Screenshots for fun

Discussions about UT99
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EvilGrins
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by EvilGrins »

As I'm kinda out of current ut99 screenshots, here's some oldies from ut2004.
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As visually fun as ut2k4 was, the lack of adequate bot customization really prevented me from fully getting into it.
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http://unreal-games.livejournal.com/
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medor wrote:Replace Skaarj with EvilGrins :mrgreen:
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Hellkeeper
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by Hellkeeper »

Wow, most of these maps look absolutely atrocious.
Really puts the "good old days" into perspective.
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by Feralidragon »

Hellkeeper wrote:Wow, most of these maps look absolutely atrocious.
Really puts the "good old days" into perspective.
Indeed. When they first came out they were the greatest thing ever.

But oddly enough, generally speaking, Unreal and UT99 were the only ones which aged well in terms of graphics: they're visually old, but they're still pleasant to look at, unlike later versions, even when comparing hideous maps of different games with each other.
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by Carbon »

High-res: 5120x2880

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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by EvilGrins »

Now those are freaking beautiful maps!
http://unreal-games.livejournal.com/
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medor wrote:Replace Skaarj with EvilGrins :mrgreen:
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by JimmyCognitti »

Recently stumbled upon this old (and unfinished) mod for Half-Life, it makes use of several Unreal textures. This mod pretty much combines two of the best games released in 1998 (the best year for gaming, according to some scholars), how do you like that? :D
Shame it was never finished, but it's still playable.
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by Carbon »

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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by Hellkeeper »

Feralidragon wrote:But oddly enough, generally speaking, Unreal and UT99 were the only ones which aged well in terms of graphics: they're visually old, but they're still pleasant to look at, unlike later versions, even when comparing hideous maps of different games with each other.
You're probably just as high on crack as I am because UT99 has more than its fair share of vomit-inducing maps and UT2004 has more than its fair share of tear-jerkingly beautiful maps. It all comes down to map choice in the screenshots.
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by JimmyCognitti »

Carbon wrote: Image
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Could you please post the name of this map? (or a link if possible).
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by Carbon »

A keen eye. CTF-Razor by Hook. Beautiful map.

Edit: That's a UT3 map, btw.
Last edited by Carbon on Thu Jun 07, 2018 9:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by Feralidragon »

Hellkeeper wrote:
Feralidragon wrote:But oddly enough, generally speaking, Unreal and UT99 were the only ones which aged well in terms of graphics: they're visually old, but they're still pleasant to look at, unlike later versions, even when comparing hideous maps of different games with each other.
You're probably just as high on crack as I am because UT99 has more than its fair share of vomit-inducing maps and UT2004 has more than its fair share of tear-jerkingly beautiful maps. It all comes down to map choice in the screenshots.
The way I see it, UT99 has more "original" content than UT2004.
Especially if you try a Bunnytrack server one of these days to check how beautiful and atmospheric UT99 maps can really be.

The UT2004 maps which are really good, are in many levels superior to most UT99 maps without a doubt indeed, I have seen real gems when I played on several servers, but the thing is, starting with UT2004, most of the maps started to become static-mesh heavy and the lighting became more diffuse and a lot poorer, with less and less BSP and just poor quality overall, making many of the maps look like they were made of lifeless plastic.
And with the years going by, new versions and new games overall are only making UT2004 standing out even more by how poor and plasticized the graphics are overall.

And the problem is not the lack of BSP or the static meshes themselves, the technology itself is great and UE2 has pretty much everything UE1 had, the problem is the way it was often used, and these assets started to be heavily reused across tons of maps by many different mappers with a lot less creativity, so most maps overall just look exactly the same with different layouts, with barely any creativity or new assets in them at all.
They may have higher resolution textures and more detailed assets, but they are a bore to the eyes and uninteresting more often than not, while in UT99 at least mappers are almost forced to create their own assets and details through BSP, and to actually use the lighting system to its limit to create jaw dropping areas and original details.

