For the last preview, we introduce the key element of Maniaplanet 4: the channels.

Channels presentation

To explain them, we’ll draw a parallel with television. By the way, you’ll find common vocabulary: channels, programs, schedule, series, episodes.

A Maniaplanet channel is like a TV channel, offering a gaming schedule on night and day times. In Maniaplanet, you’ll find 2 channels: one for Trackmania and one for Shootmania. Each one of them will play specific programs based on the Titles of these 2 games. Players will be able to connect to these programs and play at a certain time of the day.

For the players

Channels will be the first thing you’ll see when you open Maniaplanet. In only one click, you’ll be able to play with other players by joining the running program of one of the two channels: Trackmania and Shootmania. You’ll also be able to chat with players on the channel.

At Maniaplanet launch, channels will be the only way to access the free multiplayer.
When you play on a channel, all Environments and Titles are available.

On the home page, you’ll also be able to access Channels’ Schedule. You’ll also have the possibility to add programs of you choice to your personnal agenda; this one will notify you before your program starts which will allow you to manage your time.

For programs creators

Creative players will be able to create programs in exchange for a contribution in Planets.
Each program is based on a Title-Pack. Also, like a serie, the program is divided into Episodes.

The program

When he creates a program, the creator will need to enter the following info:

• Program Title
• Program Description
• Title-Pack Program
• Tracklist played by the Program
• Image presenting the Program

Episodes

Once the Program is created, the creator will submit it to the Programming Direction (Nadeo) that will then create the first Episode. As a consequence, a conversation starts between the two parties to define the duration (between 30min and 2h30) and the date when the first Episode of the Program will be played on the channel. The creator will also be able to ask Nadeo to specificaly name his first Episode and the following ones:

For example:

• Program Title: Canyon Time Attack
• Episodes Titles: Ride the line#1 – Ride the line #2

With this Program & Episodes system, creators will be able to easily give appointments to players on a regular basis.

For the spectators

Spectators will also take part in the life of the channels.

Indeed, when an Episode is created, the Programming Direction can specify one or more stream links allowing players to join the Live by one click from the game (this will open the streamer’s Twitch page).

On future new Maniaplanet website, spectators and players will be able to see the schedule, watch streams and install Maniaplanet to join one of the running programs.

This was the last preview.

Thank you everyone for your attention all along this preview phase and see you soon for the Maniaplanet 4 Closed Beta!

Images and video are Work In Progress

Hello everyone and Happy new year!

We are very pleased to start 2017 with a new preview dedicated to Trackmania and its future changes in Maniaplanet 4.

What’s new in Trackmania?

Game modes and “Title Packs” creators will be excited to discover improvements that have been brought to the API.

From now, they will be able to force the car skin (2D & 3D) in their title and to manage the ghosts. In addition, they will be able to activate collisions between vehicules.

Also, from Maniaplanet 4, Trackmania² titles will come with the solo campaign in “always official” mode. Thus, each try will allow you to progress in the ladder.

One of the other hottest topic for discussion today is the inclusion of new blocks and new textures in the three environments.

The main new blocks are:

• For Canyon: a “Tubes” set, additionnal “Arena” bloks, a little looping and new “Cliff Sides” blocks.
• For Stadium: new “Dirt” blocks and giant screens.
• For Valley: a “Castle” set, new “Dirt” blocks, new roads, a “Railroad” set and improvements in “Tunnels”, “National highways”, “Cliffs” and “Arena” blocks.

Furthermore, “transition”, “road variants” and “piles” blocks have been added in some of the Titles. Other blocks have been modified or improved and some Trackmania Turbo blocks have been adapted for Trackmania² and imported.

“Title Maker”

We have already talked about the “Title maker” in the Preview 3 about editors.

The “Title Maker” will allow Nadeo to redo the three environments: Canyon, Stadium and Valley and to create the new Lagoon one.

