question about old ut99

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darksonny
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question about old ut99

Post by darksonny »

Hi all
I was reading the topic of sdk for ut and im still confused whats is it actually, is a community project with development ongoing? Is this stuff any sort of improvements to make ut99 great again (trump mode on)? extend more mapping capacitiies or so?

Are here any other project like this in development today? which could you suggest to try it?

Im talking from the most ignorance attitude, dont bite me please? :mrgreen:
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Feralidragon
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Re: question about old ut99

Post by Feralidragon »

The SDK was meant to be something like an engine on top of the current one of sort to speak, with a lot of new features for both mappers and modders to use, like particles, static meshes, new renderers, post-processing, etc, etc..., all using native C++ code.
However that project is at the very least on hold, although it's most likely completely canceled, and has been so for several years already. I cannot say "canceled" for sure since Shadow (the developer) never confirmed so, but we have to assume the worst given that several years have passed since the last update, so I doubt anything will come out from it at all.

From there, there are some active projects going on, such as XC_Engine from Higor, which aims mostly to patch the current engine, and at the same time add some new neat features as well, such as converting brushes directly to meshes within the editor for example.
He has other XC_* projects as well, and he has a section for all of them which you may check here: viewforum.php?f=62

Although not for mapping nor modding, anth is also continuing the development of his anti-cheat, ACE, which should help on the game longevity and fairness as well: viewforum.php?f=65

I also intend to do some stuff again in the future myself, be in the form of both mods and tools, but right now I am hard at work in the necessary foundation for all of it, and have been since the start of January, for which you can find more details here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=12684 (it's a very long read, but it has a TL/DR which summarizes all of it)
But I have no idea how long it will take me, but for what it is worth, I have been making progress (not as quick as I would like, but been making it nonetheless).

Other than that, some are still developing their own things, such as new maps and mods, there has been one or another tool released, things like grid texture packs to greatly help the mapping process for example, and other things of a similar kind, but nothing more beyond that (unless I am missing something).
darksonny
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Re: question about old ut99

Post by darksonny »

Hey Ferali!
Nice to see you here again! From you are telling it sound a good start and interesting thing were doing some of the loyal ut99 fans (including you and your huge project in wip development) Thanks for those links to get informed about the ut modding scene.

By the way, I trying to recall the name of that guy who did the s3tc textures I have those high end and extreme end version from 2014, are all the texture package finished today? any news on this? Thanks!
Last edited by darksonny on Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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esnesi
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Re: question about old ut99

Post by esnesi »

I remember those packages came from DieHard.
http://www.unrealtexture.com/

I also remember serverissues back in the days with gliding players, and the fix for that (s3tc gliding fix) never solved the actual issue.

It also doesnt ''polish'' whole UT, but a good part of it:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6416
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Feralidragon
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Re: question about old ut99

Post by Feralidragon »

As for the S3TC textures, it was Diehard if I recall correctly, but he didn't finish them all, at least if his own website is updated: http://www.uttexture.com/UT/Website/Tex ... /UT/UT.htm

However, there are people which have a bit of a problem with his texturing (me included), given that some of the textures differ way too much from the originals, which tends to mess maps visually (like a texture having 3 sections and he making 4, and vice-versa, messing up maps which will now look as if the author didn't care about texture alignment), and he got some flak from some as well in the past, although I don't remember if this was the reason or the only reason at least, so it looks like he's no longer working on them anymore, but I could be wrong given that I also only recently returned to the community, so I am not up to date on everything yet either.
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sektor2111
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Re: question about old ut99

Post by sektor2111 »

HiRes and NOT HiRes, these are head to head. Tarmation2 is one of maps proving that S3TC textures are simply doing a mess in there, mapper was flipping some of those panels with keyboards to fit somehow in their place which looks normal with default textures (of course that map is crapped even as geometry...), by using S3TC those keyboards don't have the right alignment, another panel is visible flipped as well (CTF-Coret as another sample) - not all mappers are checking what they do all the time and using this stuff during tests. -10 for S3TC, I'd rather prefer to redo some "HD" textures exactly to prevent them from getting screwed by S3TC "stock" fantasies, or else some maps really have to be removed.
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Re: question about old ut99

Post by darksonny »

"I'd rather prefer to redo some "HD" textures exactly to prevent them from getting screwed by S3TC "stock" fantasies, or else some maps really have to be removed."

