The most stunning effects in Trackmania are usually a combination of different single Mediatracker effects.
To give you some better understanding how these effects can be assembled, we will create a GPS for a driving track.
Part 1: GPS
In real life, it's "Global Positioning System", in Trackmania it's just a camera guide which shows you how to drive the track.
A typical Trackmania GPS is a combination of 2 mediatracker effects:
- A 1st clip with a "text" effect, telling you what to do in order to see the GPS
- A 2nd clip with a "camera" flight from the beginning to the end of the track.
That's it. Of course many Trackbuilders spice up their GPS with more mediatracker effects to make it look flashier, but the basic principle is always the same.
That means you should be familiar with these tutorials:
How to insert Text: Text tutorial (not finished yet)
How to insert and handle Cameras:Camera tutorials, especially custom and path.
Part 2: A simple camera GPS
Download the GPS track, open it in Trackmania and drive it once (or record a Mediatracker Ghost) to access the Mediatracker content.
Our test track
Very
easy track consisting of one left and one right turn. Perfectly built
to make a GPS for the people who won't find the way.^^
What we will do
Our GPS will consist of these steps:
lace a trigger for "Clip1" at the start ramp, displaying the text "BACKWARDS FOR GPS" for 3 seconds...
2. We will place a trigger for "Clip2" behind the start. Clip2 will perform a camera flight through the track, and at the same time display the text "THIS IS MY GPS"...
If you are in fact familiar with Mediatracker workflow, the basic structure of a Trackmania GPS should be clear by now... a GPS is nothing "special" or secret, it's just a combination of mediatracker effects, played on different occasions... just like many other stunning effects you've seen in in your favorite authors' tracks.
Clip1 : Text (The announcement that GPS exists)
So let's employ with the easier part of the GPS: The "Backwards for GPS"-text.
This
text shall appear just when the driver starts the race.
Therefore the trigger for "Clip1" must be set at the start ramp of the map.
These are the keyframe values for both, start and end keyframe of the inserted text track.
What is happening ?
As soon as the 3-2-1 countdown is through and the car is ready to drive, Clip1 will play.
Clip1 will play the text "BACKWARDS FOR GPS" for a length of 3 seconds... then it just disappears.
The 3 seconds length is long enough to let people read the message and short enough not to disturb the driving action if someone just wants to drive the track...
Nothing more happens.
Clip2 (the GPS itself)
If the driver reads the text message from Clip1, he will hopefully decide to drive backwards.
Clip2 is inserted and triggered just right behind the start ramp.
As soon as the driver drives back (as told by the text in Clip1), Clip2 will start to play.
Clip2 contains 2 tracks:
One text track saying "This is my GPS" and one track which includes the camera flight.
Text track : "This is my GPS"
Of
course it's possible to add text into your GPS, for example to give some extra information or just to entertain people...
The text block is 7 seconds long (that's the same time the camera flight will take).
The are the text effect values for both, start and end keyframe.
Camera track
Every proper GPS needs some camera flight.
The numbers in the pictures represent the different keyframes of the camera track, representing all the "interstations" of our camera flight.
Looking at the different keyframe values, you'll see that the camera just proceeds forward and leans into the corners a bit.
Hint: Whenever you create these camera paths, use the mouse to set the values for the different keyframes... entering the values by hand is not necessary in 99% of all cases and would consume too much time.
Maybe
you wonderthat our test track uses a "Path camera" and not a "Custom camera" track...
The "Path cam" is the best choice for a GPS system.
Voila ! That's it
As soon as the player goes backwards, the camera flight plays, along with the textmessage. Both will just vanish as soon as their content has played to the end. This is how a basic GPS works...
Part 3: Some general thoughts on GPS
If a track layout has reached a certain complexity, inserting a GPS might be useful. It's pretty annoying for a driver to waste his time looking for the "right way".
On the other hand, an unnecessary GPS can make the author look like a donkey, only trying to show off his skills.
In addition, there are some important questions to be answered, to create a good GPS, which fits your track properly:
When/where will the GPS be available ?
backwards at the start ramp ?
going sideways (into some dead ends) after leaving the start ramp ?
after x seconds of inactivity at the start ramp ?
during a PF (press forward) start section ?
How will the camera flight be like ?
how fast will the camera move ?
how long should be camera flight take ?
from what position shall the camera look at the track while flying ?
will the camera show everything or leave some secrets ?
I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Just like the GPS, many other stunning effects are assembled the same way... Whenever you watch a cool effect, you should ask yourself "How did he do that?". If you read our tutorials carefully, you will know :-)
Part 4: A GPS with a Replay Ghost
Trackmania Forever has a new feature. You're now able to insert pre-recorded Replay Ghosts into your own track, either into your Intro, the Ingame play or the Outro. Of course you can use this Replay Ghost as a sort of GPS... People can watch the Replay Ghost driving around the track, so they know where and how to drive.
How to create a Replay Ghost
As usual. Build your track, drive it and save the replay when you passed the finish line. This saved replay will contain your Ghost for importing it into your Mediatracker.
Hint:
Trackmania will give you some freedom when importing replays/ghosts though. Theoretically you could import lots of different Replays/Ghosts (e.g. to simulate a race of multiple cars in your GPS) and these Ghosts don't necessarily have to be recorded on your latest trackwork build, they don't even have to be recorded by yourself...
That means that you could also import Replays/Ghosts from totally different tracks, letting the Ghost Car drive on non-existant roads etc... This will cause some irritation with the people watching the Ghost Car drive, but it might be useful sometime if you want to create some stunning effects :-)
Download the GPS Ghost empty track, open it in Trackmania and drive it once (or record a Mediatracker Ghost) to access the Mediatracker content.
