Trackmania 2 Stadium | Open Beta

[HawkGer]

Okay I'm pretty sure now that this texturing method will work. Here I tested with one model that has different Unwrap UVWs for Lod0 and Lod1. As you can see a completely different part of the texture gets displayed:



I also tested how Lods work in different game settings (for animation). They work in all game settings, it is just that with increasingly poorer settings the Lod0 will appear later. But it is not that much of a difference and I think it would still work for small gimmicks such as a disappearing wall.

[luckypech]

Would it be possible to add costume sound to srufaces you drive on?
Like you create a wooden bridge, and you can hear the car hitting all the planks.

[HawkGer]

In ShootMania Storm you do have that possibility I bet. But I don't think they will include the sound in Stadium 2. At least in the current version there are no files for wood sounds for example.
If you have ShootMania you can see that the files are located here: \Storm\Media\Audio\Sound\Wav\WoodPlank\

[HawkGer]

Work on the TrackMania RPG title pack has started (ZiZa and me are working on it):



I also created a Forum Logo to use on Stadium 2 server or elsewhere....:

[chica]

Wow!

[eie]

Is this awesome, or is this awesome?

[XT3]

very cool!!! I cant wait to see it!

[Shortz]

that pack design .... awesome hawk!

[Mario]

MANIAPLANET POWAAA its gonna be awesome! would love to help, but im not good in this things

btw about ur question:

About the Title pack updating: Yes of course you can do that...but I
don't think it's possible to make the update automatic (like the normal
ManiaPlanet titles). Does anyone know more about this?

I might be wrong, but Title Packs can be updated through Clouds?

[HawkGer]

yes Mario, you are right. Just yesterday I updated the Stunters Pack ingame and it worked like a charm. I think the game recognizes automatically when a new version has been released (uploaded to the cloud) and shows everyone who owns that title a message with a button to update...

[Mario]

Well, then we can update the RPG Title Pack without backward compatibility problems!

[HawkGer]

yeah Mario, as long as we don't delete any blocks or change their geometry
I tested if Macroblocks can be used with objects....and yep...they work! That's really great. One can assemble giant objects with small pieces and use them whenever wanted

Also I pulled an all-nighter and made this sexy layout for the start menu of the Title pack (in the middle you join Multiplayer):


Please comment if you have any suggestions for improvement! ty

[JumperJack]

it definitely has the right atmosphere, nice work hawk!

[eie]

If that's supposedly the start-screen I think it's ugly.

The colours are done right, but the borders doesn't fit, you should really want a more uniform border texture, than having a different one for every frame.

The box in the bottom right looks like some advertisement, and what the hell is ADIL? If it's supposed to be a shortcut to regular Stadium 2, it's somewhat good, although it makes the screen unbalanced imo. Maybe you should dedicate a panel on the right side instead of a small box?

I think the idea of having a Object Hall of Fame in the start-screen might too much. It should be on its own page, because it makes it cluttered imo. Maybe make another link on the bottom (between 'Exit' and 'More' called 'Credits')

Preferably you'd put the Solo and the Editor buttons on a panel on the left side, to keep the common design of Nadeo (I think this is the most important, because those will be the most used buttons on this screen, it'll feel awkward if they're placed somewhere else)
Or is that left panel supposed to be used for servers?, still it should be put on the left side.

Really like the background and the icon in the center. Remind me of how the planet is spinning in TMN/UF a little. The Exit button is placed exactly where it should be, and the font works very good.

Sorry hawk I know I might be overly criticising your work at times, because I see you've put some good effort into this, I just want to make sure you don't put too much work into the wrong things I think it'll turn out great, and you're doing great work (y)

edit: I'll probably post a pretty paint-picture of this when I get home laters, to give a better picture of what I meant.

