Underground+ Download and Setup Guide (v1.2)

Welcome! This guide will give you a brief overview of the documented changes, features, and known issues related to the Underground+ mod. But first, we'll go over the 'installation' process and backup needs.

The download for Underground+ has been removed temporarily. The current version (1.2) has proven too buggy and difficult for most users to work with. The next release, 1.5, is coming soon and will be much easier to use. Please be patient until the next version comes out! :)

Setup

Extract the downloaded zip file to any location you like, but avoid putting it in the same folder as the game Locate your Tony Hawk's Underground installation folder, where the original game launcher can be found (not the 'Game' folder) Run UndergroundPlus.exe from the extracted files, set the path to your THUG1 installation folder, then press the 'Install Mod' button. Once the installation completes, configure your game settings in the launcher, press 'Save Settings', then press the 'Play!' button to launch the game. To run the mod without the launcher, use UndergroundPlus_Run.exe (Optional) If you're using a program like DXWnd to force the game to run in a window, add a reference to the newly created files [THUG1 Install]/Game/THUGPlus.exe and [THUG1 Install]/Game/THUGPlus_OBS.exe

Usage, Stability and Known Issues

This mod gives you new gameplay techniques, tricks, enhances some existing game levels, and adds some removed ones. It is targeted at single player mode, for those looking to make interesting new videos, and gives you new ways to view/record the action. However, it is far from perfect, as you'll see below.

In general, this mod decreases game stability. You are more likely to crash upon exiting the game or changing levels than before. Don't try to host an online tournament with this mod yet!

Make sure to back up your save files before using this mod. I've not witnessed save corruption as a result of using this, but it's better to be on the safe side.

List of known issues

Attempting to climb, shimmy left/right, or drop down will cancel or alter the way you jump out of a rail/wire spin. There is no known way to disable those inputs while in the trick, it is likely an engine limitation

When jumping off your board: If you return to a different board and then try to exit again, the board you leave may be 'frozen' in mid-air. The board you initially exited is what actually moves, and will be the only one you can get back on. It is possible to continue skating with no board if you land quickly, but after a short period you will go into walking mode upon landing. You may occasionally find yourself unable to jump while in walking mode with no board. This goes away as soon as you return to your board.

When using the level editor: Grinding inserted vehicles/levels may cause the game to crash. This appears to be random - but if it's not, let me know what causes it! Inserted objects/levels do not update their lighting effects based on the time of day. Deleted objects cannot be restored in the current session. Copied and placed objects cannot be removed in the current session. Launching the level editor while *playing* a custom park causes the park to disappear, leaving only the rails placed with the rail editor. This is related to memory management in custom parks. The level editor does work properly when editing the park, though you will see strange visuals as if you are placing rails in the rail editor.

Pedestrian/vehicle shadows always appear directly beneath them. This may be an engine limitation.

Pressing + + Triangle right as you land out of a QP may cause your skater to bail. This is a result of the logic behind the To Tail trick, and will be fixed in the future.

Mod Summary

Underground+ adds a variety of new gameplay options, tricks, techniques, and a few new levels. It is designed to be an enhancement to the base game that is easy to install and play around with. The complete changes you can expect to find include:

New flip, grab, and special tricks - some double-tap combinations were altered to work with these new tricks

New gameplay techniques: Pole/wire spin from walking mode Rail stalls (similar to THAW) The ability to exit your board mid-air or mid-combo and return to it To Tail landing trick (also seen in THAW)

Optional PS2-style control layout

In-game level editor

Quick level merging

New and enhanced levels: THPS HD levels Paris (THPS3 port) Oil Rig (THPS3 port) Skater Island (THPS3 port) Marseille (THAW port) Skateshop (THPS4, enhanced) Manhattan+ Tampa+ SD+ Hawaii+ School II+ CAP editor backgrounds Lost levels (School I, DHJ, Philly)

New CAP editor pieces, themes, and options

Newly-added premade custom parks which use some of the new CAP pieces

Functional day/night time of day cycle with random weather effects

Screen mode/gamma options and the ability to support a 21:9 aspect ratio

Visual bug fixes for weather effects and the ultra-bright skater model (which, sadly, only affected the PC port!)

New camera modes

Slight tweaks to physics

See the full release/update history for all the details!

New Control Settings

This mod comes with an optional modified control layout, since most THPS fans over the years have not been fans of the Xbox-style button mapping that comes with the game. Head over to the Control Settings menu in the game to find the new Control Scheme option. The default Xbox setting is the usual THUG1 PC controls. This setting will be included in your save file.