And, this is the same tool that creators players will use to create their own titles. They’ll also be able to directly create a Title Maker via an option in the Title Pack Creator.

The “Maker” is much more effective and allows creators to easily create a solo campaign, choose visible menus, editors for players, matchmakings or to customize the home screen of their future “Title Pack”.

We hope to see always more amazing ideas from you thanks to these new features! See you soon for the last Maniaplanet 4 preview!

Hello everyone,

This week, the preview enphasizes new ways to play Shootmania with Maniaplanet 4.

You’ll find:

• a new game mode called Warlords
• variants on existing game modes: XP and FUN mode variants will allow you to experience different styles of play.

And, this mode and these variants are only a few examples of what creators will be able to do with Maniaplanet 4.

XP mode Variants

With the XP mode variants, players will make their character progress.

For example, in the Royal XP mode, players will be able to get gold that will display on the map after the tornado starts moving. In the mode’s store, they will buy upgrades such as additionnal rockets and armors or items and strong weapons to be activated during a round. Players will also observe that their upgrades will be preserved between games thanks to a persistance specific to the XP modes.

FUN mode Variants

It’s unfair but fun! FUN variants highlight easy access and festive spirit. For example, in Royal FUN mode, players will get new weapons and random bonuses by collecting mysterious boxes on the map.

Warlords

ShootMania Warlords is a new game mode created with the tools available in Maniaplanet 4. These tools are the same ones that will allow you to create your own game modes like Warlords.

Warlords is a turn-based, top-down view game. Players (2-6) fight to control the galaxy.

In each round, each player decides what action he wants to play (which planet to attack for example). Everyone’s choice is unveal when everyone is ready.

The goal in Warlords is to expand your empire by taking control on free planets and making opponents your vassals. Furthermore, each planet provides you with gold which will allow you to conquer planets or protect your own ones.

The planet the Warlord is coming from is his capital city. He absolutely needs to control it! In case of invasion, players will be sent into battle to take part in the defense or the defeat of the attacked Warlord. Each player must choose his side.

At that time, a Shootmania game is launched in a game mode close to Siege mode. You will find a store where you will be able to spend the gold acquired on the planets. This gold will give you advantage on the terrain. If your capital is taken, you then become the vassal of the victorious player.

Warlords is also supplied with an editor of galaxies to customize your games.

Use of Modules

In the third preview, dedicated to editors, we had already talked about modules allowing creators to simply add features to games modes.

Today, we’re gonna show how to code it. First, you need to create a module or download it from a community website. Then , you need to place it in the game mode folder.

In the example below, we declare the “HUD” module, created for the gamemode and integrating a store, at the beginning of the script:

Hud_Load("Modules/Nadeo/ShootMania/Royal/Exp/Hud.Module.Gbx");

Once the module is loaded, you can specify the consequences after the buying act of the player. For example, if a players buys a bonus, then he will get the bonus.

 switch (Event.Type) {
     case CUIConfigEvent::EType::OnModuleStorePurchase: {
         declare EventPlayer <=> GetPlayer(_Event.UIConfig);
         if (_Event.ItemUrl == "/Items/Nadeo/ArmorBonus.Item.Gbx") {
             EventPlayer.ArmorMax += 100;
         } else if (_Event.ItemUrl == "...") {
             // ...
         }
     }
 }

See you in the forum or next year for a new preview, on TrackMania!
Meanwhile, we wish you a wonderful winter break!

This week, we’ll be focusing on Shootmania and its new features brought to the game with the Maniaplanet 4 update. They will be giving players new actions and blocs allowing them to experience more diverse situations. In addition, creators will be able to use these new features by including them in their own game modes.

New weapons

New weapons will be available in Shootmania Storm and creators will be able to integrate them in their game modes. Note: The visual of weapon’s projectiles presented in this article is still work in progress.

The Golden Rocket is back. As a reminder, this weapon shoots rockets that bounce on different surfaces.

