More UT "Envy" Details

[RegularX]

Actually I don't think UE3 uses dynamic lighting for the terrain. The cloud casting is some kind of projector I think too.

See that's the kind of thing I'm afraid. Epic has some extremely impressive tricks currently to simulate some RT lighting effects ... and in many situations for very good reasons. But it's not as flexible or easy to code for as what some older engines had.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Actually I don't think UE3 uses dynamic lighting for the terrain. The cloud casting is some kind of projector I think too.

I'm not quite sure about that. If that's true, then they are going to be eating alot of CPU power they don't need to, because the clouds move, merge, break, and all sort of other stuff clouds might do. The shadows on the ground reflect those changes, and we all already know how much hurt that puts on a projector based system.

 

[Bot_40]

Dunno, in all the terrain pics I've seen objects are all casting proper shadows on the terrain. Sweeny also said several times that absolutely everything is correctly per-pixel lit.

 

[SkaarjMaster]

The good:
- No lightning gun
- dual enforcers are back
- everything else I'm not considering bad or ugly

The bad:
- No minigun
- No Gen Mo' Kai
- No new weapons

The ugly:
- No Skaarj

Comments:
I never liked the lightning gun and was getting good with the sniper rifle in UT. Dual enforcers are fun to shoot with. Seems like most of the other stuff about the game is good and that's why I said "everything else" above.

The minigun seemed a fairly standard UT weapon, so I was kinda surprises to see this go; although, I think I caught wind of this a few weeks ago. Yes, details with the Gen Mo' Kai would have been cool. They really need to at least add one new weapon to the line up or just keep all the UT2004 weapons and add more. So what if there are only ten number keys, just bind it to something else. I never noticed double jumping was gone in the first place, I'll have to check that out (note to self...........play UT2004 more often and more often online).

No Skaarj........this is just plain crazy; the Krall don't count because they are nothing like the Skaarj. They finally came out with a UT game with the Skaarj as default characters and now they're just going to take them away again? WTF?! Have they been demoted to bonuspack characters again or are now completely gone? Of course, my view on this matter has nothing to do with my user name. Guess this means I won't be changing my avatar for a while either.

I like the complex menus and the ability to tweak settings in the menu as well as figuring out how to do it in the UT?.ini files, etc. That's part of what makes the UT series fun for me. Why do we always have to pander to the average user or write newspapers for people with the education of a 12-year old? I thought that's what default settings were for. Anyway, I hope they don't nerf this part of the game no matter what the reasons are for the player base being low. I think one reason for the player base being low is more people just liking reality war games better.

So, where does Malcolm fit in this game? Is he on a team or is he just the one you face at the end of a possible single player ladder? Holy crap! I just realized again that I haven't even started the SPL for UT2004! bye!

 

[RegularX]

I agree. No Skaarj does suck. It would be nice to see them do a creature pack which updates the old Unreal foes with the new engine. Some nice SP and coop fun could be done with that.

 

[bid]

I don't know why, but I do know that it should have been configured by default to the simplest, fastest settings.

It could be worse. We could be using PunkBuster.

I am actually amazed by the virtual stupidity of AntiTCC fanboys (NOT YOU!).

Floating point divisions are the most expensive CPU calculation, so much so that the most popular line clipping algorithm, Liang-Barsky, would much rather do 4 (FOUR) floating point multiplications rather than a SINGLE floating point division.

Now consider what happens when AntiTCC starts it's CRC calculations, performing an insane amount of FP divisions over and over again with no respect for the client's machine, hoping to catch the 0.001% of the players who cheat.

Unlike Anti-TCC, PB is very optimized and the CPU hit is negligible.

 

[Nemephosis]

Do you think you could shut the f*ck up about AntiTCC now?

You hate it, others don't. Jesus.

 

[Bazzi]

I request BAN!

 

[Retodon8]

The Phayder are a dangerous secret society of Necris assassins.

Actually on Epic's own message board Entropy mentioned the Phayder Corperation inventing the Necris process.
Before that I thought the Phayder were some kind of subgroup of the Necris as well.
Actually I think Epic just changed their story, if you can call 1 word that.
Source: http://forums.epicgames.com/message.asp?topic=18418394

What's wrong with the Krall? They're just cousins of the Skaarj.
(...)
In order to see hands, they'd have to model hands for every race.

They are not cousins, they are completely different races.
The Slith are cousins of the Skaarj though.

BTW, that logo is just UC2's. I highly doubt it will be the new one. That flak cannon is also UC2's from the looks of it. Epic seem to just be using it as a place holder for now.

Well, the logos for U2 (red black) UT2003 (gray gold), UT2004 (blue gold), UC (grey silver), and UC2 (black cyan) are all basically identical, except for the fact that they all have a different colouring scheme.
I'm talking about the U-logo of course, not the full Unreal-logo.
The earlier games had similar logos, Unreal a gray U with more spikes, and UT a gold one with a spiked circle around it, later simplified to get the newest version.

