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Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Unreal2 seems to vanish more and more too. Time to put it up here :)
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GreatEmerald
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Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

This just in! Unreal II will eventually get a lot of missing features back into the game, thanks to the release of its Beta versions!

First of all, there will be full Network Support in Unreal II, for both SP and MP. This will be achieved by patching the game from 2002 (last official patch) back to Release Candidate 9 or by simply copying the relevant two .dll files to the current Unreal II installation (probably IpDrv.dll and UWeb.dll) and probably several UI scripts for the graphical interface.

Then it will have full bot support back - that is, finished Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Capture the Flag gametypes with intelligent bots, and probably even the finished previously Conceptual U2[ch945]XMP. Even more - there is an unfinished Tournament ladder, which takes the players into time travels, up to the 7 Day Siege of Earth. This also includes 3 brand new cutscenes, explaining the link between Unreal, UT2003 and UT2004. It even mentions certain facts about UT3, such as Twin Souls.

Moreover, due to the recovery of the lost levels that featured them, the missing weapons - Mind Claw, Skaarj Razik and probably Tractor Beam - will be reintroduced.

Talking about technology, it will have its MP3 support back in as well as 64bit application support (however, the code is identical to that of UT2004, so not much use). Older Beta versions also use the standard .PSK meshes, so they will be a lot more easily ported to UT2004.

Shortly put, all or almost all the cut content from Unreal II will be back in place, as written in these pages:
[url]http://liandri.beyondunreal.com/Cut_content_of_Unreal_II[/url]
[url]http://unreal2.xsa1.com/about_2.html[/url]

So, when will it be released? Due to Legend's bankruptcy and only 5 year copyright license, betas can be published even now; however, due to technical limitations, they will be delayed. It shouldn't take that long, though, but don't expect it sooner than July. But prepare to have a huge download - the full installed Unreal II RC9 is around 8GB - just like UT3!

There might be three questions left: 1. Why did Legend take out all of that brilliant content from Unreal II? Well, nobody knows. Probably so the game would fit on a CD, because DVD weren't much of an option those days. Or maybe so Digital Extremes could get more money from selling UT2003.

2. Is this true? Yes, although hard to believe, this whole thing is 100% true! You can listen to Unreal2.ogg from Unreal II soundtrack wile you wait for the release :)

3. Who has the betas? Well, if I published the name, that person would be attacked by "I want the beta sooner!" messages. If you are 100% sure you won't write messages like that (they will be ignored anyways, I said there are technical difficulties :P ), I could post the name.
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Spazzpez
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by Spazzpez »

All I have to say to that is.. *GASP!!!!!!!!!*!!!!!*!!!!* :D :D :D
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by Hellkeeper »

THIS is what i'm really looking forward to see. Unreal 2 had TONS of extra content deleted, unused, maps never included and parts never released. I'd be glad to see if there's something better than the game on some developer's harddrive !

As for the multiplayer part, COOP was never included because of Unreal 2's heavily scripted gameplay (the kind of scripts that can only perform very poorly online), and the DM/traditionnal MP part was not included because Epic didn't wanted it to conflict with UT2003 (on which they were working on their side). Too bad, since u2xmp would surely have drawn a lot of people to buy U2 and would be a lot more played right now :(
You must construct additional pylons.
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

As for the multiplayer part, COOP was never included because of Unreal 2's heavily scripted gameplay (the kind of scripts that can only perform very poorly online)
That was their official position... But they also said they won't add 64bit support, but they did. So I guess they also made good script replication, and just skipped the flyby sequences which were hard to replicate.

EDIT: Also got the news from the source that Legend made multiple cutscenes for each event, so probably some are especially made to be easily replicated online, while others have more effects and are more complex.
Last edited by GreatEmerald on Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Leo T_C_K
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by Leo T_C_K »

Coop in XBox version worked and I have seen even videos, but Xbox levels were modified etc...and there was also not that lot of talking at atlantis etc.
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

Well, there isn't much talking on Atlantis now as well, that is, most of it is optional now. The only required thing is to hear the briefing, and from then on you can go directly to PeaceKeeper and fly out.
Last edited by GreatEmerald on Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Krokus
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by Krokus »

Unreal II installed and waiting for the beta stuff. :)
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KillerSkaarj
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by KillerSkaarj »

Waitaminnut, SERIOUSLY!? Oh my God, it's STALKER all over again*!

