The construction field

[Mac_Matrix]

in the interview the guy said that the size is the same as in island. But i think he ment the Block size compared to the car.

He did. He said the size of the blocks is the same as Island's (in order to tell people that the blocks aren't 'narrow' as had been speculated) but the actual construction area of the map looks to be quite large.

I doubt it being any smaller than previous versions of Trackmania; if the block size is the same as Island, then it's likely a similar-sized playfield is in use as well. I could be wrong though.

[Hylis]

The 32x32 is better for the 'octree' than using inbetween power of two size, so we optimise also like this (instead of selection another dimension between 32 and 64) and if we move from 32x32 to 64x64, it makes 4 times more blocs on the ground (1024 to 4096) Then if you want to fill 3000 additionnal spaces to have your scenery 'not flat', the bloc costs too much for this on Canyon. It may create trouble in memory as well for the 2 Go 32 bits limit, or a least make it too difficult for small configurations.

We have then decided to go with 32x32, like the first TM and stadium. We feel it safer to start with even if I recognize that having bigger construction field is cool. We even developped a special technology to optimise it for 64x64, but I still feel it too risky to do it.

The bloc size of Canyon are 64x64, like Island indeed, but the car speed is quite lower from it.

[Toninus]

So we can still hope this for a future extension... When PCs will be better.

But for now I think 32x32 will be enough...

[Akbalder]

Maps are often better when they are compact.

[Toninus]

It depends of the environment...
For contests like CMC it's better to have a lot of space...

[tcq]

I like them more compact, because that forces you to build a map in a clever layout. You need to be able to get your clear way layout and to use the same ways in a clever way to construct the scenery
But thanks for the information about the actual map size Hylis.

We have then decided to go with 32x32, like the first TM and stadium. We feel it safer to start with even if I recognize that having bigger construction field is cool. We even developped a special technology to optimise it for 64x64, but I still feel it too risky to do it.

Would love to hear a little bit more about this technology. Is it an algorithm which forms the outside scenery to the actual map size, as we discussed it here?

To keep the map size acceptable to all other players, you need to set a maximal limit of places where you can build blocks in the grid (e.g. 60x60x20 or so). If you change this factors, the actual scenery outside of the map building space needs to be integrated as well (thinking about the city in bay, which you can see in the background). For this you need to shrink the outer scenery (where you can't build anything) to your map size, to get a benefit for maps with smaller size (because the calculation of distances to the scenery costs you calculation power) then the actual maximum (as in TMU, you can build in a small section, but the maximal building space stays the same and therefore the angle of your view to the surroundings).

[eie]

Would be nice if you maybe could choose how big your map could be?
But I support the decision and see how the game develops, but I still think it would be nice to maybe have the number increased after a while, because I think more space could improve the quality of some types of tracks =)

[Cisy_H]

I think an option wether you'd like to have 32x32 or 64x64 will work out pretty good. People with low spec PC's can choose 32x32 and people with more high performance pc's can select 64x64 ^^

[Trackmaniack]

Yes, but I'm pretty sure that, technologically speaking, it requires more than simply pressing a button. There's a -lot- of coding, and wouldn't the game read the larger maps as a completely different beast, so to speak? So even if you made a smaller track, you couldn't just plop it in the middle of a larger field and be good to go...

[Cisy_H]

I didn't think about playing other maps. I only thought about the editor xd