Project OEM

On the 05th November of 2017, ex-MX Bikes player and legend Asdrael made the forum post “OEM pack – Master Thread“.

This was the mod that would change MX Bikes completely.

The Foundation

2017 –

Around the 2017 era of MX Bikes, the community wasn’t very big and there were only a handful of modders. Most worked together and were able to discover and document ways to import bikes, protections, and other models.

This is where Asdrael was crazy enough to dig into code, hundreds of user manuals, as well as review videos from various bike manufacturers. However, before he showed off his first pack, on the 06th February of 2017 he made the forum post “Project OEM“. This post is full of explanations on how to convert IRL bike data into something usable in MX Bikes, as well as the foundation of what Project OEM was built on.

The Old Days

2020 –

A few years later in 2020, I (InsaneMXB) joined Asdrael and helped re-import all of the bikes that we had – while also learning a lot about the game, and how the modding works. The bike models were also able to receive various fixes and improvements, and Asdrael was able to spend some more time to work on the physics.

2021 –

After roughly 4 years and multiple updates to the pack, life became busier and had to take priority, so Asdrael decided to step away from the project. 

With Asdrael’s departure, I was left with the challenge of keeping the most widely used community pack updated and available for everyone…

Rebuilding

2021 –

After Asdrael’s departure, I had to work together with others so that we could keep the pack alive. This is where GreenLenux joined our small team, primarily to help with texture work. Alongside GreenLenux, a few other community members and freelancers, were able to help me build the pack into what we see today. Following on in Asdrael’s footsteps, I was able to update and add more bike models to the pack, while also doing small physics updates. While at the same time, GreenLenux was able to work on the bikes textures and also begin to create PSD’s for the public. 

December 2021 –

Eventually we were able to release our first update together, which was mainly a cosmetic-only update (v0.16.0). During this time, we also received help from “freelancers”, like Cody and RkrdM, who helped with texture work.

2022 –

Although the start of 2022 was fairly slow, by the end of the year the Team was beginning to take shape and was producing high quality original work.

March 2022 –

Then just a few months later, we were able to release our next update (v0.17.0). Although this was mainly another cosmetics update, we were also able to update the bikes suspension, with some help from Asdrael in DMs… However, with the game becoming more popular, we wanted to expand the pack and find people who could help us achieve that. As GreenLenux and I didn’t completely understand the physics that this game requires when modding, we were overwhelmed.

This is where, Jesse, better known as Mulock22, decided to join the team to help us work out the “rocket-science”. Through dedication and countless hours spent learning about the world of MX Bikes physics, as well as information that Asdrael* provided – Jesse was able to start producing bikes in game using IRL data, helping us improve the bikes at each step.

* Asdrael isn’t gone completely, he’s still around and contactable via DMs, he’s just not involved with MXB anymore.

Alongside Jesse and GreenLenux, I was also able to receive help from Ruubs, Zonta, and GioPanda.

The OEM Team

June 2022 –

Around this time, the team was growing at a fairly quick pace. We had multiple people joining that were able to help with feedback, as well as texture, and modelling work. During this time, notably, Alpha and Frankie appeared. Alpha provided a significant amount of initial feedback, working alongside Jesse on his new experiments. Whereas Frankie was working with models and beginning his journey into making full bike models.

The “OEM Team” was founded. This team consisted of;

• Alpha – Physics, Feedback
• BamBeintz22 – Texturing
• Cody_James – Texturing
• Frankie – Modelling
• insane – Importing, Distributing
• Kuakkz – Feedback
• Mulock22 – Physics
• Phantomz – Modelling
• Resolute Kraken – Feedback
• Ruubs – Feedback
• SD – Feedback
• Some_Doofus – Feedback
• Zonta_84 – Physics, Feedback

However, alongside this, a game update was release which caused issues with the grip values on certain types of soil. This is where Jesse was able to put his research into practice… After a few months of work, Jesse had dug through the tyre physics and shared with us, what we now know as the 2022 Ultimate OEM Tyre Patch. (v0.17.1). This was an important moment where a community project was able to fix what was partially broken in the stock state of the game.

July 2022 –

This is when the OEM tyre patch v2 was released (v0.17.1b).

Heading towards Project OEM

August 2022 –

Around this time, the recruitment and organisation of the team was ever changing, meaning our team was growing pretty rapidly and development had turned into almost a full time job. During this time, we were able to work on and release the OEM Project website, the Supporters programme, as well as (v0.17.2).

During this period, L21 also became involved with the project, where he took up some texturing work, providing feedback, and helping where possible.

September 2022 –

Unfortunately, September 2022 wasn’t a great month for us. Many of the team took a break and development on our upcoming update stalled, due to certain members of the community ripping (stealing) our bike models and robbing us of our motivation.

December 2022 –

We publicly announced the OEM Manual for the first time, while in the background returned to developing our next update. Around this period, we also introduced RedRider, to the world of mud, as he was able to provide us with some of the best mud layers for our bikes that we’ve ever had.

2023 –

By far our most successful year, so far. Updates throughout the year, team improvements along the way, and the redemption for the community after the ripping drama in 2022.

January 2023 –

At the beginning of the month, we released our first roadmap, showing glimpses of what the future will offer – although our timing didn’t exactly go as planned.

