Questions and answers

[Mandark]

These blocks exist: They are the techno blocks which ended up showing in SM, but in a little bit different form than in this artwork.

[luftisbollentm2]

can you show us the unreleased blocks ?, i guess not becouse it make us whant them more
but maybe you can give us a number of how many blocks that is unreleased (canyon)

[Hylis]

Eyebo,

The biggest challenge is the complexity of it. To make something is already difficult nowadays, compared to all the features you are looking for, but enabling players to make by themselves a lot of these, to be capable to evolve with it, to have it scalable for many PCs and robust up to eSport is quite complex and difficult. The size of Maniaplanet is huge, even if we thankfully have masters of it at the studio.

Yes, the balance between lm quality and size was a project in itself. We made various compression algorythm, input/output, bits, ranges and specific optimisations etc. I think we had more than a dozen of test cases at the end to compare. We know how to still improve, but these are massive and complex subjects.

the master server infrastructure has been rewritten from Forever in many ways, to adapt it to mutiple titles and custom titles. Took some years to finally achieve it. It started in 2008 and ended in 2012 for most features.


Btw, I was away for some time, good to be back ^^ sorry for all the un-answered questions. I would have too much to do and will rather answer questions if they are ask again. Even more that you may had some answers since then.

[TheM]

Btw, I was away for some time, good to be back ^^ sorry for all the un-answered questions. I would have too much to do and will rather answer questions if they are ask again. Even more that you may had some answers since then.

Welcome back!

[Akbalder]

Btw, I was away for some time, good to be back ^^

Where did you go in holiday?

[eyebo]

Thanks for the answers Hylis! It's very interesting. It helps me appreciate the complexity of what your team has accomplished so far even more. Keep up the great work.

[tesche]

Will it be possible in the future to rotate blocks as we can rotate objects (e.g. 45°, around the z-axis)?

[luftisbollentm2]

you can rotate custom blocks (own created blocks) if you know what to write in the xml file.

they can give us a blender map editor if they want - but i don´t think many will build tracks anymore

you can create a whole track in blender and import it as a block
but the hard part is to get the texture right for the track ^^

[Omnixor]

he wants to rotate BLOCKS, reread his post, he knows about objects, that's why he was asking.

[TMarc]

he wants to rotate BLOCKS, reread his post, he knows about objects, that's why he was asking.

This is neither a question nor an answer.

Will it be possible in the future to rotate blocks as we can rotate objects (e.g. 45°, around the z-axis)?

This is an interesting idea.
Some diagonal road blocks would be very nice (in TM Coast there are a few).

For regular connectable blocks, it will not be possible easily, especially as long as the grid is based on squares or rectangles. And since the diagonal is always longer then the diameter of a square, blocks with 45° rotation would need different aspects at the uneven degrees.

Hoewever, some blocks could be rotated, if their boundary do not cross the grid dimensions, and if they don't have to interact with other blocks (e.g. no connectors). Mostly decoration blocks could be rotated, if they don't reach inside the next block, or also here some dynamic cropping has to be performed at the edges.
To make them fit again perfectly into the grid.