The Missile follows the player you shoot. Warning! There is no garanteed success. A good player with agility in motion will be able to avoid your missile.

The Hunter is dedicated to elimination. It will give you the possibility to radio control the projectile after you shot it.

The Scout is also radio controlled. You will use it for reconnaissance.

The Golden Laser is a variation of the basic one. It works the same way but causes a “splash damage” when it hits a surface.

The Shield is a uni directionnal shield allowing you to protect yourself and fire back your ennemy’s shoot (note: there is a glitch on the shield when it repulse a projectile at the moment of the writing of the article).

Turrets

Turrets objects are fixed in the ground. They shoot players who find themselves in their field of vision. Turrets are divided in two parts (base and barrel) and both are customizable: you can create your own turrets designs.

New blocks

The Maniaplanet 4 update will bring two new blocks in Shootmania:

• When using the magnetic “Power Path”, you will remain on the path, which will allow you to run upside down!

• The “Nuclear Path” will allow you to automatically take the Nucleus weapon. This action is interesting for defending a zone for instance. However, the Nucleus will not be switched automatically anymore in underground sections.

Cars in Shootmania

Trackmania cars are coming into Shootmania. Your shootman will be able to go in/out from the cars. You will also be able to drive and eliminate them: by shooting the cars, you will damage them and finally make them disapear.

We hope you’ll like these new features and we are in a hurry to see how you will use them. It will be fun for sure! As usual, let’s meet in the forum for any question about this preview.

See you soon!

This week, this article highlights the new creation possibilities for the players. Maniaplanet 4 will bring new tools and noticeable improvements on existing Tools. This way, it will be easier for creators to create and enrich their own games. They will also need less technical knowledge.

On the program: the modules, the editors and the plugins, the title makers, the Manialink, the ManiaScript and the documentation.

Modules

Maniaplanet 4 will introduce the notion of Modules. You should consider Modules as “super librairies”, allowing to add features to gamemodes, editors and manialinks very easily.

Example of module: skill shop
It’ll be possible to add a skill shop in a gamemode. To do this, the creator of the mode must indicate the skills for sell and their buying price. Then he must use the script to handle the bound between the buying act of the player and the shop. Next, the shop will manage automatically the consequences on the players as well as his game interface without the need for the creator to go to the script.

Others types of modules are available, like a customizable scoretable, an inventory or also menus for the manialinks.

One of the biggest interest of the module is that they’re easily shareable. Indeed, each module is saved in a “.Module.Gbx” file. Like this, if you create a gamemode that needs a skill shop for example, instead to create it yourself, you can choose one from the community and integrate it in your gamemode.

Editor of editors

The new Maniaplanet update will unveil the Editor of editors, allowing to create its own editors for Maniaplanet.

An editor must be based on an existing edition engine (example: Map Editor, Item Editor, etc.) and use one or several plugins manage its behaviour.

With the editor of editors, you can create variations of existing editors.

Example 1:
The Map Editor from Trackmania Turbo is a variation from the Trackmania² Map Editor.

Example 2:
The new Mesh Modeler Editor (allowing to create 3D object directly in Maniaplanet) can be used as a base to create a Voxel Editor:

Moreover there is a new “Pixel Editor” based on the 2D Editor, which will allow you to make shield or stickers for cars for example.

Title Makers

Title Makers are a new types of titles that players will be able to create. These titles will allow other users to more easily create titles from those ones.

For example, it’ll be possible to create an “Invasion Maker” Title which will allow to easily create several Invasion titles from different authors, diversifying the content by creating a new campaign, adding new items in the map editor or offering other style elements like menus.

With the release of Maniaplanet 4, all the Trackmania² environments, including Lagoon, will be based on the Trackmania² Title Maker that we’ll provide as an example.

The Manialink going on version 3

Two major modifications to the Manialink are noticeable. First the axis “z” of “pos” (formely “posn”, now depreciated) has been deleted and replaced with the attribute “z-index”. This change is important since it modifies a lot the depth’s management in the Manialink.