I've ALWAYS WANTED to play that underwater level and now I CAN!! AND THE SKAARJ RAZIK IS COMING BACK!

I have absolutely no words to describe my joy right now!!



*STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl is also a game that had a lot of content that was cut out. Sometime after its release, a mod was released that restored almost all of the cut content back into the game. The mod was called Oblivion Lost, after S:SOC's old name STALKER: Oblivion Lost.
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

A little more interesting info: it seems that RC9 also has this weapon:
http://unreal2.xsa1.com/images-dynamic/SepShot05.html
http://unreal2.xsa1.com/images-dynamic/cover1.html (the merc to the left)
You can also see it in Unreal II splash screens. It's basically like a Minigun from UT; the name is unknown yet.
Furthermore, in the screenshot above, you can see bloom. It's really rendered; however, it's not really optimised and lags a lot.

Also, there are 3 U2aXMP maps in RC9: 1 final and 2 unfinished.
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Leo T_C_K
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by Leo T_C_K »

I always thought that was just an old shotgun actually and not a new weapon.
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[]KAOS[]Casey
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by []KAOS[]Casey »

can I volunteer to help set up replication so coop works?

once we settle on a "real" client, beta or retail + beta .dlls, at least.

edit: this should be more towards a patch since it will be net-incompatible with the rest of the versions without a doubt.

edit2 : might want to package that with the beta once it gets released, but it depends on how we want to do things.
Last edited by []KAOS[]Casey on Sat Jun 27, 2009 4:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

I believe that people should simply use RC9 which is the most complete Unreal II, the only flaws being the unfinished Tournament ladder. I believe replication there should work normally.

Though I have to say that I'm a little worried about the master server. Obviously the old master server won't work, and we'll need a replacement... I'm not an expert about MSs, so what do we need to actually create one?
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[]KAOS[]Casey
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by []KAOS[]Casey »

if all else fails, we can piggyback on u1/ut master servers by changing "GameName=", and if its not that simple, I could make a UDP/TCP link and a mod to work with it

I have doubts the replication is good enough to work online, really serious doubts. First, look at RTNP. Then, look at interpolation points.
iirc they're just cutscenes in U2, and who knows what things will be broken online, sure its a RC, but that doesn't mean it's good enough, but we shall find out, less work for me means an easier job if anything is even broken :p

Simple things such as weapon effects might be missing, like in upak, which are amazingly simple fixes. I can fix them but I sure can't really find them since I only played unreal 2 a few times, and I doubt these can be fixed with mutators.

Besides, if I get to toy with replication, I could implement a very powerful mutator system while i'm at it, and people could mod it much better.
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

The source said it worked, so I think it should work normally. Especially if they cared enough to actually make 3 versions of each cutscene, just so they would work online.
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[]KAOS[]Casey
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by []KAOS[]Casey »

wait what? 3 versions? Why wasnt this shipped with unreal 2? are they crazy?
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Leo T_C_K
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by Leo T_C_K »

Well, why would there be such bugs like in RtNP? RtNP was side project at best, WoT was main one, although there are some minor bugs online it is nothing horrible and the netcode is pretty well done, not to mention there was even mapvote (well general vote at all) in WoT, which was kinda new back then to have integrated vote in game.
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

wait what? 3 versions? Why wasnt this shipped with unreal 2? are they crazy?
That's their way of saving HDD space I presume. Oh, and how can you work on all those things anyway? Don't you need the source code for replication and mutator changes?

By the way, I have an idea. While waiting for the release, we could start porting the XMP maps to U2. There won't me any real major changes in U2 RC9, so we can start working right now, and leave only the finishing work for the time RC9 goes out. If someone's interested, post here. I guess we need someone to port Static Meshes, Textures and Sounds. After this is done, we'll need someone to fix map flaws, path maps, add EAX effects and add pickups. Not sure about this - once maps are able to be ported by importing them from .t3d, should people work on their own maps, or have roles, like pathing, adding pikups, fixing flaws etc.? I believe having a map for each person would cause less version conflicts... But then not all maps would have the same quality level...

