One of the most unappreciated things in the Unreal community is the new 227 patch. Mainly because people don't know enough about it. I'm here to try and clear up some things about the new patch, from a level designer's perspective.
First off, I want to say that the developer of the patch, Smirftsch, was given full permission from Epic Games to fix the old code in Unreal. He was given the source code for the game from Epic, and he is doing everything with Epic's permission. Even with this said hundreds of times, people still find reason to doubt him. Secondly, the reason he does not fix the code for Unreal Tournament instead: Epic has not given him the permission to do so. If you would like the new changes to be implemented into Unreal Tournament, you can help by sending Epic an e-mail to show that there are people still living in the old community and are willing to support it, instead of flaming the developers. Lastly, not only the game engine got the massive overhaul. The editor has also been fixed up tremendously, and tons of new features were added.
If you wish to check all the bug fixes and the new implementations of the new version of Unreal, please visit Old Unreal.
Now let's get down to business! Here are the important things you need to know for the new UnrealEditor 2.1, and the reasons to use the new version of the game if you are a level designer.
Reasons to switch:
- Improved zoning: Legend Entertainment added a feature in Unreal back in 1999 that drastically reduces the amount of zones in a level. I think we've all seen "hidden" zones inside semi-solid brushes. Even though these zones don't do anything, they are still counted towards your total zone count. When the editor reaches 63 zones, it starts merging zones together since it can not go over this number. This sucks, of course, because you can have a zone that has water in it merged with 1/2 of your level without any warning if you're not careful. The change that LE implemented is called "Zone Merging". This means the following: for each zone you create you must manually add a zone info actor inside that particular zone. If you fail to do that, the editor will presume that that zone is "fake" (the same as hidden zones inside semi-solid brushes), and it will merge the zone with the zone next to it. The upside to this is that there are no more hidden zones inside your semi-solid brushes. The new Unreal patch enables this option, as it was not enabled in the old version of Unreal, with the exception of Unreal Gold. Pay attention to this.
- Emitters: the new version of the editor introduces emitters to the world of UnrealEngine 1.
- Static Meshes: Full support for static meshes. Same static meshes that were introduced in UnrealEngine 2 (Unreal 2, UT2003, UT2004 etc.). Meshes can be created two ways:
a) in a modeling program and than imported into Unreal (skins included),
b) you can select a brush and convert it into a static mesh (same as UT200x).
- Drastically faster rebuild times for two reasons:
- improved BSP code,
- you can use static meshes that are unaffected by geometry, therefore cutting rebuild times down in half or even more.
- Drastically faster loading times and smaller file sizes: you can get you level size down more than 60% with extensive usage of static meshes, and you can re-use static meshes, reducing the amount of meshes you need to create. This all loads the level/saves the level much faster in-game and in the editor. On top of that, packages with static meshes are really, really small. You need to work hard to get it up to 1 MB. This is great because it allows to create vastly more complex and dynamic environments than before. Usage of static meshes also reduces the amount of polygons the BSP creates, and since they are rendered faster and more efficiently than solid BSP geometry, you can have better performance in an identical scene, if you replace some of the complex geometry with static meshes. This also reduces (or eliminates, if you wish) the need for semi-solid brushes.
- You can use Static Meshes to replace movers. Movers are poorly lit as they have been since the first days of Unreal, especially when you have a complex mover. Just add a mesh in the place of a mover and set up an AttachMover in the void behind it (or inside the mesh itself if you opt for a small cube for instance) and animate the mover. Just don't forget to attach the mesh in question with the co-responding mover. That way you can reduce any problems with movers.
- Additive world: A very important thing that I feel needs mentioning is the ability to create a world that is purely additive. This means that, identically as in the new UnrealEngine 3, you can create a world simply with static meshes without any BSP geometry what so ever (you don't have to first subtract a huge cube and than add stuff back in). In this respect, the 227 patch makes the UnrealEngine1 more powerful than UnrealEngine2. You only have to keep one thing in mind: if you want lighting to be rebuilt, you need to add one BSP based shape in the level. It can be a small 1x1x1 cube outside of the playable level, but it needs to be there.
- Distance Fog: distance fogging can greatly improve performance if you have vast open scenes or scenes that are complex. On top of that it looks awesome if used correctly.
- Improved texture aligning: Unreal 227 fixes the way the engine tries to align surfaces that are set as walls. We all know that the engine could properly align the surfaces if you selected "Align to floor", but it usually ****s itself when you select "Align/Pan to wall". Even with two adjacent, simple brushes, it would sometimes struggle. This problem is now fixed. No more rotating brushes to align textures to "floor".
- Overall improved stability. No more sporadic crashes.
- Improved 2D editor.
- Improved script loading (when you load a script the browser does not collapse together anymore, among other things).
- You can select the "Replace textures" more than once without having to exit the editor.
- Improved texture browser.
- Support for projectors.
- Support for shiny surfaces via the "Environment" flag in the surface properties window (key F5).
