UT3 MapMixer alpha

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Kantham

Fool.
Sep 17, 2004
18,034
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Wow, I'm a little late but this is quite awesome. It does have a lot of interesting features, especially the AI configs, I could finally play with inhuman bots that doesn't have link gun aim hax.

Can you configure the way the characters look?
 

matw

New Member
Jul 9, 2003
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Adelaide, South Australia
Indeed. Next version will most likely be a final release.

It's taken quite some time to get to final release, and it could be argued that I should have made it 'final' some time ago and then made minor version releases. However, with the major changes in UT3 Patch 2+, it has meant modifying some of my work-arounds - and because of the size of the project, it meant a lot of time spent debugging.
 
Nov 4, 2001
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The Kitchen
This is such an excellent addition for UT, and really makes the game so so so much more flexible. I am so damn glad you have made this, especially for the custom Players vs. Bots ratios. TDM, 1v10, was never possible before this, but now it is and it's how I spend most of my time playing UT3. Fantastic stuff!

The only complaint I have is with Quick Session / Advanced Session - when you go through Quick Session, you can't select an Advanced preset, and the Quick settings aren't as comprehensive. This means that if I just want to play one quick battle on a specific map, I always have to go to Advanced if I want to get proper settings. And then, from the Advanced Session screen, I can't just select which map to start with. I have to start the game and then switch to the map I want from whatever is randomly assigned. This shouldn't be a problem - that's what Quick Session is for, right? But when I do a Quick game, I am limited to that one map and can't switch to any others from the in-game client menu or the map cycling hotkeys, which is one of my favorite features of Advanced mode. So I always use Advanced and never ever use Quick, as Quick doesn't let me use any of the features from Advanced even though it lets me go straight to the map I want. Linking these two seems like a very good solution to me, unless I'm missing something really obvious.

Regardless, though, this as a replacement menu for UT3 is so incredibly far beyond the original menu in terms of functionality I think that Epic's menu designers should be taken out back and shot and you should be brought in as their replacement. :)

[Edit] Oh, and possibly a bug that might still exist: a friend of mine joins my games from the friends menu usually, but when he does with Mapmixer installed, it tells him he needs a password and never prompts him to enter it. From the normal UT menu, it does allow him to put it in. He needs my IP to join manually from the Mapmixer menu when this happens. Is this fixed in RC4 or do you know what causes it?
 
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matw

New Member
Jul 9, 2003
40
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Adelaide, South Australia
This is such an excellent addition for UT, and really makes the game so so so much more flexible. I am so damn glad you have made this, especially for the custom Players vs. Bots ratios. TDM, 1v10, was never possible before this, but now it is and it's how I spend most of my time playing UT3. Fantastic stuff!

That's great. I'm glad it helps.

The only complaint I have is with Quick Session / Advanced Session - when you go through Quick Session, you can't select an Advanced preset, and the Quick settings aren't as comprehensive. This means that if I just want to play one quick battle on a specific map, I always have to go to Advanced if I want to get proper settings. And then, from the Advanced Session screen, I can't just select which map to start with. I have to start the game and then switch to the map I want from whatever is randomly assigned. This shouldn't be a problem - that's what Quick Session is for, right? But when I do a Quick game, I am limited to that one map and can't switch to any others from the in-game client menu or the map cycling hotkeys, which is one of my favorite features of Advanced mode. So I always use Advanced and never ever use Quick, as Quick doesn't let me use any of the features from Advanced even though it lets me go straight to the map I want. Linking these two seems like a very good solution to me, unless I'm missing something really obvious.

It sounds like you are confusing and perhaps misunderstanding the contexts of the Quick Session and Advanced Session modes and the way they are designed to function.

One way of understanding the differences between the two modes is understanding the 'Session Map List'. This is the list of maps that are played in a Session - a session being defined as the time between when you launch the first match till when you either quit the game or return to the Main Menu.

With the Quick Session Mode, you define each map in the session on-the-fly. So you would launch your first match by opening the Quick Session Menu from the Main Menu and choosing a match to play. Once that match has completed (or in fact at any time during the match), you would then open up the Quick Session Menu again from within that match (ie you don't need to return to the Main Menu) and then you would setup and launch your next match. Each time you do this (including the first), this match is added on to the Session Map List, which you can see in the Maps tab in the Client Menu, or using keybinds to navigate through. So the key point here is that in a Quick Session mode, you are defining the Session Map List as you go.

Now, with the Advanced Session Menu, the Session Map List is initialised at the time you launch your first match (although you can resume a previous session as well). This means that the entire list of maps that you play in your session is filled out at the very beginning. It fills the list out either from a user created Map List or automatically using Map Sources and a source switching method. The actual map you start with depends upon these settings. So if you are initialising the Session Map List with a custom Map List, then the first map played will be the first map in your map list, unless of course you are using a shuffling method, in which case the point is that you are shuffling your map list and so therefore the emphasis is on not knowing the order that the maps will be played in.