[HawkGer]

"If that's supposedly the start-screen I think it's ugly." - eie
Wow...I think my heart skipped a beat when I read that. But that's why I love your criticism, you are difinitely not afraid to speak freely
Okay so a few things of what you said I totally get. Like the non-uniform borders and the Hall of Fame being too cluttered.
I'm not gonna remove the Hall of Fame, unless someone comes up with a much better idea. I think it's important to have that Hall of Fame on the start menu. It will encourage some people to make objects I bet. If there is only a Credits button not many people will click on it I think. It is a good idea though to include one.

The two boxes in the bottom right are for advertising new tracks, videos, mods etc.

I totally not agree with your idea of putting the buttons on the left side. Right now we have a perfectly symmetrical menu. Putting the buttons somewhere else would ruin that. It is also much more intuitive imo to have all important buttons in the center and two semi-important ones in the corners. If the buttons were on the left side some people might not even get that the circle in the middle can be clicked.

Here is an updated version:


Still ugly? Please do rip it apart in your criticism if needed

Btw. if you enter a Title you are usually in the center of the screen with your mouse button, try it out. Much faster to enter Multiplayer that way.

[JumperJack]

definitely a more balanced version this!

out of curiousity, in what software do you (have to) make this homescreen?

[HawkGer]

The pic you see is right now 100% in Photoshop. It's a bit misleading because I added the top bar in PS.
When I'm done Ziza will try to recreate this layout I made with (as I understand it) some type of ManiaLink.
I don't know if there is a software with a GUI already for creating such menus. I think Zizas is coding 'blind' right now.

Btw. I just got a PM from Hylis telling me that they are looking into improving modding support for custom objects. So there's hoping

[XT3]

Looks great! I do feel like there should be a mod secrtion which I looks like there is! also I have an idea for Modding. If objects can take the skins from mods then we should be able to create tranparement mask and it'll besolid on the normal blocks but on the objects it'll be transparent

[HawkGer]

Right now there is not a mod section in the menu. But I was thinking of replacing the "Forum" button with a "Links" or "Resources" button that would lead to a new page with all sorts of links...among other to the mod section on the RPG Blog.

I too thought that that idea with the transparent textures would work. But I tested it out a few days ago and the game only shows transparency on objects if the standard texture has an alpha channel by default. You can't just add an alpha channel, the game doesn't recognize it.
So we can only have transparency with the StadiumRoadGridD.dds texture for example. If we make that texture really big as I proposed to make room for a lot of texture surface we could have transparency on all custom objects and apply mods to them.

[JumperJack]

ah okay. i haven't got any experience at coding manialinks, so i can't be of any help. i'm very excited about this title pack, though!

[XT3]

really? that bites but the objects can we add the skins of them to mods? I have found that Clouds.DDS cant support color anymore

[HawkGer]

I don't know what you mean by "skins of the objects", sorry. If you mean change the UV layout of the models so it fits the texture of some mods...then yeah...sure we can do that.

[XT3]

that's what I meant. Objects have skins, when you think of it. Like a car skin. I can edit and change my Ghost's Lantern Mod. I really wanted to get the colors from the FXclouds to work but they don't and that kills the mod somewhat. I keep focusing on that mod as I feel its my best work! I am thinking of posting a beta peak of it on this forum.

[Roman4r]

Where is the buttom to edit your profile?

[eie]

ok with text it looks a whole lot different.

My current main concern is that the More button theoretically can be on top of the text in that box on the lower right corner

I'm not sure how I like that it's not following the design of regular trackpacks and about all of the TM series, with the buttons on the left. Though I'm a bit conflicted, because this does look pretty good! =)

One reason I still don't fully appreciate the Hall of Fame is because it somewhat excludes people who aren't able to create models. And while those are about the only people who are the ones contributing to the pack(apart from solo mode?), I still don't feel it belongs in a start menu. Although I do think it's a good way to encourage people to make models, I just don't think it's the right way.

Also, how would it look like without all the vertical black lines? It might improve, although I like how it is now, as it almost seems like you have all these boxes like pieces in a puzzle on a black background.

But seriously, Labyrinth IV? blasphemy! it's a trilogy

(mind releasing the .psd file too? =) )