Suddenly there have been an awful lot of posts about newbies joining the NR2003 community. The forums are here in part to help out in these types of situations, but it gets a little tiresome answering the same questions over and over again. I thought it might be easier if we put everything in one place to make it easier on everyone.
STEP 1: Make sure your game is up to date
So, you have NR2003 installed on your computer and you want to take advantage of all the mods an updates that the community has to offer. But first things first, in order to begin modifying your game, you need to have the last update made available by Sierra. You can find it here (among other cool stuff). The update is labelled as Official NR2003 Update. In the download is a readme file that explains how to apply the update to your game and in what order.
STEP 2: Mods
Modding is one of the most exciting things about the final update to the game. Unlike many other racing games that are modded, NR2003 is unique in the way it applies mods. Essentially when a mod is added it creates a sort of clone of the original game, but with whatever car models and physics the mod contains. Like the original game, there are only up to four models per mod (there can be more, but it lags the game into oblivion, so it just isn't done). Before you ask, you cannot mix models between the mods, i.e. you cannot put a 2003 model from the original game into the 2019 cup mod and race them together. Whatever models are in the game are what you get.
Next we will talk about physics. There are generally four different physics that are available when creating a given mod. There can be (and are) more, but these four are the ones generally used. The first is the standard physics that came with the game: ".cup". This is generally used for "cup" mods. ".gns" physics were created to mimic the setup/equipment differences between the Cup and Xfinity cars as they were back in 2003 (despite the cars looking the same). GNS physics therefore are generally used for Xfinity/Nationwide/Busch series mods. ".cts" physics are likewise used for truck series mods. CTS physics are also sometimes used for older series mods such as the cup series from 80s/90s or lower series mods such as ARCA. Finally, ".pta" physics are generally used for mods that are not stockcar mods, such as TransAm or IndyCar mods. You will probably notice that when you look at carfiles, you will see carfilename.cup.car. The .car extension is the filetype (carfile), and the .cup is the physics. Please understand that the physics are embedded in the mod, not the car, so changing carname.cup.car to carname.gns.car will not change the cars physics, it will instead make the car unreadable to the mod. There is also a little more to it if you are wanting to move a car with the same model from one physics to another (for example if you have a 2019 cup in cup physics but download a car that uses the same mod but has .cts.car extension, simply changing the file name to .cup.car will not work).
OK, to learn about some of the great mods and where to find them, lets look at this website. One major thing about this page is that the MENCS17, MENCS18, and MENCS19 mods can now be found here at StunodRacing in the downloads section. To install the mod, place the file in your C:/Papyrus/NASCAR Racing 2003/Series folder. Please note that if the mod you download is an exe file, you will need to run the file to install the mod (usually it will automatically put it in the right spot). Most mods you download will be in some sort of compressed file. You will need to remove the mod file from the compressed folder before you put it in the "series" folder. Once a mod is installed, and you open the game, you will notice arrows on the bottom of the screen. This will allow to switch between mods.
STEP 3: Graphics
You probably noticed that when you started playing the game, the graphics were a little dull and the cars blurry. This is mainly due to the game being optimized for the average computer used in 2003. The easiest way around this is to watch this video and follow the steps. Please note that if you only have a stock graphics card, the final steps in adjusting the graphics card will not apply to you. Follow each step carefully, incorrectly entering values in your game may make the game unplayable.
STEP 4: Tracks
To add tracks to the game, simply download them and them to the C:/Papyrus/NASCAR Racing 2003/Tracks folder. As with the mods you will need to extract them from the compressed folder first. Tracks can be found in many places, both real and fictional, but to get an idea of the variations of standard tracks, many of them can be found here. Some tracks use a modified "shared" folder. The shared folder lives in your tracks folder and holds objects and other things that are standard at all the tracks and therefore can be placed in a single folder to save space. To find the modified folder, check this website under "revamped reloaded shared folder." To install it, backup your original shared folder and then extract the new folder into your tracks folder. Make sure the new folder has been renamed to "shared."
STEP 5: Carfile
Before we talked about the physics extensions on the carfiles (.cup, .gns, .cts, .pta), but there are some more things you need to know about carfiles. The biggest thing you need to understand is that carfiles are based on what mod they belong to. For example you cannot download a carfile that was made for the MENCS19 mod and place it in the NXS17 mod folder. If the physics are the same, the car will appear in the mod, but it will be obvious that the car does not look correct. When you download carfiles, you will need to place them in the "cars" folder of your mod. Again, make sure that the car has the correct physics extension for your mod and is a .car file. If you are not sure which physics your mod is, look at what cars came with the mod. You may notice that some cars you download are .tga files. These must be imported into the game on a new .car file in order to be used. Cars can be downloaded from many locations, including here at Stunod, so look around and see what you like. If you want to find listings of up to date cars, visit the nr2k3 site again.
Also on that site are tutorials on what we have gone over and more.
