Bugs

TrackMania Nations Forever is notorious for featuring various bugs that players managed to master over the years. The bugs in question range from really small (e.g. the bugfin), to truly gamebreaking (e.g. the landingbug). Numerous bugs (e.g. the superbug) are known to be extremely complex, and are still being analysed by the intelligence from the TAS community, with assistance of other experienced players (mainly the Brain team).

Big part of playing TrackMania is getting hold of all of the bugs and using them for your advantage. Moreover, there are separate map styles that concentrate on utilising these bugs and use them more as a feature. As the famous content creator [https://www.youtube.com/@Jixaw. Jigsaw] once said - "Skill is when luck appear usually" [sic].

Below is a list of all currently known bugs in TrackMania Nations Forever.

BugFin
The bugfin (shortened to bf, rarely called gatebug) is one of the most celebrated bugs in the game. It has been known since the game's initial release, with the bug discovery being credited to the French player Louis_9.

Bugfin is known for its wide usage in various map styles, such as LoL, roof and even Nadeo.

To an untrained eye, bugfin is nothing but a misplaced hitbox for a finish trigger, and even today many players think of it as a completely random error.

Origin
In 2019, a player who wishes to remain anonymous reached out to Nadeo via e-mail to ask whether bugfin was, in fact, an intentional addition to the game. Hylis, who was at the time replying to support e-mails, answered with a cryptic message reading ",007332". This was shared in many TrackMania channels (both official and not), but nobody was quite sure what it meant. After a few days, most have given up on trying to decipher the message's meaning and blamed it on Hylis' exhaustion.

However, one community member, afaaz (of team Brain), was obsessed with the idea that Hylis was not simply smashing his keyboard. According to afaaz himself, he decided to look for that number in the game's source code. Surprisingly, there was more than a dozen matches.

Afterwards, afaaz would go on to discover that typing ",007332" in the third alpha version build of TrackMania Nations Forever makes the debug menu appear. Inside that menu, many options were to be found, but the one that stood out most was, undoubtedly, "Xavier". Upon going into it, the player is presented with a blue text on a red background, reading "ce débile detruit le bloc" [sic], and a clickable image of a middle-aged man, presumably the namesake of the page itself. Clicking on the image starts a download of a now-deleted video in .bik format (originally hosted on the Nadeo CDN), which depicts a man (possibly Xavier) modeling a bunch of blocks for TrackMania Nations Forever. A minute in, the video cuts to a closeup shot, in which Xavier is seen modifying the trigger positions for the finish and checkpoint blocks. He is also heard mumbling some French words, later figured out to be "...ils me regardent...". The value for which Xavier shifted the trigger position is exactly 0.007332 on each block.

After analysing the video, Brain members once again reached out to Hylis, asking for more details. He, unfortunately, decided to stay quiet. The video file was removed from the Nadeo servers shortly after the second attempt to contact Hylis. Fate of Xavier is still largely unclear, and is a subject of many creepy stories in the TrackMania community.

LandingBug
The landingbug is the most infuriating and problematic bug in TrackMania Nations Forever. It occurs on pretty much any map that has any sort of landing. This bug was discovered on the first day after the game's release by Trabadia on A01-Race. As he said in his own words: "what?? bug.." [sic]. In a later interview he mentioned that he was completely disoriented and shocked.

The way the landingbug works is that once you land on any surface, there is a 54.68498% (55% rounded up) chance that your car will lose 60% of its speed. Additionaly, the car may suddenly turn in any direction including backwards.

Players have built maps that utilise this bug in this exact way in order to get the fastest time possible. Contrary to this, however, there are also maps that you cannot finish if you obtain a landingbug; for example  [PF Ph/\ntom Fake ].

Trivia
For some reason, Nadeo thought that the landingbug was a nice feature, - worth showcasing to people. Hence why they built E03-Endurance - just to show the potential of this anomaly. Many players criticised them for the map, dumbfounded by the gruesome bug. However, Nadeo also found a large group of fans and supporters that liked it, which led to the first major division of the game's community in the early days.