<frame id="BG" pos="0 0" z-index="0">
    <quad id="RED" pos="-43 -4" z-index="1" bgcolor="FD0000FF"/>
    <quad id="BLUE" pos="-29 7" z-index="2" bgcolor="0013FDFF"/>
</frame>
<frame id="MIDDLE" pos="0 0" z-index="1">
    <quad id="GREEN" pos="7 -7" z-index="-99" bgcolor="20FD00FF"/>
    <quad id="WHITE" pos="0 0" z-index="99" bgcolor="FFFFFFFF"/>
</frame>

<label id="TEXT" pos="-32 2" z-index="2" text="MyText" textsize="60" textcolor="000" size="14 3"/>

In this example will appear, from the most visible to the least visible: TEXT, WHITE, GREEN, BLUE et RED.

Indeed: At the root level of the manialink we have 3 controls: TEXT with a z-index of 2, MIDDLE with a z-index of 1 and BG with a z-index of 0. TEXT is at the front, then we have all the content from MIDDLE, and at the end the content of BG.

Globally, with this feature, there is no more need to add up the z from the related frames to order their controls. It also enforces the necessity of rigour while creating frames and merging controls.

The second major change is the new attribute “scriptaction”, which allows to directly transfer (without the need to go throught the ManiaScript of the Manialink) the events from a control to the ManiaApp. this will be useful for the plugins, the modules and the editors.

Others changes have been done like posn and sizen which are now depreciated for pos and size, the clipping of the frames with size and align or also pincorners which allow to put the quads in perspective.

The ManiaScript

Autocompletion

The Script Editor will enjoy several improvements like the support of the autocompletion. This autocompletion allow the automatic code writting completion by searching the correct entries in the API, librairies functions and keywords.

If you type “MyPlayer.”, the list will show the members of the related class as well as the functions and all other related members. You will just need to press ctrl+space to invoke the autocompletion. Moreover the autocompletion suggestions are contextual: if you start to write “declare”, the suggestion will be the types and the classes.

Performance Tool

The Script Performance Tool will allow you to know:

• The number of instructions which have been executed for the selected script
• The memory usage
• The number of layers for the scripts having a graphical interface

The scripts using a lot of memory will appear in blue in the debugger.

To watch the performance more carefully, a new tool exists in the form of two functions: tuningstart() and tuningend(). Instructions between the two functions will be monitored and you will be able to extract the data in a report showing each line of code with its processing time.

The debugger itself has been improved to display in a more explicit way errors or places causing issues. If the script encounters a blocking execution issue, the debugger will display the entire callstack even if one of the errors is located inside a library.

Finally, several improvements including the runtime and the compilation of the script have been made, which can make the loading faster.

Revamp of the documentation

And to help in these changes, the Maniaplanet documentation has been one more time entirely revamped, in its design and its organization.

See you soon for the next Maniaplanet 4 preview!

Note: All images are Work In Progress.

Hello everyone,

Today, we are very pleased to present this second preview of Maniaplanet 4 which will be including a sneak peak of:

• How to promote your “Title Pack” on the Web?
• Clubs creation and management
• The new Maniaplanet chat

“Title Pages”: automatic websites to promote your “Title Packs” on the Web

At Nadeo, one of our goal is to give creators the possibility to better promote their “Title Packs”.

Thus, when a “Title Pack” is published with Maniaplanet 4 on the Maniaplanet store, a mini website is automatically generated and published on the web: the “Title Page”.

These “Title Pages” can easily be customized from the “Title Manager” which will be accessible on maniaplanet.com website. You will mainly find the same features as of today plus new ones as:

• Images upload and hosting,
• Admin management,
• News posting,
• Statistics.

Images upload and hosting Zoom at 50%

News will be written and posted directly from the “Title Manager”. They will be posted on maniaplanet.com, the “Title Page” and in Maniaplanet.

