Unreal Texture UT site and S3TC releases

[Diehard]

But they look soooo goooood

Yeah, i know lol



And as promised, (found them back) four other large shots from Mars from different angles, shots are raw unedited(at least not by me) hemispheres from Mars:

MarsHemispheres.rar 106 Mb sizes are either 4194 x 4194 pixels or 4789 x 4789 pixels.



I am not sure if i am gonna use one of these for a future update unless i do a whole lotta editing on them, effectivelly the oné that is used now is only 2048 but has super cool looks. If i use the 4096 versions i better make sure it will get similar looks lol.
.
.
.

 

[brdempsey69]

WOW, thank you so much, it is greatly appreciated. I have the resources to work with these.

Thanks again, Diehard. Many of us grateful for the updated graphics you've provided for original UT

If I release anything to the public with this, you have my word that UnrealTexture.com will be copyrighted into the ReadMe and your name will be mentioned.

 

[Diehard]

Thanks lol


But it has always been a goal for the site to offer lots of recources for mappers and modders. Its unfortunate i still dont have the time to add all S3TC textures as PSD file yet. Theres alot there already but nearly not what could be.

And that includes stuff like high resolution PSD files for logos like CTF and such. Or cool originals like those planets.

Anyways have fun with them
.
.
.

 

[brdempsey69]

OK, I got the .PSD files and made a low end package and a high end package. The high end package was 24-bit .BMP saved from the .PSD files. I used Raven's MergeDXT and made the S3TC package. I named the package XbpSPEC.utx. I loaded up CTF-Face in UnrealEd and applied the Earth textures from my new package and rebuilt and saved the map as CTF-Face-XE. Here is the result

[SCREENSHOT]http://www.brdempsey69.com/facexe.jpg[/SCREENSHOT]

The thing is, this new S3TC package can be loaded in UnrealEd and used for mapping. I didn't think this was supposed to show correctly in UnrealEd, but it does by displaying the LowEnd images. Here's a screen shot:

[SCREENSHOT]http://www.brdempsey69.com/unrealed.jpg[/SCREENSHOT]

The next question that would be asked about this new package is whether or not it's net compatible. I put the low end package on my LAN/Internet server along with the CTF-Face-XE map and also uploaded the map and S3TC package so that my friend Nick_C ( He's in England & I'm in the U.S., BTW and we can chat via TeamSpeak ) could download the files and put them on his copy of UT. We played the map and there were no issues at all. We both could see the High-Res earth you see in the first screenshot just fine & there were no skating players.

I was wondering, if you still have all the .PSD files from the XbpFX.utx package and if you could upload them some where if you get the time. I'd like to have a crack at that package, as I believe I may have a work-around. At the worst, if I fail, then we ain't lost anything, but if I'm successful...you get the idea.

 

[Hermskii]

Couple of things here

There are a couple of things to consider here.

First, I can't see the pictures you posted so I can't tell anything. I think the links are bad.

Next, is my concern that these textures are going to get all confused in whether to use DieHard's or these new ones that brdempsey69 is making.

I'm sure I'm jumping the gun with this concern but I just don't want to start getting some from one place and others from another place since I am a third party here with an interest towards providing a flawless S3TC download package with flawless instructions to make them work every time.

Diehard started all of this so I would hope that any changes made or new methods discovered are worked jointly through him so that all of this keeps a certain feel that will be common to future S3TC releases.

 

[brdempsey69]

Nothing wrong with the links I posted, I can see the pics just fine.

If I was to make a successful XbpFX.utx package, it would be given to Diehard to upload to his site, so everyone would be getting it from the same spot. No worries.

 

[LondonDryGin]

Doesn't the earth look exactly the same as with DieHard's textures? The images are working for me by the way..

 

[brdempsey69]

^^Yes, it is Diehards texture. But the XbpFX.utx package from www.unrealtexture.com has skating player glitches in some maps & DOM-MetalDream is unplayable.

DM-Phobos has skating player glitches when using that package and playing in server mode, but CTF-Phobos][ by Cory Spooner doesn't, it plays just fine.

I noticed in UnrealEd that DM-Phobos calls on 15 textures from the XbpFX.utx package, but CTF-Phobos][ calls on only 11.

The potential problem textures appear to be inxpal, inxs1, inxs2, inxs3, inxs4 in addition to the procedural textures.

