UT99 to Ut2003--Modders, start the Engine

[SPoT]

And you shouldn't have to move textures manually for the most part, the planar map generally takes care of it. The most you should need to do is selecting a large quantity of textures all at once and shifting them slightly to line them up with ceiling, walls, whatever.

O god how I wish this was true

I tried something funny a little while ago..
I copied all of the UT textures straight into the UT2k3 folder, and then used the Xform perm. copied, pasted built. Eww... There wasnt a single texrure on the map that didnt require resizing and centering. It was pretty nasty with 1029 brushes, lol.

Anyway, Im just wakeing up here...

I am not assuming leadership. That would be bad. Even in my clan there is a majority rule, as there was in my old one. Im just asking , and as always, voiceing IMO. If anything, Id suggest three team leaders.

I didnt really get anything done this weekend.
In about ten min, im going to light up the editor and get Oblivion.
No response from Mark yet...

 

[SylverFyre]

O god how I wish this was true
Anyway, Im just wakeing up here...

and Im about to hit the sack

Coret coming along OK - although slowly, like u say over 1000 brushes is time consuming to retexture etc

 

[BigFolks]

Any way to start a thread in the atari forums about this and link it here? Do you think mark rien would follow the link here and post his thoughts and stuff on this or do you think we would have to have a whole side thread at atari just like this one. We would have to put up with the atari thread posters there but hey, it's worth it i suppose.

Would mark rien even take time out to visit the thread even at atari community?

 

[BigFolks]

Update: I am converting CTF-Gauntlet over. If you are doing this one tell me, I don't want to do your work or vice versa. It's time consuming and the faster we get some of this stuff out of the way, the better.

 

[SPoT]

Any way to start a thread in the atari forums about this and link it here?

Ive got threads about this in 6 different forums on the Atari forums already
No comment from Epic, and they tend to get pushed back to the back pages quickly.. Its deffinate that the Atari forums arent the place to gain alot of support...

Ive a question....
How do I export UT meshes?
Im trying to export the fighter meshes. Brushes go no problem, but the meshes are being a pain. Anyone know of a good tute?

 

[Radiosity]

www.wotgreal.com

Go there and download wotgreal. With it you get an exporter program that can be used to export the meshes from UT. I think the fighters are in Botpack.u, but I cant remember for sure You'll need either 3dmax or a program that can handle .3ds files to open the resulting mesh. While you're there, grab the textures for it too. The mesh exports with the first mapping channel intact, which is fine for most UT meshes (not player models though, you'd have to remap either the body or head yourself).

 

[SPoT]

10-4 thanks..

 

[ExiT]

Wow, I haven't touched ut2003 for a while, but this sounds like a reason to keep it on my harddrive I member discussion of this idea back in the days where half of any discussion about ut2003 was "Y DONT U JUST GO PLAY UT1"

I have one suggestion here...there seems to be a lot of ambiguity here about how much the stuff will be modified. I strongly suggest that you guys stick to Proph's challenge....pure UT99, or at least specifify which content is pure and which is UT "1.5" or whatever you guys are going to call it...

It seems the best way to organize the weapons would be to have a base level with the original skins, as well as an option for high-res re-textures.

And the legal stuff should probably come through...it's obviously dumb that they wouldn't let someone recreate their game on one of their OWN engines....hope it all comes through in your favor....

good luck!

 

[BigFolks]

Update: I currently have about 50% of all the textures for CTF-UT-Gauntlet-v1.1.ctf. No static meshes considering they sucketh. I have tried many times to convert the lighting over but I give up. Somebody else do it for me once I get all the textures up and all of the player starts in.

Now HOW do i use the my level package???????

 

[Hunter]

i will have a basic walk around on orbital reading in place tomorrow, now that i've sussed out how to sort textures

i wouldn't mind being a lead mapper or something

 

[SPoT]

Next set of Updates for DM-Oblivion
here

Mostly just aligning textures, a little lighting, and the begining of the skybox.

Still early work, but good enough to test movement and perspective on

 

[Hunter]

can u post some shots so i can view them in college.

 

[SPoT]

can u post some shots so i can view them in college.

Ive got a few shots over at the D-Generation X BB. Its just of the first room though. As for retexturing and alignment, Ive got one room to go, and a few outside spots left.

Im porting over the exact lighting, and IMO, its too bright, so Ill be redoing it.
Then the skybox paning and fighter models.
After that, a few antiportals and coronas and it be done.

Added..
I added a few more screenshots, or will in a few min.
It shows four rooms...

