Title packs documentation

Discuss everything related to custom data creation.

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Nadeo
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Title packs documentation

Post by xbx »

Hi all,

So I'm going to try make some documentation about the title packs creation... you'll find it in the documentation site: https://doc.maniaplanet.com/title-pack/ ... title-pack
Last edited by TMarc on 12 Jul 2017, 19:07, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: updated link
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examples

Post by xbx »

So as a first example, here is a very simple pack, the glorious solitaire card game.
(it's by no means perfect - and quite far from it, being an old example script we update from time to time, but that's better than nothing... )

The pack is here:
http://files.maniaplanet.com/ManiaPlane ... e.Pack.Gbx
and the source files I used to create it for your dissecting pleasure:
http://files.maniaplanet.com/ManiaPlane ... ck.src.zip


As a second example, the Canyon Platform Pack.
(It's not the exact same files as in the final platform pack, I used older data I had on my drive, and I removed most of it to make it smaller. But the scripts, on the other hand, are the exact same versions as in the final platform pack.)
http://files.maniaplanet.com/ManiaPlane ... ck.src.zip
Akbalder
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Re: Title packs

Post by Akbalder »

Thanks for the informations. :thumbsup:

A quick question: What do you think deserve to be in a title pack? I can't really see the advantages of using a title pack for something which has no solo campaign.
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Re: Title packs

Post by iyumichan »

I wish to pack some horns, signs and avatars with my title. Is it possible to support that in the next update?
Last edited by iyumichan on 26 Jul 2012, 14:11, edited 1 time in total.
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ManuueL
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Re: Title packs

Post by ManuueL »

I have some questions.

You made a Title and other player downloaded it and payed ingame for it.
Now if the creator of the title updates it, then all the other players get the Update too?

And why should i make an own title for good Modes?
It always needs a lot of time to change for example from Elite to Joust.
And does Nadeo support the publish of good Titles from the Community?
Or how should i get a lot of Players who play my own title?

And i created many useless Packs, when is there the feature to delete them? :D
Also it would be great to rename created titles.
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Re: Title packs

Post by xis101 »

Will it be possible one day to include custom blocks? and when? :P
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Re: Title packs

Post by xbx »

Akbalder wrote: A quick question: What do you think deserve to be in a title pack? I can't really see the advantages of using a title pack for something which has no solo campaign.
That would be a good question for the philosophy graduate exam.. ;)
Everything!
The advantages (or drawback depending on your pov... ) would be separated ladder, servers, ... So you can customise the mod, music menus, to have a special experience of playing a special game.
And of course we'll keep adding customisation/modding features.
xis101 wrote:Will it be possible one day to include custom blocks? and when? :P
That's an example of what we will be adding.
So yes, of course.
when? when it's done... :mrgreen:
iyumichan wrote:I wish to pack some horns, signs and avatars with my title. Is it possible to support that in the next update?
It's already possible, just add them to the contents of your title.
I'll explain the files section of the title.xml in an other post.

ManuueL wrote: You made a Title and other player downloaded it and payed ingame for it.
Now if the creator of the title updates it, then all the other players get the Update too?
We're really lacking for this.
at this point I think you cannot do anything...

What's working but is missing some ui or management page, is to disable older versions of the pack. --> people trying to use old version will get an error message and the link to the manialink page to get a new version.
So that should be available in the not too far future.

ManuueL wrote: And does Nadeo support the publish of good Titles from the Community?
Or how should i get a lot of Players who play my own title?
I don't know (not my expertise), but I don't think that's planned.
To get players play it, that's easy!
step 1: make it good.
step 2: make some advertising (There's a "mania ads" thing - I don't remember the exact name)
step 3: profit... :pop:
ManuueL wrote: And i created many useless Packs, when is there the feature to delete them? :D
Also it would be great to rename created titles.
You're supposed to be able to rename the "nickname" of the title (the name field in the form), when you update the pack. But maybe this doesn't work? I don't remember trying to do it, but it is suppose to work.

As for having to many pack and wanting to delete them, I see what you mean.. :roflol:
Yeah that really need to be sorted out.
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Pack contents

Post by xbx »

So to include data in the packs:

There's the simple but limited way:
  • just use the add button on the contents section of the pack editor, and pick a file you want to add.
  • And to remove, unfortunately, the only way is to click "clear".. That will remove all the files you've added and you can add them all again.

And then there's the "fiddling with xml" way.
Here is a snippet from the solitaire example I'm going to explain:

Code: Select all

	<files>
		<file name="Media\Manialinks\PackSolitaire\index.xml" public="false" internal="false" />
	</files>
	<folders>
		<folder name="Media\Manialinks\PackSolitaire\skin\" public="false" internal="true" />
	</folders>
In the file section, there's the list of files that are manually added to the pack. (that what the "simple way" edits)
  • name is the file path from your "My Documents/Maniaplanet" folder.
  • public defines whether or not the file is legible by someone who hasn't bought/unlocked the pack yet.
    for instance the packaging data is automatically added to the pack with the public flag, because the box case needs to be displayed to people who haven't installed to pack yet.
    But otherwise the meat of the pack is usually private.
  • internal defines whether the file is to be exposed in the ui, or if it's only referenced by some other data.
    So for instance if you add a map with the internal flag, it won't appear in the menu "edit map" or "play map". But it can be used by a playlist or a campaign.
    Or if you add a skin with the internal flag, it will be avaible if some ghost in a replay uses it. But it won't appear in the profile vehicle selection for the player to choose.
    (that's what happens for the files that are extracted by the dependencies finder, so if you add a map with a MT with a skinned car, the skin is included as internal file and not available for the player. If you also want the player to be able to select it, you have to add it in the files section.)
And there's the folders section which does the same but for all files in some subfolder. (and this isn't exposed at all in the pack editor UI)


There is a trap lying here: Your pack may work on your computer but not on someone's else, because you forgot to add some files to the pack, and the game still can find it on your computer.
So you have to test it with someone else computer, or try to clear/rename your maniaplanet folder to test it.

And an other trap: if you edit the xml file, make sure you haven't the game editing this pack at the same time, or else it will not load your changes, and maybe overwrite them.
(no need to quit the game, though, just select an other pack in the pack editor list while you make changes)

And also the game is not very good at coping with files moving around when it is launched. So if you have some files and folder reogranization to do, it's safer to quit the game while doing so.
iyumichan
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Re: Title packs

Post by iyumichan »

Very helpful thank you. Only question I have now is about the music.
I noticed that tmcanyon uses a folder system like race/editor/replay + mood
However I haven't managed to get that working with my custom music.
At the moment I just choose the folder all music is in because the other thing didnt work.
So my question is how do I get it right and what would play when it is just one folder.

So about folders again. If I were to add a folder via xml then it doesn't show any sign of the contents in the content field?

Also can you add scrolling there?

Edit: So I added the horns via folder adding. But it doesn't work. Can't select it ingame even tho I set it to internal false.

If I am adding them as individual files it just removes them from the xml next time I repack.

And via ui it only allows me to add carskins or canyonmods.
Last edited by iyumichan on 26 Jul 2012, 21:00, edited 4 times in total.
Triseaux
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Re: Title packs

Post by Triseaux »

Yop,

I have make an title pack.
How i can send to other for installing ?

Only with the .gbx and put this in ManiaPlanet/Packs/ manually ?
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