Well, Ubisoft have done it again, **** all over Trackmania.

Maniaplanet said that everyone will have to redo the textures and shadows on all maps they have created or they will be unable to be played on the new engine, which is true. However what they didn't mention is that every single track is now calculated and built incorrectly as they have apparently changed the physics engine slightly as the track i have been working on no longer flows properly and all the turns don't work. New boost textures look like they were drawn by a toddler. Game feels laggier than before and all the textures appear to render strangely and distorted. Sound change horrificly when camchanges occur.

I particuarly love the change to SD lines, because of course that was a problem that needed fixing. But don't worry! They added a seagull block...

Speed drifting has become all but impossible for me at the moment and the turning is a lot harsher than it used to be. It also appears that the SD lines / starting is different in map editor than it is on multiplayer which is lovely.

I will be uploading a video later on to show you a few of the things i mean. Until then i will be looking into mways to undo the update and play old tm2

L O V E L Y   T E X T U R E S


Something else i have discovered is that it appears that the track editor uses different SD lines than multiplayer mode. I have a video here of the once smooth map in MP4. If you go into any online game you will see the skids are vastly different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKsSHeBfJj0

some people question my claim that gravity / physics of the game has changed, so i ran a few tests of my own to verify it.

On the first jump of my track i land further than i used to, this shows that either air drag has reduced or car weight has reduced. Because of the inreased airtime i do not generate enough speed to make a smooth landing on the 2nd part of the jump. All of this is demonstrated in the video. Paragraf and Sinasappel will be able to confirm that the start jumps used to be much smoother than what is shown on the video.

Further proof is i even messed up the start transfer slightly on the video, yet i still went further midair than i should of done. Additionally i do not like the attitude of people saying that i am complaining for complaints sake. I am incredibly angry that all my work into this track which has been my biggest project in Trackmania ever, has now been wasted.

The latest problem i have found is that placing blocks sometimes causes certain blocks to glitch and no longer function. Example:
expected result / before placing.


Actual result / after placing


This ruins certain transitions and runoffs. Also doesn't work if you try blockmixing it as shown in the picture, i tested the same setup where everything except that block was blockmixed and that was placed normally and the same result occured. The bug is 100% replicatable.

I will continue to edit and add to this post as i find more things wrong with Maniaplanet 4

I just played for a bit. The sound is so awful now. Why did they change anything lmao? Everything sounds drowned out. And the seagull noises, Jesus.

The new blocks they've added are absolutely nonsensical and add nothing. Before anyone scoffs at me for complaining about free content, this is a deliberate preamble to get people on board to pay for Lagoon.

[snip]

Stadium isn't my primary environment, so I'm not going to address most of the stuff you've written about, except the graphics quality.

The graphics in your screenshot look terrible, no doubt about that. But it looks like you have antialiasing turned off.

In general Stadium should look better, because they increased the resolution of the textures. But they also updated lightmaps to look better and compute faster, and the quality of the reflections on the cars has improved as well.

Now, whether you like the changed look of the game is a different matter altogether, but the actual quality of the graphics should be higher, unless your game is messed up.

Here's a screenshot I took in-game (not with MediaTracker).



The only other thing I can say is to try to keep a positive attitude. Yes, a lot has changed. Yes it's broken some things. But there's also a lot to be excited about, and Nadeo has worked incredibly hard on this update over the past few years, overhauling the engine, making new block variations possible in Stadium, fixing all kinds of little things.... even things that were broken from the start of Stadium.

Bugs are bugs, and should be reported. But please try to stay positive, and keep a good spirit for the community. It will go a long ways towards making the game more popular and having more players, which is surely what we all want.

Tried a bunch of my old tracks now and all works like a charm.
I honestly feel like the physics are pretty much the same they've always been.
Maybe a bit slower to adjust in the air?
Graphics seems fine to me.
Not had any weird blockbugs in the editor, but haven't really tried much yet. Just played around with the new dirt blocks really.


But the sound.. yeah, it sounds way weird.

... says:
Here's a screenshot I took in-game (not with MediaTracker).

I'm fairly certain you used the sharpen feature for that and that camera angle isn't possible without mediatracker.. But that aside, I play with AA on. New graphics styles do not bother me at all compared to the change in physics, on average airtime lasts longer and the nose drops a fraction faster. This makes no difference if your jumps / maps are badly made and have little flow, but really hurts people who spend ages getting the perfect feeling jump, as all their past ones are now garbage.

Another issue for me is the car now ramps up its turning arc slightly faster than before whilst losing braking influence at higher speeds. This for me is just feel and i have not tested it compared to the other complaints. (EG: the airtime issues).

For me there is no question SD's are different in map editor than multiplayer (they feel much slippier and unruly in editor) which is horrendous for mapping.

Hmm, strange that your game looks that way with AA on. Don't know what to say about that.

But yes, I did take the screenshot in-game. You can use cam 7 and move the camera around to get that angle. Obviously I was stopped to do it.

And remove UI with *

Then just print screen.

And no, I didn't sharpen it. But I guess there's no way I can prove that to you.

Actually, sharpening it would bring out whatever edges the AA missed. If I wanted to make it look better, I would soften it. But I didn't edit it at all.

As for the rest, sorry to hear the gameplay changed to that extent for you. That's a bummer. I hope you're making some constructive posts over on MP forums as well... as that's where the devs read... and are more likely to take reports about these changes into account.

Appreciate reading your feedback here too though of course. Nice to see this part of the forums alive again.

[quote=AR »Cyan]

... says:
This makes no difference if your jumps / maps are badly made and have little flow, but really hurts people who spend ages getting the perfect feeling jump, as all their past ones are now garbage

So you are saying my maps and jumps are badly made with little flow? Hurts man. Hurts.

winter says:
So you are saying my maps and jumps are badly made with little flow? Hurts man. Hurts.

No i'm not, as you know i have said many times i respect your track-building immensely. I have no idea why you can't feel it but it isn't down to track building skill. Although i can see how you came to that conclusion. I was in full ranting angry man mode yesterday.

Hell you and nimp are the reasons i started mapping in the first place. Love your stuff man.

Hehe, kinda just joking about. I know you like my stuff for the most part.

I think the most likely explanation is that I simply haven't played enough the last year or so to notice small details like that anymore. If this has happened a year or two ago, maybe I'd be as furious as you. I don't know.

Also I've kinda come to the point I just go /shrug and just adapt to the new.