 

[Hunter]

im in the same boat as you with lighting it's too bright in ued3

 

[Radiosity]

BigFolks - myLevel is an internal package that you can use to store any custom content within a map file itself. You can store textures, meshes, sounds, scripts, etc all in the myLevel package. It works the same as a normal package, just specify myLevel as the package when you import something and your content will be saved when you save the map itself. Be aware though, that only content that is actually in use somewhere in the level will be saved, to avoid uneccessary filesize.

If you've already imported a load of stuff into a custom package then don't worry, you can rename everything to the myLevel package easily enough. Just go to the edit menu of the browser (tex, meshes, whatever) and select rename - put myLevel for package, and a group if you want to keep things neat and tidy, and hit ok. The texture etc will be moved to myLevel and every instance of it will be updated in the level to match (so you won't need to retexture everything from scratch ).

Save the map and close the editor. It'll inform you about the changed packages and ask if you want to save. Click no so your old packages are kept intact. Now remove the packages from their folders and open the map again. If the map loads ok with no missing content load errors you can safely delete those packages. If you get load errors then just put the offending package back again, load the map and rename the necessary files.


EDIT: Hunter and anyone else having issues with lighting. Right click a light and select all lights in the level. Tools menu -> Scale lights. Enter a negative percentage value and rebuild lighting. Try doing it in -5% increments and keep rebuilding until it looks better, then tweak from there.

 

[SPoT]

Hunter and anyone else having issues with lighting. Right click a light and select all lights in the level. Tools menu -> Scale lights. Enter a negative percentage value and rebuild lighting. Try doing it in -5% increments and keep rebuilding until it looks better, then tweak from there.

Thanks..
I forgot about that

Im going to try a few things after Oblivion is done, and this will be one of them.

One other thing about UT maps. Alot of them dont have Levelinfo's per zones. I found that adding a zoneinfo, and then adding even just a little light to zonelight makes the map run better and at higher FPS. It also get rid of those black "camper" areas. I dont really have a problem with camping. I do it myself on occasion. But I use the terrain in conjunction with lighting, and some dark areas are just too dark.


Added:
Also remember if you are using UT textures, right click on them and compress to DX1.

 

[danseko]

Hi! I signed up for this project at SPoT's forum, and suddenly discovered
(after a tip) that Parser had been working on much of the same things I
had (sent you a PM, Parser).


If you've followed my rants on INA you probably know I have many
opinions on what needs to be ported to obtain the UT feel, so here goes.

I don't think we have to port maps as exact versions of the UT originals,
though of course, as little "stuff" on walls and so on as possible is good.

I mentioned on SPoT's forum that I'd love to see some simple curved
corners, entrances etc just to show that even though the gameplay is
like UT, this isn't UT. Curved corners, edges and "seams" is IMO a great
design move using basic geometric shapes that won't be offensive to anyone.

And I don't think just exchanging UT textures with UT2k3 ones will do alone,
you'd probably need to change lighting/colour, as the UT2k3 ones are
usually very strong in colour and detail.

UT walls had subtle, "background"-type textures with light colours
in grey, brown etc.. yes, it's kind of boring, and yes, I think that's part
of the point - let the gameplay have some air and concentrate on the
map's shape and flow in stead.

(If anyone are interested, here's my post of humble mapping opinions
on SPoT's forum: http://bb.ourtime.us/viewtopic.php?t=56 )

 

[Radiosity]

Also remember if you are using UT textures, right click on them and compress to DX1.

There aren't many true 'transparent' textures in UT, but if you are using any then compress to DXT3 as DXT1 doesn't support alpha transparency. Also, if it's a detailed texture you'd be best off using DXT3 or even 5 as DXT1 is very lossy compared to the other two. It's fine for most textures though.

For lighting, I tend to normally change most of it to a more natural hue and saturation. The 0 saturation blues, reds, greens, purples etc worked great in UT and added a lot to it's atmosphere, but they don't work so well in UT2003. That's mainly my personal preference though

 

[The Trasher]

Arrgh, I knew legal BS would hamper the mod.








Let's make sure it doesn't kill it.

 

[danseko]

Arrgh, I knew legal BS would hamper the mod.

Let's make sure it doesn't kill it.

As long as one aren't going to sell this mod, I'm pretty sure it's legal
no matter how much we copy the maps.

The whole UEd-system is based on reusing content from the games;
maps, textures and so on.

I think Mark Rein probably misunderstood this mod as being a commercial
project (or similar). As long as we don't need any sort of exclusive rights
on it or anything, it's (99% sure IMO) legal as it is.