Well, it's late, and I think I have covered the basics. Maybe I will add more in the future. I would also encourage others to add more information as well, just to keep it all in one place and make it easier to find.
STEP 1: Make sure your game is up to date
So, you have NR2003 installed on your computer and you want to take advantage of all the mods an updates that the community has to offer. But first things first, in order to begin modifying your game, you need to have the last update made available by Sierra. You can find it here (among other cool stuff). The update is labelled as Official NR2003 Update. In the download is a readme file that explains how to apply the update to your game and in what order.
STEP 2: Mods
Modding is one of the most exciting things about the final update to the game. Unlike many other racing games that are modded, NR2003 is unique in the way it applies mods. Essentially when a mod is added it creates a sort of clone of the original game, but with whatever car models and physics the mod contains. Like the original game, there are only up to four models per mod (there can be more, but it lags the game into oblivion, so it just isn't done). Before you ask, you cannot mix models between the mods, i.e. you cannot put a 2003 model from the original game into the 2019 cup mod and race them together. Whatever models are in the game are what you get.
Next we will talk about physics. There are generally four different physics that are available when creating a given mod. There can be (and are) more, but these four are the ones generally used. The first is the standard physics that came with the game: ".cup". This is generally used for "cup" mods. ".gns" physics were created to mimic the setup/equipment differences between the Cup and Xfinity cars as they were back in 2003 (despite the cars looking the same). GNS physics therefore are generally used for Xfinity/Nationwide/Busch series mods. ".cts" physics are likewise used for truck series mods. CTS physics are also sometimes used for older series mods such as the cup series from 80s/90s or lower series mods such as ARCA. Finally, ".pta" physics are generally used for mods that are not stockcar mods, such as TransAm or IndyCar mods. You will probably notice that when you look at carfiles, you will see carfilename.cup.car. The .car extension is the filetype (carfile), and the .cup is the physics. Please understand that the physics are embedded in the mod, not the car, so changing carname.cup.car to carname.gns.car will not change the cars physics, it will instead make the car unreadable to the mod. There is also a little more to it if you are wanting to move a car with the same model from one physics to another (for example if you have a 2019 cup in cup physics but download a car that uses the same mod but has .cts.car extension, simply changing the file name to .cup.car will not work).
OK, to learn about some of the great mods and where to find them, lets look at this website. One major thing about this page is that the MENCS17, MENCS18, and MENCS19 mods can now be found here at StunodRacing in the downloads section. To install the mod, place the file in your C:/Papyrus/NASCAR Racing 2003/Series folder. Please note that if the mod you download is an exe file, you will need to run the file to install the mod (usually it will automatically put it in the right spot). Most mods you download will be in some sort of compressed file. You will need to remove the mod file from the compressed folder before you put it in the "series" folder. Once a mod is installed, and you open the game, you will notice arrows on the bottom of the screen. This will allow to switch between mods.
STEP 3: Graphics
You probably noticed that when you started playing the game, the graphics were a little dull and the cars blurry. This is mainly due to the game being optimized for the average computer used in 2003. The easiest way around this is to watch this video and follow the steps. Please note that if you only have a stock graphics card, the final steps in adjusting the graphics card will not apply to you. Follow each step carefully, incorrectly entering values in your game may make the game unplayable.
STEP 4: Tracks
To add tracks to the game, simply download them and them to the C:/Papyrus/NASCAR Racing 2003/Tracks folder. As with the mods you will need to extract them from the compressed folder first. Tracks can be found in many places, both real and fictional, but to get an idea of the variations of standard tracks, many of them can be found here. Some tracks use a modified "shared" folder. The shared folder lives in your tracks folder and holds objects and other things that are standard at all the tracks and therefore can be placed in a single folder to save space. To find the modified folder, check this website under "revamped reloaded shared folder." To install it, backup your original shared folder and then extract the new folder into your tracks folder. Make sure the new folder has been renamed to "shared."
STEP 5: Carfile
Before we talked about the physics extensions on the carfiles (.cup, .gns, .cts, .pta), but there are some more things you need to know about carfiles. The biggest thing you need to understand is that carfiles are based on what mod they belong to. For example you cannot download a carfile that was made for the MENCS19 mod and place it in the NXS17 mod folder. If the physics are the same, the car will appear in the mod, but it will be obvious that the car does not look correct. When you download carfiles, you will need to place them in the "cars" folder of your mod. Again, make sure that the car has the correct physics extension for your mod and is a .car file. If you are not sure which physics your mod is, look at what cars came with the mod. You may notice that some cars you download are .tga files. These must be imported into the game on a new .car file in order to be used. Cars can be downloaded from many locations, including here at Stunod, so look around and see what you like. If you want to find listings of up to date cars, visit the nr2k3 site again.
Also on that site are tutorials on what we have gone over and more.
Well, it's late, and I think I have covered the basics. Maybe I will add more in the future. I would also encourage others to add more information as well, just to keep it all in one place and make it easier to find.
