Just a heads up for people who haven't gotten 2k4 yet, here's a couple things I noticed.
- There's no IDE packaged (not counting UED). Harm is still working on the kinks for the new stuff in 2k4 and mentioned on the ut2004mods list that it should be up for download in about a week. I was having problems getting the dev version of wotGreal to work, but with his help it looks like what you have to do is a) use the gametype config to create a UT2004 option, b) go to preferences and make sure the UCC, user.ini, etc. are set for that option, c) refresh your package tree, d) refresh your compiler.
- One of the big changes Steve Polge mentioned was weapon code. Apparently WeaponFire is an object now, not an actor. They've moved a lot of the actor-like functions to there, but states are apparently not supported. I'd say it's pretty easy for custom weapon code to get broken here, although I had some success with using the xpak weapons without trouble.
- The new GUI code looks pretty tight. There is still going to be a lot of tweaking of default properties, but doesn't seem to be as much of the juggling between initializing, declaring, setting in the controls array, then setting the var to the controls array, etc. etc. It sounds the same on the surface - declare var, define, set var to the control, but looks simpler. Plus, I think there's a lot more toys.
However, my config screens for the xpaks seem to work OK untouched, so the old ways seem supported (nice for porting). My weapon loader didn't work, but it was probably referencing an obsolete function.
- Oddly, I didn't see the gametype declarations in the int files, but moving some int files from my UT2003 stuff seem to work nearly as normal (I had some odd behavior but until I get a solid compile, hard to tell why). Interestingly, if the game can't load your gametype (because of dependencies, etc.) it won't show it on the gametype chooser at all - friendlier than the way it was in UT2003 where the gt would just revert to DM when played.
- There's no IDE packaged (not counting UED). Harm is still working on the kinks for the new stuff in 2k4 and mentioned on the ut2004mods list that it should be up for download in about a week. I was having problems getting the dev version of wotGreal to work, but with his help it looks like what you have to do is a) use the gametype config to create a UT2004 option, b) go to preferences and make sure the UCC, user.ini, etc. are set for that option, c) refresh your package tree, d) refresh your compiler.
- One of the big changes Steve Polge mentioned was weapon code. Apparently WeaponFire is an object now, not an actor. They've moved a lot of the actor-like functions to there, but states are apparently not supported. I'd say it's pretty easy for custom weapon code to get broken here, although I had some success with using the xpak weapons without trouble.
- The new GUI code looks pretty tight. There is still going to be a lot of tweaking of default properties, but doesn't seem to be as much of the juggling between initializing, declaring, setting in the controls array, then setting the var to the controls array, etc. etc. It sounds the same on the surface - declare var, define, set var to the control, but looks simpler. Plus, I think there's a lot more toys.
However, my config screens for the xpaks seem to work OK untouched, so the old ways seem supported (nice for porting). My weapon loader didn't work, but it was probably referencing an obsolete function.
- Oddly, I didn't see the gametype declarations in the int files, but moving some int files from my UT2003 stuff seem to work nearly as normal (I had some odd behavior but until I get a solid compile, hard to tell why). Interestingly, if the game can't load your gametype (because of dependencies, etc.) it won't show it on the gametype chooser at all - friendlier than the way it was in UT2003 where the gt would just revert to DM when played.