new here, some questions

[Sweden]

Hello!
I found this community a couple of days ago and thought it sounded really interesting and after I got the game running with your version I’m really amazed that you kept working on a such old game!

I found this site when I was looking for something for UT which I occasionally play.

Have you received the full source code for Unreal from Epic to do this project? And why did you choose Unreal over Unreal Tournament? (Not questioning, just curious). Often in UT you see the version 436, what is the main differences between that version and yours 227, is your better or is 436 better?
And would it for example be possible to port mutators, game modes and models from UT to Unreal making it more “modern” with for example, a menu like UT have?

And last question, what is your plan for this, do you have a TODO list of stuff you are working on?

Anyhow, I think it’s a great project, so keep it up!

[GreatEmerald]

Yes, the 227 development team has the full source code of Unreal. I'm not sure if they have UT sources, though. If they don't, then the answer to why Unreal was chosen is obvious

UT is a branch of Unreal. 227 has been developed in a different direction, so direct comparison is not something that should be done. They're different games. However, from a technical standpoint, 227 incorporates all of what UT is capable of (such as skeletal animations) and much more. Particles, static meshes, dynamic zones, etc. etc. are not available in UT. So from that aspect you could say that 227 is better.

Porting mutators and game modes should be possible, but it depends on the specifics of each mod. I don't think everything that UT has script-wise is the same in Unreal 227, so you'd have to change those parts to use the 227 system. But it should be possible to port it. For models, most, if not all, of UT models are already backported to Unreal. There are mods such as UTWeapons that brings the UT weapon appearance and dual enforcers. For the menu, it's already there, called UMenu console.

Note that while it's generally possible to port things from UT to Unreal, including maps, it's not possible to do so vice versa - many aspects of Unreal 227, such as GameRules, come from Unreal Engine 2 ore are completely new and are thus absent in UT. Any mods that depend on them, or other 227-only features, will not be able to work in UT.

I'm not sure about their internal plans, but on the whole, their current plans are to wait and see if any new bugs for 227i arise, and if not, then release it. Then see if there is reason to work on 227j or not - if there are new critical bugs discovered or new features that they could easily incorporate or that there is a lot of demand for.

[Smirftsch]

wouldn't be able to describe it any better

But the reason why I chose Unreal and not UT is just that I play Unreal and not UT. It's simple.

[Sweden]

Hi! Thanks, that was a very informative answer! Very interesting!
It does however sound on you that this 227 version is going to be the last for this project? Just bug fixing without anything new? Maybe I just misunderstood you.

Also are there some obvious things that Unreal doesn’t have that UT have (except game types, mods and such)?
Something I noticed recently after trying it out a bit more, is that if you fall from something, you have no air control whatsoever, and that is something I’m missing.

I think the UMenu Console gives a very good look to this also, thanks.

Did someone port any maps to Unreal from UT, or is that something you would like someone to do? (I’ve been doing a bit of working in UnrealED some time ago and could at least try to contribute to this community)

[Smirftsch]

It does however sound on you that this 227 version is going to be the last for this project? Just bug fixing without anything new? Maybe I just misunderstood you.

Out of the wiki:
"The current 227h version contains about 207 additions and 215 fixes compared to older versions, while most additions have been made in order to fix problems too."

227i contains even more, need to count again - but details are in the Release Notes as GEm already said.

[GreatEmerald]

It does however sound on you that this 227 version is going to be the last for this project? Just bug fixing without anything new? Maybe I just misunderstood you.

It really depends on the community feedback to 227i. If they discover a new serious bug, then there will be another version. If not, then it will be the last one; but that has never happened so far. And I'd rather see another version if that means that they can incorporate those few beautifying additions to it, but if not, oh well. Smirftsch deserves a rest, after all.

Also are there some obvious things that Unreal doesn’t have that UT have (except game types, mods and such)?
Something I noticed recently after trying it out a bit more, is that if you fall from something, you have no air control whatsoever, and that is something I’m missing.

Nothing I could remember off the top of my head. For air control and pawn speed and such, you can always write mods to make them the same. It would probably take something like 10 lines of UnrealScript code to incorporate that.

Did someone port any maps to Unreal from UT, or is that something you would like someone to do? (I’ve been doing a bit of working in UnrealED some time ago and could at least try to contribute to this community)

There are a few ports, but not for all of the maps. this is a good place to start searching for those. I have made one port myself, of DM-Tutorial. It's in a thread discussing a similar idea to the one you have: http://www.oldunreal.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/ ... 1243872825

[THEtomaso]

If they discover a new serious bug, then there will be another version. If not, then it will be the last one; but that has never happened so far.

The way I see it, I guess the most pressing issue, and the most important reason for another version after v227i, would be the implementation of a HD HUD.
With todays high resolutions, it's sorely needed!
A HD HUD was being worked on by GcSkaarj, but unfortunately there hasn't been any news of his progress for a long time now:
http://www.oldunreal.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/ ... 1305775307

BTW; GreatEmerald, I've been watching your "Enhanced Edition" videos on YouTube, and they look freakin' awesome!
..Any idea when you'll find the time to make the maps availiable on your site?

[Sly.]

There were also some HD models in the works among with player character skins with a much higher resolution. In my opinion it would rock if they could be incorporated and there would be options to turn them on and off at any time. Maybe some people should get together, form a team and work on such a project similar to S3TC?

Just an idea...

[GreatEmerald]

Yea, so obviously there are still some features that 227 could benefit from.

Oh yea, I was meaning to upload the maps for a while now, but I keep forgetting. Hopefully I can find some time to upload them tomorrow.

But anyway, this is sort of derailing the topic here...

[hlk_Bah]

I've ported several UT99 maps to Unreal. Most turned out wonderful, some not so much. The only thing I didn't convert were the health vials to bandplus, and I replaced the pulse gun and ammo with the stinger and ammo. And I know nothing about scripting, so I never have done a map with, say, a vacuum zone in it.