1 year ago

This month, on the 29th of april, it’s an entire year since the TMU Blog officially closed. 530 posts, almost 250 000 visits and four and a half years since the start.

To celebrate that, I’m opening up the old Tracks I and Tracks II pages again – that’s 147 TMX tracks (from November 2006 to November 2007) rated and listed for you to download and enjoy 😀

Final Post

I know a lot of you have been waiting for this. And now it’s here: the final post!

The TMU Blog was active for two years, and believe me, it was both fun and demanding at the same time. 529 posts (including this one), 3 213 comments, 220 653 hits and countless hours of writing, editing, and, from your perspective, reading.

It’s sad to say goodbye, but as most of you know, it doesn’t really end here. As a result of the TMU Blog, there’s now the TMX Blog – same thing, different (and bigger) package. And, the TMU Blog is still here. With 529 posts there’s a lot to check out, and as those of you who have been around for a longer time know, there are some great articles to read. Take for example our Media Tracker Camera Clips Tutorial, written by Alactor – it’s the single most visited article in the entire blog, with 4 197 page views.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank all of those who contributed with materials over the two years, and all of you who read and commented on the articles. Without you, the blog wouldn’t exist. And thanks to MrA who made it big by “advertising” it on TMX back when the blog started, and who let me continue without asking me to help out on TMX instead.

See you around!

Jozii

The TMU Blog becomes the TMX Blog

In this post I’ll answer some of all your questions 😉

First off, I’m sad no one except TimeBreaker guessed that a part of the “secret plan” was to turn the TMU Blog into the TMX Blog (good job TimeBreaker), and he only did it over MSN, not here on the blog 😛 Shame on you guys!

But yes, you read that right! With all the lowered activity here on the TMU Blog, fewer posts and slightly fewer visitors, it was time to do something about it, and like I’ve said before, closing it would just be sad. So a while ago I talked to MrA over at TMX, and he was all for the idea of “re-branding” it the TMX Blog: change the name and look and make it an official part of TMX. In fact, all that was his idea in the first place!

But that’s not all. A major reason for the lack of activity is the lack of people to do the writing. As you know, I “retired” from the blog months ago, handing it over to Alcator. However, in the long run he too had to face the facts of real life, not having the time to keep the blog active. So how will moving it to TMX make things better? Well, I’m going to make a bigger deal out of letting everyone write! The plan is to invite everyone and anyone to send in their own articles, from long guides and in-depth article series to track reviews, rants  and simple links to YouTube videos along with a few comments. The content will be up to YOU – a blog for the TM players, by the TM players.

How it will work in reality is yet to be seen.

So lets sum things up and answer some more questionmarks:

• The TMU Blog will become the TMX Blog.
• There will be a NEW blog, not the originally planned re-make of this one.
• The old TMU Blog will still be here to read, but no new posts will be written. Basically, the TMX Blog IS the TMU Blog, just with a new host and name.
• The new blog will be United and Nations in one.
• The content of new blog will, hopefully, to a great extent be written by you, the readers.
• There will probably be more TMX-related posts, like what’s going on at the TMX forum or updates on any current TMX contest – but not too much of it!
• There will probably be less of the old stuff, like track reviews on request and Screenshot of the Week, particularly because I will do much less writing myself, though if someone actually writes posts like that, it will most likely be published.

I also have to say that nothing is settled yet. We don’t know when the new blog will be ready, we don’t know how the whole let-the-readers-write idea will work out, we don’t know what type of content there will be, etc.

And last but not least, I of course want your feedback on all this. After all, you’re the loyal TMU Blog readers, and if you want to have a say in things, now’s the time 😀 I’m confident the new blog will be a success, if for no other reason then at least because we’ll be able to reach out to all the TMX members, United and Nations ones alike. But what direction would you like us to take, what relation to the old TMU Blog would you imagine, do you as a reader think you’ll write an article or two, and what do you think as a whole about this entire deal about moving to TMX?

Oh, and a little PS: You’re right, the new skin I added to this blog was horrible, so I’ve changed back 😉

An Exciting Future

Hi everyone! Jozii here 😀

A few days ago Alcator informed me that he won’t be able to handle the blog the way he’d like to. A shame really, and I just have to thank Alcator for the time he did spend on the blog the past few months 😀 If it wasn’t for him the blog would probably have been closed by now.

So I spent some time trying to figure out what to do. Should I look for someone else willing to take it over? Should I go back to blogging myself? The first would probably only work out for a short period, and the latter is out of the question. But then I had an idea!

I’m not going to reveal what it is just yet (as nothing is certain just yet) 😛 However, I wanted to give you a heads up that the blog will – if everything goes as planned – go through a major makeover in the coming time. I don’t know how long it will take – days, weeks or maybe just a few hours – but gradually I’ll be doing some changes and soon enough you will understand what it’s all about 😉 Just keep visiting and you’ll be the first to know!

Also, all this means that I’m back in charge, even if I don’t plan to do much blogging myself. I believe strongly in this secret idea and think the blog will see a healthy growth in the near future.

I’ll keep you posted 😉 In the mean time, feel free to guess what exactly it is I’m planning to do 😀

Press Forward in 2009!

Let’s not keep you from feasting for too long;

Just remember where engines are loud and strong…

I wish you a Great Year 2009!

Wut Ya Got?

