Unreal series mod/map release history

[Shrimp]

I thought this would be an interesting thing to try out, so I generated a count over time, per game, of all content in the Unreal Archive.

This chart shows all releases in the Unreal Archive by estimated release date. Estimated because it's based on file timestamps within the zip/archives of the content since most of it doesn't have an easily findable original release date obviously. So repacks and things will appear later, and people who packaged things with incorrect times will appear earlier (you can see UT2004 releases back in 1998 for example ).

Anyway, thought it was interesting to see the cadence of each game's rise and fall. Only UT's content creation has continued reasonably well throughout the years.

Screenshot_2019-10-21 UTContentOverTime ods - Files - Nextcloud(3).png

[darksonny]

hello
Will you add a search box to locate stuff over all your site? It would be cool if were there this option

[esnesi]

Interesting chart shrimp indeed!
People stick with what 'works' for them!

[rizbef]

What caused that huge spike around 2006-2007?

[Barbie]

What caused that huge spike around 2006-2007?

DU or another has created its data base?

[Shrimp]

What caused that huge spike around 2006-2007?

It's impossible to tell. Probably someone re-packaged a whole bunch of existing maps/skins/content at that time.

[FraGnBraG]

nice chart although a bit hard to read ....
is there any green anywhere, lol?

That big ut99 spike around 2007-08 was likely due to Blito3 contests and various map packs.
these events always caused and uptick in mapping interest, even if short-lived...

Curious, a plot of server activity over time would make an interesting compare...
don't know where you'd get data for that - would the trend be similar?
or is mapping/modding an unrelated activity...

Nice chart

[EvilGrins]

I prefer pie charts... mainly as I love pie.

[papercoffee]

is there any green anywhere, lol?

I had to zoom in very close.

Unreal2.png

Ok ...now that's interesting. Unreal 2 was their first grandiouse major flop.

[Hellkeeper]

Well Championship was a disaster too but U2 was definitely their first flop and remains the worst one, I believe. I don't think any of their other games was as catastrophic as U2.

Now from a purely modding point of view, what did Unreal 2 bring to the table? It had no multiplayer support and its engine was a rougher, less polished and largely unfinished version of Unreal Engine 2, released one year after UT2003 which had a more complete (and soon well documented) engine, less prone to crashes. It also required the game disk to be inside a drive to launch the game (do you remember this was a thing? I know right!) which is a major pain when doing repeated tests. Its model and particle systems were extremely specific and remain largely undocumented to this day while UT2003 shared its systems with most games using the same engine. There was pretty much no reason to use U2 for anything but a solo campaign in the style of U2 and though I've seen a few projects back in the day, not many actually reached completion.

[FraGnBraG]

... Championship was a disaster too but U2 was definitely their first flop ...

fully agree with this - however, wasn't Championship2 a much better game? I seem to remember that was very egyptian-ish, decent level design and melee
combat - is that the one? I think Swanky was a fan of #2 (he was discussing that at some point, iirc, and took some inspiration for a later mapping project.
Altho I can't remember which one Too bad C2 was not available for PC...
I recall U2 had the "bones" of a vehicle for modders, something like the buggy from HALO. I think someone at UP made a U2 map to demo it... can't remember who tho ...

can you produce a line chart?

[Hellkeeper]

fully agree with this - however, wasn't Championship2 a much better game? I seem to remember that was very egyptian-ish, decent level design and melee
combat - is that the one? I think Swanky was a fan of #2 (he was discussing that at some point, iirc, and took some inspiration for a later mapping project.
Altho I can't remember which one Too bad C2 was not available for PC...
I recall U2 had the "bones" of a vehicle for modders, something like the buggy from HALO. I think someone at UP made a U2 map to demo it... can't remember who tho ..

There seems to be a consensus that UC2 was a great game. Being a fan of the egyptech style of UT2003/4, I always found it very appealing and from what I've seen, it looked like a really cool and unique game, both as an innovative member of the Unreal series and by itself. I would have loved it if it had been available for PC.

As for vehicles in U2, I don't know if anything was included in the original game but UXMP, its standalone multiplayer pack, released later and dead on arrival, had them. I'm no expert but I believe it was noticeably different from UT2004's vehicles as it relied on heavy scripts for vehicle movements and animation whereas UT2 took a different approach, both easier and less resource intensive.

[Shrimp]

can you produce a line chart?

Screenshot_2019-10-24 UTContentOverTime ods - Files - Nextcloud.png