As you can see, the Track is the same as in the example for a normal camera GPS.
Go to the Ingame Mediatracker and select Clip2 (This one will play when the player drives backwards at the start ramp).
Import the Ghost Replay
Click the button in the picture and select the the downloaded replay .
Insert a Camera Track
Of course you need a camera track to follow your Ghost Replay while it's driving. Insert a "Race Camera" track.
Adjust the Race Camera values
1. Select the imported Ghost Replay as the "Target" value.
2. Select the "Behind" Camera mode.
3. Change the length of the Camera Block in the timeline exactly to the same length as imported Replay Ghost, otherwise the camera won't follow the Ghost all the time !
If you think the Ghost Replay is too long, you can cut it at the end (=make the block length shorter!). Do the same with the Camera track.
KNOWN BUG !
If you make the Ghost block too short, but keep the camera focused on it, the car will disappear, but the car's shadow will still be visible and driving .. that thing is called "Ghost" for a reason, you know :-)
Adjust the Replay Ghost values
If you want, you can change the Ghost's name, it's carskin.Leave the other values untouched.
Now play the track and drive backwards at the start... it should look like this..
You can also Download the finished Track, including the Ghost Replay.
KNOWN BUG
One of the new bugs in "TM Forever" is that, previewing clips (with an imported Ghost) within the Mediatracker will often fail to work properly. This can be troubleful when e.g. placing multiple fixed cameras, which should keep focused on the driving Ghost, because you won't be able to check these clips within the Mediatracker.
It has shown that this bug appears quite often, especially if the imported Ghost was
a) not recorded on the most actual version of your track build ... or if you
b) work with non-default "Start offset" values.
c) work with "Race cameras" (Custom and Path cameras seem to work well, when focusing/anchoring on the Replay Ghost).
d) work in the INTRO or ENDGAME mediatracker
Workaround
Although previewing clips might not work, the Mediatracker content will show correctly when the driving track is actually played (and the Mediatracker events are triggered).
In this case you have no chance but to <change values in the Mediatracker> and <check the their functionality while playing the track> alternately.
Multiple times, you'll have to go into the Mediatracker, change the camera values, go back to the Track editor and play the track (trigger the events) to check if your values are good. This can consume quite a bit of time, but luckily this bug only appears in this special situation.
Part 5 : The Start offset value
The "Start offset" value describes a "seconds" value in the Ghost's own timeline.
A value of "5" for example would immediately jump to the 5th second of the Ghost's driving, when the Ghost Replay starts to show in your own timeline.
What's it good for ?
This value makes it possible to only show temporary situations in which the Replay Ghost is driving.
The same Replay Ghost was imported 3 times, everytime getting a different "Start offset" value and cut to 1 second duration. Each of the 3 different camera blocks focuses on a "different" Ghost.
The result
When going backwards at the start, 3 different camera blocks (of 1 second duration each) are played after each other, focusing on 3 instances of the same imported Replay Ghost.
You can also Download the finished Track, including the Multiple Ghosts.
KNOWN BUG
As you can see in the screenshots, you can rename the imported ghosts, which could help you organising them better if you imported many of them.
Unluckily, the camera focus + anchor don't care how you named your imported ghosts, these values will always show the ghost's original name.
GENERAL HINT
If you encounter problems with "non moving" replay cars in the Intro or Endgame Mediatracker:
Edit your Mediatracker content within the INGAME Mediatracker, then export the clip and import it into the Intro or Endgame Mediatracker. This will save you lots of time.
If you encounter problems with "stuttering" ghost replays while using the "behind" camera mode, consider using a custom camera, emulating the "behind" camera.
If you encounter problems with "stuttering" ghost replays while using the same ghost multiple times (usually the 1st ghost will move fluidly, all others will stutter), enlarge the time difference between the ghosts' offsets (magicly, this can cause the stuttering to stop).
english
MANIA CREATIVE offers online games, electronic computer hardware and of course internet programming services, like for example free music (HiFi luxury) for mobile phones or graphics software. 2D/3D texture models and buying dvds and bluray are supported,too.
francais
MANIA CREATIVE offre créatrice de jeux en ligne, du matériel informatique électronique et de services Internet du cours de programmation, comme par exemple la musique libre (deluxe HiFi) pour les téléphones mobiles ou de logiciels graphiques. 2D/3D texture de modélisation et d'acheter des DVD et BluRay sont aussi supportées.
nederlands
MANIA CREATIVE biedt online spelletjes, elektronische computer hardware en natuurlijk Internet programmeren diensten, zoals bijvoorbeeld gratis muziek (hifi luxe) voor mobiele telefoons of grafische software. 2D/3D textuur modellering en het kopen van DVD's en BluRay worden ondersteund, ook.
deutsch
MANIA CREATIVE bietet Online-Spiele, elektronische Computer-Hardware und natürlich Internet-Programmierung Dienstleistungen, wie zum Beispiel freie Musik (HiFi Luxus) für Mobiltelefone oder Grafiksoftware. 2D/3D Textur Modelle und Kauf-DVDs und Blu-Ray werden auch unterstützt.
italiano
TM offre una creativa giochi online, hardware elettronico e di servizi internet corso di programmazione, come ad esempio la musica gratis (di lusso HiFi) per i telefoni cellulari o software di grafica. Texture 2D/3D modellizzazione e di acquistare DVD e BluRay sono supportati, anche.
türkce
tm yaratici sunan online oyunlar, elektronik bilgisayar donanim ve ders internet programlama hizmetleri, ücretsiz müzik cep telefonu veya grafik yazilimi (HiFi lüks) örnegin gibi. 2D/3D doku modelleme ve DVD satin alma ve bluray de desteklenmektedir.