Ok, some of you already did have the Christmas Eve supper, some might have already looked under the Christmas tree, and if not, you will do so in the hours to come. So, feel free to brag, share or complain about the presents (or “absents”) that you got. Let’s see who got the most original present 🙂

Video – Star Dust

This post was written by Hastings.

Hello,

Today we have got the pleasure of presenting to you our video Star Dust. We, that is Hastings, FoWNeOx and Dork. It is a video in a 1k style, even if there are less than 1000 cars in there. And we can assure that it is better than most of the 1k out there, that is what we worked for. ^^

This is the story:
In September, Hastings (me ^^) started to drive replays and edit the MediaTracker for the map. As I was really keen on making a video that I and everyone else should like, as I never had much time and as the Muse is rarely with me, I needed a lot of time and the project continued rather slowly, with a few breaks inbetween, but step-by-step in the right direction. In August 2008, the MT work was finally done.

Already in February 2008, I gained FoWNeOx for the project, before his big successes with his Funclip IV video Manananice and his winning presentation video for the PackardBell competition (watch them!): he would do the montage and the post-processing. At last, in September, he could put his hands on the material and start. Within three months, he set up the video and added really cool effects.

For a good atmosphere, you need the right music. During the first MT sessions, I already chose music tracks by Dork, trackmaniac and electronic music artist as “DJ Rkod”. I asked him if I could use his tracks, and he agreed. I asked him again in October if he would like to touch up the music, and he agreed again! So in November, it was his turn, and he did a grand special edit for the video. This is also why you can download the
video music.

And at last, we can present you the results.

What is special about this video?
– We are international. FoWNeOx is French, Dork is from the USA and I am German. Each of us has a different native language.
– The music was composed by a trackmaniac: Dork.
– The atmosphere is very different from most of the videos out there.

So without further ado, here are the video and music links:

Video Links:

LOW QUALITY (STREAMING) :
TM-Tube : http://www.tm-tube.com/video/4453/stardust

MEDIUM QUALITY (STREAMING) :
Vimeo : http://vimeo.com/2498447

HIQH QUALITY (DOWNLOAD) :
Megaupload: http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=ES3YM94S
Free (limité à 30k/sec pour les non-freenaute) :
http://jeremy.fowneox.free.fr/fichiers/Stardust.zip

Music Links:

MI7 SITE DE DORK: http://community.mi7.com/profile/7943

MUSIC FROM TRAILER (MP3): http://www.archive.org/download/DJ_Rkod_-
_Sunset_Bleeds_Distortion/01.The_Calm_And_The_Storm_vbr.mp3

MUSIC FROM VIDEO (FLAC): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BDNGGMJN

Have fun watching!

No time to post…

I’m terribly sorry for the recent inactivity, it was (and is still) caused by the workload and demanding family life, which I of course prioritize over TM.

There will be a cool post coming on 22nd of December, and some Christmas themes are due between 24th and 31st, though.

Anyway, should you not visit the blog next week, then

I wish you the very best Christmas and Full Throttle in 2009!

TMX Monthly Track Contest revived!

Just a quick promo message:

Jozii has revived the popular Monthly Track Contest over at the TMX. If you like trackbuilding, be sure to check out the official rules and try building something that fits. I know I will. 🙂

Interview with Mr.A about StarContest

Few weeks ago, I asked Mr.A of TMX (the largest track-exchange server for Trackmania) few questions about StarContest. Today, you get the chance to read the answers…

(Al)Q(ator): When did you first learn about Nadeo’s plan for a community-built campaign?

(Mr.)A: It was in the build up to the the release of the Forever games. We had alot of chats with Nadeo about it and actually the StarTrack Contest might have happoned much earlier in the year. The original idea was to do it with the beta version of United Forever, but for various reasons that diddn’t happen and so we decided to wait until after the summer (when people are less likely to have holidays booked during the contest).

Q: Have you had any influence on the structure of the competition, or did Nadeo already have the rules pretty much cast in stone??

A: It was Nadeo’s idea for a rounds based contestest where builders are eliminated at each stage. I guess you can liken that to the way those TV shows work where a contestant is voted out each week. The detail of the schedule, the way tracks are named, the rule set, all that stuff was a collaboration between us. Quite alot of things changed from the orirginal plans becuase you really only start to realise how things need to be when you are trying to put the whole thing together.

Q: How much coding (code lines, scripts, database structures) were needed to allow for the competition?

A: I dont know about lines of code, but it was a huge ammount of work. Buzz made the initial work on the allocation program and then Ricardo Rix picked that up, finished it, built the front end presentation and the way TMX handles the changing stages of the contest through the rounds. We spent weeks and weeks with him coding, then me running simulation contests (we had a button to randomly enter people) and reporting back with what happoned and how things looked or worked.

Q: How long did the coding and other tasks take before the competition was announced to the public?

A: Well, the idea was always to be ready before Forever came out, so we were ready by then. I think it was 2 or 3 months in developement, as we knew right from the first rumblings of the Forever update that we might do a contest… not a bad length of time to keep a secret 🙂

Q: Are there any plans for some special TMX awards for those who either make it into the campaign or make it to the final few rounds?

A: Nothing like that is planned at the moment, but we will see. We still need to decide how we will deal with the Star tracks once the contest is over. (ed.: As it turned out, several TMX mugs were distributed to the finalists and some of the best drivers on the finalists’ tracks. Also, as you may already know, Nadeo promised an ingame TAG for PapyChampy as the ultimate winner.)

Thanks to Mr.A for answering the questions!