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Mania Creative | Tutorial | Avatars
Custom Avatars |
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Introduction
This what the game says about avatars in the manual:
Your Avatar:
This is the image that represents you…… You can import your own image into the game.
Where to get an avatar for you:
The Internet is full of it... just Google for words like "Avatars","Smileys","Funny video clips" or whatever, you'll be presented thousands of websites with funny little pictures and animations...
Be aware!
You are responsible for the avatar you choose. This image will be transferred and be visible to other players. Don't use images that are shocking, offensive or protected by copyrights.
Part 1 : Authentication & Transfer
In order for others to see your avatar on their machine you will need to make sure of a few things. Is your account authenticated?
What does that mean? In a nut shell you need purchase Trackmania United. You then have a key and you are authenticated.
Older keys are no longer accepted. According to Xymph you can authenticate both United and Nations with the player key from your Steam install. It's in the Nadeo.ini file.
Peer to Peer (P2P)
communication in your game allows your machine to send a packet with your avatar in it to the other players connected to the same server as you. This can be set in the launcher under the Configure/Advanced/Peer ToPeer tab. Avatars are so small there is no need to make a locator unless you are on dialup and maybe not even then.
In the game there is also a setting under Profile/Advanced menu. Make sure the Show Avatars button is lit to see other people’s avatars.
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Port forwarding:
Port forwarding is necessary if a router is between your computer and the Internet. Basically it creates a “tunnel” from the web to the local IP address of your computer and the “ports” to which game is listening/using. This enables others to get skins, avatars, locators and other custom content from your machine. How to do this depends on your router and is beyond the scope of this Tutorial. I would suggest doing an internet search for “port forwarding (insert the name and model of your router here)”.
On a side note, port forwarding is necessary if you are behind a router and want to “Create” a server with the game and have others be able to connect. While I’m not absolutely sure that port forwarding is necessary for avatars, anything else that requires a P2P connection does.
| The ports that must be forwarded can be seen/edited in your TM launcher configuration as well (by default it's Port 2350 (Server) and 3450 (Peer to Peer)). |
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Part 2 : Ingame Avatar converter
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 First select an image and know where to find it on your computer.
Start the game and go to the Profile menu. Left click the Avatar that is in use (or your flag). Another menu will open with a list of avatars that come with the game.
Click “Add Your Own Picture”.
The “Import image file” utility will start. Select it from the location you saved it. Double click it or click “OPEN” after selecting it. Done.
The import utility will convert a JPG, DDS or TGA image to a DDS file (DXT1a) and put it into:
C:\Documents and Settings\(Your Name)\My Documents\TrackMania\Skins\Avatars\
The final size of the imported file depends on the original image size but will be below 50k. If it was small (below 128 pixels either dimension) it will end up 128*128 pixels, and if it was large (over 256 pixels) it will be 256*256 pixels. The image need not be square but it will be made square. |
Why the Ingame converter is not the best tool to use
While high quality avatars can be made using the “Import image file” utility there are a couple of problems that can arise with using it that require processing the image before conversion.
For example look at this avatar. |
When imported into the game it looks like this. |
This is because the import utility treats “True Black” (#000000) in a picture as a transparency mask. This is really stupid, since file formats like TGA can store their own transparency information, not depending on any particular color... So interpreting "true black" as transparent is really senseless...
You could only avoid this by manually changing the #000000 in your picture to something like #010101 before giving it to the importer utility. That's a pretty long winded and annoying approach, so we'll prefer to do all our avatars by hand.
Part 3 : Manual Avatar conversion
For best results, we'll always prepare & convert our images and animations by hand.
Find a nice image on the Internet, like the one on the right :)
Let's say that our original picture is 640*480 pixels in size.
Because Trackmania always displays SQUARE avatars, we select a desired square area on the pictures and crop it, so the picture is reduced to this content...
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Now you can resize your picture to either 128*128 pixels or 256*256 pixels. Trackmania will accept both.
Of course you could save your picture now in a format that Trackmania accepts, but for quality reasons, I'd recommend you save your picture in .BMP (Wind*ws Bitmap) format for now.
Later on you can use specialised programs to get the best conversion/filesize ratio possible. |
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Part 4 : File types, resolution & size
These are the specifications for Avatars. For getting best possible conversion results, you should use the tools mentioned in the Graphic formats tutorial, especially XnView, DDS Converter and Rad Game Tools.
Valid Image types for Trackmania avatars:
JPG, DDS and BIK |
Valid Image dimensions for Trackmania avatars:
For JPG: anything up to 256*256...
For DDS: X/Y dimensions must be any of 2n ... 24=16, 25=32, 26=64 , 27=128, 28=256, just like DDS files always work...
Valid avatar dimensions would be e.g. 16*16, 32*32, 64*64, 128*128 and 256*256.
