Trackmania-RPG

Introduction
Nearly every RPG is built with a mod. Maybe you want to build an RPG by your own but you do not want to choose an already existing mod. In the following tutorial I am going to explain step by step how to make a good mod.

Before starting
Before you can start modding you need of course a graphic program.
You can use Photoshop or GIMP but these programs need a dds(Format of TM graphics) Plugin or DXTBMP. I am not going to explain that anymore, because it is much easier to start with Paint.net. This program is very userfriendly and it is perfect for your first mod.
Download it here: PAINT.NET

First steps
Open the following folder:

D:\Program Files\TmUnited[Nations]Forever\GameData\Stadium\Media\Texture\Image

You will now see a lot of files. Don´t be scared You don´t need all of them, in fact you need less than the half.



Now open Paint.net. You should now see this screen:





Getting started
Load any texture you want from your “Image” file and start modifying:
In my example I loaded StadiumRoadD.dds, later there will be a screenshot with the most important textures.




Changed to: (example from GM)




To change the textures you can use the tools of the toolbar at the left or you can play with the adjustments and the effects.
When you make something wrong, just press Ctrl+Z to remove the previous step.




You can also use already existing textures. The stones in GM for example are existing textures.
You can get a lot of textures from these sites:
NOCTUA Graphics Website
[CG Textures] - The worlds largest free texture site
Mayang's Free Texture Library
Textures library - free surfaces for 3ds Max, LightWave
You can also google for textures!

Pack it into a zip for installing it
First put all of your changed files into a file you must name “Image”:




Then right click on “Image” and then click on “Add to archive” To click this you must have WinRar installed
The name of the archive will be the name shown in TM. The created archive must be a zip archive:




After this step you must place your “Mod Tutoral.zip” file into the following folder:
My Documents\TrackMania\Skins\Stadium\Mod
If this folder doesn´t exist, just create it

If you made everything correctly you can now choose your mod when you start building a track.

Improve the mod

Icon:
You can also create an icon what will be shown over the mod name in TM.
To create an icon, simply create a new project with the width and the height of 256x256px.




You can now fill in this square with anything you want. When everything is done save it as “Icon.dds”.

Then you have to pack your zip-archive again but this time mark the Folder “Image” and the file “Icon.dds” and click on “Add to archive”. Then you must repeat the old steps.

Loadscreen:
To make a loadscreen for your mod just create a new file as in “Icon” but this time with width and height of 1024x1024px. Just edit it how you want. You can also use pictures from google (same for the icon).
Then save it as “LoadScreen.dds” and put it into your “Image” file. Then pack your archive again.

Mood:
To change the mood(s) of your track open the following folder:

D:\Program Files\TmUnited[Nations]Forever\GameData\Stadium\Media\Texture\Moods

Now you can first open the "Cloud" files to change the clouds (Day/Night Clouds)
When you did this open the folder of the mood you want to change, for example "Day".
The most important file in this folder is "LightSun.tga". When you change it, the sunlight color will chnage. Also the "GrassPC0.dds" the "GrassPC2.dds" files are important. Because you will still see a green shining when driving over your (for example) yellow grass, when you don´t chnage that files, too.
To add these changes to your mod you just have to zip the "Image" folder, (the "Icon.dds" file) and your new "Moods" folder in "Modname.zip" archive. Then install it.

Finally create a locator
The mod will only be shown by other people when you create a loacator.

Everything to this topic in Tecfans turorial

Screen of the most important files you need



Click to enlarge

When you do not know the name of a texture you want to change and it is not shown at the screenshot, ask in comments, I will answer.




For Photoshop owners or users of the free trial-version, I recommend the following tutorials which can help a lot:
Creating a seamless texture using the offset filter. For example making textures for StadiumCircuitD.dds is a lot easier with this method.
Using the MatchColor-adjustment to give your textures a universal color appearance.
Blending in and out certain parts of your textures, making it very easy to combine multiple textures

Made by: Brainshaker