- "Bright corners" flag works now,
- "Dirty Shadows" flag works now,
- A new option "bEnhancedSightCheck" enables enemies to see through masked and translucent geometry,
- Movers can be set not to render static shadows,
- Fluid info actor for realistic wavy imitation of water surfaces.
- Real-time and non real-time preview of backdrop (skybox).
- A new 3D render has been implemented: Lighting only. That way you can see your geometry without any textures (surfaces are displayed as pure white) to check how you lighting behaves against it.
- Integrated OpenGL support for the render in the editor. You can also use D3D. However, D3D is generally slower in Unreal as OpenGL. Please note that the new OpenGL is improved over the old one; you can view zoning and BSP cuts in OpenGL now, a feature you did not have before.
- SunLight actor: you can add a single light that acts as a sunlight and use it to illuminate vast open spaces. No need to add dozens of lights to illuminate outdoors. Using this removes "bright" and "green" spots where two or more lights usually meet because their brightness is added together.
- Lastly, the biggest reason to switch: even though the UE3 still has more features (HDR lighting, bloom, support for high-poly models), it lacks in one particular thing: support for single player. Even though the Unreal monsters are a bit outdated, for people that want to create a single player mod, this platform holds the most promise because it reduces the time needed to code for new game types, new enemy A.I. and the need to create new enemy pawns, or create high-polygon models that are expected in today's games. In the end, you can just replace the old monster models, and the rest will look as good as UT2004, or, with some effort, even better, with substantially less coding changes that would be needed for UT2004.
Static Meshes specific:
- UVs are preserved if you make a mesh from brushes inside the editor,
- You are not required to combine brushes into a single shape before turning them into a mesh. You can just select the desired brushes and convert them into one single mesh. You can also convert brushes and static meshes into a single mesh. This doesn't work for substracted brushes though (e.g. if you have an arch), and doing this the mesh will be a lot cleaner than with (de)intersecting brushes into a single shape, but there is a lot of wasted faces on the mesh. It's recommended that you export the mesh into a 3d editing software and clean it up to reduce the overall poly count.
Things to be careful about:
- Zoning. Remember, for each zone you create, you must add a zone info actor,
- Meshes act the same way as meshes in UT2004. They use vertex lighting, but they do occlude geometry.
Also make sure to read UnrealED 2.1 release notes, and the general 227 patch release notes.
I will add to this list as more features are introduced, or on request.
Please note that some things mentioned here will come shipped with version 227g, which is currently still in development.
Please use this thread for any and all UnrealEd 2.1 related question (Unreal version 227f or higher). I will do my best to answer any problems, and we can also eliminate the amount of such threads.
If possible, it would be great if this got sticky'd, to reduce unnecessary threads.
First off, I want to say that the developer of the patch, Smirftsch, was given full permission from Epic Games to fix the old code in Unreal. He was given the source code for the game from Epic, and he is doing everything with Epic's permission. Even with this said hundreds of times, people still find reason to doubt him. Secondly, the reason he does not fix the code for Unreal Tournament instead: Epic has not given him the permission to do so. If you would like the new changes to be implemented into Unreal Tournament, you can help by sending Epic an e-mail to show that there are people still living in the old community and are willing to support it, instead of flaming the developers. Lastly, not only the game engine got the massive overhaul. The editor has also been fixed up tremendously, and tons of new features were added.
If you wish to check all the bug fixes and the new implementations of the new version of Unreal, please visit Old Unreal.
Now let's get down to business! Here are the important things you need to know for the new UnrealEditor 2.1, and the reasons to use the new version of the game if you are a level designer.
Reasons to switch:
- Improved zoning: Legend Entertainment added a feature in Unreal back in 1999 that drastically reduces the amount of zones in a level. I think we've all seen "hidden" zones inside semi-solid brushes. Even though these zones don't do anything, they are still counted towards your total zone count. When the editor reaches 63 zones, it starts merging zones together since it can not go over this number. This sucks, of course, because you can have a zone that has water in it merged with 1/2 of your level without any warning if you're not careful. The change that LE implemented is called "Zone Merging". This means the following: for each zone you create you must manually add a zone info actor inside that particular zone. If you fail to do that, the editor will presume that that zone is "fake" (the same as hidden zones inside semi-solid brushes), and it will merge the zone with the zone next to it. The upside to this is that there are no more hidden zones inside your semi-solid brushes. The new Unreal patch enables this option, as it was not enabled in the old version of Unreal, with the exception of Unreal Gold. Pay attention to this.
- Emitters: the new version of the editor introduces emitters to the world of UnrealEngine 1.
- Static Meshes: Full support for static meshes. Same static meshes that were introduced in UnrealEngine 2 (Unreal 2, UT2003, UT2004 etc.). Meshes can be created two ways:
a) in a modeling program and than imported into Unreal (skins included),
b) you can select a brush and convert it into a static mesh (same as UT200x).
- Drastically faster rebuild times for two reasons:
- improved BSP code,
- you can use static meshes that are unaffected by geometry, therefore cutting rebuild times down in half or even more.
