Trackmania Nation track editing tutorials

For those of you interested in doing a bit of editing for Track Mania Nations and creating your own tracks, here are a couple of video tutorials that show you how to do some of those cool little shapes you see in game. Because there aren't any prefabs for these shapes it leaves you wondering how they were created, it's actually quite easy as it's based around being able to 'paint' your track sections in to the main stadium space.

The following tutorials show you how to make a 'circle', 'double circle', 'oval' and 'crosier' all of which have those inner 'bumper rings'.

Basic actions are to select the 'straight' prefab and then left mouse click hold to drag out a continuous strip of track. When you draw out your track like this you don't need to rotate the prefab because the track automatically orientates itself in the direction you've dragged out the section.

These track editing video tutorials show the basic principle behind using the track editor to build your own custom tracks; if you keep the LMB drag principle in mind you'll soon figure out how to drag out strips and blocks of track for other things such as the buildings and inflatable objects (those big red things).

Circle track section ^

Circle are created by first selecting the 'flat track' section. Once this is selected it's then a simple matter of left click hold and dragging the mouse in one direction to lay down a length of track (you can only move in one direction when 'track painting' like this). This action will lay down a section of straight track, the basis of many shapes and forms for track editing.

Once you have one section laid out, you then place the mouse near one end of the new track section and drag perpendicular (at right angles) to it, the editor will automatically 'connect' the track sections together with the appropriate corner; you don't need to add it yourself.

All you then need to do is follow the same steps above and draw out another track section perpendicular to that last. As soon as you add the last segment and the editor adds the corner you'll end up with a circle with the small 'bumper' in the centre.

Oval track section ^

The oval track section uses the same method as the circle described above except that two sides of the section are extending a little further than for a circle. The result is an oval shaped segment with an elongated 'bumper' in the middle of the track.

Double Circle track section ^

Using the same method as with the oval (elongated circle), draw out a complete section; this forms the basis of the double or multiple circle track section.

Once you have this section in place you need to draw another track section across the width or narrowest part of the track; the editor will again automatically add in the correct components to 'finish' the track section, resulting in two circles connected together with 'bumpers' in the middle.

You may find that you need to redraw one half of the track because, being locked to a grid, you can only lay track out per grid unit; your original layout may have been too small to get complete multiple circles in which case a simple delete and redraw to extend what's there will be sufficient.

Crosier track section ^

A crosier track section is slightly different to the previous sections in that is uses one of the curve track sections as well as some track painting as described above.

Browse through the prefabs to find one of the 'curve' sections and select it. As with everything to do with track editing, move to a location in the stadium and left click to lay it down; there needs to be four of these, one for each 'corner' of the crosier.

Design note: To rotate the selected section simply right click to turn the object through 90°

Make sure to leave a gap between each section, this is where the 'cross' will be. Once they are laid out browse back through the prefabs and select the the straight track section as used previously. Move the mouse to where the gaps are and drag a path from side to side and top to bottom, the editor will automatically fill and close any gaps to leave a complete crosier track section.