Air Break
The air break is a bug discovered even before TrackMania Nations Forever came out, as it was found in the first TrackMania in 2003. It is one of the simplest bugs to perform - it can be performed by simply pressing the backwards button in the air, which causes the car to stop rotating. It is believed to be named the air break as it causes the air to "break" - it no longer affects the car.

The air break has also been shown to sometimes reduce decceleration in the air, due to air resistance no longer affecting the car. As such, air breaks are used frequently in professional play, as the fractions of seconds that doing so saves can be the difference between winning and not winning, and they are simple to perform.

The bug is also vital in many other aspects of TrackMania, both to perform bugs and avoid others. For example, breaking the air will make the car much less likely to experience a landingbug, as due to the air being broken, the game already believes that the car has landed. It is also useful when setting up a finishbug or a checkpointbug, as the car's position will be much easier to predict, and so can make it easier to line up the car for hitting the small hitbox of the bugged areas.

One particular area where air breaking is useful is when weaseling - entering 4D space outside of maps designed for it to cut large portions of a track. The strategy can be massively useful, but due to the added dimension, is incredibly unpredictable. The use of air breaking allows players to control their car slightly, giving better chances of performing a successful weasel.

EdgeBug
The edgebug (shortened to eb, sometimes mistakenly called the rampbug or the railbug) is a bug discovered shortly after the game's initial release by the infamous player Edge.

The exact origins of this bug are still disputed, however it is speculated by many that the edgebug is another piece of legacy code left in the engine due to a human error. Rumours suggest that the StadiumCar's tendency to "jump" while colliding with sharp block edges is related to the never released Jumpy gamemode (not to be confused with the Jump map style), which would allow players to perform "jumps" via special blocks. This hypothesis is further proven by the addition of the so-called "bumper-blocks" in later titles of the TrackMania franchise that have that exact functionality.

Amongst the TrackMania community members, the activity of performing edgebugs is sometimes called edging.

NoseBug
The nosebug (often shortened to nb) is one of the most versatile bugs in Trackmania. It was discovered in 2013 by the player blackjackjackblack (who would go on to do nothing else of note). He discovered that if he played the game soon after a particularly difficult workout session, he would accelerate faster. He soon figured out that this was because he was breathing heavily, which tricked the game into thinking his engine was driving harder than it actually was due to the additional force on his arrow keys. The name "nosebug" is a misnomer, as most often the keys are blown on using the mouth, not the nose.

The nosebug has caused many controversies on what are valid ways of causing it to go into effect. Setups that have been banned include using a miniature fan to not have to blow on the keys oneself, playing in the rain so the rain puts additional pressure on the keys, using an electromagnet to push the keys down artificially, modifying one's keyboard to change the inputs received, and playing on a rollercoaster so the forces felt affect the keys. However, using keys that are particularly light so that the forces felt by the keys are experienced more acutely has been officially allowed by Nadeo.

RandsteinBug
The randsteinbug (called rammsteinbug/rammstein and shortened to ramm by the majority of the community) is an infamous glitch in the game, that causes players' cars to perform one of the following:


 * Randomly lose speed
 * Randomly gain height
 * Fall into the void
 * Perform an edgebug (called ramm-edging)
 * Get launched into the sky
 * In rare cases, the player's car skin is changed to "GER.zip"

Rammbug is deemed extremely destructive, and is the cause for many TrackMania players' failed runs. According to Nadeo leaked e-mails, at least 47294 unique accounts have sent a letter to the developers complaining about, and/or begging them to fix the bug. Despite the massive amount of negative feedback received, Nadeo decided not to patch the rammbug as to not disrupt the internal structure of their codebase. It is believed that due to this bug's impact on the gameplay, many players quit the game entirely to never come back ever again. Randsteinbug existed in the stadium until the release of the newest TrackMania game - TrackMania 2020, in which the code for roads was finally rewritten and ramms were never to be seen again.

