Monster Truck Madness 2

Monster Truck Madness 2

Developers
	Terminal Reality
Publishers
	Microsoft
Engines
	Photex2
Release dates
Windows	May 12, 1998
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Racing
Vehicles	Off-roading, Track racing, Truck
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary, North America
Series	Monster Truck Madness

Monster Truck Madness
Monster Truck Madness	1996
Monster Truck Madness 2	1998

Monster Truck Madness 2 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person and third-person racing game in the Monster Truck Madness series.

Game is DRM-free and natively portable due to one-size-fits-all installation size. It has a massive selection of free tracks and trucks from community sites. There are however issues using the Direct3D renderer under modern operating systems.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail

Demo

A free demo version is available to download here.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Skip intro videos
From the menu bar at the top of the screen, select Options. From the drop-down menu which appears, select Game. Uncheck View Intro Movies. Uncheck View Clip Scenes if also wanting to skip videos shown between races.

Skip title screen

Disable title screen
From the menu bar at the top of the screen, select Options. From the drop-down menu which appears, select Game. Check Skip title screen.

Import original Monster Truck Madness tracks into Monster Truck Madness 2

Add GAME.POD and TRUCK.POD to Monster Truck Madness 2's list of tracks

Open <path-to-game>\pod.ini. Add lines to the end of the file that includes the paths to two files installed with Monster Truck Madness: game.pod and truck.pod (files located in System where Monster Truck Madness was installed, or in System on the Monster Truck Madness disc). Change the number at the top of the file to reflect the total number of pods listed (i.e., if game.pod and truck.pod were added to the list, change the number at the top of the file from 19 to 21). Save and close pod.ini. Start Monster Truck Madness 2 and navigate to the Races screen. The Monster Truck Madness classic circuit and rally tracks are included in the Track list (they're listed after Monster Truck Madness 2's tracks and Summit Rumbles).

Play on Windows 10

The game can be run in Windows 10 and even in 64-bit. There's a few tweaks that are required in order to make this game made in 1999 work on new hardware.

Play in Windows 10[citation needed]

Install Direct Play. Boot the computer in Safe Mode. Easiest way is to go to the Start menu, click the power icon as if it would be shutting down, but instead of clicking Shut Down, hold ⇧ Shift and click Restart. From there, navigate to rebooting into Safe Mode. From Safe Mode, press Windows + X or open the Control Panel and look for "Turn Windows features on or off". Look for "Legacy Components" and tick "Direct Play". Wait for it to install and confirm it's done. Reboot normally. Install the game as usual. If installing the game isn't possible, run the installer as an admin with compatibility mode set to Windows XP SP3 then it will work. After installing, right click on the game's icon and go to Properties. Under the tab labelled Compatibility, check the box next to "Run this program in compatibility mode for" and select Windows XP (service pack 3). Also check the box labelled "Run this program as an administrator". Install the official MTM2 patch (made by developers of the game). After that, download the Community Patch and extract it into MTM2's game folder (usually C:\Program Files x86\Microsoft Games), overwriting files when prompted. The community patch fixed issues and enables high resolutions. Install nGlide. Settings in nGlide don't have to be changed. This allows the game to be rendered using 3Dfx, which makes it look much better. Use a software to cap the frame rate at 30 FPS (see Frame rate capping). Limiting the FPS to 30 fixes problems in the game like the AI trucks not knowing how to drive. In MTM2, go to the Options > Graphics and then change the renderer to 3Dfx. Click OK and restart MTM2. In MTM2 go to Options > Graphics and change the resolution to whatever the screen resolution is (such as 1920x1080). Under Graphics > Hardware Options, don't enable reflections or truck reflections but everything else can be enabled and turn up to the max. Also under Graphics, uncheck the box "Automatic fullscreen" and don't enter fullscreen mode or the game will crash.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\System

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\

Video

Graphics settings.

3D Hardware Options.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Use dgVoodoo2 and Community Patch #2.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD			Use dgVoodoo2 and Community Patch #2.
Field of view (FOV)		Use zoom hotkeys.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Use dgVoodoo2.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Use dgVoodoo2 or set antialiasFlag=0 to 1 in Monster.ini.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		"Accelerated Graphics Port" options do not refer to v-sync; setting it to Off merely lowers texture resolution.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Framerate is tied to refresh rate. Physics and AI are fps dependent.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Input

Controls settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		Listed as "Swap Pedals" in the "Customize Controller..." section of Control Options.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

DirectInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Nintendo controllers

Other controller(s)

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Playing without the game CD forces each race track to use a single, unique music track.

Sound settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
Red Book CD audio		On Windows, CD music might not play correctly; see the troubleshooting guide for solutions.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		8
Online play		8	The official MSN Gaming Zone service has been shut down; use Voobly.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking		Uses MSN Gaming Zone (no longer available).
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	2300-2400, 47624
UDP	2300-2400

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues unresolved

Game crashes to desktop during races while using Direct3D renderer

Set compatibility options

Right-click <path-to-game>\Monster.EXE and select "Properties". Click on the "Compatibility" tab. Check checkbox for Run this program in compatibility mode for:, and from the dropdown box which becomes enabled, select Windows 95. Check every checkbox except for Run in 256 colors. Run the game as normal, selecting Yes for the UAC prompts which appear. Notes Fix tends to be unreliable and only prolongs the time until a crash to the desktop occurs while racing. Forces game to start windowed if intro movies are played. Glide renderer can be used as a much more reliable substitute.

Use Glide renderer

Download and install nGlide. Run the game. Click on the Game menu from the top menu bar. Click on Graphics from the drop-down menu which appears. From the list of renderers, select 3Dfx. If prompted regarding potentially incompatible settings, click OK and restart the game. Notes This fix is far more reliable than setting compatibility options. Glide renderer has noticeably muddier textures than the Direct3D renderer.

Issues fixed

"Feature not included" or "Help not supported" error when trying to open help files

Windows Vista and later need an update to open legacy Help files.

Install Windows Help program
Install the Windows Help program. Restart the computer if prompted.

CD music not available

CD music requires the disc in the first drive (CD-ROM 0).

Some virtual drive software might not support CD music.

Check that the drive is set to CD-ROM 0[citation needed]

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	5
Software renderer

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Smacker Video Technology	3.1p
Multiplayer	MSN Gaming Zone	Shut down as of June 16, 2006.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95, NT
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 133 (133 MHz)		Intel Pentium MMX 200 (200 MHz)
System memory (RAM)	16 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	30 MB		110 MB
Video card (GPU)	SVGA-compatible DirectX 5.0 compatible
Other			3D accelerator recommended.