 

[NeoNite]

I'm making this thread a sticky. If you disagree/think it was fine the way it was, just say so.

 

[Hermskii]

Cool

Yeah, that is odd. I can now see the images too. OK. Anyways, I'm glad to hear that whatever you do will go to Diehard for him to give out from one place. That will keep file mismatches from happening and when I make install tutorials I can keep getting the new stuff from the same place. I think it is good for this to be a sticky too...

You mentioned that Diehard's XbpFX.utx file has skating texture issues. I don't see that when I play on Phobos or anywhere. What does that mean to be playing in server mode? Are you playing from the same install that you are serving from?

 

[GreatEmerald]

Guess the problem is that the XbpFX is not compatible with other XbpFX textures this way. You can't play online if you rename it to just XbpFX.

 

[Diehard]

I'm making this thread a sticky. If you disagree/think it was fine the way it was, just say so.

Nooooo , Just kidding, its fine with me

I was wondering, if you still have all the .PSD files from the XbpFX.utx package and if you could upload them some where if you get the time.

Yes, all S3TC files occupy some 320 gigabyte of my drivespace (and another 320 as backup, so 640 gig in total lol) And in time, every (flatened) PSD file will be added to the texture database for mappers and modders or people needing them to build their Unreal related websites.


As for the discussion, i do tend to agree with Hermskii.

But lets clear up a few things first. The XbpFX.utx UTRP package should not cause the skating player glitch, but does have a problem related to the procedural texture blueplasma:

This error cause errors in the projection ingame for that specific texture(showing 100% black, green, red or blue), and in bad cases it can even crash the entire game to the desktop. As for solving it, work needs to be done on the Mergertool, but its also possible it cannot be solved, due to the nature of procedural textures....


The other way to solve the problem is, is to create another package from scratch without the blueplasma texture in it. But here i agree with Hermskii, at the end it will confuse people, or brandnew players not knowing this will get online version mismatches. Pouring the textures into a brandnew utx package with a unique name (not being XbpFX) can be a solution for further safe use of course. But replacing the XbpFX by another XbpFX package, i disadvice that highly, at the end it will cause more problems than it will solve unfortunatelly.................


And dont get me wrong, the idea is neat, i have been thinking that often, to replace ALL UT packages for new ones, just to get rid of the skating player glitch, but thats a large project and not one i could easelly pull off(read total lack of time to do that also, next to all the other projects)

For Unreal (and thats Unreal not UT) i am working on a similar project that does exactly that UTFU


Sidenote:

The most likelly cause of the skating player glitch is the accidental use of an 24bit texture in an otherwise entirelly 256 Indexed (normal)package. S3TC packages derived from that package will cause the glitch, while the fault is not withing the S3TC package but in the normal package!

The thing that is still unclear to me weather packages that were created with MergeDXT can have this error as well. In any case, if you compile such a package, make damn sure that the normal counterpart ONLY has 256 indexed color textures has, and double, double, double check theres NO 24bit accidentelly added!


But a second XbpFX, i would stay away from that to be honest, better make an entire new package with a new (unrelated) name.
.
.

 

[brdempsey69]

You mentioned that Diehard's XbpFX.utx file has skating texture issues. I don't see that when I play on Phobos or anywhere. What does that mean to be playing in server mode? Are you playing from the same install that you are serving from?

No, it's a dedicated server on a different machine. When I say server mode what I mean is connecting to a different machine. Sorry, I should have specified. The cd1 textures are on the server machine. The problem with skating occurred in DM-Phobos & DOM-MetalDream and one other map, I can't remember the name of it. CTF-Face worked just fine as did CTF-Phobos][.

Diehard, thanks again. The reason I'd like to take a crack at the XbpFX.utx package is because it is on CD2 and is of a different size than the CD1 XbpFX.utx package, so that would lead me to believe that it can be done. I think it's worth a try. If I pull it off, I'll upload it and send you a PM with the link.

 

[Diehard]

The reason I'd like to take a crack at the XbpFX.utx package is because it is on CD2 and is of a different size than the CD1 XbpFX.utx package, so that would lead me to believe that it can be done.

Yeah, but that wont solve a mismatch problem. The cool part about the tool i have is, it can create netcompatible packages, while a new package always causes a mismatch and conflict with an excisting package with the same name. And there is no way to bypass that, unless all UT players would switch to that package. Which is undoable. And even than you wont be able to run any map that has the blueplasma texture in it, which are some default maps.


