[U1 GOLD 227] Return to Na Pali Episodes

[TigerTheGreat]

On behalf of Unified Military Systems Research & Development I would like to present you three projects currently developed for the Unreal Gold version 227 platform.
These are the Return to Na Pali Episodes. The three projects initially began as solo ventures by Dozey, SteadZ and myself, but after I noticed that we have very similar goals with our respective campaigns, we decided to merge our efforts and codebase.
All three episodes take Return to Na Pali expansion pack as base and are sequels to it. After we polished and reworked our storylines, they also became sequels to each other.


Title: The Manhunt
Synopsis:
The Manhunt begins where Return to Na Pali left off - with the crash of UMS Bodega Bay. The player, Bodega Bay's Executive Officer, must find a way off Na Pali, then locate and apprehend or eliminate the fugitive, Prisoner 849.
Meanwhile, the Bodega Bay's Captain, John Clark, awakens in a Skaarj research facility and is subjected to a brutal interrogation. He manages to escape the facility but must find a way off the planet as well.









Title: Operation Stealth Claw
Synopsis:
Five years after the conclusion of Operation Talon Hunter, Captain John Clark, previously of the UMS Bodega Bay, is sent back to Na Pali to salvage a failed mission. However, when the UMS Berryessa is attacked by a Skaarj Battleship, and plummets towards the hostile planet, it looks like Clark will have to salvage the salvage mission...









Title: Na Pali War
Synopsis:
Set in 2216, the game features a young recruit of the Unified Military Systems taking part in a decisive assault on the Skaarj Empire's troops based on the planet Na Pali. Many characters from previous episodes will return








Features:
- Multiple and Varied Combat Scenarios: The players will fight both on foot and in vehicles, be it land-based, aerial or orbital space.
- An engaging, immersive storyline, taking inspiration in Mass Effect, Unreal II, Jarhead, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, Black Hawk Down and Avatar just to name a few, but at the same time - original and fresh.
- New pawns: Qtit's alternate pawns, alpha and beta creatures making a comeback... and more.
- Squadmate support: Most of the time, the player will never be alone - they'll have support of fellow UMS soldiers and Nali Mountain Fighters.
- New weapons: Unreal II terran weapons will replace the trio of UPak weapons, more are in the works.
- And much, much more.

Core Team:
- Dozey
- SteadZ
- Bleeder
- Z-Enzyme
- Delacroix

More have joined up for single tasks and more help is definitely required.

[papercoffee]

The "Na Pali War" screenshots surprised me ...didn't expect such details.
And vehicles? really? Like in Halo 1? ...anyway I'm impressed.

[TigerTheGreat]

I should mention that although we have a modeller in our team, modellers and skinners are most welcome. I know you know how to make skins so if you'd like to join up, you know where my PM box is. Cheerios!

[Radi]

more Na Pali ? ^^
these episodes seems to be very good in design as in terms of gameplay can not wait more for it ! good luck with finishing these projects !

[UT99.org]

Remember for player UT you can play na pali with your UnrealTournament ... no need entire Unreal

Operation Na Pali patched 130 include Return To Na Pali Ultimate.
It is a single-player campaign offline.

Part Operation Na Pali has 43 maps

Part Return To Na Pali Ultimate has 17 plus 10 maps. All bug fixes over previous versions of Return To Na Pali

http://unrealtournament.99.free.fr/utfi ... timate.rar




Hidden Secrets Guide http://unrealtournament.99.free.fr/utfi ... Escape.rar

Source http://www.unrealsp.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2187

[GenMoKai]

That... looks pretty awesome ^^

[Metalfist]

Can U1 GOLD 227 handle such detailed meshes?! They are looking good, the heli reminds me of the heli in one of the pokemon movies xD

[Feralidragon]

Can U1 GOLD 227 handle such detailed meshes?! They are looking good, the heli reminds me of the heli in one of the pokemon movies xD

I don't think so. I think those are just a showcase of the high poly versions of the meshes straight from the 3D editors, which although look badass, unfortunately only show the concept but not how they will look in the end in the actual game. Probably in-game they will look very good if transposed properly there in a lower poly format (otherwise the lag would be massive), but independently of the game or engine, 3D models always look a bit different in the actual game relative their 3D editor counterparts (due to lighting, LOD, texture detail, etc), but I guess you already know this given that you modeled a SLV to try in UDK.