Statistics will be accessible from the “Title Manager” too. You will find stats about your “Title Pack” that will help you know the activity on your title.

Clubs creation and management on the Web

With maniaplanet 4, you will be able to create and manage your own club. A club gathers players sharing the same interest for an activity like, creation, competition or/and rock’n roll for instance. Topics may be infinite! Besides, a club doesn’t need to have a team. You could only have individual members.

Clubs will be created, managed and diplayed from maniaplanet.com

Each club will have its own customizable webpage (emblem and header page). The Club webpage will give the following info:

• Club members and teams,
• Competitions and/or matches played by the Club,
• Results.

The Club Manager will have a panel of tools to manage its players / teams / admins / matches and competitions.

The new Maniaplanet chat

The new chat plugin code has completely been written again. The improvements done on the chat server and in the Maniascript allow an important gain of performances (50%).

Design
Design will change in order to give a better sight on your friend’s info and a bigger text zone.

Conceptual image

Notifications
The notification system has been redone too and gives now more details like the type of notification.

Chatrooms
The major update is the chatroom support allowing you to discuss with several users at the same time. Besides, you will have the option amoung others, to:

• Add a user in your friends’s list
• Join a user’s running game

XMPP clients compatibility & multiline messages management
The new maniaplanet Chat will be compatible with external XMPP clients and will allow the message of multiline messages. In nutshell, it means that it will be possible to connect to the chat server with an external communication soft such as Jabber, Trillian ou Psi for instance, and then to communicate with your friends and in chatrooms without the Maniaplanet client.

The Internet chat client

The chat will be accessible from the future new maniaplanet.com website

More features are expected to come to Maniaplanet 4 (for the beta, the release or after the release), so stay tuned to hear about them!

Have fun and see you on the forum for any questions you may have!

Hello everyone,

After three months of development on Maniaplanet 4, it’s time now to start our preview phase. Until the release of the beta, we’ll be posting previews, highlighting the key elements we are working on. For today, our preview 1 focuses on performances and rendering in Maniaplanet 4. Hope you’ll enjoy it.

Maniaplanet 4 will show major technical improvements to the Maniaplanet engine and especially on:

• processors and GPU performances,
• building blocks optimization,
• loading times,
• lightmaps rendering.

All theses changes will result in a faster and more powerful Maniaplanet system which will enlarge player’s possibilities of creation and offer a better gaming experience.

Better performances

We’ll switch the engine’s graphical API from DirectX 9 to DirectX 11. This change added to a better use of processors (especially multi-core processors) will allow better general performances in Maniaplanet 4.

As you can see in these pictures, there is a visible gain of frames per second***:

You can also count on an improvement of performances and a better framerate in Virtual Reality.

Building blocks optimization

In Maniaplanet 4, environments blocks will be optimized to reduce the size of maps and their loading times, framerate and lightmaps computing times.

1/ Blocks size will decrease.
You can see in the table below, the block size variation between Maniaplanet 3 and Maniaplanet 4*.

2/ In Maniaplanet 4, depending on the distance between the block and the player, the LOD (level of details) displayed on the block will vary.

3/ The quality of blocks modelisation will change too. If you choose “Very fast”, blocks will slightly be of lesser quality than in Maniaplanet 3. But, the “Very nice” option will ensure a better quality with no additionnal ressources than before.  At last, in some situations, non visible sides of blocks will be deleted.

Maps faster loading times

Maniaplanet 4 will significantly improve maps loading times, mainly during the first loading**. These gains on time are possible thanks to:

• operations taking advantage of multi-core processors, such as decals generation or script compilation.
• several modifications made on the very process of loading maps,
• the increase of datas precalculated when you open an environment.

Further more, it is notable that this loading time optimization comes with a greater computer data storage which will accelerate loading times between maps.

The table below gives examples of loading times. Durations are estimated and vary with computer configuration and alpha status of Maniaplanet 4. Here are averages after 3 tries.