Origin
As the TrackMania Nations Forever code suggests, rammbugs are caused by extremely old code that was put in place to punish players for driving on the never-released bike lanes. The engine method causing this is called "CGame::VoitureParsMaintenant", which can be roughly translated to "car leave now". It is unknown why such feature was kept as a part of the GameBox engine after the bike lanes removal. Although Nadeo staff never commented on this, it is very likely that the bike lane code was being removed in a rush at the time, causing the developers to perform an unfortunate error that would later turn the game into a nightmare.

Name
The bug's name - randsteinbug - comes from the German language, in which "rand stein" means "corner stone". Because of this, many players initially speculated that rammbug was first discovered by a player from Germany, or from another country where the German language is spoken. That claim, however, is disputed due to the bug's second and more commonly known name - the rammbug.

In recent years, another more credible theory started to spread in the TrackMania community channels: in 2006, the German band Rammstein was on a tour with their new live album titled "Völkerball". During their visit to France, the lead vocalist, Till Lindemann would go on to try the freshly released TrackMania Nations, as one of the band's fans reportedly made a StadiumCar skin dedicated to Rammstein. While playing A-0, the very first map of the campaign, Till got launched in the air almost immediately after getting in contact with the road's corner. According to the witnesses, he stated the following: "Scheiße!". Till was never seen playing TrackMania ever again, as he was discombobulated by the insanity that unfolded on his very first playthrough. The bug was then given the name of his band.

Grass Slide
The grass slide (shortened to GS, sometimes also called the bugslide) is one of the most famous, popular, and beloved bugs in TrackMania. It is also one of the earliest found bugs in the game, with its discovery dating all the way back to 2006. It is not known which player slid on the grass first, but their legacy lives on nonetheless.

The exact reasons why the grass slide works are unknown, but it is believed that this bug is very much intentional, since Nadeo never patched it out despite its destructive nature. That is also proved by its usage in official campaign maps of TrackMania Nations Forever and later titles in the franchise.

Performing a grass slide is a relatively simple task involving several steps of varying difficulty:


 * 1) Buy a mechanical keyboard for €150+
 * 2) Launch the game with the keyboard connected
 * 3) Press the forwards key, the backwards key and one or both of the direction keys
 * 4) The car should have performed the bug. If it did not, make sure to retrace your steps to see if you missed something.

It is currently unknown whether the grass slide is doable on controller, as members of the Brain team are seemingly unable to afford a controller to test it out.

SuperBug
The superbug is the newest and the most unexplainable bug in TrackMania Nations Forever. It was first discovered in 2022 by the Portuguese player Pablo760 on a LoL server and is still to be replicated. The superbug makes the car go completely crazy, allowing the player to reach great speed in a fraction of time. Players were not able to find out more information about the bug due to its rarity.

Luckily, there is footage of the bug occurring - thanks to the server admin who shared his Server Run Recording (.srr) file on the TrackMania Discord server. The quality of the clip is admittedly poor due to the recording plugin on the server which operates on the single threaded XASECO controller.

UberBug
The uberbug (shortened to just uber and rarely called the megabug) is one of the biggest and most spectacular bugs in TrackMania Nations Forever. It was discovered relatively late after the game release - around 2010, although the person who discovered it first is unknown.

To perform a uberbug, or as some call it - a "megabug", a player has to: If these conditions are met, after performing the grass slide during landing and then holding it until crashing into a wall (or another obstacle), there is a chance that a uberbug will occur. It will launch the player with gargantuan speed into the air in the direction the car was pointing to upon crashing.
 * Have speed greater than 243 speed units
 * Land on a road with the car front pointing down (approximately -10 to -30 degrees)
 * Have the car angled enough to also perform the grass slide towards a wall (or some other obstacle)

Formula
Thanks to the players from the Brain team, the formula that the game uses to compute the uberbug is now known. Previously, it was believed that the game performs some form of a miscalculation/division by 0 or simply runs out of floating point operations memory. That myth recently got debunked and the formula is described below:


 * If U(x) = S(x)/D(x), where S is a speed function and D(x) = $$d_0 * \Bigl(1-s_1\chi\Bigr)*...*\Bigl(1-s_l\chi\Bigr)$$and numbers p1 . . . pl are disjoint sets, then if S(x) is a polynomial of degree less than l, there occurs a formula:

$$[x^n]U(x) = a_1\rho_1^n +. . . + a_l\rho_l^n,$$ for $$a_k=\frac{-\rho_k*S(1/\rho_k)}{D'(1/\rho_k)} = \frac {S(1/\rho_k)}{\rho_0\Pi j\neq k (1-\rho_j/\rho_k)}.$$

The uberbug allowed players to not only cut old maps using the bug, but also gave birth to new teams.

