Custom Music Locator

[Jimbob2k666]

I'm new to trackmania's track making, and so far I have managed to find tutorials for adding your own music to Trackmania 1, which advises putting your .LOC file in the "ChallengeMusics" folder. However, in TM2 there is no folder with this name, instead in the MediaPlanet directory for TM2 this structure seems to be different. So far I have done this process:

• Created a track
• Converted an Mp3 into a .ogg file
• Converted the .ogg file into a .mux file
• Uploaded the .mux file to my own FTP server
• Created a .loc file with the URL inside
• Selected the music file in-game within the editor, validated and saved the track
• Uploaded the track to my dedicated server in "My Maps" and played it online

My problem seems to stem from not knowing where to put the locator file. I've removed the .mux from My Documents to test it but it doesn't download the music track. I know that custom music works already in TM2 as Ive been on other servers which have their own music.

Can anyone please shed some light on this for me?

[TStarGermany]

The locator is a placeholder = It goes where the original would go.

To check whether the locator was correctly used, you can open the saved trackfile in any text editor and search for "http" .. then it should show the file's URL somewhere in the file... or you use GbxFileDumperto check the file dependencies.

[Jimbob2k666]

thanks for the reply. I opened the track with your gbxdump app, and it shows the dependency for music is this..

<dep file="Media\Musics\bad_ego.mux"/>

In the musics folder I have my .mux file, and also the .loc file (bad_ego.mux.loc). the music file "bad_ego.mux" is uploaded to my FTP server which allows for direct downloads, and I've tested this by copying and pasting the URL from within the .LOC file into my web browser and it successfully downloads the file.

Whenever I boot up and edit the track in-game I click on "Advanced Customization Tools" and then click on "Choose Custom Music". From the list, which only has "Default" and "bad_ego", I choose the custom music track (the .loc file is placed in the same "Musics" folder) and then Return to the editor. I then save the project again.

I then remove the .mux file from the "Musics" folder and reboot the game and reload the track in the editor. From there I click validate to test run the track in the hope the music downloads - but it doesn't. Further to this, I upload the new save of the track to the gameserver in the "Userdata/Maps/MyMaps folder" and reboot the server.

Finally, I enter the server and play the track - no download, no music.

I'm running out of ideas and I hope that my description holds the key for you or someone to find where I am going wrong

[Jimbob2k666]

Just for anyone out there wondering the same thing, I seem to have fixed this by not using locators. I simply uploaded the mux file to the Musics folder within the dedicated server files, aswell as custom billboards to the any/advertisements folder and people on the server were getting them downloaded to their client. So, I'm guessing this changes it somewhat from tm1, at least it seems to have! I tested this out by deleting the mux and the custom adverts from my PC (in the mediaplanet folders within my documents) and they downloaded (bar at top of screen) from the server. However, where they downloaded to I don't know as I haven't found them!

[kapsubm]

the loc files seem to act a little bit strange from time to time,
If i cant find my musicpath to my webserver in the gbx file, i just change the music file to another, allready working one- and switch then back after saving and save again.
Most of the time the new locator then works. Why i dont know, sometimes it works first time,
sometimes it needs 20 trys to get a new locator working - funy thing is , if it works one time it will work on any new track...
btw: u can link ogg files also they do work, no need fr conversion to *.mux at this time.