Sunspire Village Remake (UT3 Engine)

[Wisebeardiness]

Hello everybody! I've been a lurker on these forums and a frequent visitor to this website but finally registered because I love Unreal and wish to be more active in the old Unreal community. Anyways, as the subject title mentioned, I thought a good way to introduce myself is by showing some pics of a level I've been working on with the UT3 engine and I feel like this is the right forum section to show it. It is my first serious attempt at building a level (rather than standard cubical rooms ) and I built it quite awhile ago but had to stop to focus at my University. I have also been working on the interior levels of the ISV-Kran but I still a bit more work to do before I release some pics. Feel free to provide feedback and criticism because I'm always seeking to improve


Gazing up at the ISV-Kran wreckage


The Nali Village


Looking over the village


The Gate to the Sunspire

I look forward to getting to know you all and hopefully play some Unreal with ya!

[Hyzoran]

Very nice, however the Ground is a little too flat and the texture is very bad looking since it is tiling alot.

Also, the material used for the rock does not give a very Unrealish feel to it.

Also welcome to Unreal.

[GreatEmerald]

Indeed, not bad. There were a few tries to make an Unreal remake in UT3, although in the end it didn't work out... I tried something myself, too, but in the end UT3 just doesn't have the static meshes to represent Unreal properly, unfortunately.

[Hyzoran]

Indeed, not bad. There were a few tries to make an Unreal remake in UT3, although in the end it didn't work out... I tried something myself, too, but in the end UT3 just doesn't have the static meshes to represent Unreal properly, unfortunately.

Its not like its impossible to make your own.

But the problem is, its not that model of the static meshes that dont go with Unreal, its the texture. It would be possible to import the s3tc texture into ut3, and then create a bumpmap for it, and create a material in ut3, and then assign it to the static mesh, which might work decent. but it would work much better if they were made from scratch.

[Wisebeardiness]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I don't really have any intention of remaking all of Unreal but going off of the classic levels does provide good practice. It is rather unfortunate that UT3 doesn't provide an ample supply of textures and static meshes but I'm gonna try my best to make do with what I have because I'm not very experienced in creating static meshes and nice textures at the moment, but I plan to learn that stuff sometime. Although I will definitely make the changes you recommended

Also, thanks for the welcoming!

[GreatEmerald]

Yes, of course making your own meshes and textures would be the ideal thing. But let's be realistic - there is no way that could be achieved without a dedicated group.

[Marzanna]

It's hard to recognize shapes due to low quality of screenshots, may be it should look good in game.
Anyway, great work!

[Dozey]

Make The Sunspire remake!! I've always wanna to clean Sunspire on newer engine...

[Turboman.]

Nice concept there, although what some people already mentioned its a bit hard to recognize the original map in here, the staticmeshes are a bit too foreign for unreal, besides that i think some work on the general atmosphere can work like a charm. I'd seriously reduce the annoying ut3 bloom and make more use of the original colors and multi colored sky.

Other then that, custom meshes would greatly, and i mean greatly enhance it.

Yes, of course making your own meshes and textures would be the ideal thing. But let's be realistic - there is no way that could be achieved without a dedicated group.

i disagree there, i've heard this comment a lot from UE1 mappers who didn't want to make the move to staticmesh based UE2/3, but honestly with any dedicated modelling software, creating staticmeshes is a hundred times easier then doing anything BSP based in UE1, it doesn't require a group either, most created staticmeshes can be recycled in many ways.

[Wisebeardiness]

Thanks for the feedback! Sorry the images aren't a very good resolution, but it definitely sounds like the static meshes and some of the materials don't jive with the style of the original. I'll be sure to also get rid of some of the bloom effects as well. Any advice on what statics need to be improved? Perhaps the cliff ones? I'm taking notes but I probably won't be able to make large changes until I can get back to my desktop on the other side of the state (my laptop is too slow hah). Until then, If anyone has some nice materials or statics that they think would work better in it let me know, I'll be sure to give credit where credit is due

[Hyzoran]

Well, it would be possible to take some extreme end s3tc textures use crazy bump to give them bumpmaps, and make a few other edits to them and sue that as a material, since that would be much easier than hand drawing a bumpmap and making a complex material since my material editing experience is minimal. However I did do something like that before in ut3 with a decent result, Ill see what I can do.

[Hyzoran]

Okay this is what I came up with:



What I did was take the original s3tc texture, blend some rock textures into it that I got online, then used paint.net normal map plugin to make a normal map, and then I messed with the materal editor a bit.

Heres the material dl: http://www.mediafire.com/?a2orddldrtff4if

If you like it, let me know and I will make more.
I had to cook the package, since the original was 25 mbs, now its 1

Oh yea, you have to apply it to the static meshes by going into the default properties, going to staticmesh actor, and then goto rendering, and at the bottom there is a materal field, add an entry and put the material in.

[Hellkeeper]

Looks horrible from the screenshot.

