I never really looked at Canyon files for too long because what I wanted to do needed transparency. Anyways getting to the point, lots of things in the engine is drastically different in Stadium2 and while I might want to work on some mods for stadium2 the first thing I have to tackle is just what the heck is going on with the S files in Stadium2?

Has anyone noticed that the old method of doing spec files is completely broken? If you do a spec file like you would in TM1 or even Canyon then youl end up with a completely blinding spec map on the tracks, it still follows some of the alphas but moreover I took a look at some of the official files and all of the spec files are incredibly DARK and strangely tinted red orange or yellow, while I could fiddle around with this and figure it out on my own ( and I will eventually ) i figured I would ask if anyone knew whats up with the new Spec format

The other thing I want to know is the projection map of the old CloudFX is still able to be done, it used to cast cloud shadows but could be changed to all sorts of things. Sometime after the stadium2 official release I was going to update some of my mods and lots of them use this projectionscreen method. hell deepspace disco was built on it! Is it gone for good? ;(

The specular uses the blue channel cut and pasted into alpha.
Here's a pm that might help that I got from Fix at Nadeo when I asked about this a while back.

Fix says:
To create the specular I use the "curves" adjustement from photoshop, by channel. (I work on RGB and swizzle (cut B -paste into A) when done...well I did fore years, now I work in RGB and our tools do the swizzle when creating the dds.
I boost up the areas I want to shine and lower the others. I most of the time don't use a copy/paste or contrasted version of the diffuse, it will give a cartoonish look or at least irrealist.
A negative base works well on concrete.
I also like to raise the mediums, lower the brights, and if the diffuse has photosourcing shadows in it I prefer letting them a bit less shiny.

I avoid high glossiness (bright alpha) because it makes things look plastic or wet, unless on some stains or very specific small areas. I can gives very nice effects if used at the right places.
I prefer to use a negative base for the fresnel too
Fresnel can give a deep 3D feeling to your 3D objects but also gives a virtual fluffy feeling sometimes .

I also try to dysynchro the 3 channels , this creates more immersion by adding complexity on the materials (as opposed to copy/paste de diffuse in every channel).
An average recipe (before advanced tunning) would be

R : not too much contrasted, not too dark (75% bright I'd say)
G : not to bright, medium contrast (30 to 60%)
B : 0
A : dark very contrasted (0 to 30%)

Thanks for the heads up Skeleton! though I already found that bit of info over on Hawks page I am interested in the 2nd part of the question. I posted it over on maniaplanet but that place is much less active so il copypaste it here.

Does anyone know if we can do "projection maps" via stadium2 files or if the TM2 engine even supports it anymore? I'm talking about the file that used to be called CloudFX, you could add all sorts of colors and fun stuff to the file and have it "project" onto the ground. You can see what im talking about if you opened up for example, Crusard's SweetDream had it, with pictures of candycanes on the floor. Lot's of mods use this to build extra ambiance including my own mods, i'd like to update the mods to the TM2 engine but I just want to make sure I'm doing it right.

Looking at the files I can hope that Cloud.TGA would behave the same way as CloudFX but I havent been able to confirm or deny that, has anyone fiddled around with TM2 or Stadium2 files enough to know if editing that file would get what I want with "projections" again? Does the TM2 engine even support it anymore or is this a feature gutted out of the game like animated signs in Canyon?

Animated signs do work in TM2 and SM now.

So maybe there's hope for CloudFX. Or not...

yes, Clouds.tga is the equivalent to the CloudsFx.dds file
Adding color to the clouds projection is no longer possible.
Also the projection looks more realistic in TM2 but lacks contrast if you try to make any "fun" things with it.
Here a projection pic of a high-contrast image:
[url=]http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania2/ForumContent/cloudsprojectiontmxforum.jpg[/url]