How to convert courses from Tuxracer and ETRacer

by R. Niehoff

The courses of Bunny Hill are a bit different from the courses of Tuxracer or ETRacer. Some new options and another format for configuration files require courses which are adapted to Bunny Hill. You can convert the old courses by following this instruction.

First the differences:

  • Bunny Hill courses use the items.lst instead of the bitmap "trees.png". That is necessary because 3D models cannot be defined with a dot on an objects map.
  • The course angle is constantly 15° now; the speed is adjusted by an additional speed parameter.
  • Bunny Hill uses the SP file format to read the course params instead of a Tcl file. The syntax of SP is quite easy.
  • The challenges (herrings, time) for campaigns are defined in the course now. So the course creator can contribute his course completely, with adjusted challenges.

And now the steps to convert a Tuxracer or ETRacer course:

  1. Copy or move the complete Tuxracer course into the courses folder /data/courses/.
  2. Open the file "course.tcl" and note down the values.
  3. Copy the template "course.par" into the course folder and match the entries. Use the values of course.tcl. You can find the template in /data/courses/.
  4. Register the course in the central "courses.lst" (like an original Bunny Hill course).
  5. Run Bunny hill and start this course. This will read the old "trees.png" and generate an "items.lst".
  6. Adjust the position of the start and finish gates.
  7. If desired add more objects manually and adjust them
  8. If you want to use the course for campaigns you have to define the challenges. This is explained in the tutorials about course creating.

And the bitmaps?

Tuxracer 0.61 used raw RGB bitmaps: elev.rgb, terrain.rgb and trees.rgb. Before you convert such a course you have to change the format to .png. I'm not sure that all graphic programs know the RGB format but Gimp is able to read RGB files.

Another bitmap is the course preview, a small screenshot from the actual course. The preview in Bunny Hill ist better and clearer than the old preview in ETRacer or Tuxracer. So I recommend to create a new screenshot. The easiest way is to press "S" while Bunny Hill is running. All screenshots are stored in /data/screenshots. You can use Gimp for converting the shot to a PNG file. Rename it to preview.png, scale it to 192 x 144 and copy it into the course folder.

A hint: You can toggle the hud displays with "H".