Hans Holo says:
Please do not update this track: https://tm.mania-exchange.com/tracks/21831/imperium
Some PF-bulldozing has to be done first.
I've added you to the list of authors whose maps we won't update. Looks like all your maps are up to date anyway, except that one.
Hans Holo says:
The leads me to this question: Is it really useful to update all tracks?
I think it's useful. The way I look at it is that the maps are broken anyway.... so if the update doesn't fully fix them, at least they have a better chance than if we never converted them in the first place.
Hans Holo says:
I remember the physics-change in TM1: it was a bit frustrating to download old maps, because many were not working.
I too remember playing PF maps from TMO, Sunrise, and early United in the Forever update and being sad that they no longer worked. Or even some PF starts got broken, which was too bad. It probably discouraged a lot of builders from even building PF starts over the years. I know it's discouraged me from doing so. That, and the fact I think they're kinda boring when trying to hunt a time since they're quite repetitive.
But that's a personal preference.
Thankfully we had replays though for those old maps, and we still have replays for these pure PF maps today. So for instance, the map can be updated to MP4, and a new replay saved on the map (even an incomplete one). Then the working ghost from a pre-MP4 replay can be imported to that new replay to see the map with updated graphics.
Hans Holo says:
But I guess it is impossible to find out which tracks are not working anymore. (Maybe PF-tracks should be left out.)
I can understand the apprehension to update PF tracks, but except for the few people who may reinstall ManiaPlanet 3, there's no real reason to keep the maps in an old version of the game. I think it's best to bring them with us. They stand the best chance of being used that way. And if worse comes to worse, we are keeping backups of all the maps we update. So they can always be reverted if necessary (though it does take a bit of work for me to hunt down the backup).
Hans Holo says:
I'm a bit afraid we end with a "dirty" database. But when the ratio of working/not working tracks in general, is like mine
(8 out of 9 are playable), this won't be a big problem.
It's kind of a no-win situation. No matter what we do, there will be broken maps. So we opt for the choice that gives us the best chance.
I'm glad so many of yours converted successfully and are playable.