[Hyzoran]

yea it doesn't really go good with the mesh but it would work fine if its something big and somewhat far away. I think it looks decent and looks better in ut3 than the original texture than Unreal, it definetely looks somewhat 3dish from the normal map. Its definitely not ut3 quality though, however I am not a professional graphic designer so I don't expect much.

[Wisebeardiness]

Hyzoran, even if it's not UT3 quality I still totally dig it! I downloaded it and I will give it a shot once I get a chance to boot up UE3. Thanks for the feedback and for putting in the work on the texture!

[Wisebeardiness]

Apologies for double posting but I feel like it's important enough. Hyzoran! I love the texture. I messed around with my level a bit, and I must say that changing the rock material DEFINITELY added to the classic Unreal feel. I also used a different grassy material to eliminate the tile effect.  I'll try to post screenshots to show improvement when I can, but as an old Unreal fan I must say it does capture the essence a lot better. Even though it's not high-res up close, I must say it looks pretty awesome from a distance. Small improvement, but enough to warrant a comment IMO

[iLikeTheUDK]

Sly. from the Epic Games forums is doing a remake of Unreal with UT3. He's currently doing the Vortex Rikers and he'd like others to join the project. Any consideration to do so?

[Wisebeardiness]

Sly. from the Epic Games forums is doing a remake of Unreal with UT3. He's currently doing the Vortex Rikers and he'd like others to join the project. Any consideration to do so?

I believe I've actually seen his work before. His rendition of Vortex Rikers is really cool. I'd be willing to join if he would have me. Again, this is my first time doing serious level design, but I'm always seeking to improve so maybe collaboration would be helpful and fun! Any old Unreal related projects would be rad.

As a side note, I'm also currently working on a reconstruction of the ISV-Kran. I may start posting some images for feedback soon, but I still have some tweaking to do.

[Sly.]

Hello there!
I saw your screenshots at the Epic Games forum some months ago and liked it.
However, if you want it to look more faithful to the original, you should make the skylight more purple and create a new rock material - for this you only need stock assets, that's how I did most "custom materials" in my Vortex Rikers remake to give them this little "touch of Unreal" with all the dirt and rust, the warning stripes and other stuff like that.

Keep up the good work and I'm looking forward to your ISV-Kran remake!

[iLikeTheUDK]

I've also asked some guy from DeviantArt.com if he could make a sketch of the automag for a weapon modeler to use. Hope he would agree. Maybe we could get the makers of the Nali Weapons series to help.

[hunoghun]

what a great surprise.

I think if someone manages to make a remake of an unreal scene, with the same feel of u1, it would trigger more developers and hardcore unreal fans to get into the action and start making something.

Question to both Sly and Wisebeardiness.
From my understanding both are using UDK, and both are remaking levels. Are you remaking the u1 feel also? weapons, chars, speed and whatnot. I am looking around researching to see if its even possible to remake u1.

Say we do the first coop mission. Everything will be remodeled, retextured and reanimated. The game dynamic will be needing tweaking, the dodge, the bob feel when walking, speed walking, just the unreal 1 feel compared to ut3.

I don't know anything about UDK, i only know character modeling, texturing and some animation, all with 3dsmax, soon mudbox.

Will it be possible to remake the first coop mission of u1? How long? what and how many will be needed? Any problems that might occur? I read that ut3 didn't stretch enough with the meshes. Id love to hear from you guys.

The first coop mission of u1 is when he wakes up in the prison trying to escape. Sly has already done the level of that first mission i believe. Its only a question if tweaking in UDK to get the gameplay right.

Vamp1re.

[AlCapowned]

I don't think Epic will let anyone put an Unreal game on the UDK, even for free.

[hunoghun]

I got the feel that EPIC wanted people to have a go on Unreal. Makes sense now that i think about it. A couple of days ago in a conference/event i was in with my school. An EPIC employe Worked on unreal3, gow1-3 as art designer said that EPIC will be looking back to its roots when i asked him about unreal. It also makes sense cause i heard EPIC sent the GOW work to People Can Fly, who is owned by EPIC. Maybe making room for a new Unreal. Who knows. Gotta love the rumos..

[Lord_Porksword]

Any Unreal remakes have to be made within UT3 and cannot be made within UDK due to legal reasons.
See bold text here:  Epic 
Flak on the Epic forums directed me to this post when I asked her about any legal issues regarding a remake.

Apart from that...I look forward to playing this map once it's released!

[hunoghun]

Any Unreal remakes have to be made within UT3 and cannot be made within UDK due to legal reasons.
See bold text here:  Epic 
Flak on the Epic forums directed me to this post when I asked her about any legal issues regarding a remake.

Apart from that...I look forward to playing this map once it's released!

Thats sucks.. Tho its still possible to copy a couple of key concepts of unreal. The shock rifle and dodging should take care of everything. A free multiplayer game, fast paced with sweet graphs and awesome weps.

Anyways, will be fun to see the finished product of sunspire village