So, if there are at least 2 people interested, we could start working. U2 has deathmatch and CTF support now, so it will be easy to test paths and pickups (note: bots tend to get stuck on Rocket Launcher pickups for some reason). I could port sounds and textures, anyone interested in porting Static Meshes?

EDIT: Woah! I've just found an undocumented feature, which might also be useful for Unreal 1! Teleporters in Unreal II work just like warp zones! That is, they also teleport projectiles! Neat! Alcazar will be very realistic then! And while falling down, your characters scream, so Alcazar will be even better! And thinking of quirks, we could make it so those stone Mukhoggs turn into real Mukhoggs! :D You can study Unreal II in a day, but even after 10 years it won't cease to surprise you!
Last edited by GreatEmerald on Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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[]KAOS[]Casey
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by []KAOS[]Casey »

teleporting projectiles is as simple as bCanTeleport True in advanced properties in unreal 1 :p

Anyways, replication & mutators are mostly done with uscript, I don't need the src.

iirc, Mutators are 100% uscript, and some things use nativereplication, I assume vehicles would so replication could update between physics updates.

If you have all textures and whatnot..

export to t3d > import > rebuild = 100% port

what I dont know is, if u2.exe is the same md5 as the rc9 for the .dll symbols, and just like XMP, is it's stuff built for the same u2.exe? lol,C++
Last edited by []KAOS[]Casey on Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

If you have all textures and whatnot..

export to t3d > import > rebuild = 100% port
There are three problems:
1. I don't have textures and Static Meshes, and some sounds are also in different packages.
2. When imported, the rebuilder shows "Brush has NULL references!" for many brushes for some odd reason.
3. I don't want a 100% port, I want more than 100% :D
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[]KAOS[]Casey
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by []KAOS[]Casey »

export original
import original, export newly "converted"

open with kdiff, find diff, and you'll find what you're missing. pretty easy from there
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

Wait, what are talking about? Brushes? Textures? Static Meshes?
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[]KAOS[]Casey
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by []KAOS[]Casey »

everything, exported maps are just plaintext
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

Well, T3D doesn't hold StaticMesh data, only references to them.
Good news about problem #2: it seems that there are no more "Brush has NULL material references!" warnings when I ported all the textures.

Oh, and I've also discovered another useful undocumented feature! If you have a texture, which starts with material description (for example, METL_MyTexName), Unreal II automatically applies the correct material! I believe that all of possible texture strings are in one of the INIs that come with Unreal II.
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

Oh, and by the way, I'm porting XMP-Alcazar to U2 now, you can see the progress here:
http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?t=186738

If you're lazy, here are some screenshots:
Alpha 1:
[url=http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/9731/shot00010b.png][img]http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/9731/shot00010b.th.png[/img][/url][url=http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9175/shot00011wwe.png][img]http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9175/shot00011wwe.th.png[/img][/url][url=http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9880/shot00012jls.png][img]http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9880/shot00012jls.th.png[/img][/url]

Alpha 2:
[url=http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/8527/shot00013fkq.png][img]http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/8527/shot00013fkq.th.png[/img][/url][url=http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3421/shot00014g.png][img]http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3421/shot00014g.th.png[/img][/url][url=http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/463/shot00015y.png][img]http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/463/shot00015y.th.png[/img][/url][url=http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1962/shot00017whk.png][img]http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1962/shot00017whk.th.png[/img][/url][url=http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/5290/shot00016p.png][img]http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/5290/shot00016p.th.png[/img][/url]

Alpha 3:
[url=http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3691/shot00018yma.jpg][img]http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3691/shot00018yma.th.jpg[/img][/url][url=http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8361/shot00019p.jpg][img]http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8361/shot00019p.th.jpg[/img][/url][url=http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/8210/shot00020wsg.jpg][img]http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/8210/shot00020wsg.th.jpg[/img][/url][url=http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/750/shot00021bcm.jpg][img]http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/750/shot00021bcm.th.jpg[/img][/url]
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GreatEmerald
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Re: Unreal II to receive network support and more!

Post by GreatEmerald »

U2 specific news: The RC9 DVD is in perfect condition, so we won't need to fear about having the DVD scratched. Backups are also ready, just to be sure. And we expect the RC9 to be released earlier than the rest, but still not too early.
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