Maniaplanet Forum

I completely disagree with what you think 'makes a game'. I could site counter examples, but here's the short version: What really makes a game is some factor that keeps people playing. An achievement, explicitly defined or not, that is long term, and somewhat difficult to reach. Games like this are what you make them; you set your own goals to achieve. Who plays a game just because they like the way the menu looks? But, I digress.

I do like this feature, but a lack of implementation will not cause me to pass up this game. I think it will give a sense of streamlined unity to the menus that a rotating planet doesn't do as well. Like I said before, the menus don't need to look OMGAMZING to have a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

smwforever45 wrote:

TorbenX wrote:will everyone really look at it? I mean, you want to race/build if you start TrackMania...

Maybe you don't know what tracks you want to race on. The background could give you an idea what track to drive on, so you're saving lots of time which it would normally take to find a good track in your track collection
But you also could just ignore it and do what you want to do. You could go into the editor, play a track in the Solo campaign or go on a server like normal, the background wouldn't affect that

I know. But maybe it is nice to turn the option of this moving background off for those who are in a hurry.

TorbenX wrote:I know. But maybe it is nice to turn the option of this moving background off for those who are in a hurry.

Why would you need to turn that option off first if you could just skip it without even looking at it? Would the background attract you so much that you forget about the time? If I was in a hurry, I'd ignore everything and go where I want to go, not get sidetracked by a background. No matter if it shows a track, a globe or whatever.

smwforever45 wrote:

TorbenX wrote:I know. But maybe it is nice to turn the option of this moving background off for those who are in a hurry.

Why would you need to turn that option off first if you could just skip it without even looking at it? Would the background attract you so much that you forget about the time? If I was in a hurry, I'd ignore everything and go where I want to go, not get sidetracked by a background. No matter if it shows a track, a globe or whatever.

How about: it renders long and it will take longer for everything to load? And yes, I've read (like most of us) that Nadeo is trying to make the game work at even the smallest graphic device, but that doesn't mean everything will load faster.

Lightmaps are going to be part of the track file, so the client will not have to render shadows when loading tracks. That will make it faster.

TorbenX wrote:

smwforever45 wrote:

TorbenX wrote:I know. But maybe it is nice to turn the option of this moving background off for those who are in a hurry.

Why would you need to turn that option off first if you could just skip it without even looking at it? Would the background attract you so much that you forget about the time? If I was in a hurry, I'd ignore everything and go where I want to go, not get sidetracked by a background. No matter if it shows a track, a globe or whatever.

How about: it renders long and it will take longer for everything to load? And yes, I've read (like most of us) that Nadeo is trying to make the game work at even the smallest graphic device, but that doesn't mean everything will load faster.

It won't take more than a few seconds (even a huge Crusard track in TMUF only takes about 30 seconds to load, and I don't have a high-end computer), because - as bucky_u said already - shadows won't have to be rendered first. And I'm sure you can wait for a few seconds.

How's about this to make everybody happy? Nadeo loads one or two or a few custom videos as MT already pre-loaded with TM2...and then you have the OPTION to make more if you like. But then with the videos that are pre-loaded, there are no render times. Personally, I liked the background videos of TMU the best.

What about just a stream from TM-tube?

haenry wrote:What about just a stream from TM-tube?

Haha, but what if you have crappy nets?

Actually it was a joke