In that case, it would be interesting how could be done...how would you do this?
Talking about some misalingning, mmm I would hav eto check how its that annoying see this bug, maybe if being visible in some way, it would not be so noticeable, at least my opinion.
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sektor2111
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Re: question about old ut99

Post by sektor2111 »

Because I do not have a clue how to mess up textures (like in that map CTF-EpicBoy - screenshot in cause in default D3D), I'll explain a bit my way of doing.
In order to get some quality for whatever decoration or wall, I've downloaded some "free-for-use" stuff or taken with one my cameras (any - dedicated device or phone or whatever).
Texture has to be multiplier of 2 (256, 512, etc). Images having 512 × 512 or such are pretty much well visible and they can be properly imported if are 24 Bit colors as default raw BMP format RBG - No other super duper tagged format based on some lousy "development" intended to mock old applications. RAW RGB 24 Bit power of 2 - this will never have troubles even with default bugged D3D not newer renders which are improved. I have even done multi-framed screenshot having 1024×1024 - NO Single Issue - did not happened in any of my machines with different video cards. Everything has to be checked if do needs masking or not - IT WORKS.
To quote some evidences, I did some Burguer MH demo map in "Spliting MH packages" thread MH-BatlingLottery, MH-Sk_Godz, every single sort of map which I did has custom stuff and I did not see any "viso-crash". Those "merge DXT" stories aren't fascinating for me - I've never used that way.
If anyone will speak about final file size I will recall their own theories about "nowadays Internet is more powerful" so longer downloads should not be an issue (really ?). And that's all.
This is my advice for mappers. If you want your work done properly - build your own textures if S3TC are trouble makers for your design, and yes, you have to check map in a client having S3TC textures. Keep original alignment and do not flip them with any matter -otherwise S3TC will screw map. If you can see some Keyboard like stuff in stock, DO NOT USE that, S3TC will mess alignment, google for images, get some freebie, resize it properly (a keyboard texture should fit into 512×128 - a bit forced) and you are done.
Here is another sample ready for importing:
[attachment=0]PatchBadge.7z[/attachment]
BMP extension is not allowed by forum. This texture was intended to be used by a patch file module spawning a placard in run-time for some map which finally... I have fixed it with Editor because it was really crapped up and then I've quit using that patch-file - a waste of time... Texture was used for a decoration working properly exactly as it is, so good night S3TC - I'm not gonna miss them.
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darksonny
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Re: question about old ut99

Post by darksonny »

What about using the latest reshade version (I think current is 3.06)? I tested some effects to get decent textures-lightning treatment visually speakin' despite of the partial losing of fps (I got with a quadro 5000, about 40-42 fps and between 23-25ms calculation when playing. Not bad if you got a decent graphic card but otherwise could be a huge punishment.

I tested first with st3c and without reshade the result is well, about normal i has some of those misaligned textures you earlier told but I dont get annoyed at all, not perfect.

Then I pulled st3c off the ut folder by restoring default textures and used reshade, and surpringsily with several combinations of x effects I could get those textures and lightning very detailed (that keeping in mind that minimum to play games as 30 fps but 60 to be the optimal degree to play sofly or more than 60, lost fps is not preventable so...40-42 is about decent for me). I did not get any issue playin' which I think is curious see this. So I left defitively apart the st3c textures. Thats pity the author seems he abandoned the project with thse tiny bugs in the textures.

Anyboy tried out reshade? Any thought?

PD: I used opengl version 3.6 and 3.7 reshade does not supports drdx drivers.In ut2k4 it does in reverse sense.
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