TomBug
The tombug (also known as thomatobug or tomatobug) was a bug discovered by the player Thomatos in early 2013. Essentially, this bug is a graphical glitch that can only be described as "terrifying", according to the bug's discoverer.

According to Thomatos, who apparently had witnessed the bug only once whilst playing on a now-closed server, Thomatos set a time of 16.43 on a still unknown map. Upon setting this time, his screen started flashing in "tomato-like" red with the text "Thomas ...il ne te reste plus beaucoup..". This, in turn, freaked Thomatos out (whose real name is Thomas Matos Rodriguez). Despite not knowing French at the time, he did not take any second chances and quickly closed the game out of fear.

Thomatos later went on to learn French so that he could provide as much information about this bizarre phenomenon as possible. According to a variety of sources, after 5 years of learning the language he was finally able to recall and understand what the text said on that very night. Whenever questioned however, Thomatos would refuse to speak on the matter, as he does not want to be reminded of that situation ever again.

It is still unknown whether this bug has anything to do with the server Thomatos was playing on, or whether the bug is still in the game's code. No other players have reported seeing anything similar to this since Thomatos' encounter, leading many to believe that this was all a publicity stunt since Thomatos was to be present at the 2013 Annual TrackMania Cooking Competition (ATCC).

CheckPointBug
The checkpointbug (also known as bugcp or bcp) is a variation of the finishbug (bugfin), except the trigger is intentionally misplaced on the checkpoint block instead of the finish block. It was discovered by Louis_9 on the same date as the bugfin, due to Louis accidentally placing a checkpoint block instead of the finish block for his new bug map.

Bugcp, similar to bugfin, is very popular with TrackMania players. Its usage has notably become a cliché in the cutting community of the game.

Just like the finishbug, checkpointbug was not an accident, and was added to TrackMania Nations Forever on purpose by a former Nadeo employee presumably named Xavier. The fate of the said employee is to this day shrouded in mystery.

SpiderBug
The SpiderBug (also known as spider-bug or the breakdown wherein a fellow chap operating a conveyance receives the capability to clamber, ascend or escalate upon a vertical palisade such as an embankment, a fortification or another hindrance, shortened as tbwfcocrctcaeuvpsaefah) was a bug enabling players to climb walls that could be triggered at any freewheel block in a map, giving users an unfair advantage.

The bug consisted of a player driving over a freewheel block and pressing the break, left turn, right turn and horn keys simultaneously, after which the car's wheels would gain an extremely large amount of grip. This allowed the car to easily climb walls, borders, structures, and even drive upside down. The cause of this remains unknown.

After first discovering it by accidentally pressing all required keys on a particularly challenging map, player GrillMaster444 reported it to Nadeo's bug bounty programme, who ignored his notification. As a response, GrillMaster444 decided to release the knowledge of this bug publicly in late 2009, where it quickly caught on in certain cheating-centered circles and was called the spider-bug because of its similarity to Spider-Man's flagship superpower. After noticing the destructive nature of the bug, Nadeo patched it by disallowing players to sound their horn while pressing the other three buttons and paid GrillMaster444 15 000 cc.

MudBug
The mudbug (bug of the mud) happens when dirty wheels (e.g. when driving on the so-called "dirt" surface) of the StadiumCar make contact with water in any way, shape or form. On asphalt, this results in an acceleration boost and can be used to the player's advantage, but on dirt or grass the consequences are close to fatal. As many people learn in their undergraduate university chemistry classes, combining dirt and water results in mud, which is an adhesive that, on solid surfaces, helps increase grip and nullify the effects of LandingBugs and Glitching Trough Walls. This provides a small step-up in speed when racing on road or platform blocks.

