Reincarnation of Quake 1

[Torax]

Dunno, maybe someone here founded this thing, but i was really impressed.
Somebody gave new life to Quake 1. A lot of possibilities, bump, real-time HD lighting, particle effects, displacement maps (as i think after played it a bit), recreated models and textures of monsters and much more... At nearly highest video settings it forces my PC (which normally and slightly supports Crysis, Crysis 2, UT 3 with hi-res) lag as hell.

And this is 17 years old game...we can only dream about something like this for UT..

[Feralidragon]

The difference between Quake 1 and UT however is that in one of them the engine is not open source...
If Epic Games made UEngine1 open source (like Quake), then I strongly believe it would become a far more powerful engine than the updated one you found for Quake (things like that are already made for UT using just new render devices, and even static meshes from Shadow for example, so imagine if we had access to everything else in UEngine).

[Shadow]

Yes, Ferali is right. It's simply the same old story with the fucking source..

[Torax]

I know this, buddy. Mainly about situation with sources.

From time to time i more often thinking about to write to Epic and ask them about source on behalf of whole community. No any hope that they will even answer my letter, but...who knows..
Years have passed from time Smirt got access to Unreal 1 source. And he said, as i once talking with him, - Epics didnt forbid making graphics update for UT. As well as they didnt permit that straightly. They didn't answer on this question..

[Feralidragon]

Well, the graphical update can be made to an extent without accessing the source (as Shadow has proved in his SDK, and kentie with DX10, etc), to not mention that even after 15 years, the engine is still flexible enough to handle new stuff with a bit of work also without changing it (Dots' nVidia PhysX integration with Unreal/UT proves this as well, along with some other stuff he integrated, and along with a couple of experiments of my own with some known highly used C++ stuff).

However, other things such as BSP, editor and lighting system surely are not accessible in any way besides the source itself, and that's where we're truly limited (and who says BSP and lighting, says other stuff of course, like the skeletal system, texture instantiation and a bunch of other stuff), to not mention the places where the engine is still a lot unstable (specially in the rendering).

Epic won't release their source. They are able to give out many things, but the source is surely in their "never!" list. Unfortunately, if we really wanted an improved engine based on an older open source one, we would have to migrate to Quake or some newer ones, but then we couldn't have UT in any way, form or shape.
Smirtfsh was lucky enough to be able to have the source from Epic, but then that pretty much caused him to have something near to a "burden" to work on it, and do it alone, to not mention that even the latest Unreal updates needed green light from Epic first afaik, thus only Unreal receives that kind of love and trying the same for UT would probably be overkill for him.

Furthermore, Epic already gave 1 opportunity for the community to have a chance to have those and much more, and that chance was called "UTPG", and we all know how that turned out in the end (nothing beyond 451b...), so I don't believe they would give a second one (giving one was already too good, let alone a second).

[anth]

I'm wondering if it would be legal to reimplement the engine. We have the headers and the binaries are conveniently split up into relatively small libraries. It's not completely impossible to reverse engineer it. I reversed and reimplemented a whole bunch of Core.dll functionality in the past myself.

[Feralidragon]

Well, I am not sure either about the legality on the engine itself in that case (since you're not using their source, I suppose it's legal as long as you give it a whole different name of course).
It would be like having JDK and then having the alternate open version OpenJDK.
But I think it would be illegal to run UT on it for example, or to even try to remake the game using it (due to trademark, copyright, patents and whatnot).
Regardless, in the end that would translate into a whole new engine which couldn't be used with UT, so we would remain at the same point, which begs the question: is it worth it? (personally, I think not..., given the wide range of open, modern and heavily tested engines out there nowadays)

[Carbon]

How did Smirftsch get his hands on the Unreal source code anyway? Probably needed a solid and far-reaching plan, NDAs signed and to prove the ability to get his plan done. Not to mention a level of dedication that is boundless.

While Smirftsch certainly has had his hands full with Unreal, would there be any movement on Epic's part if such an individual/small team were to approach the idea in the same manner with UT? Maybe the game is just too popular still?

Having said that, I personally like the way UT looks today. I look to UT for unparalleled gameplay more than cutting-edge graphics. If it ain't broke, don''t fix it?

[Torax]

@Carbon
I don't know how he got source. He didnt told anything about this.

Such team is already exist. Shadow is working on UT Community SDK, I'm tryin' to help him as i can, also my remodelling project.. But one thing. Shadow once got troubles with Epic - they didnt believe that such stuff that he implemented in SDK is possible without entering native libraries. It's possible that he would never have acces to the code if ask himself. Way to solve this problem - create independent team of developers and work in collaboration with Shadow, cause he now have no enough time to work (in cause he working mostly alone).
But there are not so many good coders who will participate in this project..they must be an absolute fans of UT who will work to improve 15 years old game.. As i think.

The best way to get answers on such questions like this, as i think, is to contact Epic Games, and ask them directly.

[Carbon]

The best way to get answers on such questions like this, as i think, is to contact Epic Games, and ask them directly.

Sure, but get seriously organized before you do.

Get stuff done first; go to them with clear, well laid out achievable goals, a dedicated team that can withstand scrutiny (yes, this is a legal thing) is in good standing with the community, etc, etc. There is no such thing as being over-prepared for this type of venture and that is what Epic will want to see.

An email or letter probably won't cut it; I bet Smirftsch had to go to them personally and probably more than once. Just guessing on that, but it does seem likely to me. Epic all but hired him; his name is on the credits on the exit screen for any up-to-date version of Unreal now.

Epic will be playing for real; they are a huge company and have clearly lost their roots in the community that mad them what they are; they have no interest in 'modders' or any such rabble. If one were to attempt this, it would have to be extremely professionally handled. Its a proposal, not a question. Epic will need to be shown what is in it for them before granting permission.

[Torax]

I think when some content (at least) from i preparing now will be ready and compiled for in game use, this will be the time to write to them.

[Red_Fist]

I know all but the second screen shot where the person is, I played Quake like freeeegin Crazy !!!

So where is this download or whatever,

[Carbon]

http://qrp.quakeone.com/

Maybe.

[ASLY]

There is already a video, UT + ENB Series.
This video looks like the pictures. But I think there is to high the brightness level what is don't really looking good.

[youtube]Z0FWumGabD4[/youtube]

[Carbon]

UT+ENB fails, IMO. Just a bloom-filled, over-lit mess.

I am using SweetFX with UT2004 and UT3 (among other titles) however and I have to say that I like what it does, particularly with Unreal Engine 3-based games. The latest Thief, Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Dishonored (D3D games only) benefit greatly from it.

For OGL-based games there is an OGL to D3D emulator which will allow SweetFX to be used (Quake, Doom, etc).