i just noticed that the asteroids.dds is located in the order folder. doesnt this mean that they arnt hardcoded?
If I recall, backdrops can have multiple levels with different parallax, each one pulls in a different graphic file. Unless you’re not referring to ones in the background.
looking at the rockwall scenario file.
asteroidcount = 2000
asteroidtopx = 0.45
asteroidbottomx = 0.51
then where does it takes the asteroid image from? is it hardcoded that it will thake from the order folder, or will it take the image from the race that the scenario belongs to?
Ah, that one I don’t know about. Sorry.
As I recall it’s from the order, so you could in theory add asteroids to any map, but the player needs the order installed for them to work correctly.
but if i make a scenario for my mod and put asteroids in it, could i put a modifyed asteroids.dds in the FX folder in of the mod? would the scenario use that image instead of the one in the order folder?
gah, hard to explain! can barely understand myself!
The game will grab the first asteriods.dds file it finds I think, meaning that all the scenarios with asteriods will always be using the same sprite.
There’s a little problem with parallax I experienced sometime ago. You can set objects with different parallax than 1.0 without trouble the first time you run a scenario. The second time in a row you load that same scenario the game will crash.
then where does it look first?
There is no easy way to predict that. I have a horrible feeling that the way windows works, is based on the last sort order of files in the directory that you last opened. So in other words, it’s dodgy to have 2 files with the same name, regardless where they are 
For these things, I always assume that it’s best to only have one copy in the core data directory. In fact, usually, I assume that the game is hardwired to only look in the core data directory.