But one must beware of the nasty effects muddy wheels give the car when driving on grass or dirt, where the moisture causes the wheels to become stuck in place and start sinking. This is potentially deadly, as the driver must abandon the vehicle as fast as possible to escape a ghastly fate of sinking through the ground. Anyone who this happens to is sure to bear noxious memories of the occurrence and will probably have to spend coppers on both a new car (unless paid for by insurance) and treatment. Performing the mudbug is therefore considered too risky by a vast majority of players and only a few brave (or foolish, according to other players) souls dare to use it.

Glitching Through Walls
Glitching through walls, (referred to as GTW) is a game breaking bug that will grant the player's vehicle the "ghosted" status for a short amount of time, allowing it to effectively drive through blocks without colliding with them. This powerful glitch can lead to immense time saves. Due to this, even the TrackMania Exchange moderators have tried to ban replays using it.

After a relatively short poll held from 01/01/2010 until 31/12/2019, the community unanimously agreed on banning this technique with the help of a so-called "compilation patch".

Despite its ban from TrackMania Exchange, a lot of servers still allow this trick to be used, with records driven exploiting it considered for "The Vote".

AudioBug
The audiobug is one of the most bizarre bugs in TrackMania Nations Forever. It happens for seemingly no reason, with exceeding rarity.

As of the present day, the only map known to display the audiobug is 1 Player = 1 block (Episode III), which has a sign afflicted with the bug - it will generate a searing static when approached.

Colour Booster Bug
The colour booster bug (sometimes spelled color booster bug) is a bug discovered by the player HAKIM. This bug happens when the player enters the controversial block known as the "Colour Booster", and manages to turn around on it. After performing this manipulation, the booster changes its direction and is able to accelerate you in any direction wished. It is said that, besides the usual 100, 150 and 200 percentages, the Colour Booster can give the mighty 3000% Turbo under very precise yet unknown circumstances.

AutoBug
The autobug (shortened to atb) is a very obscure bug that was sighted at most 6 times. Due to its rarity, many TrackMania players still doubt its existence and usually attempt to depict it as a deliberate hoax. Nevertheless, people that encountered the autobug describe it as the following:


 * StadiumCar is no longer properly operable by the player character, including but not limited to:
 * Braking is nearly impossible
 * Braking is almost possible
 * Braking is possible but it is very inefficient
 * Steering is jammed, the car is described as "possessed"
 * Faint laughter can be heard while in Cam 3 and Cam 9. The laughter is described as "terrifying" and "evil"
 * StadiumCar gets the ability to phase through several blocks, most of which are normally solid

Finishing the race in this state is possible, but 4 out of 6 witnesses report getting an "Invalid Time" upon crossing the finish line. The other 2 players reportedly could not handle the pressure and shutdown their computers in fear.

Nadeo actively denied the autobug's existence until the release of their most recent title - TrackMania 2020. As it turned out, the code that causes this bug to happen was later reused for the "cruise-control block" in the newest TrackMania installment. However, Hylis personally declined ever adding any "evil" laughter to the Nations Forever files. He would later go on to state in a podcast: "[The laughter] is no my thing. Is all in head. Head thought evil, evil appear. No me. No others in Nadeo" [sic].

Despite the statement from the Nadeo CEO, the few autobug witnesses insist that the laughter is indeed real, with one of the players providing a 32 kbps MP3 file as a proof. Hylis doubted the validity of the evidence, stating on the TrackMania Forum: "WHAT.. FAKE. NO HAPEN. FAKR" [sic].

CarBug
The carbug is one of the most terrifying bugs in TrackMania Nations Forever. It was not found until very recently, and is considered a creepy story all by itself.

