Happy New Year!

A year has come, a year has gone. Tonight’s the night when 07 becomes 08.

2007 was a great TM year, although as the year ends many things are left uncertain. The future is the only thing that can reveal the truth about these uncertainties (personally I’m dying for a new TM environment), so let’s all hope for an even better 2008!

Happy New Year, TM Community, and have a very pleasant evening

Christmas Holiday

Today I’ll be off on another vacation, meaning posting is – once again – uncertain. We pulled through last Christmas, and even the summer holidays were pretty stable. However, both those times I had planned ahead, gathering enough material to pre-post. This time is different.

I’d like to wish you a very marry Christmas and a happy new year. Whether I’ll find the time and material to post something during the holidays is uncertain (although not completely unlikely), as is the position of this blog for 2008.

We’ll see how things turn out, but I can tell you one thing: should it be decided that the TMU Blog will be closed for good, we’ve got close to 100 000 coppers to hand out. Got any suggestions on how that could be done in an interesting way? A racing contest sounds to me too standard, but then agin, TMU is a racing game. Another way would be to add the coppers to the TMU Lottery (which I apologize for not having updated in a long time, by the way), which could be more suited for the blog, but perhaps also not as related to the game. Any ideas are welcome!

Also, I won’t be able to answer my e-mail or in-game messages until January 3rd.

So for now, enjoy the holidays

Article – 5 Quick Tips For A Better Looking Bay

This article is a follow-up to Micster’s scenery article about the Sunrise mood. Written by Micster.

Bay can be one of the harder environments to build good scenery in, especially in the Day mood, so here are a few quick tips to keep your Bay tracks looking great, without costing too many coppers.

New Year Style Contest/Poll

Last year we had a little Christmas contest. This year no contest was started on time, but instead a slightly innovative New Year event is hosted. But, it’s not necessarily a contest – it’s a poll in which, in order to vote, you have to make a track representing what you vote for. The best tracks may get awarded on the side…

Basically, the idea is to find out what people want to see more of when it comes to tracks in the TMU community in the coming year. Full speed tracks seem to dominate the field, but what do you think deserve more attention? It could be anything from simply a specific environment, mode or mood to several detailed aspects referring to styles (technical, off-road, etc.), certain innovative areas (innovative transitions, unique stunts, etc) or specific MT stuff – just to name a few.

The possibilities are endless, and while you can only enter one track, the track in question may represent several aspects. Just be specific!

So, make a track and enter it to make your vote. As always, things happen at TMX, so check out this thread for the details. Good luck and have fun

Screenshot of the Week – Week 50, 2007

Screenshot Collection

By -Homie-:

   

By TimeBreaker:

    

-Homie- and TimeBreaker each win 300 coppers for these screenshots!

If you have a screenshot or two, send them to Jozii@pp.inet.fi. All screenshots will get published in the blog, and every week one screenshot is selected as Screenshot of the Week.

Dwelling Stats

Reader ratings are falling, which is quite understandable. I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again, partly to let you know I’m still here: Posting has been slower than usual lately, and to be honest it doesn’t look like it will improve any time soon. With Christmas around the corner and school still a high priority time is of the essence.

I’d like to remind you once again that you can send in your own “stuff” and I’ll have it published (unless it sucks). Anything goes, basically. Look at it as something that will improve your English writing skills, or something that will help you help the TM community.

You’ve probably guessed that you won’t get anything particular today besides this post, and tomorrow is uncertain. I’m not ready to let this blog retire – if I can’t write now I know for sure I will be able to in February and for at leeast the following four months after that, and I’d like to atill have that possibility open. However, with no audience to write for the motivation just wouldn’t be the same.

I guess what I’m really trying to say is that the TMU Blog is likely to be having a break for an unknown period of time (perhaps not starting today, but maybe after Christmas anyway), and that I really hope than when/if the blog returns, I hope you’ll still be there to read it

Track Review – Satanica

Written by Pjotr. 

• Track: Satanica
• Author: Hastings
• Type: Race
• Environment: Island
• Length: 1 min
• Mood: Sunset
• Coppers: 4000
• Difficulty:  Hard
• TMX Awards: 10
• Award Level:  Underrated
• TMX LB Rating: 11.287
• Custom Content: -

Quote:

“If you dare enter, you will be rewarded.”

First Impression

Ooooohhh, looking at the title, reading the quote, then looking at the intro… Mommy I’m scared! What shall happen to me? If I enter this track will I ever get out? Will I ever race again? Will I see my mommy ever again? Shall I try it? Whatever, life sucks when you’re having fun.

XSTC 2 – Results

Phew! You have no idea howtime consuming these events are. The XSTC is now over, and the results are finally here:

ORIGINAL

1. “In A Spin (XSTC) by  Harmony~Brothers” (200 points)
2. “King Cobra (xstc) by  –LooK–” (197 points)
3. “Beat It (xstc) by  DaKKoN” (192 points)

SUNRISE

1. “Roof BLASTER(xstc) by  DaKKoN” (217 points)
2. “Titanium (XSTC) by  Vincent” (196 points)
3. “Unleashed (XSTC) by  clutch32” (186 points)

NATIONS

1. “Valour (XSTC) by  Harmony~Brothers” (191 points)
2. “Beauty Stadium (XSTC) by  Marius 89” (171 points)
3. “xStack (xstc) by  F07Djoszee” (164 points)

TOTAL

1. “Roof BLASTER(xstc) by  DaKKoN” (Sunrise)
2. “In A Spin (XSTC) by  Harmony~Brothers” (Original)
3. “King Cobra (xstc) by  –LooK–” (Original)

For a complete list of tracks and they’re rating from each individual judge, clik here!

PRIZES

DaKKoN – 3250 (2x Top 3, Group Winner, Overall Winner)
Harmony Brothers – 2000 (2x Top 3, 2x Group Winner)
-LooK- – 500 (2x Top 3)
Vincent – 250 (Top 3)
Clutch32 – 250 (Top 3)
Marius 89 – 250 (Top 3)
F07Djoszee – 250 (Top 3)

Congratulate to the winners and give many thanks to the judges! Hopefully there will be a new event in the future, but it won’t be another XSTC I’m afraid…

XSTC Delay

The results of the Xtreme Short Track Contest, due to today, are being slightly delayed. Hopefully they’ll be ready tomorrow

Quick Tip – Changing the Loading Screen

Written by Hastings.

How to change the loading screen

You can very easily change the loading screen of your TMU game.

Normally, you see a grey wallpaper with the TMU logo, like here.

You find this loading screen in the folder GameData/Menu/Media/Texture/Image in your TMU folder (not the one in My Documents). It is called – how convenient – MenuStartUpBg.tga. Now just right-click on this file, click on Rename and add the extension .bak to the filename: MenuStartUpBg.tga.bak. Don’t worry, you do no harm to the file.

Now do the following with the image you want to see as loading screen:

1. Open your image.
2. Resize it to 1024×1024.
3. Click on “Save as …”, rename it to MenuStartUpBg, choose TGA as image type and save it.
4. Put it into the folder indicated above.

That’s all. The next time you load up TMU, you should see your screenie.

Example here.