There is one current limitation of the PS2 control setup: a few triggers usually bound to 'R2' and 'Square' are swapped. Some examples include the button to load a custom skater from the main menu, the extra commands in the free-camera mode, and the new shortcut commands. If you're trying to press something and it's not working, try hitting the other button.

For the duration of this guide, I will be using PS2 buttons to refer to the controls, but this table will show how these buttons translate into the options in the game's control settings:

Launcher button Guide button Forward Backward Turn left Turn right Ollie X Grab tricks Circle Flip tricks Square Grind tricks Triangle Pause Start Camera toggle Select Get off board R2 Alt. get off board L2 Nollie (rotate left) L1 Switch (rotate right) R1

How to use the pole/wire spin technique

This is by far one of the most interesting additions to the core gameplay. It is an additional move added to walking mode which allows you to grab hold of a wire, bar, or similar surface which is not blocked by a wall, and spin around it vertically.

To execute the move, simply hold R1 + L1 (PS2: R2) when you would normally begin to grab/shimmy a compatible surface, and if you have sufficient speed, you will begin spinning. You exit the move by jumping.

The angle at which you exit depends on where you are in the spin when you jump. There are approximately 6 distinct angles, so it is not completely random. The speed at which you exit depends on the speed you had entering the move (this also affects how fast you spin around), as well as how many times you spun around before jumping - you slow down with each full rotation.

Note: There *is* a cap on the amount of speed you can carry into and out of this move, as otherwise you would spin so fast that you would have no idea where you're going.

With enough speed and the right exit angle, you may also automatically flip with your jump. The number of times you flip depends on how much speed you have, and the flips themselves are not considered a trick. In other words, it will not cause you to bail upon landing or doing a wallplant - though it can look a little strange!

How to exit/return to your board

Another fun, but difficult, move allows you to exit and return to your board. You can also return to another board in the level, since boards left when bailing are not cleared when you get up.

To do this from the ground, press + + Circle. Your skater will do a boneless-type move, but the board will stay on the ground, continuing to follow you at the same approximate speed.

To do this in the air, hold (PS2 only: L2 and R2) when executing any flip trick. It will move away from you in a similar fashion as executing this move on the ground.

When you are in the air, you are still in 'skating' mode - that is, you can do skating tricks such as wallplants and spins. Upon landing, you will find yourself in walking mode with no board. To return to your board, simply get close to one of the boards in the level and you will automatically get back into skating mode.

Note: If you lost the board, you can hold L2 and/or R2 for a brief period to return to a new board, or simply use the Underground+ Menu's 'Spawn Skater Board' option, which will place a new one right in front of you (it should put you back in skating mode immediately).

One of the easiest ways to try this move is to find a high, flat surface, such as a rooftop, and jump off your board from the ground near the edge. You should return to your board in mid-air in almost every instance, as long as you have enough air time.

Note: It is possible to jump off and return to your board in the middle of a combo, but it requires a lot of luck in most cases. You can also return to your board in mid-air, which looks especially cool.

Using Rail Stalls

Rail stalls are now in Underground Plus, and function similar to the same trick in THAW. Hold R1 + L1 (PS2:L2) when entering a grind trick to activate a stall. You can jump out in any direction.

You'll notice that the angles are not exactly the same as in THAW. You cannot ollie exactly 90 degrees left/right, it is approximately 60 degrees. This is a relatively new addition, so it is still subject to some tweaks. It may be updated to more accurately resemble the rail stall exit angles from THAW.

The speed you have upon jumping out of the rail stall is a percentage of the speed you had when entering, as opposed to the fixed speed you get in THAW. This means that you can jump out extremely fast or slow, and it may look silly in the more extreme cases.

Also unlike THAW, the stall does not completely stop you on sloped/angled rails. Once you reach a certain speed, you are no longer considered in a rail stall and resume a normal grind. So, for sloped rails you need to jump out quickly to maintain the rail stall.

Shortcuts

A number of shortcuts have been added to the game that are accessed by combinations of Select held with other buttons. These can be enabled/disabled in the 'Underground+ Options' menu (within the main pause menu) and then choosing the 'Toggle Shortcuts' option.

When this option is enabled, you will notice that pressing Select does not toggle the camera mode (and doesn't appear to do anything). This is essentially a debugging option leftover from the original game developers, which has been adjusted to give us more useful commands.

When shortcuts are on, the Select button becomes a modifier for various quick commands:

Shortcut Command Description Select + X Free-roam camera Toggles between two different free roaming camera modes. The first one freezes the skater. Select + Square Free-roam camera speed Adjusts the movement/rotation speed of the free roaming camera. Select + Start Toggle slow-mo Toggles between various slow-motion speeds, as well as blur effects Select + Circle Place skater Places the local skater wherever the camera is currently looking. Select + Triangle Switch camera Switches camera modes (same as Select when these shortcuts are not enabled). Select + R2 + Circle Set Custom Restart Select + R2 + Square Goto Custom Restart Select + R2 + X Launch Level Editor See below for more detail!