For BIK animtions:
It's highly recommended you use the same dimensions as for DDS files, this will support compressability a lot.
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Valid Image file sizes for Trackmania avatars:
Below 50kb
That's for single avatar images/animations and for the combined emoticon avatars before beeing zipped.
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Tips for conversion/compression:
In the Graphic formats tutorial you've learned how to convert & compress the different types of files successfully.
When converting your graphics (e.g. the BMP from Part 3 of this tutorial), keep in mind that only DDS and BIK will have transparent areas in the picture/animation, while JPG is good for small file sizes...
DDS compression for Avatars
If your paint program can't handle DDS files properly, first save your image to either TGA or PNG format first (these 2 formats can also store transparency / alpha information). After that, use the "DDS Converter" tool to convert it to DDS.
DXT1A : This compression uses a 1bit alpha value for every pixel, which means: Every single pixel in your image is either 0=invisible or 1=visible. There is no in-between.
DXT5 : Alpha/Transparency values are represented by 8 bits .. which means that there are 256 shades from visible to invisible. Takes more space for compression but can create very nice transitions. The overall texture quality is also better.
ATTENTION!
A rather absurd "bug" has been reported from within Trackmania. If YOUR graphic settings use low texture quality, it's possibility that ALL OTHER people will only see a blurred avatar of yours if it was compressed with DXT5.
So after all ,we recommend you to compress your avatar pictures with DXT1A compression. |
After converting your image, place it into the folder for custom avatars:
C:\Documents and Settings\(Your Name)\My Documents\TrackMania\Skins\Avatars\
If all is well, then it will be listed alphabetically in the game after clicking on the avatar picture in the Profile menu. In some cases you have to restart the game to make the avatar show up in the listing
W*ndows Vista users please refer to the new File Locations tutorial for the right folder.
Part 5 : Advanced "Transparency"
Avatars that don’t seem to have a border or are transparent are very good looking. This effect can be achieved by adding alpha channel information (transparency) to a picture.
Using Alpha channels / Transparency
Let us use the alpha channel to mask out the portions of the image we don’t want to display and simultaneously make the background transparent.
The following examples uses Ad*be Photoshop to create an Alpha channel.
However, The creation of Alpha channels / Transparency areas differs a lot from program to program. We suggest you go look for a specific tutorial for your paint program. |
Starting with the Moose picture... |
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Select the part we want to keep using a point to point selection or some other method. |
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Create a new channel (alpha).
When it is created the new channel will look black, which means = everything is still invisible.
Then I make sure the only channel I am editing is this new channel (Alpha 1) and delete my selection it will look like the picture on the right... |
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What we have achieved so far: The Alpha channel decides what parts of the whole picture will be "visible" or not. The black part will be invisible, but the part (our selection) we deleted out of this blackness will be fully visible.
Save it / Convert to DDS
Look at Part 4 of this tutorial for DDS storage specifications.
Part 6 : Advanced "Animated avatars"
Animated avatars are supported by Trackmania. Try an Internet search for “animated avatars”, thousand of websites will pop up.
You will find there is no shortage of content out there to personalize your profile, most of the animations will be in .GIF format...
Converting an existing animation
to a Trackmania .BIK file is explained in the Graphic formats tutorial, part 7. For avatars, your animation/BIK can also contain transparent areas.
Don't forget that your BIK file has to mee tthe specifications of part 4 of this tutorial.
Manipulating animations / creating your own animations
There are a number of animation software packages capable of capturing video/animation sequences from different sources to your hard disk. That could be a DVD playing software, a video rendering software or whatever...
Basically you can use any video/animation footage (stored in a somewhat common file format) and load it into a software that is made to manipulate these animations.
 Jasc Software has made Animation Shop 3 freely available via their ftp web site. http://ftp.jasc.com/pub/en/ani311en.exe
With this software you can load existing animations and edit them to your needs.
Experiment and have fun. Try opening animated GIFs and playing with them to get the hang of the process.
The best animated avatars are the ones with seamless transitions when beeing played back in a loop.
Part 7 : Advanced "Emoticons"
These are avatars that can change with the use of chat commands. These avatars can be made of either static DDS files or animated BIK files.
Emoticon avatars are stored in ZIP files, and be DDS or BIK files.
Your avatar ZIP file contains:
happy.dds / normal.dds / sad.dds
or
happy.bik / normal.bik / sad.bik
The maximum size of the zipped file still stands at 50kb.
For best results the DDS or BIK files used should total under 50k before zipping. If the total is greater than 50k and after zipping is under 50k the game will try to use it and it is a good bet that a red/black checkerboard will be the resultant image, so you must experiment around a bit with the file sizes before/after archiving them into the ZIP. |
Examples of useage
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That should be sufficient to give you a good overview how to use avatars in Trackmania.
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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.
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