Ready Steady GO!!! and the race is on, and welcome to the ULTIMATE GUIDE OF TRACKMANIA UNITED!!!


A important thing to mention: this Guide is still under construction.

O.k. First of all i want to tell you that this guide is for everyone, both nubs and Pros, everyone can surely learn a thing or 2 from this guide.

About me:
My name is "UnReal Wizard" on steam and "Sungam910" in trackmania. I've played trackmania united for over 1000 hours, so this guide should be "precise" enough.

If you want to contact me, just write to me over steam or TM.

- Nations
- Tips and Tricks

- Customization

- Track Editor

- Medals

- Cuts

- Ranks/Titles - Achievements

- Multiplayer

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- United
- Tips and Tricks to the new cars!

- Medals

- More Customization

- Cuts

- Ranks/Titles

- Multiplayer

- Online stuff

- Your own Campaign

- Track Editor tips and tricks.

Soooooo where should we start?
F.A.Q

1. Controller or Keyboard?
- Well this question is very hard to answer, in theory you can do just as good with keyboard than controller, but controller is just more smooth and easier to master.
- If you play alot of dirtmaps i would recommend controller, because on dirt keyboard is just very hard.
- The most pro people play with controller, but i've seen a few keyboard-mashers like me :).

2. Then how do i get my controller to work to my computer?
- It is not just plucking the USB cable into your computer, you also need to download a software on your computer.

3. Which car should i focus playing on?
- That depends. My personal opinion is that you should focus on the car, that gets you the most attention and interest, but also which car you are good at.

Other questions can be answered by the next contents.

There is so much to say so this page gets it own table of content:
Tricks
- Grasslide

- Bugs

- Hill usage

- Ramp jump

- Ramp flip

- Loop skips

- Brake turn

- Airbrake

- Grass speed

- Combos

Tips:

- Corners

- Loops
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Also a thing to mention is that it is always and i mean always best to stay on the road gaining more speed, than jumping up in the air and not gain any speed.
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Grasslide:

Grasslide is about if you turn your car a little bit over 90 degress in mid-air, if you press forward, brake and that side you want to go to, then when you land you will do a very fast turn by keeping your speed.
This can be used not only on grass, but also on all the different roads.

You can use grasslide if there is a jump in a track and then a sharp turn.
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Bugs:

In trackmania there are many sorts of bugs you can use to your advantage. For examble is there a bug called "rammsteinbug", which might sound a bit strange, but is actually a bug. On the normal road, there are some black stripes out on the sides of the road. These black stripes are actually little bumps that triggers some of the time if you drive over it in a specific way. That is called the rammsteinbug.
If you want to do the rammsteinbug, you need to trigger the bump by turning a bit fast into the bumps, (if you turn slowly it wont work).

Grasslide is actually also a bug.

Checkpoint or finish bug:
This bug is very hard to do. If you drive "under" the checkpoint or finish in the middle (where the black stripe are, you will get the checkpoint/finish.
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Hill Usage:

Hill usage is a method needed for staying on the road while driving down steep hills. If you turn 45 degress to a side, and turning back to straight, you will stay on the road instead of jumping.
It is used for generating more speed and is alot faster.
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Ramp Jump:

Ramp jump is a method for gaining more speed. When you drive up a ramp and go out on the side of it with 2 wheels, the car will tilt and if you also airbrake you will gain much more speed. (go up to the table of content if you wanna find where the explanation about airbrake is).

This method is used in almost every map with a ramp in it.
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Ramp Flip:

Ramp flip is also a method for gaining more speed. Ramp flip is if you drive up a ramp from out on the sides and makes a flip.
Ramp flip is used in tracks where the cars goes high in the air, but it is more important to stay on the ground, gaining more speed.
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Loop Skips:

Loop skips is for avoiding getting up in a loop.
The best way to explain this is with this picture:

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Brake Turn:

Brake Turn is when you go into a sharp corner, and got enough speed to brake while still driving and turning.
Its called "drifting".
The brake turn is always used in a "tech" track.
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Airbrake:

An airbrake is when you get air and brake in under 1 sec, when your car is almost straight.
This technique is for gaining more speed.
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Grass Speed:

Grass speed is when you're driving on grass or dirt, and then turning a bit to the right and left all the time.
The grass speed gains you alot of speed.
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Combos:

1. When you do the ramp jump or ramp flip, sometimes you need to airbrake while you are in the air for stopping you from spinning around or flipping too much.