So, as you can see, there are very separate contexts surrounding both modes. Which one you choose depends on how you want to leverage the Session Map List. The Lists in the Advanced Session Menu are not designed to be used with the Quick Session Menu because the whole concept behind the Quick Session Menu is that you pick a gametype, map and customise rules, mutators, bots etc, on-demand, on-the-fly, as you go. - Each time you are exactly specifying the settings for each match you play. The Advanced Session Menu is designed to give you anything from simply specifying a gametype+map, all the way up to specifying exact details for each match (using a custom map list), along with other features.

I could even go into further detail here but I've done that in the online documentation.

Regardless, though, this as a replacement menu for UT3 is so incredibly far beyond the original menu in terms of functionality I think that Epic's menu designers should be taken out back and shot and you should be brought in as their replacement. :)

Thanks :) Although I think Epic just have a different philosophy for their game. I'm definitely in no way saying that my philosophy is better, just that mine is different. It would also be very costly (ie money) for them to incorporate the functionality of MapMixer into their game.

[Edit] Oh, and possibly a bug that might still exist: a friend of mine joins my games from the friends menu usually, but when he does with Mapmixer installed, it tells him he needs a password and never prompts him to enter it. From the normal UT menu, it does allow him to put it in. He needs my IP to join manually from the Mapmixer menu when this happens. Is this fixed in RC4 or do you know what causes it?

Sounds like you are referring to the "Game Password", which often people confuse with "Admin Password". The "Game Password" option is simply a URL option that belongs to UT3 and all MapMixer does is give you the ability to specify it (ie ...?GamePassword="xxx"?...). UT3 handles the implimentation of the GamePassword URL option and has nothing to do with MapMixer. The "Admin Password" option specifies what password must be used with the "adminlogin" console command - or with the Auto-Admin-Login facility of MapMixer - setup in the Client Menu.
 
Nov 4, 2001
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The Kitchen
OK, I get the Quick Session philosophy, but I still want a way to pick the first map that comes up from an Advanced Session when I start it so I don't have to wait for a map to load and then select another. The reason I don't use Quick Session is because I like to have all my maps available and I tend to randomly decide what to play next while the scoreboard is still displayed. Having to go back through Quick Session and change settings again just for the next map seems a little counter-productive for a "quick" setting, don't you think? With Advanced, I always have my bot ratio set up as I like, my mutator list applies, game rules apply, etc, and I can browse all the maps from the client menu ingame. The only thing missing is a pregame map selector for Advanced, from my perspective.


And about the password, no I know the difference between game and admin passwords (and I love the auto-admin feature by the way), but my friend has to actually join from the console with MapMixer because of this problem. From the Friends List, when he clicks Follow Player on me, it tells him he needs a password and it never lets him enter it (the game password). Once he joins the game (via 'join <ServerIP>?password=<GamePassword>'), he can then auto-admin just fine and choose maps from the client list, etc. But Follow Player doesn't seem to work from MapMixer, yet it does from the main UT3 menu.

These are, of course, minor complaints at the end of the day. Very very minor considering all the extra features and how useful they are :)
 
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matw

New Member
Jul 9, 2003
40
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0
Adelaide, South Australia
OK, I get the Quick Session philosophy, but I still want a way to pick the first map that comes up from an Advanced Session when I start it so I don't have to wait for a map to load and then select another. The reason I don't use Quick Session is because I like to have all my maps available and I tend to randomly decide what to play next while the scoreboard is still displayed. Having to go back through Quick Session and change settings again just for the next map seems a little counter-productive for a "quick" setting, don't you think? With Advanced, I always have my bot ratio set up as I like, my mutator list applies, game rules apply, etc, and I can browse all the maps from the client menu ingame. The only thing missing is a pregame map selector for Advanced, from my perspective.

I guess from my point of view, having your Session Map List shuffled and picking the first map, are two somewhat mutually exclusive concepts, ie if I choose to have my Session Map List shuffled, I dont' want to know what the next map will be - even the first map. However, that's just my interpretation.

There are some MapMixer console commands that may help you out with what you are trying to achieve.

It actually sounds like you should be using the Manual Switch method combined with the "Auto Create Map List" option, available in the Advanced Session Menu. That way you create a list of Map Sources (in your case these will be entire gametypes) that will be available and manually switch between them in-game using the Client Menu. When using Manual Source Switching, a drop-down-list will be available in the Maps Tab in the Client Menu that allows you to switch between Map Sources (or gametypes in your case). Using this method means that you are utilising the Advanced Session Lists to determine the parameters of each match in your session.

Often people don't realise the broader concepts that have to be taken into account with designing mods for mutliplayer games such as UT3. The Server-Client relationship must be taken into account from the very beginning (as it is with MapMixer). This in itself imposes certain restrictions on the way things are accomplished. For example, not every person playing in the game will be playing locally on the machine that is running the game - this means that they won't have automatic access to all the gametypes, maps, mutators and factions etc, which are available on the server. This means that all that information needs to be replicated to the Clients on-demand when they need them. This is the core reason why, for the moment, the Quick Session Menu is only available on the local host that runs the game, whereas the MapMixer Session Map List *is* replicated to MapMixer Clients and available to priviledged users (ie admins). I'm just mentioning all this because this whole concept often places restrictions on the way you do things - or means you have to do extra work in order to support certain activities. So it's quite important and the base reason why multiplayer functionality can almost never, and should never be, an afterthought when designing mods for UT3.

