XMP-FreeFall (U2)

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GreatEmerald

Khnumhotep
Jan 20, 2008
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Lithuania
After a break, I started working on porting Freefall from XMP to U2. And so far it seems that it will be relatively easy - that map is basically only a few static meshes and a skybox. I guess I won't add bot support here, though... For obvious reasons :D Right now I have almost all Static Meshes ported (except for one walkway piece which simply *insists* on being unported!) and very soon I'll be able to show you some screenshots.
By the way, if you're interested in map making, check FreeFall's skybox, it's really interesting. They used a kind of a diamond-shaped brush for the skybox, the planets are flat, asteroids are 3D and they all blend in very nicely, with darkness being in the middle.
 

GreatEmerald

Khnumhotep
Jan 20, 2008
4,042
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OK, here we go:


Again, it looks very nice. Somehow the light is whiter than in XMP, though, and walkway meshes have one-sided grids, but other than that everything works exactly as in U2XMP. But the best thing now is - footstep sounds! The material management in U2 is really wonderful. The game itself understands what material texture it is and applies it accordingly without the need of doing anything else but naming the texture correctly, and the material affects footstep sounds (plastic and metal on walkways and cannon base, rock on asteroids, very nice!) and bullet hits (sparks on metal, dirt splashes on asteroids!). Low Gravity works just fine, and even bots can use it to some extent (see the picture - the bot started on an asteroid where a Deployment Point is, not on the central asteroid as you see him standing!) So so far it's going well, and it won't take too long for me to release it. So basically I only need to make the Sun appear, add items and paths, and we'll be all set!
 

Leo(T.C.K.)

I did something m0tarded and now I have read only access! :(
May 14, 2006
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Umm, if the engine differs in lighting, well you can adjust the brightness a little or something (or maybe it's simply your own brightness settings, Unreal2 got brightness really high). I remember in beta Unreal maps, the zoneinfos blind players, the water ones, but simply by making the value one hundred down or something makes it correct, without need to erase it to defaults or something. The lighting worked differently there as well...
 
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Bleeder

Co-Founder, U2XMP [Ч] Clan
Feb 26, 2004
803
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teh Intarweb, duh
Wow, just wow. I've got to give you credit, because you managed to accomplish in U2 what FMI couldn't (or were too lazy to) accomplish in UT2004 (for their UTXMP mod).
 

GreatEmerald

Khnumhotep
Jan 20, 2008
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I bet they could do that, they simply didn't because they couldn't path it well enough for bot play (and TBH all paths in FMI maps are near terrible as it is).
 

PRG

XMP Beta Tester
Nov 11, 2003
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They mostly didn't port it because they hated the map, actually. I actually ported Freefall for UTXMP but didn't know the nifty Staticmesh Smooth command you documented, so I didn't bother finishing/releasing it with the blocky asteroid meshes. Which walkway mesh is problematic? I know I got them all imported into UT2k4, with the aforementioned blocky asteroid problem, but I used a convoluted process that I frankly forget. My memory is really fuzzy on this so this may be incorrect BUT: Some of the meshes in Alcazar and Freefall were an absolute PITA to port to UT2k4 for some unknown reason. I THINK both maps were made by the same guy from Legend and the other maps were made by other members of Legend. Maybe that has something to do with it. Freefall was one of the original 4(??) U2XMP maps and Alcazar was finished last towards the end of the beta test if memory serves, which may or may not lend credence to what I think I remember..
 

GreatEmerald

Khnumhotep
Jan 20, 2008
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The one in the central asteroid, the top platform. But I got it ported with some help from Softimage XSI.
As for why some meshes were hard to export, I think that's because they were myLevelled. Strangely enough, you can export them, but only one at a time: Open Freefall, press New, export the Static Mesh, open Freefall again, New, export, repeat...

Meanwhile I've got the Stations fixed, added a death volume at the bottom so you could see yourself falling to your death (and couldn't cheat!), added all PlayerStarts, so only pathing and item placement remains.
 

PRG

XMP Beta Tester
Nov 11, 2003
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I did do them one at a time when I did it years ago. I forget the rest, it was a one time thing. Good luck, you picked the hard ones to start with. :lol:
 

GreatEmerald

Khnumhotep
Jan 20, 2008
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I pick them alphabetically ;) And FreeFall is easy, only pathing will be kinda impossible (and I'll spend a lot of time just admiring physics during my test runs :D ), at least without jet packs.