. Here, I chosed a very simple material with a Diffuse texture and a Cube one (Cube Map T1). Please fill all DirectX levels. Then press the synchronize button in the GMT2-Wizard. An error message appears at the bottom to indicate that the tool can't load the T1 texture (Diffuse). Quite logical because you didn't fill it above. But, you can also note that you have the possibility to select a Cube map and to modify other DirectX levels. On my side, I prefer to select a CUBE map at this step but it's up to you to decide if you prefer to store the material with the Cube map inside or load it when creating the final material.


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As I wrote in the image above, I assigned a default Cube map to this default sub-material. Just open the default "Cube.ini" file to understand how it works. Once your material is properly created, just press the little floppy to store the selected sub-material in your current library. Then, the new sub-material should appear in the library content (second listbox in [CLASSES] sub-section).


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Now, imagine you have created a whole library with all the kind of sub-materials you need. It's time to use your new library on a real 3D object. Here, we'll work with the Spider Renault model I'm using usually for my tutorial. At this step, we didn't need the material editor anymore. Select the material slot you want to assign to the object (e.g. Slot #1) and create a GMT2 sub-material like we did above. Name the material : here "mSRSV_Body". Select the first sub-material slot. Select a material in your library (e.g. T1) in the [CLASSES] sub-section. Press the [LOAD CLASS] button. If the checkbox [PRESERVE] is on, the tool will try to load the previous existing textures. It's very handy when modifying a material in your library because you can update your final object just by loading the material again. But, in our case, you got an error message at the bottom because we haven't any texture loaded before.


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Name your sub-material. 3 fields can be filled here. 1: "MyBodyMat" is the name used by 3DSMax / 2: "T1" is the class name. It'll be used when using the script tool to modify a field of all materials of the same class / 3: "WCCARBODY" is the rFactor material name. Obviously, you can select one of the dynamic ISI materials name or use your own name. Load the T1 texture. If the option is set in the plugin configuration, the DirectX7/DirectX8 T1 textures are loaded at the same time. In case of an animated texture (e.g. MyTex00/MyTex01/MyTex02) : if you have correctly filled the library sub-material, you just have to load a file called "MyTex" and the animation name will be filled automatically (if the option is set in the configuration of the tool). See the "Lights" library provided with the tool for more examples.


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Time to export this object : in the [Utilities] panel, select the [GMT2 Converter 2.35] from ISI. Note the settings I put that can be used for nearly every object. Select the output path and press the [Do Mesh] button. Here, you get a new GMT file you just have to insert in your MAS file.


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Yes, that's all : once your library is created, in less than 10 clicks, you can create one material and export the object to the game. Obviously, there are few other features in the GMT2-Wizard but in my opinion, the hardest was to understand how this tool was thought. Once this step is over, it's just some personnal investigation. Last thing : if you have some libraries to share with the communauty, don't hesitate.