And about the password, no I know the difference between game and admin passwords (and I love the auto-admin feature by the way), but my friend has to actually join from the console with MapMixer because of this problem. From the Friends List, when he clicks Follow Player on me, it tells him he needs a password and it never lets him enter it (the game password). Once he joins the game (via 'join <ServerIP>?password=<GamePassword>'), he can then auto-admin just fine and choose maps from the client list, etc. But Follow Player doesn't seem to work from MapMixer, yet it does from the main UT3 menu.

These are, of course, minor complaints at the end of the day. Very very minor considering all the extra features and how useful they are :)

Yup, I know what you're getting at but you have to realise that the whole process of connecting to a game is something that is not handled by MapMixer. In fact MapMixer has two basic features it brings to the game.

  1. Setting up the next match URL and passing it to a UT3 function that launches this match, and
  2. In-game features such as Client Menu, Session Map List Replication and Player Count Management, etc...

In the first step, MapMixer is simply compiling the URL that will launch the game. That's why it's always a first step, when having problems, to look at the Launch.log file and see what URL parameters the match was launched with.

In the second step, MapMixer only enters context in a match via the Mutator interface. It is entirely a function of the Game Engine that provides the facility for a client machine to connect to a server. This means that MapMixer takes no part in the connection to a server - it only exists in-game when the gametypes' InitGame() function invokes the mutators supplied on the game url. This is why you will always see "MapMixer.MapMixer' specified in the mutators section of the URL.

The "GamePassword" option is used by the Engine.AccessControl class, and while I don't use the function myself. I believe you can set the value for it in the UTGame.ini file in the [Engine.AccessControl] options.

Most of the time you will just leave the GamePassword option blank in the Server Admin List for MapMixer - unless of course you want to deny access to people joining your server that don't have the password.

Hope that makes sense.
 

Sijik

Snagged an item.
Aug 27, 2004
516
0
0
All Hallows Sunset
Wow, I'm a little late but this is quite awesome. It does have a lot of interesting features, especially the AI configs, I could finally play with inhuman bots that doesn't have link gun aim hax.

Can you configure the way the characters look?

Yes. The bot config is quite spiffy. Even better than the UT1 bot configuration options, all aspects considered.



I guess from my point of view, having your Session Map List shuffled and picking the first map, are two somewhat mutually exclusive concepts, ie if I choose to have my Session Map List shuffled, I dont' want to know what the next map will be - even the first map. However, that's just my interpretation.

There are some MapMixer console commands that may help you out with what you are trying to achieve.

It actually sounds like you should be using the Manual Switch method combined with the "Auto Create Map List" option, available in the Advanced Session Menu. That way you create a list of Map Sources (in your case these will be entire gametypes) that will be available and manually switch between them in-game using the Client Menu. When using Manual Source Switching, a drop-down-list will be available in the Maps Tab in the Client Menu that allows you to switch between Map Sources (or gametypes in your case). Using this method means that you are utilising the Advanced Session Lists to determine the parameters of each match in your session.

I do miss the "Queue as First Map" option from the 2k4 version. It's basically: I want to play Deck, but then I don't care where I go after that.

It's not that big a concern for me, though.
 
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Nov 4, 2001
2,196
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The Kitchen
Woah woah woah WHAT? You can disable the totally ****ed up and broken bot link gun alt fire crap?

THIS MOD JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER

[Edit] Uh... how exactly do I do dis :I
 
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dannydesil

New Member
Nov 24, 2009
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I have register, and now it is saying that my account do's not have acces to the DL


ok it is fix now.



____________________________________

Mortgage rates
 
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Sijik

Snagged an item.
Aug 27, 2004
516
0
0
All Hallows Sunset
Woah woah woah WHAT? You can disable the totally ****ed up and broken bot link gun alt fire crap?

THIS MOD JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER

[Edit] Uh... how exactly do I do dis :I

Probably a little late getting back, but:

Gain access to the MM Advanced Options menu (the main config screen via Config Mutators) From here Options > Enable MM shortcut in UT2004 Main Menu... (mostly for convenience.)

Botmixer > Bot Teams > select a bot > E (below the team color select, next to the rotating model view) > Adjust settings > OK.

Should be set.

For UT3: Main Menu > Factions > select a cahracter > Edit Char at the bottom.
 
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Nov 4, 2001
2,196
0
0
36
The Kitchen
Probably a little late getting back, but:

Gain access to the MM Advanced Options menu (the main config screen via Config Mutators) From here Options > Enable MM shortcut in UT2004 Main Menu... (mostly for convenience.)

Botmixer > Bot Teams > select a bot > E (below the team color select, next to the rotating model view) > Adjust settings > OK.

Should be set.

For UT3: Main Menu > Factions > select a cahracter > Edit Char at the bottom.
Haha, thanks, I figured it out eventually though. I believe Tactics is the value you adjust to reduce it. The problem is, it also makes the bots dumber and move around less. If only there was a way to fix the cheating without making the bots stupid :/