I could never get nearly the same level of atmospheric and awe from UT2004 maps that I still get from Unreal and UT99 maps.
And only a few modern games over the years have been able to give that kind of feeling, and none of them were UT99 successors, they were different games using modern engines.

And UT3 is the worse of them all by almost every level, with just one or another map actually looking good both detail and lighting wise.
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by Hellkeeper »

Ah yes, I see. We agree on the root of the problem. The modular design of static-meshes has been both a blessing and a curse in this regard.
The reuse of stock assets was already present in UT, (mostly for textures), but I think the more abstract nature of the environments of most maps made it less jarring, and it's more easily to creatively reuse a texture in a new way than a static-mesh. And though in UT2, things could be disguised to some extent by changing the skins of static-meshes, most mappers didn't and it resulted in this apparent repetition of the 3 or 4 same styles.
Still, most of these failings came down to the mappers, they could (and largely were) fixed by competent ones, starting with lighting and shaders. I can't pretend I'm a great mapper, but just last year I released a map with only stock static-meshes and got nice comments about how everything felt fresh because I had combined skins and UVs to give them radically different looks, some people even thought it was made of custom-made meshes. All textures and meshes were 13 years old. :D

As for UT3, multiple issues compounded on the game to make it so lacking. Foggy blurry post-process, ultra-bright shaders, unclear style, a weird organic artistic design... And though in UC/UT2, fog had become quasi universal (which might contribute to what you perceived as diffuse lighting) even for indoor maps, in UT3 they went completely overboard. So everything looks goopy, wet, blotchy and you can't make out the enemy from a wall.

I'll stil defend UT2004 though, I think you're seeing UT99 in a more positive light because you might prefer the game, but I really believe that they suffered, on this point, from the same issues and enjoyed the same strenghts, albeit in a different way or at different levels.
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by Carbon »

Well, I for one like UT3 far more than 2K3/4 and have since UT3 was released. It was a rough launch and the graphics were wanting some modding, but the game play was and is top notch. There are a lot of things done right with UT3, but it had problems in the beginning and unfortunately they weren't to be overcome easily.

History has been kind to the game in a sense. Today, it's a beauty and with the right mods, it retains the great core game play but with all off the vaseline cleaned from the lens. There are a huge number of great maps for the game around, with new ones still being made but people like Moloch and Skaa3z.

UT2003 had my heart at the time simply because Unreal and UT were so awesome, I was starry-eyed. 2004 didn't mean so much to me; I had been playing the heck out of 2K3 and 2K4 just seemed like a huge bonus pack to me. When UT3 arrived, I saw everything I didn't like about 2K3/4 much more clearly and honestly feel that UT3 was a better successor to the original UT. The cartoony graphics, weird character scale, map scale, thin-sounding weapons (Shock Rifle combo aside) and hitscan heaven of 2K3/4...didn't do a lot for me in retrospect. I liked the tight, dark, gritty, heavy feel of UT3 and even now, for example, prefer the dark, heavy feel of Quake Champions over the clean art style of the new UT. UT3 just felt more solid, more cohesive and less the trying-to-do-everything I felt UT2004 was. What can I say? I like gloomy, atmospheric, post-apocalyptic-type games.

Anyhow, I don't want to argue with anyone about these subjective matters, but I do feel that UT3 is a great game and I do get tired of hearing the same complaints time and again, particularly since they have all been worked out. Give it another try...awesome game.

Deck remake by Skaa3z:

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Just one of Moloch's maps (he has 7 map packs, all of which are quite amazing, if only from a technical/artistic point of view)

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Some beauty shots (with custom characters by Skaa3z):

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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by papercoffee »

That's not UT3 ...where is the blur and all the brown colours (the sky have to be brown at least) :ironic:
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Re: Screenshots for fun

Post by Feralidragon »

Yeah, the screenshots above show what UT3 could have been in terms of color and overall ambience, if Epic didn't go overboard with the dark post-processing and the whole detail cluttering.

Funny and sad how the whole game was Necris themed, and it really died quickly.
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