You need to hold the Select button for these shortcuts, as well as the R2 button when it is part of the combination.

Using the Level Editor

The level editor is by far the most complex component added with this mod, so you'll want to check this out before using it.

Again, to launch the editor, you can press the following key combination: Select + R2 + X, or simply access it from the main pause menu. This will start in the Model editing mode by default, but it will resume from whatever you were using last if you exit and enter the editor again.

The editor comes with a selection of editing modes:

Model : Place interactive objects/models into the level such as QPs, rails, slopes, vehicles and other levels.

: Place interactive objects/models into the level such as QPs, rails, slopes, vehicles and other levels. Geometry : Manipulate the geometry of the current level, cloning and deleting objects. The currently selected object will be blinking.

: Manipulate the geometry of the current level, cloning and deleting objects. The currently selected object will be blinking. Pedestrian : Insert pedestrian/character models into the current level.

: Insert pedestrian/character models into the current level. Camera: Insert custom cameras into the level which are triggered within a desired radius.

Each mode uses a similar button mapping to prevent it from being too disorienting. This, in general, is what each button will do, independently of the mode you are using:

X : Places the currently selected item into the level.

: Places the currently selected item into the level. Square : Moves to the next item in the list.

: Moves to the next item in the list. Circle : Moves to the previous item in the list (in Camera mode, toggles the radius)

: Moves to the previous item in the list (in Camera mode, toggles the radius) Triangle : Opens an editing sub-menu in modes that use it. In Model mode, hold to enable a different angle of rotation.

: Opens an editing sub-menu in modes that use it. In Model mode, hold to enable a different angle of rotation. R1 : Raises the cursor

: Raises the cursor L1 : Lowers the cursor

: Lowers the cursor R2 : Zooms the camera in

: Zooms the camera in L2 : Zooms the camera out

Changing Modes

Use R2 + L2 together to switch between editing modes, or simply pause to open the level editor submenu and select the desired editing mode.

Collision Modes

While it is usually good enough to use the current level's boundaries for placing items, you may have a need to go out of bounds. For this, press R1 + L1 together to swap collision modes. You'll see a message indicating which one is enabled.

Free-roam mode allows you to move a piece along the x/y axis without being restricted to the level boundaries. Collision-bound mode, which is the default, behaves just like the cursor used in other in-game editors such as the rail editor or the goal editor.

Tip: Try using the level editor's Geometry mode while in the park editor! You can copy/delete any piece that you've currently placed in the park, giving you some temporary but cool ways to place pieces outside the usual grid structure.

Limitations

There is no specific restriction on the number of elements you can insert into the level, but inevitably you will eventually hit a memory limit in the game and crash. New Jersey is, as far as I can tell, the 'largest' level in the sense of memory usage, so that should have the most restrictions in terms of what you can add in.

The Geometry mode does not currently allow you to change the angle of cloned level objects.

Of course, the editor does not work online, in the sense that no one else can see what you've done to the level. It may be possible to develop this at some point in the future, but it's hard to say.

Finally, there is no way to save the changes you make to the levels. It may be possible in the future.

Additions to the Park Editor

The park editor has received some attention in this mod, which makes it an even more appealing option for creating custom levels.

For starters, the memory limit has been increased significantly, effectively 'infinite'. You will not technically run out of space, but if you go wildly outside the normal limits, you may cause the game to crash. Because of this, I recommending saving often and using multiple save files.

You'll find a selection of new pieces, which are actually just unused pieces from the editor. Most notably, you can insert the large skyscraper from Manhattan! It is so large, though, that its practical use is limited, since it is larger than the default custom park boundaries. There are also some 'new' pieces which are just composites of existing pieces that are stacked/merged together.

The editor is backwards compatible with old save files, but any new parks you save will not be compatible without using this mod. There is no way around this, as the collection of pieces mapped to the save file does not include these additional pieces. Loading a park saved with this mod *might* work in an original copy of the game, but any of the new pieces would not appear.

The rail editor has also received some helpful updates. When placing a new rail, press Circle to place a rail point which does not include a post (a 'floating' rail). Other limits on the smallest/largest allowed rails have been tweaked to give you more options.

It was almost possible to place point rails in the park editor! These are what cause you to 'bonk' off something, which is also used for the Natas Spin in THUG2. Unfortunately, the game would always crash if you tried to grind another rail in the same air. Such a mod is likely possible for THUG2.

Update History

View the complete change log here.