Then, on the 6th of January, we finally released (v0.18.0). Although this update was split into multiple releases, it was a huge undertaking and required extra effort from all involved. Jesse and Zonta worked together to get the physics and tyres updated, while GreenLenux headed the texture work with Cody, and others. While our modelling department (Frankie and Phantomz) was also able to provide some huge releases, with the new KX, KTM, Fantic, Husky, TM, and YZ models being included. This was no doubt our biggest update to this point, showing the true power that the Team was capable of producing. 

February 2023 –

February came and included another update to the OEM pack, this time releasing (v0.18.1). This update included the second phase of the v18 release, which was the 2 stroke bikes as well as small physics adjustments for the 4 stroke bikes.

Welcoming JVDL to the OEM Team, as well as the game! JVDL is a veteran in the modding scene for, well, most MX games.. His addition began with just helping out and assisting with texturing, however turned into much more. JVDLs addition, also began the path for the OEM Texture Revamp project. Alongside this, we also finally released the OEM manual publicly.

March 2023 –

Mistakes were made…

In March, we released the (0.18.1b) patch. This was a patch to try fix some of the mistakes we’d made during the last two updates, which had slipped through due to communication issues, and the sheer scale of the full v18 update.

Founding Project OEM

May 2023 –

May was a busy month for the team, due to communication issues that we were experiencing and mentioned earlier, change needed to happen. That’s where L21 drafted an idea, which would change the teams core structure.

The new structure would become; 

• OEM Team Lead
• OEM Advisor
• Heads of Departments
• Testers | Department Members

Whereas before the team was more of a group project, the team evolved into something more organised and structured. This helped improve communication and efficiency between departments, but also communication to the public. Although we’re still a team and group of friends, we were able to use the structure to our advantage to help us produce quality content for the community. 

While this restructure happened, Jesse, plus help from a few others, (JVDL, Jmerhtz, DMills), were able to finalise our bikes physics and get them to be a state ready for release. Although this wasn’t on our original roadmap, we were continuously working so that we could try improve the state of play for the ARL and MXBGP race events. This resulted in us releasing (v0.18.1c) at the end of the month, alongside this, we also released the OEM Official GFX page.

June 2023 –

While Jesse worked mainly on physics, JVDL bounced around and worked between Textures, Physics, and also some modelling work. However, for the last few months JVDL had been learning from Jesse and also teaching himself how the physics work, meaning he was able to provide significant help to Jesse for the upcoming releases. Logn also entered into the texturing department around this time and helped JVDL continue working on graphics.

Around this time and after the restructure, we’d also decided to be more open and forthcoming with the community. Which lead us onto the launch of the first official Preview bikes. These were released to the OEM Supporters, so that we could show-off what we’re working on for upcoming updates, and to also gather public feedback on the changes. As this seemed to be a huge success, we decided that we’d continue releasing Preview bikes before upcoming updates for the foreseeable future.

July 2023 –

Another productive month, beginning with an interview hosted by ReaperDoc on YouTube and featuring Alpha, Jesse, and JVDL.

Although our priority is MX, we were also able to release an update to our Enduro bike pack (v0.15.4). Although this was mainly a tyre update, we do have plans for full physics updates to the Enduro and SM packs, although the date for that is unknown.

Alongside that, JVDL was able to find a bug which worsened the physics on our bikes. By resolving this, we were able to make huge progress and even solve some slow speed and hill related issues. This resulted in us being really motivated and pleased with what the future could hold, so we began by releasing our Preview bikes v2 update featuring these fixes.

August 2023 –

A fairly slow month, with development continuing in the background, although we were able to release the Preview bikes v3 update.

Expanding the Team

September 2023 –

Internally we were preparing the pack so that we could get an update released ASAP, all departments were working hard and we were still recruiting and getting new testers all the time. We were really happy with the feedback from the preview bikes, so we decided to release Preview bikes v4.

This was the also the month where we publicly opened our OEM discord, alongside introducing two new roles in the Project OEM structure “Senior Tester”, and “Apprentices”. Meaning the new structure became; 

• OEM Team Lead
• OEM Advisor
• Heads of Departments
• Senior Testers
• Testers | Department Members
• Apprentices

Our Apprentices role was opened so that we could easily bring new testers into the team, where we could get to know them before adding them to the full testing team. Then the Senior Testers role was given to members of the testing team who’d shown that they could provide clear and concise feedback, while showing good character. As a special shout out, our first group of Testers who received the promotion were; Meatpie, Dane (mxphenom), Doc, Higgo, Jamz, Ruubs, Smygdamp, Some_Doofus, Waevo, Wes.

Near the end of the month, after countless hours of development, we were finally able to release (v0.18.2). This included a huge new roster of bikes, with 51 total, including Classic bikes and E-Bikes, as well as a tyre update. This was by far our biggest and most successful update, to date… 

November 2023 –

OEM bikes participated in the first ever EICMA LAN event!

December 2023 –

Lots of work happening in the background and internally, we were able to release the v18.3 Preview Bikes Update 1 based on our development since v18.2. 

Here’s to the future…

By creating this blog, we want to make the project more transparent for you, the player, who’s waiting patiently for the pack to see the sunlight.

Thanks for reading!

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