Anyway, about the "equation", I was comparing in terms of style and not weapon effectivity. Yes, the Stinger in Unreal had faster flying projectiles, but the Pulse Gun was pretty much a balanced-out version of it with slower projectiles and higher damage dealt per hit.

But how has the UC2 version been altered compared to the old classic Unreal version in terms of damage, rate of fire etc.?

I'm sorry, I know that wasn't the right word (equation), but I couldn't find the right word... I still can't.

Truthfully I didn't play enough Unreal or UC2, so I can't fairly compare them.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

I am actually amazed by the virtual stupidity of AntiTCC fanboys (NOT YOU!).

Floating point divisions are the most expensive CPU calculation, so much so that the most popular line clipping algorithm, Liang-Barsky, would much rather do 4 (FOUR) floating point multiplications rather than a SINGLE floating point division.

Now consider what happens when AntiTCC starts it's CRC calculations, performing an insane amount of FP divisions over and over again with no respect for the client's machine, hoping to catch the 0.001% of the players who cheat.

Unlike Anti-TCC, PB is very optimized and the CPU hit is negligible.

PB lets too much through, because it is not an integral part of the game.

Anti-TCC on the slimmest setting still catches 99% of hacks and is significantly faster due to the QuickMD5 checks.

 

[Kantham]

Do you think you could shut the f*ck up about AntiTCC now?

You hate it, others don't. Jesus.

I second that

He's very anoying with it , almost all his post talk about it.

I don't see what's whrong with Worbo's creation .

 

[Bot_40]

I personally couldn't care less about a 0.1 second pause when I join a game even if it only catches 1 or 2 cheaters, it's certainly a lot less trouble than playing for however many minutes getting owned then having to find another server.

 

[TossMonkey]

See that's the kind of thing I'm afraid. Epic has some extremely impressive tricks currently to simulate some RT lighting effects ... and in many situations for very good reasons. But it's not as flexible or easy to code for as what some older engines had.

As far as I know they said it would take far too much to dynamically light a huge 100,000 polygon terrain map.

I'm not quite sure about that. If that's true, then they are going to be eating alot of CPU power they don't need to, because the clouds move, merge, break, and all sort of other stuff clouds might do. The shadows on the ground reflect those changes, and we all already know how much hurt that puts on a projector based system.

It would be easier to create a giant projector really, or some kind of cloud layer texture than to simulate cloud movement etc.

Like I said, I heard this somewhere... I just can't remember where. Besides, static lighting for terrain doesn't make much difference, buildings still cast the correct shadows and things and a light from a vehicle will still cast correctly on the ground. To be honest whatever makes the engine run faster is a bonus.

 

[NeoNite]

Actually on Epic's own message board Entropy mentioned the Phayder Corperation inventing the Necris process.
Before that I thought the Phayder were some kind of subgroup of the Necris as well.
Actually I think Epic just changed their story, if you can call 1 word that.
Source: http://forums.epicgames.com/message.asp?topic=18418394

Oh surprise, surprise.

They are not cousins, they are completely different races.
The Slith are cousins of the Skaarj though.

I read this so called specialist on unreal his website once (had all the monsters and data listed), he claimed the warlord was a krall creature.
...
sure...

 

[hal]

They're cousins - twice removed.

 

[NeoNite]

The ugly:
- No Skaarj

No Skaarj........this is just plain crazy; the Krall don't count because they are nothing like the Skaarj. They finally came out with a UT game with the Skaarj as default characters and now they're just going to take them away again? WTF?! !

Skaarj are the essence of the Unreal universe, imho.

 

[shadow_dragon]

I trust epic to learn from their mistakes. They created a great game and then created a game with great potential which they worked upon and now they know what they're doing.

Also that list has manya ttractive things and, while there are something i'd miss or would like to see, new or improved. there is still so much time, to judge the game critically at this stage would be folly.

I wouldn't mind discovering that there was a single unlockable skaarj "boss" character for example.

There is always time for developments and changes.

 

[Israphel]

to judge the game critically at this stage would be folly.

kudos to Shadow Dragon for using the word "folly" in a post

 

[TossMonkey]

I basically want kind of a mix between UT2004 and UT. I want the grand scale of UT2004's vehicle action with the style of UT. UT had a realism about it that made sense, UT2003/4 was a bit Quake 3 to be honest. It didn't want to take itself serious enough, I hate the sporty feel to it, UT was more like a bloodsport and felt underground or something. UT2004 was like some stupid wrestling thing that I hate.

 

[ToBiaS1988]

evrything looks great but why drop the minigun it was the only weapon except sniperrifle and shock rifle you could use for attacks over a longer distance