And seeing Unreal, theres still new blood comming in, and UT being more polular than Unreal, i asume each week some 50-100 new players enter, and they all will have a mismatch. Trust me, theres no way around the mismatch it will go cause.


Even the serverpackages i created to solve the scating player glitch, they are used alot, and that program is now running for almost 1 year, and still 95% is the servers still dont use those. Trust me, its too difficult to reach everybody. And though this board is visited by a large amount of UT players, its not even 1% from the total amount of UT players.


If i were you go ahead creating a brandnew package with a new name and redo(and rename) the maps involved , . You will get alot better and usefull and positive response from people than releasing an existing package that is likelly to go conflict.....
.
.
.

 

[GreatEmerald]

Hmm, why can't the MergerTool just ignore the Procedural texture? Or, can't you replace it with just an animated texture?

 

[Diehard]

Hmm, why can't the MergerTool just ignore the Procedural texture? Or, can't you replace it with just an animated texture?

Actually it does bypass the procedural texture completelly, and that makes it even more strange its having that effect. The mergertool ONLY processes textures that have an dds counterpart, if it doesnt, the texture is completelly ignored.


And no, it cannot be replaced by an animated version, because that would mean that you would add something to the package, which is impossible. Adding or removing will alter the GUID from the package, which results in a version mismatch online.
.
.
.

 

[brdempsey69]

I get it, it's the GUID from the original package. I guess that wasn't a problem with the packages that I made, because they were all made from scratch.

Anyway, thanks again Diehard, for the .PSD files, I've got what I wanted, and I can enjoy the earth texture in Face and the Phobos Moon in both the Phobos maps. So, I will take your suggestion and leave it at that.

 

[IronMonkey]

Some observations

This is almost a mapping topic but I suppose it does affect the project as a whole.

I'm in the process of finalising (nothing like a late change to make life interesting) DM-Super5BoxDeath for UT2004. It is a remake (from scratch) of CliffyB's entry into the 5-brushes map competition (run, or at least, judged, by a certain CliffyB). A toy map but I like the original.

The floor on that map uses DecayS.Floor.dmFlor2c and rather than using an imported version of the original texture, I decided to upgrade to the S3TC version.

The comparison picture between the two texture can be found here:

http://www.unrealtexture.com/UT/Website/TextureDatabase/UT/DecayedS/DecayedS_Floor.htm

(Diehard, I hope it is OK to link to that page. If not, let me know and I'll edit out the link)

If you look at Epic's version of the texture, you can see that the general colour balance on the S3TC version is significantly different from that of the original. Even worse, the added detail in the texture really emphasises the repetition of the pattern over a large surface (like, say, a floor.

This isn't the only texture so affected (I'd emphasise here that I am discussing Epic's originals and not any texture done by Diehard) and I wonder if anyone has any solution (other than waiting for Diehard to get round to the texture?

ASIDE: Diehard, which NASA site are you getting the very high resolution images from? The last time I went looking for some images (admittedly, of Jupiter and from an earlier probe), I couldn't even find 1024x1024 images.

 

[GreatEmerald]

I've seen some super high res planet textures on Wikipedia. It even had a warning: don't press this link, the image is so detailed that your browser might even crash!
Looking through their Mars article, and wow... This picure looks just like XMP-Sirocco from U2XMP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Victoria_Crater,_Cape_Verde-Mars.jpg
Even more - they have a Darkwalker there!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:War-of-the-worlds-tripod.jpg

 

[Raven]

The thing is, this new S3TC package can be loaded in UnrealEd and used for mapping. I didn't think this was supposed to show correctly in UnrealEd, but it does by displaying the LowEnd images.

My MergeDXT is just GUI for ucc commandlet. It merges two files (low-res and high-res) into one. If for some reason S3TC are not enabled (or can not be displayed) the low-res version is displayed. So yes - it will work in UED.

I was wondering, if you still have all the .PSD files from the XbpFX.utx package and if you could upload them some where if you get the time. I'd like to have a crack at that package, as I believe I may have a work-around. At the worst, if I fail, then we ain't lost anything, but if I'm successful...you get the idea.

It's something completely different. MergeToool will replace low-res textures with high-res ones, while MergeDXT will merge (and compress) two utx files. It's still unclear to me whenever it is true S3TC or not, but result is still damn good .