[TigerTheGreat]

Can U1 GOLD 227 handle such detailed meshes?! They are looking good, the heli reminds me of the heli in one of the pokemon movies xD

I don't think so. I think those are just a showcase of the high poly versions of the meshes straight from the 3D editors, which although look badass, unfortunately only show the concept but not how they will look in the end in the actual game. Probably in-game they will look very good if transposed properly there in a lower poly format (otherwise the lag would be massive), but independently of the game or engine, 3D models always look a bit different in the actual game relative their 3D editor counterparts (due to lighting, LOD, texture detail, etc), but I guess you already know this given that you modeled a SLV to try in UDK.

I said the same to Z-Enzyme, his answer: "Del, it's called BAKING. BAKING, and you'll be surprised how well the engine handles this." And evidence can be seen on the showcase he sent me for the tank. I have trust in our team. If they say the engine can handle this, the engine can handle this.

[papercoffee]

I said the same to Z-Enzyme, his answer: "Del, it's called BAKING. BAKING, and you'll be surprised how well the engine handles this." And evidence can be seen on the showcase he sent me for the tank. I have trust in our team. If they say the engine can handle this, the engine can handle this.

Baking? Wait ...you are talking about Displacement mapping and Parallax occlusion mapping?

[TigerTheGreat]

I honestly don't know. As I was explained, this process drastically reduces the polygon amount, but WITHOUT VISIBLE DIFFERENCE. That's all I know. I'm not the modeller, so I don't know. What I do is write the storyline aspects, scenarios, cutscenes and perform standard quality assurance work. I also manage the ideas the main "concept" guys (Dozey and SteadZ) come up with, in other words: just keeping it storywise-rich and tidy. Dozey and SteadZ and sometimes Bleeder come up with concepts and do mapping, Dozey & Z-Enzyme do the modelling (mostly Z, but more help is welcome), Z does the vehicle skinning, SteadZ made some wicked sick Nali skins... oh, boy. I'm losing myself here. Bottom line, modelling questions: I can't really answer those besides the part: what needs to be done and how it is supposed to look like.

[papercoffee]

"Wicked sick Nali skins" ...reminds me of my own project. Fighting Nalis for NW3.
But I got nearly no time to carry it out. Maybe in the next days.

[Feralidragon]

Yeah, it must be the generation of normal maps and such, while reducing the poly count for where the normal maps are best applied. Like I said, if has to have its poly count reduced in-game, but if done right it will still look awesome, "baking" is one of the "right" processes for it *if* U227 supports normal maps or similar (which probably does).
In the case of UT for instance, you don't have that, you have to deal with just the reduction of poly count and make the skins as cleverly as possible to still give that "3D effect" of sort to speak. The DX10 should have changed that a bit, but it seems it doesn't work so far for that.

Regardless, looking forward for the final product.

[papercoffee]

Yeah, it must be the generation of normal maps and such, while reducing the poly count for where the normal maps are best applied. Like I said, if has to have its poly count reduced in-game, but if done right it will still look awesome, "baking" is one of the "right" processes for it *if* U227 supports normal maps or similar (which probably does).
In the case of UT for instance, you don't have that, you have to deal with just the reduction of poly count and make the skins as cleverly as possible to still give that "3D effect" of sort to speak. The DX10 should have changed that a bit, but it seems it doesn't work so far for that.

Regardless, looking forward for the final product.

Displacement mapping goes even one step further ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displacement_mapping
Without more Polygons will you get more "physical" details

This kind of stuff is totally my liking.

[TigerTheGreat]

A status report is in order.

All coding, modelling and skinning tasks have been assigned to the current team, or to be exact: to Bleeder, Enzyme and SteadZ. We could use more mappers though. If anyone of you'd like to join in, you're very welcome. One note however: if you join, our requirements are that as a mapper, you report to someone on the team about your progress on a weekly basis. If no progress is made, just let us know you're still active. Also, on request of other team members, you will be required to share the latest work in progress UNR file to receive feedback. We've already had two cases of mappers who provided either a set of screenshots or a sample and said that they worked on a level but in the end we didn't get anything "real" from them - not only this is a damn shame but also not exactly fair with the rest of the team who counted on them. I won't name names, I'd just like to avoid such a situation repeating itself in the future, hence the requirement. In general, we're trying to keep the atmosphere in UMS R&D relaxed and cool, however in a team effort certain requirements must be met That being said, I invite the resident mappers to cooperate with us.