Maps Porting Guideline

Due to various changes in the game engine, tracks from TrackMania 1 are not fully compatible with ManiaPlanet. Depending on the complexity of the tracks, more or less reworking in the editor is necessary. The following checklist shows all changes with effects on old maps and should help with their conversion.


 * 1) Most maps with blockmixing are no longer displayed correctly in ManiaPlanet and have to be rebuilt.
 * 2) Areas without external light (tunnels, closed rooms, halls) are displayed much darker and blocks with lamps have to be added.
 * 3) Animated  signs are no longer supported and must be replaced with  versions.
 * 4) Many links to external media, mods and skins are now dead and must be updated.
 * 5) All references to ghosts with the included national skins must be reassigned as they are now located in the folder Skins\Models (instead of Skins\Vehicles).
 * 6) References to old, incompatible 3D car models (e.g. from Trackmania Carpark) must be removed, otherwise the skin of the player will be reset (this bug has been fixed with ManiaPlanet 4).
 * 7) ManiaPlanet does not support 3D models that are significantly larger than the standard model. When used as decoration, they must be replaced by smaller models or items.
 * 8) ManiaPlanet uses smaller triggers (trigger for GPS, anti-cut, camera change) than TrackMania 1. As soon as you edit a Mediatracker clip the second time, all old triggers are replaced by the new smaller ones at a totally different position. These have to be found and replaced by new triggers.
 * 9) The  of cars in ManiaPlanet is slightly less high than in TrackMania 1. On Dirt it can happen with some models that they go under a trigger without it getting activated. These triggers must be increased by one level downwards.
 * 10) The camera in intros and outros behaves sometimes completely different in ManiaPlanet. In TrackMania 1, it was sufficient when the camera target was set in the initial marker. In ManiaPlanet, it must also be set in the following marker, otherwise the camera goes crazy. For cameras with activated anchor rotation, the coordinate system used has changed from world to local. Additionally, the interpolation of the camera between two markers has changed.
 * 11) ManiaPlanet uses a different font than TrackMania 1. In Mediatracker clips, all the lines and bars created with long-drawn characters (for example, the large I) are therefore misplaced. These must be repositioned. With ManiaPlanet 4 a new font was introduced again. Here it would be better to switch to 2D triangles.
 * 12) Blur effects in the Mediatracker are much too strong in ManiaPlanet and must be adjusted or replaced.
 * 13) In Mediatracker clips, the player names of ghosts must be explicitly switched off, if they are not to be displayed when the player activates displaying ghost names.
 * 14) The position of the car at the start has changed significantly. "Press Forward" starts no longer work.
 * 15) The first time you play an outro, ghosts start slower. "You against author" outros are therefore to the disadvantage of the map author and must be replaced.
 * 16) The automatic calculation of the lightmaps sometimes creates new senseless thumbnails of the map. These must be adjusted manually.