- Drastically faster loading times and smaller file sizes: you can get you level size down more than 60% with extensive usage of static meshes, and you can re-use static meshes, reducing the amount of meshes you need to create. This all loads the level/saves the level much faster in-game and in the editor. On top of that, packages with static meshes are really, really small. You need to work hard to get it up to 1 MB. This is great because it allows to create vastly more complex and dynamic environments than before. Usage of static meshes also reduces the amount of polygons the BSP creates, and since they are rendered faster and more efficiently than solid BSP geometry, you can have better performance in an identical scene, if you replace some of the complex geometry with static meshes. This also reduces (or eliminates, if you wish) the need for semi-solid brushes.
- You can use Static Meshes to replace movers. Movers are poorly lit as they have been since the first days of Unreal, especially when you have a complex mover. Just add a mesh in the place of a mover and set up an AttachMover in the void behind it (or inside the mesh itself if you opt for a small cube for instance) and animate the mover. Just don't forget to attach the mesh in question with the co-responding mover. That way you can reduce any problems with movers.
- Additive world: A very important thing that I feel needs mentioning is the ability to create a world that is purely additive. This means that, identically as in the new UnrealEngine 3, you can create a world simply with static meshes without any BSP geometry what so ever (you don't have to first subtract a huge cube and than add stuff back in). In this respect, the 227 patch makes the UnrealEngine1 more powerful than UnrealEngine2. You only have to keep one thing in mind: if you want lighting to be rebuilt, you need to add one BSP based shape in the level. It can be a small 1x1x1 cube outside of the playable level, but it needs to be there.
- Distance Fog: distance fogging can greatly improve performance if you have vast open scenes or scenes that are complex. On top of that it looks awesome if used correctly.
- Improved texture aligning: Unreal 227 fixes the way the engine tries to align surfaces that are set as walls. We all know that the engine could properly align the surfaces if you selected "Align to floor", but it usually ****s itself when you select "Align/Pan to wall". Even with two adjacent, simple brushes, it would sometimes struggle. This problem is now fixed. No more rotating brushes to align textures to "floor".
- Overall improved stability. No more sporadic crashes.
- Improved 2D editor.
- Improved script loading (when you load a script the browser does not collapse together anymore, among other things).
- You can select the "Replace textures" more than once without having to exit the editor.
- Improved texture browser.
- Support for projectors.
- Support for shiny surfaces via the "Environment" flag in the surface properties window (key F5).
- "Bright corners" flag works now,
- "Dirty Shadows" flag works now,
- A new option "bEnhancedSightCheck" enables enemies to see through masked and translucent geometry,
- Movers can be set not to render static shadows,
- Fluid info actor for realistic wavy imitation of water surfaces.
- Real-time and non real-time preview of backdrop (skybox).
- A new 3D render has been implemented: Lighting only. That way you can see your geometry without any textures (surfaces are displayed as pure white) to check how you lighting behaves against it.
- Integrated OpenGL support for the render in the editor. You can also use D3D. However, D3D is generally slower in Unreal as OpenGL. Please note that the new OpenGL is improved over the old one; you can view zoning and BSP cuts in OpenGL now, a feature you did not have before.
- SunLight actor: you can add a single light that acts as a sunlight and use it to illuminate vast open spaces. No need to add dozens of lights to illuminate outdoors. Using this removes "bright" and "green" spots where two or more lights usually meet because their brightness is added together.
- Lastly, the biggest reason to switch: even though the UE3 still has more features (HDR lighting, bloom, support for high-poly models), it lacks in one particular thing: support for single player. Even though the Unreal monsters are a bit outdated, for people that want to create a single player mod, this platform holds the most promise because it reduces the time needed to code for new game types, new enemy A.I. and the need to create new enemy pawns, or create high-polygon models that are expected in today's games. In the end, you can just replace the old monster models, and the rest will look as good as UT2004, or, with some effort, even better, with substantially less coding changes that would be needed for UT2004.
Static Meshes specific:
- UVs are preserved if you make a mesh from brushes inside the editor,
- You are not required to combine brushes into a single shape before turning them into a mesh. You can just select the desired brushes and convert them into one single mesh. You can also convert brushes and static meshes into a single mesh. This doesn't work for substracted brushes though (e.g. if you have an arch), and doing this the mesh will be a lot cleaner than with (de)intersecting brushes into a single shape, but there is a lot of wasted faces on the mesh. It's recommended that you export the mesh into a 3d editing software and clean it up to reduce the overall poly count.
Things to be careful about:
- Zoning. Remember, for each zone you create, you must add a zone info actor,
- Meshes act the same way as meshes in UT2004. They use vertex lighting, but they do occlude geometry.
Also make sure to read UnrealED 2.1 release notes, and the general 227 patch release notes.
I will add to this list as more features are introduced, or on request.
Please note that some things mentioned here will come shipped with version 227g, which is currently still in development.
Please use this thread for any and all UnrealEd 2.1 related question (Unreal version 227f or higher). I will do my best to answer any problems, and we can also eliminate the amount of such threads.
If possible, it would be great if this got sticky'd, to reduce unnecessary threads.
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