In essence, the carbug is when a car does a bug due to a flaw in the game's engine. That mistake by the developers causes the player's vehicle to become a terrible abomination. After encountering the carbug, many players were reportedly sent to mental institutions (pronounced [ˌɪnstɪˈtjuːʃəns]), as they slowly began to go insane after witnessing the distorted car. In particular, many of those who experience the carbug have been known to start believing in the Jarrell Conspiracy, with rates reportedly as high as 85% for those who have experienced the bug. It is still unknown whether this bug is actually a feature, and was left in the code intentionally.

SpeedDrift
The speeddrift (shortened to SD) occurs when the player does a very tiny drift at speeds exceeding 600 speeds (166,667m.s−1), causing them to gain speed for seemingly unknown reasons.

After an in-depth inquiry, team IQ+ discovered that during a speeddrift to the left, back-left and front-right wheels lift for 10cm (3,93701 in) above the road level and thus grip on the Z-axis grants the car adherence and velocity, up to 36 speeds (10m.s-2).

SpeedDerivation
The speedderivation is the fourth dimensional variant of the speeddrift, conveniently shortenened as S4D (portmanteau of SD and 4D). This bug, during the same left turn, allows the back-left and front-right wheels lift for 10cm diagonally between the 3rd and 4th dimension (approx. 7.07cm in each direction), giving the car grip in the Z-axis and the W-axis granting even more speed than the SD, up to 42 speeds.

During an S4D, the back-left and front-right wheels will shift in the fourth dimension, and their size will appear to change, hinting the player that he is earning abnormal amounts of speed.

Starbug
The starbug (often called the stug, and sometimes capitalised as the STARbug), is a bug discovered by STAR Team, whom it is named after. Although it is not useful on most maps, it is sometimes used in trial or lol map styles. To perform the bug, one must collide with a boundary between a blue wall and another block (which can also be a blue wall), which will set the player's teleport position. If the player does not pass through a respawnable checkpoint, then when the player respawns, they will teleport to the boundary that the player landed on, keeping all their speed.

The bug is also possible when colliding on the boundary between the grass and the concrete on the stadium, although this has little practical applications, as this boundary is outside the buildable area.

Explanation
The blue wall is well known for its strange properties, and the starbug relies on the wall's odd qualities. When the car lands on a boundary between the wall and a different block, if the car lands directly on the boundary, the game will believe that the player has hit a checkpoint (although this will not count towards the player's checkpoint count). The respawn on the block is bugged, because it is not a real checkpoint, so when the player respawns to teleport, the game does not reset the player's speed or direction. Therefore, the player can use the bug to reach places otherwise unreachable - particularly if the player was going up a slope when respawning.

History
The starbug was discovered during a hunting session in 2017 on the map series Paschen's Beginner Fullspeed Series by STAR Team. Whilst trying to beat the record on one of the tracks, one of the team's members, Katka, failed a run - however, when he tried to restart (using the respawn key rather than the restart key, as they had not passed through a checkpoint), the player found that they were instead teleported to an earlier part of the track, keeping their speed. The player shared this with the rest of the team, who immediately started investigating what happened. The investigation was held secretly, so that other teams would not find the bug before them.

After 3 months of investigation, STAR Team finally worked out how to replicate Katka's bug. They released a track onto TrackMania Exchange called "STARbug Challenge :)" (seen in the diagram), which appeared impossible. The team offered 10000 coppers to whoever was the first player to finish the map within the first month of its release. However, despite the community's best efforts, nobody could finish it, and some players doubted that it was even possible. After a month had passed, the team revealed the bug via a replay provided by one of the team's members, yoyoViper, and later a diagram explaining the bug. Although the bug was heralded as a fascinating discovery by many, it was found to be not very useful for cutting maps. Instead, it is sometimes used in trial maps and LoL, where players are expected to think more instead of just driving.

In 2019, the player Flare found that the bug could also be performed on the stadium itself, when colliding with the boundary between the grass and the concrete. Despite its seeming lack of use, it was found that many so-called impossible maps could be finished via this method. Some have theorised that this setup of the starbug was discovered many years before being discovered by Flare, and before the starbug was even discovered by STAR Team, but that it was forgotten due to its lack of use on tracks not designed for the bug.