2. This combo is also called "the uberbug" - when you jump and turn 90 degress falling down doing the grass slide and also gets a rammsteinbug, so you smash into the side of the road and go flying very much. :)
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Corners:

Remember that it is important and always fastest to go as close as possible to the corners when you're taking a turn.
Be aware of the rammsteinbug if you get too close, because it might be triggered sometimes.
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Loops:

It is also very important when you're doing loops that you keep your car close the the middle for a advantage, and for losing some secs :).

O.k. so you want to paint your own car? It ain't that hard :)
You start by clicking on "Editors" and then "Paint a car". After that you just choose a car you want to repaint and let your creativity loose.
When you've saved your car you need to go to "profile" and then "vehicles", for choosing your car as the one you want to drive with.

Actually are there many other things you can do with your car, for examble "shadow paint".

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Shadows:
Shadow paint is a bit advanced, so i recommend skipping this part, unless you really want it.

So this is what you can accomplish:








Step 1. You will need a way to open and edit and save .dds (Direct Draw Surface) files - Photoshop with the Nvidia plugin or paint.net or some external file converters that can read and write .dds files and use your favorite editor. I will talk about using the Nvidia plugin.
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_t ... tools.html
for using the Nvidia plugin with Paint Shop Pro go here:
http://http.download.nvidia.com/develop ... _Steps.pdf
Paint.Net is available at:
http://www.getpaint.net/

Step 2. There are many flavors of .dds files so I will suggest that you download the WTV.exe viewer available on the Nvidia website because it will tell you what type of .dds file you are viewing. This is important because many of the plugins will default to the last type of .dds file that was saved and will not tell you which type was opened (whether it is a DXT1, DX3, DXT5. With or without an Alpha channel ect.)

Step 3. You will need the original Shadow file for the environment available in the:
(YourDriveLetter):\Program Files\TrackMania Nations ESWC\GameData\Vehicles\Media\Texture\Image.
In United and the other Trackmania games it is just about the same.
Well…This is not truly necessary but it gives you the best chance for a good result.

Now for the How To:

Step 1. Open a shadow file. or create a new file (either 512x512 pixels for Stadium or 256x256 for the other environments). They are located in the (YourHardDrive):\Program Files\TrackMania United\GameData\Vehicles\Media\Texture\Image directory. It seems non standard sizes can be used but the game will take the mipmap that is closest to the right size and either stretch it or squish it.

Step 2. Edit the image: this is where you can be creative. Remember that white (#FFFFFF) is transparent or actually it allows all the light through it.

Step 3. Flip the image horizontally(side to side) retaining the up and down orientation. This is important because the shadow is a projection and will have the text backward if it is not flipped.

Step 4. If you use PhotoShop saving the file as a .psd or if using Paint shop Pro a .psp file first before saving/converting it as a DDS file will make it easier to edit later as it will retain the layers such as text and blending options. If using an external converter it is a good idea to save the file to either a .jpg or .bmp or .tga file. These formats won’t retain layers but are usually supported by the majority of file converters.

Step 5. using the Nvidia plugin for Photo Shop is a snap but save the file as a DXT1 No Alpha file. It is at the top of the list. Make sure the generate mipmaps switch is on.( I'm not sure if this is really necessary but it works well for me)

Step 6. Now how to use the file. Create a skin for your car and save it ingame. Open the zip file it is located in (YourHardDrive):\Documents and Settings\(YOURNAME)\My Documents\TrackMania United\Skins\Vehicles\(WHATEVER ENVIRONMENT) and put the DDS shadow file into it.
Rename that file “ProjShad.dds” . This is important because if it is not named this way the game won’t pick it up and the default shadow will be used. So at the very least there will be:
Diffuse.dds
Icon.dds
ProjShad.dds

If the car skin has the geomerty in it too you can put it in the CarCommon directory. Otherwise it will just put you car skin on the default car for the environment.


Step 7. Now go ingame and start up the vehicle selection in your profile. Note! You do not need to exit the game entirely, just the vehicle selection section for changes to appear. If done correctly your new shadow will appear on the rotating car in the preview.

Step 8. Upload the zipped skin to the web. Make sure you have the proper ports open if you use a router. And your shadow will be visible to everyone who has car shadows turned on.

Note! Here is an interesting glitch that is very annoying to others but worth mentioning. If the graphic continues to the edge and is not bordered by white this is what results.

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Custom Cars:
Sooo you can also download custom cars from the internet... I recommend using this page:
http://www.trackmania-carpark.com/

Here are an examble of a custom car:

There are 2 types of Nations Trackeditors:
1. Simple Editor
2. Advanced Editor

In the simple editor you cant express yourself as much as in the advanced editor, so i very highly recommend you try advanced editor. It is almost impossible to make good tracks in the simple editor.

