In 2017, I made an item, and then a set, called SplashPlatform for TrackMania 2 Stadium, which made pools shallow enough to drive in. In 2024, I tried driving a few maps that used SplashPlatform items, but the car seemed too slow and bounced up and down on its suspension in the water, similar to the porpoising behavior of 2022 Formula 1 cars.
I solved these problems by raising the platform surface, further decreasing the water depth. I first applied my solution in a re-release of Blue Lake, with a prototype 8x8 blue SplashPlatform item. Later, I was inspired to expand this new generation of SplashPlatform items with transitions, border ramps, and special surfaces. I was going to make waypoints too, but the waypoints in Zai's WayPointsAnywhere work perfectly with these new SplashPlatform items.
All items (except the special surface items) have blue and white color options. The border and platform transition items have orange edges to help align them with pool/platform edges. (Note for color-blind users: The orange edges are the ones without vertical stripes.)
In addition to building shallow pools, these items can fit in trench blocks (like the original SplashPlatform), which create narrow roads on the surface. Underneath these new items, the trenches become fully enclosed tunnels!
To install these items, extract the SplashPlatform2024_TM2 folder from the zip file to your Stadium items directory:
Documents\ManiaPlanet\Items\Stadium
The whole item folder has an icon with the letters "SP". All items and folders in this set have icons. Folders have screenshot icons; items have automatically generated icons like those of blocks. (The special surface folder icon is a collage I made from Ubisoft Nadeo's original texture images.)
To remove items that are fully underwater, enter underground mode (Z key/hollow mountain button) and then they can be selected and/or erased.
With the release of this item set, my original SplashPlatform item set is now obsolete. However, I'll leave it up on ItemExchange for historical purposes.
You can test-drive these items here: SplashPlatform 2024 TM2 Test Track
EDIT 2024-07-31: I realize the item display names in this set are wrong. However, the file names in the downloaded ZIP are correct.