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Advanced Editor:
Here's how it looks like:

Decoration is da best!
I would recommend you try to make these 4 types of tracks:
- LoL - Easy difficulty
- Dirt - Medium difficulty
- Tech - Hard Difficulty
- Fullspeed - Insane Difficulty
And remember that it is very important to make a "momentum" when you try to make a good track.
When i make lol, dirt or tech tracks i almost all the time go after 920 - 1020 pieces - including decoration.

It is always a good idea after you've validated your track to check which times the medals got, because sometimes the medals are not balanced compared to how hard the track is.

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Presentation
If people should be interested in precisly YOUR track, then you need to do a bit of presentation.

I always make a "Intro film" where i show them the cool things in my map, by choosing the "camera: path".

When you make a fullspeed or a tech map, sometimes people cant seem to find out where 2 go, so you can make a "GPS".
You need to record a time, and insert it in the clip you make. "A clip" is when you click on the place you want to have the gps (if they go to that place the gps will be shown).
In the clip you need to make a "camera: race" and focus on the time you've imported from your replays.

If you want a cool name for your track, you can use this website ( http://nickr.brun.pl/ ) and copy the "code" into your textbox, where you name the track. (This can also be used if you want a cool nickname).

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Custom music:
You can also have custom music in your track!
You grow bored of that eternal wind blowing, crickets making sounds, dogs barking, birds tweeting real quickly? Did you have enough of that menu music? Can't you stand one other loop of Alpine's race soundtrack? Have you played TMO, TMS and/or TMN and liked the music there much more? Do you want to have some music playing without having to keep Itunes or MediaPlayer in the background?

Well here it is:

Step 1. Choose the music you want on youtube and then copy the url over to this website:
http://www.youtube-mp3.org/da

Step 2. Download the .mp3 file, and put it in a place where you can find it again.

Step 3. You need to turn the .mp3 file into a .ogg file for trackmania can "see" the file, so go to this website ( http://lame.sourceforge.net/ ) and download the Converter.

Step 4. Open the converter and put your .mp3 file in it.

Step 5. Click on "File" and then click on "Save as". Then you need to save it as an .ogg file.

Step. 6. Go into the trackeditor and find the .ogg music file and open it.

And then it should work.

There are 4 types of Medals:
Bronze Medal
Silver Medal
Gold Medal
Author Medal
These medals can be optained in the "solo campaign".
You can only see what the author medals time is, when you've unlocked 1 black track. A black track can be unlocked by having gold medals in all the other tracks.

Remember that it is always smart to go into camera: behind (press 1), because you get a better overview of what's coming next.

There is 260 Medals in total! 256 if you exclude the 1 hour long black track.
I got 255 medals, so i've enough experience to tell you which ones are easier to get than the others.

Here are the easiest/hardest types of tracks sorted with the easiests first:

1. The Obstacle Tracks - Warning some of them can also be very hard

2. The Race tracks - Recommended

3. The Speed tracks - go close to the corners and gain as much speed as possible

4. The Acrobatic tracks

5.The Endurance tracks

There are many cuts in the solo campaign...
2 well-known youtubers do alot of cuts.
They are called:
1. Just Another Virtouso (Jaw)
2. Nino

Here is a list of all cuts you can do in the solo campaign:
1. A06-Obstacle - Ramp Flip
2. A09-Race - grass slide
3. A10-Acrobatic - Roof hit
4. A12-Speed - Uberbug
5. A13-Race - Skip some track
6. A14-Race - Skip some track
7. A15-Speed - avoiding jumps
8. B05-Race - Ramp Flip
9. B08-Endurance - Skip some track
10. B10-Speed - Skip some track
11. B12-Race - Grass slide
12. C10-Acrobatic - Skip some track
13. C12-Obstacle - skip some air
14. C14-Endurance - Skip some track
15. D02-Race - Skip some track
16. D03-Acrobatic - Skip some track
17. D04-Race - Skip some track
18. D05-Race - Skip some track
19. D07-Race - Grass slide
20. D10-Race - Skip some track
21. D11-Acrobatic - Skip some track
22. D12-Speed - Skip some track
23. D13-Race - Grass slide
24. D14-Endurance - Skip some track
25. D15-Endurance - Skip some track
26. E01-Obstacle - Skip some track
27. E02-Endurance - Skip some track
28. E03-Endurance - Skip some track
29. E04-Obstacle - Skip some track
30. E05-Endurance - Grass slide